The tattoo place wasn't so much a tattoo place as it was Jisoo's friends apartment. But it was clean, and neat, and the studio itself was pristine and clean and the friend herself, Suzy, was perky and preppy and very fun to talk to.
Jennie was nervous, as she ought to be, and Jisoo thought it was absolutely adorable.
"Don't worry babe, it'll be just fine."
"Okay, so you want a leg piece and one on your back, right?"
Jennie nodded. "Are we doing both today, or-?"
"I think it's best we start with one. I'd suggest the leg one, but it's your choice."
"Let's do the leg then."
Suzy let out a laugh and patted Jennie's knee gently. "Don't be so nervous, it'll be just fine. You've got a fine wife to comfort you, and I've got Oreos and I can put something on Netflix if you want, though you won't see much since you'll be on your back mostly."
Jennie smiled, but was unable to conceal her nerves. "It's still a bit scary."
"The sound can be a bit scary," Suzy admitted, "D'ya have good noise-canceling headphones?"
Jennie nodded, and Jisoo tapped her shoulder lightly to draw her attention. "You can finish listening to that dull audio book you've been listening to for ages."
Jennie let out a laugh. "It's not dull."
"It sounds like it."
"And it's not an audio book, it's a lecture on Plato's later theories and their prevalence in the philosophical theories of the early-"
"Yeah, yeah," Jisoo laughed, "I didn't ask for you to give me the whole lecture. It's cute that you like smart stuff like that."
"Says you, who just picked up Lisa's physics book and read it through in one go?"
"What? It was interesting!"
"Jisoo, even I couldn't get through that one."
"It was a theory on the very existence of our universe. Now that's interesting."
"Sure, sure."
"Alright, so, I'm just going to get started with the stencil- how about you lie down here, okay?"
Jennie was a little tense, but Jisoo sat down next to her and laid a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle rub. "It's not going to hurt, it's just drawing the pattern on your skin first. Alright?"
Jisoo could see Jennie was a little pale, and gave her a hand to hold. "This isn't the painful part."
"This is a little freaky."
"You'll be fine."
Once the stencil was done with, Suzy brought out a mirror and allowed Jennie the time she wanted to look it over and really think it through.
"So, what do you think? You wanna do this?" Jisoo asked, smiling gently.
Jennie looked at her leg for one last time before nodding. "Ok. Let's do this."
Suzy had her lie on her stomach at first as she got started. The anticipation of the pain was more agonizing to Jennie as the pain itself, which came as a surprise – she jolted just slightly, but kept her leg still, and her hand tightened around Jisoo's for a brief moment before easing up again.
"Good," Suzy told her, "Stay relaxed. If you keep tense for the whole time, you'll be exhausted by the time we're done."
"You were right about the noise," Jennie muttered, "It's terrifying."
"You wanna drown it out with Plato?" Jisoo asked. Jennie nodded, and Jisoo reached over to give her the headphones, never letting go of Jennie's hand when she did. She leaned in to kiss her cheek gently before putting the earphones into Jennie's ears and finding the right track on Jennie's phone. Jennie settled back down and rested her head on her arm, tilted so that she could look at Jisoo, and Jisoo saw her jaw was clenched.
If she was in pain, she only barely showed it.
Jisoo laid back, hand still clasped with Jennie's, and started on her sketch. By the time Suzy was done, Jisoo had finished four different sketches of Jennie's face, all with different expressions; at first, Jennie had looked tense and slightly in pain, but then she'd closed her eyes and looked almost peaceful. After about an hour Jennie grew tired, and Jisoo saw this and offered her a little break – Suzy came over and they chatted for awhile before they returned to the eternal buzzing and the little stinging, burning pain on Jennie's leg. At times, Suzy asked Jisoo over to check on colors, and some were changed because she'd come up with a better one – no major changes, just slight changes in tints and tones so that the final outcome was a beautifully vibrant and elegant flowering vine wrapping around Jennie's calf, with different colors matched perfectly along the black stem and outlines.
When Suzy was finally done, almost two hours had passed, and Jennie was tired to say the least. Of course, she didn't say it, not until Suzy finally patted her other leg and said: "There we go. All done."
Jennie let out a groan. "Fuck, that hurt."
"Really?" Jisoo laughed. "Didn't seem like it, you took it like a champ."
"I'm good at keeping quiet," Jennie smirked. "Now lemme see it."
Suzy showed it to her from a mirror, and Jennie grinned at the sight. "It's great."
