www(.)youtube.com/watch?v=Gru4IfbKlfU ;)

Wendy’s back was starting to ache. She had been bent over her client for the last 6 hours with very minimal breaks. The woman, a relatively tall bassist that Wendy had known for a while, was getting a full arm sleeve.

“Wendy, you can finish for today if you want. I can hear you groaning.” The woman offered.

Wendy stretched her back, and a loud grunt escaped her lips.

“Thanks Sunmi.” Wendy returned, still stretching.

The woman sat up off of the table and examined the still bleeding and extremely fresh ink. “Wendy this looks amazing, I don’t know how you manage to do it every time..” She trailed off, wincing as she tried to move and look at the less easily visible parts of her arm.

“Hey!” Wendy squeaked, grabbing Sunmi and steadying her. “Don’t mess up my hard work! I’ll wrap this up and send you off for now, but we still have a few more sessions left.”

Wendy finished the wrapping and left to go to the cash register, letting Sunmi wander around the shop. The older woman approached Seulgi, who was currently on stage, and performing a new song.

Wendy heard Sunmi whooping and loudly clapping for Seulgi as the music ended, and a thousand kilowatt smile spread on Seulgi’s face.

“THAT’S MY GIRLFRIEND! I LOVE HER!” Sunmi yelled, grabbing Seulgi off stage and hugging her tightly. Wendy rolled her eyes in mock annoyance, but she was elated that Seulgi and her girlfriend of almost 3 years were so happy together. Wendy pencilled in Sunmi’s next appointment, and watched Sunmi and Seulgi walk hand in hand to the front desk.

“Oh get MARRIED already.” Wendy teased as the two women walked into earshot.

“That’s the plan!” Sunmi replied, kissing Seulgi on the cheek and waving goodbye to Wendy.

“You better take care of that tattoo as well as you take care of your girlfriend, Sun!” Wendy jibed, playfully pushing Sunmi out of the shop.

The bell tinkled again.

“The whole time I was working on her, she was talking about you.” Wendy stated, shooting a knowing look at Seulgi, who was blushing bright red.

“Oh? I really love her too, you know. I wanna marry her Wan.” Seulgi said quite bashfully.

“Well at least it seems you’re both on the same page with that then, huh? The love you guys have is so admirable. I want that someday.” Wendy returned, a warm smile on her face.

“Well if I’m being honest, I saw something special between you and Irene.” Seulgi said, in a teasing but ultimately sincere tone.

“Ah will you all shut up about that? We just met!” Wendy said, annoyed. She lowered her voice and leaned closer to Seulgi, “But you really think so?” she finished.

“Yeah! You should have seen the way she was looking at you, Wannie.”

Wendy blushed and avoided looking anywhere near Seulgi. A girl could dream, at least.

“She’s coming in tomorrow to get a tattoo from me.”

Seulgi looked rather shocked “Wow really? I didn’t think she’d want one after coming in that trashed..”

Wendy laughed. “I didn’t either, but she insisted. I’m pretty excited to do it. Of all the gay artists in here,” she gestured to her employees, “she picked me!”

“Well then make sure you take care of her Wan, you never know what could come out of it.” Seulgi said, winking and walking away back to her station.

...

Wendy was finally at her apartment. It was a long day, and she was glad to be home. She unlocked her door, and threw her purse on the counter without much thought. Her apartment was not as nearly well decorated as her shop. Perfect Ten was her pride and joy, but her apartment was just where she slept. And it didn’t really matter to her anyway, she spent much more time at the parlor than she did at home.

She quickly changed out of her coffee-stained clothes into her favorite oversized shirt and slumped onto her couch. Wendy her bluetooth speaker and her ‘unwind’ playlist. The first song that came on, and one of her favorites, was “What You Won’t Do For Love” by Bobby Caldwell. While she was scrolling through her phone, she alternated between humming and singing along.

There was suddenly an influx of messages from the groupchat.

Slug

hey by any chance did you guys happen to check the schedule for tomorrow before you left? :D

S(atan)ooyoung

skdjalksjdlak yeah I did…

“10:00 a.m. - Irene <3”

HAHAHAHAHAAHA

Yerimmie

LMFAO WAN how did i miss that… omg please get a room

Slug

I mean yeah you could always just use the back room if that’s more private :3

S(atan)ooyoung

KSJFKSHAJSDHK yea seungweenie i’m sure you guys would want some privacy

Me

hey!!!!!!! you guys better ing watch it.

I’m still your boss >:(

Yerimmie

yeah whatever lol.. I’m really gonna miss my 12 dollars and the cheesy inspirational post-it notes you leave around the shop…

S(atan)ooyoung

^^

Slug

hey… I like those :c

Me

I’m glad someone appreciates me slug

She closed the messages app and returned to singing along absentmindedly to the song that was playing. Wendy was rather anxious about her appointment with Irene tomorrow. She wanted to be as prepared as humanly possible, so she started researching some possible designs online. She also pulled out her treasured moleskine notebook and started doodling. Her trademark art style was a mix of minimalism and thin lines that she sometimes intermixed with neo traditional art styles.

Wendy was diligent in her work, and her journal was tattered enough to show it. Pages were constantly ripped out, or doodled on completely. More often than not, her clients were happy with the first drawing they were shown, but Wendy was thorough. Sometimes she would have pages upon pages of concepts for one design, until she felt happy with how it might look.

And of course, Irene was no exception. Wendy drew about 15 different crowns, in color and in black and white, because she was unsure of what Irene would want. Some were more traditionalist, and some were sketchy and sported thin and feminine lines, all of which Wendy thought would look beautiful on Joohyun’s milky-white skin.

Wendy’s personal favorite was a simple crown, with thin lines that doubled up in a way that made them look almost like lace. She decided that this design would be in red, and she thought it suited Irene well, a play on her softness and sharpness.

Wendy was getting tired now, it was almost 2 a.m., she had already drawn far past her bedtime, but she always checked the company email before sleeping. She was pleasantly surprised to see an email from Irene.

From: [email protected]

To: wendy@perfect_ten.net

Subject: Something To Help You…

Attachments: (peekaboo_shoot_irene.jpeg ; crown_closeup.jpeg)

Hi Seungwan,

It’s Joohyun. :)

I figured maybe the chat we had earlier wasn’t enough to explain how I really felt about that shoot, so I attached my favorite pic below and a cropped and zoomed version of the crown. You don’t have to message me back, I just figured you might want to see these.

Thank you sweetheart, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Joohyun.. xx

Sweetheart…. Wendy stared at that word. Longer than she should have. Wendy was a stickler for professionalism when it came to tattooing, and the last thing she wanted to think about was how flustered she was by one simple word. How would she react when Irene was there in person?

She was especially concerned with this dilemma once she had opened the attachments on the email. Irene was sitting rather relaxed in front of some foliage, and it was clear that despite whatever she was modelling for , she was the focus of the photo. Her lips, and really everything in the photo, were a stunning shade of scarlet that made Joohyun absolutely glow. Her hair was windswept, but not messy, and a rather dainty looking crown was perched on her head. She looked ethereal, and Wendy’s breath caught in . All she could do was stare, and she thanked her lucky stars that it was a photo rather than Joohyun in the flesh. That was a problem for tomorrow, evidently.

She figured the best thing she could do for herself was at least sleep soundly for the rest of the night, and try to be well rested. She climbed into her bed, and placed the journal and her phone on the bedside table.

Wendy, again, was lulled to sleep thinking of Joohyun.

AN; hi everyone!! this chapter was more of a filler if y'all couldn't tell skdjsdj but! i promise this was the last of it's kind... thank you so much for reading and leaving comments!!