It started out from a simple prank. It’s nothing serious, supposedly – or that’s what Mark is thinking when Youngjae lost on their latest bet (that’s similarly lame as this consequence) and he asked the younger to tattoo his name on his wrist. It’s supposed to be a joke, he swears.

“Hey, I’m only kidding, you know,” Mark tries saying, still confused what they are doing inside a tattoo parlor with a scary-looking tattoo artist who looks like she’s going to kill anybody who messes her way. She looks like a character from the last horror movie he watched and that’s not nice.

“It’s okay, hyung,” Youngjae answers, looking at the older as if to assure him that it’s really okay. “A deal’s a deal.”

Mark stares at him seriously for a long time before he stands up, grabs Youngjae’s hand and pulls both of them out of the scary-looking tattoo parlor that matches the aura of the scary-looking tattoo artist. He doesn’t even know why he held his breath but upon seeing the night sky and the full moon above outside the tattoo parlor, he lets out the breath he’s been holding and lets go of Youngjae’s hand.

“Hyung?” Youngjae is understandably mildly confused. He begins again, “It’s really okay…”

“It was a joke, Youngjae,” Mark tells him. “You shouldn’t,” he sighs, looking on the ground. “You shouldn’t tattoo a random person’s name on your wrist for a stupid bet.”

He blinks his eyes on the older. “You’re not a random person…”

“Yes, but,” Mark pauses. He doesn’t really know how to put it. “Tattoing someone’s name on your body is something symbolical, you know. It’s not something you do because of a bet.”

“Symbolical? Like when you like someone?”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

“Like when you want someone to be with you all the time?”

“…Yeah.”

“Like when you want someone to stay with you forever?”

“…Yeah.”

Youngjae gently smiles at him and without another word, he enters the tattoo parlor by himself, leaving the older more confused than ever, dumbfounded and at the same time, happy (?), looking after his shadow. He doesn’t really know if that’s confession enough but he doesn’t know how else to put it. He knows he can’t say it directly (he’ll probably faint before he can say the words out of his mouth) and it might ruin their friendship, he knows, but he just wants to take the weight off his chest.

If their friendship is strong enough, he knows it will survive this.

Youngjae patiently waits for his turn even though the scary-looking tattoo artist glares at him when he entered the parlor again. After about a couple of minutes, he’s finally up and bravely, he sits on the chair where clients are supposed to sit, like an old barber’s chair, and tells the tattoo artist what he wants.

“Mark.”

The tattoo artist is cleaning on her materials and without looking at him, she asks, “A name?” Youngjae hasn’t answered yet when she continues, “Is that the name of the guy you were with earlier?”

“Yes,” he replies slowly. “How did you know?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugs, finally looking at him with a scary-looking, gun-like tool on her hand. “I thought you guys are getting a couple tattoo or something because you look like that. Did you have a lovers’ quarrel?” She snickers to herself, turning around again to do something with the design and without even waiting for Youngjae’s answer again, she asks with her face still on the computer, “What font do you prefer? Something like graffiti or more formal?”

Youngjae doesn’t really understand anything. He’s not exactly an artsy person.

“What?” the scary-looking tattoo artist impatiently turns to him again even though it’s only Youngjae on the parlor now. She doesn’t look like a patient person that’ll make the tattoo parlor popular among the university students that are studying in the universities near it but surprisingly, the tattoo shop is popular with students.

“Um,” he stammers, moving a little closer to the monitor where different kinds Mark are shown.

“How about this one?” Mark suddenly appears beside Youngjae and the younger almost jumps out of his skin. The older heartily laughs at his reaction but focuses on the monitor again where his name is written in probably a hundred different ways. “I like this one… But I like this one, too! This one’s cute, too, and this one… I don’t know what to choose. What should we do?”

The scary-looking tattoo artist doesn’t look as scary anymore as she and Youngjae exchange puzzled and bewildered glances because of Mark’s sudden appearance.

“Why don’t you guys choose first?” she finally says, motioning for the waiting chairs by the door.

Youngjae slowly nods, not knowing what else to do anyway, and stands up from the barber-turned-tattoo chair as he follows Mark with the copy of designs the tattoo artist printed for them. There are many beautiful designs and if someone is crazy enough, they’d probably write the name of the person they love in every beautiful design. But he knows his parents will kill him and as much as he loves Mark, he thinks one is enough.

Besides, he’ll only ever write Mark’s name in his skin. That’s special.

He is quiet as Mark runs his fingers through the printed material of all his names and he can’t help wonder where they are now. Friends? Best friends? More than friends?

He wishes Mark would talk to him first.

“Hyung, what about this one?” Youngjae suddenly points to one font where the name is written inside an infinity design. It’s both simple and delicate; it catches his eyes immediately when he sees it.

Mark is silent for a moment.

“Hyung?”

Then, making Youngjae almost jump out of his skin again, Mark suddenly turns his face to Youngjae. So suddenly he doesn’t estimate correctly how near the younger’s face is to his. It surprises him as well that Youngjae’s eyes suddenly seem bigger, but still a little squinted in a cute way only the younger manages to do, Youngjae’s skin looks perfect under the dim light of the tattoo parlor, and Youngjae’s lips are inviting, so inviting.

The younger is the one who moves far first, the far that’s just comfortable for him, but Mark catches his hand and holds him in place, right where he wants him to stay.

“Should I get a tattoo, too?” he quietly, asks. His eyes are not leaving Youngjae’s and his breath is ghostly in the younger’s face.

