Substitute-Chapter 44

Everyone headed to the cafeteria for lunch.

But Crew Zero, along with their team leader, was taken elsewhere.

Were they seriously going to make them start ejaculating early?

They’d said it would start tomorrow, but schedules changed so often that most of them assumed it was about to happen now.

“They could at least feed us first,” Park Gunwoo grumbled. He’d received the lowest score during the honey collection, and the instructor had even said he wasn’t worth a dime. He was visibly dejected.

“You think we’ll get a bonus for this too?” Kim Yunho, on the other hand, had been praised by the instructor and now looked hopeful.

Park Gunwoo’s face twisted even more.

But instead of a training room, the Captain led them to a tattoo shop.

No way.

Jiwon immediately suspected what this was about.

“They’re not permanent tattoos. The moment the project ends, you’ll wonder if you even had one. It’ll vanish completely.”

The Captain explained that they were single-use tattoos that would last about two weeks. Then he added,

“These are special markings exclusive to our Sailors. You’re required to keep them until the end of the project, and they’ll receive special care and maintenance.”

His voice was unusually serious.

“Alright, Sailors. Take off your tops and wait.”

From the Captain’s expression, it was clear they were about to get something humiliating inked onto them.

Just like what had been on his body.

If it had been a dick tattoo, maybe it would’ve been easier to laugh it off.

He looked so normal. Who would've guessed he was completely obsessed with guys?

Jiwon clenched his jaw.

“You scared?”

Seeing Jiwon frown, Park Gunwoo assumed he was nervous.

“It stings a little, but if a coward like me could handle it, you’ll be fine.”

He lifted his shirt to show the tattoo near his pelvis. A cursive English phrase flowed along the curve of his hip.

“La Vie en Rose. It means ‘life in pink’ in French.”

“Looks good on you.”

“Yeah? I like it too.”

Park Gunwoo grinned widely.

The more Jiwon got to know him, the more he liked Park Gunwoo. He was the kind of guy Jiwon would’ve never befriended outside of a place like this.

So they all sat there shirtless in the waiting room, huddled together.

After Gwak Hyesung, the new recruit who’d joined today—Lee Jihoon—finally introduced himself. But everyone remained wary. Gwak Hyesung pretended not to notice and wrapped his arm around the newcomer’s, acting overly friendly. As if trying to frame the wariness of the others as hazing, he played up their closeness to sow discord.

“Sailor 1, Sailor 2.”

Jiwon and Kim Yunho, being numbers 1 and 2, were called first.

“They’re not gonna ink anything weird, are they?” Kim Yunho muttered, worried now after earlier asking about bonuses.

“Who knows? But even if it’s something weird, it’ll fade fast, right?”

“And if it doesn’t?”

He raised an eyebrow.

“It will,”

The masked tattooist, apparently listening to them, interjected.

“Have you ever had a tattoo before?” he asked.

Kim Yunho pointed to his left upper arm.

There was a sun there, inked in warm tones, resembling a sunflower.

The tattooist explained what kind of ink they’d be using, then showed a test tattoo on his own forearm. It consisted of five thin vertical lines, about a finger-width wide. It looked like a barcode.

“See? Look closely at the colors.”

When they stepped in closer, it turned out to be seven lines—not five. The topmost and one just below it were so faded they were nearly invisible.

“Henna?” Kim Yunho asked.

“No. This has even fewer side effects and deeper absorption.”

“Really?”

Kim Yunho reached to touch it. The tattooist nodded.

“That one’s 14 days old. The one beneath it is 12.”

“Wow. That’s freaky good.”

“Right?”

With all this proof, there wasn’t much reason to doubt it.

“Well then, shall we begin?”

There were two tattooists in total, each with an assistant.

The one who had explained the ink would be working on Jiwon.

“Can I see the design?” Kim Yunho asked from beside him.

“It’s a surprise,” his tattooist replied.

Jiwon lay down on something like a massage chair, feeling slightly nervous. He’d never even had a temporary sticker tattoo. Still, Park Gunwoo had said the pain wasn’t too bad, and he was pretty sensitive—so Jiwon figured it would be bearable.

