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The car takes the corner with a smooth jolt and he shifts into 4th gear as the road uncoils into a straightway. The mountain is quiet and empty and there’s little light to illuminate the road but he spots it: tail lights speeding away in front of him, racing down the narrow slopes.
It’s a sleek orange car, but he can’t be so sure with the poor lighting and because all he can focus on is how he’ll pass it in the next corner. It’s fast and the driver’s control is impressive but the mountains are his turf.
The road bends in a hairpin turn and Yuta accelerates.
—
The takoyaki is still steaming hot when he hands it over the counter to the young tourist babbling in broken Japanese. Yuta would pay more attention but the guy loses him when he starts rambling something about an annoying friend who left him to visit all the temples by himself.
The guy slips into his native tongue when it becomes clear his frustration doesn’t translate, “I would hit him over the head with a thermos but I’m not sure he won’t punch me in the mouth for it.”
Yuta cocks his head at the unfamiliar language. Korean?
The tourist blows on the takoyaki and sends bonito flakes flying in Yuta’s direction. He scrunches his nose when some land on his sweater.
“You…you know driver? White hatchback?”
He brushes the flakes off and scratches his chin in confusion. He’s not sure if that’s supposed to be a riddle but he shakes his head after a short deliberation.
“Hyung, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” A new voice interrupts the one-sided conversation and Yuta allows himself a brief moment of astonishment at the newcomer’s deep voice and classically handsome face as he approaches the stall.
“Sorry, I was just trying to find that driver you’ve been obsessing over.” The new guy looks down at the takoyaki in the other guy’s hand with a flat look. Yuta wonders if it has anything to do with the sarcastic tone the other adopted.
“You bought takoyaki.”
“What? I can’t eat while I’m at it?” Yuta looks back and forth between the two, not sure what’s happening. He doesn’t really want any disturbance in front of his stall but it’s not like he can chase them away either.
The newcomer’s gaze shifts to Yuta and the narrowed eyes startle him
“Do you happen to know anyone here who drives a Toyota AE86? A black and white one.” The flawless Japanese is a welcome change after half an hour struggling to communicate with the other guy.
“I’m not sure.” Yuta doesn’t even know what an AE86 is supposed to look like. He’ll make a note to google it later.
There’s a pair of high school students now standing in line behind the tourists and the new guy seems to notice because he turns an irate look at his friend before fishing for something in his pocket. He slaps some change on the counter, not even bothering to count them.
“Can I get one serving too?”
Yuta forces a smile and grabs a pair of bamboo skewers.
—
The guy introduces himself as Jaehyun the next time he walks up to Yuta’s stall.
“Do you live here?” The question rolls off his tongue before he can stop himself, because this guy looks like he fits in better in the high streets of Tokyo than some backwater town in Gunma.
“I do. I live in Chiba, I moved there from Korea when I was a kid.” The answer is detailed enough that Yuta thinks Jaehyun may be aware of the many theories he’s concocted in his head since the pair’s first visit.
“And your friend—?”
“Doyoung? He flew in from Seoul a few days ago. He’s learning Japanese.” Jaehyun explains looking only slightly embarrassed after Yuta gave him a rundown of his conversation with this Doyoung. He doesn’t ask him why they’re looking for some elusive driver in a small mountain town because he doesn’t want to get involved in some dubious business. He just wants to sell takoyaki in peace.
“He has good potential.” He says without taking his eyes off the takoyaki. Jaehyun asked for two servings this time. When he looks up, his only customer looks like he’d swallowed something bitter and Yuta barely manages to suppress a laugh.
“Don’t let him hear you say that. He’s gonna think it’s alright to talk to people using lines from anime.”
That explains the informal speech, Yuta thinks as he carefully arranges the takoyaki on the boat tray.
—
“You speak a dialect.” Jaehyun observes after he catches Yuta on the phone with his sister a few days later. Yuta ends the call and takes out the batter.
“Kansai ben. I’m originally from Osaka.” He offers while Jaehyun lists down his order. Two servings of takoyaki, one regular and one cheese curry.
Jaehyun takes his food and, to Yuta’s surprise, doesn’t walk away like he usually would. He sets both trays down on the bench next to Yuta’s stall and sits with a grunt. He looks like he’s had a long day but it’s only 2pm.
