Soul Vine | m.yg

1: Prolouge༄

          It was a beautiful piercing, to say the least.

          Her eyes dropped to the space under it, only to find it blank. There was no title, no signature— if it weren't for the picture no one would know it existed. Eden hummed to herself as she sat back in the seat, twiddling her thumbs.

          "Oh! Sorry for the wait, can I help you?"

          Eden whipped around to see a heavily tatted, and equally heavily pierced man now perched on the edge of the front desk. His uneven brown hair was parted on the side, framing his face perfectly like someone dripped brown candle wax down his head. He smiled at her, silver balls adorning his dimples as he waited for her to speak.

          "Oh! Sorry, yeah," she stuttered out. She cringed at how soft she sounded, standing up from her seat and turning to face the newcomer properly. "I, um. I came for a piercing, please."

          The man's lips quirked into a smirk as he let his posture go loose, hunching over a bit more to prove his relaxed state. "Oh yeah? You look a little... clean to be in a shop like this. I mean, we definitely do lobe piercings but the guy who specializes in them isn't here today, so I can't promise it'll be what you want. "

          Heating under the man's teasing tone, she swallowed thickly. "No, not a lobe piercing. I was thinking of something higher on my ear— an industrial maybe?"

          "Industrial, huh..." The man muttered. He stared at the girl in front of him with a perturbed look on his face. After a few seconds, he shrugged and gestured to the wall behind her. "Those are our designs. There are a few bars in there. See anything you like?"

          The answer was easy. "Can I have the key?"

          The brunette quirked up an eyebrow, confusion shrouding his features. "The... key?" He asked, though it sounded more like a statement of disbelief than a question.

          Eden pointed behind her at the large picture in the center of the board. "This one. It doesn't have a title card like the rest."

         The man at the front desk squinted to see the picture she was referring to. Once his eyes settled, he pursed his lips.

         "That's not—"

          At the girl's disappointed face, he quickly shook his head, waving his arms around to dismiss the thought. "—a problem at all! We can do that for you no problem. I'm Namjoon, by the way. I probably should've introduced myself first. I'm the front desk guy here."

         "Nice to meet you," she said back. "I'm Eden. I'm a customer."

         Namjoon chuckled as he shifted through papers on the desk, the sight alone making Eden's heart race. "Funny," he grinned. "You're 18, right?"

          "Mhm."

          He smiled mischievously, his lip ring gleaming. "Perfect. I'll take you to the back room, I think Yoongi would love to work on this for you."

          Yoongi. The name alone sounded intimidating, and if he was half as marked up as Namjoon, then Eden knew his name would live up to its feel.