THE MUSE Korean Manhwa// With Dialogue
Part 1 written by/ 첫별 VENUS for SEX CULT w/ VERITY & DJ FOXY/MORON
The latest SEX CULT Podcast from YouTube right at the end of this blog for you! With Verity, DISCUSSION/opinions and RECAP of Stray Cat & Wolf chapter 4.
THE MUSE (Manhwa)
Part 1.
By 첫별 VENUS
The spotlights dance across the stage as accepts their Album of the Year award. Center stage stands Ara Hana, her presence magnetic even among her glamorous groupmates. The crystal trophy catches the light as she steps up to the microphone, her voice carrying the perfect mix of grace and genuine emotion that's made her a global phenomenon.
"We want to thank our incredible fans, our management team, and everyone who believed in PRISM's vision," she says, her fellow members nodding in agreement behind her. The cameras flash repeatedly, capturing what will become tomorrow's headlines: *PRISM DOMINATES AWARDS SEASON.*
But it's what happens after the ceremony that will truly change everything.
Backstage, the atmosphere buzzes with post-show excitement. Staff members rush about with clipboards while celebrities mill around trading congratulations. Ara finds herself in a familiar bubble of admiration and careful distance, trapped in yet another mundane conversation with "the beautiful people" until salvation arrives in the form of Tae Doh, her producer and old friend.
"Sorry, Ara Hana is a busy girl—gotta go!" Tae Doh smoothly interrupts, pulling her away. Ara offers an apologetic smile to the group, but inside, she's grateful for the rescue.
Once they're clear of the crowd, Tae Doh grins. "Wanna ditch this boredom and go see the hottest new underground punk band? They're playing downtown. Produced by yours truly, of course."
Ara's eyes light up. ", leave me here..." She pauses for dramatic effect. "Just kidding—yes! Let's go!”
As they navigate through crowds of enthusiastic fans, Ara glances at her friend. "Do we need security?"
"Oh no," Tae Doh replies with a knowing smile. "Where we're going, no one will care who you are—" He catches himself, looking embarrassed.
Ara laughs. "That's actually a relief!"
The drive takes them into a grittier part of the city. Street life grows more raw with each block: working girls on corners, suspicious deals in shadows, patrol cars cruising slowly past.
They pull up to a building that looks like it's one strong wind away from collapse, but Ara follows Tae Doh inside with surprising confidence.
After getting carded by the door security,
Ara and Tae Doh enter a room in the abondoned building and straight away Ara spots Jun Ari, hunched over his guitar. He is playing something casually with many girls around him.
He feels her glare and looks up to meet it and see’s Ara and smiles.
Ara turns to Tae Doh and asks who this man is, at that Tae Doh yells “Jun!”, Jun looks up and puts his guitar down and lights a cigarettes and greets Tae Doh...
They both approach Jun.
“let me introduce you…” tae doh walks up to jun, but Jun starts talking to Tae doh and Tae doh forgets to intrduce Ara! They both just ignore her existence! This annoys her…
Ara hears the conversation, Jun says to Tae Doh"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in." Tae Doh laughs forgetting about Ara seemingly.
A group of punk-styled women lounge around Jun as he leans against a wall now. Both of them still ignoring Ara’s existence. She thinks but this Jun guy saw her before and smiled…he knows she exists! She thinks bewildered by the change in attitude Jun has.
Finally, Jun turns to stare at Ara, he looks her up and down and studies her presence. Tae Doh spots an old friend and steps away, Jun ignores this and continues to study Ara with an intensity that makes her feel exposed and VERY seen. She looks away as if not to notice though..