“They’re both yours?”
“Yeah, why? Who did you think it was for?” Yuta sucks his bottom lip into his mouth. He doesn’t know why he assumed Jaehyun buys the second serving for a special someone. Not that it’s any of his concern.
Business is always a little slow early in the afternoon and there’s not many tourists around this time of the year, so Yuta doesn’t have to split his attention. He watches Jaehyun pop a steaming hot piece in his mouth with interest. He groans and blows out the heat in little huffs.
“You should wait a little before eating it or you’re going to burn your tongue.” His warning comes a little late because Jaehyun’s face is twisted in a frown and he’s smacking his lips as if he’s testing if his tongue still works the same way.
“It’s okay, I like it like this.” Yuta nods and grabs a bottle of unsweetened green tea from the cooler.
“Here,” he says, “it’s on the house.” Jaehyun smiles, he looks a little unsure but he takes the offered drink.
“Thank you.” Perhaps he’s imagining the flush on his skin but he points it out anyway, watching Jaehyun sputter out excuses like a deer in headlights.
—
Jaehyun drives an orange RX-8. Yuta doesn’t know how he missed such a flashy detail. It’s possible that it’s because it’s the first time Jaehyun parked out in the open, away from the shade of the cherry blossom trees.
Doyoung is following closely behind Jaehyun, obnoxiously waving over the small crowd of high school kids in front of his stall.
There’s something awfully familiar about the car but Yuta can’t put his finger on it because the line is getting longer and his takoyaki is burning. He flips them in quick succession and sees Jaehyun approaching from the corner of his eye.
“You look busy today.”
“A little. There’s a school festival at the local high school so they’re all out early.”
Doyoung skips next to Jaehyun with a huge smile. “Hi Yuta!”
“Hello Doyoung.” Yuta returns the greeting and makes sure his smile is extra wide. Doyoung is an interesting character but he’s cute in a quirky kind of way.
Jaehyun watches the crowd get bigger as another group of kids in uniform joins in while Doyoung engages Yuta in another awkward conversation.
“Should we come another time?” He finally asks in between Doyoung’s attempts to ask him where the nearest convenience store is.
The question startles Yuta because it never dawned on him that Jaehyun’s visits are anything more than to indulge his appetite for authentic Osaka style takoyaki.
“I should have enough to serve both of you, if you don’t mind waiting.” It’s an invitation to stay.
“Okay, we’ll wait.”
And they quietly do, on the side of the bench that isn’t occupied by the other customers. When the crowd quiets down, Doyoung nudges Jaehyun with a grin and he awkwardly coughs into his hand. He pulls something out of the paper bag Yuta doesn’t realize he’s been holding and slides it across the counter to Yuta.
“For you.” He says, then turns away but not fast enough for Yuta to miss the reddening of his cheeks. Doyoung laughs in the background, looking all too satisfied with himself.
It’s a cup of taro milk tea with the ice all melted and just the perfect amount of tapioca at the bottom.
—
“So did you have any luck finding that driver?” Yuta asks in between bites of the melon bread Jaehyun brought. It’s the FamilyMart one, his personal favourite.
Jaehyun looks stunned for a moment like he’s forgotten all about it. “No. No one has seen that hatchback at all around here.”
“That’s interesting, this is such a small town too.” Unless they sneak out for drives before the break of dawn to buy the first catch of the day like Yuta, but that seems unlikely. “Wait, why are you looking for them anyway? Did they clip your car or something?” Jaehyun’s mood shifts and he bites into his melon bread with more intensity.
“No but they did me dirty.” Yuta almost asks if he got swindled, which is entirely possible because Jaehyun is going around in his designer clothes and sports car.
“I’m going to find that bastard and I’m going to make sure he pays.” He adds bitterly and Yuta can’t help but sympathise.
“Do you want me to make you some takoyaki?” He has enough octopus for one last serving before he has to close up. He’s going to have to go across the mountain early the next day to restock.
Jaehyun nods eagerly, the tension melting away from his boyish face.
—
The rear end of the car comes dangerously close to brushing the guardrail at the next wide curve but he knows it won’t. The car feels like an extension of his body and he instinctively steps on the gas for the next corner.
