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Mingyu feels cornered right now. It was just another Friday Game Night (yes, with capital letters because Seungkwan has to make everything a Thing) with his closest friends. They were playing Monopoly with a dare on the line for the losing party. And Mingyu lost. By a small margin, but he still lost and by the looks of Soonyoung, Seokmin, and Seungkwan huddling menacingly he is going to pay big for it.
“Okay! We will tell you what you have to do!” Seungkwan says as he claps his hands once loudly, probably for the dramatics.
Mingyu tries to project his best puppy eyes, one that has won him favors over and over again, to the three of them. But being best friends means they are practically immune to his charms and will love to see him suffer while doing something embarrassing. He can only cower in fear.
“So because you are so bland and boring,” Mingyu starts up, ready to defend his admittedly basic style, “we think you’d benefit from a little spice up, perhaps some people would call it a lit-”
“We want you to get a piercing!” Seokmin interrupts cheerfully, probably too impatient for Seungkwan's tendency for dramatics. Seungkwan sides eye him sharply. Mingyu is amazed at how he doesn’t suffer a headache from the action. Honestly the dare isn’t too bad. Mingyu has been toying with the idea of getting a helix piercing. If a certain piercer that works in the tattoo shop across the street of his cafe is the reason, no one has to know. Actually, maybe he can get Wonwoo to do it for him.
“Yes! And you have to let Wonwoo do it!” Soonyoung adds, as if he had read Mingyu’s mind. That’s scary. You don’t want a Soonyoung having insight into your head and terrorizing your life.
Mingyu blinks at them anti-climatically and says, “Okay.”
Now it’s Seungkwan and Seokmin’s turn to blink back at him in surprise. I am not that big of a coward. He is, but Mingyu doesn’t want to admit it.
“What? Why aren’t you scared? Why aren’t you begging on the floor in tears?” Seungkwan bombards him with questions, glaring at him angrily. Seokmin nods in agreement with the youngest while Soonyoung just looks at him knowingly. He doesn’t know what that last one means.
“I’ve been thinking of getting one myself anyway. I’ll do it next week and text y'all?” He says to a pouting Seungkwan.
_
Wonwoo clocks in to his shift at the tattoo shop as usual. It is Monday, so that means he will be the only one manning the parlor until after lunch when Minghao and Seungcheol will come in. It is always slow on Monday mornings and he intends to watch a few T1 matches on his phone to kill time. As he queues up the videos, the bell signaling a person coming into the store rings.
“Uhm, hi,” Mingyu greets.
Wonwoo is honestly taken aback by his sudden arrival at the parlor. He knows Mingyu from Soonyoung who one day told him ‘one of my bestie owns the cafe across from the place your parlor moved to!’ and dragged him to be introduced to the tall man. He doesn’t have a clue what Mingyu is doing here now though. He looks out of place with his soft pink hoodie and big eyes.
Cute.
“Hello, Mingyu. Can I help you with anything?” He greets back, pausing the video he was going to watch.
Mingyu fidgets with his fingers nervously before saying, “I want to get pierced.”
Okay, that’s surprising but not weird. Wonwoo is a piercer after all. The younger’s appearance at his parlor makes sense now. Mingyu worries his lower lip as he looks at him.
“Okay. What do you have in mind?” He prompts because it looks like Mingyu is just going to stand there fidgeting nervously. Not that he is complaining with the amount of cuteness radiating from the taller man. He gets the sudden urge to bite those soft looking cheeks. Wonwoo reels internally from the thought.
“I’d like a helix, I think,” Mingyu answers him with a small voice.
“Are you sure? You look like you’re not sure about it,” Wonwoo replies. He is not going to take an unsure client. A piercing is permanent after all and he believes it should be done after thorough consideration.
“Uhm, yeah. It’s the one right here right?” Mingyu touches the outer curve of his left ear and Wonwoo nods, “I’m just nervous,” he continues.
“That’s totally fine. A lot of people get nervous. The pain is only for a few moments though so you don’t have to worry about that,” Wonwoo tries to reassure the still fidgeting man.
He is so cute I want to devour him.
Well, better get working before the demons take over his thoughts.
_
Mingyu feels his whole body alight with nerves. He decided to get the piercing over with the first thing in the week after a weekend of thinking it through. He had walked into the parlor without a game plan and had his mind blown away by how hot Wonwoo looks.
Obviously Mingyu knows how he looks because ever since Soonyoung introduced them to each other, he has been sneaking glances at the piercer whenever possible. He’d look out the window of his cafe during service time and try to catch glimpses of the dark haired man. Wonwoo has piercings all over his ear, very dark hair and pale skin that contrasts each other nicely, broad shoulders and a very tiny waist. Oh that deadly waist. A few scattered tattoos line his arms and he wears glasses on top of that. Wonwoo is simply stunning. Mingyu is so down bad and he knows it.
Today however, Wonwoo looks especially good in a black t-shirt tucked into his dark jeans. It accentuates his physique in all the right places. The morning hour also lends a deeper pitch to his voice that is currently telling Mingyu something.
“Come, sit here,” Wonwoo says to him, pointing to a chair behind a curtain. He didn’t use a particularly commanding voice but Mingyu still shivers. By the looks of his sharp gaze, Wonwoo might’ve caught it. The older man just moves on to a table behind the chair though, presumably to prep his things.
