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The first time Kyungsoo heard about Tempo was in high school when some seniors kept talking about participating in one of the freestyle battles. But the other competitors were too good for just a few students. Kyungsoo liked rap, although he preferred the rhythmic style because it suited his voice. He practiced his freestyle daily while working part-time at his father’s minimarket, rapping about ramen flavors and ice cream.
When he arrived after classes, a flyer was already posted on the door of the minimarket, right beside the English tutoring and rent announcements. “Rookie Night, who’s next?” The announcement featured two men with fiery faces and microphones: “RapByun and Kai”, he thought to himself. He spent hours listening to their mixtapes on SoundCloud.
Kyungsoo spent the rest of the evening dreaming about being on stage, mumbling bars to himself about potatoes and beer while cleaning the minimarket shelves. If his father heard him, he would probably say Kyungsoo should be paying more attention to school. After all, he was already a senior – shouldn’t he be thinking about his college entrance exams?
Friday night arrived, and he lied to his parents about going to Sehun’s house to study. In reality, Sehun would be at his Scout excursion all weekend. Kyungsoo silently prayed his parents didn’t call Sehun’s house to check on him.
He put on a black sweater and quickly walked to the bus stop, bypassing the one that would actually take him to Sehun’s house. Once on the bus, his anxiety grew with each stop, drawing him closer to the bar-filled side of the city. Tempo was hidden on one of the less crowded streets, so Kyungsoo had to walk a bit before he saw the neon red lights.
The place was packed, so he had to maneuver through the crowd to get to the registration tables. There was a small line, so he enjoyed the music while waiting for his turn.
“Hey, what’s your name, dude?” a man with black hair and cheshire smile asked. He had a pierced nose and tattoos covering his neck.
“Doh Kyungsoo,” he replied, raising his voice to be heard over the music.
“Cool, welcome. I’m Chen. Here’s your number; you can go to the backstage and wait for the battle”.
“Thanks,” Kyungsoo said shyly as he took the paper with the number 24 on it. He bowed slightly before heading to the backstage, earning a small laugh from Chen.
The backstage was full of boys his age, walking in circles while rapping or listening to music. Everyone seemed focused on what was to come. Kyungsoo felt underprepared; he just had his sweater and blue jeans, while the others dressed like the American rappers he saw on Youtube. Even if he saved money for a whole year, he couldn’t afford the simplest Nike shoes his competitors wore.
Kyungsoo sat in a corner and put on his headphones, trying to find a beat to practice, even though he would have to go with whatever the DJ played later. He could barely concentrate; his tongue felt heavy, and his thoughts were clouded with frustration.
Minutes passed, and rookies were called up with loud cheers from the crowd. Kyungsoo was just trying to breath.
“Kyungsoo and Taeyong, your turn,” said a staff member. Kyungsoo jumped and closed his eyes, trying to relax. He watched his opponent practicing and he felt intimidated by how good he was.
The two of them walked onto the stage, and Kyungsoo felt his hands trembling as he took the mic. Taeyong looked so confident while Kyungsoo felt insignificant in his own body.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Are you ready for these new rookies?!” exclaimed the strong voice of the MC, making Kyungsoo look up. His eyes widened.
MC LOEY was part of the royalty of Tempo, having won the “Titan War” for years. He even triumphed in last year’s Redbull Asia Freestyle Battle against Lay Zhang, a chinese MC who can rap in three languages.
Kyungsoo felt his cheeks and ears blush; he could barely understand what MC LOEY was saying and froze when he felt LOEY’s hand on his shoulder.
“Well, on this side, we have someone many of you already know from his mixtapes like ‘Baby Don’t Stop’: Taeyooooong!” LOEY shouted, holding up one of Taeyong’s hands like a wrestling announcer. “And on this other side, we have Doh Kyungsoo… he’s new here. Everybody, scream for this brave rookie!”
It was the first time Kyungsoo had heard so many people cheering for him, so he bowed a little, earning laughs for his cuteness.
“Hey! Hey! Not everyone is a beast here”, LOEY chuckled while squeezing his shoulder. “Well, let’s start. Heads or tails?”, he asked, showing a coin.
“Heads,” Taeyong replied first, so Kyungsoo just shrugged, too nervous to say anything.
The coin flipped in LOEY’s hands. “You first, Taeyong,” he said.
Kyungsoo tried to stay focused as Taeyong unleashed words like bullets, dropping bars as if he had been ready for this for months. When Taeyong finished, the crowd erupted in cheers, drowning out LOEY’s congratulations.
Now it was Kyungsoo’s turn. His hands were sweating and trembling as he tried to feel the beat while his brain raced to create lines. His body moved with the rhythm, and the first words flowed naturally from his mouth. Everything was going well.
But then Taeyong laughed, and when Kyungsoo glanced at the crowd, they were laughing too. He froze, feeling the beat carry on without his voice. LOEY looked at him with concern, but Kyungsoo was too busy trying to contain the turmoil in his stomach before bolting off the stage toward the bathrooms.
Kyungsoo wanted to call his mom. It was the only thing he could think about while sitting on the stall floor. Maybe she wouldn’t be too mad if she foun out he wasn’t actually at Sehun’s once she saw his state. He was in tears, and his shirt was dirty. He just wanted to disappear.
“Doh Kyungsoo?” He heard from the other side of the door, and he tried to hide. “You know I can see you, right?” MC LOEY was peeking into the stall.
“Hey! What if I was using the toilet?!” Kyungsoo exclaimed, trying to wipe his tears while standing up and opening the door.
“Calm down; I saw you sitting on the floor. Hey, I brought you water,” LOEY said, placing the bottle on the sink. Kyungsoo took it to wash his mouth, feeling humiliated in front of one of his favorite rappers. “You know, the first time I went on stage, I froze in the middle of– “
“Did you throw up?” Kyungsoo interrupted, trying to clean his clothes.
“Well, no, but–”
“Then you can’t say anything to me,” Kyungsoo continued, giving up on salvaging his shirt.
“Here,” LOEY offered his jean jacket. He wore a white tank top that revealed his toned arms, and Kyungsoo felt even shyer.
“Can you turn around so I can change?” Kyungsoo asked, taking the jacket.
LOEY furrowed his brow but turned around anyway. Kyungsoo took off his shirt and put on the jean jacket, buttoning it up to hide his body. He decided to throw away his smelly shirt and sweater.
“You look good,” LOEY said, but Kyungsoo just showed the sleeves covering his hands. LOEY glanced at his hands for a moment before rolling up the sleeves for him. “I’m Chanyeol,” LOEY smiled, this time genuinely, unlike on stage, where his smile would be way more arrogant.
“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo repeated, stretching out one hand. Chanyeol laughed again and shook it warmly.
“Since the battle is over, do you want to hang out a bit? There’s good music and Suho, the guy at the bar, makes the best drinks,” Chanyeol said, forming an OK with his hand. “Wait, do you have the age to drink?”
“I’m 18,” Kyungsoo replied.
“Well, newborn adult, want to come with me?”
Kyungsoo paused a bit, maybe the people outside were already too drunk to remember his performance and wouldn’t make fun of him, or the lighting would hide his face.
“Sure,” he answered.