Invaders
Foxgloves
Late afternoon; Tuesday; 18th of September; 2014 Muchangpo Beach in Boryeong-si
“What are you doing?” Dara asked Yongguk, watching in shock as he reached into his backpack and pulled out a sledgehammer.
“Do you see any other way of getting into the house?” He asked her, his eyebrows raised.
Dara wrapped her arms around herself and looked away from Yongguk. They had been freezing the entire day, due to the cold winds coming in over the sea and now it was getting dark. They needed a place to stay for the night and the beach house was the only building in sight. Maybe there was a fire place inside! Or at least blankets… and supplies. They had originally left the Inn to get supplies. After what had to have been more than five hours of walking however they had become so numb by the cold winds that Dara had almost forgotten why they had left the warmth of the Inn in the first place.
“Step back,” Yongguk warned her raising the sledgehammer.
Dara took two steps back, as Yongguk lifted up the hammer. It looked heavy, but he didn’t let out a sound. All this way he had carried the heavy thing, while Dara had carried an almost empty backpack they were hoping to stuff with supplies. He hadn’t complained once. Looking back at the afternoon they hadn’t spoken more than a few words here and there since having left the Inn.
With his remaining strength Yongguk swung the hammer and smashed it into the window, which cracked immediately but didn’t break.
“Once we’re inside we have to barricade the hole,” said Dara, “This is someone’s home after all and if they ever get back they don’t want their house full of sand and wild animals.”
Yongguk nodded, raising the hammer again. He looked tired and beaten. As though he had used up his last bit of energy.
“Let me do it!” said Dara.
Yongguk turned around and wordlessly handed her the sledgehammer. She took the heavy thing from him equally silent and then waited for him to take a few steps away from the window.
Dara was strong. She always had been. Without breaking into a sweat she could spend entire days carrying, building, rearranging, walking, dancing, painting… But now her hands were entirely numb. She didn’t feel a thing, except the weight of the hammer, as she raised and swung it.
5:13 p.m.; Saturday; 24th of March; 2012 Sarubia Art Gallery, Seoul
“Woah, what the !? What are all those people for?” asked Suyun slightly shocked as she entered the gallery.
“First of all they aren’t waist-down and second I told you it’s a body-painting event,” Dara told her friend. “It’s art, my friend. Inside these walls we try to abandon sorrow, fear and shame! It’s about trust, too, you see. You are letting yourself get painted by a total stranger. But I mean – if s scare you, you can always go home.”
“Nah,” said Suyun, waving Dara off, “I was just a little irritated at first. But I think I’ll be keeping on my bra.”
“No problem,” said Dara, “To each their own level of comfort.”
It had been one exhausting week but the day was finally there: Dara was having her first inter-active art event at the Sarubia art gallery. She was still only an apprentice at the tattoo parlor she worked at, but they had put her in charge of promotion after just one year.
“Because you are so cute!” Yunghee-unni, her mentor had told her.
It was true that there had been a significant increase in the number of visits of male customers since Dara had started her apprenticeship for Yunghee-unni’s tattoo parlor and at first Dara had been flattered and excited. One met a lot of interesting people after all – musicians, artists, writers – her kind of people. People who had decided against going down the typical road of becoming office workers and were instead living their dreams. But there were creeps, too. That came with the territory.
Anyway, Dara wanted to prove that she wasn’t just a pretty face that would mop floors and smile at customers, but that she was capable of more. This event was her big chance.
As her friend Suyun sat down on one of the spinning chairs that stood in a circle in the large high ceiling room, Dara smiled to herself. If her parents could see her now, they would probably have a heart attack. But they were save back on the Philippines, unaware of what profession Dara had chosen to pursue instead of university.
Meanwhile Suyun had taken off her jacket and shirt and sat on her spinning chair highly self-conscious.
“So, where do I put my stuff?” she asked Dara.
“I’ll take it,” said Dara, “I’ll put it in a locker and give it back to you later. Looking good by the way,” Dara commented on Suyun’s stomach.
“Thank you,” her friend smiled, “I went on that diet Yehjin recommended. I would have done more exercise instead, like you do, but I simply don’t have the time.”
“I understand,” said Dara.
“So when you got my stuff safely locked up, you’ll come back and paint on me?”
“Sorry, no. It’s gonna have to be someone you don’t know. This is a trust experiment. You already trust me, right?”
Suyun laughed.
“I’m having my doubts right now! But, hmm, can I tell them what to draw?”
“Of course.”
Suyun giggled as she looked around to see what artist was currently not painting any visitors.
“Can you send me one of your cute male artist friends?” she asked cheekily.
“Sure,” said Dara laughing.
