Section One: [M i n h o] Favor

Minho sat at his desk. It was about 4 pm, and he was finishing up his last bits of schoolwork. He wasn't that busy because he had completed most of his school work the weekend before, alternating between going to the department dance room (he had decided to simply call it "the annex") and the library to work. He recalled seeing Jisung at school, but he doesn't think Jisung saw him. He also thought back to seeing his classmates laugh at a younger student wearing something pink...

Minho sighed, turning around in his chair. He wanted to move. He had tried humming along to one of his favorite tracks to dance to, but it didn't satisfy how much he just wanted to release his emotions through movement. But he saw that humming was kind of fun, and when he found himself alone he would quietly sing. He turned back to his desk, reminding himself to finish packing the rest of his things so he could go ahead and do something else that he actually wanted to do. Placing his writing utensils back in the case, he closed his binder. 

As he got up from his desk, he thought about going to the annex before his phone buzzed. An unknown number. He shrugged before reading the notification below it. Hey, it's Felix. Minho quickly unlocked his phone to read the rest of the message.

The full message read: "Hey, it's Felix. I was wondering if I can ask you a favor... My friend Changbin and I made a deal for me to help him rap if I help him dance and I was hoping if we can join you in your dance room tomorrow if you're there. The thing is- he wants to bring two friends, Chan and Jisung. You met Jisung already, but I don't believe you've met Chan. Please let me know ^~^"

Felix, Changbin, Jisung, and Chan? Minho thought. That would be five people total in the annex! The most people Minho had ever had in the annex was two, and that was with Felix and Jisung. In fact, the first time anyone else but Minho had stepped foot inside Minho's refurbishment of the old storage room was when he brought Felix in. Minho began to think that showing Felix the annex was a bad idea, but he then realized that he was a bit lonely anyway. Letting Felix bring his friends over hopefully meant that Minho could meet new people and maybe talk a bit more to Jisung. He slumped back into his chair and prepared to type a response. 

"Hi, Felix. Yeah, I guess tomorrow around this time is fine. Tell your friends to keep this whole annex thing a secret or else I might have to vacate it. See you then."

Section Two: [F e l i x] Night with 3RACHA

Felix arrived at the 3RACHA studio around 6 pm after telling his mother that he was going to study at the library. She let him go this time, but she had asked to see Felix's phone to check through. He had deleted all the open tabs of tracks off, and he remembered to clear the messages with the others though, so he was safe this time. When he arrived at the studio, he heard a little bit of cheering coming from the inside. It was Jisung's voice that was the loudest, not to Felix's surprise. Ringing the doorbell, the door opened right away to reveal Chan in a plain blue t-shirt and black jeans who held the door open. 

"Hey, Felix," Chan smiled, closing the door after Felix stepped in.

"Hi guys," Felix greeted. He looked at Changbin first, who was sitting at the computer grinning. Jisung sat on a stool next to the computer, bobbing up and down. 

"Felix! We finished the last tracks that we planned to add to the first mixtape! Now we are working on the first track of the second mixtape, but we need some opinions," Jisung explained. Changbin was typing something onto the computer, reviewing some lyrics written in Chan and Jisung's notebook. Changbin's notebook, however, remained on the other table. It seemed like two pages were taped together in Changbin's notebook, and Felix figured it might have been the lyrics that Changbin was hiding for his verse about precious things the last time Felix was at the studio. He then remembered Changbin's secret room from a few hours earlier, thinking that maybe he was working on the verse in that room. 

"This track will be centered around social oppression and the problems in society today, but we need your opinion with the flow of the verse right here," Changbin stated. Felix walked towards Changbin, Jisung, and the computer, as Chan followed closely behind Felix. Reading the lyrics, Felix felt like he was moved by the lyrics, but it was a different type of feeling from their past tracks.

Felix turned to Chan. "Are you guys experimenting with rap types and styles? I like it."

"Yeah, I guess we are. We didn't really want to make that much of a change yet because we are still finding our own personal styles so that when we find a type of style and genre of rap that we all can agree on, maybe we can make even more tracks like that," Chan spoke as he pulled over two chairs for Felix and himself. 

Felix caught himself looking back at Changbin again. Changbin was wearing a gray flannel sweatshirt and his hair was a bit messier than usual. Before he knew it, Changbin was looking back at him without Felix noticing. Felix noticed a few seconds after, blushing after being caught staring at Changbin. Felix could swear that he heard Jisung snicker a little bit, making him feel embarrassed. 

Chan didn't seem to notice, as he pushed the notebook to face Felix. "Can you rap this part? I wanna see your intonation. You can look at it first and figure out your flow if you want." Felix looked down at the lyrics again, trying to find a way to rap the lyrics in his head. Before opening his mouth, Felix read a little note at the side of the lyrics.

"'쉿' 은 억압과 강요받는 주변환경과 현실에서 반항하는 내용을 위트있게 담아보려고 했습니다. "

"'Shh' tried to wit the contents of oppression, the enforced surroundings, and rebellion in reality."

Felix figured that he would need to rap strongly and wittily just as the rest of the lyrics are suggesting. He began to rap the part, the flow coming out well except for a few stumbles and mispronunciations here and there.

"Ahh, that's a fresh idea that you integrated there. Thanks, Felix! I almost forgot that you're from Sydney. Your pronunciation is getting better, though. Are there any words in that verse that you don't know?" Chan asked once Felix was done with the verse written in the notebook. Felix could feel Changbin nodding from the side, making him proud even though he messed up a few times.

