They are all waiting for her answer of what Aeon she is; her lips feel dry and she keeps taking a look at both Yeosang and Seonghwa briefly from the corner of her eyes, silently pleading for help. She opens her mouth again when no sound comes out from the first bid, but the second one only hears a croak arising from her throat.

"Why does it matter anyway? Once she's in our team, things like Aeons don't matter. Plus you know that system's bullshit," Yeosang jumps in, nodding slightly at Byul as a sign of reassurance. She looks visibly relieved as he came in to the rescue.

"Why did you ask that question? You know I hate hearing that word," Seonghwa expresses to Akira, but his voice is soft, giving the opposite of the impression of him being angry.

"Because I know you hate it; if you're angry you'll leave this parlor and leave me alone," Akira replies jokingly, already turning around to head to the back. "I need to finish this book before we get another customer. And stop pouting, you look like a gigantic ugly duck."

"Did you just call me an ugly duck?"

"I'm glad your hearing is still intact. Now go or you're going to scare our customers away."

"But you already have a customer." He pulls her hand, purposely making her lose balance and land against his chest. Taken by surprise, she doesn't have time to react as she loses her grip on the book and it falls to the floor.

"Ugh, how much longer do I have to witness this?" Yeosang says as he looks on through his fingers, already feeling like he's going to bring Byul out of the parlor and leave this instant. It's too bad the car key is with Seonghwa or he'll zoom out of here as fast as he can. "This is making me feel nauseous."

"Really? You're here to get a tattoo on your own will?" Emira asks again, looking at Byul. "Not because they threatened you or something?"

"Hey," Yeosang protests.

"Nah, I was just joking. Of course I'd love to get one."

"What kind of tattoos are you planning on getting, and where? I don't think you're planning on getting them on your arms or legs since I can see some bandages sticking out," Akira walks past Seonghwa and approaches Byul.

"Anywhere but there," she replies, bringing her sleeves down further to completely cover the bandages.

"If you say so, I'll gladly do it. You two hooligans go and have a date while I draw. Only come back when you're needed," Akira pulls Seonghwa's hand and links it with Yeosang's, pushing them out of the tattoo parlor while they are hand-in-hand. Making sure the door is closed and that the two men are no longer in sight, she turns to Byul.

"Now that those two are gone, you can talk to us freely, we don't bite. You're not a new recruit are you? Were you one of their targets, or involved in a mission went wrong?"

When Byul remains silent, Akira guides her to take a seat and sits beside her.

"Were you being forced to stay with them?" she asks again. "If you are, you can tell us."

Byul shakes her head fervently, trying to cut off the suspicions as quickly as how she brought the topic up. "I wasn't forced into anything; they did nothing like that. Fine, it's true that I'm not a new recruit and that I was accidentally involved with them, but they weren't bad to me. I'm pretty sure that you know them well and if you're being suspicious of them, then you're just making me worried when I wasn't before. And don't you at least trust Seonghwa?"

Akira lets out a sharp breath at the mention of her trust towards Seonghwa, and the ghost of a sad smile appears on her lips.

"It's because I trust Seonghwa that I'm asking you. I know them well enough to know you're not a new recruit and that you were not even a trainee there." She takes a look at Byul's face, unsure of how far she knows.

Taken by her soft coaxing and the fact that the men trust her, Byul accedes. She spills about what caused her involvement with these men, and up to her uncertain position in the group. She finds herself burying her face in her hands by the end of her story, with a cup of hot tea served by Emira for her and Akira's hand patting her back.

"They are good guys by default," Akira comments. "But they're also the bad guys for what they do. You need to remember that. I know that you were left with no choice but getting involved with them can be dangerous. You don't know-"

"I know how dangerous it is," she finally says. "Your- friends, colleagues or members; I don't know in what way you're involved with them, but I'm not as oblivious as they think I am. If you think I'm willingly involving myself into something that I'm completely blind about, I'm not. I know what the Bifidensis is, the process of people getting recruited there and what happens inside there. I know just how dark and twisted everything is. I do believe that both of you mean well, but I know."

Akira and Emira look at each other, caught by surprise by her revelation.

"I'm tired of them thinking that I'm stupid but if I ever revealed to them what I know they'll lose their trust in me. They'll start thinking that I was sent over to them on purpose, when some of them are already doubting me from the get-go and I can't do anything about it. All this because of my shitty luck being Han Byul. I thought that I'd get a fresh start once I-" she cuts herself off, realizing how much she is revealing to a stranger.

