Welcome to Your Last Race (Street Racers #3)

25. Sunhee

Sunhee was used to the lack of oxygen and sweat beads lining up her body whenever she slid under the duvet. She spent a good chunk of her life underneath it – and only at night, the only safe space her home provided. Whether it was to read sapphic erotica or watch something she definitely shouldn't be watching – be it an illegal street race or porn.

That night, her phone glowed as she stared wide eyed at the blurry live stream. One headphone in to control if no one was entering her room, one squeezed in her palm to not let out unnecessary sounds. Whoever was there was mad lucky to see it. To see all the cars, crossing the finish line. To see the winner of the Japan Race. Kim Taehyung.

Sunhee was obsessed with their team. It's been three or four years since someone like them took part in the Japan Race. Someone that was about to leave a mark in the history of illegal racing. Someone who would become an icon of their culture, their community. The Japan Race has always been an event, but for the past few years, the racers came and the racers went. The winners didn't stick.

Until them. And Sunhee was obsessed. She was quite honestly rooting for Jang Yeeun. The racing community didn't have enough women anyways and, despite the world moving forward, the community seemed to be moving backwards. Sunhee heard the same comments all over again, no matter where in the world her parents dragged her to. Honolulu, Berlin, Los Angeles. You're a girl. Cars should not be your thing.

Yeeun never seemed to give a fuck about that. Racing in high heels, in skirts, owning her place in the community and in the top 10 racers to ever exist – in Sunhee's opinion, at least.

Sunhee's never met them, never been to Seoul, but Twitter was quite enough to understand the phenomenon of Yeeun. Not only Yeeun. Sunhee's became online friends with so many racers from Seoul and they all say the same thing about the four friends. Legends. Sunhee's not a fan of the word, but there is no arguing that it's exactly what they are.

Sunhee would give a lot to be able to meet them. Not to mention be like them, be like Yeeun. Fearless, make a spot for herself in the racing community, claim it. Be herself. Something Sunhee could never experience fully. There was always fear of getting caught – when she found the guts to be herself. Always checking her phone, not to be late. Always looking around, if someone wasn't taking pictures of her that could somehow make it back to her parents and put her in trouble.

She was always in the library, studying. Whatever country they were in. At least that's what they thought, while Sunhee was actually making new friends. Queer, racers, gangsters, school drop-outs. Her favorites.

Her parents also thought she was asleep whenever she was sneaking out the window to attend a drag race somewhere in the city. She'd come up with an elaborate sleeping routine – including no one entering the room under no circumstances after 8 p.m. – to ensure perfect health, beauty and academic results. Her mother was so proud of her.

Always borrowing cars, betting money she managed to pile up for that one race, winning. At 18, Sunhee was winning almost every race. She'd never told anyone her real name, just in case people wanted to talk about her. And they did, on Twitter. Raving about that girl that 'destroyed XYZ' last night. She calls herself Rhee. She'd come up with it on the spot, the first time someone asked for her name, when she'd won in Brazil, and it stuck.

But it wasn't enough. Covering it all up with a pretense of a perfect girl was never enough.

🏁

Sunhee, this time actually at the library in Honolulu, stuck her earphones in when her best friend face-timed her. She'd made so many friends in the past three years, all over the world, yet there was only one person she'd call her best friend, who was in touch with her daily, even though they'd never met each other in real life.