The first is a dude that Heather and I ran into while exploring the Hampyoung Chrysanthemum Festival. We were walking around and taking pictures of the Namdaemoon structure. When we noticed a group of people sitting around. We happened across them, just trying to walk by, but one guy, drunk, was really enamored by me. So much so that he got up and wanted to take a picture with me. Which is normal. But this got weird when he started trying to kiss me. I pushed him back, his friends held him back, his wife even beat the shit out of him, but he still persisted. Heather and I made our break for it and thought we were finally rid of him, until we were on a bridge and he reappeared, still hell bent on kissing me. I held him at bay telling him to keep moving and when he didn't listen to me or his wife yelling at him in the background; she roared and tackled him away from me and literally dragged him off.
The second was a older guy at the bank. I was at the teller getting my updates done on my bankbook and getting my number changed so that my new cellphone will get messages when I use my check card, essentially the debit card of Korea, when this older dude came up to where I was standing and tried to shove me aside so that the teller would help him. When I didn't budge as easily as he thought I would, he got pissed and started yelling at me for being a foreigner and not having the right to stand in his, a Koreans, way. The teller and I told him to wait, but that made him even more pissed off and physical. The bank tellers here work by number, you take a number and when that number is called it's your turn. This guy didn't have a number but thought that he was entitled to the teller over me because he was Korean.
He grabbed me by the shoulder and tried pushing me aside even more, so I reversed his grip, grabbed him by the back of the neck and kicked his knee out so that he lost his balance and had no choice but to stumble away from the teller. Now he was really pissed but some of the managers of the bank came over and escorted him out. He stood outside of the bank for a good amount of time ranting and raving about the injustice but the rest of the Koreans outside that he was trying to start a rebellion with just ignored him. When my business was done and was leaving one of the managers walked to the door with me just incase the dude was there and tried something. Luckily, he had moved on.
The third was a kind of a double happening. I was taking out my recycling one night and when I was sorting my plastics from my glass the janitor of my building came out and started yelling at me about something. When I told him that I didn't understand, he got louder and angrier. So I just made fun of him without his realizing it. Finally he got so fed up that he tried to take the box from me but when I refused to give it to him and told him that it was my box, he got really confused and dumped all of the plastic and glass onto the ground. I took the opportunity to bounce. While in the elevator, another man came in while I was entering and saw me back knuckle the button to my floor. He was very impressed by this, so much so that he asked my apartment number and tried to kiss me. Already on edge, I pushed him back and said "try to kiss me again and I'll punch you in the throat." He blinked a lot quickly hurried out of the elevator.
The most final and most recent one was when I was at the store the other night. I was there getting my stock of water and juice and was at the cashier behind the dude. He was middle aged and looked like he didn't have a decent place to go, but he was determined to buy his soju, the Korean vodka. It only cost him 2 thousand won, or roughly about 2 dollars. He tried paying with 2 cards, both were denied. Then he pulled out a wad of cash and flipped through it, grumblingly. He looked around and saw me, pocketed the wad of cash and started to ask me for money. The cashier, a nice, young woman was calling to him trying to get his attention back to her. But he was, once again, determined to get me to buy his soju for him. Logic and reason, unknown. But he finally left me alone after much of my telling him to "fuck off", the cashier begging him to come back to her and the manager of the store coming over to stand 'intimidatingly' behind the cashier. The dude paid for his soju and stumbled up the stairs.
I paid for my things, the cashier being very apologetic about the man, I just smiled and told her that it was okay. But when I got up the stairs and outside, the fucker was waiting for me. He persisted to demand money from me and tried to take my bag for himself. I kept walking, making him follow me and since he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, just on rambling on how I needed to give him my money or my drinks, I led him into the back of a car. He hit, fell and I kept walking.
