Author's note: Sorry for the late update! Had my hands incredibly full with school projects and the like...

Disclaimer: You know.

Chapter 5

Yuri grabbed the keys to her Supra from underneath her mattress, pulled on an old grey sweater over her black sleeveless top and almost stumbled out of the closet. Before she slid the door close, she was about to switch off the lights, and hesitated when she saw Sean's empty mattress. The blankets were neatly folded and the pillows arranged at the head. He had been out for an entire day.

She frowned. "Dad, have you seen Sean?"

"No I haven't; not since this morning," he replied with a coy smile. "Are you missing him?"

She flushed. "No, I'm not! Dad – honestly!"

He chuckled. "Okay, okay then – on a more serious note though – why are you asking for him?"

"I'm not asking for him – "

"Will you just answer the question?"

"Nothing," she replied simply, shrugging, "It's just, you know, haven't seen him all day. He comes home late and then disappears in the morning."

Dad sighed and put on his reading glasses and picked up the newspaper on the table. "He's a young man who's got his own life. I let him live it."

Her curiosity was piqued. "What kind of life?"

He gave her a sharp look. "How the heck should I know? And where do you think you're going?"

She picked up her schoolbag, which was lying against the wall next to the closet door. "I've got a – a school project. With some friends who're living in – er- Shibuya."

His eyebrows rose. "Oh? And it's something that can't wait until tomorrow afternoon?"

"No," she tried to keep a straight face. If he knew what she was really up to … she didn't think he'd ever let her out of the house without a chaperone. Or worse, but more likely – ground her.

He sighed again. "Okay, fine. 11 o'clock curfew."

"But Dad! It's 9! We'll never get it done in two hours."

He took off his glasses and frowned at her. "Then what time?"

"Er – 1 a.m.?"

"Midnight," he said firmly.

"Half past midnight," she added.

"Yuri Marie Boswell – "

"Okay, okay – half past midnight!" she shouldered her bag and dashed out the front door, closing it behind her as gently as she could.

Yuri walked several streets down to the nearest car-park centre to fetch her car. She was glad she brought her sweater; the autumn wind came in gusts and attacked her cheeks and fingertips.

She gave her number and receipt to the old man controlling the movements of the parking bays. As she stood and waited for her car to be found, another car parked outside the building. She turned around to find a jet-black Eclipse with a silver dragon etched into its sides. A striking green Corolla, its body decorated with a black-and-gold tribal design, pulled up behind the Eclipse and the cars simultaneously killed their engines.

A door opened in the Corolla, and out came Koji with a huge grin on his face. "Hey there, baby."

Ming emerged from the Eclipse and he tilted his head in greeting.

"What are you guys doing here?" she exclaimed.

"Girl – you're new town," said Ming with a slight smile, "you couldn't possibly have known where Boshi is in this huge megalopolis in the span of just two days."

"What if I do?" she challenged.

"Be realistic, Yuri," he replied. "By the way, your car's here."

She turned around and there it was. Her baby. Her Supra.

"Let's get this party started, baby!" hollered Koji, and he got back into his car. Yuri grinned at Ming before getting into hers and Ming, shaking his head, entered his car, and the three drove off into the neon-strewn light, kicking up smoke and squealing tires in their wake.

"So I was sayin' aight? You can't race the D.K. with a Trueno – he's drivin' an S15 – but the kiddo didn't listen – "

"And look what happened to him," finished Sean with a laugh. "Yeah, I got it, Twink – that's gotta be the hundredth time you've been tellin' me that."

Twinky shrugged. "Man, I'm a man of theatrics. Anyway I'm just tryin' to tell ya what you should be doin' with that wannabe's Trueno – "

"Hey, baby," said a familiar, honeyed voice, and Sean turned, all thoughts of a ten-second Trueno flying away in an instant. He grinned and kissed the exotic young woman who had greeted him on her lips, and he made sure it was a deep and satiating one.

"Hey yourself, beautiful."

"Ah, okay – I, er, gotta go and, er, maybe, you know, try and sell that God-forsaken Trueno – and uh," Twinky held up a hand, "it was awesome seein' you, Neela!" He hurried off at once, eager to leave the lovebirds to themselves.

"So," he wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him, "what've you been up to lately?"

