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DISCLAIMER:
I do not give ANYONE permission to use any of my story in any capacity. My works are entirely of my own writing and original. Yes, the names of the characters are obviously BTS members, but anything beyond that is original. Any attempt to publish scenes/parts of my story with details changed and use it as your own will be in direct violation of my copyright and actions will be taken.
~Yoongi's POV ~
"Hyung, how is the book looking today?" Namjoon said as I walked in the door with a gruff.
"I literally haven't even been here two seconds and you are already pestering me about the schedule today? Don't you book your own damn appointments?" I asked, shuffling over to the reception desk and putting my coffee down.
"I usually book my own appointments, yes, but ever since we hired Hoseok to book appointments and work at reception, my appointments are all over the place." he sighed as I opened the appointment book.
"You have a 10, a 1:30 and a 3:30. But the 3:30 is the back piece so it will be a long one." I said as he sighed.
"Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that back piece. She is going to regret it later on, but you know, we are not responsible for regret." Namjoon shrugged as I took a sip of my coffee. I walked over to my room and flipped on the light before sitting down in my chair. I crossed my legs and began flipping through my sketch book and beginning to work on a piece that was requested by a regular client of mine. I looked up for a second and admired the walls of my room, making me smile.
Namjoon, Taehyung and I had worked pretty hard to scrape together every bit of money we could to open this shop. Cypher Ink had now been open for a year, and business stayed pretty steady. The walls of the shop were a dark blue, framed photos of our artwork adorned the walls, and we had running LED lights around the black crown molding of the entire place. Gothic type hanging lights decorated the main room and Tae, Namjoon and I each had our own room that we had individually decorated, as well as wall mounted televisions and speakers to keep clients entertained when we had a particularly long session.
"Good morning!" Hoseok cheered in his sing-songy voice as he walked in the door, making me look up. He turned on the open sign before walking around the black countertop and sitting on the barstool. He began humming as I turned back to my sketch, working on the detailing as I eased into my morning.
"Namjoon, your boyfriend is gonna be late for his first appointment!" Hoseok chided as I heard Namjoon groan.
"Taehyung said his first appointment wasn't until 11." Namjoon replied as Hoseok scoffed.
"That's what he gets for not checking the books. Fine, this person didn't request anyone in particular. Yoongi hyung, you don't have anyone on the books until your afternoon appointment. Can you squeeze in a client in thirty minutes?" Hoseok asked as I looked up at him.
"What is it for?" I asked as Hoseok looked into the book.
"Uhhh...looks like a neck piece." he said as I raised my eyebrows.
"Alright, fine. What's their name?" I asked as he looked at the paper.
"It's Jeon Jungkook." Hoseok called as I nodded. A few minutes went by as I continued to work on my sketch, the door opening with the telltale jingle of the bell, making me lift my head up.
"Baby, you forgot your lunch!" Jin said, coming over to Hoseok and handing him a bento box before kissing him on the cheek.
"Thank you Jinnie, you are a lifesaver." Hoseok smiled, putting the box behind the counter in the mini fridge.
"I have to run or I will be late for work. I love you, see you after work." Jin said, blowing Hoseok a kiss before rushing back out the door.
"You guys are the most organized chaos I have ever seen." Namjoon said, making me chuckle.
"Hey, we work in perfect tandem. You and Tae are the organized chaos." Hoseok shot back as Namjoon scoffed.
"Hardly, we are like two sides of the same coin. What about Yoongi and Jimin?" Namjoon replied as I wrinkled my forehead and rolled my chair out of my room, staring them both down.
"Don't you bring us into this. Besides, you know Jimin is the yin to my yang. We are completely balanced." I said as they both began to laugh.
"I mean, they are pretty perfect." Hoseok mumbled as I smirked and pushed back into my room. He was right, Jimin and I were about as perfect as could be. He was light, funny, silly, sweet when I was a bit more serious, dark...we balanced each other out in the best possible way. As I continued to work on my sketch as I finished my coffee, the bell rang again as the door swung open.
