The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 70

< Verse 12. Gwangju UP! >

“Why are you hitting me!”

“You little brat? You haven’t even tasted blood yet, who told you to drink?”

“What are you talking about! I learned to drink from Dad before you did!”

“That’s in front of adults!”

“You drank last time too! You’re a minor too!”

“Why am I a minor!”

“You are a minor! What else would you be!”

“My spirit isn’t a minor!”

“Oh, is that so? Then my spirit is a grandma!”

“No, that’s not what I mean!”

My spirit really isn’t a minor…

In the end, after a struggle, Sanghyun managed to get Sangmi to drink cola. Honestly, if it were Gwangju, he could have tolerated a beer or two, but he was being cautious because it was another region.

The most unsettling thing was not having a place to stay. So, at least one person had to be fully alert.

Sanghyun scolded Sangmi and then belatedly had a thought.

“Shin Hayeon! Where’s Shin Hayeon!”

“Huh? I’m here.”

Hayeon was sitting out of sight because of Inhyuk and Woominho’s large builds. She was with the other members who had participated in the after-party at Stars Records’ practice room.

“Come here. Sit next to me.”

“Ooh! Romance!”

When Sanghyun brought Hayeon to sit next to him, some of the members whistled.

“She can’t drink.”

Sanghyun remembered Hayeon getting drunk off just one glass of soju [Korean distilled rice liquor].

“What, are you two dating?”

“No, we’re not!”

“What are you talking about!”

Sanghyun and Hayeon denied Bae Ga’s question.

“A strong denial is as good as a strong affirmation.”

“It’s not like that, she’s just really weak with alcohol. She’s a friend who needs my care.”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s how you end up falling for someone you take care of.”

“What’s ‘chaengbun’?”

“It’s like an intensified version of ‘jeongbun’ rhyming with ‘chaeng’?”

“I didn’t realize it when you were on the phone, but you’re actually really boring.”

“Is that so? If you drink this, my every word will turn into crazy jokes and you’ll burst out laughing.”

“I said I’m not drinking!”

The reason Bae Ga was trying so hard to get Sanghyun to drink was that he wanted Sanghyun to be in a good mood. And then, taking advantage of that good mood, he would reap the benefits!

“Then promise me.”

“But a whole year is impossible.”

“Then let’s just do the next performance?”

“I said I’ll think about it and contact you. Don’t you have a girlfriend? You’re being really persistent.”

Bae Ga wanted to keep Sanghyun on the lineup for the planned Hommie party. If that wasn’t possible, he definitely wanted him on Hommie Vol.2.

The overwhelming success of Vol.1 was already weighing on him.

‘This time was just really good timing.’

He didn’t know how many people would come to Vol.2, which wouldn’t have the special circumstances of being right before the semester started and absorbing the regular audience of World DJ Festival.

So, his calculation was that if he put the 888 Crew, who had a huge hit at today’s performance, on the lineup again, he could at least earn their keep.

“What’s the problem? You have songs, you have experience. Just do it again? There are people who don’t watch porn, but there’s no one who only watches it once, right? The stage is the same.”

“That’s a very apt analogy. I’m not saying I won’t do it. I’m just saying it’s hard to say for sure right now.”

“Why?”

Sanghyun put meat on Hayeon’s plate and took a moment to organize his thoughts.

“We don’t want to make songs under pressure. If we promise the next performance, we have to make new songs from now on. The motto of the 888 Crew is, after all, enjoying creation. The feeling of things that are full inside naturally flowing out.”

“Hmm…”

Sanghyun thought that, as he had learned through Miju, the boundary between art and non-art was very important.

Something you really want to do.

Art is created based on inspiration that you can’t help but do. Can a result that is forcibly squeezed out, like being forced to work overtime at a company, excite others?

“And our schedules are also a problem. Hayeon, Junhyung, and I are high school students.”

“You don’t study anyway, do you?”

“Still, Hayeon, who’s eating like a pig here, has the college entrance exam soon… Ack!”

Hayeon’s hand, which was eating a lettuce wrap, burst into flames.

“Do you want to die? Pig?”

“I meant you eat heartily. Hehe.”

Bae Ga, who was watching Sanghyun and Hayeon, had a puzzled expression.

“Sanghyun, aren’t you a sophomore in high school?”

“Yes.”

“But why are you taking the college entrance exam?”

“Ah, Hayeon is a senior.”

“Oh? She’s older? Well, respect disappears in the face of love.”

“It’s not that, I was born early in the year, so Sanghyun disrespectfully speaks informally to me.”

“Yeah, yeah. There are no couples who use honorifics. It’s natural.”

Sanghyun smelled the scent of a veteran sunbae [senior in school/workplace] grilling a freshman from Bae Ga, who kept pushing Hayeon and him together. Ah, the smell of an old man I haven’t smelled in a while.

“Sanguhk.”

“Huh…? Did you just call me Sanguhk?”

“Respect disappears in the face of love. Right, my beloved Sanguhk?”

“Okay. I’ll let you speak informally, so promise me Vol.2. We’re in love, aren’t we.”

“I said I’ll think about it! You tick! Don’t stick to me!”

Sangmi shook her head, watching Bae Ga and Sanghyun’s *꽁냥꽁냥 [kkongnyangkkongnyang – a Korean onomatopoeia for a couple being lovey-dovey].*

“Gays.”

“Haha, Sanguhk must really like Sanghyun.”

“I just think they’re gays?”

Wooyeonwoo, who belonged to Stars Records, laughed out loud at Sangmi’s words.

