Cho Kyuhyun was a man of diligence and intelligence.

You do not take over an entire city underground by not being a little smart or by not being careful with every action you take. Boldness wasn't a part of his world; only fools would act recklessly, and those who thought the realm of the underground was one for fools and recklessness were those who didn't last long enough to tell or create their own legacy.

In that aspect, Cho Kyuhyun had been the best player in this little game they call criminality.

Each move he took to be on the top of this world had been meticulously thought, analyzed, exercised, and then taken. And at the age of 30, younger than most of his peers, Cho Kyuhyun could safely say that nothing stood in his way anymore.

Cho Kyuhyun was also a man of trust.

He trusted few, but for the ones he did, he was ready to give his life for them as much as they were ready to give their lives for him. It's this careful trust he shared that made him the man that he is today, no one is entirely self-made, and Cho Kyuhyun is no exception; he remembers the names of all the people who helped, the people who trusted him and held all of those names dearly in his heart while giving back everything he could to those people as well.

He could hear Kim Heechul's poisonous chuckle running through his brain each time he talked about trust; the "Lady" of the underground always told him his heart was too soft for his ambition and that when he is betrayed, it'll hurt way more than it should, because it was the law of their realm. But Kyuhyun only smirked at the man who still gave him full support despite those words by giving him all his enemies' secrets; after all, secrets had been Heechul's specialty and told him he could deal with it when it happened. 

Heechul only smiled, but not one that was mocking as usual, just sad, as he played with his long hair. His only words that day had been, "I hope you're right."

He hadn't been right.

Being betrayed really hurts like a .

Kyuhyun tsked at the corpse of his -now- ex-tattoo artist. Lying on the floor, a bullet through his brain, carefully shot by his bodyguard, Lee Hyukjae.

He looked at his neck, bleeding after the man tried to stab him with a tattoo needle. 

"Are you okay?" Hyukjae looked at him with a hint of worry in his eyes, not necessarily because of the injury; those kinds were too common already in his line of work, but for the betrayal he just went through.

Truthfully, he wasn't sure.

The older man had been the artist who had put his victories all over his body since he started his ascension to the top, a holder of his secrets, and a man he needed to trust more than most because, in the hours when he was under his needle, he needed to trust him not to kill him ideally.

This trust had been misplaced, unfortunately. It seems the prize on his head had been better than his loyalty towards him.

Kyuhyun's cold eyes looked at the man who, starting now, he'll need to erase from his heart; a betrayer doesn't deserve his affection, even dead.

He then looked at the unfinished piece on his neck, a simple pink spirea branch surrounded by green leaves, symbolizing his new wealth, victory, and fortune over all his enemies; the final symbol of his success, this tattoo in particular, couldn't stay like that, unfinished. This weakness couldn't be seen.

"...Yes, I am fine." He nodded at Hyukjae, "Follow me; we need to find another tattoo artist. Right now."

Hyukjae widened his eyes at that.

"Are you sure you don't want to wait a bit? I don't-"

"It's fine," he interrupted through gritted teeth, "I need to finish this tattoo." Hyukjae looked at him carefully, then sighed. Kyuhyun couldn't be reasoned in this state.

"Fine. Do you have any idea where to go?"

Kyuhyun needed to figure out where to go. 

He couldn't go to a trendy shop, the risk of being recognized was too big, but he couldn't go to a lousy shop either; it was pretty challenging to choose one.

And so, they walked for hours in their city, losing themselves in the small dangerous streets of it; it was fine no one a bit intelligent would dare to attack him until they found a shop in the middle of nowhere, far away from the booming sounds of the city. For some reason, compared to all the shops they went through, this one intrigued in more.

He looked at the storefront; nothing was special about it; only the sign with the name of the shop "Parallel Lines" stood out, but nothing else.

"Hyung, wait for me here; I'll go inside this one." Hyukjae felt uncomfortable at that. After all, Kyuhyun just went through one assassination attempt, but one look from him told him not to insist, so once again, he sighed, rolled his eyes, and nodded. Kyuhyun only laughed at him and entered the shop.

 "Excuse me!" He yelled while entering, and then suddenly, he could hear a gasp coming from the backside of the shop, strong footsteps hurrying toward him, and then a low voice speaking from afar.

"Coming, coming! What can I...Do...For..You." The man arrived at the front part of his shop and slow down the more he saw Kyuhyun's face as if he recognized him. Kyuhyun didn't know if it was good or not for now.

He was ready to speak until he clearly saw the man in front of him; it stopped him instantly.

A beautiful man stood before him.

He was covered in tattoos, wearing clothes that looked fancier than someone that worked in such a small shop should wear, while still showing his artwork on both of his arms, a strong neck with well-defined lines with only one tattoo on the right side, with attached to it one of the prettiest faces he ever saw, with pink little lips, pinchable cheeks, and oh, those eyes.

There's a saying that eyes are the windows to one soul; if it was the case, then Kyuhyun decided he might have before him one of the most beautiful yet fearless souls he ever saw.

