Everyone headed to the cafeteria to eat lunch. However, only Crew Zero moved to a different location with the Team Leader.
Could they be planning to extract semen ahead of schedule?
They’d said starting tomorrow, but since the schedule changed frequently, everyone expected it to be that.
“Fuck, at least feed us before making us do it.”
Park Geonwu, who received the lowest score in honey collection, grumbled. He was completely deflated by the Instructor’s words that even ten won was too much for him.
“Will they give us a bonus for this too?”
In contrast, Kim Yunho, who had been praised by the Instructor, asked with an expectant face.
Park Geonwu’s expression crumpled even more.
Contrary to expectations, the place the Captain took them was a tattoo shop.
No way.
He suspected it because something came to mind.
“It’s not a real tattoo. The moment the project ends, it’ll all be erased as if you never had a tattoo.”
The Captain explained it was a temporary tattoo that lasted about 2 weeks. He continued,
“This tattoo is something only our Sailors will get, a special mark. And because it’s a mandatory tattoo that must be maintained until the day the project ends, special care will also be provided.”
He added in an unprecedentedly serious voice.
“Now, Sailors. Remove your tops and wait.”
Seeing the Captain’s serious expression, they must be planning to engrave something indecent.
That kid’s body had it too.
If it had been a penis instead, could I have laughed it off?
Would I have thought, that guy who looks like he wouldn’t do such things turned out to be a complete lunatic for men?
Jiwon gritted his teeth.
“Are you scared?”
Thinking Jiwon was frowning because he was afraid, Park Geonwu asked.
“It stings a bit, but if a coward like me could endure it, you’ll handle it easily.”
He comforted him while showing the tattoo engraved on his pelvis. The cursive English letters seemed to undulate following the curve of his pelvis.
“La Vie en Rose. In French, it means rosy life.”
“It suits you well, hyung.”
“Really? I really like it too.”
Park Geonwu grinned broadly.
The more Jiwon got to know him, the more he liked the thoughtful Park Geonwu. Though he was the type he absolutely would never have befriended if they’d met somewhere other than this place.
They sat huddled together in the waiting room with their tops removed.
Following Gwak Hyeseong, the new member who joined today, Lee Jihoon, belatedly introduced himself, but everyone was wary. Gwak Hyeseong, who had become a thorn in their side, pretended not to notice such reactions and linked arms with the new member, deliberately acting even closer. He sowed discord as if the existing members were being territorial.
“Sailor 1, Sailor 2.”
Jiwon, who was number 1, and Kim Yunho, who was number 2, were called first.
“They’re not going to engrave something really weird, right?”
Kim Yunho, who had been talking about bonuses, belatedly worried.
“Who knows. Even if it’s a weird picture, it’ll be erased soon so isn’t it okay?”
“Really?”
When he raised his eyebrows,
“It will be erased.”
As if listening to their conversation, the masked tattooist interjected.
“Have you gotten a tattoo before?”
When asked, Kim Yunho pointed to his left upper arm.
Engraved there was a sun painted in a shape and color similar to a sunflower.
The tattooist explained the type of ink to be used on Jiwon and Kim Yunho, then pointed to a test tattoo on their own forearm. About the width of a finger joint, five straight lines were engraved vertically and closely together. It gave the feeling of a barcode.
“Can you see? The different colors?”
Looking closely, there weren’t five straight lines but a total of seven, and the topmost one and the one below it were almost erased and invisible.
“Is it henna?”
“No. It’s ink with fewer side effects and stronger penetration than that.”
“Really?”
When Kim Yunho tried to touch it with his finger, the tattooist nodded.
“That’s the 14th day, and the one below is the 12th day.”
“Wow, it really disappears seamlessly.”
“Right?”
There was no reason not to trust them when they went this far.
“Now, shall we begin?”
There were two tattooists in total, with one assistant attached to each of them.
The tattooist who had just explained the ink type to Jiwon and Kim Yunho was in charge of Jiwon.
“Can I see the design?”
He heard Kim Yunho, lying next to him, ask.
“It’s a secret.”
Kim Yunho’s tattooist answered.
Jiwon, lying almost reclined on something like a massage chair, was slightly nervous. He was a complete tattoo novice who had never even tried sticker tattoos. Still, since Park Geonwu, who was weak to pain, said it was bearable, he relaxed just a little, thinking it probably wouldn’t hurt that much.