Originally, Bae Sanguhk doesn’t treat people he meets for the first time in a friendly way. It’s not that he has a bad personality or is shy, but he subtly puts up an invisible wall unless he’s known them for a long time.

‘Well, after seeing that performance, anyone would want to be friends with them.’

Wooyeonwoo looked around. The wide practice room was crowded with people.

The 888 Crew members didn’t seem to notice, but most of the people attending the after-party were sitting near the 888 Crew.

There were already no seats near the outgoing Park Inhyuk, Woominho, and Kimhwan, and there were quite a few people trying to talk to Lee Sanghyun or Shin Hayeon.

Originally, the planned after-party location was Hommie, the performance venue.

However, the underage members of the 888 Crew, who could perform but couldn’t drink, moved to the Stars Records practice room. But quite a few members followed them without realizing it. Leaving behind the fancy after-party prepared by Club Hommie.

Even Bae Ga, the organizer of the performance, only showed his face briefly and came here, so that says it all.

‘They’re going to be big.’

Wooyeonwoo had a conviction, not just a guess.

Of course, if you only look at ‘rap skills,’ Lee Sanghyun and Shin Junhyung are not at a great level.

Shin Hayeon and Park Inhyuk seem to have a lot of potential, and Kimhwan and Oh Minji are honestly still lacking a lot.

But this is the story when they are active as individuals.

The results that they will show through the synergy-showing 888 Crew will be enormous without a doubt.

It is difficult for six rappers to have their own colors, but they also had the inspiration to express those colors wonderfully.

‘That friend must be at the center of it.’

Wooyeonwoo took a sip of beer and observed Lee Sanghyun.

Looking at it this way, he’s just an ordinary high school student. Except for the merit of being tall and handsome, he’s just a high school student.

But when he went on stage, he gave a completely different feeling.

How should I express that feeling?

If I dare to express it, it’s like…

“Gay?”

“Yeah. Like a gay… Huh?”

“Why are you staring at my brother like that? Are you perhaps into that kind of thing?”

Sangmi tilted her head and looked at Wooyeonwoo. He must have been observing Lee Sanghyun for too long.

When Wooyeonwoo didn’t answer, Sangmi lost interest and stuffed a lettuce wrap into her mouth. Then, she poured cola as if she was having a drink.

‘Cu, cute.’

Wooyeonwoo, of course, as a normal person, had a girlfriend he was engaged to. He was just someone who had a fantasy about a younger sister that he had never had.

Wooyeonwoo, who looked at Sanghyun with envious eyes for a moment, recalled the last performance song of the 888 Crew, Fxxk the Show Biz.

***

-Encore! Encore!

-Encore! Encore!

Even though the 888 Crew had left the stage, the thunderous encore did not disappear.

“Good job. Everyone.”

“Good work.”

“Ah, my hands are still shaking.”

“Considering that, you did really well, noona [term used by males to address older females] ?”

However, the 888 Crew coolly went backstage and were talking and laughing.

Sanghyun stroked Sangmi’s flushed head and approached Bae Ga to greet him.

“Bae Ga hyung [term used by males to address older males]. Thanks to you, I was able to have a really fun stage. Really, it was so much fun. Thank you again.”

However, Bae Ga and the Stars Records members were making faces as if they had eaten shit.

“Hyung, you have to go up now, right? Fighting for the last performance!”

When Sanghyun put his hands together and took a fighting pose, Bae Ga let out a hollow laugh.

“Fighting? Can you even say fighting right now? Do you want to get hit like in The Fighting?”

Bae Ga suddenly put Sanghyun in a headlock. Sanghyun shouted, “Ack!” and hit Bae Ga’s back.

“Hyung! Why are you doing this? We’re not that close yet!”

“What about that!”

Bae Ga let go of Sanghyun and pointed to the stage. The encore shouts that the audience had been shouting had disappeared.

Instead, they were shouting something else.

-Fxxk the Show Biz!

-Fxxk the Show Biz!

A thunderous Fxxk the Show Biz call.

Most of the audience was smiling and shouting ‘Fxxk the Show Biz.’ It was a truly thrilling sight.

Of course, not all the audience knew Fxxk the Show Biz. There were many who had no interest in hip-hop at all, and there were also people who were only interested in Club Hommie, which opened this month. However, they were infected by the surrounding hip-hop fans and were shouting ‘Fxxk the Show Biz’ along.

It was an expression of the anticipation shared by the people who saw the 888 Crew’s performance today.

“This bastard is pouring shit water, but there’s a limit!”

“Shit water, you say…”

“There’s no shit water like that. How can I rap there?”

“Won’t it subside quickly when Stars Records goes up? Stars Records, who have so many hit songs and fans that they can’t be compared to our team that has just started…”

“Shut up! Do you have a performance MR [music recorded] for Fxxk the Show Biz? Or not?”

Sanghyun scratched the back of his head and smiled plausibly.

“Our team doesn’t have many songs yet. All of our song MRs are on the CD I gave to the DJ, but…”

“So… you’re saying you have it?”

“It just happened to be that way.”

Bae Ga let out another hollow laugh.

‘This is a very planned and plausible guy?!’

“Hey, you, you bad bastard. What are you doing here?”

“Yes?”

“Go up on stage and do something about that!”

“But the scheduled performance time…”

“I’ll do one less song, so don’t worry and do it!”

“That’s a wise decision!”

Sanghyun saluted Bae Ga. Then, he received a microphone from the staff and went up to the darkened stage.

Bae Ga laughed in disbelief as he watched his back. No wonder he didn’t do ‘Fxxk the Show Biz.’

‘Wait a minute. Then that bastard definitely expected an encore?’

< Verse 12. Gwangju UP! > End

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