Wendy practically stumbled into work. She was 45 minutes late, carrying 4 coffees in hand, and sprinted into the shop to find that everyone was working on clients already. They opened at 10 a.m., so Wendy was quite shocked to find that they were so busy despite it being a Monday morning. Maybe one bad review wasn’t such a big deal after all...

“Sorry I’m late! I got your coffee here though, if you want it.” Wendy panted out.

Her workers all looked up and nodded at her in acknowledgement, but they all were too busy to say anything else.

Wendy was already spent. She had rushed around all morning only to get coffee for her friends who couldn’t enjoy it, and after overthinking one bad review. She sat at her chair behind the front desk, her feet on the counter, sipping her coffee without a worry in the world. Frankly, for all she cared, Irene could show up right now and she wouldn’t bat an eye.

She was wrong.

The bell on the door tinkled lightly and a rather shapeless figure walked in. Whoever it was was wearing a gray sweatshirt over their head, with the strings tied. They had large round sunglasses on, covering most of their face, and sweats that matched the hoodie. Wendy was used to clients walking in that looked rather comfortable (it was a tattoo parlor, after all), but this was a new level of homely that Wendy found rather endearing.

“Good morning! How can I help you?” Wendy inquired.

The figure pulled off their sunglasses and lowered the hood tentatively, and Wendy could recognize those sparkling eyes anywhere. Irene.

Wendy, suddenly on full alert, dropped her coffee and slipped out of her chair because of the urgency and awkwardness of her knee-jerk reaction.

“.” Wendy yelled, rubbing the back of her head from where she had hit it on the chair. She felt the iced coffee seeping through her shirt and Wendy felt like she could die, right there and then.

Seulgi, Joy, and Yeri immediately stopped what they were doing and ran over to her. It was obvious, however, that they were all stifling laughter.

“Seungwannieeee wake up! Your girlfriend is here!” Joy cooed.

Wendy shot her the most brutal look she could muster as all three women helped her up. Irene was leaning over the counter to see what had happened, a look of genuine worry on her face. It seems she didn’t hear Joy’s comment, to Wendy’s relief.

“Are you okay, Wendy? I’m so sorry to have startled you.” Irene spoke, in a soft tone that was a rather drastic change from the night before.

“Oh uh.. Yeah! I just didn’t expect to see you is all. Did you get home okay?”

“Yes, thank you.” Irene said in a rather short manner. From what Wendy could tell, she sounded more embarrassed than angry.

It was at this point that Wendy decided that she should introduce her employees, so she turned to her friends and introduced them to Irene, one by one.

“..and that’s Yeri.” she finished.

Irene only nodded and gave them all a soft smile.

“Can I speak to you in private? And maybe help you clean up all of.. that.” Irene said, gesturing vaguely to the coffee staining Wendy’s clothes.

Wendy felt the heat rise to her cheeks. “Oh, yeah of course, let me just-” she paused. “Oh okay u-uh just follow me back here.” she continued.

Wendy wished she didn’t sound like such a bumbling fool, but her sense of cool evaporated the second Irene walked in. Wendy navigated past the chairs full of customers, the light buzzing of tattoo machines in the background soothing her nerves somewhat as she lead Irene to her office in the back of the shop.

Wendy’s office looked like that of a middle school guidance counselor. There were picture frames everywhere of her friends, and weirdly unfitting inspirational posters littering the walls. There were also rainbow flags of all size plastered wherever there was space, and Wendy spotted Irene intently examining the odd menagerie that made up her office.

“Ah yeah it’s a little… unorganized in here but-” she started, only to be interrupted.

“It’s cute.” Irene said, smiling widely at her.

In that moment, Wendy felt her brain short circuit and she could only manage a loud laugh in response.

“You can take a seat there if you’d like..” Wendy said, pointing to the rather luxurious chair in front of her desk.

Wendy went behind her desk and attempted to dry off the coffee with some paper towels she kept there, but she stopped when she saw Irene’s hand reach into her view.

“I said I’d help you, remember?” she replied.

Wendy turned to face her, smiling, and began dabbing some of the excess coffee on her shirt. Irene mimicked her, and suddenly Wendy regretted tying her shirt. Every once in a while, she’d feel Irene’s soft hands touch her stomach, and Wendy’s face was bright red after most of the coffee was cleaned. They both sat down after they had finished.

“There you go. Looks like it’s gonna stain though, sorry about that.” Irene said.

