Wild Rider

Riot Girl

She knew the job wasn't easy. And she loved a good challenge... But these people were the crazy ones. Eunwoo had last seen her family a year ago. They lived half an hour away.

They worked non-stop, slept poorly and many didn't have a life outside work. Though they technically had free days, mostly they worked. Saturdays? Sunday? They worked. Christmas? They worked.

It was less shocking to hear many people found their future partner in the workplace.

The bright side was that she didn't want to go to an empty apartment at the end of the day. And when she actually went, she was so tired, she moved through the motions cleaning herself and sleeping.

And when they stopped working, they went to karaoke, drink, eat... It was perfect for Alex. Like the "after-office" they had in her home country, but with more singing involved.

Yes, it was a really different culture as a whole, but it had many cool things. And like everything, it had bad parts.

Tattoos were a touchy subject.

Jackson told her she shouldn't have any problems if she didn't tattoo anybody a new one in the country. She had her own tattoo machine and loved to be able to improve and retouch her own tattoos. Advantages of being a foreigner with an art degree. But if she wanted new ones, she'd had to go to some official tattoo parlor with a certified artist. And she shouldn't tattoo people just because she could or she'd get into trouble. Alex was all about giving a trouble girl attitude, but behind closed doors she didn't want to fight anyone if she could avoid it. Anyway, her friend said it didn't hurt if she covered her own.

Alex had a big design that rested on her whole back, there was a triangular one between her breasts and dropping below, ending right above her navel. Her arms had some medium designs scattered as her legs had, and even she had one on her neck and her left hand. Those two last ones were the hardest to cover in warm weather.

Jackson knew all that, hence he warned her. She had taken a course in the hopes to work freelance if she found herself without steady income, but.. Who would have thought it was illegal of she wasn't a medic? She understood All Alex could think of is that she had landed on a strange country. Really cool, but as different as possible to what she knew.

She always loved being backstage and helping make magic. Good thing she didn't want to be on the spotlight. Idols weren't supposed to date, tattoos were covered most times, and every thing the media considered "bad behaviour" could end a person's career. Not so much time ago, even dyed hair colors were looked down upon. She rolled her eyes at the thought.

It was as she was the living representation of all those bad things.

Korean fashion allowed her tats to be covered at all times. Except the hand and neck. She ended considering wearing makeup and gloves. Thinking about a hot damp summer, she decided she wouldn't stick to the status quo. Jackson showed his tattoos, didn't he?

-

There were comments about her looks.

She wasn't used to that, as every city she lived in before was a metropoli that had pretty variated sub-cultures, ethnicities and people weirder that herself. Here, people looked at her on the streets. She drew attention and even if she showed confidence, inside she felt really small.

Almost a month after her employment, at the office someone had the nerve to ask if she had dreams of becoming an idol herself or was in some gang in her hometown. All Latin Americans were the same for that person.

Her first thought was "with a fashion sense like that she has the nerve to question me?". Immediately she chastised that thought. That woman could dress however she wanted, decide to not have tattoos, but Alex also could have dye in her hair, ink on her skin, piercings on her ears and dress however she choose.

Eunwoo was on her way to bring her both of them ice americanos. Of course they talked to her that way when she was alone, without her partner in crime.

Alex did what any other good riot girl would have done, with the sultriest voice posible.

"I like the pain the tattoo machine needle give me. It's addictive. " and then proceeded to give the sweetest smile she could muster. "It's the same with the piercings."

She gently took the chain that passed through a holes in her ear and gave a light pull. She smirked, used to the light pain. She'd try to remember to clean that ear. Had she brought disinfectant? Alex was sure some of the ones eavesdropping turned away pretending to work when she did that. She heard them.

People were either repulsed or attracted to look whenever she did that. She still felt eyes on her and tried to look for the source, but couldn't find it.

She was a new toy anyway so she hoped that could change with time. Maybe when someone else got in the company. Someone weirder.

Soon people surely would overlook her.

How naïve.

Truth be told, she did like to have art in her body and the pain was worth it.

-

"Noona" that was such a strange term for her.

They added particles to names too.

The younger part of the staff that with time felt closer to her called her noona, nuna or anni, eonni, meaning something like "older sister". The other part called her by her job title, "AD-nim" the equivalent of "art director" or "boss" or added things to her surname, but most time pronounced with a long s and not a z.

Her full name was already long for korean standards, so they ended up using only her first name. Even if protocol intended her last name to be used, in fully Alexandra Paz was too long and hard to pronounce. To Eunwoo she ended up being Paz Alex-shii for a while until that soon became Alex-shii sounded like 'alejii' or Alex-ie.

"Noona?"

Sometimes they mixed all in and called her in a long an weird form. Coming from a country where she would be called informally and respect was reserved for elders and corporate settings, she didn't know if it was her the one being called or just was baffled at their speech most of the time. The most respectfully she had been addressed to was her last name. Miss Paz. It happened at school or when someone wanted to sell her something over the phone.

"Pass AD-nim? Alex-shi noona?"

She wasn't distracted.

She was just focusing on something else.

She was standing in the middle of her office with her back facing the door. The table was filled with an overwhelming amount of papers and fabrics in different shades. The back wall had a small library and a board with a lot of pins with even more papers.

The books in the library were neat and on top of it there was a lonely picture framed, partially covered with her black motorcycle helmet. He was quite sure there were a lot of japanese mangas in there.

He could see that somewhere under all that there was a laptop and colour pencils scattered here and there. It was like everything was in perfect order and then chaos made an explosion over it.

She fitted the description.

"Pass AD-nim?"

He knocked the door from the inside, standing at arms length from the girl mumbling to herself, probably in Spanish. He didn't want to mess with her work.

He didn't want to freak her out either. He had been warned about it.

He touched her shoulder and waited for a punch.

She didn't hit his face. He was too tall.

Luckily.

She would be fired by now if she had.

-

Hey! Who do you think that is?

Btw, Riot Girl was like an anthem for my teenage years, though I was mostly a good girl.