Mingyu walks up and sits on the chair, playing nervously with the sleeves of his pink hoodie. He had chosen his favourite hoodie this morning for the extra comfort, but now he feels kind of dumb and out of place in this dark and cool establishment. He can’t help but blush in embarrassment thinking about it.
Suddenly he feels a cool wind tickling his nape. Mingyu jumps on his chair and whips his head back to look for the source. His breath stops when he comes face to face with a smirking Wonwoo, face very close to his.
“Are you feeling hot?” Wonwoo asks with that handsome smirk still on his face. Mingyu feels faint. He whips his head back to the front, not able to handle all these attacks to his poor heart.
“N-no, just nervous,” He answers back meekly.
Wonwoo hums comfortingly in response. The bespectacled man takes a marker and a mirror to him. He draws a dot on a spot on the curved inner part of his left ear and gives the mirror to Mingyu so he can see where it is.
“This position okay?” Wonwoo asks, speaking softly near his ear. That sounds like an innuendo. But he’s probably projecting because of the nerves and Wonwoo visual attack combo.
Mingyu can only nod in response after checking the spot.
He hears Wonwoo open a packet of something before saying, “This will be a bit cold,” and wiping his very hot and very red ear with an alcohol wipe. He brings another packet in front of him for Mingyu to look at.
“Here’s the needle. It’s still sealed,” Wonwoo tells him. Mingyu assumes it is the procedure and just nods again in response. The nerves are suddenly getting back to him very intensely.
Wonwoo tears the packet open with gloved hands and turns to him to probably start the procedure. One hand on his ear and the other holding the needle, he looks at Mingyu’s face and smiles kindly.
“It won’t hurt much. Just breathe in and out, in-” He pierces the needle through, “and out,” he finishes. There was a burst of pain in his ear but it’s over in a second. Huh, that doesn’t hurt that much.
“Keep breathing with me,” Wonwoo says. Mingyu mindlessly follows the command.
“Breathe in-” Another burst of pain, so much worse than the initial one, took over his left ear, “and out,” Wonwoo says as he fiddles with something on Mingyu’s ear.
He feels like his left ear is on fire. Mingyu can’t help but tear up a little at the pain.
“What was that?” He questions, looking up at Wonwoo with teary eyes.
Wonwoo looks at his face to answer but suddenly stops moving. He jerks back to life after a second.
“That’s me putting the piercing in,” he answers, throwing away the needle and cleaning up the station.
“That hurt so much worse than the needle going in,” Mingyu unconsciously pouts.
Wonwoo chuckles deeply and hands him the mirror again.
“Now you look cuter though,” He replies, adding a wink on top of the heart-stuttering comment.
Mingyu burns up again.
“Thank you,” He mumbles, furrowing into his hoodie a little while examining the piercing. It does look good. Mingyu is glad he went through with the dare.
_
They walk up in silence to the counter to process Mingyu’s payment. Wonwoo should regret teasing and flirting at Mingyu on top of the man already being nervous but he is just so damn cute it makes him want to tease him more. No man that tall and built should be blushing up a storm and pouting so cutely. And those teary eyes looking up at him. God, he’s so perfect.
“First piercing will be on the house,” Wonwoo says as he gets behind the counter.
Mingyu looks at him in surprise. He looks so cute with those wide sparkling eyes.
“What? No! I’ll pay,” He rebuts, digging for his wallet.
Wonwoo smirks. Hook, line, and sinker.
“I’ll take your number as payment then,” Wonwoo says nonchalantly, the smirk still on his face.
Mingyu’s head snaps up so fast Wonwoo is kind of concerned for him. He blushes cherry red again.
“H-huh?” is all he gets out.
“Or you take mine, I don’t mind. I can just text you the aftercare info, easier right?” Wonwoo pushes again.
“Um, okay,” Mingyu replies, looking down, worrying his bottom lip again.
Wonwoo looks at him, now feeling a little bit bad for pushing too hard.
“You don’t actually have to, you know? We have these flyers to tell you the aftercare,” He says kindly.
Mingyu curls in on himself but tries to meet Wonwoo’s gaze.
“N-no I’d like the number, please,” He says sweetly.
He’s too good to be true.
Wonwoo can’t help the grin on his face.
“What a good boy, here’s your present,” He teases, handing Mingyu a namecard with his number on it.
Mingyu blushes even brighter if that’s even possible, rips the card out of his hands, and flees out of the parlor, all in three seconds. Wonwoo laughs at the spectacle before chasing after him.
“Mingyu! You forgot something!” He yells at the pink figure trying to cross the street.
Mingyu faces him again, blotches of red still blooming high on the apple of his cheeks.
“Here, the saline solution for the aftercare,” Wonwoo explains, handing over the small spray bottle.
“Oh, thank you,” Mingyu says as he looks down and takes the item. Wonwoo gives in to his impulse and dives in for a small peck on that ruddy cheek.
“Ung?!” Mingyu lets out cutely in response to the kiss.
“Don’t forget to text me, okay?” Wonwoo walks backwards to the store as he winks.
Mingyu is glad he went through with the dare.