Wendy cleared “Aaah yes, -hgnh- yeah it’ll have to do.” she paused awkwardly. “SO uh, what did you want to talk about then?”

“Ah.” Irene nodded. “I just wanted to thoroughly apologize for last night. I’ve removed the review, and I wanted to pay you back for the cab fare.”

“Oh there’s no need! You can just consider it a deposit on a tattoo if you’re interested?” Wendy proposed.

“Thank you. I made such a fool of myself last night and-”

“And I made a fool of myself about 10 minutes ago so it looks like we’re even then, huh.” Wendy retorted, an apologetic smile on her face.
 

Irene’s face visibly relaxed, and she lightly giggled at Wendy’s bluntness.

“So about that tattoo..” Wendy continued, “Were you still thinking of getting one?”

Irene’s hand went to the back of her neck, and she started rubbing it lightly. She looked torn.

“Ah.. Well the thing is I was so smashed last night I don’t remember exactly what I wanted.. or why..” Irene trailed off. Some color rose to her cheeks, and it was clear she was still embarrassed.

“Excuse me for being forward but, do you remember anything about last night?” Wendy asked, her tone light and forgiving.

“Not at all..”

“Well personally, my favorite part is when you accused me of not letting you get tattooed because I didn’t serve ‘people like you.’” Wendy said, a -eating grin plastering her face.

Irene blanched. “And uh, what did I mean by that?”

“Well If I remember correctly, you were offended because I ‘didn’t like gay people.’” Wendy replied, the smirk on her face getting somehow bigger. Wendy broke eye contact and darted her eyes around the room to look at the rainbow flags, a silent way to tease Irene even further. When Wendy looked back at Irene, she looked mortified.

“Oh my god.. I didn’t actually say that did I?” Irene’s voice wavered, and she averted eye contact from Wendy. She buried her head in her hands and Wendy heard a muffled “Well me then.”

Wendy burst into laughter. “It’s okay, it’s pretty funny in hindsight. And it works in my favor that you didn’t see how flustered I got after that.”

Irene lifted her head out of her hands and without missing a beat, said “So I guess that’s just how you react around me then?” a lopsided and sly smile making its way onto her face.

Wendy laughed again, “I suppose so, but in all honesty it’s not very often we get supermodels walking in here.”

Irene blushed and rolled her eyes. “Says you.. And by the way, you can call me Joohyun, assuming I can call you Seungwan.. that’s what your friend said, yes?”

So she HAD heard Joy’s asinine comment. Wendy would worry about that later, but it looked like Joy was gonna get her beat.

“Yes! Typically my clients call me Wendy, but I make exceptions for cute girls.” Wendy smiles, hoping to catch Irene off guard, but she isn’t successful.

Irene smiles and continues nonchalantly. “So, what would you recommend I get for my tattoo?”

“Well maybe something important to you, or in all honesty, most clients just get tattoos of things they think are pretty!” Wendy chirps happily. “I really love doing both.”

“Ah well could you do a self portrait then? Because I think you’re very pretty.” Irene quips.

Wendy smiles and tries to hide the blush that’s rapidly masking her face, but fails. “I mean in theory I could, but in all seriousness, what have you been considering?”

Irene smirks upon seeing the blush on Wendy’s face, but continues the conversation without saying anything of it. “Ah, well there was a shoot I did recently-” Irene starts.

“Wait so you ARE a model?” Wendy says, shocked.

Irene laughs, “Yeah, but I’m only doing it to support me through grad school. I want to be a teacher eventually.”

Wendy was pleasantly shocked by the woman in front of her. Beautiful, witty, and obviously very caring and considerate.

“Well considering you’re a model, whatever tattoo you get would have to be easily covered, yeah?”

The other woman nodded. “Mhm, and what I was saying, was that I wore a beautiful scarlet crown in that shoot and I felt very empowered by it, so I figured maybe I’d get that? I just felt so strong and beautiful in it, and I want to remember that feeling. And not in a purely visual way, I just felt like I was at the top of the world, youthful and finally in charge of my future, if that makes sense.”

“Of course, I understand completely, princess .” Wendy said, rather pleased with her own clever wordplay.

Irene had blushed at the term of endearment, and Wendy felt a surge of pride that matched her hammering heart, which hadn’t stopped beating so quickly since Irene had walked in.

