Welcome to the Gayborhood

In a matter of fifteen minutes, I had met Paul, a thin fifty-something year old man with rapid gestures and a fatherly smile, followed him hurriedly through the nighttime streets of Itaewon, a maze of foreign tourists, american soldiers, salespersons, and prostitutes, and was sipping on a glass of Chardonnay, de-shelling mussels in his restaurant on the strip. Paul alternates between a state of destraction: fidgeting, craning around, and tending to friends and customers, and that of still and meditative repose. We barely talk at all. In another twenty minutes, he would be handing me off to Suk Chun, the famous actor who remains the only public figure in the country to have outed himself, and in another fifteen, we would be on the balcony of his Chinese restaurant being introduced to friends. A young woman with a compact hairstyle, a compact clutch bag, and an irritated countenance seats herself next to Suk Chun.

“Brian, this is Marie, the famous actress, and WAX, who's in town recording her second album.” He leans in toward me. “They’re very popular.”

Not really sure what one says to this, but I eek out a "pangapsumnida".

We engage in some small talk about the evening and I turn to introduce myself to the hip and attractive young man to my left. “So what do you do here in Seoul?”. He looks a little uncertain as to what to say. “Ah...I’m a singer.”

Marie taps her ash and eyes me jauntily, "When did you get into Korea, Brian?"

“Um, yesterday.”