It was a beautiful summer’s day and for the first time in nearly forever you had had a lie-in. The summer holidays had just begun and you couldn’t have been happier. Your first year of university was nothing like you had expected and the amount of work you had been set was absolutely incredible, so much so that by the end of the year you had been absolutely burnt out. The very next day after your last essay was due you had boarded your flight to Seoul, where you had been for the past two days. It had always been a dream of yours to visit South Korea and you figured you deserved a treat after the year you had had.

Up until now though you had just been lazing around in your hotel room, trying to get to grips with the jet lag but you thought it was finally time to brave the outside world. You didn’t want your holiday to be over before it had really started so you forced yourself out of bed. However you really couldn’t make the effort to get dressed properly even though you knew South Korea was a country that very much placed an importance on looks. You figured since you were a foreigner they would be staring at you regardless of what you were wearing so you threw on your favourite stonewashed skinny jeans, a simple white t-shirt and your worn out red converse. You put your hair up in a ponytail and applied minimal make-up before you packed essentials like your phone and money into a small backpack and left the hotel.

You spent the next couple of hours walking around the streets of Seoul, just taking in the sights and sounds and being a generally amazed tourist. You snapped pictures of everything you saw and even practiced your Korean on a few natives that had plugged up the courage to approach you. You went shopping in Dongdaemun and visited a cat café for a couple of slices of cake before you decided to catch the subway to Hongdae. You had always been interested in the underground hip-hop scene there and had wanted to see some performances yourself but to your surprise there were also many record shops that sold everything Western, from Elvis right down to RUN DMC.

You walked into the shop with a smile on your face and headed straight for the old school hip-hop section despite the fact that it wasn’t your preferred genre of music. At heart you were more of a rock chick but recently you had been listening to a lot of 2Pac and there was one record that you hadn’t been able to find anywhere at home. You hoped, though it was very unlikely, that you would find it here. You began browsing through the albums one by one, occasionally pausing to give a particular record a quick listen, before you had found what you were looking for – ‘Gotta Get Mine’ by MC Breed ft 2Pac. You jumped up and down excitedly before you grabbed the record and ran to the listening station again; wanting to make sure it worked perfectly fine before you bought it. You inserted the CD and plugged the headphones in. The song started playing and you couldn’t help but giggle as you danced along to the music and tried to rap in rhythm though you knew you were horrible.

What startled you, however, was the sound of a deep chuckle from a stranger next to you. A tall and handsome guy that you thought looked suspiciously like a certain rapper from your favourite idol band BTS was stood next to you. Your face quickly coloured red and you ripped the headphones out of your ears in embarrassment. The stranger smiled at you and a dimple appeared in his left cheek. You had to physically stop yourself from putting your finger in it just to see how deep it was so you began playing with the headphones in your hand, as a distraction.

“Your music taste is quite good and your rapping isn’t too bad either.” he said in fluent English. His deep voice had caught you off-guard and for a second you just stood there and admired him before his words registered in your head.

“I’m sorry. Please forget that you ever heard that.” you mumbled in mortification. You couldn’t believe that he had heard your abysmal attempts at rapping, especially considering his profession.

“I don’t think I will. That was probably the cutest rapping I’ve ever heard.” he said in a teasing voice. You could see he was actually holding back laughter which only caused you to get more self-conscious.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god….” you mumbled repeated with your face behind your hands as you were having an existential crisis.

“You’re pretty cute too.” he said with a mischievous smile on his face and you swore you could literally hear your heart beating at this point.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god….” you carried on mumbling. By this point he was openly chuckling at you. You hadn’t thought you would meet a single Idol in your entire stay but on the first you had actually left your bed you had somehow managed to run into Rap Monster and humiliate yourself in front of him. Why had God chosen to punish you like this?

“Do you mind if I listen, too? That’s one of my favourite songs.” he asked, still with a smile on your face, once you had stopped mumbling incoherently to yourself.

“Sure, of course.” you said as you tried to sober up and behave like a normal human being. You moved aside for him and pointed at the other headphone plug.

He walked over to you and plugged in the headphone but to your amusement and his chagrin somehow the broke them. And it wasn’t a small knack either. He had basically pulverised the headphones set in less than two seconds. You weren’t even sure how he had managed to destroy them so thoroughly. You couldn’t hold in your laughter as he looked on in confusion and terror and by the time his face had gradually coloured in red you were doubled over, holding your stomach. You righted yourself and wiped away the tears before you patted his back and proceeded to hand him the remnants of the headphones that were sticking out the side of the listening station. You giggled again when you saw how mangled they looked and looked at him with a grin on your face; he looked so cute and embarrassed.

“Somehow I don’t think these will be working. Maybe you should get another pair?” you told him in a teasing voice, half taking revenge for earlier and half doing it just because of the expression on his face.

“I-I think I will…” he stuttered in a small voice without looking up from the ruins that lay in his hand.

He walked to the counter with a dazed look in his face and you couldn’t help but giggle yet again. Looks like you had been right about who he was. The King of Destruction was an apt nickname for him. You turned around and continued listening to the song. By the time it was finished he was stood next to you again but this time with a smile on his face and a plastic bag in his hand.

“I know this might seem a bit crazy but I bought the record for you.” he said in a upbeat voice as he pointed at the plastic bag in his hand. You could feel what people described as butterflies in your stomach though it felt more like a Boeing 747 was flying around in there.

“Oh, thank you! You really didn’t have to though.” you told him with a broad smile on your face.

“I know, I know but I wanted to. Is there anything else you wanted to get here?” he asked you in a nervous voice, which was a total change from his cheerful mood a second ago.

“No, I don’t think so. Why?” you asked him confused.

“Well I was kind of hoping you would maybe want to come for a coffee with me?” he asked you as he scratched the back of his head and refused to make eye contact with you. Your heart really was beating double time and you were sure your cheeks were red by now but you still kind of wanted to get him back for teasing you earlier.

“As long as it isn’t a caramel macchiato.” you replied cheekily. His head snapped up almost immediately and he looked at you in a somewhat awed way.

“Oh, you know who I am?” he questioned you, as if he didn’t believe your words.

“Sure. That doesn’t change anything though, right?” you asked, suddenly worried you had blown your chance.

“No, not really. You’re cute and you kind of owe me for the record.” he admitted with a shy smile on his face.

“Well in that case let’s go so I can pay you back.” you said as you walked out the door with him.