Aug 12th, 2000
Itaewon
After our classes finished that evening, Jake and I enjoyed a savory dinner at KFC, and then headed over to Jake’s place, where we had agreed to meet Bob and greg before heading over to pick up Justin and Robin. We arrived to find Bob seated in front of his computer, drinking a Cass and smoking a cigarette.When asked about greg’s whereabouts, Bob responded with “That bastard went out to meet some girl. That pussy.”
Jake jumped into the shower, so I entered Bob’s room and sat down on his bed. I noticed a few pairs of women’s underwear hanging on his doorknob.
“So, whose are those?” I asked.
“Well, you know, just one of the many,” he responded. Although I found it a bit disturbing to be talking to a 45-year-old man about women’s underwear, I continued: “So, do you have a girlfriend in Seoul?”
“No, I have a girlfriend in Texas aye, her name is Judy” Bob began, she is an aerobics instructor, she has the most amazing body I’ve ever seen.” Bob slowly swiveled his head towards me while plucking a small picture frame off of his desk. “Do you want to see a picture of her?”
I took the picture frame out of his hand and looked at Bob’s girlfriend - she looked like a female version of Bob. “Oh. She is very attractive Bob.”
This seemed to please him and he turned back towards his computer and continued typing. He was apparently in some sort of chatroom.
“So, what’s the plan for tonight?” I asked.
“Well, I know some places in Itchie-won.”
“I’m sorry, Itchie-won?”
“Yeah, that’s what I call Itaewon. Itchie-won.”
“I see.” I scanned his room and saw that there were a few 70s style polyester dresses hanging on his dresser.
“I know this one place in Itchie-won” Bob began, while still typing on his computer, “where I know this girl Sarah. She can introduce you to some of her friends aye?”
“That sounds nice,” I told him even though it really didn’t sound very nice to me. I watched as Bob stubbed out his cigarette butt and immediately reached into his cigarette box for another.
“So, where do you think Greg went?” I asked.
“I don’t know, that bastard. Probably off with some whore, aye?”
I made an ambiguous sound under my breath, which I hoped would satisfy him and attempted to change the subject: “So, how have you enjoyed teaching at ECC so far, Bob?”
He glanced at me in surprise, as if wondering if I was having it on with him. After he realized that I was being sincere, he answered,
“It’s a pain in the ass. But I’m making money aye. There was nothing at home.”
“Right, right. . .” I answered intelligently.
“The kids are a pain in the ass, but it’s not that bad.”
“Hmm. . .”
“You know what?” He said. “You’re a good sh#!.” With that, he got out of his seat, grabbed a worn down towel off of his dresser and headed towards the shower.
I sat in his room for a few moments, attempting to make sense of the conversation, which had just transpired, and then decided to check my e-mail on his computer.
I was loading Internet Explorer when my curiosity got the best of me and I looked into his “My Documents” folder. Not surprisingly, there was a folder entitled “Girls,” which I opened up.
I was treated to a terribly graphic display of some of the most atrociously rude picture I had ever seen. There was a folder entitled “Judy.” I quickly closed the window and moved away from the computer, desperately trying to shake the disturbing images out of my head.
After Bob and Jake had gotten themselves ready, we headed over to Justin and Robin’s house. Officially, their house consisted of two bedrooms and a common room, which served as both a kitchen and a dining room. In reality their house was more of a shanty, and the two bedrooms was more along the lines of one bedroom and a closet. The kitchen/dining area was large enough for a refrigerator, gas stove, and a small table, but you had to walk sideways to get through it.
We entered the house and I was a bit surprised to find Bill sitting in the kitchen by himself, drinking a beer.
“What the f!#k,” he said. “What took you guys so f@#!ing long?”
“Well, it took a while for everyone to get ready” I answered as we took our shoes off and sat down on the floor in the common room.
Robin was in his small closet, cradling a tiny puppy in his arms.
Apparently, the puppy had been a gift from a Korean friend, and shortly after it had come into Robin’s possession, it had acquired a bad case of Kennel cough. Robin told us that the veterinarian had simply deemed that the dog had about “three or four weeks to live,” and there was really nothing that could be done to help it.
The puppy was so weak that it could barely walk, it spent most of its time lying on its stomach, its chin resting on the floor.
I peeked into Justin’s room and saw that he and his extremely beautiful girlfriend were playing a card game with miniature cards.
“Ohh. . .hello there Jiyan.” Justin said in his molasses drenched voice. “This is Sojin.”
“What’s her name? Soju?” This comment inspired a great laughter out of Sojin that morphed into a hyperventilating-like sound.
“Soooojiiiiin,” Justin clarified.
“Oh, it’s nice to meet you Sojin.”
“Hello.”
