In Italy, the manager of Khaotung looked at First with a critical eye, but as her ward outlined his and his new friend's situation, she decided not to interfere.  Margaret wasn't the type of person who cared about her own success even at the expense of other people, she cared about her client and although she wrung her hands in despair from time to time, she always helped him and got him out of trouble more than once.  She was also the one who decided that if Khao was happy with a man by his side, she had no right to do anything to destroy it.  Few managers were like her, but the 48-year-old woman treated him like the son she never had and just wanted him to be happy.  She also got in touch with First right away and decided that it was the best choice Thanawat could have made anyway.  First was young, handsome, polite, well-mannered and calm.  Reassured that she could entrust him with some of her responsibilities, such as keeping an eye on Thai so he wouldn't do something stupid that would soon become hot news on the Internet and in the magazines, she talked to him as if he wasn't just a boy with no job or education, but  it's with a lot of scars.

“I'm glad you found someone permanent.” She smiled at both of them the night before the race.  They sat in Khao's apartment and discussed their plan for the next 24 hours for the last time.  “It was sad to see you ruin your life, but I didn't want to interfere”.

“Marge, but we're not together.” Either First was just imagining it or Khaotung really blushed.  He was surprised by what he said much more quietly. “Not yet”.

“Hey Tung!” First made a face that amused both of his new friends.

“Oh, come on, boys.  In retrospect and experience, I'll tell you that if you feel special, happy, and at peace around someone, you need to make sure you've done everything you can to keep that person with you.  And let me tell you, First, in secret, Khaotung has had no luck so far.  Most people he met took advantage of him, and he flew to them like a moth to a flame.  I'm glad he chose you in the end, you seem like a good boy”.

First didn't know what to say to that.  He felt ashamed.  He was nervously fiddling with the piece of bedclothes he was sitting on next to Khao, who noticed this and took the opportunity to make his cheeks and ears even redder.  Khaotung leaned towards him and placed a juicy kiss on his cheek with a loud smack.  First touched that spot as if something had burned him there.

“You're so beautiful and cute when you blush,” said Khaotung, not taking his eyes off Kanaphan's now completely red face, who clumsily tried to hide the blush by covering it with his hands.

* * *

It was supposed to be a special day that he would remember for the rest of his life.  And so it happened.

Kao led First to the garage of Ferrari, one of the 10 teams that battled each other.  First carefully analyzed the starting positions of all twenty.  Kao started from a pretty good third position, if the car doesn't give up and his strategists pull him to the pit stop at the right moment, he had a chance to keep that place or even move up, although the battle with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez seemed quite a challenge.  However... After all, this is Monza, so well known to Khaotung.  Two days earlier, he had shown First around the area and told him everything he could remember.  They both laughed a lot and from time to time drank Red Bulls given to them by Max.  They wore their private outfits, Kao opting for a white and red jacket, a white T-shirt and simple light blue jeans, while First chose a black printed sweatshirt with a cute colorful teddy bear in the middle and black skinny pants that made his tall, slim body even more visible  legs.  As a joke, they put on identical pairs of shoes and Kao allowed First to post a photo of their legs on Instastories, only asking him not to tag him or give his location.

The weather was good throughout the weekend, the sun was shining and it was pleasantly warm, only a light breeze was blowing at times, bringing with it the smell of hot asphalt and pizza.  It was the same on race day.  Both dressed in official Ferrari outfits arrived in the paddock well ahead of schedule.

“Can I add on IG, where am I?”

“Yeah, I don't think there's any reason to keep it a secret”.

“Huh?  The day before yesterday you said something else”.

“Because it was something else.  You know?  Now you're a full member of our team, so it's no wonder you're posting photos of our box, right?”

“Right!”  First beamed. “Can I add a photo with you?”

“Actually... why not? I'm curious myself...”

And Kao positioned himself right next to First, showing the V with his fingers and smiling, while First, a bit nervous, snapped some pictures of them.  However, it wasn't long before Kao had to get up and prepare for the race.  First could stay in the garage and observe everything on the screens placed around, which, in addition to the view from several cameras, including those placed in the car and in the helmet, also contained various tables and graphs.  First had never been so close to the center of events that interested him so much.  He was bursting with good energy and happiness.  He greeted everyone who entered the garage with a cheerful smile and even exchanged a few words with race engineer Kao.  For him, it was like a dream come true, the most wonderful dream that had just come true.  He was already looking forward to the evening when, regardless of who won, Charles and Khaotung invited everyone to the party, apparently Leclerc had something important to announce.

* * *

As the fans began to arrive in the stands, First felt their excitement spread to him as well.  He felt the same as them.  He waited with sweet impatience for the red lights to flash on and off, for the twenty fastest machines to squeal into the first corner.  He expected someone to go off track, someone else to crash into someone, someone to lose a position, someone else to gain a few.  And the accompanying sound of the engines and the cheering of the fans will carry the drivers like the wind under the skis of ski jumpers.