"If you're not one of the trainees there, how do you know about them?"

Byul presses her lips together, resolved in how far she's going to reveal herself. This is as far as she's going to tell, when she's been doing a good job in keeping everything about herself away from the spotlight. The only thing she needs right now is trust, but her attempts always fall short when something that challenges it keep popping up.

"Were you one of the trainees there?" Byul redirects the question to Akira, which seems to baffle her when she doesn't expect her to counter.

Emira sticks out her lower lip, impressed by how Byul is navigating the problem, refusing to answer her sister's question. She becomes a spectator for the meet between both of them; if one knows no better it could have looked like they are fighting over a guy.

"No, I wasn't," the tattooist answers truthfully, realizing how smart Byul is in turning the tables and focusing it on her instead.

"You weren't a trainee yet you know about them, and the same goes for me." She reasons out. "I don't want to break the trust they have in me, because once it happens they'll throw me away."

"You're scared they'll throw you away," Emira starts. "You just knew them for two days but you're already acting like your life depends on them."

I'm not acting like my life depends on them; I need to stay close to them because they're my only way out of my unfinished story - the compass that will bring me to the people I need to meet, is what Byul wants to say, but she's well aware of how that's going to sound to them.

"Because do you have any idea how it hurts being thrown away once people find that you're no longer of use? How painful it is to know that your worth is decided by other people, as if you're just an object being passed around?"

Every word that comes out of her mouth leaves a pungent feeling behind, for she's aware how hypocritical she is right now. Preaching about being hurt after being used, yet it's exactly what she's doing to the boys. The image of Hwayoung smiling sweetly causes tendrils of regret to coil around her heart, bringing her to another state of denial.

A state of denial where she's saying that she's not hurting anyone but herself.

"If they do find out who you are, will you be able to handle the consequences?" Akira asks, her hands laid flat on the sofa as she leans back. "They are a tightly-knit team that has a history of being betrayed by the person they thought they could trust. If any one in the team is hurt, every single one of them will turn their backs to you. Can you live with that?"

"I've lived in all kinds of conditions that you can imagine. If they do find out and they decide to throw me away, I'll have to find another way to survive, just like how I've always done."

But I won't let the secret slip out before I meet those people; I just need to stay with the boys until I find them.

After that, I'll disappear.

Akira narrows her eyes, studying Byul's body language. The latter is slowly and calmly laying out her defenses, and there's nothing the former can refute. She gives in, delivering a final reminder to her. "I trust you because the boys trust you. I'm sure they took everything into consideration when they decided to let you stay. One thing that I ask from you is don't ever hurt them. Since you know how things work over there, I'm sure that you do know that them being in the state they are now is a miracle. Living their lives like they're normal people when they've been through... hell."

A flicker of hesitation appears as she's about to give an agreement but she masks it, not wanting to let Akira's suspicion towards her rise again.

"I won't."

"Well, isn't that great to hear?" Emira chips in, pushing her sister away from their customer as the situation feels tense. She tries to bring the topic away, swiping up their design portfolio from the counter and putting it down on Byul's lap. She flips open the file, pointing at random designs as she asks, "What kind of tattoo would you like to get? Abstracts? Some quotes you like? Flowers like mine? Or some couple tattoos like what my sister has?"

"Stop it Emira." Akira brings her hands up automatically, putting her palms against her cheek that's getting redder by the second.

"But don't you think it's sweet?" Emira tries with all her might to break the tension between them, even if it means making her sister embarrassed. After all, what are sisters for? "Both her and Seonghwa have matching tattoos," she squeals. She pulls her sister's arm, showing the tattoo of the dragon for better view. "The dragon she has here represents Seonghwa, while that dude... let me see..." she trails off, trying to remember. "Ah, he has the tattoo of a dragon on his back, and it's supposed to represent my lovely sister right here."

"Emira," she growls, but she doesn't take the hint.

"You know what's sweeter? Both of them tattooed the dragons onto each other when they were-"

"Emira!" she exclaims, this time not being so subtle in trying to stop her. "Stop talking about Seonghwa and me. That's enough."

"But I just wanted to break the tension a bit..."

