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The roaring V10 was the first sound Aya ever heard, not her own cries or her mother’s words. But the roaring V10 of the prancing horses, galloping and dancing with the others on track. THAT was the first thing Aya heard, and the first thing she fell in love with.
“And Schumacher!”
“Michael again!”
“Schumacher wins!”
“MICHAEL SHUMACHER!”
Michael Schumacher, Aya would hear that name week in week out, always the first one to cross the line, always the first one to win. The then undisputed greatest of all time, the only man to have won Formula 1 SEVEN times across his decades long career, the only man back then to have over NINETY race wins. A feat that was never thought possible. . .
So, when her father came in and surprised her with tickets to go to the Chinese grand prix, it would be foolish to kick and cry. She went to Beijing-herself, her mother, and her father. Her brothers have yet to come, so she still enjoys being the only child-the favourite child.
“Waahhhwow.” Aya said, awestricken, wide eyes and a wide smile as she looked around the paddock.
Aiko-Aya’s mother-smiled as she held Aya’s right hand as they walk through the paddock, everything was going to plan, Aya had NO IDEA the surprise that awaits her.
Aya looked to her left and spotted a drawing of a horse with yellow background, she pointed to it. “Purrari.” She said.
“Yes Aya,” Aiko smiled. “Ferrari.”
“No,” Aya shook her head. “Purrari.”
“Yes Aya,” Eigan-her father-said. “Purrari.”
Aiko facepalmed and sighed to herself.
“Purrari,” Aya smiled and laughed giddily to herself. “Schu-Schumacher.” She said correctly.
“Oh so she gets that one right, but not Ferrari.” Aiko chuckled amusedly.
“Purrari!” Aya corrected her mother.
Aiko smiled sweetly at her daughter. “Yes Aya, Purrari.”
“Purrari!” She exclaimed excitedly now.
Eigen gently lifted Aya off the ground and put her on his shoulders. “Wanna see Schumacher?”
Aya put her finger to her chin in mock consideration. “Okay!” She smiled, thinking it was all a joke. Then Eigan made airplane sounds to mimic flying and Aya kept giggling like a toddler.
Eigan flew into the Ferrari garage, walking past friendly engineers giving him polite waves and high-fiving Aya on top. Aya would continue to cutely shout “Purrari!” To the amusement of the Ferrari engineers who pointed Eigan to where Schumacher is and Eigan took off again.
“Ah Eigan,” Michael Schumacher said, taking his eyes off of the blood red car in front of him. “I thought it was your day off?” He asked with a tilt of his head.
“It is,” Eigan said, Aya has no idea what her father is saying, she just smiled and waved to the friendly engineers and mechanics in the garage. “I’m just bringing over a guest that REALLY wants to meet you.”
“Really?” Michael smiled amusedly as he looked above Eigan to the little figure smiling and waving to the mechanics with an occasional “Hello!”. “Then let’s meet the guest of honour!” Michael clapped his hand.
Eigan brought Aya back down to the floor, standing short while Michael knelt down to her level. “Hello,” Michael said. “Your father tells me you’re excited to see me.”
Aya giggled to herself, still blissfully unaware of this interaction while Aiko recorded it with her old Nokia phone. “Schu-Schumacher!” She pointed to Michael and laughed to herself while the mechanics and engineers watched with soft amused smiles.
Michael smiled, reaching out his hand. “What’s your name?”
Aya nervously looked to her mother, wanting to know how to proceed. Aiko nodded encouragingly and Aya slowly took out her hand and tentatively placed it on Michael’s hand and he shook it softly. “A-Aya.” She said.
“Aya?” Michael said. “I’ll be sure to remember that Aya,” He smiled. “Do you want to be a Formula 1 driver?”
Aya narrowed her eyes and thought to herself. “NnnnNO!” She exclaimed with giggles while the mechanics and engineers around them laughed.
Michael laughed too. “No? Why not?” He asked with a smile.
“Uhhhh.” Aya thought to herself awkwardly and when no answer came, she just cried.
“Awww.” The engineers and mechanics crowed as Aiko handed her phone to Eigan and picked Aya up.
“Aww what’s wrong sweetie?” Aiko asked as she calmingly shushed toddler Aya while she wept.
Eigan smiled as Aiko walked past him to bring baby Aya outside the garage.
Michael’s eyes were wide and his brows raised. “Did-Did I do something wrong?”
