A/N: I've decided to post some other pieces I have been writing. A word of WARNING though; I don't know if I'll ever finish these - they're just story lines that pop into my head, and that I typed up. Other than that, Enjoy!

My love of Initial D spilled over. It was amusing to write this since I have almost nonexistent knowledge of cars and how they work, which I think is painfully obvious in the story. I mostly pulled the information about cars from the anime so please don't murder me if I get them wrong.

Waiting at the Finish Line

Chapter One

The roar of an engine revving sounded through the night. Turning over, Ryeowook tried to focus on the words in the textbook, but the continuous revving sound was horribly distracting. When the sound persisted for another five minutes, Ryeowook's anger reached its boiling point. Shoving the textbook away, he jammed on his sneakers before stomping out of his room.

Turning left, he headed for the kitchen door. The sound of the car's engine was growing louder and louder as he neared the door. Clenching his teeth, he tried to tell himself that yelling would not help. It wasn't working.

Any other night, Ryeowook would put up with it. But not tonight. Tomorrow was going to be the most important day of his life, because tomorrow he was going to take his college entrance exams. This test would decide whether or not he would achieve his dream of becoming a doctor. Was some peace and quiet too much to ask!

Shoving open the screen door, he ignored the loud smack it made as it hit the garage wall. Just as he had expected, his oldest brother was bent over the hood of his Lan Evo while his youngest brother sat in the driver's seat.

The sound of the engine was deafening in the enclosed garage. It made Ryeowook want to pull his hair out.

"Hey!" No response.

With his youngest brother still revving the engine and his oldest brother focused on god knows what in the hood of the car, a bomb could have went off and brothers wouldn't have noticed.

Ryeowook rolled his eyes. For as long as he could remember, cars had been a part of his life. It had started with his father who had been adamant about teaching his boys about the joys of fixing a car. Both his oldest brother, Kangin, and his youngest brother, Henry, adored it.

Ryeowook was the black sheep. His mother often joked that car gene had skipped him, and Ryeowook agreed. Cars didn't hold the fascination for him as it did for his brothers. Instead, Ryeowook stuck to his mother's side. He preferred cooking over learning how to change a car's engine oil. He preferred reading to learning how best to wax a car. In sum, Ryeowook had no interest in cars other than as a source of transportation.

It was lucky for him that his father hadn't resented him, but accepted him for who he was. Ryeowook loved him all the more for it. Often times, his father called him the backbone of the family. And he lived up to that name. It was he who kept his brother's in line in school and even in life. Though both his parents were loving, they kept a very lax hold on their children.

Ryeowook took up the role of a sort of secondary parent. It was to him that his brother's went for counsel. In Kangin's case, it was Ryeowook that received the call from the county jail informing him that his brother had started a fight at a bar. In Henry's case, it was with him that Henry sought comfort when he found himself heartbroken for the umpteenth time.

It seemed fated somehow that Ryeowook should take up such a role for not soon after Ryeowook had turned sixteen, both of his parents died in a plane crash. Suddenly, a nineteen year old Kangin found himself the guardians of his two little brothers. Kangin was willing to take on the responsibility admirably, but he could barely keep himself afloat.

Ryeowook took up the slack when Kangin faltered by dealing with the nightmarish legal work, setting up his parent's funeral, comforting a distraught Henry, comforting a distraught Kangin, and basically trying to keep all their lives going.

Two years later, the pain of his parents' death was still there, but it was ebbing. Inheritance and insurance money allowed them to keep their home. Kangin found a secure job working to provide for all of them at the local garage station, which luckily, he loved. Ryeowook split his time between being a cook, semi-parent, housekeeper, and finally a full-time high school student.

It was a struggle in the beginning. Everyone was an emotional wreck, and often times, it seemed easier to curl up into a ball and hide under the covers rather then get up and face another day. But slowly, they picked up the scattered pieces and put them back together. They survived and became even closer. Family was important above all else. All three of the brothers learned this well.

Now, Henry was in his junior year of high school, on the brink of deciding whether or not he wanted to go to college. Knowing his younger brother, which Ryeowook did, it looked like Henry would also being going to trade school to become a mechanic.