"I think Changbin can help you with those words, Felix. He's working on learning English himself so he has the Korean to English/English to Korean dictionary with him. Chan needs to clean up the excessive aspects of the beat and add some effects where necessary, right Chan?" Jisung loudly blurted in attempt to get Changbin and Felix to talk to each other. Jisung playfully tilted his head at Felix as he moved his and Chan's chair more towards the computer.  Dang it, Jisung knows what's going on, Felix thought. It would have been easier for Jisung or Chan to help me since they already both know English and Korean, but Jisung just had to- ugh... Was it that obvious? Felix was flustered as he got up from the stool.

Felix and Changbin moved to the table by the couch a few feet away from Chan, Jisung, and the computer. Changbin handed Felix a pencil to circle the words that he wanted to review as Changbin got out his English/Korean dictionary. Felix circled a couple of the words, which he had seen in some of the workbooks that he needed to complete in class. He was doing well in class because of the stress that his parent's had imposed on him to work on his Korean, but he figured it would be good practice to review these words too. 

"First word... 학대," Changbin read. He flipped through the dictionary. "학대,  bad treatment." Felix nodded. He found Changbin's English pronunciation kind of cute, and really good for someone who was working on English from Korean. Well, Felix had figured that he would learn English quickly from being with the rest of English speaking 3RACHA who would also put some English lyrics in their tracks. 

"Next word, 지도력. Hmm... ah, here. 지도력, leadership. Like Chan!" Changbin exclaimed happily. Felix giggled along with Changbin at each others' pronunciation and discussions of the words as they went through the circled words. Felix had never felt this comfortable in Korea since meeting 3RACHA, which he found even cooler because they were rappers who can or were working on speaking English. Felix felt lucky. Before they knew it, it was 7:20 and Chan finally took off his headphones. Jisung was nearly falling asleep before pulling out a pack of honey butter chips. 

"Ok, the beat is ready to be layered. All we need to do is record the actual verses," Chan sighed, proud of the work he had just completed. He looked down at his wrist to check the time on his watch. His watch! Chan's eyes widened when he realized that his watch wasn't on his wrist. 

"Chan, what's wrong?" Changbin asked, seeing the panic on Chan's face.

"My watch! I must have left it at the cafe yesterday!" Chan gasped as he hopped up from the desk. "Jisung, I want you to start the recording process with Changbin and Felix. I'll try to be back before 9:00, but I'm sorry Felix if I don't get to see you before you leave. Changbin, please watch over the studio tonight. I'll head to the cafe and try to find my watch. Later!" Chan threw on his back and picked up his phone before jogging out the door. 

Changbin and Felix's heads turned to Jisung, who was setting up the microphone. He looked between the two and the pack of chips. "Do you want some?" Jisung questioned, holding out the pack as Changbin and Felix hopped up and walked towards the microphone and chips. 

Section Three: [C h a n] Watch

Chan briskly walked towards the entrance of the cafe. He walked in, seeing the barista and feeling obliged to order something. He walked up to the barista, ordering the usual before starting to look for his watch. There were about eight people inside the cafe, about the usual for a weekday night. He began scanning table tops before noticing that the same singer from the night before, Woojin, was there at the cafe, typing on a computer and sipping a cafe drink. Woojin was probably a college freshman, like Chan. Chan looked back down, continuing to scan the tables starting from the seat he was sitting on the day before. 

The watch was very special to Chan; Chan's parents had given him the watch prior to leaving Sydney, Australia when he was 13. At that age, Chan had aspired to go above and beyond in his music studies starting with singing and then growing an interest in rap. The watch had silver hands and a gold brim. The watch strap was brown leather, but Chan had scratched the leather a tiny bit about a year ago when he was fixing his larger pc setup. The storage unit that acted as the studio for 3RACHA was lent to Chan by his parents who had saved the storage unit for one day when Chan would go to Korea all by himself. They hadn't expected him to go by himself at such a young age, but they came to visit him every year. They were glad to see that he was making musician friends, and they were proud to see that he had an interest in both singing and rapping. 

The sound of a plastic cup sliding across the counter caught Chan's attention again.

He turned back around to take his drink as he realized that he could ask the barista if they had seen the watch. "Hi, excuse me, have you seen a watch around here? I believe I left it here yesterday. It has a brown leather strap, silver hands, and a golden brim."

"Um, I don't think I have, but I'll keep an eye out for it," the barista assured as Chan sighed, thanking the barista and walked back to where he was searching. Then he thought about asking Woojin. He stopped, trying to discreetly get another glance at Woojin. He was still typing. He wore a dark blue oversized printed sweatshirt and he looked a bit tired. Chan decided to approach him because he was sure that Woojin might know something about his watch.

"Hi Woojin, I was wondering if you've seen a watch around here. I might have left it here yesterday because I was in a hurry. It's brown leather and-" Before Chan could finish, Woojin was already rustling through his backpack.

"Is this it?" Woojin questioned, holding out Chan's watch. 

"Yeah, it is. Where did I leave it?" 

"You left it right there on that table," Woojin stated, pointing towards a table right by the performance area. 

"Ah... ok, thank you," Chan mumbled, taking the watch from Woojin. 

Woojin spoke quickly before Chan could walk away. "Are you a college freshman?" Woojin asked. 

"Oh, yeah I am. I major in technology management and I minor in music."

"Cool. I major in architecture and I also minor in music. Do you play an instrument? Or do you sing?" 

"I sing but I mainly rap. I'm actually part of the rap trio 3RACHA. We aren't popular but we're somewhat getting somewhere, I guess." Woojin nodded, seeming interested. Chan scratched his head, a bit flustered as he slid another 3RACHA card, the same one he had given Felix, to Woojin. 

"Cool, I'll check it out sometime. Bye," Woojin smiled as Chan waved goodbye. 

Chan stepped out the door, putting on the watch. "See you around, Woojin."