My Favorite Bang

Maybe I was giving up. I was five months into my year of teaching in Korea, and all I had managed with the ladies was a spontaneous blowjob in a kiss booth on Hooker Hill. Although it was the best blowjob of my life, the girl turned out to be a bit of a flake. Every time I called her, she encouraged me to visit her in the kiss booth again. But that was an expensive dead end, and if I kept going back for whatever she offered, I would have started to hate myself. If this was the most I could get out of the bar scene in Korea, after hitting it up three to four times a week for months with my pal Mark, then clearly it wasn?t for me. So, I naturally fell into the habit of hitting up one of the most alluring and heavenly venues Korea can offer to a nerdy, skinny guy who grew up spending too much time in front of computer screens: the PC bang. People familiar with Korea refer to a PC café as a PC bang?pronounced like the word ?bong,? which means ?room? in Korean?because they are quite different from a normal PC café. A PC café exists in any country that lacks enough wealth for the average person to buy their own computer. Korea was certainly this kind of country during the boom of the internet, and with that demand for computer usage being thrown into a gaming obsessed culture, the PC bang became a permanent and unique fixture in the culture, where the main purpose was not to browse the internet, but to game, and game hard. The first PC bang I ever wandered into, out of curiosity and with no intention of ever returning a second time, became my go-to locale for gaming. I liked it because the screens weren?t so big that I had to strain my neck and eyes when glancing up at the corners for important stats and timers. The chairs weren?t too fluffy and comfy?a gamer never wants to get too cozy in front of the computer; he has to remain upright and fully attentive. I liked how dark it was inside. The smell of microwaved noodles always flushed over me when I first walked in. This seemed to be the place for guys who didn?t go to PC bangs for flair or relaxation. If Rocky had been a gamer rather than a boxer, this is the place he would have chosen to come up in. Three to four times a week, I transitioned the time when I was normally drinking at bars until two in the morning to gaming in PC bangs until that time or even later. I could easily become a night owl because my teaching job was an after school gig that started late in the afternoon. I figured I was using this place as a temporary escape until I figured out what to actually do with my time in Korea, or maybe I would make friendships with some guys who could speak English pretty well. Whatever I was doing there, I knew I couldn?t hope to find a date. But, ironically, the first friend I ever made from going there was a girl. She was obviously the girlfriend of the guy who owned the place?or co-owned ankara travesti it. I never really knew who was in charge, but the desk was always occupied by one of three guys, and if it was still early in the evening, the same couple of girls would be hanging out with them. I first learned her name was Minjoo when she showed me how to register a username on the kiosk, so that I could rent a computer as a member rather than pay guest prices. ?Thank you!? I told her, unsure if she even understood me. ?You,? she pointed at me. ?Everyday.? She laughed. ?Hey, not every day.? I wanted to talk to her more, but she didn?t understand anything I said beyond simple words. Also, her boyfriend was always standing nearby anytime we talked, and I wasn?t sure what he thought of me, though he usually smiled when I looked at him. She wasn?t the formal and studious type, which was the norm for young Koreans. She had a single red streak in her long black hair, to match the frames of her glasses, and she often wore sleeveless shirts that partially exposed a tattoo of a bird near her neck. By her culture?s standards, she was a rebellious outcast. By my standards, she was cool, mysterious, fun to attempt conversations with, and quickly becoming the most alluring aspect of my favorite PC bang. One time when I was about an hour into my gaming session she walked up to me at the computer?the first time she had ever tracked me down among the fifty PCs in the café?and she proceeded to show me that she had retouched the red highlight in her hair and had added one. With the help of a translation app on her phone, I was able to tell her it looked great. I figured she wanted to talk with me a lot so that she could practice her English. Her boyfriend seemed unconcerned, perhaps even a bit enthusiastic about us trying to communicate. But for me it was awkward, being the only white guy in the PC bang and drawing stares from the guys at nearby computers. Minjoo and her friend would often break into laughter after I said something, and I had no idea why. Was I strange to them, or hard to understand? Was Minjoo trying to flirt with me? Maybe the friend was the girl dating the owner, and Minjoo was just hanging around because she had nothing else to do. Both of the guys who ran the place seemed much older than the girls; maybe they were family. Maybe she didn?t start showing up so often until we first started talking?my memory of when I had started noticing her was quite blurry. Too many possibilities, and too many questions. If I could just talk to her normally, so many questions would have been easily answered. Instead, trying to talk to her started giving me anxiety attacks, so for the next few days I would enter the café, say a quick hello, then make my way to a computer. But Minjoo and her friend would track me down, English textbook in hand, and travesti ankara say to me between their giggling, ?Tim?pronunciation, please,? and one of