BIA Ch. 67

“When you come to a tourist spot, you get a little excited. You end up doing things you wouldn’t normally do.”

“It’s like a brief escape. I think that’s the virtue of a vacation, in many ways.”

What should I do? Isaiah started to worry. He had only planned to take a quick look around and leave, but after talking with Bona, he somehow felt like he was leaning more and more towards doing it… should I do it, wouldn’t it be okay to do it?

“The procedure depends on the design, but it won’t take more than an hour and a half at most. The color will slowly fade after a week, and it’ll be almost completely gone in two weeks.”

Bona spoke as if she had read Isaiah’s mind. At this point, there was no reason to hesitate any longer.

“I’ll do it.”

Isaiah said with a determined look on his face.

“Give me your coat and jacket. I’ll hang them up.”

Bona smiled and held out her hand. Isaiah took off his coat first and handed it to her.

“That’s a really nice coat.”

Bona whistled as soon as she received the coat.

“Is it?”

“Yes. This feels like real cashmere. Isn’t it expensive?”

“I don’t know. It’s not my coat.”

“Ah, that’s why it looked a little big.”

Then is it maybe your boyfriend’s? Bona asked as she hung the coat on a hanger on one side of the store. Instead of answering, Isaiah smiled and took off his jacket, handing it over. Bona hung Isaiah’s jacket on a hanger as well and then approached the table.

“Have you chosen a design?”

She asked as she sat down in the chair opposite Isaiah.

“Ah, I want to do lettering.”

“Really? What kind of lettering? Do you have a specific phrase in mind?”

“It’s a bit long. It’s kind of like a prayer, but I don’t remember it exactly right now.”

Isaiah recited the sentence from Bran’s tattoo as it came to mind.

“So that’s not the exact sentence? Maybe we can find it online.”

“Maybe, but I don’t have my phone right now.”

“Ah, I see. I’ll look it up, then.”

Bona connected to Google on the laptop at the counter and started searching using a few keywords from the sentence Isaiah had told her.

“It’s called the Serenity Prayer.”

“Ah, really? Is it a prayer?”

“I don’t know much about it, but it’s not an official prayer used in churches. It was created by a theologian named Reinhold Niebuhr. But it seems like it’s been used in various places and has many different versions. Look here.”

As Bona said, the prayer was being used in quite a few different forms. Bran’s tattoo was the shortest, most condensed version, but it also had a rhythm to it.

“This is it. Please do this one.”

“Should I do it in four lines like this?”

“Yes.”

“Where will you get it? On your arm? Or your chest?”

Isaiah paused to think. It was winter, so there was no chance of wearing revealing clothes, and honestly, this was more of a one-time event to show Bran. But if he got it in the same place as him, it would only look good if he had a firm, muscular chest like Bran. Otherwise, it would look rather pathetic.

Once he ruled out his chest, the answer was obvious. It had to be his back. After all, to get a four-line lettering tattoo, you needed a certain amount of space so it wouldn’t look cramped. More than anything, he really liked how Bran kept kissing his back when they did it from behind earlier. The thought of Bran touching the same tattoo as his, smiling as if he couldn’t help himself, and then kissing it, felt incredibly romantic.

“Can I get it on my back?”

“Your back?”

“Yes. On my left back.”

“Your back, huh.”

Bona mumbled, crossing her arms.

“Is it difficult?”

“No, it’s my favorite area.”

Bona grinned, revealing her white teeth. It was a smile that showed confidence.

“It’s easy to work on if the clients cooperate well. And most of all, it looks really cool when it’s finished.”

Bona opened a design book and asked him to choose the font he wanted. Isaiah chose a clean font that looked the most similar to Bran’s tattoo.

While Bona went to hang a sign on the front door saying that they were working, Isaiah moved to the treatment room inside. As he sat on the treatment bed and started to take off his shirt, Isaiah belatedly stopped.

‘His skin is really fair. And the marks are quite severe.’

