For someone who’s worked at a lot of tattoo parlors, Joshua actually hadn’t seen that many drunk off their people barging into the place, declaring in a slurring voice that they want a tattoo. And Joshua had been in the business for six years already.

He had, to his mom’s worry gone to do some artsy degree, it was just a graphic design degree with a minor in traditional art. And then instead of doing ad campaigns for a living, he fell into the world of tattoos. Now he worked as a tattoo artist. Who hadn’t seen many drunk customers. Until now.

Joshua smiled faintly, in that unassuming way that his employees and his co-owner said was practically angelic. For a dude who hid a lot of secrets underneath his clothes anyway. Joshua looked the most normal out of all of them anyhow, in his button up shirts and his piercings in various places on his ears. All of his secrets were hidden, of sorts.

“Hi, how can I help you three?” He smiled extra hard as the clearly only sober one was trying to keep the other two drunkards from falling face forward onto the floors of Joshua’s shop.

“This guy here,” a man with long lashes and eyes that drooped, slurred, “is here for a tattoo.” He swayed, making the poor sober guy catch him with a large oomph. “He lost a bet and he needs to pay up and do it.” He laughed, making the other drunkard smack him.

“Shut up, Seungcheol,” he snapped back. This man had hair a smidge longer in the front, his bangs hitting the tops of his cheekbones. It did wonders to frame the sharpness of them.

“Oh god,” the sober guy whined. “Control yourselves,” he cried out as they started to smack at each other. “Where is Seungkwan?”

At that another body came into Joshua’s shop, the bell tinkling at the new presence. “There you three are.” With his round, cute face, he violently smacked the sober guy.

He cried out in pain. Despite the height, he had on the other man, the tall guy cowered almost. “You can’t hit me. I’m your hyung.”

“Yea. Well you aren’t doing a good job in dealing with our hyungs.” He waved his hand around. “Look at the two of them.”

Joshua chuckled. The two drunkards were smacking each other as hard as they could, yet in their drunk state they kept missing. “How about I call you all a taxi? So then you can get them home and then you two can home and forget this ever happened.”

The round faced man turned to him in shock, as if in his haste, he didn’t realize that this store was open and someone was here. “Oh. I’m so sorry. We can leave and—“

Joshua waved him off. “It’s fine. I was going to close up anyhow. Let’s call that cab.” Grabbing the phone on the wall, he said as he dialed, “You can seat your two drunk friends over there.” Joshua just hoped his nice leather couches that he procured for the seating area would be all right and vomit free once they left.

He gave them all a side glance as the two sober ones whisper fought with each other and the two drunkards were trying to stay awake. This is why he never drank. Well. That wasn’t quite right. He drank. Rarely. And never to the point of getting drunk.

But his attention was stolen as the call connected. “Yes. Right next door to The Flowery Way. The name? Tilt the World. Thank you.” Joshua turned to the four of them. “The taxi will be here in ten minutes.” He held back a grimace as he saw the drunkards look worse for wear. “Do your two friends need water?”

The round faced man turned a desperate face towards him. “Please.”

Joshua nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

“Here,” he said gently, handing all of them bottles of water. “You two look like you need it as well.”

“Thank you,” the round faced man paused, “I realize we never asked you your name and we just barged into your store. I’m so sorry. I’m Boo Seungkwan.”

“Kim Mingyu,” the tall guy piped up after he drank half of his bottle in a flash.

“Hong Joshua.” He bent down and handed the sharp cheekbones guy an open bottle. “Take a sip, umm.”

“That’s Yoon Jeonghan,” Seungkwan said.

“Jeonghan-ssi,” Joshua said. He smiled down at the man.

He took the bottle from Joshua; he drank. Blinking he said, “You have piercings.”

Joshua pulled up. He forgot as he was cleaning the store he took off his outer shirt and was only wearing his loose tank top. The other man must’ve seen his s when he had bent down. “I do.” He felt a light blush make its way to his cheeks. Goodness. Drunk people had no filter.

“They’re pretty,” Jeonghan said, staring at Joshua, eyes not blinking, like he was mesmerized.

The droopy eyed man laughed, while Seungkwan squawked, “Hyung!”

Mingyu turned to Joshua as Seungkwan tried shushing the both of them. “We’re so sorry. They’re normally not like this at all. They just got extra drunk today and we,” he sighed.

