Band Aids || Mark Lee

C15

It was when they were back in the car that things got a little awkward. The boys were obviously curious about a lot of things, but kind enough to to ask, so Eunbi decided to take it upon herself to start the conversation.

"You can ask about it if you want" They still waited a second until Mark spoke.

"Your mum passed away?" He seemed hesitant to ask, starting off with an easily answered question.

"Yes, when I was 5, apparently I was there but I don't remember it" Mark nodded before awkwardly thinking of what else to say.

"Is it okay if I ask why your brother is like that with you?" It was Yuta who spoke, and Eunbi only gave a gentle smile before looking down at her fiddling hands as she spoke.

"I guess he blames me for her death. Like I said, I was there and from what I've gathered I did something that got her killed"

"So she was killed?" Yuta looked as though he was afraid to ask, as though Eunbi was so fragile she would break at his words.

"She was. She was shot, but I don't remember the situation it was under" Neither of the boys asked anymore questions but the still seemed to want to know more, so Eunbi took it upon herself to say all that she could. "We were visiting my dad when it happened, at his workplace. I don't know much else about it apart from the fact no one was arrested for it"

"Where is your dad now?" Marks seemed to be calculating something as he asked, his voice still soft.

"He lives at the house, but he can't do much. He's unresponsive, they doctors say it's from the trauma of my mums death" Eunbis voice was beginning to get a bit quieter, her confidence in being able to answer any question slowly fading.

"I've got one more question, and it's okay if you don't answer, but you said that you were with your mother when your brother asked, what did that mean?" Marks eyes locked on hers as he spoke, concern clearly showing through his expression.

"When I was younger I used to run away to my mothers grave and stay there for as long as I could. Sometimes it was just an hour, sometimes it was days. I just missed her so much, I wanted to be around her" Eunbis shaky voice was a clear warning for the boys to stop asking, so they did. The rest of the ride was quiet and calm and when they got back to the HQ Eunbi thanked the boys before going to her room and unpacking her things.

It wasn't until a knock on her door broke her from her thoughts that she realised she had been folding and refilling the same top over and over. Setting it aside she walked to the door opening it up to reveal Mark. He shot he a bright smile before grabbing her hand and pulling her out to the lounge, where it seemed nearly everyone excluding Taeyong was gathered. It was Johnny who spoke first, looking quite excited as he did so.

"So Eunbi, you've officially joined NCT, but you haven't gotten the tattoo yet" She had completely forgotten that aspect of joining a gang, and to be honest it frightened her to hell and back seeing as she had never planned to get a tattoo. Noticing her smile drop Johnny quickly tried to cheer her up.

"Look, it's not that bad, they are actually quite cool!" While speaking he pulled the collar of his shirt down to expose the thin lines of ink on his left collar bone. It was actually rather cool, with the letters of NCT making up a square.

Slowly all the members began to flash her their tattoos, all on different places. Taeil's was on his bicep , Tens on the name of his neck, Doyoungs was on his wrist, Jaehyun's on his right collar bone, Yutas on his peck. Everyone had collectively groaned when he had hoisted his shirt up to expose it. Haechan's was on his ankle, Renjun's on the side of his foot, Jeno's on the back of his left shoulder blade, Jaemin's on the back of his right shoulder blade, Chenle's behind his right ear and Jisung's behind his left ear.

"So where will you get yours?" Chenle seemed very excited as he jumped around her.

"I don't know?" She turned to Mark with questioning eyes.

"You can decide once we get to Renjuns 'parlour' if you want" The heavy sarcasm over the word palour only gave Eunbi a small amount of anxiety as she nodded. Turns out the 'parlour' was down a set of stair she hadn't seen yet, which she quickly learnt lead to the training area and the official meeting rooms, plus a few other places. It was only Mark, Renjun and Eunbi now, which made it feel a little too real.

"So where would you like it?" Renjun's question was simple, but it was very hard to answer. Noting her lack of response Renjun started to name a few possibilities for where it could be. "You want it somewhere hidden right? Maybe your torso somewhere then, your ribs? Your hip? Your-"

"I'll just have it on my hip thank you" Renjun nodded at her words, turning to read the equipment as Eunbi clenched onto the bench she was sitting on. Mark held in his laughter at his nervous she was, knowing it would be rude to laugh right now. Instead her took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Just squeeze my hand when it hurts alright?" Eunbi couldn't exactly tell if it was her nervousness or what he had just said, but he heart would not stop pounding in her chest.

"Okay, you ready?" Eunbi nodded while using her free hand to lift her shirt slightly to expose her hip. Renjun quickly went about the process before warning her that he would start. The feeling was not exactly pleasant and Eunbi quickly found herself taking up Marks offer of squeezing his hand as she took her lip between her teeth. It was over soon enough, which left Eunbi to finally look at what would now be on her body for the rest of her life. The thin lines were actually rather pretty, and it wasn't too big nor too small. An unconscious smile reached her lips as she looked at it.

After wrapping it appropriately Renjun slipped out the room, leaving Mark and Eunbi there.

"You never did show me your tattoo did you?" Mark laughed as he shook his head slightly.

"Do you want to see it?" After Eunbi had agreed Mark carefully pulled his shirt up as to not reveal anything but the tattoo, which was positioned at the top of his rib cage. His eyes trailed her hand as it raised up, her small fingers tracing the lines ever so gently, which made him hold his breath slightly. For the first time in a very long time his heart speed up for something other than the adrenaline of a fight. He couldn't help it, the girl in front of him was admiring something he had hated about himself for so long, and it made him feel something. And this time he couldn't just shrug it away.