"Welcome to Cypher Ink, how can I help you today?" Hoseok asked in his way too perky for a Monday voice.
"Yeah, I have an appointment? Jeon Jungkook." a voice said, making me look up from my sketch.
"Alright, let me just get an ID and fill these forms out, and we will get you set up." Hoseok said as I continued on my sketch for the last few minutes I could.
"Yoongi hyung, your first appointment is here!" Hoseok called as I rolled my eyes. It seemed like no matter how many times we told him to bring the client to the room if we didn't have anyone currently in our booth, he liked to call out to us instead. I stood and walked out, my breath almost catching in my throat at the guy who stood at the counter. He had almost pitch black hair, swept back off his forehead, long with an undercut on both sides. He had several piercings on each of his ears, wearing a leather jacket, black ripped jeans and boots. He was very good looking, but I shook my head and walked out, offering my hand.
"Names Yoongi, come on and follow me into the booth." I said as I turned and walked toward my room. Jungkook followed me right inside and I motioned to the chair as I sat on my stool and spun toward him.
"So, I heard you wanted a neck piece? What did you have in mind?" I asked as he pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket pocket.
"Um, I actually drew this and wondered if you could tattoo it?" he asked, timidly handing me the folded piece of paper. I took it and unfolded it, my eyebrows raising in pleasant surprise. It was a faceless angel with a bleeding heart, and very large wings that would more than likely spread up each side of his neck and end right below his ears.
"Right below the ears, right?" I asked, motioning the tips of the wings.
"Yeah, if you think that would be okay." he said as I couldn't help but smirk.
"Yeah sure. I usually freestyle it or at least to a general outline, but I want to stick true to your work so I will apply a stencil." I replied as he smiled and took off his jacket, leaving him in a white tank top, his muscular chest and arms not hidden by much.
"Okay great." he said as he shifted on the chair.
"I am going to go get the stencil printed. Go ahead and take a smoke break, use the restroom, get a bottle of water from the fridge in the main room, whatever you want and then we will get started." I said as he nodded and stood up. He looked nervous and unless he had a tattoo hidden somewhere on his lower half, this looked like a first for him. I went over to the computer system in the spare booth room and scanned in his drawing, and processing it so I could print out the stencil. When I walked back into the room, Jungkook was standing there shifting from foot to foot, looking nervous. I set the chair up so he could sit and lean forward, resting his front on the chair, his head on the headrest as I adjusted it to his height.
"Alright, I'm going to get you prepped and then I will apply the stencil and get started." I said as he shifted slightly and let out a slow breath. I put my gloves on before swabbing his neck and applying the stencil. As I peeled the paper away, I admired his work and nodded as I and started to get all of my supplies ready.
"So just black with the shading or did you want any color?" I asked as I pulled the black ink out.
"I was thinking the heart and abstract lines coming from the heart that are supposed to be blood in a bright red, but yeah everything else black." he said as I nodded and got down the red ink as well. I prepared the gun, as I saw him shift again.
"Are you gonna be alright?" I asked as he let out a light laugh and his shoulders seemed to relax.
"Yeah, sorry. I'm just really excited. I've been wanting to do this forever and I finally am going to actually have my design on my body." he said as I chuckled.
"Is this your first tattoo?" I asked as he nodded.
"Yeah, I...I kinda made a deal with my mom. I promised her that I would not "defile" my body by putting a tattoo on me, but then she went and cheated on my dad with my English professor and I didn't find out until I caught them fucking when I came home sick in the middle of the day, so yeah....I'm doing whatever the fuck I want." he rambled, making me let out a low chuckle.
"Wow." I said as he let out light, nervous sounding laughter.
"Sorry, I tend to ramble when I'm nervous. I mean I'm not really nervous, I'm excited but a little nervous too." he said as I smiled.
"Don't worry, it's fine. Besides, I was thinking, it's your body, you should get to do whatever the hell you want to it." I said as I began to start the tattoo.