"It'll look even better when it's healed over, I promise you. Jisoo's got an eye for tattoo designing, gotta say."
"For the last time, I will never take up that gun-looking thing. I like drawing and designing as much as you do, but hurting people is another thing."
Suzy smirked at that. "You know me – the resident sadist."
Jisoo rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder why we're friends."
"Ok, now your turn. Take your shirt off," Suzy smirked. "A carnation, was it?"
"Let's touch up my back first and then talk about the new one."
Jisoo's tattoos took about an hour in total, and Jisoo held Jennie's hand because the tattoo she got kinda really hurt. The carnation she ended up getting on her ribs, laid out horizontally right under her right boob – Jennie's favorite boob, as she liked to joke, and after she told Suzy that Jennie had gone bright red and muttered her to shut up, only resulting in Jisoo continuing on to joke about it a little while longer before Jennie shoved an Oreo into her mouth to shut her up.
"You two are like every cheesy romcom wrapped up into one," Suzy laughed, "It's disgusting. I get why Lisa comments 'vom' on every single one of your IG pictures."
"She's got a stellar sense of humor," Jisoo replied. "But she's just as gross with Chaeyoung. If not even worse."
"There's no way anyone could be worse than you two."
"I'd say – ah, shit, that hurt – that Lisa's a worse sap than us. You should see them, refusing to leave bed for days on end, a mess of legs and arms and grumbled 'go away, Jisoos'."
"From what I understand, you two do the exact same."
"Okay, maybe we do," Jisoo grinned, glancing at Jennie, focused on her book. "But it's great."
"I know it is. Now, you wanted pink, right?"
When Jisoo's tattoo was done and she had her shirt on again, they settled the payment and thanked Suzy before going out.
Right outside the door, however, Jennie grabbed Jisoo's waist and captured her lips in a fiery kiss that stole her breath away for a good long while.
"What was that for?" Jisoo asked when she finally regained her breath. "Not that I'm complaining, but-"
"I love you," Jennie shrugged, "And I love the tattoo I got, and I love your tattoo, and I'm just really happy."
Jisoo raised an eyebrow. "You seem hyper."
"Maybe I am."
"You're weird."
"Come on, let's go look at cars to rent."
"Rent? I thought we were going to buy one."
Jennie shook her head. "Too complicated. We'll buy one from Cali, I don't and will never understand why we can't have universal emission standards in this country."
"Fair enough."
"Can we pick up ribs on our way home?"
"Sure, but only if you buy me a coffee from the cafe next to the restaurant. Their coffee is divine."
"Deal."
*****
The doorbell rang the next day at 8am sharp.
Jisoo and Jennie were all ready by then, which was rare for a weekend morning, but when an enthusiastic Lisa Manoban tells you to suit up and come paintballing, there's no saying no.
"Morning, lovebirds!" Lisa said chirpily. "Chaeyoung's napping in the car. Don't disturb her or she'll murder me – her exact words. Come on, we'll grab breakfast on the way."
And so they set off, piled into Lisa's car on that Sunday morning, and headed down to Long Island to the place Lisa had found online. It only took them four missed turns and about twenty minutes of being utterly lost to finally find the place, a shed in front of a large field lined by forest on one side and a river on the other.
"Losers take a dip in the river!" Lisa suggested, and after some grumbled complaints, it was settled that nobody was going to take a dip in the river.
"Okay, so how does this work?" Jisoo asked after they'd gotten their gear and basic instructions. "Teams?"
"We've got three games, each half an hour approximately. They said we'll probably take forty-five minutes per game, so we'll see." Jennie said, "So three different team-ups? To make it fair?"
Lisa was hyped, as was everyone else, but Lisa was definitely on a whole other level. "That sounds great, but get this – individual scores. The one who's out first gets no points, second out gets one point, third out gets two points, and the last one in each game gets three. The ultimate winner in the end's the one with the most points. That sound good?"
There were nods and muttered words of approval, and Lisa looked very satisfied with herself. "Alright. Flip a coin for who gets who?"
"We could just start as couples," Chaeyoung suggested, "See how this works out."
"Alright. Any additional rules?"
"No shooting me under my right boob," Jisoo declared. "And I'd like it if you avoided my back, too."
"Yeah, and my leg, too. Try to not shoot it." Jennie added. "Still hurts a little."
"Alright, good. Shoot me in the ass and I'll give you a high five, then murder you," Lisa said. "And start?"