I smiled politely and then turned towards the kitchen, where Bill had begun his latest hate filled monologue about something or other.
Paraphrasing Bill was fairly easy, you just took a neutral statement such as “I went to the store today,” and filled it in with one of the following phrases:
- F#!ing
- Sh#!
- Unfucking believable
- Oh yeah, I’ve seen it
What you get is an energetic opinion such as “oh yeah, you wouldn’t f@#ing believe it, I went to that sh#@!y store today.”
Bill was discussing the time that he had spent in State prison for selling drugs. Apparently, he had some friend in the mafia who had gotten him out of prison the first time. The second time, his “friend” had decided that it was probably better for Bill to learn a lesson and therefore left him in prison for three months.
“Oh yeah, you got to watch your back because you never know when someone is going to come behind you and shank you in the back.”
Jake was listening intently to the story while Bob was standing towards the corner, looking a little bit frightened. I felt compelled to leave the room, perhaps for fear that I would slowly grow to believe in Bill’s incredulous web of fantasy tinged reality, and I headed into Robin’s closet.
The puppy was still lying on the floor, its eyes half open, waiting to die.
“He hasn’t eaten anything all day,” Robin said. “He tried to eat a little bit earlier, but he just threw it up immediately.”
The puppy looked up at Robin with its dreary eyes in seeming acknowledgment of his concern. From the kitchen, I heard Bob call out, “Lets go aye?”
I kneeled down and pat the dog on the head and then turned to leave, as I was walking out, Robin called out to me: “Be careful out there.”
I nodded towards him and walked through the kitchen, shaking Jake and Bill’s hands before heading out the door to Itaewon.
Itaewon was a nightmare out of Full Metal Jacket. GIs the size of oxen roamed the streets in herd, laughing rambunctiously as they rudely called out to Korean prostitutes. They exuded a confidence borne out of the knowledge that they had been trained to kill and were protecting a country of small Asian people who were incapable of defending themselves.
We walked through the streets and I watched with amusement as Bob joined in the parade by yelling out to the various prostitutes. We headed up an incline fondly referred to as “hooker hill,” for the many hostess bars that lined both sides of the streets.
In 1993, Private Kenneth Markle raped and murdered a young Korean woman. Her name was Kum E. Yoon.
Bob and I stopped at the top of the hill and watched as a shirtless Korean man was restrained by military police officers.
Kum E. Yoon was found covered in blood and detergent.
He was yelling in Korean and as he was pushed down the hill, I asked him “what is wrong,” to which he responded, “get out of my country.”
Kum E. Yoon was found with her legs spread open.
We entered the bar and Bob ordered two beers and a bowl of soup. As he slurped happily away, I turned and surveyed the scene in the bar. Young Korean girls were prancing around the room, grinding with American GIs on the dance floor, whispering in their ears, sitting on their laps.
Kum E. Yoon was found with a bottle inserted inter her vagina and an umbrella inserted 11 inches into her rectum.
From out of the corner of my eye, I could see that one of the Korean girls was staring at me, trying to get my attention. I responded by staring forcefully into my beer and waiting for her gaze to depart.
Markle was sentenced to life imprisonment. At the appeal court, his term was reduced to fifteen years.
Bob finished slurping his soup and began to flirt with the bar tender, who was thirty years younger than him. His filthy leer made me feel slightly ill.
Mrs. Kim Kook-Hye was a 51-year old owner of a small bar.
After drinking another beer, we headed towards a dance club that was located closer to the base of hooker hill.
Mrs. Kim Kook-Hye was found severely beaten, with her undergarments torn away from her limp body.
We entered the club and as I drank another beer, I watched Bob attempt to dance with a girl who looked about eighteen years old. As if his appearance and his leer did not horrify the girl enough, the fact that he danced like Frankenstein with osteoporosis sealed the deal and she headed out of the club.
Mrs. Kim Kook-Hye was taken to the hospital where she underwent a surgical operation on her brain.
I turned again towards the dance floor and watched as two GIs with camcorders were grinding with two young girls on the dance floor. As they groped the girls’ buttocks with one hand, they recorded the action with the other.
Mrs. Kim Kook-Hye regained consciousness after four months in the hospital. Besides being emotionally and physically scarred, she had acquired a wonderful little mental disorder.
I watched Bob move on to another girl and I began to feel incredibly fatigued. The sounds of laughter began to pierce my ears and my eyes started to feel uncomfortably dry.
Corporal John Roger Saloy of the 2nd infantry division in Dongduchun stated that he had felt compelled to beat her into unconsciousness fearing her ability to use Taekwondo as a means of defense.
I stood up and realized that I had gotten quite drunk over the course of the past few hours. I headed out of the bar and hailed a cab back to Sillim.