First didn't know why he was thinking about ski jumping, he only saw two competitions, one with commentary in Japanese, of which he didn't understand much, and the other in English.  Both were about the Beijing Olympics, which he watched mostly out of boredom.  One face seemed familiar to him at the time, but when he read the caption, he found that it meant nothing to him.  He checked it on Wikipedia, just in case, and found out that the athlete was a three-time Olympic champion coming from some distant country with the name of Poland that meant nothing to him.  He knew only one man from Poland: Robert Kubica.

With each passing minute of waiting, his heart was beating faster and faster, he even thought that he would be able to run out onto the track, position himself next to the car in which he occupied the reclining position of Khaotung and start with him.  That was crazy.  This bravado, this speed, the roar of the engines, the noise in the stands, thousands of flags, dominated by the flags of Ferrari and the Netherlands, so closely associated with Max Verstappen, the champion of the last two seasons, who was heading for another title very confidently.  First even made a bet with Khaotung that Max would win four titles and not one more as Sebastian Vettel did before him.

As the drivers parked in their starting spots after completing the formation lap, First rested his elbows on the table in front of him, his hands clenched into his chin, and stared at the screens in front of him.

He believed with all his heart that Khaotung could win it.  He wanted to see him on the podium, he wanted to see his wide smile, the way he lifted the trophy, how he sprayed everyone with champagne... He wanted to see his happiness, and he knew that nothing is as beautiful as winning the already legendary Monza.  Only the win in Monaco could have been more enjoyable.

As the green flag appeared and the red lights began to come on, First instinctively held his breath.  He's never been so close before, he hasn't had F1 cars almost at his fingertips.  It was about to be decided whether Ferrari had introduced the appropriate corrections and whether the work of several hundred people would not be in vain.  Kanaphan was aware of the pressure and responsibility that lay on Thanawat, so the night before he had tried to make Tung believe in himself, telling him that he could do it, reminding him that nothing was impossible, and they,  Formula 1 drivers have proven more than once that what is completely impossible for others, for them is only a kind of more difficult challenges that they undertook and eventually overcame.  First knew the history of many cases when riders starting even from the bottom of the pack caught up with the leaders, stood on the podium or even won.

“Do you remember Button in 2011 in Canada?  How many times did he go to the pit lane then?  How many strange situations was he involved in then?  And he won, right?”  First had asked the night before, when they were lying side by side on the floor (Tung claimed her coldness was refreshing to him) and talking.

“Yes, on the last lap he overtook the last rival”  He smiled, perfectly understanding what his friend wanted to convey to him.  “Thank you.”

First replied only with ok, and for the next ten minutes in silence they stared at the colorful, moving pictures of the night sky projected on the ceiling in the dark room, taken by one of the best telescopes of today, the James Webb Telescope.  Both were amazed by the beauty and immensity of the universe, even Khaotung, who knew much more secrets of magic, physics, chemistry and astronomy, seeing the excitement of First, who was happy like a child, remembered again what it's like to enjoy a little thing like a color  stardust in the photo or the taste of original Italian pizza.  Thanawat thought that Italian food had long ago become too much for him and lost its taste, but in the company of a new friend, he discovered that he could still love even pasta.

First enjoyed everything.  He was like a little kid taken to an amusement park for the first time.  He asked a lot of questions, told trivia read in books or on the Internet, he was looking for confirmation or denial of rumors he had heard somewhere, and he was most amused when he saw the car raced by Khaotung for the first time, which he had never seen anyone's lights shine so much before  eyes at the sight of something that for himself was a wonderful daily routine.  The happiness on his new friend's face made him realize that he was incredibly lucky himself.

But he couldn't forget the main reason why he had taken First with him.

Late at night, after making sure that Kanaphan was asleep, he slipped out into the empty and dark hotel corridor to call Zee.

“Boss, I'm pretty sure that First is one of our missing hybrids,” he informed the head of the Knights of the Light branch in Bangkok.

And now Khaotung had another, temporarily more important task: to drive as well as possible, to make as few mistakes as possible, not to be overtaken and to take every opportunity that presented itself to bring not only a podium finish, but perhaps even a victory.  He was much more excited than he expected.  The last time he felt like this was when he made his Formula 1 Grand Prix debut many years ago.  First awakened in him the same passion that pushed him to become a professional sports driver.  And now he was finally sharing this passion with his fans again, it seemed to him that here, on this unique track for Tifosi, he became one with the crowd dressed in red.  And it was for them that he wanted to give them victory as a thank you.  For supporting him for so many years, for the fact that his fans were one of the main reasons why he didn't throw it all to hell.  And one particular fan was standing right now in his dedicated garage, a fan who from the first moment seemed different from the others, and Khaotung knew that it wasn't just that First was probably a hybrid, which made Tung feel connected  their magic.  Thanawat saw in him a partner for the rest of his life.  When their eyes met then, he didn't want to look for anyone else.  Kanaphan's dark and sad past didn't matter, the scars on his hands filled Thanawat with sadness and bitterness and compassion.  He wanted to be with him and make sure that First would never have a reason to hurt himself again.