This cueing Jun to turn away also, again still having not said anything to Ara and instead starts flirting with one of the female groupies beside him, who has been trying to get his attention…
The groupie is surprised by gaining his sudden attention, he smirks and looks back at Ara again…
Ara looking pretty annoyed by this point… ..but is slightly intrigued by the little drops of attention he keeps paying her, she stares back,
Because of this Jun doesn’t notice the groupie he has been conversing with next to him is going in to kiss him. Turning his attention back to her he dodges her aggressive attempt to kiss him, “uh no no no” he tells her, “Oh Jun why! I really want to kiss you……”
“Layla, Dye-dye will make you mince meat, so I’m saving you from that drama. Because if it wasn’t for that, I’d 100% kiss you because you are really fucking cute.” He unwraps her arms from around him “I wanna be mince meat” she whines and at that Jun pushes her on her way towards the door. She groans and walks away, “…fine.” she says.
Watching on, Ara thinks that she doesn’t know why but she is drawn to this punk rocker in a way she can't explain. He has something she wants but what??? Something intangible that she can't quite name it.
Jun gets rid of all the women soon enough and they drift away out the same door as the first one, to watch the opening band, this leaving Ara and Jun practically alone in the room together.
Ara looks back over at Jun and their eyes meet, and something electric passes between them. His gaze lacks the usual mixture of awe and fanatic excitement she's grown accustomed to seeing. Instead, there's something else there: pure curiosity, unmarred by any desperate need to impress her.
He stares at her like she is supposed to talk to him first….but she doesn’t, Jun breaks the silence, ”So Ara..*Ara looks up at the beautiful tall punk rocker dude* and thinks am I dreaming? She composes herself and he continues, “..want a drink?” He hands her a bottle of wine. She stands in front of Jun and takes a swig of the wine, “…eck…”…so good,”” she lies.
# The Ferocious Dark Underground Punk Scene - Seoul
Jun lights a cigarette, eyes narrowing as he studies Ara. "So tell me Ara Hana, what is a K-pop princess doing in a dive like this?"
"Excuse me?" Her voice now with a bit more assertive. If he is going to refer to me as “Ara Hana” he’s going to get Ara Hana
“Well, this isn't exactly your scene, is it?" His words are playful, yet this hides his genuine curiosity for her being in his presence right now. Slightly competitive also, like she might take from him being the centre of attention at his show, as if she can hear what he’s thinking Ara thinks, well she might take the attention away from him, if anyone even knew who she was here….Jun reads Ara’s mind in return and thinks.. ..I know who who you are Ara Hana…This makes Ara blush, but she hates him calling her both of her names.
“I guess that’s just how little you know about me then. I..” says Ara, interupted, as she stops as Jun sits down just underneath where she is standing and says, "come sit here," motioning her to sit down beside him. He says this in a low and inviting voice, Ara looks down at him. He is tapping the empty space beside him on the threadbare two-seater. “As soon as I saw you walk in tonight I’ve been waiting to be alone with you…..so, sit sit!”
She hesitates for a moment before accepting the invitation.
Ara drinks more gross wine, and continues, "maybe I'm exactly where I need to be." She speaks quietly, Jun just stares at her as if he is playfully studying her reactions to his forthcoming behaviour. She stumbles on her words and finally says…"SO CITY POISON! Your band—I caught your set at The Basement last month. That song about the factory workers' strike? It hit hard."
Jun says in genuine disbelief. "You were at The Basement? That place is—"
"A glorified sewer with questionable structural integrity?" Ara grins. "But the acoustics are perfect though. The way the concrete bounces sound..."
Jun interrupts with a chuckle, sitting straight to face Ara and showing her he is listening to everything she has to say now. "So you know about acoustic reflection, huh?" he asks.
"Please. I've been in enough studios to understand sound dynamics. The raw reverb in The Basement? You can't engineer that."
Jun keeps listening to her talk about her sound knowledge and punk rock history love. His carefully maintained wall of indifference he thought they would have had suddenly begins to break down before him, and he sees her as someone he could really be friends with, and he doesn’t befriend girls usually either so this is all very novel to him. "You want to hear something?" He askes her, and pulls out his phone. "New track we're working on with Tae Doh." He hits play…*punk music blares*
As the rough cut plays, Ara nods along, eyes closed. "The bass line is killer," she says after he stops it. "But that bridge needs something. Maybe a key change?"
