A Fool in Korea

Raw

Yesterday, I woke up at 5 a.m. and drank a cup of instant coffee. Then I read the headlines on my smartphone while taking a nasty shit. A twenty-nine-year-old man from Gwanju met his dream girl and told her that he was a public-school teacher from a wealthy family. The two got married, but she soon found out that her husband was nothing more than a penniless vagabond. The lady finally asked for a divorce, and the guy responded by trying to kill her with a knife. He will now spend the next five years in prison for the crime of attempted murder.

I called my mother using Facebook Messenger.

She said, "I'm real tired today. In fact, I've spent the entire afternoon in bed."

I said, "How come?"

"I don't know. I just feel a little blue."

"Are you still taking your crazy pills?"

She nodded her head up and down. "I always follow the doctor's orders to a tee."

"Is it raining over there?"

She nodded again. "It's been coming down all day long."

"That's probably why you feel bad. Light deprivation. Plus your room is gloomy. Why don't you switch on a lamp?"

Mom changed the subject. "Your gay nephew is really sick. He caught the flu."

"Has he graduated from university yet?"

"No. He still has a couple of years to go."

"Is he in a ton of debt?"

She sighed heavily. "Probably. That seems to be par for the course."

I took a quick shower and made Rice-Boy's breakfast. I prepared three eggs and two pieces of toast. But I had a hard time getting him out of bed. I finally dragged him to the floor by his feet. Which was no easy task. The kid is six-feet four-inches tall. 

He said, "What the fuck are you doing?"

I said, "Getting you ready for school. Why are you so tired all the time? Did you spend the night studying."

He yawned and climbed to his feet. "I didn't get much sleep. I kept having nightmares about Mom. She broke into the apartment and tried to murder me with a knife."

I patted him on the back. "Don't worry so much. True. Your mother is nuts. But she wouldn't kill you in a million years. In fact, she loves you in her own sort of twisted way."

I caught the bus and got to work by 7:30 a.m. Then I made a shitload of photocopies. We have a first-rate Canon model which makes printing a joy. However, it's a little slow for my taste. It took me about ten minutes to complete all my tasks.

My day went well. I'm still reading The Sea Devil with my middle school kids. They don't like the story. In fact, they think it's boring. And I can understand their point of view. The tale doesn't have any dialogue. With that said, I don't hate it as much as they do.

I said, "Do any of you children hunt or fish?"

One girl raised her hand. "I caught a flounder a couple years ago. We ate it raw."

I said, "Raw?"

"Well, not really. We smothered the meat with wasabi and soy sauce."

"Was it good?"

She smiled. "It was fantastic. Fresh."

I eventually returned to my humble abode at 6 p.m. I cooked fried rice for dinner and got drunk on soju.