Late Afternoon; Tuesday; 18th of September; 2014 Muchangpo Beach in Boryeong-si
Dara climbed through the broken window first, landing on glass shreds that were splattered over the floor of the unknown house. Outside the sun was sending its last orange rays over the sea and into the room Dara had just entered, illuminating the dust on the furniture and carpet. Another clangor of glass told her Yongguk had entered the house as well.
“Let’s make sure there’s really no one in here, before we start taking their stuff,” he said matter-of-factly.
Dara grumbled in reply.
“If there is someone we apologize and leave, alright? No talking about the Inn,” Yongguk continued, as he headed further into the dark living room.
“And no using that hammer against people,” said Dara.
“Of course not.”
They both knew there was no one inside the house. They had come before on one of their search tours along the beach and left small stones by all the doors. At their return today the stones had been in the exact same positions, so no one had come and gone.
Still Dara felt eerie as they explored and rummaged through the strange house. Almost as though the people in the photographs on the walls were watching their every move.
This had evidently been someone’s home, as the carefully and lovingly decorated and furnished rooms revealed. And they... had come to take stuff away that wasn’t theirs.
Once they had been through all the rooms and declared the house void of people, Yongguk got out the manually rechargeable flashlights and handed one to Dara. In numb silence they spun the flashlight handles for a few minutes and then separated again to search for supplies.
None of them addressed the fact that they would have to stay the night in the strange house and that it was impossible to get word back to the Inn to tell the others that they were fine.
Dara headed into the bathroom, while Yongguk went into the kitchen.
“Canned food,” he called shortly after.
“Toilet paper,” she called in reply, “And pads,” she said to herself.
She and the other two women at the Inn had been using kitchen towels for the past two months after they had all run out of pads and tampons. To stock up a little on large soft pads was a wonderful momentary relief.
Dara continued to search the bathroom and spotted a medicine cabinet in a back corner.
“Might have some meds,” she shouted in the direction of the kitchen.
“Good,” Yongguk called back, “Look for that Bemizine or whatever it’s called that Pae-ssi needs.”
“Looking for it right now,” said Dara rummaging through the cabinet.
“It’s not much. I’ll just take all and we’ll see what can be of use,” she thought to herself, taking the entire content of the cabinet.
She was going to look at what she had taken later with everyone at the Inn, she told herself, while stuffing the cabinet contents into her backpack. But what if there were… she wouldn’t have to share those… She opened her backpack again taking out the packages of pills, plaster and tubes. Nope, nothing. She would check the bedroom later.
5:25 p.m.; Saturday 24th of March; 2012 Sarubia Art Gallery, Seoul
Dara returned from having put Suyun’s clothes into a locker to find her friend deeply engaged in flirtations with one of the young male artists, who had volunteered to help out for the exhibition. Suyun winked at Dara and pointed at her own chest, where the artists had already painted a beautiful blue bird. Dara smiled back at her, leaned against the wall and let her eyes wonder along the room to the various visitors and artists that were painting on them.
Over in the corner by the window a round ajumma had stripped her entire upper body of her clothes was being covered in beautiful flower patterns by two girls, who were carefully painting on her voluptuous s and belly. The elderly woman who had been shy at first now had a wide smile on her face and seemed to be admiring her painted body over and over.
Dara couldn’t stop smiling. This was exactly what she had hoped for: People coming in, being a little uncomfortable at first, but finally enjoying being turned into an artwork. Almost everyone who had their body painted had volunteered to have their photograph taken and many had picked up a flyer of Yunghee-unni’s tattoo parlor. They already had a dozen photographs and there were another six people being painted right now. Only one spinning chair was empty right now. That’s where Dara was going to paint the next visitor.
She looked back at Suyun, who was still winking and pointing. It took Dara a few moments to realize that Suyun was pointing at the entrance to the gallery and turn her head herself. Another visitor was waiting by the entrance, evidently hesitant to enter. Dara nodded at her friend and then turned and walked towards the new visitor. As she came closer, the visitor took of the hood he had been wearing and she found herself eye to eye with a young man.
“Hello and welcome,” Dara said, scanning the man’s face. A lot of young people had come in today and sadly some troublemakers, too. A group of young men had come in earlier, inappropriately staring at the female guests and making ridiculous and ever-changing requests concerning what they wanted to have drawn on their bodies. Dara’s friends had gotten so annoyed they had drawn turds on the guys’ backs and send them on their way. This new arrival was by himself, but he was coincidently dressed like the pranksters had been: In loose baggy hip hop fashion. His face however showed an open and warm smile as his eyes wandered across the room.
“Hello,” he replied in a deep voice that matched the warmth of smile. Dara instantly found her suspicion fade and a smile light up her own face. “Anyone is welcome right?”
“Yep, we don’t just write that on the posters, we also mean it,” Dara replied.
“Damn,” she thought, “That sounded weird. Really weird.”
