“There you are!” You stood up and walked over to him, leading him to the table where your co-worker and friend was sitting.


“What is this?” He whispered into your ear and his eyes traveled across the room before resting on your friend in confusion.

“We’re working on the article together,” you said confidently.

“Oh,” he exclaimed and nodded understandingly, while mentally cursing at himself. He only offered to do the interview so he could spend some time with you alone and now there was a third party involved. It annoyed him a bit, but he tried to be as polite as possible and greeted your friend with a ninety degree bow.


“I’m Sunmi,” she greeted him with a handshake. 


“She’s going to do the interview with you, asking the questions and I’ll jot everything down and write the article,” you explained the procedure of the interview and sat down next to your friend. He nodded his head and took a seat across from you. Usually you would also participate in asking the questions, but this time you chose to refrain yourself from doing so, since you knew him personally. You knew too much about him- some things that were not suitable for a university magazine. As a reporter it was your job to get as much information as you could, however, you felt uncomfortable prying and revealing his private life. And as a reporter, you couldn’t give up on the interview either, so you decided to just do the work in the background.

“I think we can just skip the introduction and get to the first question. I’m curious about your recent condition. What are you doing these days?” Sunmi started the interview without further flowery phrases.


“I’ve released a single with Jazzyfact in the summer and I’m still preparing my solo album. That’s what I’m doing these days, no special activities,” he replied with a smile and you typed in his answer on your laptop.


Sunmi nodded her head and went on, “Apart from music, I’m also curious about your recent personal condition. I know that you’re studying…obviously.” She let out a laughter and he joined her.


“I’ve been going to university, but actually not that earnestly; so it isn’t going well,” he answered honestly and let out a sheepish chuckle. His honesty was one of the things you admired about him, and yet you still found it impressive that even now, during an interview, he didn’t lie to make himself look better.


“All right. The personal stories are covered in detail a bit later, so let’s talk a bit about your career first,” Sunmi wrapped up the first part of the interview and made a smooth switch to his career, “what was your attitude when you first started rap?”

He looked up to the ceiling thinking for brief moment before answering the question, “I was quite serious when I first wrote lyrics in elementary school. I liked writing about the gap between the rich and poor and I tried dealing with social issues, but it didn’t go well.”

You turned your head to him, with a surprised expression on your face and he only smiled at you. You didn’t know that about him. Suddenly you where overwhelmed by a strange feeling; you weren’t sure whether it was a positive or negative one. Of course, you couldn’t know everything about him, but you thought you knew him quite well. Yet, the things he revealed during this interview caught you by surprise. How come you never crossed those topics when talking to him? You could have never imagined that liking someone as a friend, or as a fan would make such a huge difference. His fans knew a different side of him, which was still unknown to you.

“Hmm.. so your family’s situation wasn’t that good when you were youngerl?” Sunmi dug deeper and you felt slightly uncomfortable that she was bringing him into such a situation. However, you couldn’t stop the interview either. Sungbin immediately noticed your tension and he released a smile at you, assuring you that it was ok for him.

“It wasn’t that hard but I was somehow quite angry concerning that topic when I was young. I don’t know why. Didn’t my mum give allowance? I always thought I was poor somehow and wanted to represent the poor people. That must have appeared cool to me when I was young.”


You smiled upon hearing his response, imagining in your head how a young Sungbin tried to fight for the poor. It was a cute thought.


“The first step you made towards the music scene was uploading your music on a website. I heard that’s how you got to know Simon D. Why did you upload songs at that time?
“ Sunmi asked.

"That was when I entered university. I was writing lyrics and recording all the time, it was my world… I usually don’t let anyone listen to my recordings, you know? But that day I let my ex-girlfriend listen to it and she said it’s good and that I should upload it on that site. I asked ‘Really? It’s all right? Shall I upload it?’ and that’s when Simon D hyung contacted me. I was quite happy,” he told her and you couldn’t fully pay attention after he mentioned his ex. It was still weird for you hearing him talk about his past girlfriend in such a casual manner, since you knew how much she meant to him. Not only was she his first love, but she was also the reason why he entered the music scene. You started to feel slightly intimidated by her, although you didn’t even know her personally.