"We'll go to our individual sides of the playing field and they'll sound it off when it starts."
"Sounds good."
Jisoo and Jennie walked off to their own end while Chaeyoung and Lisa went to the other, hurrying their steps.
"We gotta kick their asses," Jisoo told Jennie, "I can't lose to Lisa. She will gloat forever."
"You take care of Lisa, I'll take Chaeyoung."
"You good?"
"Good."
"Ok. You're faster than me, so I think you should get the flag."
"We'll think when we get there."
There was a quick siren sound across the playing field, which was probably the size of a football field, half set in the forest, half in the field outside the woods. Jisoo set off behind Jennie, and together they moved slowly and surely towards the other end of the field, guns in hand and ready to shoot.
Chaeyoung was the first one out. One well-timed shot from Jennie's gun, and she was down before she even had the chance to realize that Jennie was there. But in the mess of that, Lisa got a shot in, barely missing Jennie but hitting Jisoo in the shoulder – she couldn't see Lisa anywhere, but the satisfied 'ha!' was confirmation enough that she'd been the one to fire the shot.
Jisoo and Chaeyoung moved out of the way, leaving Jennie and Lisa to fight it out on their own.
Ten minutes later, Lisa emerged from the woods looking annoyed, paint splattered across her goggles and face.
Jennie grinned victoriously and celebrated with a kiss from Jisoo. "Shot her fair and square. Didn't even see me coming!"
"That's because you shot me in the face!" Lisa interjected. "Round two. Jisoo, you're with me."
"You're going down," Jennie taunted Lisa. "You wouldn't shoot your girlfriend."
"Would you shoot your wife?"
Jisoo smirked, and Jennie realized there was a fair chance she wouldn't dare to pull the trigger.
Turns out, she definitely did falter. And in that moment, with Jisoo running towards her, that little moment of hesitation was all it took for Jisoo to get a shot in, hitting her square in the chest - a satisfied cry left her lips, and Jennie groaned, embarrassed at being the first one out. "Sorry, babe," Jisoo grinned. But then there was an agonized cry from the other side, one which they recognized easily as Lisa.
"Looks like Chaeyoung got the hang of it," Jisoo said quickly before darting off towards the place where she knew the flag was hidden.
She didn't get far before Chaeyoung's shot painted her ass pink.
"Looks like I win," Chaeyoung said coolly, offering Jisoo a hand from where she'd stumbled and fallen. "And we're teamed up next, I believe."
Jisoo nodded. "We'll see how Jennie and Lisa deal with us. We might actually die."
"Stick with me and you'll be fine," Chaeyoung smirked. "Lisa's got one tactic, and I've learned it in these two short games we've played."
"Jennie's smart, though."
"True."
The last game was the most eventful of the three.
Jisoo was out first, from Lisa's shot, hitting her in the left boob in a way that caused her to yelp. Jennie rushed past her, after offering an apologetic glance and a muttered 'sorry, gotta win first' before she was off again. Five minutes passed, and nothing happened – ten more, and Jisoo was sure they'd all killed one another. But then all three emerged, Chaeyoung with Lisa's orange paint on her thigh and a murderous glare in her eyes, and Jisoo realized the game was at a tie.
"So what, you two split the points?" She asked.
"No way! We're tied as it is." Lisa complained. "I suggest a duel."
"A duel?"
"A draw, whatever the thing they do in Wild West movies all the time. Twenty steps, then we stop, Jisoo calls it, and we turn and shoot."
"Alright," Jennie nodded. "You're on."
They did as Lisa had described, walked twenty paces from one another, and stopped for the briefest of moments – Jisoo took a breath, and waited, and then – yelled.
"Go!"
There were two loud pops, and for a moment, it was unclear who'd shot who.
But then there was a cry from Lisa, and Jennie made a little hop of joy when she saw the bright red of her paint splattered across Lisa's chest, not a speck of orange on her own person.
"I won!"
Lisa groaned, evidently ashamed. "Fucking shit."
"You came in a close second," Jennie comforted her, "But I came in first. Naturally."
"Hey, don't get cocky."
"What? I obviously have a talent for killing people."
Jisoo laughed. "Jennie, last night we watched half an episode of AHS and you almost cried because you were so scared."
"Oh my god, I knew it!" Lisa cried. "All badass on the outside and a softie on the inside."
"Shut up. I still won."