Though Ryeowook didn't understand his brothers' obsession with cars, he understood it was more than a hobby. They took satisfaction from fixing a car just as Ryeowook took satisfaction from volunteering at the hospital. Who was he to take away their passion?

So, he supported his brothers' as best as he could. In return, his brothers supported him in his dream to become a doctor - something that had seemed near impossible after their parents' death. He remembered coming home one day to a silent house, which was extremely suspicious. Not a day went by that Ryeowook didn't hear the clanking of tools or the sound of a car engine. Wary, he had gone to the garage to make sure his brothers hadn't hurt themselves again. Instead of his brothers, he found a pristine white integra parked innocently in their garage. On the windshield was the message - to our brother Ryeowook, we know you'll ace the exam and get into the college you want to. This car will get you there in style when you do. Love always, Kangin and Henry.

Ryeowook had burst out crying, and continued to do so as his brothers came up behind him to embrace him. Ryeowook was ever grateful that he still had his brothers. He didn't know if he could live if he lost anymore members of his family.

Spotting his car parked behind his brother's Evo, all of his anger dissipated. Shaking his head, Ryeowook recalled when he had first taken his car out for a test run. To his chagrin, the car was a manual. When he had finally moved the car into first gear, Ryeowook had been scared shitless, which showed in the force he used to slam on the brakes. Kangin, sitting in the passenger seat, had laughed his ass off.

Of course Ryeowook should have expected his brothers to trick out his car, which they did going by the modified dashboard that held meters that certainly didn't come from the manufacturer. Of course he couldn't have a 'normal' car. Oh no. His car was fit more for racing then driving back and forth to school. Ryeowook had told Kangin as much after he had punched him to make him stop laughing. Kangin waved all of practical reasons away, insisting that his younger brother would never drive a 'normal' car. No arguments Ryeowook tried worked, so resigned, he agreed to let his brother teach him all about cars.

In that year, he had learned more about cars then he ever imagined he would. Surprisingly, it had been fun to learn. Though he didn't become as engrossed as his brothers, he did learn to admire a fine tuned car. And he was becoming a decent driver, according to Kangin anyway.

It was also during this time that he learned of his brother's involvement with street racing. At first, he had been horrified to think that his brother would be involved in such a dangerous sport. For months, he had nightmares about his brother dying in a fiery car accident. For those months, he refused to talk to Kangin. But Ryeowook could never stay mad at his brothers for long no matter what they did. Family was everything to him. Seeing that Kangin hadn't backed down made Ryeowook realize that racing was something important enough to Kangin to defend. They had a long talk that ended with Ryeowook consenting to join Kangin on some race nights to learn more about it.

What an eye opener. It wasn't just racing that Ryeowook found those nights, it was a community. In his mind, Ryeowook had imagined reckless teenagers zooming around in their modified cars without a care for rules or laws. Instead, he found people similar to his brother who was just as passionate about cars. Even more, he found a group of people who cared about Kangin almost if not equal to how much he cared about his brother. Not long after, Kangin's race friends became their extended family.

Of course, Ryeowook still remembered the dangers. It was called illegal street racing after all. But, as Kangin reminded him, you couldn't live in fear. It was something his father had said to them often as children. It made Ryeowook wonder if his father hadn't been involved in some street races of his own.

After their parents had died, Kangin had been lost. He knew that it was important to keep surviving, but surviving and living were two different things. Racing, Kangin told Ryeowook, had made him feel alive again. It became a purpose that Kangin could concentrate on and be excited about. His hard work on his car produced real results in street races. And after seeing the triumphant and joyful expression on his brother's face after winning a race, Ryeowook finally accepted it.

Eventually, nights on the back streets of Seoul became a regular occurrence. Ryeowook learned to enjoy the excitement of race nights. He couldn't even begin to remember all the different people that came through in their zeal to race his brother, who at this point, had become sort of a legend. Connections and bonds were formed, and before he knew it, Ryeowook realized their family had connections with people from all over Korea. It was simply amazing.

When Kangin had hinted at Ryeowook that Henry had been asking for a race car, Ryeowook could only close his eyes and sigh in defeat. Looks like he would just have to double up on his prayers.