He steeled his resolve since he roughly guessed what kind of thing would be done anyway.
Ah. It’s cold.
The cotton that smelled of disinfectant touched his nipples and areolas.
As expected, the same place as that kid.
The first time he saw the photo of that kid lying on the autopsy table flashed through his mind.
Was I shocked?
Right. I was.
Like his father, Jiwon couldn’t close his mouth when he saw his younger sibling’s chest.
“Don’t tell me you’re doing it on the nipples?”
He heard Kim Yunho ask.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
Jiwon asked.
“Well, since it’s that area, it’ll sting a bit. Raise your hand if it hurts.”
At the tattooist’s words, like a dentist’s, Jiwon smiled faintly.
“Shit, it’s going to hurt like hell.”
He heard Kim Yunho grumble.
“I’ll start right away without a transfer.”
That was the tattooist’s last words.
The hand holding the tattoo machine rushed toward Jiwon’s right chest.
Ugh. He swallowed a groan.
An unpleasant pain that was hard to describe continued. Every time the machine passed over his nipple, he got goosebumps like receiving nerve treatment at the dentist, and his spine tingled. At the same time, he thought it stung terribly.
It wasn’t just the machine. At some point his chest tickled, so when he glanced down, the tattooist was painting his nipple and the area around it with a very fine brush.
Is it reinforcement work or something?
Not knowing anything, Jiwon only thought that.
By the time the tattoo was finished, he felt nothing. Not that it got better, but he just had no sensation.
The skilled tattooist spent time and care dyeing both nipples and created areolas about three times wider than Jiwon’s original ones.
In the same shape as what was engraved on that kid’s body—specifically, on the chest.
At least Jiwon’s would be erased, but the one on that kid’s body wouldn’t. Even at the time of death, it had a quite pretty pink color. Because of that, it stood out especially on that kid’s body where traces of life had disappeared.
‘Among Yoon Jisu’s friends, there was a guy who had the same thing. The friend he lived with, I mean. That friend went missing first, and Yoon Jisu only found out about it later and went to the police station after much deliberation.’
The detective had said.
‘Rather than lovers, they were closer to sex partners. Still, it seems the two weren’t ordinarily close. To the point that other people called them a married couple.’
When he couldn’t find his missing friend in the end, that kid had voluntarily tried to become a witness. While refusing the police’s offer to provide personal protection.
What he chose instead of personal protection was merely going out to the streets and becoming a homeless person.
Every choice that kid made was questionable.
Why did he do that?
The question of why always followed, but he couldn’t find an answer.
Jiwon looked down at his swollen nipples and areolas that had turned bright pink and made a serious expression.
On the other hand, Kim Yunho was delighted.
“Wow, fuck. How did they even think to do something like this? Isn’t this really crazy?”
The so-called positive kind, grinning that it was crazy in a good way.
“I don’t know if you noticed, but my nipple color was totally red-bean-porridge color. But see this? It’s completely pink. Oh my god, why didn’t I know about this?”
He made a fuss.
He even asked his tattooist if it could be done on genitals too.
Did that kid like it this much too?
The feeling was strange.
When the two who finished their tattoos entered the waiting room, color returned to the faces of the curious Sailors.
“Crazy, right? In 3 days this will change to baby pink color.”
Kim Yunho bragged, deliberately thrusting out his chest.
“Gross.”
Someone said this,
“Are you that happy?”
Someone said this.
Whoever ordered this work, they were definitely a sadistic pervert. They deliberately made men get tattoos to create pink nipples and drew wide areolas, making bodies that seemed like they’d appear in porn.
Until coming to the tattoo shop, Jiwon, who had been continuously excited and stimulated as if his frontal lobe had been damaged, became calm instead after the tattoo.
His head became cool.
Ironically, looking at this perverted chest, he realized why he came here, his mission.
Fuck. This is shit.
It really was shit.
Jiwon chewed the inside of his mouth and looked for his top.
“Stay as you are.”
The Captain stopped him.
“What?”
“I said stay as you are. We’ll move to the studio right away.”
It seemed they were going to take chest photos or something.
Was there a studio here?
There must be. It’s a place wide enough to run a 100-meter dash three times and still have room left, so anything was possible.
Pop!
A flash went off.
Pop! Pop!
Shuddering at the camera persistently photographing his chest, Jiwon stared straight ahead. He left a silent warning toward the countless eyes that would be watching him.
I will definitely catch you.