“What, hyung?” Youngjae is not just distracted with the question but how near Mark’s face is to him right now.

“Because the thing is,” Mark tells him, smiling, “I like you, too.” He says that like he’s saying sleep and food is important to a human which he thinks doesn’t really differ much because Youngjae is important to him, too.

Youngjae’s eyes widen – if that’s possible. But it widens and he’s understandably astonished as he both wants to pull away to have a clearer look on Mark’s face, to see if this is another one of his not-so-funny jokes, and to lean in, because he wants this so much. He does neither and stays in place as Mark does both. He pulls away a little for a second but keeps holding Youngjae’s hand. He smiles before he leans in again and gives the younger a quick peck.

“I like you, too, Youngjae,” Mark tells him again after he pulls away from a possibly frozen as a stone Youngjae.

Youngjae’s not entirely sure if he’s going to survive this because apparently, Mark just kissed him.

“And I want to be with you always,” the older continues, smiling both sheepishly and genuinely, “and if possible, to stay with you forever.”

Youngjae’s head is still not functioning and he can’t be blamed.

“So, what do you say?” Mark asks, pulling away now to look at the printed designs again but keeping Youngjae’s hand on his. “Should I get a tattoo, too? I like the design you picked. Should we both get this one? I think we should both get this one.”

He turns to look at Youngjae again, smiling. “Youngjae? Are you listening to what I’m saying?”

Youngjae blinks, returning back to reality as if some divine power pulled him out before, like Mark has the power to stop his world but at the same time, Mark is also the one who has the power to revolve it. “I’m listening, hyung,” he quickly says. “I’m listening.”

Mark smiles at him again. “So, should we get this one?” He is pointing at the infinity design with his name in the middle, the one Youngjae pointed at earlier.

Youngjae smiles back at him and nods, slightly squeezing Mark’s hand.

Later, after Youngjae got his tattoo from the scary-looking-turned-out-to-be-really-nice tattoo artist, Bin, of Mark’s name with the infinity design on his wrist, Mark is sweating on the tattoo chair while Bin prepares the design layout on Youngjae’s name with the infinity design for him. He doesn’t understand why he’s more nervous with the tattoo than when he confessed to his best friend that he likes him ten minutes ago. And he’s also pretty sure that he’s three years older than Youngjae and is even the one who first thought of tattoo.

“Hyung, are you alright?” the younger worriedly asks, moving closer.

Mark doesn’t speak anymore as he grabs Youngjae’s hand and closes his eyes. The heaven forsaken thing Bin will use to draw on his skin begins making sounds like that from a horror movie and it moves uncomfortably closer to his skin and the only thing he can really do is grab Youngjae’s hand and close his eyes because damn, it hurts.

He doesn’t know why he has to think of tattoo, of all things, just to see how much Youngjae likes him.

Youngjae tightly holds his hand and it slightly takes off some of the pain. He shouldn’t really look at the drilling object engraving the design they chose with Youngjae’s name but he is also curious how it’s done or how much blood he lost already or if he needs to rush to the hospital after this.

And he shouldn’t, really.

Mark winces because the more he looks at the blood forming on his wrist, dripping down to his hand, the more the drilling object seems like the object the devil sends to take souls to hell. He closes his eyes again and almost lets go of Youngjae’s hand but Youngjae keeps his hand on him.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Youngjae hushes the quiet cries of the older. He gently kisses the hand he’s holding and repeats It’s okay that in some point, when the older looks at him for a moment and the younger looks beautiful and perfect beside him, despite the drilling object drawing Youngjae’s name on his wrist hurting like hell, he believes that it’s really just okay.

“Keep doing that,” Mark manages to shamelessly mutter, despite the prickling pain. He manages to smile weakly.

Youngjae smiles back but does exactly that.

“He’s taking advantage of the situation,” Bin comments lazily, slightly pulling the drilling object off Mark’s skin but quickly going at it again.

“Can you just get over it?!” Mark complains, looking painfully at the tattoo artist who can’t help but laugh at him.

“Seriously,” she says, chuckling, “you’re like the biggest guy who came here for a tattoo who’s more sissy than an eight year-old emo who made me drew falcons and hawks all over his back.” Then, without any more word or response from Mark, she completely pulls the ugly drilling object and announces, “There. Done.”

Mark raises his arm to stare at his wrist and even though the skin around the tattoo is still yelling red from the abuse it just got, it’s still perfect. The infinity sign with Youngjae’s name is perfect on his skin. And he says exactly that as he turns to look at the younger and whispers, “It’s perfect.”

Youngjae’s grin is probably bigger than when he was eight and he received his first train set for Christmas.

They thank Bin. Despite the scary aura she emits on first meeting, she is actually nice and she manages to warn Mark not to hurt Youngjae because she’ll run after him with the drilling object Mark lists now on his top ten things that might give him a nightmare. She also gives them a discount because it’s their first time.

As they walk home, Mark reaches his right hand to hold Youngjae’s left and their wrists are facing the one with the other’s name. The night is freezing; it’s probably one of the coldest nights of the year but with each other’s warmth, in that space they are walking, with their crimson reddish skin and the infinite sign that is only the beginning in their wrists, yes, everything is perfect.

End

A/N: This started out as a can-I-write-this-story-for-the-sake-of-MarkJae story and as it turned out, I wrote over 2k words ;-; I didn't even think I'll be able to write 500 words. Oh well. For the love of MarkJae ;-; Tell me what you think of it ^^ - Elle