Pit Stop Chapter 3

As Yihyeon brought his car to a stop, the driver’s side door of the red car burst open. A blonde man, presumably the caller in question, strode over with long, aggressive steps. He began pounding on Aiba’s window as if trying to shatter it, shouting:

“Hey! Let me get a look at your face! How dare you leave me tossed out here alone in a pitch-black spot like this for two whole hours? And now you come crawling over, or what?”

“It was an hour and a half…”

He was knocking so hard that Aiba rattled. When Yihyeon showed little reaction, he kept hitting the glass.

“Hey! Aren’t you rolling down the window?!”

A sigh escaped automatically. A nightmare customer to end all nightmare customers. Yihyeon rolled down the window just a sliver and warned the chest pressed right against the vehicle:

“Back up. So I can park.”

“What?”

Even while asking back, the rude man took a couple of steps backward. Hugging the side of the road closely, Yihyeon finally opened the door and stepped out. Waiting impatiently for the door to open, the customer rushed over.

“You’re late and you still take your sweet time parking so neatly? Man, Europe, America, every single one of you is slow as hell! If this were the UK, you’d be immediately—, immediately…”

“…”

“Not gonna answer? …Holy fuck, your face is insanely…”

The customer, who had been making a racket and pouring out words, suddenly grew quiet. He then took a couple of steps back, crossed his arms, and stared intently at Yihyeon. It was as if he were inspecting every single feature of his face.

Yihyeon also briefly observed him under the dim streetlight.

What the… he’s not American? Was that why his tone felt so pushy? Judging by his appearance, the man seemed to be of mixed European descent. Perhaps because of the time of day, his slightly dark blonde hair glinted only partially in the streetlight.

Even so, the man’s face seemed to glow. It was almost as if the streetlamp had been installed solely to illuminate that furious expression. Extremely good-looking enough to make anyone turn heads if they passed by, Yihyeon’s difficult customer showed no intention of hiding his displeased expression.

“Damn it.”

Well, with looks like that, it made sense how he had survived this long. If not, someone would have murdered him by now. Yihyeon felt that if he hadn’t known the man was his customer, he wouldn’t have tolerated that arrogant attitude and would have just run him over with his car.

Yihyeon pondered what words to use as an opening.

Should he put on the friendly expression he had practiced on the way here?

However, he didn’t want to pretend to be nice to someone who had already sized him up. It was bound to be exposed right away, so he decided to just act as he usually did.

“You’re the one who called a repair shop that’s super far away, so why are you picking a fight?”

“You think I called there because I wanted to?”

Well, if he didn’t do it himself, who did? Make it make sense. Ignoring the customer grumbling beside him, Yihyeon stood straight in front of the tilted car.

“Which tire went out?”

“The front one… Wait, no! Why were you so late? Do you not even consider the person waiting?”

“Which one in the front?”

“Are you saying you don’t even want to talk to me right now?”

“Don’t we need to swap the tire quickly so we can both be on our way? Which one in the front?”

“…Look for yourself.”

What, was he pouting?

What a ridiculous customer. Turning his body slightly to check the license plate, Yihyeon saw that the customer’s vehicle was a rental.

“Shouldn’t you have called the rental company?”

“I told you, it’s not like I picked that place because I wanted to! They were the ones who connected me to you!”

Right, today the rental company was probably closed or had let staff off early. They wouldn’t want to pay expensive extra costs to deploy personnel for a mere flat tire. So they must have dumped the customer on a nearby auto shop that was still operating. How frustrating.

While Yihyeon was piecing together the situation in his mind, the customer suddenly thrust his face forward.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you fixing it?”

“…This is the side with the flat, right?”

“The other side too.”

Subjected to a sudden face attack, Yihyeon shifted the topic to keep from getting distracted.

So it wasn’t just one leg that broke, but both front legs. Yihyeon checked both front tires and stared at the customer as if he couldn’t believe it.

“When did you rent this car?”

“Two days ago?”

“And you got flat tires in two days?”

“Maybe it was made of paper.”

“Hardly anyone would rent a model like this, though.”

