CH 32. Before You Noticed Me
London looked as though someone had polished it while they sat inside the café. The sidewalks still glistened beneath the soft orange light of the setting sun, every puddle reflecting rows of old brick buildings and flowering window boxes.
Kimi held the café door open for her.
Y/N smiled faintly. "Thank you."
He tried not to smile too much.
It was becoming increasingly difficult.
The conversation had lasted nearly three hours.
What had begun with anxiety, apologies, and confessions had somehow turned into discussions about racing documentaries, terrible airport coffee, simulator setups, Italian grandmothers, and Max Verstappen's absolute inability to lose at Mario Kart without accusing everyone else of cheating.
It had felt...normal, almost frighteningly normal.
They stepped onto the sidewalk together.
"So..." Kimi rubbed the back of his neck. "Your apartment is really close?"
She looked at him for a second.
There had been something different about him ever since he confessed.
He wasn't trying to impress her every five seconds anymore.
He wasn't stumbling over every sentence.
He had already told her the most embarrassing truth imaginable.
After that...walking beside her suddenly seemed easy.
Y/N sighed. "...Alright."
His smile returned immediately. "Okay."
She rolled her eyes. "You look very pleased with yourself."
They started walking, London was alive around them, cyclists passed beside red buses, people walked dogs, someone played a violin outside the Underground entrance.
A bakery filled the street with the smell of fresh bread for several minutes they simply walked together.
Kimi kept slowing down unconsciously every time she slowed to look at something in a shop window.
Y/N noticed. "You keep adjusting your pace."
"So we stay next to each other."
His ears immediately turned pink.
Cute ridiculously cute. "So..." she asked.
"Have you recovered from your hangover?"
"Oh..." He groaned dramatically. "I think Bono is still disappointed in me."
"I would've been disappointed too."
"You could've been arrested."
"You've said 'I know' twice times."
She laughed, not the polite little chuckle she usually gave around paddock people.
Kimi looked at her for a moment.
Worth every embarrassing memory.
"You laugh differently," he said before thinking.
"...You analyzed my laugh?"
His face immediately froze. "I didn't mean—"
"I accidentally analyzed your laugh."
She looked at him for another second before shaking her head. "You're impossible."
She smiled again. "I think this one's uniquely yours."
Neither noticed the photographer across the street pretending to check his phone.
The evening sunlight framed them perfectly, Kimi had his hands in his jacket pockets, Y/N held her coffee cup with both hands.
Yet somehow...They looked like they belonged together.
Halfway there, Y/N stopped at a crosswalk.
The pedestrian light turned red.
Without thinking, Kimi stepped half a pace closer to the road, instinctively placing himself between her and the traffic.
He just wanted her safe, even if it made absolutely no sense. The light turned green.
The photographer caught another frame.
A young couple walking hand in hand passed beside them.
Then, almost unconsciously...her shoulder brushed Kimi's, neither moved away for several steps they simply walked like that.
Close enough that their sleeves touched every now and then.
Close enough that people walking past naturally assumed they were together.
Eventually they reached her building. "This is me."
Old London architecture, flower boxes a green front door.
She looked at him with amused disbelief. "You're making architecture flirt with me now?"
Silence settled between them.
Neither seemed eager to end the afternoon.
Finally Kimi spoke. "So..."
"I'll see you in Canada."
"And..." He hesitated. "...Thank you, for giving me a chance."
Her expression softened. "Don't waste it."
Then, before she could overthink it, she stepped forward, Kimi barely had time to react before she wrapped her arms around him.
It wasn't a romantic embrace not yet.
Long enough for both of them to notice how naturally it fit, Kimi carefully hugged her back.
When they separated, both of them were smiling.
The kind neither realized they were wearing.
"Bye..." He almost called her beautiful.
Instead he simply smiled again.
She waited on the sidewalk as he raised his hand to hail an Taxi.
Before closing the door, he looked back, she was still standing there.
She lifted her hand in a small wave, he waved back like an excited teenager.
Y/N remained where she was until it disappeared around the corner.
Only then did she let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding before finally walking into her building.
Across the street, the photographer lowered his camera.
He scrolled through the photos.
Walking side by side beneath London's golden evening light.
