future such that this work then becomes mostly an analysis of her and everyone remembers it because of its brief portrait of “Prime Minister’s wife” or whatever (or, unthinkable, ‘Prime Minister’ herself!). Faced with such perfection, TUSK ripped off BARBIEDOLL on a bar-tab, only to the tune of 5000 won or whatever but he had to, as a matter of principle. It would cost him reputational points; Alpha most of all would try to palm him off as a cheapskate based on this episode, but not all things can be planned out, and the seeming mistakes of one week are actually the great successes of another. There was no sexual tension between BARBIEDOLL and TUSK; BARBIEDOLL’s fashion did alter slightly in the Korean environment, becoming a little more conventional and a little less space-alien. Future outcome unknown.
ICEPRINCESS: Love-interest of TUSK, slowly-developing in positive and negative directions ICEPRINCESS, 1/8th Brazilian, student at Singapore National University, best English of the group, was despite these odd characteristics the quintessential ‘Kyoto bijin,’ the ‘otonashii Yamato nadeshiko’ [Kyoto Beauty; Quiet Flower of Japan] who represented the complete fulfillment of quintessential Japanese values. Like the soft-ball playing blonde Girl Next Door, ICEPRINCESS was Winnie Cooper and Reese Witherspoon rolled into one, a very quiet, very implicit person who lived mostly in her own mind, maybe have had a very minor psychological episode (invisible) on Week 4 Thursday, suborned Rockstar as her ‘kohai’ (junior friend), and played around with TUSK somewhat in the manner of SHINO from last year. But she was not without sin.
This was what happened. Week 4’s easy friendship with TUSK did not proceed naturally, mostly through fault of his own, and combined with some unfortunate timing of events, ICEPRINCESS then decided to play around back with TUSK, getting him to do things that were slightly awkward and positioning him in odd places during social outings. Unfortunately, in order to do so, she used the ‘pinky promise,’ licking her pinkie and promising to see TUSK on Thursday for dinner, and so this is the critical flaw in her personality, the thing that SHINO pulled off last year without a single word, but ICEPRINCESS did overtly, breaking a children’s technique without a qualm and possibly angering the gods that are, for the pinky-promise is white magic, it is ancient and unknown in origin, it is entirely cross-cultural.
AJ-4, informed of events, agreed. “Look it’s the new generation these days. I honestly can’t find much to admire about anyone under the age of 25 these days. You can’t break a pinky promise; it’s sacred; you can’t break it.”
Let us not go too far here. There are people out there undoubtedly who might very well attribute natural disasters and catastrophes to the breaking of a pinky promise by Japan’s best, a Yamato nadeshiko who with a laugh makes a child’s promise and then breaks it as a child. That would be superstition. But she did what she did, and the consequences of that behavior are indeed unknown. The class passes a probability barrier; the dice the teacher rolls to choose conversation partners comes up boxcars boxcars boxcars and then snakeeyes snake-eyes snake-eyes; ICEPRINCESS is brought to TUSK several times in a row surrounding the breaking of the pinky-promise, but that may very well be just a statistical outlier; ICEPRINCESS tends to return to her dorm on the other side of the Han River every day after class, and though she eventually decides to befriend BARBIEDOLL (driven by TUSK’s impulse?), she is actually not all that involved socially in the class.
Individual 3 would be GOAT. In the school of “information arriving too late,” it turns out GOAT and TUSK live just down the hall from each other, a contributing factor to several fortuitous meetings and misunderstandings that lead to the scarce moments of pleasure in these three weeks. GOAT, as mentioned, wears a blue doll’s coat, and such is the focus of the first (and what turns out to be only) all-Japanese casual conversation where TUSK delivers some back-and-forth repartee (as opposed to formal or mere informational conversation). TUSK’s main question for GOAT went something like this: “GOAT, you’re kinda unique among our classmates. You have this distinct doll look rather than BARBIEDOLL’s mere dyed blonde hair. It’s Japanese and very much cultured. Why do you adopt this look?”
"TUSK, I like myself. My mother also dresses like this. A lot of the other girls don’t like themselves.”
