The Tosung dinner

After cleaning the house a bit and taking a small nap, I drove out to pick up Lina. I was a bit late and she messaged me asking me where I was. When I got out there, I parked outside her apartment. I thought it was a bit funny - I was so used to driving to Jin's place, but now I had to make a slight adjustment to stop further up the street.

I called her and there was no answer, and I wondered if she fell asleep or something. But soon she called me back, and when I said I was downstairs she said she'd be down in five minutes. It was more than five minutes, and even though I tried to keep a look out, I didn't spot her until she approached my car and opened the door.

She told me that Nuna and Eric were closing their shop now and asked me to drive over there. At first I was wondering why, and then she was like "didn't I tell you?" and said we were having dinner together. No, you did not tell me. Hmmm.

She asked me if I heard about the news at the Regis Apartment, and I said yes - it was about a Thai woman who had acid thrown onto her face by her boyfriend. She (half jokingly?) asked me not to kill her, and I said I wouldn't; I'd just throw acid on her face. On this topic, I told her about a working girl who also had acid thrown on her face a few years ago at Jin's first brothel, and she said she knew because she worked there at the time.

Are you FUCKING serious?? What the fuck is this? A set up? Why are there so many similarities in this???

I asked if she was friends with the victim and she said no, but a friend of a friend.

She brought up the apartment issue again and asked what I thought about it being $600 a week. I asked why she wanted to move, and she was silent. When I looked over at her, she was looking back at me as if I had offended her or asked a stupid question. Finally, after a long pause, she said she was thinking of working and living there, as she has regulars as clients, which would mean she gets the full $250 per hour instead of less than half.

I told her I didn't want her working from home, and she said the customers wouldn't know it was her home. I said they could wait outside, and you never know what people are like. She said she'd keep thinking about it.

I drove over to the shop area and she said we had to wait a bit. She asked if I was hungry and I said no, but I was a bit thirsty. She suggested going out to get a drink. I thought she meant she would go out by herself so I said no, but she looked like she wanted one so I said I'd come. She asked if it was ok as she didn't want me to get another parking ticket, but I figured we'd be ok to just go grab one and come back.

We went to this bubble tea shop called Come Buy. I had walked past it before and thought it had a funny name. When we went in I asked what she wanted and she said "leechee". I didn't know what she meant at first and then figured out she meant "lychee". She corrected her own pronunciation afterwards. I wondered for a sec if she'd pay for it but I ended up paying for it.

We sat on the stools drinking our drinks. She offered me first sip of her drink, but when I put my straw into my one, my first reaction was to drink it myself, and then I remembered to offer her a sip. Hmmm. I wonder if she picked this up as a selfish sign.

I asked her if she had a date set for travelling to Korea, as I wanted to participate in a marathon with my friend on the 10th of August. She said she didn't have a date set yet, but her visa would expire on the 25th. This made her realise I was serious about going to Korea with her (or am I?) and we talked a bit about that.

After a while she got a message on her phone, and then told me that we'd go to Tosung first and then they would meet us there. So we drove off and she asked if I knew where it was and I joked and said Blacktown.

When we got there we found a table outside, and I decided that it would be a good time to open her up to the Kakaotalk account on my new phone. I sent her a message and asked her to check her Kakaotalk, and she did. She asked if it was a new account and I said yes. She sent me back a reply saying hi lol. She ordered some food from the menu.

Nuna and Eric arrived soon after, much quicker than I expected, and we all started eating. There was a bit of talk about our ages again. Lina asked Eric how old he was and he said 27. So just to confirm, I said Nuna was the oldest, then me, then Eric, then Lina.

I seemed to have hit a sweet spot with Eric when we got talking about cars. He seemed to know a fair bit about cars and experiences with police, so we talked a bit about that. Lina would sometimes make the food and feed it into my mouth, and I often did the same. I looked into the restaurant at times and wondered if I would see Jin, Ash and Suri. I didn't.

Towards the end of the meal, they started talking about dessert, so we decided to go to Stratty for dessert. Since they paid for lunch, I was quick to my feet to get to the counter to pay for the dinner. It was $140, and I wasn't even sure if I remembered the PIN for my credit card, as I mostly use it for online shopping. I managed to guess it right on the first go to avoid embarrassment. I also had some food stuck in between my teeth, and having picked up G's dirty habit of using my fingers to get it out, Lina offered me a tooth pick but by then I had already gotten it out.

When we stepped outside the restaurant, Eric and Nuna were waiting there and thanked me for paying at the same time.

We then walked to our respective cars and that's when I realised Eric drove a really nice, new looking Audi Q5. Not that I wanted it, but it sure did indicate he had money.

I had a bit of trouble parking as Eric said I couldn't park in the plaza because that clsoed at 10pm, but later on they messaged Lina to say I could park there so that's where I parked. We seemed to have a bit of a romantic walk from the car, only to find out all the plaza exits were closed and we had to leave via the car park drive way.