Shaking his head, Ryeowook refocused on the situation at hand.

Walking over to Kangin, he calmly tapped his brother's shoulder. At the touch, Kangin startled and immediately straightened. That wasn't such a good idea seeing as he was bent under the car's hood. The loud thump Kangin's head made as it hit the hood of the car threatened to break the straight face Ryeowook had been sporting. Coughing, Ryeowook tried his best not laugh when he heard his brother's inventive swear words.

Turning around, Kangin finally spotted Ryeowook behind him. "Geeze Ryeowook, give a guy some warning! I could have gotten a concussion!"

Rolling his eyes, Ryeowook eyed his brother's head. "You'll be fine. You have a hard head."

"Yeah yeah. I've heard it all before. What'd you want? I'm fixing up my car for tomorrow night's race."

"Yes, yes. I know you are. But could you please wait until tomorrow? I'm taking my entrance exams tomorrow and your constant revving is distracting. I'm nervous enough as it is."

Kangin's eyes softened. Reaching over, he slung an arm around Ryeowook's shoulders. It was easy enough, because of Ryeowook's short stature and small figure. Shaking his head, Kangin sometimes wondered if they were actually related. Where he was broad shoulder and tall, his two younger brothers were small in stature and on the short side. But then again, he took after their dad. In Henry and Ryeowook's case, they took after their mother. But unlike Henry who was putting on some muscles and height, Ryeowook remained small and slender.

Sometimes, Kangin worried Ryeowook would just float away if the wind was blew too hard. And then he was forcibly reminded of Ryeowook's strength when he got on his brother's bad side. Ryeowook was a force to be reckoned with when angry as Kangin's left eye would attest to. He could still vividly remember when Ryeowook had punched him for making Henry cry when he had been twelve, Ryeowook only nine, and Henry seven. The black eye had lingered for two whole weeks and made him think twice about angering his middle brother.

There was hidden strength in that fragile frame. Kangin just wished Ryeowook wouldn't attract so many suitors. Certainly his brother's angelic looks didn't help. He had lost count of how many sleaze bags he had punched out for even daring to think crude thoughts about his brother. Recently, Henry had joined him in his quest to keep perverts away from Ryeowook. Needless to say, Ryeowook would never be hurt if Kangin or Henry could help it.

He would have never survived their parent's death without Ryeowook. Hell, Henry wouldn't have turned out as good as he did without Ryeowook there.

Kangin studied his brother's face. Frowning, he noticed the dark circles under his younger brother's eyes and the tenseness in his brother's shoulders. Guilt followed quickly. While he had been worrying about a silly race, his brother had been trying to study. He knew how much Ryeowook wanted to be a doctor, and he knew also just how hard Ryeowook worked to keep their lives comfortable. How selfish of him to forget something so important.

"I'm sorry, Ryeowook. I totally forgot that you have your tests tomorrow. I'm such an idiot."

Giving his brother a smile, Ryeowook turned and gave him a reassuring hug. Hugging Kangin was like hugging a teddy bear. It was warm, comforting, and firm. His brother's strong arms built up from both exercising and work never failed to make him feel safe.

"Of course you're an idiot! I'm the brains of the family after all. Just turn off your car and all is forgiven."

Ryeowook squealed when Kangin poked his sides, his most ticklish area. Laughing, Ryeowook jumped away as Kangin attempted to pick him up.

"You didn't have to agree with me. I was just apologizing." Kangin stated, pouting.

Snickering, Ryeowook slowly began backing away from Kangin, being sure to keep an eye on his brother's form. Though big, his brother could be quick when he wanted to be.

"I know. But I can't say I'm sorry back, because I meant every word."

Shrieking, Ryeowook avoided his brother's fingers as Kangin made a lunge for him. Wrenching open the kitchen door, he jumped inside and slammed it shut behind him. Even from the other side of the door, he could hear the muffled grumbling, which only made him laugh even harder.

Not a minute later, he heard the Evo turn off. Smiling, he turned around and headed up to his room. It was cramming time.

000

A/N: This is one of the stories I wrote while I had no internet. It may just become an actual story. Thanks for reading.