Those eyes looked at him carefully, analyzing him from head to toe, trying to know if he was in danger or not, if he needed to defend himself soon, or if he was free from danger. Kyuhyun liked how this pretty man didn't tremble before him but yet wasn't reckless enough to attack him or be bold. He was a smart one.

Kyuhyun always had been weak for the pretty smart ones. 

He hoped this one wouldn't be disappointing.

"Can I guess by your reaction that you know who I am?" He finally said.

"...Yes." He answered carefully. Kyuhyun smiled softly; he liked his voice. It was soothing. He wondered for one instant what it would be like to hear it being whispered into his ears.

Not yet. 

Being patient was his forte; after all, he needed to know to analyze before he could let himself have these kinds of thoughts.

"I do not wish to harm you," he started with, "I'm here for a tattoo, something you could do right now."

The man before him relaxed a bit at those words, but he was not entirely smart; Kyuhyun really liked that.

"It depends on what kind of tattoo you wish for. Do you already have a design?" Kyuhyun smiled even more.

"In fact, I only need coloring; the outer lines have already been done." He then showed his neck to the tattoo artist, who widened his eyes a little bit at his unfinished tattoo and bleeding neck; you didn't need to be a genius to know what happened.

The pretty man's eyes looked straight into Kyuhyun's ones, sending shivers down his spine. Kyuhyun already loved those eyes very much.

"Are you sure you want to show me that? Wouldn't a man like you prefer someone he trusts to take over?" Kyuhyun could only chuckle at that.

"I wouldn't be here if the one I trusted didn't betray me, wouldn't I?"

The man looked skeptical for a few seconds.

"Then why would you trust me?" Kyuhyun smirked; good question.

"I don't know yet, tell me, shouldn't I?"

It was silent for a good few seconds, there was no good answer to that, and then the man sighed as if he was resigned from his fate. 

"Fine, please follow me."

Kyuhyun lighted up. He won. 

As usual, but still, it felt good.

"How can I call you? I would like to thank you properly later."

"...You can call me Yesung."

A fake name, then. Fine, It was a pretty one.

"Okay, Yesung, please help me~"

Yesung looked surprised at his teasing tone and face, but he didn't react to it yet; he only showed him his tattoo bench and asked to sit on it and took a comfortable position.

"I assume you already know how It'll go, so I'll spare you the details," he started with, "The neck is a sensitive part of the body so that it might hurt; please tell me if you feel too much pain and we'll stop, understood?" Kyuhyun only nodded, a bit mesmerized by how much prettier Yesung looked up close and by this voice that seemed to rumble each time it came out of his throat.

"Then I'll start."

Truthfully, Kyuhyun never really liked tattoos too much.

It hurt a lot, and no matter how pretty they looked, they always ended up fading a bit away, losing their majesties and beauties through the years; he also never really liked how permanent it all felt. But having tattoos was an important part of his job, so he just bared with it as much as possible.

But the comfortable silence Yesung put him in a while, his intense eyes focused entirely on him, made him feel things he never did before while getting a new one. 

And also, he wasn't trying to kill him, so, you know, all good.

.

Hyukjae entered at one point to be sure he hadn't been killed and looked reassured when he hadn't been, but then one unhappy look from Kuyuhyun made him go away faster than ever. It made Kyuhyun laugh, and Yesung tsked at him, telling him to hold still, that laughing was prohibited while being tattooed on the neck. It only made Kyuhyun smile more; his little tattoo artist wasn't afraid of him, good.

When everything was done, Kyuhyun looked at the end results and was surprised by how good it looked. It looked better than some of the ones from the fancy shops he looked at while searching for a new shop.

"You really got the skills; why hide yourself so far away?" Yesung scoffed.

"It's your city; you must know the rent is atrocious," he mumbled, grumpy "anyways, I assume you know how to take care of it, so please now, get away from my shop." 

"I didn't pay you yet...Let me-"

"It's fine, not my design, not my work." He sharply said. "Now, please go away."

Kyuhyun smirked, "Was I such a bad client?"

Yesung stiffened at that as if he thought his words might have offended him.

"No, but I-"

"Then let me pay you; good work deserves to be well paid, after all." Yesung hesitated a bit, then sighed.

"Stubborn bastard," he mumbled, but not really hiding his words. Kyuhyun smiled even more. "Fine, give me whatever you want, and then go the away."

"I admire your commercial skills," he laughed. "Fine, here."

Yesung eyes widened at the sum of all the money he gave him and then looked at Kyuhyun as if he was trying to know if he wanted more from him by giving him all of this.

But Kyuhyun didn't expect anything. Not yet, anyway.

"Then Yesung, it was a pleasure to meet you," he said before Yesung could even dare to tell him it was too much money.

-

"I hope your business will flourish; you deserve it."

He chuckled one last time, waved goodbye to him, and left before he could even react to his words.

Once outside, Hyukjae came directly to his side, his eyes full of questions. But Kyuhyun didn't answer any of them.

"Hyung, keep this address for me." He smirked, looking back at the shop; Yesung was still looking at him, confusion all over his face, through the window. 

Kyuhyun really liked that face.

"I think I found my new tattoo artist."