“It’s weird but I’ll deal,” Joshua said. “I think the taxi is here. Maybe a good night’s rest will help your friends,” he said with a laugh.

“God,” Mingyu sighed. “I need some too.” He bowed to Joshua before hauling up the droopy eyed man. “Thank you for the help and the water. And sorry for crashing into your store.”

“It’s not like they would ever get a tattoo,” Seungkwan said, with more than a little bit of sass. “Their drunk asses are going to get it tomorrow at lunch.”

“Ah,” Mingyu said, turning his head, “Jeonghan owns the café down the street, Heaven on a Plate. Come by tomorrow and I’ll give you a free meal for all the trouble.” He grinned at Joshua, flashing a bit of teeth, “I’m the head chef.”

“Bye, Joshua-ssi. Thank you for the help,” Seungkwan said, bowing his head as well, gripping Jeonghan.

Closing the door after them, he locked it and brought down the iron gate. Goodness. What a night. He had some more cleaning to do before he went home. Maybe he would drop by for lunch tomorrow at that café. Just to see how Jeonghan would react to him sober.

Jeonghan groaned into his very clean counter. “Why did you let me drink so much last night?”

Chan snickered. “I didn’t do anything hyung. I went home and did my homework like a good college student.”

“It was your own fault,” Seungkwan said firmly, stabbing some lettuce onto his fork.

“You should’ve stopped me,” he moaned. “And shut me up too when we were in that tattoo parlor.”

Snorting, Seungkwan said, “You just blurted it out while we were trying to catch our breath. You’re lucky the owner didn’t hit you for ual harassment.”

“What did he say?” Chan asked, he looked over to them curiously, mopping around Jeonghan’s zombie like body.

“He told the owner that his ni—“

Jeonghan moved swiftly, slapping a hand onto Seungkwan’s mouth. “Keep that mouth of yours shut Seungkwanie,” he hissed.

Muffled words came out. Going by the way Seungkwan’s brows knitted together, he was angry at being shut up.

Feeling a wet nasty thing swipe across his palm, Jeonghan moved his hand away. “If you don’t,” Jeonghan warned, fighting down the urge to wipe his hand on Seungkwan’s blazer.

Seungkwan looked ready to fight back but the ringing of the bell above the door made them all turn towards it.

Oh god. Jeonghan wanted to die in a pit of shame. The person who he told had pretty s walked into his restaurant, a friend in tow. A tattooed friend in tow.

Joshua smiled at them. His friend laughed lightly into his hand.

Chan bounded up to them. “Table for two?”

“Yes,” he said, just as softly as Jeonghan remembered from last night. “Can you tell Mingyu I said hi too?” He sent a smile to Jeonghan and Seungkwan at the bar, tilting his head in a small hello.

“You’re friends with hyung?” Chan smiled back. “He’ll want to say hello. Here let me—“

“Let me seat them,” Jeonghan said, cutting in, making sure to keep his face straight. “You can tell Mingyu that Joshua-ssi is here.” He stared at Joshua, taking the menus from Chan’s arms. The man’s smile seemed to be even brighter as he saw Jeonghan. But that was probably all in Jeonghan’s brain. “This way,” he said, walking between the tables.

“Joshua-ssi? After last night, I think we’re close enough to call each other names without honorifics,” he said, as the two of them sat down. “I’m not big on formalities.”

The smile he gave Jeonghan had him blushing. It was so ing sweet. How could someone smile like that? Keeping his blush under control, Jeonghan said, “I’d like to apologize for last night. I wasn’t in my right mind and—“

“Oh. You’re here!” Mingyu came out of the kitchen, all smiles, interrupting Jeonghan. “You brought a friend too.” He held out a hand for Joshua’s rather American looking friend. “Kim Mingyu.”

“Chwe Hansol.”

“Wicked tattoo,” Mingyu said, pointing to the artistic looking piece on Vernon’s collar bones.

He grinned at Minyu. “Josh did it. My first tattoo.”

Jeonghan blinked and looked down at Joshua. All he could see was a few ear piercings. A tattoo artist who didn’t have tattoos? Weird. His mind flashed him an image of Joshua’s s. He felt a flush and the rise of blood to his head. He didn’t need to remember how pink they looked nor how the bars in Joshua’s s looked good enough to bite.

“Hmm,” Mingyu said, taking a closer look at it, “maybe I should get a tattoo. It looks cool.”

