APPLE PIE (COMPLETED)

Apple Pie (05)

Taeyeon walks out of her house with a clean plate in her hands. It's the plate Tiffany lent her yesterday, to bring home the pie slices from the barbecue.

Just when she reaches her neighbor's driveway, the door opens to reveal Tiffany's husband coming out of the house, ready to go to work. She greets him politely when their eyes meet, "Good morning."

"Morning. What brings you here?"

"I'm returning the plate your wife kindly let me borrow yesterday," replies Taeyeon.

"I see. Go on inside then." He's about to walk past the blonde when he suddenly remembers something and stops in his tracks. "By the way, that car you were driving yesterday..."

Taeyeon looks at him calmly. "Yes?"

"Key told me that it's yours."

"That's right. Bought it with my own money just weeks before we moved here."

"Why would you need your own car?" he asks.

"Why not?" replies Taeyeon nonchalantly.

"Is it because it's blue and you happen to like blue?" He grins at her condescendingly because that's the reason he hears from his female customers all the time.

"I admit, I do like the color but that's not really why I chose it," answers Taeyeon, still in her calm, not-offended tone. "It's the fuel injection, the power assist and the Borg-Warner 4-speed manual transmission option they finally offered."

His grin disappears, replaced with a surprised expression that's followed by a frown. "Do you even know what fuel injection is?"

"In general or the one used in my car?"

His eyes widen even more due to the unexpected reply. "Both."

"Well, generally speaking, it is a system for admitting fuel into an internal combustion engine. I will not start on the history of modern fuel injection or its use on diesel engine since we're talking about cars or gasoline-fueled engines so I'll just skip to the one in my car, and why it spurred me to buy it. I love it because it's not just a pulse injection but a constant flow system, metering fuel to all cylinders simultaneously from a central 'spider' of injection lines. It's not like the diesel style nozzle metering system Mercedes uses in their racing cars. In my car, the fuel meter adjusts the amount of flow according to engine speed and load, and includes a fuel reservoir, which is similar to a carburetor's float chamber. It has its own high-pressure fuel pump driven by a cable from the distributor to the fuel meter that supplies the necessary pressure for injection. The injectors are located in the intake manifold, very near the intake valve. It's really cool. You want to take a look? I went for the Ramjet fuel injection option. It cost me a pretty penny but I love the extra brake-horse power it produces," explains Taeyeon smoothly, without the slightest bit of hesitation. "Key wouldn't let me get the 579E racing version," she says, sighing. "Too bad. I really wanted to have the heavy duty racing suspension on it though I probably can't race it anywhere."

She finishes with a smile as she watches his expression – his mouth open and his eyes bulging.

Gotcha. I ain't no dumb blond, Mister.

"Anyway, as much as I like chatting about cars, I best return this to your wife so I can get started on my chores," she says. "Have a good day, Andrew."

She side steps him and walks towards the porch, not sparing him another glance.

As her finger touches the doorbell, she can hear the man's car reversing then driving away with an extra loud roar – as if he's stepping on the gas pedal angrily.