201: [Bonus chapter]Ready... set... GO!

[Bonus chapter]Ready... set... GO!

Vroom! Vroom!1

Multiple cars revved up on standby, watching Moose walk in front of the starting line. Moose held a mic as he grinned charmingly, hyping the audience who came to watch the race. 

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen…!"

As Moose hyped the crowd, Axel tightened his grip on the steering wheel. His expression was hard while Heaven was rather relaxed. She turned her head to him, arching a brow. 

"Nervous?" she asked, but Axel didn't even look at her. 

"I'm scared," he confessed under his breath. "I don't know what's going on in your mind, but those guys are… whatever. Bear isn't even with us."

"Bear needs to win this race, that's why."

"Huh?" Deep lines appeared between his brows, turning his head in Heaven's direction. "What do you mean by that?"

Heaven chuckled. "I mean, I don't want to throw your brother's money away. That's why Bear needs to win since, obviously, we can't."

"???"

"Just… drive, okay? Try to win if you can." Heaven patted his shoulder with a grin. "Don't think too much. Didn't you say you will trust me just this once? Then just go all out."

Axel pressed his lips into a thin line, huffing. "Fine." He peeled his eyes from her, setting them ahead. 

"My brother will kill me if something happened to you, that's for sure," he mumbled, a little conflicted that the two of them might experience the same humiliation Axel faced back then. But Bear was just around, so Axel was a little confident Heaven might get out of it unscathed.

'Worse comes to worst, I just won't stop,'he thought, believing that was his mistake back then. If he didn't stop and just crashed into those guys, that wouldn't happen. 'If I didn't stop back then, this woman wouldn't know about the bruises and we wouldn't be here.'

Just the thought made his face turn sour. Either way, Axel already decided not to make the same mistake again.

VROOM! VRROOM!

"Haha. Eyyy!" 

Axel and Heaven turned their heads at the car beside theirs, only to see those guys from before laughing at them. The people in the other car even raised their middle fingers at Axel and Heaven.

"Tsk!" Axel hissed, noticing that the group had them sandwiched. "These guys…"

"Let them laugh." His brows rose when Heaven's calm voice caressed his ears, turning to her to see her looking ahead. "It'll take some time before they can laugh again, after all."

Axel looked at Heaven strangely, more surprised at how she could stay calm in this situation. To be honest, everything about this day, from the moment Heaven found out his bruises, was weird. Not only did Heaven barge into a local pub to find Moose, but she also did things never in Axel's life would imagine.

But this was not the time to think about those things. What Axel had to focus on was the present. 

"Ready…"

All the cars revved up as each driver's eyes flared with determination. 

"Set…"

Their hearts pumped with adrenaline, gripping and loosening their grip on the steering wheel. Moose also took a deliberate pause to build the tension, holding his hand up. 

When he swung his hand down, he yelled, "Go!" 

Marking the beginning of the race, all the cars sped away like a bolt of lightning. The cheers from the crowd reverberated along with the roars of the speeding vehicles. 

Axel maintained a determined front, giving his hundred percent on shifting gears and driving past some vehicles. If they want to win, this was the perfect time to do so. After all, the road in the next several minutes wouldn't be this wide and flat. Overtaking would be hard. 

Shoong!

The cheers of the crowd at the first stop only flashed for a second as Axel drove past them. Although he didn't show the same excitement he wore when he drove the sports car they picked up this morning; he was taking this one just as seriously. 

'Now… he looks like a man,' she thought, staring at his side profile. 'He might be naive and overall childish, but I can't deny he's good. He has a lot of potential… if only he worked on his temper.'

Just as a slight smile turned up on her face, her brow arched. She watched Axel fix the rear mirror, only for his face to turn sour. Meanwhile, Heaven looked back to confirm her suspicions. 

"They're so annoying," Axel grumbled through his gritted teeth. 

"They're good," Heaven blinked, a little surprised those guys caught up and were now hot on their tail. She thought she would have to tell Axel to slow down, but it seemed she didn't need to. 

"Apparently." Axel clicked his tongue in irritation. "Those guys might just be nothing but rouges, but they were quite good in street racing. That Orange guy already made racing his source of income. He would go to all events if he could and he wins most of them."

"Ohh…" her lips formed an o-shape, getting a deeper understanding of why the guys disliked Axel even more. "So, the problem isn't just about your arrogance and personality, but because you stole the crown?"

His expression darkened. "They don't like it."

"Who would like it? Even I would get angry." Heaven shrugged indifferently. "You are rich to boot and suddenly, you took an interest in these types of things."

Heaven leaned back comfortably, holding the handle, knowing Axel would shift gears soon. "For you, it's not about the prize money. But for them, this is their livelihood and pride. Putting aside their trash personalities, you should understand them even a tiny bit."

"I'm trying to!" Axel frowned. 'But no matter what I do, I can't understand why they have to humiliate me like that.'

"But that doesn't mean what they did to you is right," she added, glancing at the side mirror. "They're catching up — they'll hit us."

Bam!

The moment those words rolled out of her tongue, Heaven and Axel felt the impact from the vehicle's rear. Both of them bent forward due to the impact, but their seatbelts pulled them back to their seats. 

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