It did, Jeonghan thought. Tattoos would especially look tasty on Joshua’s long neck and his shoulder line. Jeonghan couldn’t help but notice his swanlike neck and the way Joshua’s button up hugged his slim frame.

Hansol nodded. “They are but you need to make sure you want to keep it for life and if you can deal with the stigma of having one and then a design that you won’t hate. Because it won’t be going anywhere unless you do some fancy laser treatments to laser it off.”

Mingyu grimaced at the idea of having lasers on his skin. “True.”

Joshua grinned at Hansol. “Look at you. Finally taking my lessons to heart.”

“Got to know my stuff if I want to become a tattoo artist like you.”

Leaning over, Joshua ruffled Vernon’s head of wavy hair. “Good. That’s the right attitude to take. Soon we’ll have you doing more than cleaning and working on stencils.”

Jeonghan couldn’t keep it in any longer. “You’re a tattoo artist but you don’t have any?”

Joshua laughed, taken aback by Jeonghan’s question.

God. Even his laugh was like tinkling bells. How could someone even? Jeonghan felt like braining his head against the wall for latching onto Joshua and what was looking to be his every movement and being.

He gave Jeonghan a tiny smirk. “I do. They’re just not visible to the eye. There in very strategic places.”

As Jeonghan screwed up the courage to ask where a loud noise echoed.

Hansol laughed sheepishly. “Whoops. Guess I’m hungrier than I thought.”

“Right, food,” Mingyu said grinning. “Lunch’s on me for last night. Now what would you like?” He butted Jeonghan out of the way.

Frowning Jeonghan started to walk away from another potentially embarrassing moment, but he stopped as he saw Joshua flash him a smile so wide that his eyes disappeared and the corner of his lips curve oh so prettily.

Distracted by the smile, he accidentally crashed into Chan. Luckily, he caught himself in time and didn’t stumble to his but he heard that distinct laugh that sounded like bells. But he didn’t have enough courage to turn around and see if Joshua was laughing at him or something else. He hightailed it out of the section.

“Is that the guy?” Hansol or Vernon as he said it was going to be his tattoo artist persona, asked.

“Yeah,” Joshua said with a light laugh as he remembered Jeonghan stumbling away. Swirling his lemonade around with the straw he said, “It’s funny. He was so serious last night when he said my s were nice but now look at him.”

Vernon pulled a face and gagged. “Didn’t need to know that still, you know. But anyhow you’re lucky we’re not talking in Korean.”

“Obviously,” Joshua shot back. “I wonder if he’s into me.” He tilted his head and tried to see if Jeonghan was around the counter but he wasn’t.

Snorting Vernon took a sip of his juice before saying, “It’s not hard to tell. He’s interested. Curious at the very least.”

“Hmm,” Joshua started to say, putting his chin into his open palm, his elbow on the table, “if he wanted that tattoo still.”

“Maybe he does. You should ask when we leave.”

Joshua grinned. “I should.”

Jeonghan had hoped that by holing up into his office for a good hour or so that Joshua and his friend would be gone but when he came out again, he saw Joshua leaning onto the counter talking to Chan as he made what looked to be an Americano.

Joshua turned to see him and waved lightly. “Just the person I want to see.”

Pointing to himself, Jeonghan asked, “Me?”

“Yea,” Joshua said. He waited until Jeonghan came close, leaning against the counter some more and into Jeonghan’s space.

It gave Jeonghan a nice view of Joshua’s button up stretching across his chest, almost letting Jeonghan catch a glimpse of metal and .

“If you still want that tattoo that you made a bet on,” Joshua said, catching Jeonghan’s attention thoroughly away from his chest, “I do have some free time to pencil you in my books.”

Sputtering, Jeonghan answered, “I wouldn’t know what sort of thing to get tattooed. Or where.”

“I can help with that,” he said. “That’s what a consultation is for. I help your vision come to life.”

“Your iced Americano,” Chan said, sliding it Joshua.

Joshua nodded. “Thanks.” He turned to Jeonghan, giving him a sort of seductive grin that made Jeonghan feel funny things. “I’m down the street if you’re interested. Tilt the World.” Waving his fingers in parting, “Bye.”

 He turned and left. Jeonghan swore that Joshua’s tiny hips were sashaying. But it was probably just his hindbrain thinking dirty thoughts.

“So. Going to get that tattoo,” Chan asked.

Jeonghan groaned out loud once again.