Nothing unusual happened at first.  At the start, Max pushed Sergio a bit off the track, leaving no room for Khaotung, but then it was pretty much just lap after lap with a few overtaking maneuvers, but the first three positions remained the same.  Emotions have subsided a bit.  First wondered when Khaotung would be called to the pit stop and whether the Ferrari mechanics would not make some unnecessary mistake that could end up with a loss of the podium or worse falling out of the top ten.  He carefully followed all the graphs and numbers flashing on the screens in front of him.  He hadn't expected the commotion that would follow a few seconds later.

Suddenly, an unprecedented silence fell on the track, interrupted only by the squeak of braking tires of speeding cars and the sound of the engines they were equipped with.  The fans who had been occupying the grandstand closest to the ill-fated Turn 11, called Parabolica, rose from their seats and silently walked as close as they could.  The speeding RedBull car number 1 of the previous two seasons' world champion Max Verstappen crashed into the red Ferrari number 29 of Thanawat, sending it far off the track.  Following closely behind, Lewis Hamilton had no time to react other than to run to the side, damaging the front wing of his car as debris from both cars rained down.

“Are they all right?”  Lewis asked worriedly over his radio.

“We're not sure, Lewis,” his race engineer, Peter Bonnington, replied frankly, before announcing a red flag a moment later.

„It must be really bad if it was decided to put out a red flag, usually in such situations they just send a safety car” - thought the Briton and after setting the appropriate mode on his steering wheel, he started to pull into the pit lane, where everyone was to wait for further information.

Lewis jumped out of the car as fast as possible.

Khaotung was one of the Knights of the Light, as the Shadowhunter squad in Thailand was called, Lewis knew him very well, it was he who, although he never felt the need to tell anyone, had spotted the young boy before he even started racing and  he helped him get all the way to Formula 1, so he felt very attached to this kid.  He didn't care too much for Max, fought fierce duels with him many times on the track, and on several occasions the two nearly sent each other to their deaths.  There was something sinister and dangerous about Max that even a sorcerer like Lewis Hamilton was a little afraid of, mostly because he had no idea what it was.  Twice he tried to get Pierre Gasly to get Verstappen drunk and transport him to their Institute, but this proved impossible due to the Dutchman's exceptionally alcohol-resistant head.

Now Lewis wanted to know more.  He stopped quite far from the Ferrari team garage, so he had to run, but the adrenaline gave him energy, even though he was already quite tired from the long race.

Lap number 29, that's exactly how much they managed to do before the car with the number 29 just blew up, flipped, which was quite unnatural for these very modern and supposedly very safe machines.

In the garage of the Ferrari, Lewis immediately spotted the First.  The boy crouched on the floor, covering his nose and mouth with his joined hands, and his eyes showed terror.

“Is it Charles or Khaotung?” he asked loudly, though one glance at Taj was enough to know the answer.  Still, the closest team leader answered.

“It's Khaotung”.

“Oh God,” was all Lewis said, and immediately crouched next to First, putting his arm around him.

“Tell him he'll be fine!”  Kanaphan demanded immediately, tugging at Lewis' already tight black overalls.

“First…” the Briton began, but he didn't know what to say next.  He remembered a few very dangerous-looking accidents that ended with only minor injuries and decided to tell the boy about it.  “Don't worry, our cars are really well built and the safety level is very high, you'll see, he'll be back here in a moment in the medical car and he'll be fine."  I've seen a lot of accidents like this, don't worry too much.  You know Fernando Alonso, Guanyu Zhou, Romain Grosjean or Robert Kubica, right?  They came out of some really scary crashes, don't worry, Khaotung will come out of it without a scratch.”

First knew that, he had been a big fan of Formula 1 for a long time, he had seen a lot, but it didn't help.  He remembered Frenchman Grosjean jumping out of a burning car that was cut almost squarely in half at the 2020 Bahrain race and Fernando Alonso being blown up in a similar fashion to Khaotung only at a circuit in Australia, that's what Hamilton was definitely talking about  .  Only First couldn't shake the uneasiness that gripped his throat.  Maybe because he also remembered two other accidents that didn't end so well: the one in Japan in 2014 and the one in Formula 2 in Belgium in 2019. He was afraid that it might happen again after all.  Death seemed to lurk around the corner for those who lost their concentration for a split second.

