𝙛𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙮. 𝙨𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙝𝙬𝙖 𝙭 𝙨𝙖𝙣.

Chapter Three: Jigsaw

Seonghwa caught a glimpse of the man's smile before he turned on his heels, determined to keep a professional mindset and do his job properly. But damn, did the guy have such a nice smile. It may sound cliche, but it really did light up the room. He didn't know how he was going to make it through this session without embarrassing himself. God, it was as if he was back in school, experiencing a crush for the first time all over again.

Remember: professional.

He sat down opposite the man, trying as hard as he could to not make eye contact. His eyes wandered about the room, observing the worn artwork, none of which was new to him.

Sometimes he wished he could just tear it down and start anew, but he knew it was impossible. Seeing five years of his life displayed on the walls was exposing for him, having his raw emotions shown to everyone in the form of his art. It hurt a little sometimes, especially when he was alone in the shop. 

Pushing past these negative thoughts, he focused back into reality and grabbed a pen from his desk.

"So, a neck tattoo, huh? Pretty bold, what's the design?" His voice rang out through the near-empty shop, a small chuckle escaping his lips as he tried desperately to seem normal. It didn't work, instead making him sound a little patronising. Despite this, the client didn't seem to notice and reached into his pocket. If he did notice, he hid it well, only smiling along. 

Pulling a slip of paper from his pocket, the young man set it down on the table in front of him. Even from the size, Seonghwa was intrigued, as it was no bigger than the palm of his hand. He was even more intrigued when the paper was unfolded, discovering that the design was simply three letters. A name, perhaps. 'SAN'. He had been expecting a date, or something intricate and boring. Maybe this job wasn't going to be so boring after all.

"This is it. I know, kinda disappointing for a 'bold' neck tattoo. Sorry." 

"Hey, no need to be sorry, it's your tattoo anyway. I quite like the simplicity. If you don't mind me asking, what does it mean?" 

Seognhwa noticed the man's lip twitch. His throat move as he gulped. His hand travel to the back of his neck to scratch at it nervously. Did he say something wrong?

"Not really. Just a name, nothing too special."

Obviously, there was something special about it, but Seonghwa wasn't about to pry too far into a client's life if it wasn't needed. The poor guy was clearly uncomfortable about it, so there was no need to ask anything further.

"Cool, fair enough. Well, if you could just lie down, we can get right to business."

He watched as the young man settled himself on the chair, as he prepared his tools to apply the stencil and get to work.

An hour later and the tattoo was finished, cleaned up and covered neatly with some clingfilm to prevent an infection. Everything went smoothly, and the client had paid. Sure, he was cute, but nothing had really happened apart from that. 

As the boy prepared to leave, Seonghwa was overcome with the urge to learn one last thing about him. It was a tiny request, but maybe it would help set him at ease. 

"Thanks for visiting. By the way, I realise I never asked. What's your name?"

The same lip twitch. Gulp of air. Scratch at the neck.

"Oh. The name's San." 

And with that, he turned and left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi! I'm back, after a long while. Sorry it took me so long to update this, a serious case of writer's block struck me and I just couldn't move forward for some reason. If you're still taking the time to read this or keep updated with this book, thank you so much, I really appreciate it. This chapter is dedicated to  gyepi_ppang  because they stuck with this book! They always took the time to comment and hype me up, which means a lot, so thank you! I'm so grateful for everyone who reads this book, please stick around for more. See you next chapter!

~Jesse