Eigan waved him off. “No, don’t worry about it, Aya just learned how to talk and we’ve learnt that whenever she can’t answer a question, she just cries.” He chuckled.
“Oh,” Michael got up off his knee. “Well, if she ever does decide to change her mind and be a driver, I’ll recommend her to Ferrari, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind putting her in the academy.”
Eigan smiled, reaching out his hand. “Thank you, Michael.”
Michael shook Eigan’s hand.
--
15 Years Later. . .
“Fucking bitch ass rain I swear to god,” Aya swore as she walked up the door of her house, closing her umbrella and dropping it into the stand and taking out her house keys. “At least I’ve done all my homework for the weekend.” Aya sighed to herself as she unlocked the door and walked into her house.
“Aya?” Aiko called from the kitchen, just finished cooking breakfast.
“I’m back!” Aya called, drenched in sweat and rain, once again her mother was right. It was going to rain after all.
“Did you get hit by the rain?” Aiko walked out of the kitchen and stood in front of a very much wet and drenched Aya Oosawa.
“What do you think?” Aya asked sarcastically as she walked past her mother. “I’ll be in the shower.”
Aya stepped into the shower, she took the handle and turned it on and immediately screamed at the cold freezing water slapping her across the face. She hissed as she turned the shower off and adjusted the temperature right before letting it heat up before finally showering.
Aya groaned tiredly as she walked into her room, posters of Michael Schumacher hung on the wall above her bed, a cardboard cut-out of Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari race suit stood at her wardrobe, overlooking her bed and funko pops of Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, Charles Leclerc, and Carlos Sainz stood on her wooden ikea table.
Aya hair dried her hair and put on a very warm sweater, today is going to be a chillax, relaxing Sunday.
BAM
“AHH!” Aya screamed as she jumped out of her bed, looking at the man with a big grin that just burst into her room. “o-tō-san! What? What is it?!” She asked, walking up to her dad with her glasses on.
Eigan smiled, showing two tickets in his hands, a ticket to what is a total mystery to Aya. But it better be tickets to a classic rock American concert.
“I got two tickets to watch the F4 race in Suzuka,” Eigan said with a smile. “Wanna come with?”
That’s just as good. “Sure!” Aya said excitedly as she followed her dad down the stairs.
“Where are you two going?” Aiko asked once they’ve reached the end of the stairs.
“Suzuka!” Eigan said, kissing his wife’s cheeks and grabbing the car keys. “See you for dinner!”
“Bye mom!” Aya cheered, quickly putting on her shoes and out of the door.
“Dinner at five!” Aiko yelled out as her husband and daughter ran to the Mercedes SVU parked beside a BMW sedan.
“Yes mom!” Aya waved as she got into the car and buckled herself in.
--
The rain continued even as the drivers park into their positions, not many people are in the stands due to the series not being a mainstream one but it is still a solid crowd. The stands were moderately filled, if you looked from far away you can see the empty seats but being in the stand, you won’t see a single one.
As soon as the clock hits, the five red lights started, and then it’s lights out and away they go into turn 1. Aya watched amongst the cheering crowd as the cars go into turn one, sprays of water going up into the air, everyone was watching the leader and second place going side by side for the lead of the race but Aya was watching the driver with the green helmet that started in last place that had a brilliant launch off the line and made quick work with the cars in front of them.
This wasn’t Aya’s first rodeo, the ones to watch were definitely not whoever is leading the race.
Aya looked to the screen showcasing the drivers on other parts of the track, though the feed mainly focused on the leaders. Aya waited until the next lap before finally catching a glimpse of the green helmet again and this time, remembering their number. 12.
Lap after lap, Aya wasn’t watching a race anymore, she was watching a masterclass performance by the green helmet driver in these wet conditions. Aya cheered when the green helmet made another move up into the top 5 out of 20 drivers.
Then it finally happened, they got into the podium spot. Aya couldn’t believe what she was seeing, no driver she has ever watched had impressed her as much as this mysterious green helmet driver. When the race finally came to an end, the green helmet driver came agonisingly close to the win as they raced to the line, but close wasn’t a win, but whoever that driver is. Going from last to finishing 2nd was no easy fast, Aya is deeply impressed.
That performance was simply, lovely.
“Okay, time to go.” Eigan said, placing a hand on Aya.