Lewis seemed to understand this.

He helped First up and led him out into the fresh air, filled with so familiar smells.

Just six months ago, First would have said he would've died of happiness if he had been able to see the race his idols Thanawat, Albon and Hamilton had taken part in, and now that one of the sport's greatest champions, one of the legends,  he put his arm around him friendly and treated him as an equal, he felt no joy at all.  Horror prevailed.

“I understand your fear,” Lewis said, and to First's amazement, he smiled.  He stretched out both hands in front of him, from which he took off dark purple gloves, on his left hand he drew some intricate pattern with the finger of his right, whispering.  “Show me Khaotung Thanawat.”

They immediately saw puffs of white smoke, from which only a second or two later emerged the familiar helmet with the flag of Thailand swirling around it like a river.

“Wait... What is this?”

“Oh, I forgot you don't know anything... But don't worry, there'll be time to explain it. Tonight or tomorrow.  Now look.  You see?  He's fine”.

“Huh?  What are these tricks?”

“No tricks, just real magic.  Well, but I don't think this is the best place for such talks”, Lewis suggested, looking around and noticing that the head of Scuderia Alpha Tauri, Franz Tost, standing nearby, was watching them with interest.

“Okay, but I still don't understand.  What about Tung?”

“About Tung?”  Lewis repeated, not understanding.

“Well, with Khaotung, I call him Tung”.

“Ahh.  As I showed you, he's fine, he's safely out of the car, he'll be arriving shortly.  Come on, let's have some milk to calm down”.

“Milk?  Where are you going to get the milk from?”

“I think I'll conjure up a cow.  You already know I can.” Lewis, clearly relieved, was now smiling freely.  The Brit was having a great time teasing the unsuspecting young man in this way.  He grabbed his hand and started leading him towards his own garage.  The secret of the milk he proposed was revealed almost immediately.  Lewis had a lot of strange stuff in his fridge, including two sachets of what looked like blood.  When asked about it by First, he replied:

“Oh, that's for Lando Norris, he's still a fairly new vampire and it's good to have a supply of blood with him, just in case.”

“It's... It's human blood?!”  First was visibly shaken.

“Of course, we're not giving him angel blood or any of the Magicians. This could have dire consequences”.

First raised both eyebrows.

No doubt he now regarded Lewis as a pitiable lunatic who only by some strange quirk of fate could race very well.  He refused the glass of milk offered to him, fearing that it was not milk but some strange poison that would put him to sleep or even kill him.  Lewis from a legend in front of his eyes simply turned into a freak that Taj did not understand at all.

“Don't worry, it's just milk.  But... But if I were you I'd steer clear of all Red Bulls, let Pierre experiment a bit and I'm not sure what came of it yet.”

“You are abnormal.  All of you.   I'm going out from here”.

“Said a boy with blue hair and eyes highlighted with black eyeliner, wearing red plaid pants.  Because you don't look weird and unobtrusive at all” - the seven-time world champion pointed out to him.

“B-blue hair?"  What?!  My hair is blonde!” First denied, and then Lewis reached for the phone lying just in front of a large screen covered with a mass of numbers.  He unlocked it, turned on the camera function in it, took a picture of First and showed it to him.  In fact, his hair changed from blonde to light blue.

“You see?”

“What have you done to me?!”

“Nothing.  I just changed the color.  This one suits you better.” Lewis laughed, clearly amused by the whole situation.

“Give me my color back!” First demanded, grabbing Lewis by the jumpsuit.

“NO.  I think you look better this way, besides Kao told me that he would like to see you with blue hair, I just fulfilled the request of my ward.  After such a terrible day, he could use something positive, don't you think?”

First gritted his teeth in anger.  He was slowly beginning to understand why Hamilton had so many opponents and haters, he was just irritating at times.  Meanwhile, the dark-skinned man, very pleased with himself, turned his back to the boy and stared at the screen, which at that moment showed a medical car approaching the pit lane, from which a slightly stunned Khaotung emerged without any additional help, holding a helmet and the HANS system in his hands.  First saw him too and immediately ran to meet him.  As soon as he got to him, he threw himself on his neck, hugging him to him.

“I'm so glad you're okay!” He exclaimed, trying to shout over the noise around them.

He was completely unaware that they were being filmed until Kao gently pushed him away and whispered Thai in his ear.

“Watch out, we're being watched. Not here.  We'll talk later”.

First, once again that day, he felt dizzy.  Khaotung's voice sounded calm and very professional, as if he hadn't just been involved in a massive crash that sent his car crashing into the tire barriers surrounding the racetrack.

“What?”

“We talked about it.  Later, now I have to go to the hospital for a checkup.  I'll explain when I get back.  Go away”.