Dramatic times: The gangsterocity of Incheon.

Fucking. Dramatic times, my friends. I had half a mind to have the girls round next weekend for a quieter night out here in Incheon. Stupid me, forgetting the things that go on around here. Just off the phone with Smalltown and I'm rethinking the whole thing. Now. To clarify. This is not a post about Koreans, or Korean men, or Westerners, or Western men..... or men, in general -- this is a post about a particular type of person, of whom there seem to be many hanging around in our places out here. My Western boys don't seem to help things at times -- that's for sure. Mostly, there's too much alcohol, too much testosterone and too much fucking working class for such confined spaces.

A couple of weekends ago, Smalltown got jumped pretty badly by some Korean guys. This is not the first time I've heard this story -- I've been the sole female voice of reason between the two groups on too many nights out, breaking up fights and smoothing feathers before things have a chance to get out of hand, which is why I've started avoiding the entire situation. We've even had one boy in the hospital for a couple of days as a result of one run-in.

Smalltown couldn't remember the details of that night. Only that he remembers running for his life and waking up with a huge gash across his face. But last night he was sober enough. And this is how these things tend to go down:

Group of Korean men spot a group of Western men in the bar. Group of Korean men jovially invite group of Western men over to buy them a round and have a bit of friendly interaction. Certian factions of group of Western men behave somewhat ignorantly. Certain factions of group of Korean men behave somewhat aggressively. Next thing you know, a fucking brawl breaks out. No good. No good at all.

But this incident had a certain amount of light shed on it by our favorite bar tendress. Basically, the above scenario began, and before long, one of the foreign guys realized his wallet was missing. Korean men tried to leave. Western men prevented them from leaving. Bar tendress found the lost wallet in the bathroom. Smalltown bought Korean men a round of apology. Other foreign men behaved like asses in the face of an apparent huge ignorant mistake on their parts. Smalltown got pissed off at other foreign men and started a fight with them over their ignorance. Everyone calmed down. Other foreign men left. Korean men begged Smalltown to stay. Smalltown waffled for a bit, and went to follow foreign men out. Foreign men were gone. Smalltown came back inside to re-join group of Korean men. Korean men were gone -- missed him between the stairs and the elevator. Bar tendress grabbed Smalltown and explained that the Korean men had indeed taken the wallet, then ditched it in the bathroom when no one (but her) was looking. Also were trying to get Smalltown (any of the group) alone to jump him. Just because. Which has apparently been happening a lot out there lately.

Mostly, stuff this serious has filtered down to me from other groups hanging out at other bars. But the fact that it's on the home turf now has me feeling not so confident. When me and the girls go out, who do you think we end up talking to most of the time? And how much worse would an interaction with one of these packs of men end if the people on the receiving end of their nonsense were women? I don't know. I have pretty good instincts, and the second any man in any group starts to get out of line, I'm pretty much done. But it makes me nervous. We haven't had that much trouble out here in the past, because there haven't been that many foreigners out here in the past. But as the groups of foreign men out and about carrying on on the weekends have increased, I guess so has the animosity from certain groups toward them, as a category. And I don't know how that might carry over onto foreign women.

I don't want to go into Seoul for NYE. I really don't. The whole thing sounds like a chaotic nightmare. But this gangster ass shit out here is just something I'm getting too old for these days. Maybe I'll just stay in and eat cupcakes.

(Not likely.)