GOAT is, most probably, right. The cheap and easy rapid changeover of lovers is associated fairly tightly with low self-esteem, possibly but not fully 100% as a overall understanding of human beings in whatever culture, and the fact that she remains slim and neatly put-together (if not quite financially able to mix up her look again; she might even be characterized as ‘working-class’) speaks of some internal self-love. Yet she is also not all that different from the U.S. trailer-dweller who is in love with Jesus and neat and put-together that way while one day filling that trailer with Beanie Babies or some other lonely pursuit, the one failing in a life devoted to Christ. GOAT is cute; there is no question of that. There might even be a 40% breakdown that she is the cutest girl in the class. But she shared something with ERI from last year, a certain sureness about things that disguised the possibility of future breakdown. Could it happen that one day all of a sudden she would suddenly go on a sex binge with dozens of random guys? It was possible in a way it would never happen for Farhome or even Brillopad.
Final point of information is that GOAT is roommates with IOTA, another entry in the ledger of information coming out too late. She introduced IOTA to TUSK Tuesday evening during that one all-Japanese casual conversation, and it was fortunate that there were three girls present who were all interesting in their own way. It made for that one positive tweak in an engagement otherwise notable for its cool lack of familiarity. TUSK’s legend is growing; he pulled off some things this week that make him such a blazing known quantity. Yet this success has the elements of negativity in it as well, a fascinating blend of the good and the bad and the just plain ugly.
GREENEYES: ha-ha, our first non-Japanese! GREENEYES, of Okinawese-Swedish descent from Oahu Hawaii came from a U.S. military family, had a Master’s in Educational Research (note this distinction, please) from Teacher’s College Columbia (and 120th Street is the widest street in the world), carried over from last year, was sung-to by TUSK, was dreamt of by TUSK, but never proceeded to a love affair with TUSK, who was at once agog with what he was doing and perfectly content.
His mother would have killed him.
GREENEYES might be the prettiest girl in the programme. With her green Swedish eyes inspiring such midnight reverie by TUSK (sleeping only four hours a night these days) combined with an ace personality trained in America’s Ivy League, she would without question be a real catch, a find beyond delights. But that of course is exactly it. If love affairs proceed from rationality, then they are by definition not love affairs. Her perfection, her absolute beauty; these are actual points against her, as TUSK wants crazy impossibility. He did not make a move on GREENEYES because she was too perfect.
Is this believable? Okay in fairness GREENEYES is not quite perfect. She has the petulant American girl’s accent. In the meet-down with 2/1 during the culture museum (Week 4; not the history museum Week 4), she did the quintessential American thing, talking down to the Asian girls (and Korean teacher) as social inferiors. As would be supposed, they responded in quiet deference—but that of course is the summit of female behavior, one would say, not assertive engagement. Even BARBIEDOLL did not rise up to the challenge of looking GREENEYES in the eyes, although TUSK and GREENEYES would then go off to discuss Goffman, the pounding of clothes in traditional Korean peasant village laundry-doing, and a little bit of the possibility of deliberately sowing chaos in the program.
"Nah, I don’t think so,” said GREENEYES. “I’m leaving this Sunday anyway.”
"Oh, wha? That sucks. But I agree, there’s less in this for you than me. I mean the boys here are just factory workers.”
"Actually I don’t mind that. It’s just that I gotta take the final early so I can’t really mess around.”
"We could cause such chaos if we wanted.”
GREENEYES do you read this, in your safe career-established life? TUSK sang to you because of your physical beauty, your bright research Master’s, your confident yet ever so-slightly vulnerable ways. Friend him on Facebook; those days slipped through fingers too fast, sand clenched in fists.
THETA, artsy girl, not of 2/1, present at the doll-making on Tuesday, flirted with to start, friendship-driven a few days later, meeting by chance every 72 hours, perhaps programme’s most amused or bemused student, dressed Western-style artsy (not the distinct ‘look’ of BARBIEDOLL or GOAT, but sort of Honey-and-Clover art student or colorful patterned sarong yellow print) and a distinct self-walker, remembered here not as love interest but as mere object of play, most distinctive of programme (in some manners of thinking), came off as girl first two meetings and then woman next four or five, never more than brief conversation exchanged.
If analysis may be performed on someone not deeply known, perhaps THETA is GOAT in self-love but mixed together with a distinct art student rather than literaturist or objet d’art psychology, probably only
The Flowers of Keiwha Page 28
