Vietnam—Hồ Tinh [Korea's intervention in the Vietnam War, 1955-1975]
Vietnam thought America was the one she had to beware of, but she forgot about the Hồ Tinh.
She was aware of its existence. She had it understood that it was a benign, sometimes helpful entity, and therefore there was no danger in applying the old 'live and let live' principle. Big mistake.
Attracted by the smell of blood and loot the Nine-Tailed Fox abandoned its mountain cave and followed all those helicopters soaring the sky. It saw that there was a lot for the taking, and in order to pass unnoticed among all those stars and stripes, it took the disguise of a handsome young man with such a funny-looking curl in his raven hair that there was no one one could take him as a threat.
But see the trace it left behind. Of old men torn apart, women and girls bleeding, children wailing in pain, if they were even left alive.
She at first thought the enemy was to blame for all of this. A barbaric way of making war, but since when is war clean and fair?
That was her second mistake: not paying attention to the affable looking man lurking in that land of death. He was there for the same reason everyone was. Nothing suspicious about him. He played by the rules. He knew how to behave.
She, herself, didn't see what was behind all those until they were in a remote place, alone, when encountered each other face to face and his smile grew in an inhuman way to show those terrifying fangs. Then, Vietnam believed and realized what her situation was. All attempts to conceal her horror were unsuccessful. The rumors about the Hồ Tinh not being a threat seemed as false as the human appearance it had shown until that moment. There was no one to help her, had she screamed, nobody would have come in her aid. Facing it alone would be useless, but she still tried.
She shot twice. Oh, but each one of its tails is a life; it still had seven left. She then tried to escape, and it cut off the way out. It pushed her to the ground and tried to put her pants down. She attempted to hit it—fool! After all the pain the enemy had already inflicted her, she was too weak, and it was strong! It was as easy as to shake a bug off. It managed to break in, she attempted to get it off by hitting, biting, scratching it. He laughed. All it did was laugh and bite and scratch back.
She managed to escape, broken, leaving a trail of blood, which the Hồ Tinh would follow when he was hungry again; for the moment, that was enough to satisfy his appetite.
And her foes saw and smirked. Beasts like those are scary but not when you have summoned them to make your job easier.
Nobody would believe her when she warned everybody about the Hồ Tinh. There were no monstrous foxes around, just a soft-spoken man...