"I mean, she already hated that I even got my ears pierced this much. She would have a cow if she knew I got my nipples pierced." he said as I had to pause for a moment and get that mental image out of my head.
"I'm sure she would." I said as I continued. I didn't like even thinking of this guy in that manner, not when I had the perfect man at home.
"Yeah she would probably try to drag me to church or something. Well, maybe now she wouldn't, she would burst into flame just as much as I would." He said, making me laugh.
"Nipple piercings constitute bursting into flame?" I asked over the noise of the tattoo gun.
"Well that and I'm gay so I've got a big head start." He said as I smirked.
"Well this whole damn tattoo parlor should be a bonfire." I said as he let out a light chuckle.
"Don't tell me, your parents really religious too?" He asked as I hummed.
"Not really, just don't care for the fact I am pansexual. I had a few girlfriends growing up but in high-school I had my first boyfriend and they liked to play stupid. They pretended we weren't in a relationship and we were just good friends. It took them coming home and catching me making out with him and dry humping on the couch to realize it. To this day they are not that thrilled with it." I said, wondering why I was spilling so much to a stranger. Something about him made me let my guard down.
"Could be worse. My parents weren't actually religious until I came out and they found out I was in a relationship with our next door neighbor and had been for about two years. Their response? To move to Seoul and get very involved in the church." He said with a slight sigh.
"Oh I'm so sorry. Was this recent?" I asked.
"No, it was like 5 years ago. Was still my first boyfriend though and I loved him so it sucked." He replied as I felt bad for the kid.
"I can't imagine. I've been with my fiancé for two and a half years now and I would kill anyone who tried to force he and I apart." I said, as I shuddered to think of it. After that initial conversation, he seemed to settle in, occasionally talking about one thing or another and he seemed like a pretty cool guy.
"Alright, line work is all done, now we just have to work on the shading. You wanna stand up and stretch your back for a minute before we get started?" I asked as he leaned back and raised his arms above his head. It was then that I could actually make out the piercings through his thin tank top, as I looked away, not wanting to stare.
"You know, this hasn't hurt as much as I thought it was going to. People exaggerate." he said making me chuckle.
"Yeah well, the shading is going to be the worst part because your skin is already tender from the line work. But still, it shouldn't be bad." I said as he nodded. He settled himself back in position as I got pressed my gloved hand against his neck. I began tattooing again, him not really saying much for the shading. It didn't take too terribly long, and when I finally finished, I felt him let out a soft sigh.
"All done. You wanna take a look?" I asked as he sat up, a big smile on his face.
"Most definitely." he said as he stood up, groaning slightly as he stretched.
"Here I have a mirror on the back of the door you can turn your back to and I will give you a hand mirror to see it better." I said as I pushed the door shut. He turned to face me, his back to the door as I handed him the hand mirror. I watched his face light up, his eyes almost shine as his smile grew exponentially.
"This is....wow....this is so much better than I could ever have imagined. You are a true artist." he said as I smiled softly.
"It's your art, I just put it on you, but I'm glad that you like it." I said as he shook his head.
"Like it, I love it! Thank you so much!" he said, giving me a warm smile.
"Do you want me to take a picture with your phone before I wrap it?" I asked as he nodded and slipped his cell phone from his pocket. I made sure to angle the phone just right, framing the tattoo on his neck before taking a picture and handing it back to him.
"Thank you, it is so amazing! Is it sad that I'm already thinking about getting another one?" he asked as I laughed and had him sit so I could wrap it up.
"That's alright, they are addicting. Usually the itch takes longer than two minutes, but I'm glad you are so happy with it." I said as I began wrapping his tattoo up.
"Well, when I get my next one, I will definitely be coming back to you." he said as I smiled and stepped back.
"Good, I'll look forward to it. Alright, here is a sheet on after care, if you have any questions or issues, here is my card." I said as he gave me a beaming smile.
"Thank you so much! I will be calling to make another appointment soon." he said as I chuckled.
"Well, I will see you then." I replied as I walked him out. As I went back in I couldn't help but think of the hopeful positive change I had made in his life.
