The Underground - 3RACHA

38

Backstage at The Underground was busy that Friday and Changbin wasn't sure why until he pushed past the masses of people to see for himself. Everyone was crowding around a poster on the wall but all Changbin could read at the top was 'rap contest.' He was quite short compared to everyone else so he couldn't see the rest, but those words alone filled Changbin with excitement. Official rap contests that could account for a future career weren't common at The Underground and Changbin didn't want to get his hopes up, but he couldn't help but wish.

As he reached the front of the crowd, Changbin was able to see that the contest was exactly what he'd hoped it was. It was in a month's time and a major producer and record label owner from L.A. was travelling over to sign one rapper or group of rappers to his label. Adrenaline had already started to race through Changbin's veins. This was his chance to prove what he could do.

"Are you going to enter?" A familiar voice asked and Changbin looked up to see Felix standing across from him, on the other side of the poster.

Changbin grinned, "Yeah, definitely!"

Felix chuckled, taking hold of a pen that was attached to the poster by a piece of string. "Of course you are," he said as he signed his own name on the sign-up sheet, "you never back away from competition."

"You're doing it too?" Changbin asked, trying not to sound too surprised. He'd never heard Felix say he wanted to try rapping before though.

Felix straightened up and a small laugh escaped his lips, "yeah, Seungmin told me I should do it. I picked up quite a bit from you over the years so I thought I'd give it a shot," he explained and passed Changbin the pen. He accepted it up he didn't sign his name, he couldn't without two other people joining him.

"I'm glad you're trying something new," Changbin smiled as he passed the pen to the man behind him who took it without thanking him and wrote down his name. "I can't sign it yet," Changbin explained when he saw Felix's confused frown. He moved out of the way of the poster and stood beside his best friend, out of the crowd, "it says you can rap in a group so I need to go and get Chan and Jisung to do it with me."

"Ah," Felix realised, "well, I've never heard Jisung rap but I know how amazing you and Chan are. Nobody is going to stand a chance against you."

Changbin chuckled, "Jisung's pretty damn amazing too."

Felix let out a sigh, "guess we're all fucked then."

-

"A month?" Jisung asked, his eyes round like saucers, "but that's so soon! What if I choke again? Then I've fucked it up for both of you. I can't do that, you should both do it without me."

Changbin shook his head. Chan, Jisung and himself were all standing in the bathroom that very few liked to use at The Underground, leaving it empty for them to talk. "I'm not doing this without you," Changbin said, "we need you with us."

Jisung looked beside Changbin to see Chan nodding in agreement. He started to nibble on his bottom lip as he thought over the idea of a rap contest in his head. He'd been seeing his therapist for a month now and it was true that he was making progress, but he didn't know how much more he could make in the space of a month. When he looked at the hopeful looks on Chan and Changbin's faces, he couldn't bring himself to turn them down though. "I guess I can think about it," he mumbled but the other two seemed to take it as a yes.

"Fuck, yes, this is going to be amazing! We're going to completely destroy everyone else," Changbin exclaimed, starting to bounce up and down on the balls of his feet.

"Don't get so carried away, Binnie," Chan chuckled but he looked just as exhilarated himself. Jisung could see him trying not to let a grin take over his face but he wasn't doing a very good job. Both of them were overflowing with enthusiasm but Jisung was letting his worry eat away at him. "We need to think of a name, come up with a song and work out how we're going to perform it," Chan realised