APEX ‹𝟹 LIPSOUL

Six

The Thursday before the race is absurdly sunny deep in the heart of Texas, even this late in the year. It's almost too hot to think properly. Jinsoul sits alone in her hotel room trying to concentrate on anything but the heat and it's almost impossible. She thinks about Jungeun. Nothing in particular, just the thought of Jungeun, and that in and of itself is rather comforting. Then she thinks of what Hyeju had said to her two weeks ago in Britain and suddenly she's smiling and it takes a long time for her to stop.

She goes down to the Apex motorhome in the evening and puts in a couple last-minute laps on the sim but none of them are very good. Circuit of the Americas has never been her favourite track, nor Yves's. When she's finished she catches Haseul outside and waves her over. The smile on Haseul's pale face is a slight unusual.

'You're looking very happy today,' Jinsoul says.

'I'm just loving this weather, is all.'

'Wish I could say the same. You're not racing in it tomorrow.'

'True,' Haseul says, wincing into the dim dusklight. A cool wind blows hot air about and as in all forms of such heat breathing is more a task than a given.

'You ready for tomorrow?' she asks.

'Not really. Well, as ready as I'll be, I suppose.'

'Were you on the sim?'

'Yeah.'

'And?'

Jinsoul gives a curt shrug.

'That bad, huh?'

'Not really. Just not, you know, good. But COTA's never been my track, so I'm not surprised. I just hope I can do well. How's the car?'

Haseul makes a fifty-fifty gesture with her hand.

'That doesn't fill me with a whole lot of confidence,' Jinsoul says.

'Sorry. It's just, this new aero package we've got might not be as ready as we thought it was a couple weeks ago. That's what I was coming to talk to you about, actually.'

'What?'

'Okay,' Haseul says, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. 'So, the plan is to run the new aero on only one of the cars for practice and qualifying tomorrow. Just to see how it goes. And then if it's good, as good as we hoped it to be, we'll put it on the other one for Sunday.'

'And if it isn't?'

'Then we won't.'

'What if it's worse than the aero we've got now?'

Haseul just shakes her head.

'You know you're not allowed to remove new packages the day before a race, right?'

'Yeah,' Haseul says, 'which is why we're hoping it's good. Because if it turns out worse than what we've already got, one of you two is shit out of luck this weekend.'

'One of us,' Jinsoul says, and before Haseul can respond: 'You mean me. I'm getting the new aero, aren't I?'

'Yeah. It was a team decision.'

'Care to tell me why?'

'You're the faster of the two of you, that much is obvious. Probably even to Yves. Not to flatter you or anything, but yeah, the results speak for themselves.'

'We're still close on points. Really close. One race could—'

'Change it all. Yeah, I know. But it's about pace, and your pace has been consistently better than hers pretty much all season long, excluding those bits where you, you know, crashed and stuff.'