“Wasn’t it frustrating to do it all alone?”

“That’s also because I’m different. I’ve been drawing since I was small. I liked expressing things a lot. For me, playing wasn’t playing with toys like for my friends but just drawing and inventing characters. I was simply living in my own world. I think it is the same with music. I’m doing it because I find it interesting myself. It’s not that I want feedback from anyone. I mean it’s good to receive a positive opinion from someone but if it’s bad I saw that as an interference. I’ve always liked doing things on my own and being content with it myself. I do feel good when someone praises me, but I don’t put a great importance on words because knowing those good words they unconsciously place a burden on me, whether I like them or not.”

At this point you stopped typing up the interview and just stared at him in amazement. You were intrigued by his replies, so much you could listen to him talk all day; seeing the passion and excitement glistening in his eyes when he talked about art and music made you feel all warm inside.

“Other than your music, you are receiving a lot of attention for your school career and your looks. You have many fans. Do you think your hip hop activities profit from those points? Or do you see them as burdensome and do they bother you?”

"Honestly, in our country’s society… it’s actually nothing great. I think it’s true that the university you attend affects your musical activities because people have a good impression of you and no matter what I say, people listen closely. But I don’t want to use those things. It’s not that I’m doing my utter best at university but if people like me because of that I don’t intend to stop them. Anyway, I’ve done more and I’ve undergone more hardships than others have to enter that school. I’m not ashamed of that but I think that can’t become the main part of my music. Moreover, I never thought that I was good-looking or anything-”

“Bull,” you blurted out interrupting him in the middle of the interview. You gained a glare from Sunmi whereas Sungbin laughed at your little comment.

“Sorry,” you mumbled under your breath and motioned him to go on, biting your lips in embarrassment.

Sunmi rolled her eyes at you, trying to hide a smile, since she didn’t want to appear unprofessional. She smoothly resumed the interview, now shifting the direction of the interviews towards his art studies.

“You’re currently studying sculpture at Seoul University. Do you want to work in that area later on? And why did you begin making art?”

“The fine arts are something I have to get away from but I can’t. Even before I started music, I had nothing but art. If I had stopped doing art, there would have been nothing left for me. That’s what art was to me but since I recently began concentrating more on music, I’ve drifted a bit away from it. Because I’ve taken absence from university to do music, it’s true that I’m behind with my studies, but I’ll catch up later.”

“I see. It doesn’t seem to be easy to balance studying and making music...”

“Honestly, I don’t think it’s a balance right now. I either screw up one or both at once. It’s quite difficult. I can’t call it balance because both at the same time doesn’t work well. But, I’ll get used to this situation and it’ll all work out well later on.”

~*~

Sunmi wrapped up the interview by asking him to send his greetings and to say some last words to the readers. After that was finished, she packed her stuff. “I’ll leave the editing to you,” she smiled at you and gave you a goodbye hug. Then she turned to Beenzino, bowing and thanking him for the interview again.

“It was my pleasure,” he also bowed and with that your friend left the room. As she left, you walked over to your bag pulling out a square box and proudly holding it up from him to see.

He was about to say something as he parted his lips, but before you realized that he wanted to speak, you already chipped in happily, “look! I bought your album! Can I have your autograph oppaaa~”


Sungbin rolled his eyes and chuckled at your exaggerated voice and act. He took the album out of your hands and inspected it, raising one of his brows at you. “I thought this is not for sale anymore…it was a mixtape. Only a limited amount of copies were sold.”

“You’re underestimating me, baby,” you laughed and wriggled your eyebrows at him.

“Seriously? How did you get it?”

“I asked Dok2,” you admitted.

“Oh I didn’t know you are so tight with my boss now,” he told you playfully.

“Well, I had to make new friends, since you weren’t willing to give me one.”

“Oh I didn’t know you were a gold digger?”

You rolled your eyes at him while a smile appeared on your lips. “I’ve always been a gold digger,” you gave him a playful wink. “Just kidding, I told him that I need it for the interview.”

“Oh, also a liar at that?” He continued teasing you and you only laughed in response.

“Are you going to sign or not?”

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