Yerin walked into Mysterious Tattoos practically trembling in fear. Her flowery, bright pink dress stuck out among the other customers and the black decor of the tattoo shop. While cursing at Sowon under her breath, Yerin approached the front desk. 

Behind the counter was a woman Yerin assumed to be near her age. The leather jacket and the intense makeup partnered with her cold facial expression only added to Yerin's fear of this place.

"Can I help you?" The woman asked Yerin, who struggled to answer. The cold, uncaring tone the other women used shocked her. If she wasn't so scared of the unknown person she probably would have given her a lesson on customer service.

"I... uh... I'm here to... um... to get a tattoo?"

"Yea, that's why people come here, but what do you want?" The woman's tone changed and a playful smile took over her face. Yerin's cheeks flushed pink due to her embarrassment.

"Just... something small... somewhere you can't see it,"

"So you have no idea what you want or where you want it," It wasn't a question, but rather a statement to illustrate to Yerin how strange that request is. Seeing Yerin's head drop, the woman sighed.

"Listen, I'll help you out. I'm SinB, a tattoo artist here. We'll start by picking a design. Follow me," SinB began walking towards a room in the back, while Yerin awkwardly waddled behind her. 

Once in the room, SinB walked Yerin through the process, explaining how everything will work and the basic procedure. Yerin filled out the required paperwork and provided the payment, although her handwriting was a bit wobbly as her hands trembled slightly.

After getting situated in the chair, Yerin took the time to admire the room. There were photographs around the room, the decor, in general, was much more soothing than the shop itself.

"Did you take these?" Yerin asked while gesturing at one of the photos.

"Hm, yea. Photography is my hobby," SinB answered without taking her eyes away from her sketchbook. She was flipping through trying to find a simple design, which was difficult given most of her designs were for more outgoing people. 

"I'm just gonna have to sketch something now," SinB mumbled under her breath. 

"What kinda stuff do you like? Something you wouldn't mind having permanently added to your body," Yerin's head went to many things she liked: claw machines, her precious Jibang, food, and a few more things. 

"What about a duck?" SinB stared blankly at Yerin after hearing that request before starting to laugh.

"HAHA of all the things you could choose, you choose a DUCK?" 

"What's the issue!? I really like ducks! 

"Okay, okay. I got it," SinB barely spent any time on the sketch. It was a minimalistic sketch of a duck. She knew Yerin wasn't looking for something extravagant if anything it seemed like this wasn't even Yerin's idea.

"Okay Ms. Duck, your sketch is done," SinB turned her sketchbook so Yerin could see the design.

"First of all, my name is Yerin. Second of all... it's so cute!" Yerin paused before the second statement causing a brief tension in the room, which was quickly broken by her praise for the design. SinB sighed of relief internally, she'd never had to come up with something on the spot like that. 

"Okay, now where do you want it?" Yerin was once again silent after that question. She hadn't thought of that. Where could she hide it? Could she even hide? Did she even want to hide such a cute design?

"Where... where would you suggest?" It was SinB's turn to be silent. This was definitely one of the weirdest clients she'd ever had.

"You mentioned you wanted to hide it, so maybe your shoulder," SinB gently tapped the back of Yerin's shoulder to demonstrate where it would be placed. She noted how Yerin tensed up and tried to think of something that would help.

"Not only is it easy to hide, but it's also one of the least painful places to get a tattoo," That seemed to calm Yerin slightly, as her body became less tense and she released a heavy breath. 

"Okay... let's do that," Yerin smiled towards SinB, but anyone could see how fake it was. The tattoo artist felt bad for her and offered her an apologetic smile in return.

After getting everything prepped, SinB decided to talk to Yerin throughout the procedure. Normally talking would be a good distraction so maybe it would be enough to keep Yerin from jumping too much.

"Okay, I'm going to clean your shoulder with some rubbing alcohol now,"

One thing Yerin really liked about SinB was how she explained everything. It offered a sense of comfort knowing what was going to happen.

"I'm going to apply the stencil now,"

"I'm going to get the tattoo machine ready now,"

The buzz of the machine caused Yerin to jump. Suddenly her fears resurfaced even stronger than they were before. She held her breath and closed her eyes as she waited for the pain to begin, except it never did. She opened her eyes and looked towards SinB, who was watching her.

"You need to breathe while I'm doing this. You don't want to be tense,"

"I'll... try," Yerin attempted to stabilize her breathing and relax her muscle. Although it took a few minutes, SinB was patient and let Yerin collect her thoughts.

"Ready?"

"...Ready,"

SinB began the tattoo by tracing the lines made by her stencil. She felt Yerin flinch when she first touched her with the machine. Speaking softly, SinB managed to get Yerin relaxed, or as relaxed as she could be.

Yerin released little whimpers occasionally and sometimes squeezed her eyes shut, but soon enough the tattoo was complete.

"All done!" SinB said excitedly as she put her machine done.

"Can I see it?" Yerin asked. Although SinB's sketch was adorable, she was still worried about how it looked. SinB asked for her phone, so Yerin handed it to her. SinB snapped a few shots of the tattoo before handing the phone back to Yerin.

"It's... perfect," Yerin muttered while admiring the photo of her new tattoo.

"Of course it is, I'm the great SinB!" Yerin laughed as she watched SinB pose like some superhero on a movie poster. The complete 180 of the cold girl from the desk intrigued Yerin.

SinB went back to work with bandaging the newly tattooed area. She gave Yerin a list of aftercare instructions and explained everything she needed to do to protect her skin.

"Thank you, I know this was really weird," Yerin scratched the back of her head and glanced down. Hearing SinB giggle, she looked back up.

"This was certainly one of my most interesting jobs, but you're welcome," SinB shook her hand before heading back into her room. Yerin watched her go with a smile before walking out of the shop. 

Yerin cellphone dinged. She pulled it out of her pocket to see a message from an unknown number.

"Maybe losing that bet with Sowon was not so bad after all"

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(XXX) XXX-XXXX

call me sometime ~SinB