"That's exactly what Tae Doh said," Jun admits, looking at her with new interest. "Having a super-producer behind us... it's weird. Good weird, but still."
"Tae Doh won't change your sound," Ara assures him. "He just... amplifies what's already there. Makes it bigger without losing the edge."
"Like he did with your ballad last year?" Jun adds with a smirk, Ara shocked he knows something about her band at all.
Ara laughs. "You listen to Prism?."
"Pop is such an important genre, 60’s girl groups, Crystals/Ronettes, phil spektor is very inspiring to me. Madonna, Debbie Harry and the many icons that made some of my favourite music." Ara wonders about something and than asks Jun…“Do you have a muse Jun?” Jun smirks and says “Yeah I do.” Ara looks intrigued, “who?” Jun continues. “ever since I met this girl last year named Dye-dye, she has been my muse…*hesitates*... well, nearly all of my new tracks are about her on our album we are recording with Tae-Doh.” Ara stays silent and replies “where is she.” There is a screaming female voice from the band playing on stage shouting Oh Bondage fuck yeah! “That’s her…” he laughs. Ara says “oh” and thinks dammnit she’s in a band
Jun adds, “you’ll meet her, but I’ll have to keep her from trying to slice and dice you if she hears we have been in here alone together instead of watching her set” Ara replies, “why, we are just talking….” Jun looks at her…“well Ara, YOU may be just talking, but I have been flirting pretty heavily with you this whole time” Ara looks over to see if he is being serious.
He laughs, “I’m just joking, I actually just think you are a super cool girl. I wasn’t expecting to talk with you this long, I was supposed to watch dye-dye play. But we got a little lost in conversation didn’t we? So…Can I ask you…” Ara feels nervous, and thinks oh god what is he going to ask me?! He continues, “Wanna be my friend?” …Ara smiles with relief and says, “I’d love that!” A little over enthusiastically and chastises herself for sounding too enthusiastic *feels uncool*. He puts his cigarette out, hesitates and thinks I should go and watch dye dye, but instead Jun continues the conversation with Ara, a conscious decision, "Earlier, you mentioned Springsteen—what's your take on Nebraska?" Not intending to see dye dye play while in the presence of Ara now.
"God, where do I start?" Ara's eyes light up. "The way he recorded it on that four-track Tascam? Pure genius. It's like Joan Baez's storytelling meets Patti Smith's raw energy."
"Patti Smith hey.” Jun says, impressed. “You might be becoming the girl of my dreams now.” He jokes.
"'Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine,'" Ara quotes perfectly. "First line of 'Gloria.' Changed my life when I first heard it."
"'Outside of society, that's where I want to be,'" Jun quotes back.
"'Society's hell,'" they finish together, then laugh.
Jun looks over at her with a look like he wants to possess her in that moment, they look at each other and get the feeling they have known each other forever is felt. Ara feels very comfortable in Jun’s presence and very inspired to learn more about his world. A world filled with music and the love of music and nothing else.
Jun's quiet for a moment. "You're dangerous, you know that?"
"Why? Because I see through your act?"
He laughs and replies non-seriously, “ouch…..but no. Actually, *leans closer to her and ara’s heart starts beating faster* because you actually get it," he says quietly. "The music, the performance, all of it."
From the stage below, feedback screeches through the speakers. Jun backs off, "Shit, missed dye-dye." He says to himself out loud, Ara thinks, who is this dye dye? He hesitates, then turns back to Ara. "You staying for our show tonight right?"
"Wouldn't miss it!" Ara says. Jun smiles, “good, just making sure” He makes me feel like a teenager again she thinks looking at him smile.
Panel Sequence: The Interruption
[Dye-dye bursts into the room with 30 people behind her, all energy and chaos]
Ara and Jun look around, Ara thinks, must be the infamous Dye-dye, she’s beautiful but so young, she’s like some tiny cult leader.
