Teenage Dirtbag (My cruel summer) | Seongjoong

24. Does it hurt?

"I can't believe you're getting a tattoo." Mingi admitted, finally looking up from the notebook where he was writing some lyrics ideas. He turned around on his spinning chair and raised his eyebrows at Hongjoong who was sitting on the bed.

Hongjoong couldn't believe it either. When he told Seonghwa about this small idea, he didn't expect the older to message him 2 days later that if he was still willing, he could get him an appointment on Friday. Apparently, Seonghwa was friends with his tattoo artist and the lady, oh how conveniently, had a favour to repay and offered to do the tattoo for Hongjoong free of charge.

And he agreed, because one; tattoos are fricking expensive, and two; he wanted a memory of the summer. Obviously another good point was the fact his mother would never allow him to get a tattoo back in Seoul as long as he lived with her. If he got one here, he could hide it until he goes to university and then his mum would have no control over his life left.

Hongjoong admired Seonghwa's tattoos repeatedly what wasn't a surprise, they very extremely clean looking and well designed. He had no doubt the artist who did all of them was indeed very skilled and he could trust her.

The pros just kept on outweighing the cons and before Hongjoong knew it, he had the appointment scheduled on Friday evening.

Which was actually today's evening.

"What are you gonna get?" Mingi continued and Hongjoong shrugged, throwing his back onto the younger's mattress.

"I don't know. I haven't really thought it that far ahead." He murmured. "I'll probably ask the artist to show me some designs or look at stuff online? I don't want anything big, just a small tattoo."

"Huh. Wow, okay." Mingi turned back to face his desk and Hongjoong scrunched his nose. He didn't know if he imagined it, but he heard some kind of doubt in the younger's voice.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He frowned, sitting up straight.

"Nothing. Aren't you scared? Needles terrify me." Mingi gulped, spinning on his chair once again. "And you're doing it so suddenly. Are you sure you processed properly that once it's done it's forever?" He titled his head and Hongjoong found himself actually thinking it through again.

Maybe Mingi was right? After all, it was a rushed decision made in a span of maybe 3 days. Obviously it had been crossing his mind for a while now, basically every time he could see Seonghwa's tattoos. But when he randomly told the older that he also wanted one, he definitely didn't think it all would happen so quickly. He was aware it was a permanent decision, but a small tattoo on a not very visible place wouldn't really be worth regretting that much, right?

"I think it'll be fine. It's not like I'm gonna have it on my forehead." He chucked and the younger smiled, rolling his eyes.

"Well I would hope you're not this stupid." Hongjoong laughed again and then wanted to ask Mingi to help him pick a design, but before he could the doorbell rang. "Could you get it? I really want to finish this line, and it's probably just a package for my parents or something." Mingi asked and the older immediately nodded, getting up from the bed and running downstairs. He was still smiling to himself about the banter he just had with his friend, when he opened the front door. His smile immediately dropped when he saw Yunho staring down at him in confusion.

"Hi." The taller finally choked out, clearly awkward.

Now, Hongjoong and Yunho never talked privately after their rather hectic conversation in Mingi's kitchen during his birthday party a few days ago. Both of them were very obviously resentful towards one another ever since, what was supposed to be a friendly talk, almost turned into a big fight, with Yunho screaming at the older to get his shit together and act upon his relationship with Seonghwa. He knew that they weren't exactly on bad terms, but the slight awkwardness was still in the air whenever they saw each other.