He already had a hunch what kind of tattoo this would be, so he braced himself.

Ah. Cold.

The cotton swab soaked in disinfectant touched his nipple and areola.

Of course. Same spot as his.

The first time Jiwon had seen his body laid out on the autopsy table flashed through his mind.

Had it shocked him?

Yeah. It had.

Like their father, Jiwon had stared at his brother’s chest in silence, speechless.

“They’re not really tattooing your nipples, are they?”

He heard Kim Yunho ask beside him.

“Does it hurt?” Jiwon asked.

“Well, considering the spot, it’ll sting a bit. If it gets too bad, raise your hand.”

The tattooist sounded like a dentist. Jiwon gave a faint smile.

“Fuck, this is gonna hurt like hell,” Kim Yunho grumbled.

“No stencil. We’re going straight in.”

That was the last {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} thing the tattooist said.

The machine buzzed to life and dove for Jiwon’s right nipple.

Ngh. He gritted his teeth.

It was an ugly kind of pain—hard to describe. Every time the machine passed over his nipple, it felt like getting nerve work done at the dentist—goosebumps and chills down his spine. Sharp and prickling, all at once. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

They weren’t just using the machine. At some point, Jiwon felt an itch and peeked down to see the tattooist painting around his nipple with a thin brush.

Some kind of finishing detail?

He didn’t know. That’s all he assumed.

By the time the session ended, he couldn’t feel anything. Not because it had gotten better—because he’d gone numb.

The experienced tattooist had spent time and effort dyeing both nipples, expanding the areola until it was about three times the size of Jiwon’s natural one.

Exactly like his had been. On his chest.

Jiwon’s would at least fade. His hadn’t.

Even in death, his nipples had remained a bright, pretty pink. That color stood out even more starkly against the lifeless pallor of his body.

“There was a friend of Yoon Jisoo’s who had the same tattoo. They used to live together. That friend went missing first. Jisoo only found out later—and after some thought, came to the station himself,” the detective had said.

“They were more like sex partners than lovers. But still—they were close. So close, people called them a married couple.”

When the missing friend was never found, Jisoo had volunteered to be a witness. He refused the police’s offer for protective custody.

And what he chose instead was... becoming a homeless man on the street.

Everything he’d done had been baffling.

Why?

There had always been a why—but no answers.

Jiwon stared grimly down at his own areola and nipples, now swollen and vivid pink.

Kim Yunho, meanwhile, was ecstatic.

“Holy shit. Who thinks of this stuff? Fucking brilliant.”

He laughed like it was genius—in the best, most insane way.

“Not sure if you noticed, but my nips were like bean paste brown before. But look now—pink! Can you believe I lived this long not knowing this was possible?”

He was overjoyed.

He even asked his tattooist if they could do his dick next.

Did he smile like that, too?

Jiwon felt something twist in him.

When the two of them returned to the waiting room, the other Sailors’ faces lit up with curiosity.

“Crazy, right? In three days it turns baby pink,” Kim Yunho bragged, pushing out his chest.

“Gross,” someone muttered.

“Is it really that good?” another asked.

Whoever gave the order for this had to be a sadistic pervert. Forcing a bunch of guys to get tattoos that gave them soft pink nipples and oversized areolas—turning them into living porn dolls.

Before coming to the tattoo shop, Jiwon had been constantly aroused, overstimulated, like his brain had short-circuited.

But now, he felt calm.

Clear.

Looking down at his twisted, pornified chest, he finally remembered why he’d come here in the first place. What his purpose was.

Fucking hell. Fuck this.

He ground his teeth and chewed the inside of his cheek as he reached for his shirt.

“Stay just like that,”

The Captain stopped him.

“Huh?”

“Don’t move. We’re going straight to the studio.”

So they were going to take photos.

There was a studio here?

Probably. This place was so massive you could run three hundred-meter sprints inside it and still not cover the whole area.

Flash!

A strobe went off.

Flash! Flash!

The camera fired relentlessly at his chest. Jiwon stared straight ahead, jaw clenched, every nerve focused on the invisible eyes watching him from beyond the lens.

He left them a silent message.

I will find you. And I will destroy you.