Watching my back

My host mother says there's nothing we can really do except wait. If this Thursday the creepy stalker man doesn't show up at the Korean class for foreigners that he sometimes hangs around, there's really nothing else we can do. Though we've tried to learn more about him, no one seems to know more than his family name (pretty much useless in Korea) and that he claims to work for a very large industrial company near Yeosu. I can file a report for a lost wallet with the police, but I can't accuse him of stealing it (though I'm positive he did) since I don't actually have any proof. In Korea, that's the way things are done. However, my host mother's brother apparently is friends with a police officer, and he says that if the man (Mr. Chae) shows up at the class, he'll send his police officer friend over. I guess at least I can find consolation in having friends in high places.

I'll back up for the benefit of those of you who haven't heard this story yet. Really, it started all the way back in September--you may know this if you've been keeping up on my blog since then. He's mentioned briefly for the first time in the "Back to school entry." He's the guy who interrogated me in McDonald's. At the time I remember being inclined to be aloof, and then deciding I should loosen up and have a conversation with him, thinking he was probably harmless. Subsequently this man, named Mr. Chae, visited my school three different times, though I increasingly tried to make it clear that I wasn't interested in teaching him. The most recent time was my first week back at school this month. At that point I was thoroughly disturbed by him (you'll have to read the posts to gather why exactly) and dismayed to see him. Thankfully my co-teacher made it clear to him that he should stop coming by the school, and he left.

Last Saturday evening I decided to go back to Elvis, the foreigner hang-out in Suncheon. I'd been there a couple times before way back in September and October, and lately I'd gotten very curious about the foreigners I had met through the frisbee group when I first arrived in Suncheon. I suspected they had all gone back to Canada or New Zealand, but since I knew I'd be happy to hang out with them again, I decided I had to make sure. Also, my past experiences at Elvis had all been positive and it seemed like the friendly expat community here was worth tapping into. And sometimes you just need to get out of the house.

My visit to Elvis began around 10:40 pm and at the start was rather uneventful. Then about half an hour later the first person I recognized from back in September showed up, and we hit it off pretty well and chatted most of the night. As it got later, the place filled up more and more because it was the birthday of a Canadian guy who had been in Suncheon for five years. It was a very warm and cozy atmosphere. Everyone knew everyone else and was very friendly. Many people recognized me and commented on how long it had been and asked how I was doing. I continued to chat with my new friend George.

Then I turned my head and recognized a familiar shape sitting alone at long table diagonal table. I wasn't sure at first, since he was sitting in shadow, but I verified it with George; it was the creepy Mr. Chae, cocked hat and all. George knew who he was immediately; turns out he constantly drops by this free Korean class that is held for foreigners, and numerous foreigners are bothered by him. Once Mr. Chae showed up in an American military uniform (confirming my suspicions that he's obsessed with the American military). I told George about my experiences with him, how he'd come by my school persistently with what seemed to me like fabricated excuses to talk to me (he just happened to be taking a business trip to San Francisco, which I'd given as my hometown, and needed me to give him information about it), and I was also just very uncomfortable in his presence.

Later in the night George left his seat next to me to make some social rounds (the place was quite crowded at this point). Mr. Chae was facing my back from across the room, so I was being careful not to turn around lest I accidentally make eye contact with him. But to no avail. Not long after George vacated, Mr. Chae sat down beside me and emitted a jumbled sentence into my ear, something like, "Your school San Francisco remember me?" I just nodded. He was laughing and nervous but I was not amused. Then George popped up at my elbow, "Want to dance?" I was off the stool so fast I don't even know if I uttered a verbal answer. I didn't even look at Mr. Chae, much less say anything to him (of course this was incredibly rude of me, especially for Korea) and walked to the dance floor with George. Mr. Chae attempted to cover his embarassment by following up and doing a little spin on the dancefloor before going back to his seat at the back table. I thanked George, returned to the bar and then realized that probably didn't look good and also might give Mr. Chae the chance to corner me again, so I followed George, who had moved to the side of the room to talk to some other folks who I'd also met long ago.

I left my coat on my chair and my purse at the floor when I went across the room. Since the place was thick with people that I either knew or had been introduced to that evening, and my new location was within sight of my stuff, I didn't think twice about it. Then, a few minutes later, Mr. Chae went and sat down in my chair. This bothered me, mostly because I saw it as a ploy on his part to force me to talk to him if I wanted to get my stuff and leave. But it appeared that his aim in sitting at the bar was to try to talk to the foreigners on either side of him, though he didn't appear to have much luck. (Later, an Australia woman I had just met that night and who had been sitting next to my chair told me that she hadn't seen whether or not he'd taken my wallet because she'd been too busy avoiding his attempts to make eye contact; she'd known to avoid him after witnessing my reactions to him a little earlier).

Eventually he got up from my seat and left the bar directly. Shortly after that I returned to get some money from my purse and found that my wallet was gone. Though I hadn't been watching him the entire time he'd been sitting at my stool, he was the only one I'd seen sitting there during my absence, and truthfully, he had motives. He'd already expressed interest in me (interest my mother and co-teacher, to my horror, believe to be romantic) and I'd rudely blown him off that evening, probably angering him. I recruited the help of some of my new friends but our search efforts were fruitless. He was long gone, and so was my wallet. It was late, so finally I decided just to go home and close my Wells Fargo debit card. As I left, the new foreigner teacher at my "brother" school, Maesan Boys' High School, offered to buy me lunch on Monday and then told me to be careful, because that guy "is the stalker-type." Oh, don't I know. Thanks to George I got a cab home, then took care of the debit card, and tried to sleep. The next morning I talked it over with my host mother, and we contacted the teacher of the Korean class for foreigners. He said he didn't think Mr. Chae was the stealing type, but he admitted that Korean classes had been canceled because so many foreigners were bothered by him. He couldn't turn up any more information on the guy, so our only option was to wait and see if he would show up at the Korean class again (it's held every Thursday).

In regards to the wallet, I'm actually rather fortunate. I only had about ten dollars in it, and though it had ID cards and the like that will be a hassle to replace, I don't believe stealing it equipped Mr. Chae with any further useful knowledge of me. I'm more bothered due to the sentimental value of the items, and the knowledge that he's rooted through them. If I had simply lost my wallet on the street somewhere and had zero prospect of finding it again, I'd be less bothered. It's the fact that he's practically a stalker and that he may get away with stealing from me that bothers me so much. Though I'm not afraid (I've definitely been tense and distracted these past couple days, but I'm not afraid). I'm just angry now, and I feel like this new anger has empowered me to deal with him confidently if I do ever see him again. If I do see him again, I'll tell him to never try to talk to me or I'll tell the police he's stalking me. And I'll follow through on that.

Anyway, if anything interesting happens Thursday, I'll be sure to let everyone know.