It was the most expensive car available to rent.

He didn’t know the model year, but its sleek exterior showed how well it was usually taken care of. As Yihyeon remained suspicious, the man uncrossed his arms and averted his gaze.

“I drove it a little fast, that’s all.”

“How fast?”

“100 mph?”

He must have taken the highway on his way here, but unless he was a complete lunatic, he drove at 160 km/h on these roads? Not just the highway—maybe even on unpaved roads… Looking at the wear on the tires, Yihyeon was rendered speechless.

“Didn’t the police chase you?”

“I’m good at controlling my speed.”

He puffed out his chest proudly. Yihyeon had sensed it from his tone, but dealing with him in person, the guy was a total child. It was a good thing he had brought two spare tires just in case.

“This can’t be patched. It has to be replaced.”

“Replace it, then.”

“Five hundred dollars.”

So, how’s that? A price even higher than a towing service. Yihyeon quoted an amount that far exceeded the holiday surcharge and tip that Oliver always mentioned. Of course, he had no intention of actually taking five hundred dollars; it was just a remark thrown out because he hated seeing the guy act so smug.

“Here.”

Contrary to expectations, however, he rummaged through his pocket and proffered several hundred-dollar bills. Counting with his eyes, there were eight bills. Yihyeon had thought he was just a brat living off his looks, but turns out he was a filthy rich sucker…

Without saying much, Yihyeon stuffed the cash he handed over into his pocket and looked straight at him.

“Name.”

“Ann.”

Ann? Why is his name like that?

“Age? Do you have an ID?”

“It’s just changing a tire, why does that matter?”

“Because you might be a minor.”

Grumbling, the man pulled out his license from inside his jacket. As the jacket opened, his firm torso showed through his t-shirt. When he reached his hand into the inner pocket, the t-shirt pulled tight, outlining his chest even more clearly. Does this guy work out? At this point, Yihyeon was curious about his identity.

In truth, whether he was an adult or not didn’t really matter. After all, Yihyeon just needed to get paid. But he wanted to know what kind of guy he was to have such a foul temper and so much money. Yihyeon took the man’s license and checked his date of birth.

[SURNAME: Fitzroy]

[FIRST NAME: Arthur]

[DATE OF BIRTH: 17.11.2005 UNITED KINGDOM]

As expected, he was British. His name was completely different too. Was it a nickname? But wait…

“…Twenty years old?”

“So what? Do I look younger?”

“And you got your license just last week?”

“I flew out the moment I got it.”

What was America doing? Not arresting a guy like this. A kid who was only twenty driving like that? The world was truly going to hell. Yihyeon returned the license to him immediately. It wasn’t anything special; he simply concluded that the guy’s family had a lot of money. His interest evaporated. He didn’t even feel like giving back the inflated eight hundred dollars he had taken anymore.

Yihyeon returned to his car, grabbed a spare tire, and stood in front of Arthur’s vehicle.

As he got down on one knee to change the tire, Arthur began hovering around.

“How long will it take?”

“Won’t take long.”

“How many hours?”

“Not that long. Just wait.”

“What am I supposed to do in the meantime?”

“Smoke a cigarette or something.”

“I don’t smoke.”

“…”

Once Yihyeon started changing the tire, the conversation cut off. Silent for a moment, Arthur tapped his foot on the ground, eventually fidgeting his legs up and down. Then he suddenly pointed at Aiba.

“That thing—did you tune it yourself?”

“Yeah.”

Yihyeon replied without even turning his head. It was obvious what Arthur was pointing at anyway. A brief silence passed.

“Are you… some kind of technician?”

“…Try thinking before asking questions.”

“Where did you get the tuning parts?”

“Bought them, or scavenged them.”

“Scavenged?”

“Yeah.”

Silence fell once more.

“Do you… like cars?”

“…Not really.”

“Well…”

“Let’s focus here.”

Was he just unable to handle silence? Changing a tire didn’t require massive concentration for Yihyeon, but he didn’t particularly want to play chat partner to this noisy guy.

“No, wait. Whoa!”