Jennie shot Lisa a glare, but Jisoo just walked over and rewarded her wife with a kiss. "Congrats on winning, babe," she murmured. "And now we gotta get ourselves some lunch, wouldn't you say?"
"Yes, please, I'm starving."
Chaeyoung was currently cleaning Lisa's goggles, a satisfied smirk on her face, and they could hear little grumbled curses spilling from Lisa's lips.
"When're we gonna tell them?" Lisa asked, her voice low and quiet. She thought Jisoo and Jennie couldn't hear her, but they could.
"At lunch," Chaeyoung replied quietly.
"Tell us what?" Jisoo asked.
"Yeah, what?"
Lisa looked at Chaeyoung in panic. "Um...in the car, okay? Let's return the gear first."
"No, first we take a picture," Jisoo decided. "I'm loving this color scheme and it deserves to go into the collage."
"Of course it does."
After returning the gear and deciding on a place to eat, they piled into the car and drove off towards a beachside restaurant Jisoo and Jennie had once discovered on a date-day.
"Now, what was it that you two wanted to tell us?" Jennie asked. "You married yet?"
Lisa snorted. "No."
"Wow, you couldn't sound any less interested in being married to me," Chaeyoung said, feigning hurt.
"Oh, no, babe, I just-"
"I'm kidding, Jesus. You tell them."
"Me?"
"Yes, you. Tell them."
"But-"
"Please, for the love of God, someone tell us!" Jisoo cried.
"Okay, keep your pants on, Jichu my love," Lisa replied. "Okay, so, um...we're sort of moving to Papua New Guinea for a year with Doctors Without Borders."
As expected, Jennie wasn't too phased. Jisoo, on the other hand, was very shocked.
"Wait, what? We? You and Chaeyoung?"
"Yes, we. Chaeyoung and I."
"But you're not a doctor!?"
"They need engineers and mechanics too," Lisa shrugged, keeping her eyes on the road. "I didn't think I'd get it, but I did. And we're going."
"When?"
"July."
"That's so soon!"
"I know."
"Lisa, you're moving halfway across the world!"
"Think of it this way," Lisa began, glancing over her shoulder briefly to offer Jisoo a smile, "Papua New Guinea's closer to San Francisco than it is to New York."
"That doesn't help, Lisa."
"You'd miss me?"
"Shut up, you idiot, of course I'd miss you."
"Well, I'm going. And Chaeyoung is too. But we'll be back in a year."
"This is so sudden."
"I know, I'm sorry-" Lisa sighed. "Chaeyoung, you're quiet. And Jennie?"
"What?" Jennie asked. "I'm used to this. So long as you mail me and call me every other day, we'll be fine. It's not like I could stop you. You love doing these gigs. But after that year you're staying for at least year here."
Chaeyoung laughed. "Fair deal. And besides, you two will be in San Francisco anyway, so..."
"You'll be gone for Thanksgiving! And Christmas!" Jisoo realized. "Shit, Lisa, I know I tell you to fuck off a lot, but I didn't actually mean it..."
"Jichu my wifey, 'tis only a year," Lisa chirped. "And I shall return."
"You better come back in one piece or I will murder your ass."
"I'll come back in one piece, I've got my hottie doc to stitch me up."
Chaeyoung smacked Lisa for that. "You're not going to do anything that'd result in you needing stitches. Promise?"
"Geez, yes, I promise."
"Good."
"Now, who's hungry? 'Cause I think we're here."
They parked, and got out of the car, but before Lisa could even say a thing, Jisoo had engulfed her in a hug.
"Um, okay..." Lisa began when Jisoo had hugged her for a while. "Look, Jisoo, I love you, but Chaeyoung's glaring at me and Jennie looks moderately jealous, so..."
Jisoo withdrew then, and shot the two women behind her a look that got them moving away so that she could have a moment alone with Lisa.
"You want this? The Papua New Guinea thing?"
Lisa nodded. "Yeah."
"And it'll be fun for you? Not just you tagging along with Chaeyoung?"
"No, Jisoo, it's a real mechanics job. Like, one in which I actually get to hold a wrench and use it."
Jisoo smiled at that. "Then I'm happy. But you better mail me too. And call me."
"Of course. Anything for my wifey."
"Lisa, you've gotta stop calling me that. Jennie would never admit it, but it makes her jealous."
"But don't you like her being a little jealous?"
"Lisa-"
"Fine, fine, I'll stop. Now let's go eat, I'm starving and Jennie clearly still wants to gloat about her victories."
©artsypolarbear