Drift Reality > South Korea > Arrival in Seoul 4

We parked and I heaved my weighty luggage out of Augustus's car, which seemed to breath a sigh of metal relief. We walked through a black gate composed of aluminum siding, onto a patio that was covered with an unbecoming assortment of boxes and trash bags. On the right side of the patio was a small house and Augustus walked towards the front door and knocked on it.

After a few moments, a slender man in his early twenties opened the door. Jake was wearing faded gray cargo pants and a black t-shirt. He had a lean, angular face with a sharp nose and his hair was extremely thin.

He smiled at me, and then turned towards Augustus.

"What are you doing here?" he asked nervously.

"This is the new teacher," Augustus said with a forced smile. "He will be staying here until the other apartment is ready," and her tone left little room for debate.

Jake nodded quickly and then backed into the house. Augustus walked through the door and I followed behind her.

The apartment was modest: the front door opened onto a small common room. The far side of the common room contained a wooden table with three small chairs. A 12" screen television sat atop a small wooden drawer on the near side of the room.

Augustus cast a disapproving gaze around the room before asking, "Where did you get all of this stuff?"

I examined the barren room and wondered what she could have possibly been talking about seeing as how there was less furniture in the room than one would expect at a Hare Krishna commune.
Jake offered her a feeble smile and shrugged his shoulders.

"You must stop picking stuff up off the streets," she said.
Augustus then turned to me and calmly explained, "School starts at 10:00. You might want to get there a little bit earlier to prepare."

"I hate Augustus," Jake said in a flat tone. "She's a bitch."

This was the first thing that I learned about Jake, that he harbored a powerful resentment towards Augusts. The second thing that I learned about Jake was that he was an irrepressible gossip and therefore, the perfect individual to introduce me to the world that I had just entered.

We had a few cigarettes and I listened intently as he told me about his roommates: Bob the alcoholic and Greg the lecher, both of whom were apparently cavorting in the Hostess bars.
"What are the hostess bars?" I asked.

A sly smile crept onto Jake's lips as he explained that the hostess bars were venues in which an individual might purchase both alcohol and female companionship.

"You pay them to do. . .do stuff with you," he explained coyly. "Both Jiyan and Greg go there all the time."

I found it a bit interested that he seemed so enthusiastic to divulge this type of information to me. I got the distinct impression that he had been quietly watching his roommates for quite some time, just waiting for someone to come along who might show interest in what he had to say.

After listening to Jake rant on for about an hour, it dawned on me that I would have to wake up in several hours and jump into the unknown world of teaching English, so I yawned and asked where I could lay my head.

Jake laid a few blankets on the linoleum floor in his room and I fell asleep in a matter of seconds.