Strange Happenings, Part 2

Hands clasped behind his back and face peering in, Lucas gazed at the mysterious barbed wedges of ancient Korean iron, shaped just so to shrug off easy explanations. Some flat, like smooshed chisel-heads. Others with ornate curled thorns all around the edge, rays stuck to a triangular sun. All rescued from centuries of rust but not from obscurity.

During the time of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, from the 3rd to 7th century, these saw-like knives were crafted in the Gaya Confederacy and southwestern Silla regions, the placard read in neat contemporary san-serif. Initially thought to be barbed spearheads meant to bring down soldiers on horseback, the impracticality of the design suggests a more ritualistic function, as these were only found in noble tombs.

Glassed-in, sprinkled with the décor of soft lights and carefully chosen fonts - a tidy illusion so distant from the 7th century hands that molded it. Maybe an ancestor’s hands.

Lucas snapped a pic with his phone.

“Interesting piece, yes?”

His winding thoughts are scattered by the mild yet flat East Asian accent of someone who had been extensively educated abroad but never lived there. Sakai Rin, his younger brother’s wife.

“Yep, I’ve never heard about this before, it’s very cool.” He greeted her with a slight wave and a nodded bow. He might not fully get Japanese bowing culture, heck, he didn’t even fully get his own Korean culture, but some part of him felt like it was the natural thing to do. Maybe it wasn’t the right thing. Just the usual Asian-American doubts.

“Yes, I owe your brother a great deal,” she said.

By instinct, Lucas nearly blurt out his thoughts. That brat won’t even tie his shoes unless it gets him in the newspaper. “You did an impressive job. And everyone is showing up and no one is fighting,” he said. And not one grumbled mention of World War 2.

“Thank you. Yes, there’s so many people downstairs."

“That’s exactly why I came up here. To take a break from that.”

She tilted her head slightly, eyes aimed at the exhibits, and Lucas left her to it. They had come up for the same reason. The lobby had been too crowded for him to do anything other than fast-walk away and stare into the middle distance.

They married about a year ago. Poor Rin.

And since then, Lucas had always found it a little awkward to talk with her. With due respect to a reasonable in-law, Lucas didn’t consider himself friends with Rin, and suspected the other way around was also true, but he had gotten to know that she was a bit more comfortable with formality and social quiet. Space to herself. The latter, of course, being annoyingly Western to explain at times. The glaring exception to that being his idiot brother, who was simply too K-pop hot and only obeyed decorum as he needed. Said brother would be showing up soon.

Breathing in the stale-and-purified aircon air, he took the moment to send the picture of the ferrite blade with fiddlehead furls. Sage hadn’t replied for a few days. It was making him nervous, but he didn’t want to pressure her too much. Surely something was going on.

They stood in silence for some time, enjoying that speck of respite before putting the mask back on. Talking was never really a free action.

“Yo, hyungnim!” Zeke sauntered across the room with big strides. Everything from his hybrid edgy finance bro and chaebol scion fit, to his perfectly balanced half-oblivious and half-incisive persona, made him fill the stage close to bursting. A talent that he could toggle at will. And when he did, people always thought he was the older, taller one. Of course, despite Lucas having an inch or so on him.

“Took you long enough, Zeke,” said. Lucas. “I almost paid attention to your shitty menagerie.”

Zeke rolled his eyes and body dramatically with a ‘gamhi’ – ‘how dare you’ - as Lucas yanked him into a side-hug. “Thanks for showing up, hyunggers,” Zeke said, using his favorite made-up nickname.

Beside him was Rin's best friend from childhood, Shiga Mitsuko. Dressed in a similar conservative business-like skirt-and-blazer as Rin, belying the temporarily removed upper lobe piercings hinted by soft ear indentations. And her undercut swooped over by her jet-black hair, in a corporate-acceptable disguise for the opening.

Sometimes, he had that Western urge to just tell her to keep the unconventional bits and stick it to the man, but he knew that wasn’t a fair demand. He didn’t grow up in Asia, he didn’t live there. For better or worse, he would be judged as diaspora if he did go back. The homeland was different. Plus, how provocative was he really being, anyway? A visible tattoo on his forearm – a jester-like idiot tiger in the form of kkachi horangi – and a tuft of accidentally bleached white bang. That wasn’t much.

“How’s the hell event?” Lucas said to Mitsuko on the side, as Zeke whispered to a blushing Rin.

“Fucking sucks. For my wallet.” Emphatically lilted in the way only a non-native speaker learns the commoners’ English from uncouth video game talk.

“10,000 diamonds for me already,” said Lucas, drawing the appropriate Sino character 万 in the air. Mitsuko replied with a ‘yare yare’ and Lucas snort-laughed in appreciation.

Not quite strangers. Through some coincidence Lucas and Mitsuko had remained in vague contact on a desolate Line chat occasionally dotted by the latest Zeke-Rin tea or LoveBobo Dress Up Queen event. That coincidence was Zeke dragging him to all those trips to Asia. All fun, yet nevertheless his baby bro thought he had another potential pair of eyes on his wife and a “my cool aniki from Brooklyn” card. Neither of those were true. In any case, Zeke was fully in his K-drama sympathetic villain era and Lucas preferred to be as uninterested as possible.