Aya’s brows furrowed. “What? Why? Don’t you wanna watch the podium celebration?”
Eigan pointed to his watch, it was nearly 5 P.M. “We have to go home.”
Aya groaned.
--
Aya sighed, elbow up on the table and head leaning on her arm. Playing with a pencil while the rest of her class worked on the mathematics examination that she completed in just under 40 minutes of the 90 the teacher gave them, although the teacher did say anyone that finished first was allowed to hand their work in and leave, Aya chose to sit for the full 90 out of respect for her suffering classmates.
She chanced a look around the classroom, Mao sitting in front of her still working on the paper with a sweaty and shaking hand. Sitting beside Mao, Chizuru’s body language was pretty telling, relaxed shoulders and pen writing away. But Aya knew Chizuru wasn’t calm because she was confident, Chizuru was calm because she knew she was doomed and she wasn’t going to fight it.
Aya sighed, her face falling to the paper again as her mind wandered around into the imaginative skies above and she eventually landed on the memory of that driver with the green helmet couple of weeks back. Aya tried, she really did, she did her own research and she even asked on Reddit but because she had forgotten the number the green helmet driver was racing with. Her research was futile.
“Ah fucking hell.”
Aya raised an eyebrow, looking beside her to the awkward girl of the class that wore glasses and had black bangs. Aya chuckled, fucking hell indeed.
RING
--
Aya walked on the pavement, heading to the MRT station. She did it every day, it was basically routine now, although her family has 2 cars and she had been learning how to drive on the road. She electively chose to walk back home, time for herself, as her mind called it.
She walked past a baby underwater-wait, a baby underwater?- her brows furrowed as she walked a few steps back and she could now see the iconic NIRVANA poster plastered on a shop window.
Aya raised an eyebrow as she looked for the shop’s sign. “Joe’s music shop?” She muttered to herself, “Didn’t know there was a music shop here.” She said as she opened the shop’s door.
Aya could feel a drastic change in temperature as soon as she stepped inside, outside it was warm and full of life. But inside? It was cold, and not much life. Apart from the emo goth? Cashier.
“Welc-” The cashier raised his head and his eyes widened and his hands froze on his neck, Aya raised her eyebrow as he cleared his throat. “Wel-Welcome to Joe’s music shop, we have all the latest and vintage records and albums for sale,” He said. “If somebody wants to buy them.” He said, bitterly? To himself.
Aya’s brows furrowed as she looked around the shop, it didn’t look too well maintained, there were cobwebs on the corners of the ceiling and the wooden floor looked to be worn out, a bit of yellow on them as well.
Aya shrugged, she’d seen worse, nothing beats being in the Ferrari pit garage during the 24 hours of lemans with a broken toilet.
Aya strolled around the shop, some records were locked behind a glass shelf and some were on wooden racks. Aya leafed her fingers through the records on display, Nirvana, Weezer, Green Day, Metallica. They had every record from every old rock band, and luckily for the shop. That genre is Aya’s favourite.
She grabbed ALL the albums she wanted, Nirvana, AC/DC, Green Day, Metallica. She took so much that the names just weren’t keeping up with her anymore and she took an entire stack of records and brought it up to the register.
The guy behind the register had a bewildered look on his face, like he couldn’t believe someone actually came and bought the records, or that someone being her pink haired popular classmate.
“Do-Do you have a record player for that?” The guy asked.
“Nope,” Aya said with a sigh and a smile. “They’re quite big right? I’ll just come by at another time with my car if you sell them.”
“Your-” The guy cleared her throat again. “I’m sorry, did you say YOUR car?”
Aya raised an eyebrow. “Yeah,” She nodded. “Why?” She asked with a furrowed brow.
“Oh, nothing,” The guy said, waving her off. “Just surprised is all.”
“Uh-huh,” Aya said as the guy took the albums and calculated the price, some must have fallen as the guy knelt down to the floor and behind him something caught Aya’s eye, something green. Her eyes widened, her heart thumping, she cleared her throat. “Do-do you drive?”
The guy chuckled, coming back up to full height and continuing to calculate the price. “You could say that,” He said as he took a huge paper bag for the records. “Why’d you ask?”
Aya cleared her throat, shuffling on her feet. “Just that helmet behind you.”
The guy’s brows furrowed as he looked behind him and saw her F4 helmet on display on top of some records she needed to put on display later. “Ah, that’s my uncles.” He lied.
