Chapter 11 – I’ll wait for you at the next corner

Editor: Sammy 

Proofreader: SleepyMango123

“Aiyo, there’s an internal conflict within Marcus’s team?”

“What’s wrong? Tongue-tied already?” McGrady tilted his head and provoked Hunter.

Suddenly, Hunter strode forward, brandishing his fist to smash McGrady’s face. 

“Oh…” The surrounding crowd exclaimed.

Marcus wanted to drag Hunter back but he was too fast. 

Right now, Hunter only thought about smashing McGrady’s face, but there was a strength pressing around his waist, fishing him back.

He stepped back, bumping into a certain someone.

He wanted to struggle free from the hold, but the hand… or so to say, the strength of the embrace was too strong, encircling around him so tightly that he couldn’t take a single step.

A race driver’s physical strength was extremely robust, so there weren’t many present who could embrace Hunter so firmly to the point of immobilizing him.

But Hunter tightened his jaw and detested himself, wanting to push forward regardless.

Previously, he could still remain indifferent despite how much McGrady had insulted him in the bathroom, but now, he only felt more ashamed the tighter this hug became.

It was as if he were a mere weakling who could only attach himself to the strong.

But it’s not like this, it was never like this.

He never once considered using any of Winston’s power.  

Granted that in Formula 1 they were drivers with different calibers, Hunter still felt that his own thoughts were independent and uninfluenced; both he and Winston were on equal footing.

But when McGrady had spoken these words in front of countless people, especially in front of Winston, everything had changed. 

“You… “ Hunter’s vocal cords were about to snap, there was no way to speak properly at all.  

Any sentence is fine, he just wants to curse something out.

A warmth pressed against Hunter’s face, Winston’s breath swept past his ears, as though wanting to enter through and into his head just to interweave with his thoughts.

“Don’t be tense, Hunter… I’m here, so relax.”

Winston’s voice was very gentle, as if he were lowering his standing and ignoring all of the attention, just to tell him.

“Leave it all to me, leave it to me… ”

Winston’s cheeks were slightly angled to lightly press against Hunter’s and his breath fell at the corner of his lips.

“What’s wrong, even Vann Winston can’t save you, stutterer?” McGrady sneered and laughed. 

In the next second, Hunter felt as if his body was being violently pierced and nailed into the marble wall behind him, giving him the illusion that his throat was seemingly being strangled. 

“If you say another word again, I’ll stuff your head into the toilet.”

An extremely frosty tone reverberated. Winston strongly pressed the side of his face onto Hunter’s forehead but when he raised his gaze, it was boiling with the intention to murder.

The hotel lobby sank into a deathly silence.

The few reporters carrying a work pass were frozen on the spot.

Marcus was stunned as well.

McGrady widened his eyes, he thought that he’d heard wrong.

No one has ever heard Vann Winston swear before, of course, this didn’t even count as a swear. 

Although he was usually reserved, nevertheless, his words were always respectful. Even when his career had met with criticisms at the beginning, he had always adopted an indifferent attitude towards those critics, letting them feel disdain from someone at the very top. So, when has he ever used words to counterattack?  

Hunter, who was doused in anger, hadn’t reacted to what Winston had just threatened. His eyes started to sour as he exhausted all of his energy to kick Winston in an attempt to free himself of his  shackles. He knew that he was useless. The feeling of powerlessness and the loss of control from many years ago struck again, he was anxious to the point of tears falling down. 　　

“You… You…”

What else can you son of a bitch do other than spewing bullshit! 

And yet, Hunter was still unable to speak as his entire body was still stiff.

But Winston pressed Hunter’s head against himself with his free hand and single-handedly subdued him.  

“Other than spewing bullshit, what else can you do?”

Winston stuck his chin out, this was a form of absolute contempt. 

The media present at the moment was once again astonished, even Donald from the Sauber team couldn’t help but whistle. 

“You can continue to lose control. I’ll kiss you right here in front of everyone till you’re able to speak a complete sentence to me.”

Completely different from the gentle and placating tone from earlier, the words that Winston had spoken by Hunter’s ears carried a sense of absolute suppression, causing all the thoughts inside his head to jumble up, unable to return to where they belonged. 

Hunter took in a deep breath as his heartbeat gradually steadied, his face turned to meet the other’s frozen expression.

I can control myself.

Control myself.

Although I still want to curse and vent my hatred!

“Watch out… “

Even before Hunter could finish these two words, Winston completed the remaining sentence.

“Watch out because I’ll rip your bird off and shove it down your throat.”

The expressions of everyone who knew Winston cracked and Hunter’s mind stiffened, he turned himself around to stare at the latter. 

The reason why he was shocked wasn’t the same as the rest. 

He was obviously a ‘broken record’. He couldn’t even roar out any words to vent, and yet Winston managed to say it all on his behalf. 

Of course, all of the “fucking” obscene words were omitted.

“The first three sentences was what Hunter wanted to tell you.”

Winston released the silly Hunter, he placed his hands in his pockets and approached McGrady.

His gaze was like a waterfall descending from ten thousand metres. It’s accumulated kinetic energy was enough to perforate through the planet.

Under this atmosphere, McGrady felt that he’d already been crushed.

“Now here are the words that I want to tell you — You better pray that your ankle never recovers. If not, I’ll personally send you out of the track.”

This wasn’t a warning, Winston had sufficient power to do so.

Once finished, Winston turned and headed towards the entrance of the hotel.

As he passed by the muddle-headed Hunter, he bowed his head before raising his fingers. His knuckles swept past Hunter’s left eyelashes and wiped away the liquid from the bottom of his eyes.

At that moment, Hunter took a step back as his previously steadied heartbeat suddenly fluctuated again. 

“What were you expecting, did you really think that I’d kiss you in front of so many people?” Winston turned his face and gazed into Hunter’s eyes.

