kicks ✓ || namgi || k.th

017: vehement

chapter 17: vehement
location: clearwater, florida, day 1

After Hobi got sick at the amusement park in St. Louis, Namjoon immediately drove them to their next destination. With one push of the supercharged button, reality flickered around them, and they were surrounded by palm trees. The ocean was in the distance.

"Are we back in L.A.?" Taehyung asked.

Hoseok dug out the Rand McNally maps. "What does that sign say, Joon?"

"Hudson, Florida."

Hoseok dug through the map. "We're headed toward Tampa! So that's not the ocean, it's the Gulf of Mexico!"

Everybody cheered, except Jungkook, who didn't know what the Gulf of Mexico was and thought maybe they had traveled to Mexico. Hoseok was able to show him the map and set him straight.

The hotels in Tampa were all booked for the summer, so Namjoon drove next door to Clearwater, where there were a few still open. "There's a block party happening tonight," the receptionist told them.

"A block party!" Jimin and Seokjin jumped around.

"Now now," Namjoon hushed them in Korean. "We can go, but stay in groups of two or three. Remember: we don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves."

The entire street was jumping when the boys exited the hotel later that night. Fire trucks had the streets closed off so no cars would drive down them. Christmas lights hung above their heads. People were talking together in groups. There were food stands all along the sidewalk, selling everything from corn dogs to sno-cones. Two huge bouncy houses sat side by side as kids ran around and into them.

Jimin grabbed Taehyung and ran over to a food stand, ordering one of everything. Then, the group split up. Hoseok followed Jimin and Taehyung to one of the bouncy houses, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't convince the people to let him in. There was a small section with rides, and Hoseok finally agreed to ride the itty bitty Ferris Wheel, but nothing else.

Jin and Jungkook were over at an information booth. "We provide boat rides along the Gulf of Mexico," the girl explained. "We offer two different options. The first is a tourist package that gives information about the area's history. It takes place in the afternoon, so you might see dolphins if you're lucky! The second is a late night dinner cruise exclusively for couples."

"The first one sounds good," Jin said as he took a flyer. "Maybe we should do this tomorrow!"

Jungkook smiled at the girl. She was pretty, around his age, and very nice to look at. "We should."

Namjoon could hear music being played, and he gravitated toward it. At the end of one street was a bandstand, and a black man was rapping off the top of his head while another was on the turntables, mixing on the fly. A cypher! A true blue cypher! Namjoon felt the urge to get up on stage and join in.

None of his new family knew about his secret high school life. They had been told that he was studious and smart, and that he had gotten into Columbia with flying colors. They might lose their minds if they found out that Namjoon had once been an underground rapper in Seoul. But it was something Namjoon had to hide, just like his sexual orientation. If his father ever heard mention of his rap career again, or saw him dating a boy, Namjoon would be exiled from the family for sure.

"Namjoon."

He turned. Yoongi had followed him. Follow the buddy system! "Where are you heading?"

"Oh, just listening to the music." Namjoon smiled. It took him back - way back.

Several different rappers jumped into the cypher, and Namjoon felt more depressed with each one that got on stage. But soon, the cypher was over, and there was no music playing at all. People started to wander away from the bandstand.

"We should go find the others -" Namjoon looked around. Aw, hell, Yoongi was gone again!

Then, Namjoon heard a few familiar notes from a piano come over the loudspeaker. When he looked up, Yoongi was on stage, playing as he always had in class. But Namjoon had been to all of Yoongi's recitals. The pianist had always played pieces by the greats: Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, the works.

But this wasn't classical.

This was -

He remembered being in the library as a kid, only allowed to check out music in the classical section because his mother was strict. He had pulled down a cassette tape, and the front had the picture of a little boy on it, sitting at the piano. They called him a compositional prodigy. When Namjoon had taken the tape home and put it in, the music was piano, but simple, beautiful, like little kid Joonie could fall asleep to it.

It was the same piano music that he had sampled as an underground rapper. When the producers had heard it, they had recognized the piano almost immediately. The small prodigy's piano music had led to Namjoon's biggest hit. It had led to more sampling, and eventually, he had gotten in contact with the prodigy. The pianist would send him new cassette tapes, sometimes weeks before anybody else would hear them, and Namjoon would create beats to them in the underground, first for himself, and then for other rappers. It was a beautiful yet secret collaboration, and Namjoon had found a friend for life.

Or so he had thought. Namjoon had been so close to landing a record deal before his father had discovered his secret, and then there were no more emails, no more cassette tapes, no more raps.

Namjoon jumped, brought back to reality, as the piano suddenly stopped. Yoongi was talking to a security guard on stage. Aw, snap. But thankfully Yoongi obeyed and got down from the stage. It was just an unauthorized performance, and Yoongi wasn't in trouble - or recognized.

"You're crazy, you know that?" Namjoon said as he pulled Yoongi away from the bandstand.

Yoongi shook his head. "Ok, look, I'm tired of not playing piano, man. I just wanted to play something. Been a long time since I heard that piece."

"Yeah, me too! I didn't know you knew Agust D's music. All you play is the classics."

Yoongi blushed. "Aha, yeah, I mean, who doesn't know Agust D in the music circle? His stuff is so gentle and clean. He was so popular. Kid never played any concerts or anything, but he sold a bajillion tapes through mail order."

Namjoon smiled, staring straight ahead. "Yeah, he really rivaled Yanni there for a bit. It's too bad he dropped off the scene. I'd love to hear some new music by him."

"Yeah. It's too bad."

~

vehement (adj): showing strong feeling; forceful, passionate, or intense