She involuntarily let out a nervous laugh. To her surprise the stranger laughed with her.
“I’m glad you do,” he said, “I’d like to try it.”
Dara nodded instead of speaking and smiling, but wordlessly ushered the stranger towards the empty spinning chair.
“Don’t say any weird ,” she told herself, “Just be nice and normal and paint on the guy. It’s not like it’s the first guy you painted on. I mean you have tattooed on guys before. Hell, get your together.”
Meanwhile the stranger had taken a seat on the empty spinning chair, as Dara came to show him the photos of the people who had been painted so far.
“It takes about 30 to 90 minutes depending on how much you want painted. Once the paint is dry you can put your clothes back on. In the shower the color will come off easily. And you can choose the motif yourself and you decide how much of your upper body want painted. Basically it’s so you can experience what it feels like to have tattoos and yeah, it’s a trust experiment,” Dara explained.
“Awesome,” the stranger said. “I like that one,” he said pointing at a picture of a woman with a dragon on her back.
“Thanks,” Dara said, “I did that one.”
“You did? Wow.”
Dara could feel herself going red.
“I already got some tattoos though. Is… is that a problem?”
“No, no. Not at all. We can paint over them or integrate them into the art work.”
“Nice,” said the stranger and smiled at her.
“I’ll get the paint and brushes and you’ll think up what you want painted, alright?”
“Alright.”
Dara had already turned around when the young man called something.
“What?” she said, turning around slightly confused.
“Bang Yongguk,” he repeated. “That’s my name.”
“Nice to meet you,” Dara said, bowing slightly. “My name’s Park Sandara.”
Evening; Tuesday; 18th of September; 2014 Muchangpo Beach in Boryeong-si
Dara zipped close her backpack and went back into the living room which was now entirely dark, except for Yongguk’s flashlight that was bouncing around illuminating the shelves at the back of the room.
“Someone likes books,” Yongguk noted.
“Yeah,” said Dara coming to inspect the shelves herself. “Inn Ajumma told us to look for books about plants. See if we can finally make something out of that wild garden of hers.”
They spent a few minutes each scanning the titles of the rows of books before them.
“Got one!” Dara called, “Oh, wait. That’s just depictions of plants in art. Never mind.”
Several minutes of silence followed and Dara noticed how tired she was. Weariness was a feeling she had been feeling for weeks, but this feeling was different. It was as though someone had put a sledge hammer in each of her hands that were pulling her down. The feeling was scary, but nevertheless she continued to scan the back of the books before her.
“Please say something,” she thought, “Yongguk – babe – please say something.”
But Yongguk remained silent. Now Dara was feeling a weight in her whole stomach area, too.
“I’m tired,” she said. “I’m gonna sit down.”
“Ok,” were his only words.
Dara pointed her flashlight around the room, until she located a slightly dusty yet comfy looking couch facing the window. She turned off her flashlight and limbed towards it. Her feet were hurting now, but she was glad about the pain. Anything was better than the numbness she had felt all day.
Without taking off her shoes she threw herself onto the couch. After spending half the day walking her body welcomed the break and she could feel the weight being slightly lifted. Dara closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. The air smelled of dust and salt. She was starting to feel sleepy.
“We still gotta barricade the window,” she said.
Yongguk murmured in reply.
There were a lot of things that Dara wanted to say. She wanted Yongguk to talk to her. About things other than supplies, other than food, other than the approaching winter. She wanted to ask him whether he would prefer to have someone else with him stuck at an inn by the sea – someone other than her. She wanted him to tell her who he thought about before going to sleep. She wanted to tell him all the funny stories she had never gotten to tell him, because anything funny seemed oddly out of place now. Seemed insensitive. And she wanted to tell him about all the lies she had told him. She wanted to tell him about every single stupid ing time she had lied to him and tell him the truth instead.
But instead of loosening it, sleep was making Dara’s tongue heavy. Not the frightening weight from before, but that comfortable heavy feeling of slipping into sleep, into dreams. And it was easy to give into this weight. Much easier than uncover truths that no longer mattered. But something woke her from her slumber, before she had fully succumbed to it:
"Found one," Yongguk's voice called in the darkness.
Dara opened her eyes wide enough to spot the light cone of Yongguk's flashlight that had come to a halt on a book on a shelf by the window.
"It's on the medical use of plants," he commented further.
Dara heard Yongguk taking the book out of its shelf and then his muffled footsteps on the dusty floor as he walked towards her. A moment later he had let himself fall onto the sofa next to her and was inspecting the book.
Yongguk opened a random page, while Dara sleepily peeked over his shoulder. The page showed a long purple flower with numerous chalices.
"Damn," said Yongguk, "Doesn't Pae-ssi have heart problems? I don't know, but this flower's supposed to help." He continued to read the page. "Oh , and it's poisonous if you take it in really high doses."