That was why Bran’s words from the morning had just come to mind. He had even left new marks after that.

“Why aren’t you taking it off?”

Bona, who had entered the procedure room, said while putting on latex gloves. She looked at Isaiah hesitating and joked,

“Ah, is it because of your acne?”

“It’s okay. I have them too. Everyone who comes here wears them like badges. You don’t have to be shy.”

Isaiah felt relieved at Bona’s easygoing manner and took off his shirt. But when Bona actually saw Isaiah’s back, she looked a little surprised and said,

“You’re unexpectedly a tough guy.”

At first, Isaiah thought she was teasing him about the kiss marks left on his back. But if that were the case, the subject should have been ‘your lover’ instead of ‘you.’ That would have been more natural.

“When did you get this? It looks quite old.”

Only then did Isaiah realize that Bona was talking about something completely different.

“What are you talking about?”

“This.”

Bona held up a hand mirror behind him, reflecting Isaiah’s back. Isaiah saw his back reflected in the hand mirror through the large wall mirror across from him.

“Ah……”

He knew what Bona was talking about as soon as he saw it. Below his left shoulder blade, a scar was visible among the mottled bruises. It was a small, round scar, and the mark was so clear that anyone could tell it was a gunshot wound.

He didn’t know he had a scar in such a place. No one had ever told him, and he never looked at his back in the mirror when showering, so there was no way he would have noticed it himself.

I was shot before.

As he was looking into the mirror with a slightly dazed feeling, Bona raised her eyebrows silently. Only then did Isaiah realize that he hadn’t answered her question, and he laughed and mumbled.

“Uh, well… I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

“Hmm, that can happen. I’m like that a lot these days too. There are times when I don’t remember what happened yesterday.”

He had said that because he really didn’t remember, but Bona seemed to think that Isaiah was reluctant to talk about the topic, and she naturally changed the subject.

“Then, where should we do the tattoo? Usually, people get it on the shoulder blade. To be exact, here on the outside of the shoulder blade, here where it’s called the infraspinatus.”

Bona pointed out the location with her hand. Since the lettering was quite large, it seemed like it would naturally cover the scar if it was placed there. That didn’t matter, but…

“Isn’t it hard to dye scars?”

“Not really. There are many people who get tattoos specifically to cover up scars.”

“Then, that’s good.”

Once the location was decided, the rest went smoothly. Isaiah lay face down on the procedure bed as Bona instructed. While wiping the area to be treated with an alcohol swab, Bona said, as if relieved,

“It’s good that you don’t have much hair on your back. Sometimes, there are guys who have hair like a mane. Then I have to start with hair removal, which is quite annoying.”

The expression ‘like a mane’ made him laugh, and Bona sternly warned, “Laugh all you want now. But you can’t laugh during the procedure later.”

After disinfecting, Bona used a printer to print something out. It was a film sheet with the prayer lettering design printed on it. She pressed the film sheet with ink on his back, leaving a faint mark.

“Is the location okay?”

Bona showed his back in the mirror and asked.

“It’s good. It already looks cool?”

“It’ll look much cooler when it’s finished.”

Then, Bona brought a dye made by mixing henna powder and natural oil and changed her gloves again. While writing the letters on Isaiah’s back with a special brush and pen, Bona asked,

“By the way, how old are you?”

“Thir…, thirty-one.”

“Really?”

Bona was so surprised that she even stopped working and asked again.

“You don’t look it. I thought you were a college student.”

“No way.”

“Really. Are you a soldier?”

“No, I’m not.”

Isaiah strongly denied it. Of course, what he did might be similar, but anyway, it wasn’t, so it wasn’t.

Bona continued to ask questions from time to time while working. Actually, she wanted to ask about his boyfriend, but since there were so many kiss marks all over his body, she couldn’t bring herself to ask. It felt like it could easily become sexual harassment.

“It’s done.”

Fortunately, the work was completed while they were talking about this and that. After drying it with a machine for about thirty more minutes and removing the paste, it was finally over.