ARROGANCE | m.yg

t w o - y o o n g i

   Jungkook slaps me on the back with a bright smile. "Have fun, hyung! Hoseok-hyung, have a good time!"

   "Thanks, Jungkook," I chuckle. "I'll take pictures if there's anything super interesting."

   "Me, too," Hoseok adds. "Namjoon, you sure you don't want to come with?"

   "Nah, I'm fine staying here," he assures us from the couch. "I'm really not feeling up to it."

   "If you're sure," I state.

   "I am."

   "Okay," Hoseok announces. "We're off! Be back later, okay guys?"

   "Yep!" Jimin calls from behind the fridge door. "See you guys later, have fun!"

   I intend to.

   Hoseok and I leave the dorm and hop into my car to head to the festival. We've been talking about this for ages, and now that it's finally time to go, I'm super excited. I haven't been to a music festival in a long time, and I can hardly remember the events of the last one I attended. I think the last one was when I was still in school, and I traveled out for a long weekend. I had just been a kid then. Now, I've got a feeling it's going to be a lot more fun. With Jung Hoseok at my side, anything is possible.

   I've got high hopes. From what I remember, music festivals in Seoul are the perfect kind of hectic. Everyone's rushing around from act to act, bouncing between the karaoke and the street dancers as if they're pinballs getting knocked around during a game. Street food vendors send the entire street into a frenzied mess of scents and tastes, and prices are usually very low. You can pick up your favorite food on the go and then wander from area to area until you finally hit that one spot that clicks with you. Whether it be the dancers, the rappers, the vocalists, or even the street food, there's bound to be that one part of the festival makes you never want to leave it.

   I remember my clicking point very well. It, of course, had been the underground rappers, rushing on and off stage one after another, performing their song of choice. What with all the underground rappers in Seoul, they could only really afford to have each person do one song. That's what meant so much. Each artist had to pick only one song that they thought perfectly defined them, and that's why I found it so interesting. These rappers summed up their whole style of art, their whole career, in just a few minutes. I found it to be beautiful, and I still think it is today. In fact, I think I find it even more beautiful now because I understand how difficult that is to do.

   The drive to the festival is uneventful. Hoseok is his usual self– smiling and talking and singing along to the radio. I am my usual self in that I listen to him and focus primarily on driving. It takes somewhere between fifteen and twenty minutes to get there, Seoul's heavy traffic impeding our progress. When we do arrive, parking is even worse. We manage to snag a spot about three blocks away from the festival itself and then quickly hop out of the car. I call for Hoseok to wait for me, but he's practically thrown himself out of the passenger's seat and into the throng as it moves towards the festival. With Hoseok gone, it seems I'll be enjoying the festival on my own.

   As I too join the crowd heading in the direction of the festival, I catch the eyes of people who recognize me. I smile and give acknowledging nods, and fans do the same. In all the chaos of the Seoul Underground Music Festival, there's a type of calm. Everyone's there for the same reason, and it's that they love music. It's really unifying and cool to see all these like-minded people together, enjoying the thing they love. That's the cool thing about concerts in general, too.

   After traveling three blocks, I'm greeted by the sights and sounds of the festival. Passing between two posts and entering the pedestrian area, the fun begins. I find Hoseok, actually, getting some hotteok from a street vendor. I head in his direction as he pays for his meal and turns to me as if he knows I'm here.