"You're not helping at all. Han Byul, if you've decided on what kind of tattoo you're going to get, come into the room on the furthest left. I'll wait for you there." She stands up, leaves with an annoyed expression and parts the curtain that leads into her working area.

"Gah, she's so scary when she's mad," Emira complains. "Both her and Seonghwa are a perfect match, 'cause-" she shudders and closes her eyes, "-you don't want to see them mad."

Emira spends another few minutes flipping through their multiple portfolios, but Byul is not focusing on the pages. Her mind is wandering, unable to stay put in one place.

She knows the rules the Bifidensis has set for them, most likely as much as the men are aware of it, but so far this team she has stumbled upon seems to be breaking every rule in the book there is.

Anyone from outside of the team must not know about their identities, yet here they are, talking casually about their lives to someone who weren't trainees like them.

Anyone who's not supposed to find out their identities needs to be eliminated, but they spared her life because of their... conscience?

No relationships with anyone outside of their team can be established, but Seonghwa and Akira are the proof of something the opposite. Yunho and Hwayoung are another example of a relationship that wasn't supposed to exist.

The Bifidensis supposedly has ultimate power over them, but this team of 8 men are ruling the game like they are the kings. They act like there is no one above them to give orders, that this is their jungle.

Is the Bifidensis lax in securing the rules they have towards this particular team?

She finds it weird how they are breaking the rules but they have managed to avoid from being found out all this time, because she knows how stringent the Bifidensis is in carrying out the punishment for those who go against the rules. It can either mean that these men are really good at hiding them - but the Bifidensis has eyes everywhere, or...

The Bifidensis knows all about them but have decided to not take any action against them. But why; because ATEEZ is a team they value the most? What makes them different them than the other teams the Bifidensis have put together?

"Are you done picking out the tattoo that you want?" Akira pokes her head in between the curtain, her hands already gloved. Her interruption manages to halt Byul's train of thoughts and mindlessly, she saunters over to the room where she is waiting at.

Byul's thoughts about the 8 men continue as she puts down herself on the chair, her back towards Akira. Like a robot, she pulls the hoodie over her head to expose her back, without even telling what kind of tattoo she wants to get or even where she wants the ink to go. Her mind is too occupied that it only occurs to her that the room is quiet, without even the whirring sound of the machine. She looks over her shoulder to take a peek at Akira, whose eyes are downcast, staring at somewhere at her lower back.

Akira stares long at Byul's exposed back, her gloved hand lowering down the machine. She discards the machine behind her, and the sound of gloves being pulled off her hands resonates through the room.

Byul's back is littered with old burn marks, but where there aren't scars, tattoos cover them. Her whole back is a canvas of tattoos and scarred skin.

"You already have them," Akira says, sounding like it's buoying between informing and surprise. "Why were you acting as if you never had a tattoo in your life?"

Byul snaps out of her trance as the tattooist points this out, quickly dressing herself back, although it's pointless because Akira locks her hand in place. She only manages to slide down the hoodie until it covers her ribcage, exposing half of her lower back.

"They just seemed so excited-" she fumbles over her words when she knows that she only sounds like she's making excuses. "They never actually asked about whether I already had tattoos-"

Akira studies one particular tattoo the longest before she lets go of her hand that's locking Byul's. It's a tattoo on the flesh at her tailbone; the image of a sword pointing downwards, its blade wrapped with creeping flowers. It's a symbol that is very familiar to her, one that puts up an immediate warning sign the moment she sees it.

But that was years ago.

She wheels back her chair, as if she's trying to get away from her customer. She grabs the gloves and dumps them into the trashcan, almost tripping over the legs of the table on the floor.

Byul pulls the hoodie to completely cover her body and reaches out to stop Akira from storming out of the room. She doesn't know what caused the tattooist to react like that but she needs to set things straight before she starts spreading news that she doesn't want to be.

"The sword and flowers," Akira says, though shakily.

Byul's mouth part in defence, but her brows furrow.

If she's scared of the tattoo, that means she knows what it represents. If she knows, she can find out who I am. If she knows that means we could have been affiliated some time in the past... but I don't remember meeting her anywhere before this.

The tattooist continues almost accusingly, "You are a part of them."

---

[A/N: Hello I'm done with my tests so now I'm currently somewhat free (I still have a ton of assignments but let's just forget about that for a moment okay).]