Aya felt her heart dropped, could it be that all the time she wondered and thought and fantasized about the driver with the green helmet. Could he be just some old man? “O-Oh,” Aya said disappointedly as the guy gave her the paper bag with the records inside, he showed him a QR code for the payment. Aya took out her phone, opened her banking app and scanned the QR code. She put in her pin, 551644.
Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, and Lewis Hamilton.
The guy’s brows furrowed as he saw the pin, he made the connection as well.
“Thank you,” Aya said defeatedly as she left the music shop, walking up the stairs to the MRT station-her heart was full, full of disappointment and the sinking realisation of her wasted time fantasizing about a faceless character that turned out to be an old fucking man, maybe some girls find that hot but certainly not Aya. “Never doing that again.” She said bitterly as she hopped onto the MRT train.
--
“So, what did you think about that?” Chizuru asked, they had just finished the Physics exam.
Aya shrugged. “It was easy, as always.”
“Of course it was easy for you,” Mao said bitterly, a hint of jealousy. “I wish I’m just as smart as you.”
Aya sighed and nodded. “Whatever you say.” She said as she looked past the awkward teenage girl playing with her phone beside her and looked out the window across the classroom.
Chizuru’s brows furrowed. “Okay, what’s going on?” She asked.
Aya’s brows furrowed as she looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“You’re sulking,” Chizuru said. “Remember the reason why you sulked last time?”
Aya raised her eyebrows. “Should I?”
“The last time you sulked it was because you finished the walking dead,” Mao said factually. “You were crying about how you couldn’t save Violet.”
Aya snorted. “What?! That’s ridiculous Mao, Violet survived in my playthrough, she and Clementine are living happily ever after.”
“God, she’s in the deluded phase already,” Chizuru said. “Are you going to tell us what’s got you sulking?”
Aya sighed. “Nothing really, I promise,” She said with a nervous gulp, but her friends just waited expectantly. “Fine, just some guy I guess.”
Chizuru narrowed her eyes, Mao’s widened. “Tell us all about him!” Mao exclaimed excitedly as she pulled out a chair.
Aya shook her head. “What’s there to talk about?” She sighed. “I saw him during an F4 race in Suzuka, it was raining and he was driving like prime Senna in the rain, he started the race so far back I didn’t even see his car until he kept getting past cars lap after lap, at least I don’t think I did, I don’t remember. Anyway, I guess I just found out that he was an old man I guess.”
Chizuru’s brows furrowed. “The racer that you told us about?” She asked. “THAT’S why you’re sulking?”
“Yeah.” Aya said.
“But I thought you said your research was futile,” Mao said, brows furrowed and eyes narrowed in thought. “And besides, you said he was in F4, I don’t know much about racing but you did describe it once as some kind of a youth league?”
“Yeah, you did mention that once,” Chizuru said. “Where’d you find out he was an old man anyways?”
“I-I heard it from some guy.” Aya said, waving her hands away.
“JUST some guy?” Chizuru asked.
Aya sighed. “Look, I don’t know, he worked in a music shop and he had like the racer’s helmet, the green helmet, you know the?” Aya kept going. “It was behind him and I asked if it was his but he said it was his uncle’s so. . . Yeah.”
Chizuru and Mao shared a glance.
“Have you ever went back there again?” Mao asked.
“No,” Aya sighed, shaking her head. “The music shop has been closed for a few days now, not sure why.”
Amongst the gloom and the small cloud raining in on Aya on top of her, beside her sat the very man she was talking about, but it wasn’t a man.
He was a woman.
You have got to be shitting me. Mitsuki thought to herself, when she said that her helmet belonged to her uncle, she meant it as a joke because the helmet was clearly and very obviously way too small for Joe.
“Was the guy in the music shop hot?” Chizuru asked.
Aya huffed. “Kind of, I guess, might as well start crushing on him now, I can’t go another year being single.”
Mitsuki has never experienced as much stress as she was than now, she packed her phone and belongings and with shaking hands, stood up and slammed the chair back to the table.
Making the three girls beside her jump in surprise as they watched Mitsuki storm out of the class.
“What’s her problem?” Chizuru asked with disdain.
Aya shrugged her shoulder, taking out her tumbler filled with the European vodka she had snuck to school. “Fuck if I know.” She sipped on it and let the alcohol burn through her throat like how her heart was burning in this angsty feeling.