“So uh, how would I go about setting up an appointment then? And where would you recommend I get it?” Irene said meekly, clearly still flustered bt the nickname.

“Just walk in whenever you want, you have priority. And I would say maybe on your thigh? It’s relatively painless for people new to tattoos and you’d be able to cover it rather easily.” Wendy replied.

Irene stood from her chair and extended her hand. “Okay I’ll be in tomorrow morning then, right when you open. Thanks so much Seungwan.”

Irene beamed at her, and Wendy accepted her handshake. She was astounded by how soft Joohyun’s hand was, and she probably held the handshake for a little longer than she should have.

Irene walked out of the office first, and Wendy followed. They walked together to the entrance of the shop, and Wendy could feel 3 pairs of eyes burning holes in her back. She opened the door for Irene, and ushered her out first.

“After you, princess.” Wendy drawled.

Irene rolled her eyes but smiled widely at the new nickname.

“I’ll be seeing you then.” Irene said, “Make sure you’re ready for me tomorrow morning, sweetheart.” Irene waved goodbye to Wendy and walked out of the shop, the bell tinkling again.

Wendy closed the door and turned around to see all of her friends staring daggers at her. Even Seulgi seemed to be glancing over, which was telling in its own way because she was certainly less meddlesome than Joy and Yeri.

Thankfully, they maintained some level of professionalism, and just glared at Wendy and then returned to their work, all except for Joy that is. Wendy didn’t like the look on her face. Joy walked up to the stage and obnoxiously tapped the mic a few times to make sure everyone could hear her, and shot a malicious smile at Wendy.

“Heeeeyyyy everyone! YES everyone, that means you too,” she said, pointing at Seulgi’s client, who was faced the opposite direction on the table, getting his calf tattooed, “yes TURN AROUND this is important.” she screeched.

As much as Wendy loved Sooyoung, she was already treading on thin ice, so Wendy sat rigidly in her chair behind the front counter and clenched her teeth.

“Yes everyone, hello ladies and gays! Or both! They aren’t mutually exclusive and we love and accept everyone here at Perfect Ten! Anyway. More importantly, I’d just like to congratulate  Wannie. She clearly seems to be in love!! Did you see the look on her face when-”

Wendy rocketed out of her chair and approached the stage at a breakneck pace. Joy had stopped speaking and was loudly laughing into the microphone.

“Love you Wendy!” she said abruptly, and ran off stage and back to her desk.

Wendy stormed up to her as quickly as her short legs could take her. “HEY could you not be so obnoxious for ONE goddamn minute please?” she seethed, grabbing Joy’s wrist in her anger.

Joy, however, was not phased. “The fact that you’re angry just proves my theory. Just invite me to the wedding, princess .” Joy cackled at her.

“You insolent little brat you’re lucky you still have a job here.” Wendy sighed, defeated. She let go of Joy’s wrist and made her fingers into a “v” shape, pointing them at her own eyes and then at Joy’s.

“Watch it.”

At that moment, Yeri walked out of one of the back room with a customer, obviously having missed Joy’s whole show. Her client had a stud in their nose and the angry, red skin to match. Just by looking at it, Wendy could tell she did a good job.

“That looks wonderful!” She said to both Yeri and her client. For as tough on the outside as Yeri claimed to be, Wendy knew she appreciated the compliment.

Yeri didn’t acknowledge Wendy’s comment, and ignored her until she was finished talking to her client. She blurted “So, you’re in love huh?” as she grabbed her customer’s credit card and finished the transaction. The cash register dinged loudy as Yeri took her tip money and placed it in her designated drawer. The bell on the door indicated that the client had just left.

“Good for you, Wan! I know you’ve been so lonely lately..” Yeri teased, a glint in her eye.

Wendy pushed behind her to count the tips in the drawer. “You’re pretty brave for $12 miss Yerim.” Wendy countered.

“Hey that was only my first client for today and you know I get less business than you guys!” Yeri croaked, and Wendy knew she had successfully averted yet another confrontation about Irene.

In all honesty, Wendy already had a crush on Joohyun. They got along very well, and Wendy was astonished by the mystery surrounding the woman. First she comes in piss-drunk, and the next day she’s apologizing for her behavior and talking about her modeling experience. She was floored by the absolute ‘perfect ten’ that Joohyun was.

The bell chimed again, and it was Wendy’s 12:30 appointment. She was glad to have a distraction from Joohyun, because she was all that Wendy could think about.