Two Decades Behind

Six

Hey, author here! Sorry for the long hiatus, stuff happened. Hopefully I'll be on a regular schedule, but I'll definitely not abandon this fanfic.

"See you tomorrow!" Takumi and Itsuki said to both the boss and me as they began to depart.

"Goodbye!" Mr Tachibana shouted out from inside his office.

"See ya!" I waved back, having already gotten out of my uniform and just standing at the front door.

"Uh, Takumi," I overheard Itsuki stopping the young Fujiwara outside.

"Huh?" was the reply he got as the young man turned around.

"Let me ask you something."

"Mmh."

"Suppose, just suppose, a racer were to challenge you to a race. You'll definitely accept, right?"

"Huh? No way, I'm not into that."

"What?! Don't say that!"

"Why does it matter to you?"

"Eyaa," Itsuki stepped back, "well, uh, that's beside the point!" He raised a finger. "You know, if a racer receives a challenge, he has to stand up and accept it!"

"Not necessarily," I chimed in, walking towards the both of them while they turned to look at me. "It's technically perfectly fine to reject a challenge for any reason, say, for example, your car has been damaged and is being repaired, or if you've genuinely got something on that night. Hell, you can even reject a challenge just because you don't wanna race."

"Where's your pride, Nara?!" the chubby man cried out, looking at me in frustration. "It doesn't look good if you reject a race!"

"Well hey," I shrugged, "I'm not as serious a driver, so it's not a problem to me if I say I don't want to race."

"What do you mean? You have raced before, Nara?"

The two of them stared at me curiously.

Oh, whoops!

"Uh, nope! I was just saying it in a position where I have a car. I don't have a car yet, eheh..." I lied.

"Huh..." the chubby man stared at me suspiciously.

I sweatdropped. "What?"

"Uh, nothing," Itsuki relented easily. "But still, a racer shouldn't reject a challenge when there's no real reason to!"

"Well," Takumi said, "that may be true for a racer, but I'm no racer."

"No racer?" Itsuki pouted.

"Besides, being forced to accept challenges just isn't my thing. Nara is right, I can reject a challenge if I want to, and I choose to reject."

The young Fujiwara began to walk away. "See you two tomorrow."

"Hai, bye!" I waved him off again.

"Uh..." the chubby man watched as Takumi strolled off.

"What'll I do?" he muttered to himself.

"What's wrong, Itsuki?" I asked out of concern. "You've been like that since the afternoon, care to share?"

"N-not now, Nara..." he quietly said. "It's not the right time yet..."

I raised an eyebrow. "Alright, whatever you say."

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The familiar white 180SX turned hard into the gas station, her tires squealing. She braked hard, and with tires squealing too, stopped and parked.