We found Eric and Nuna at a Yogurberry. When we arrived, the girls went to get the yogurt and I sat there talking to Eric. He told me about how the first Moochi that opened made back it's initial investment in the first two months. He seemed to know the owner. Managed to talk about business in that respect for a bit before the girls came back with two tubs of yogurt, with Eric commenting on how Lina's looked a lot more presentable (and he was right).

We then moved to a table with swings as seats when it became available, and ate our yogurts there. Lina took a photo of the pair on Nuna's phone, and I was wondering if they'd do the same for us. They did. Nuna took a photo of Lina and I on Lina's phone, and I was surprised at that as it indicated that she felt safe having her picture taken with me.

After that we went back to our cars, but first we had to go to Eric's car as Nuna was giving Lina a bag full of cosmetic products. As we walked back to my car, I asked if she wanted to go to a hotel for the night, and she said ok (she had asked earlier what I wanted to do after). I had this really sly grin on my face and she made a comment about it. When we went back to my car, I asked Lina to push out my side view mirror and she asked "not automatic?" Hmmm.

So we got back to the city and she mentioned something about rice wine. I said we could go, so we went to this Korean restaurant in an alley, where Luna had taken us for celebration, ordered a pan cake thingy and a bottle of soju and a can of coke for her and a lemonade for me. I mixed a bit of soju with lemonade whereas she just had soju by itself.

She asked the waitress to plug her phone in for charging as we talked. We again talked about the Korean trip. I was telling her about how it would be cheaper to book on Expedia. I showed her on my phone and she said it was cheap, but she wanted to stay in a serviced apartment. I wondered why. She also said she wanted to fly business class as it was too hard to stay in economy for 10 hours. I said ok and added that I had never been in business class before, and she said neither had she.

She asked me where I wanted to go, and I said Busan, and Jeju Island like she had suggested. I asked if she'd visit her family and she said yes. She also said she wanted me to drive there. Hmmm.

I noticed her face was getting red, and she must've felt it too as she applied more make up and asked if her face was red. I said a bit, and told her how her chest was much redder than her face, and she covered herself up lol.

The alcohol was definitely having an effect on her as she seemed to open up a bit more. She told me again about how she was scared of immigration as she didn't do the cherry picking thing before. She also told me that Nuna (she seemed to call her Kate?) and Eric had only gotten married last year, but had been dating for about two years. She said it was a paper marriage.

She talked about how it was risky for her to go out with me, because if other girls saw they would gossip and I got the impression that she would get in trouble. She also said "I like you" in a sentence somewhere in there.

I told her I had been to this restaurant before as a result of my Korean class. She asked me why I took up the class and I just said I wanted to learn (good, but suspicious answer).

She said Nuna "used to be" like her, and I wondered if that meant Nuna was a working girl previously, and whether Eric met her in a brothel.

After that we left for the hotel. As we walked in the alley, she remembered how I had earlier said that I wanted her to send me that photo taken earlier at Yogurberry. When she checked her phone, she said it wasn't saved, because Nuna probably didn't realise it was taken with an app like photoshop. I was disappointed, but she said not to worry, and then proceeded to take a photo of us right there and then and sent it to my phone. Hmmm.

As we walked along the street, I noticed us passing a nail salon. I told her when she opened her shop up, I'd go around burning all the other ones, which made her laugh. I think that was the first proper funny thing I have ever said to her. She said I would get caught, and I told her I would wear a mask.

We tried the Ridges, and were told no rooms available. I wanted to try Ibis but she didn't want to. She suggested a serviced apartment nearby but there was no one at reception and I didn't think it worked that way either. We tried the Vibe and there were no rooms. On our way walking away from the Vibe, we passed my old office. I told her I used to work here and told her that I left because they promoted people who boasted about themselves whereas I didn't boast. Not sure if she understood, but she nodded. I think that was a bit of angry drunk talk on my part.

I called Novotel, and nothing. As we neared my car, she said her feet were hurting, from the walking. I asked if her shoes were comfortable and she said sometimes (they were just flats). She started describing something which I eventually came to understand as a foot spa, and I said I'd get her one. She joked about getting one from G Market.

We went to the casino hotel and nothing. I called Sheraton, Shangri-la and nothing.

We tried the Ibis near the casino and nothing. Finally I said I'd take her home and she said ok. On the drive to her apartment, she mentioned something about Nuna confirming her serviced apartment and that meant I could see her (Lina) any time. Not really sure what she meant. Her English was bad, and I wasn't at my best given it was like 2am and I had a bit of alcohol in me.

I dropped her off at her apartment, and asked when her next day off would be, trying to cement the idea that I didn't want to see her at work. She said she didn't know. I kissed her goodbye and left. When I got home she sent me messages saying goodnight and asking me to drive carefully.