Her beautiful smile faltered somewhat. "Excuse me?"

"What I mean is," he quickly added, "I kinda noticed the new spoiler."

Neela laughed. "Oh, you mean that."

"I'm not like him," he said in a low voice. Her smile disappeared altogether. He lowered his head towards her. "You gotta believe me when I say that. I'll never be him."

She drew a deep breath and looked away. "I know, Sean."

He smiled tentatively and kissed her cheek lightly. "I love you."

"Me too," she returned his kiss, this time on his lips.

Bass beats abruptly thronged throughout the basement and half the people, racer and spectator, cheered and made for the dance floor. He grinned at her. "Wanna dance?"

She giggled and gave his arm a gentle squeeze. "Let's go."

From the outside, Boshi Supermarket was innocent enough – the humble neighbourhood façade, but in its basement car-park was a boombox exploding with tunes and beats crazier than those spun in Yuri's home turf in Hokkaido. She shook her head in wild amazement as she steered her car through the crowd of people surrounding their rides and rushing across the lanes to get to the dance floor, which was really several empty parking lots freed up with a DJ in the middle and four humongous speakers.

Yuri tore her eyes away from the party and focused on the rear end of Ming's Eclipse. From the look of things, they would be lucky to score a parking lot.

They finally found a relatively quiet corner inhabited by few cars, and its owners stood by them checking out their own engines and eyeing each other discreetly. Yuri noticed that most of them didn't have any visual fiesta, unlike the other cars in the main area.

Newbies, she thought with a shake of her head, but she pulled in anyway beside a plain navy-blue Skyline. Ming parked his Eclipse next to hers and beside him was Koji's borrowed Corolla. She killed her engine and got out. Ming nudged his chin at her. "So what do you think?"

She rolled her eyes. "That it sucks not being in the in crowd."

Koji grinned and stood beside Ming. "Yuri, you know you gotta get used to second-class treatment as long as you're new here."

Ming tilted his head in the direction of the dance floor. "Are we gonna complain about our rotten luck or enjoy the rest of the night?"

Before Koji or Yuri could answer: "WHOA!"

All three whirled their heads around to see who had made that vehement exclamation. A punk with blonde mohawk, strode nonchalantly towards them, and he was accompanied by a further two punks. They wore black leather pantsuits underneath their black dusters. The punk who had spoken pointed his finger at Yuri's car.

"This your ride?"

"Yeah. So?"

The punk chuckled. "I want it."

"Go get your own."

"Trouble us," he sneered at her, "I want it – the easy way."

Koji smelt trouble at once. "Yuri – "

But it was too late. She unlocked her car, reached into the dashboard drawer and drew out a very important piece of paper. She held it up for the punk to see.

He whistled. "Pink slips, eh? Your Supra's no match against my souped-up Skyline. With V8 ENGINE!" The gang erupted in loud and noisy laughter.

"Yuri, don't be rash," said Koji in a warning tone, but Ming placed a hand on his shoulder. "Easy, Koji. I wanna see what the girl's got."

Yuri grinned at the punk. "Okay then. Should be easy, no?"

"You bet. Third floor in ten minutes." He waggled his eyebrows. "I can't wait to eat you up, baby babe."

"You'll go home starving," she hissed back at him.

Halfway through the song and just as Sean was beginning to feel the relaxed vibes pouring out of Neela, a bunch of girls, no, correction: Neela's chums, suddenly came squealing through the dancers and grabbed her hand. They twittered in rapid Japanese and he couldn't catch a single word. Neela's eyes widened and she exchanged a few sentences with them before turning towards him and said, "Sean, there's gonna be a race between a girl and one of those newbies up in the third floor."

His eyebrows rose nonchalantly. "So?"

"So?" she echoed incredulously. She took hold of his wrist and pulled him with her. "Let's go and watch! I'm rooting for the girl!"

"Wait! Hold a sec! We ain't done our dance yet."

"Sean!" she whirled around and folded her arms sternly, the pout on her luscious lips being the only thing separating her stance from that of a teacher's. "Dancing, we can do another day. A girl racing against a male – now that I gotta see. It's not every day it happens, you know!"

"Okay, okay, we go watch the race. Happy?"

"Sean!"

"What? Now we're goin', okay?"