Dye-dye runs and jumps over to where Jun is, Ara sees her running over and swaps seats to sit away from Jun opposite him quickly, feeling guilty for nothing, she thinks (Dye-dye squealing): "JUNNIE! Did you watch me? Did you see?!" Jun’s energy changes immediately, back to the distant cold person he was before they spoke, Ara thinks, and feels this change heavily. Nonetheless, Jun still keeps looking back at Ara as Dye-dye talks to him excitedly, but Jun seems more interested in making sure Ara remains in his sight. It’s as though his stare is commanding her to stay, so she obeys it and stays. Jun breaks his gaze for a moment and grabs Dye-dye from behind him and pulls her so she is sitting on his lap now, she screams and he says hello to her. She finally has shuts up, Ara thinks. As if Jun’s look commanded the same control over Dye-dye as it did her.
Dye-dye glances over at Ara with a bitchy look…
She looks away back at Jun, and Jun quickly fills her in by saying, “oh, this is my new friend, Ara.” Jun looks at Ara, but Dye-dye ignores Ara and physically turns Jun’s gaze back to her eyes from hers, Jun bites her black dress strap and they start making out as if Ara didn’t even exist anymore! Jun, opens one eye to keep staring at Ara, while he makes out with Dye-dye.
Ara looks away and thinks, Right Of course. “the muse”. A cool, punk, “age-appropriate” cult leader nymph.
Jun can see Ara is getting uncomfortable and this might cause her to leave, which he doesn’t want.
They keep ignoring her, Ara thinks she has never been ignored but also felt so seen COMPLETELY by one person, the way Jun keeps doing to her, ever before in the one night! It’s so confusing.
Jun stops looking at Ara and Ara thinks, and thats my cue to leave. As she goes to get up and leave, Jun notices and gets up before her. Standing up with Dye-dye, he walks away with Dye-dye hanging off of him still, he does this to make Ara feel more comfortable again, without saying a word to her though, he walks to the other side of the room with Dye-dye, places her like a doll up on a bench and they start chatting inaudibly together on the other side of the room.
“Those two have their own little world together.” This random girls voice comes out of nowhere, it’s Dye-dye’s best friend Seo-Yeon, she has comes up to talk at Ara. ”…I know you like him honey, but don’t bother trying to compete with her babe, you never will come between them.” Ara looks over to them, acting like no one else exists in the world except those two, but Ara says, “its not like that you know. I - — -” opposing this girls opinions. Yeo-Seon interupts rudely, “He will never let her go of his bad gurl superstar babydoll, bitchy young precious Dye-dye, his prized possession. He made her who she is, the perfect person for him to be with.” Seo-Yeon makes Ara face her and say assetively and rudely looking her inthe eyes…”She is him…” Ara wonders what this girl is talking about, “…for someone like you….so different to us, there’s no chance. So give it up….you are way out of your league here. Go back to Hollywood or where ever you belong…” Seo-Yeon gives her a bitchy look and walks away. “BYE BYE POP TART” she says sarcastically as she walks away. Ara thinks what a bitch. For such a young girl she’s pretty intimidating. Ara looks away and sits back on the chair, slouches and sighs, she thinks about Jun asking to be her friend..*memory*
She smiles at this, and decides to go find Tae-Doh, she texts him thinking she might leave, she has practice with PRISM early. He replies telling her to not go anywhere and to wait there he will be back to get her in 2 minutes.
She stands there by herself awkwardly, June and dye-dye have disappeared when she looks back at where they were before.
Time passes and still no word from Tae-Doh “…ok tae doh its been 9 minutes now…” she says as she looks at her texts to find nothing from him yet, she decides to leave. But before she does…
Jun sneaks up behind her, returning to find Ara, who when notices it’s Jun trys to look casual. He leans down to her height to say quietly "Sorry about that before….Dye-dye can be a brat.”
Jun walks around Ara and sits in front of her leaning on a desk. dye dye looks at this scenario from across the room with a evil glare.