He passes another car parked on the side of a straightway and he belatedly realises that the same car is tailing him when he hears the revving of the engine and sees the headlights peeking at him through the rearview mirror.
He makes a left turn towards the next exit leading back to town and speeds up after the intersection. He loses the car in the narrow streets even before he can determine the model and color. Not that Yuta’s any good at that.
Yuta shrugs, slowing down, and guides the car back home.
—
“I’ll take you home.” Jaehyun tells him a few days later while he’s closing up. It’s later than his usual closing time so he’s surprised Jaehyun stuck around for that long. Jaehyun is wearing the same sweater he wore when they first met and it raises the question he’s been meaning to ask.
“How come you haven’t gone back to Chiba yet?” He knows Doyoung left for Nagano yesterday because he dropped by to say goodbye after saying something about visiting Jigokudani Monkey Park.
“I haven’t found the driver.” Yuta’s not aware he’s still looking for that driver. It’s amazing how much determination Jaehyun puts into something that seems so trivial.
“Don’t you have to work?”
“My family runs a business.” It’s the most innocuous way to say he’s unemployed. Yuta stares at the passenger’s seat door and slings his bag over his shoulder.
“Will I fit in here?” The car itself is quite low and inside looks tight. Jaehyun scoffs and opens the door for him.
“Of course you will. Come on.”
“You know I live just a couple of blocks away right?” He tells Jaehyun when the engine roars to life and he pulls away from the curb.
This seems to jolt Jaehyun because he suddenly asks “Do you want to take a detour?”
“Where?”
“The mountain pass.” Yuta clutches his bag to his chest and swallows the sudden lump in his throat.
—
Jaehyun seems to know what he’s doing at least, because they haven’t crashed yet even at the speed he’s going, which is at least double the speed limit in that area. He looks so full of himself when the car successfully slides through a curve with practised ease. He’s not bad at drifting, but personally, Yuta would’ve tackled it at full speed.
“Are you some kind of a street racer?” He asks as his stomach drops at the next sharp turn.
Jaehyun takes his eyes off the road for a split second to flash him a smirk. “You could say that.”
Yuta sits up straight and grips his seatbelt tighter, “Eyes on the road, there’s a series of S curves up ahead.”
Jaehyun comes off the throttle, letting the weight of the car shift from the back to the front and it’s a well executed technique but instead of looking smug like he usually does when he thinks he did something impressive he swivels around, stunned.
And he really, really should be paying attention to the road.
“Wait, do you drive?”
—
It turns out Jaehyun’s car is familiar for more reasons than one. Yuta shrinks into his seat as Jaehyun practically climbs over him to get a better look.
“That’s a black and white AE86.”
“It’s a Trueno.” Yuta argues as they both stare at the car parked in front of Yuta’s house.
“It’s the same thing.” Jaehyun groans and scrubs his hand to his face. Well, Yuta thinks, it's his dad’s old car so he’s only known it by the name his dad calls it by.
“Oh. I didn’t know.” Then he recalls something. “I’ve never swindled money out of anyone ever though.”
“What? I never said you did.”
“Then why were you hunting me down?”
Jaehyun is quiet for a while and Yuta wonders if this is his cue to climb out of the car but the other turns to face him with the most serious expression he’s seen on his face. His ears betray him however, turning the color of cooked octopus.
“I’ll tell you another time. But for now…” Jaehyun visibly swallows. “would you go out with me?”
—
Yuta still wonders to this day if Jaehyun has some kind of humiliation kink, especially when they finally hold a formal downhill race at Mount Haruna and Yuta overtakes him in the final series of sharp turns at the base of the mountain and he comes out of the car breathless from the adrenaline and something else.
He still remembers the kiss Jaehyun smothers his lips with after climbing into his Trueno at the parking lot where he waits for him.
He touches his lips unconsciously, thinking maybe he doesn’t mind indulging Jaehyun’s fantasies a little.
“That’s 400 yen.”
He snaps back to reality when Jaehyun hands a middle schooler his serving of freshly cooked takoyaki and looks at Yuta for approval. He looks like a puppy when he’s not acting tough.
“You’re not bad at this.”
“I’m good at most things.” Yuta nods with a small smile. He supposes he can accept a fourth rematch if it means he gets Jaehyun to help at the stall whenever he’s in town. After all, it pays more than being unemployed.