Crime, Betrayal, and Love (A Seventeen Street Racing AU)

II | The Start

"I hope we don't get stuck in a crowd on the way home," Jisoo comments as she locks the door to the restaurant.

"We could try and take a different route home? So we can avoid the crowd if a race is going on." I suggest pulling out my phone to see if there was another route we could take.

"We can try, I suppose." She looks over my shoulder to see my phone.

"Want to try that one?" I say, pointing to one that goes through a different neighborhood.

"It's a forty-five-minute walk. And in an unknown neighborhood," Jisoo says, and I can hear a slight bit of concern in her voice.

"We don't have to. It was just a suggestion." I shrug. I was wary of the route as well, but it was something I wouldn't mind trying with Jisoo.

"Eh, let's just do it. I don't want to be stuck in a sweaty crowd," Jisoo says while scrunching up her face.

I chuckle at her expression, "Let's go then."

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"Well, this didn't go well."

"We should have just taken the normal way home," Jisoo sighs.

Apparently, the route we decided to take went through another neighborhood used for racing. By the time we realized we would be stuck in another crowd, it was too late to go home our normal way.

Me and Jisoo were trying to walk through a dense crowd, near the starting point of the race. And even though the race hasn't started yet, neither me nor Jisoo could see the racers. I reach up on my tiptoes, trying to look over people's heads. But no cars come into my view, not even the tops of them.

To get through the crowd easier, me and Jisoo move away from the road, basically hugging the building in an attempt to stay away from people.

"What should we do?" I ask, remembering what happened to me the night before and willing to risk anything.

"What we always do I suppose," Jisoo says, sounding defeated. "I mean, unless you suddenly want to watch a race," she jokes.

I chuckle, not hating the idea as much as I usually would. "I mean, if your down for it," I say. I never enjoyed the races, but I can't help but wonder why so many people found them exciting.

"Who knows." She shrugs, "Maybe it won't be bad." And even though she says it, her voice sounds unsure.

We try to work our way closer to the front, not too close up but enough where we would be able to at least see.

The feeling was weird, participating in something that annoyed me so much. But after last night, it felt better to just watch, and it's not like I had anything to do tomorrow, so staying at a late-night race wouldn't kill me.

It takes us about two to three minutes to get close enough to catch a glance at the racers, but unlike the cars I was used to seeing, there were motorcycles instead. I count the racers, and I see seven different racers.

All but one were on their bikes, revving their motors. He was leaning back on his bike, idly chatting with a woman.

One of the other racers yells something unintelligible at the two, and they move apart. The tall boy winks at the girl while putting his helmet on. The girl goes over to a table on the side of the road and grabs a microphone.

"Welcome everyone to tonight's race!" She yells into the mic, making everyone around us cheer. "Tonight's racers are Hyungwon, Irene, Woozi, Beomgyu, Jun, Jinyoung, and Dami!" With each different name listed the crowd would cheer, each name receiving a different reaction. Mixed in with the cheers, there were also faint calls of insults.