The Underground - 3RACHA

29

Changbin was bouncing up and down on the heels of his feet backstage, trying to shake away the nerves but it wasn't working. The last time he'd gotten this worked up over a rap battle was when he was rapping against Chan, but never before that. He had to keep reminding himself that he was going to be fine because Chan and Jisung were in the crowd and they were going to be cheering for him.

"Are you rapping again?" A deep voice caught Changbin's attention and he turned around to see Felix leaning against the wall close by.

"Felix!" Changbin felt the corners of his mouth turning up. He was glad Felix was still ok after their last encounter and on top of that, he looked a lot better. His usual orange hair had been dyed dark brown and his clothes consisted of a leather jacket, a white shirt and black jeans which looked quite impressive. "You look good, are you going somewhere?"

Felix started to smile himself before looking down at the floor, "yeah, I'm on my way there I just wanted to see if you were back on the stage yet."

"It's my first time back," Changbin explained, walking closer to the boy so they weren't at such a distance anymore. "I'm...I'm actually quite nervous," he admitted.

Felix looked up at him and raised his eyebrow, "you? Nervous?"

"Yeah...I haven't done this in a while."

Felix scoffed, "don't be nervous, you're amazing. You're the best rapper and that hasn't changed in the weeks you've been away."

"Can you stay and watch?" Changbin asked but Felix shook his head.

"I'm sorry, I wish I could but I...I have a date," he admitted, eyes falling to the floor.

"A date!?" Changbin exclaimed, "holy fuck, with who? Where? When did you meet them?"

"Shh!" Felix laughed as Changbin's voice raised, "ok, his name is Seungmin and he's really nice. I met him not long after...after what happened between us and he helped me feel better again so I really don't want to fuck things up with him."

"You won't fuck things up. He'll love you. I mean, look at you-" he pinched one of Felix's cheeks, "you're adorable."

Felix slapped his hand away and scowled at him, "fuck off, I'm not adorable!"

"SpearB? You're on next," one of the cypher organisers at The Underground interrupted them. Changbin nodded and turned back to Felix to say goodbye.

"Good luck!" He said, wrapping his arms around Felix and squeezing him in a hug that was too tight for comfort.

Felix hugged him back nevertheless, "you too."

-

Felix having a date did three things for Changbin. The first thing it did was make a wave of relief wash over him because if Felix was trying to move on, they could hopefully rekindle their friendship. The second thing it did was motivate Changbin to try hard during his rap battles because if Felix was trying hard to overcome something, so could he. And thirdly, it made Changbin realise that he, Chan and Jisung hadn't been on a date, not a proper one anyway.

Changbin placed second that night. It wasn't as good as he used to do, but it was a start and second out of twenty wasn't bad in his eyes. Apparently a new rapper had started at The Underground since Changbin took a break and people seemed to like him, but Changbin knew he wouldn't be hard to beat next time.

The first thing Changbin did after leaving the stage was find Chan and Jisung who were still lingering in the audience area of the building as Jisung didn't like leaving in the initial rush of people. Before either of them could say anything to Changbin, he told them, "I'm taking both of you on a date."