He pauses, then adds, “its not a sexual attraction or anything.” Ara looks up as if surprised by his comment coming from nowhere, Jun sees this and continues leaning closer “…i mean you and I, Dye-dye is over reacting. It’s not like that with us, we have a different connection, music. Don’t you think?” Ara thinks well she is heavily attracted to Jun, however, she thinks his invitation for friendship is so refreshing and cool and agrees happily. “I knew you would be cool like that. We have something stronger perhaps than that.” He looks up to meet her eye line, …..that stare, Ara thinks.
Jun continues, noticing Ara is staying pretty quiet now. He decides to lighen the mood by going back to his more light flirty personality again whch seems to bring her to talk last time…”However, it is going to become a slight issue if I can’t stop looking at you even when I have dye dye dry humping me.” Ara laughs and says, “She really hates me.”
Jun laughs and says,.. “…don’t worry about Dye-dye, Hater is her middle name” then reassures Ara, “…but you’re perfect baby" at that he reaches for her hand and grabs a hold of it.
“so come with me!” Jun says as he pulls some ribbon out of his pocket, and starts tying there hands together with it “umm sure, but, what are you doing?” Ara questions Jun’s actions to tie them together. Jun doesn’t reply immersed in the mission to tie Ara to himself, and keeps going until their hands are locked tight together. Ara doesn’t resist and just watches him literally possess her with this ribbon. He finishes and smirks, “now, you are mine for the rest of the night.” He hesitates and looks up at her again, after finishing securing her hand to his own, “….because I need you Ara Hana”
Before she gets to ask what for…. (not that she cares, she is happy to be Jun’s possession right now) or before even has a chance to accept this demand from Jun (she would never turn it down anyway), he is pulling her across the room with him. She thinks how charming he is and how he makes her feel like they are partners in crime about to take on the world together as he pulls her through a crowd the ribbon tightly fastening her to him and his grip tight as if he never wants to let go, ever again. She looks at their hands tied together and thinks….This is a bad idea….
Jun opens the door and pushes a bunch of people away so Ara can get through the door with him, out into her new music home that Jun has decided to help her explore and fit into as his new best friend who he “needs.”
Ara sees Jun brush straight past Dye-dye in the crows, and Seo-Yoon. She notices Jun not noticing it was even Dye-dye at all, like she didn’t exist. Ara brushes her straight after Jun does, knocking her out of the way twice by them both. “Bitch.” Dye-dye says loud enough for Ara to hear,
However, Ara doesn’t care so much. Dye-dye is just a kid and she feels a sense of protection over her for some reason even though Dye-dye hates her. She can’t hate a young girl back. Plus she is obviously going to have to deal with this kind of hate to be close to Jun as a female in this scene she has realised, hearing the comments from those around them while holding Jun’’s hand through the crowds. The entire population of Seoul’s youth seems like they are there tonight Ara thinks. There are people in every space available in this building tonight. Ara hears some comments about her being with Jun from passers by, these underground punk rockers wondering who this pink coloured hair girl was, one person calls her Jem from Jem and the holograms and her friend’s laugh, another says, why is he with her? Because she is wishing she was with him instead and some other groupies saying, well I was with him two nights last week….
At hearing that comment, Ara looks at Jun pulling her with him through the crowd and how close they became so fast, she knows they are meant to be friends and she knows he knows this also and Dye-dye and the rest of them are just going to have to deal with it. Jun just said it before, it’s NOT SEXUAL.
Jun pulls Ara up through the crowd, making sure she is ok, he looks back to check on her and his heart beats faster….this reaction to looking at her is quite unnerving for him, she meets his gaze, and he thinks , This is such a bad idea...
Too be continued…
첫별 VENUS, Verity & DJ Foxy/Moron
Copyright Danica Conwell 2024 All Rights Reserved.
THE MUSE MANHWA BY 첫별 VENUS
Illustrtions by AI Chat GPT, and CLAUDE & PINTEREST