Yin Yang Tattoo (40 page)

Jung-hwa turned around to see me frozen in place, fists raised in the Tae Kwon-do ready stance, leading leg soaked in blood. One glance told me everything I needed to know, answered every question buzzing through my mind. It was a look filled with a rank mixture of surprise and rank derision. Whatever she was doing here, she certainly hadn't come looking for
me
.

For the second time in the space of an hour, she spun away from me and headed for the exit, leaving me speechless.

Onstage, Junior Kim peeled off a wailing pentatonic progression on his Fender before his band launched into the opening lines from the great Bobby Bland hit from the sixties,
I Pity the Fool
.

My waitress took me into her care, and like a kindly nurse leading a geriatric patient across the wide ward, sat me back down in the blood-smeared alcove. This time I let her pour my beer.