"," mumbled Dara, falling asleep against Yongguk's shoulder, without hearing him mutter the name of the plant.
"Foxgloves..."
5:37 p.m.; Saturday; 24th of March; 2012 Sarubia Art Gallery, Seoul
When Dara came back carrying brushes and body paint, Suyun called out to her.
“Look, I’m almost done!” she said.
“Amazing!” Dara exclaimed. “Great job,” she told her friend, while admiring the blue bird and leaves that now decorated Suyun’s upper body.
“I really don’t wanna shower! I wanna keep this!” Suyun said smiling at Dara and at the artist.
“You can always come by and get a tattoo at Yunghee-unni’s parlor,” suggested Dara.
“I’ll consider it,” Suyun said smiling. “Oh wow,” she said suddenly.
“What?” asked Dara.
“Aren’t you a lucky dove today,” Suyun giggled pointing in the other direction of the room, where Bang Yongguk was sitting on his chair from the waist up.
Dara could feel her face going red: He was spouting an extremely well-built muscular upper body, bordering on chiseled.
“Well, if that isn’t a proper canvas,” Suyun laughed. “Don’t make him wait!”
Shooting one last embarrassed, yet excited look at her friend Dara headed over to Bang Yongguk. He smiled as she approached and she smiled back, trying hard to keep her eyes on his face.
“Do you know what you want?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’d like a gumiho.”
Dara looked at him in surprise.
He showed an insecure smile. “Too complex?”
“No, just interesting.”
Interesting? Really? Did she just say interesting? Dara felt she was sounding all weird again. But a gumiho was really an interesting choice: The nine-tailed fox from folklore stories. A shape-shifter. A dangerous magical creature. They had had wolves today, even dragons, but no gumiho.
“I have this tattoo on my back,” Bang Yongguk said, pointing at a point between his shoulder blades. Dara walked around him to look. “I thought maybe that’s where the forehead of the gumiho could be.”
Tattooed on his back was a small symmetric pattern which did almost look like eyes with elegant eyebrows. It was quite the unique tattoo. Depending on how one e’s neck, it could also look like the vague shapes of two people or maybe two flowers.
“Is that doable?” Bang Yongguk asked looking at her over his shoulder.
“Yeah, totally,” said Dara smiling.
Bang Yongguk smiled back and his smile created a warmth in her stomach.
“Talking is fine, but don’t move too much, ok?” Dara said, avoiding his gaze.
“Ok,” he said.
She took a long thin brush, dipped it into the black paint jar and carefully drew the first lines on Bang Yongguk’s muscly back.
“Can you tell me what you are drawing?” he asked suddenly.
“Sure, ahm, I just did the face and ears. And… this is the neck.”
“This is exciting,” he said and Dara could hear the smile in his voice, “I already wanna see it.”
“We’ll get you a double mirror later. And photos if you want.”
“Cool.”
Dara placed another few black strips on Bang Yongguk’s back and then stopped to inspect her work. She was quite proud of herself. It looked like the outline of slender and elegant fox, just as she had intended. She hoped Bang Yongguk would like it.
“Now I’m gonna do the tails,” she said, raising her brush to place another . But she hesitated.
The brush was going to slip off unless she placed her hand on his shoulder blade. Should she just go ahead and touch him… or should she ask first? Asking would make her sound insecure, but polite. If she just went ahead and touched him anyway… she’d seem more confident and professional. Yes, she’d do it that way. Just place her hand there. No big deal. She was going to be a professional tattoo artist. Touching people’s skin would be her day to day work. Just place her hand there.
Dara had almost placed her hand on Bang Yongguk’s back, when he suddenly turned his head, so her hand awkwardly slipped off and she smudged a line she had drawn earlier. They both apologized.
“Sorry, ahm, I smudged something,” said Dara, picking up a small towel to wash of the smudged paint.
“I’m sorry, you told me not to move. I was just wondering why you were waiting,” said Bang Yongguk.
Scolding herself and only half listening, Dara went ahead and began to rub off the smudged black color. He went quiet and turned his head away from her.
“Ok,” Dara said after she had fixed the smudged area. “Here go the tails.”
She placed her hand on the warm skin of Bang Yongguk’s back and drew a long elegant black line from his upper rips to his shoulder.
Author’s note
Dear readers,
This story is going to be about the darkest thing I’ve ever written (not sure if this seems like a dark story, maybe I just came up with the story in a dark mood :/ Dunno…), but I’ll do my best to make it worth your time. If you enjoyed the first chapter let me know and if you’re up to it check out my other fanfics:
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Thank you for reading and subscribing,
〜Hyucham〜
PS: I’m not a native speaker, please forgive mistakes.
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