"Don't you know?^^ I like you as you are."

The title of this post is a verbatim text message Il Han sent me, and was also the moment I knew that things were serious.

I am writing this blog knowing full well that I am going to get some crap for some of the sublimely saccharine things I am going to describe, but at least for posterity’s sake and a great story, I am writing this down.

So as I mentioned in a previous blog, I recently participated in a weight loss trial program. On perhaps the second or third day of the trial I mentioned to David that I thought one of the research assistants on the trial was cute, and I wondered aloud if I had a shot. So every meal I came in for I always made sure to smile at her and be extra nice and flirty. She seemed to be responding positively, but I assumed that it was most likely because she was required to for the program. I learned the girl’s name was Yu Il Han (Yu being the family name) and began addressing her by name.

Around the second week of November I decided I wanted to escalate things a little bit and I was going to use a Korean hallmark holiday, Peppero Day, as an excuse. November 11 in Korea is Peppero Day. If you have ever had Pocky Sticks, in Korea those are called Peppero (November 11, 11/11 is Peppero Day because the date looks like Peppero…get it?). So I bought her a nice gift box of the peppero, wrote her name on it and hid it in my lunch box that I knew she would find. When she found it, she politely came in and thanked me for the box.

During the trial I always worked during the dinner time so I had my meals delivered. David was able to go to the center, however. By sheer chance, one day David finished his dinner at the same time that Il Han was getting off of work. They chatted in the elevator and she mentioned she was going to meet some friends for dinner. The restaurant was on his way, so David offered her a ride to save her the taxi fare, and she accepted. At one point while they were talking, Il Han asked David why I gave only her Peppero, and not any of the other girls. David said something like, “Well, I think he likes you.” To which David said she smiled and seemed very pleased, but was concerned that I would ask her out before the trial ended, because she would have to decline for fear of losing her job. David of course, being the good friend he is, relayed this info to me.

So for the next week or so I continued my light flirting and eventually asked her for her cell number. At this point we started texting, and things kinda took off from there. My birthday was coming up and David and I let it be known what bar we were going to celebrate at (and break our diet, haha) and so to my surprise, Il Han and her friend Seung Eun expressed interest in coming. I was of course delighted, and the girls showed up. Despite being drunk on jaegermeister and 2 bottles of Soju I somehow remained quite charming (according to the girls).

At this point Il Han and I began casually dating. We’d text during the day and go out for coffee or norebang on the weekend. Things started to get serious and I started realizing I really liked the girl, a lot. I was always VERY understated at the center, because I didn’t want to be the cause of her losing her job. I think I did a good job because other than David and Il Han, her friend Seung Eun was the only person who knew anything. Seung Eun really took an interest in the budding relationship because she gave me a lot of advice on dating a Korean girl (it’s quite different, trust me). Seung Eun also helped translate a few times when one of us couldn’t quite communicate what we meant. Il Han’s English is fine, but it can be hard to explain your meaning to a non-native speaker sometimes.

So, fast forward a few weeks and the medical trial was finally over. I asked Il Han when she would be available for dinner, and she said Wednesday, so I picked out a nice restaurant and we decided to meet at 8:30.

I decided I would ask her to make it official on that date, so I picked out a nice set of silver earrings (pic on facebook) and we went to dinner.

Dinner was at a nice Italian place called Team, that was quite good. The arriabiata was delicious…good job Korea. I didn’t think you had it in you. So after dinner she wanted to take a walk, so I agreed, and we walked toward Deokjin Park a little ways away. We ended up walking through the park, which was really cool at night. We even walked across this suspension bridge that scares the crap out of me because it MOVES. So we took a lap around the park and at one point she asked me, “What do you want for Christmas?”

This is where it gets really cheesy. You can make fun of me if you want, but I got the girl in the end, so I win. Korean girls aren’t as jaded as we American’s are, so they appreciate the big showy romantic gestures.

So Il Han had just asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I responded with “Well…what I really want is…Na-ough yeoja-chingu-ga dway-ough jool-eh” which means “Will you be by girlfriend” in Korean. I practiced that for a decent amount of time to get the pronunciation right and to be able to say it without stumbling over the words.
It took a second for what I said to sink in and looked at me with a surprised look and said “you really asking me?” I said “Yes” and she said “I am so surprised!!” she then paused for what felt like an eternity, but was prolly only about 3-4 seconds and finally said, “Ok. Good!” and gave me this really cute double thumbs up and then jumped in to my arms for a hug. I am betting you all are wondering why I didn’t give her some big passionate kiss or something like that, but this is Korea. They move agonizingly slow here.

After this, I gave her my Christmas present, which she loved. She asked me “What I really wanted” for Christmas, and I said “You said, yes. I’m happy with that.” We then walked out of the park and I got her a cab and then myself one and headed home. All in all, it worked out quite nicely :)

Just to make things a bit more poetic, I’d like to point out that I realized the place I asked her was no more than 300 yards from the hotel that I spent my first two nights in Jeonju at. I literally could see the place from where we were standing. I suppose it kind of brings things full circle.
What a crazy year it has been.