Standing shoulder to shoulder at the crosswalk.
Her watching his Taxi leave.
If someone had told him they were officially dating, he would have believed it immediately.
Because sometimes two people looked like a couple...long before either of them had the courage to admit they were becoming one.
It took less than forty minutes.
Forty minutes for someone to upload the first blurry photo, and an hour for every Formula 1 gossip account to repost it.
Two hours for half the internet to become convinced that something was happening between Mercedes' championship leader and Red Bull's race engineer.
The photos themselves weren't scandalous.
That was precisely the problem.
There was nothing dramatic about them.
No obvious romantic gesture.
Just...Comfort and sometimes comfort was infinitely more intimate.
The first photo showed them leaving the café together.
The second captured them walking through Kensington beneath a cloudy London sky.
The third showed Kimi smiling at something Y/N had said.
The fourth caught Y/N laughing with her head tilted toward him.
The final images showed them hugging goodbye before Kimi climbed into an Taxi, while Y/N remained standing outside her building until the car disappeared.
Anyone looking at those photos without context would've assumed they'd been dating for months.
📸 EXCLUSIVE:
Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull engineer Y/N were photographed spending several hours together at a café in Kensington before walking back to her apartment.
Friends... or something more? 👀
Walking her home after coffee.
At this point, we're the only people who don't know their relationship status.
Sources close to neither of them (because nobody knows anything) confirm absolutely nothing.
But they do look ridiculously cute together.
HE WALKED HER HOME.
HE WALKED.
HER.
HOME.
That's not a PR walk.
That's a "I don't want the afternoon to end" walk.
Look at photo number 4.
They're looking at each other like they're the only two people on that street.
The way she's smiling...I've literally never seen her smile like that in the paddock.
I'M TALKING ABOUT HER WAITING FOR HIS TAXI TO LEAVE.
THAT'S CINEMA.
They somehow give off:
☕ rainy London dates
📚 bookstore dates
🎧 sharing headphones
🌧️ "you'll catch a cold" energy
I don't even need confirmation anymore.
Your Honor...LOOK AT THEM.
Everyone forgot Rosa Wolff after one coffee date?
Interesting.
Maybe they're just friends.
If my friend looked at me the way Kimi looks at her...I'd have several questions.
She's 28.
He's 20.
They're both adults.
Please go outside.
People only panic because the older one is the woman.
They aren't even dating officially and somehow they're already giving married couple energy.
They walk together like they've done it a thousand times.
Every rom-com ever:"We're just friends."
Green flags:
✔ Walks her home.
✔ Doesn't rush the goodbye.
✔ Smiles at everything she says.
✔ Looks at her like she invented happiness.
The chemistry isn't loud.
It's comfortable.
Somehow that's even worse.
Toto: "Where's Kimi?"
Kimi: Walking Red Bull engineers home.
Within hours, entertainment websites had already published headlines.
"Championship Leader Kimi Antonelli Sparks Romance Rumors After Cozy Afternoon With Red Bull Engineer."
"From Instagram Likes to London Walks: Fans Believe Formula 1 Has Found Its New Favorite Pair."
"Just Friends? Internet Doesn't Think So After Viral Kensington Photos."
One article summed up the public mood perfectly.
Neither Antonelli nor Y/N has commented on the speculation. However, the photographs tell the story of two people who appear remarkably comfortable in each other's company. Whether this is the beginning of a romance or simply a close friendship remains unknown. One thing is certain: Formula 1 fans have already adopted them as the newest paddock pairing, and the internet has rarely rooted so enthusiastically for a relationship that technically doesn't exist.
And somewhere in London...neither of them had opened social media yet.
Neither knew that thousands of strangers had already started calling them the paddock's slowest slow burn.
Ironically, for once...the internet wasn't entirely wrong.
The Wolff family home was unusually lively that evening.
One television played highlights from old races in the background.
One of Rosa's younger brothers was lying across the sofa with his phone in front of his face, while her older brother sat at the dining table scrolling through his laptop.
It took less than five minutes before one of them spoke.
Her fingers paused around the mug of tea she'd been holding. "...Yes?"
Her older brother turned his phone around. On the screen was one of the now-viral photographs.