them would shove the book in my face with a word under her finger. She even started playing games of Starcraft with me, and she was decent at the game. I couldn?t avoid her anywhere in the PC bang, and I couldn?t help thinking she was the coolest girl I had met. Then we became Facebook friends when she caught me browsing the site and asked me to type my full name into her phone. When she walked away, I immediately accepted the friend request and jumped to her profile. I glanced over her pictures, checked out her status updates, all in an effort to convince myself that I wasn?t stalking and didn?t care about her answer to one particular question in her ?about me? section. Relationship status: In an open relationship. Open relationship? I had to think about this for a while. --- ?You?re way overthinking this, mate,? Mark practically yelled at me. I shook my head. ?Why would I expect you to say anything different?? He slammed his beer on the table and leaned in, giving me the crazy eyes. ?Fucker! You come to me for advice? I?m gonna give you the truth.? We were talking my situation with ?the PC bang girl? over in our favorite pub. Of course, he suggested I should assume any girl is single until she tells me otherwise, and that Facebook relationship statuses mean nothing. ?Hey, maybe she even meant to say, ?Open to having a relationship? Huh? I mean, if her English isn?t that good.? I gave him a deadpan look. ?She uses the website in Korean, I?m sure.? ?You don?t know! Maybe she uses it in English to learn. Either way, open relationship means what it means, mate. It?s open. She?s dating a main guy, but she can see other guys if she wants. He can see other women if he wants. They are all about having fun while being young. This is perfect for you. This is what you need to learn how to do. She can teach you!? ?I just?? I put my hands on my head. ?This is too strange for me. I just want to date a girl, and maybe we could teach each other a different language. I don?t want to get into anything complicated.? ?Maybe I could help you out. Bring my by this place where you talk to her, and I?ll ask her out.? ?What? No!? ?Ha ha!? he took a gulp of his beer. ?Oh, I know. You should ask her out on a date, and if she says yes, ask her if the boyfriend wants to watch.? ?Watch the date happen?? ?No?you know what I mean.? ?What? Really?? ?Some guys are into that stuff, Tim. Look, I?ll tell you a little story. A couple of years ago, back in London. I was a bull for the couple two doors down from me. You know what that is?? ?No.? He started making exaggerated motions while talking. ?Means I would get in there, and we?d have a couple of drinks together?all three of us. And then, the wife ankara travestiler would make her man sit in a chair, and she?d give him a little strip tease. Then she would blow me, right there in front of him. And after that, I would fuck her for half an hour, while he watched.? ?What the hell? She would make him watch that?? ?It?s a fetish, mate. The guy?s just as into it as the girl.? ?I don?t think I could ever do something like that.? ?Well, her man would also send her over to my place by herself?sometimes as the warm up, sometimes to finish her off. It depended on their mood. Guys get off on the idea of their woman being so sex crazed that she needs more than one man to satisfy her. They don?t worry that they?re missing out. They feel like they?re giving their girl a treat to fuck other guys. It makes them proud.? ?You have some strange explanations for people?s behavior, man.? He finished his beer and smiled at me. ?But I can tell it?s got the wheels churning in your little head. You?re thinking about going through with this, aren?t you? Ha ha! Come on, let?s get out of here.? We went out into the street, where night had fallen, and the lights of the nightclubs up the street were beginning to infect the air. Cars struggled to move at a decent pace among the mobs of well-dressed guys and beautiful women wearing skin-tight dresses that barely covered their hips. The women here certainly like to show off their legs. And every one of them?not most of them?every one of them was thin and had flawless skin. Mark put his arm around me as we observed the scenery. ?Look, Tim, there?s something you need to remember about being here. See all these guys walking by us? Their dick is much smaller than yours.? I laughed. ?I?m serious! I went to a bathhouse in this country already, and I saw a lot of Korean men naked in there. I don?t like to stereotype a lot, but this one is rather true. On average, white guys have bigger dicks. And see all these gorgeous women walking by us? They are all curious about what that?s like. They all want to hook up with a white guy at least once in their life, or even a black guy if they?re brave enough. Why don?t you fulfill that fantasy for this chick you?ve met?? I felt a sense of power washing over me, one so primal that I felt a bit embarrassed to be thinking this way, but it made me feel enabled, maybe even a bit obligated, to walk up to any of these gorgeous women walking by me, and introduce myself. My curiosity and optimism about dating in this country had been fully revived, thanks to Mark?s sleazy mind.--- Minjoo and I began chatting on Facebook regularly, and with the help of Google Translate, we could finally communicate in complete sentences. She was able to write in Korean, and I responded in English. The translations weren?t perfectly accurate; they usually came back as fragmented sentences, or with terrible grammar, but I could figure out what she meant. And I didn?t feel anxiety when talking with her anymore, whether online or at the PC bang, which I wasn?t frequenting quite so often anymore. Instead, I spoke to her with a bit of aggression and urgency.