“Okay nerds,” Zeke interrupted. “Enough about that dress up LoveBee crap.”

“Hey normie, it’s LoveBobo,” said Lucas, immediately side-eying Zeke. “Then should we talk about ‘I Woke Up as a Keg of Asahi in a Sengoku Era Where Mt. Fuji Erupts Beer for the Commoners?’”

It was Zeke’s turn to laugh, which he did with aplomb.

~紀異~

Despite visiting another country with her best friend since childhood, Mitsuko was having a hard time forgetting about the disastrous mixer last night. Maybe not disastrous. But the latest of a long line of discouraging results. Her current headache was a bonus, because of course the flight was the morning after.

The other thing was that of said best friend, Rin. A newlywed. Here with her somewhat toxic and infuriatingly dashing Korean-American husband, Ezekiel, who somehow willed this joint medieval Korean-Japanese exhibition into impossible existence. Apparently turning out to be a success, given the throng downstairs. She had just escaped that crowd moments ago with Ezekiel, coming up to the second floor to meet Lucas, his older brother, and Rin.

Still, Mitsuko couldn’t help but smile at the glow in Rin’s eyes, answered every time by Ezekiel’s beaming face. Soon enough though, Mitsuko looked away from such visual sweet nothings to give them some privacy. She wasn’t that interested in their whispering.

“How’s the hell event?” Lucas said, evidently feeling the same.

“Fucking sucks. For my wallet.” There was no need for excess decorum for Lucas. They were allied otakus.

“10,000 diamonds for me already.”

Lucas roughly outlined 万 with his right finger as he shook his head. Mitsuko responded with a slower headshake and, always happy to bend norms, added a ‘yare yare’. Just the right ridiculous phrase, rare outside anime and deemed strange for women to say it.

“Okay nerds, enough about that dress up LoveBee crap.”

“Hey normie, it’s LoveBobo,” said Lucas without a moment’s hesitation. “Then should we talk about ‘I Woke Up as a Keg of Asahi in a Sengoku Era Where Mt. Fuji Erupts Beer for the Commoners?’”

Ezekiel laughed, a genuine bellow. “I always freely admit that I like trash.” He repeated the title but in Japanese, for Rin’s sake, eliciting a subtle snicker from her.

“Anyway, everyone else is gonna be coming up soon, just to let ya know,” Ezekiel added, looking around the little circle of four. Mainly at Lucas and Rin. Those two always got overwhelmed whenever it got to be that much people, all the din and chatter. So Mitsuko had been more than happy to tag along with Ezekiel on his ‘rounds’ and give Rin (and Lucas too) a moment away from the schmoozing and fake smiling. Her headache was a bonus.

In the end, that was on her, since she had drank more after getting home last night. A mistake to go to a mixer with co-workers regardless. They would have heard, one way or another, that Mitsuko was older than most of them, and if they were in her team, great at her job and a bit detail-oriented. Which could come across as bossy or bitchy to some types. For what it was worth, Mitsuko would be the first to admit that she rarely pulled punches during code review. But she had gotten a free plane ticket because she was best friends with Rin, the only child of Shinpo Group’s founder and CEO, and she was not going to pass up all for a hangover and hurt feelings. Either way, it was better than humoring her mother on a matchmade date for the inevitable motherly “you’re going to die alone” and “don’t you even care about me” texts after the inevitable failure.

The rest of the attendees started to file in, and naturally, there were many Important Company People, eager to be seen supporting the company-sponsored event. Rin’s father was nowhere to be seen, but at this point it was just as useful to suck up to Ezekiel.

The American museum docent came up to Ezekiel, exchanged a few words, and gestured at the attendees.

And given all the company higher-ups, Mitsuko’s generic ‘office lady’ outfit was basically mandated. Not the biggest issue for Rin, who was a bit old-school. To be honest, Mitsuko wasn’t sure how much it mattered. The ‘office lady’ getup had become her outfit-sized mask, and at this point she didn’t even know what was supposed to be underneath, what seed of herself she was supposed to nurture. Seen as simultaneously too shy and too assertive by most of her male peers. Too strait-laced for the Japanese bohemians, too unconventional for Yamato nadeshiko aspirants and riajuu. She couldn’t quite come to own her sense of self in that confident way displayed by J-dramas, anime, Western media.

In passing, she was almost jealous of people like Lucas, showing up here in the expected business semi-casual clothing but with a dyed-white streak of hair and unremoved upper ear piercing and an exposed tattoo or two on his forearm. At the same time, the sidelong glances were still there, just couched in a ‘one of those diaspora weirdos’ – and Mitsuko could feel a part of herself hypocritically judging him in the same way. The Japanese folk might think she wasn’t acting ‘Japanese enough’ if she appeared too edgy, but that was a distinctly different assessment of purity than the Korean folks thinking Lucas wasn’t ‘Korean enough’ – not to mention how other Americans might see him. The Western flavor that was Asian-Americanness seemed like just as much trouble.