Even if no one else noticed it, Hunter could see from the bottom of this guy’s eyes, a thin smile similar to a tiny crack on a bean growing under the sunlight.

It was so pure, it seemed as if it was meant for only him  to understand. 

Hunter faintly opened his mouth, although both his tongue and vocal cords weren’t tense anymore, he still couldn’t say a word.

Winston closed in beside his ear and whispered, ”I’ll wait for you at the next corner.”

Once done speaking, he left through the hotel’s revolving doors under everyone’s gaze. 

After two seconds, the hotel lobby started to boil up.

“Oh my god! Was that really Winston just now? The words that he just said feels like they count for more than one season of media interviews!” 

“Is he provoking McGrady from Marcus’ team? Didn’t you hear what he said? My god—”

The once boiling Hunter had completely cooled off.

Was Winston sticking up for him?

He had held him so tightly, as if protecting him, soothing him.

Winston knew that he couldn’t talk when his mood was stirred up, so he spoke all the words that he otherwise wouldn’t have said before on Hunter’s behalf… but, how did Winston know what he had wanted to say?

It’s like he had squeezed into his mind!

Was this the end for Winston’s highly reserved image?

Hunter nervously looked around, he was afraid that someone might have captured or recorded Winston’s words with their phones a moment ago.

“Ah! It was so surprising that I completely forgot to capture it!”

“But… don’t you feel that he’s too imposing? It’s as if… as if he’s a king!”

“This makes it look like every interview conducted by the media before was worth nothing!” 

“Wait, he mentioned that the first three sentences were said on behalf of Hunter! Evan Hunter from Marcus’ team!” 

Marcus suddenly noticed that the media outlet’s attention was about to shift over so he pulled Hunter away at once.

“We’ll leave now! Right now!”

Thus, Hunter was dragged off by Marcus and pushed into the car. By the time he reacted, he’d already arrived at the racetrack. 

The whole team was in a tense state, the mechanic was making the final adjustments.

Hunter’s heated thoughts finally subsided when the sound of the engine roused his mind.

There was only Winston’s ‘I’ll wait for you at the first curve’ in his mind. His heart felt like it had been firmly struck.

Winston won’t stop over for anyone, he’ll only be faster and faster, and go further and further. 

But Hunter would overtake him at a certain corner, Winston had told him so…

The main race was about to start, Hunter didn’t have any extra time to figure out and imagine Winston’s thoughts at that time.

As he put on his fireproof mask¹F1 racers must wear fireproof balaclava before putting on their helmets, Hunter closed his eyes and laughed out loud.

“Hey… what happened?” The mechanic looked at Hunter with concern. Why’s this guy a little strange today? 

“It’s nothing… there’s this one guy who trusts me to the point of being blind.”

“Then use this match to tell him that his trust isn’t blind.”

The mechanic patted Hunter’s shoulders.

Fine… I also want to know how far the kinetic energy can go once the car’s tensed spring is released. 

All of the drivers got into position. 

The ‘Great White Shark’ Ciel from the Mercedes team achieved pole position²Pole position refers to first place, the positions after pole position are referred to as P2, P3 and so on till P20 in this match.

This was followed closely behind by Owen from the Red Bull team. 

In third position was Winston from Ferrari.

The rivalry between the top three positions will be the biggest suspense of the match.

‘Great White Shark’ Ciel had already dominated the competition for two years in succession and Owen from the Red Bull team was also an experienced veteran who was allegedly going to retire after this season. But other than Owen, there was another driver who could greatly pressure the Great White Shark’s championship reign–  Winston, who was just 22 years old.

This was already his fourth Formula 1 season. He’s continuously been in the top three positions on the leaderboard and last year, he had only lost to Ciel by a mere two point gap.

Many media outlets are predicting that this is the year of Winston’s breakthrough.

The match was about to start, Hunter looked ahead.

He knew that he was still far, far away from the curve that Winston mentioned, but today… he’s going to inch closer!

As the five small start lights³Series of 5 lights arranged in a horizontal position at the starting line. When the lights lit up in red one by one, the race would start once it’s extinguished. These lights are also used in the formation round as well. extinguished, the sound of engines exploded, causing the crowd to be in a frenzy.

Hunter rushed out. He knew that many drivers behind him were ready to overtake him.

–

The author has something to say:

When frying eggs:

Hunter: Wow, it was really shocking when you roasted McGrady on my behalf! It simply makes me want to run in circles!

Winston: If this makes you want to run in circles, then how many rounds will you be orbiting around the earth when I really do some shocking things?

Hunter: What else will you do?

Winston: Hug you, kiss you, force you to admit that you’re in love with me right in front of the media outlets.

Hunter: …

Notes:

nura:

sipping on some tEA and casually enjoying some small dOg fOOd appEtizR, MMMM SO GOOD

Anyways, I’ll try my best to find some royalty free images to help illustrate the different things about F1 mentioned in the story, because I didn’t know much about the sports when I first started this story, and I’m not sure if you guys are too. But if I can’t find a royalty free image, please head to the google gods because I’m just a poor, innocent spicy spicy chickensparkly tears who doesn’t wanna be choped up by copyright issues yingyingying!!

But if you have any questions about the F1 rules/things mentioned in the story, do hit me up on discord or you can also hit the google gods up too!

Start lights:

Here’s a version of the start lights!

Photo by Ivan Raszl from freeimages.com

• 1
  F1 racers must wear fireproof balaclava before putting on their helmets
• 2
  Pole position refers to first place, the positions after pole position are referred to as P2, P3 and so on till P20
• 3
  Series of 5 lights arranged in a horizontal position at the starting line. When the lights lit up in red one by one, the race would start once it’s extinguished. These lights are also used in the formation round as well.