Kimi and Y/N walking side by side beneath London's cloudy sky.
Y/N watching the Uber leave.
"...Oh." That was all she said. Just... "Oh." Inside, however, her stomach sank.
Not because they were holding hands.
Not because they had kissed.
Because Kimi looked...Happy.
She recognized that expression.
It was the same relaxed smile he'd worn whenever he forgot cameras existed.
The smile he'd worn when talking about racing. Except now...He was looking at someone else.
Her older brother looked up from his laptop. "The internet thinks they're dating."
"Were they already talking?"
"I..." Rosa hesitated. "I don't know."
That wasn't entirely true, she knew Kimi had been messaging someone.
She had noticed him smiling at his phone during the Thailand trip.
She had teased him once about it.
He had simply smiled awkwardly and changed the subject.
At the time...She had hoped but now she understood why.
Her younger brother frowned. "I thought you liked him."
Rosa immediately looked at him. "I never said that."
"You didn't have to." Her older brother laughed. "It was painfully obvious."
She sighed dramatically and leaned back in her chair. "...Fine."
Neither brother teased her.
Instead... Her older brother closed the laptop. "Sorry."
She smiled. "It happens."
People liked other people.
It still stung, not because Kimi had rejected her.
He simply...had never looked at her the way he looked at Y/N in those photographs.
That realization hurt far more than rejection ever could, because it meant she had never really been competing.
With a feeling Kimi had apparently carried for years.
She quietly returned to her tea.
Trying very hard not to think about it anymore.
Across the room, Toto Wolff had finally finished another phone call before sitting beside Susie.
She immediately turned her tablet toward him. "Have you seen this?"
"I've seen enough headlines today."
"You should probably see one more."
On the screen...there were the same photographs. "Oh."
Susie smiled knowingly. "I told you."
Toto looked again. "They're walking."
"They're looking at each other."
He squinted. "...Are they?"
"I've been watching people fall in love longer than you've been negotiating contracts."
He laughed. "That's a terrifying sentence."
He leaned back. "Kimi hasn't mentioned anything."
"...Probably not. He barely tells you when he changes his haircut."
Susie continued scrolling. "The internet already thinks they're together."
"The internet also thought George secretly hated Lewis because of one photograph."
"They've had about twenty photographs."
Toto laughed again. "I honestly don't know."
"I noticed he was happier."
"I assumed he was winning races."
Susie gave him a look. "Toto."
"You all keep saying that."
He stared thoughtfully at another picture. The one where Kimi looked at Y/N while she laughed. "...That's..."
Susie folded her arms triumphantly. "Exactly."
"But he hasn't said anything."
"Maybe because he doesn't know how."
Toto sighed. "...He's twenty."
"I suppose that's normal."
He looked once more at the photographs. "If..." He chose his words carefully. "If there is something..."
"...Then I only hope they're sensible."
"I don't particularly enjoy journalists making my driver's private life their main story."
"And Red Bull certainly won't."
She smiled. "They're adults."
She shrugged. "If they're happy, they're happy."
Toto nodded slowly. "...I suppose."
He still wasn't convinced they were dating, but...He also wasn't convinced they weren't.
Across the room, Rosa quietly picked up her phone again.
She opened the photographs one last time.
Zoomed in, not on Kimi, on Y/N.
Everything Rosa wasn't yet. She stared for several seconds before locking her screen again.
She wasn't angry not at Kimi and certainly not at Y/N.
Mostly in her own timing.
She had spent that week in Thailand wondering whether Kimi might eventually notice her.
Meanwhile...His heart had apparently been somewhere else the entire time.
A small, bittersweet smile. "...Guess I was late."
No one heard her and perhaps that made it easier.
Some crushes ended with rejection.
Others ended with understanding.
Rosa suspected hers belonged to the second kind.
But she also couldn't bring herself to resent him for choosing someone who made him smile like that.
Because even she had to admit...Looking at those photographs...He looked happier than she had ever seen him.
Tag List: @liitlemissantonelli, @hellsingalucard18, @sinistersnakey, @dessashippr, @mosseetrees, @z0mbie-mo0on, @serenelyfuturisticmaelstrom, @coldillusionodyssey, @misssmalik28