How that applied to Ezekiel, with his chameleon-like people skills and casual fluency in both Japanese and Korean, was an even messier topic.

As everyone gathered around in front of the museum docent, Mitsuko noticed that Lucas was unusually fixated on his phone, face blanched. Something was wrong.

Lucas tapped his younger brother on the shoulder. As their inaudible conversation went on, the grinning Ezekiel slowly transformed into concerned and then demonically infuriated. She had never seen him angry before but had heard plenty from Rin. Meanwhile, Lucas looked absolutely miserable. Rin stepped away from the two brothers and closer to Mitsuko, sharing a worried glance.

Ezekiel began to raise his voice, “that fucking bit—“ he started, before Lucas cut him off with a curt “stop.” The conversation quickly returned to murmurs, before Lucas slouched away.

Mitsuko and Rin turned away to chat between themselves about nothing in particular. This went on for a minute or two before Ezekiel came up to them.

“Sorry about that,” Ezekiel said, switching to Japanese. “Lucas is going to hang out with Rowan, so we won’t be having that dinner. No need to insist otherwise and suffer being a third wheel, Shiga-kun.” He winked at Rin. “I like the idea of an impromptu date with Rin-chan anyway.”

“Of course, I understand,” Mitsuko replied over Rin’s embarrassed protests. “Is he going to be OK?”

“Eventually. Hyung just got a breakup text. He really thought that this was the relationship, the one he wouldn’t lose. He’s going drinking, Rowan’ll take care of him.”

Maybe it was, Mitsuko thought. You can lose those too.

“Micchan, I’m so sorry! We’re not leaving you by yourself. I’m sticking with you for the rest of the night.”

“Now now,” Ezekiel said. “I think I know Shiga-kun well enough to know she appreciates some time to herself.”

Mitsuko inadvertently laughed. Of Ezekiel’s traits, she did appreciate his at-times aggressive social pragmatism, dispensing away with obstructive politeness as needed. She wasn’t too keen on being in a front-row seat for lovey-doveyness. And she certainly didn’t want that weird guilt of Rin feeling like she needed emotional babysitting. Mitsuko was an adult.

“Thanks, Susumu-san,” Mitsuko said, remembering to use Ezekiel’s Japanese name. “I’ll be fine, Ricchan.”

“I’m just too good,” Ezekiel said, side-hugging Rin as she pouted.

Out of respect, particularly to Lucas, she didn’t use that name around non-Japanese company; Ezekiel did tell her he preferred it when in solely Japanese company. Lucas hated how he came up with the name – a Japanese reading of one of his given name hanja – and that he took on Rin’s last name in Japan. ‘Mentally colonized mindset’ or ‘slave name’ is what Lucas typically threw at him. If Lucas was Korean-Korean, he probably would’ve thrown in ‘disrespect to ancestors’ as higher on the list. Mitsuko had asked Lucas about it one time, and he explained that it was cringe that, given Imperial Japan had enforced similar naming policies to erase Korean culture back during the occupation days, Ezekiel was doing it for a worldly, selfish purpose: running Rin’s father’s company by sneaking in as a mukoyoshi who saw himself as Japanese and not Korean, convincing people with charisma. How he balanced this when introducing his Japanese contacts to his Korean ones, she had no idea.

Which made total sense. Lucas was not wrong that Ezekiel wanted to pass himself off as pure Japanese when convenient – Mitsuko could see that first-hand in Japan. Though it was because Ezekiel considered such treatment a priceless business and social advantage, as opposed to actually being some self-hating Korean. Frankly, he loved himself too much to be any type of self-hating. The one time Ezekiel and Lucas argued in front of them on the matter, Ezekiel had said, “Ultimately, the superiority complex that some Japanese have towards Koreans is exploitable.”

Besides, a single kanji name? You sound like an old geezer.

As Ezekiel and Rin bickered light-heartedly, she refocused her attention on the docent, who continued from where she left off.

“We believe some of these flattened wedges were actually ingots, and so meant for commerce like one would with gold bullion. It may have even been used for direct bartering. As for the others, the name seems more apt. The characters used refer to barbs or saw-teeth, so the typical English translation is ‘saw knife’ or ‘saw tooth knife.’ The name has turned out to be quite misleading, however. Recent research indicates that these tools served a more ritual or symbolic purpose and would be completely impractical as military spear-tips.

“Examples with hooked and curved prongs are thought to be related to beliefs and art of the time. While we don’t know for sure, the decorative comma or curl shape is akin to Korean gogok or Japanese magatama beads, which are seen as references to wolf fangs, or crescent moon and fertility. Like the saw knife, they disappear from the archeological record at the end of the 7th century.

“Other possibilities are shapes of birds, ferns, water, and flame. Many contemporaneous shield and armor ornaments look similar with curved or spiral features. But one of the many enigmas is that saw knives were exclusive to the Gaya region, who were the only masters of iron in that area, and they keep appearing even after all the Gaya city-states were absorbed into Silla and Baekje. But we never see these artifacts in Wa or the Yamato Kingship, despite seeing everything else they traded.”

Skipping the rest, Mitsuko slipped out of the gallery and left the museum.