"It's been 1,138 days since I left Korea and yet I still get threats from them."
This was my Facebook status update today and no sooner did I press enter to make it public but then people started private messaging me and "liking" it. Ironically enough, one of the people responsible for the bring about of this status was one of the first to like it and then, if that wasn't brutal enough, someone from Korea had the odacity to go in depth about it via a private message. His message started off innocent enough and then quickly jumped to him asking personal questions about specific people in Korea that he had a hunch I was involved with. Then he asked me, "how is your husband?", and on that note I blasted him, accused him of clearly knowing nothing about my situation and thus totally out of line for even remotely caring.
I am still legally married, yes, but do you know why I haven't gotten a divorce yet? No, you don't.
No one but a handful of people know and only a couple of them clearly understand my fear with not only the divorce but with now living so close to Korea.
I left Korea. Correction, I got up and ran away. After 11.5 years I packed my bag and left. Even I didn't know I was leaving but I had reached a point where things had got so bad that no one around me knew what I was going through because I had covered the truth up with lies and the lies with more lies. I saw a small window of opportunity for me to leave and I took it. I knew in my heart that if I didn't leave then that I was going to die in Korea.
Korea still messages me, people in Korea that is.
I had involvement with a Korean gang, now one of them is here in the Philippines and wants to meet.
Gangs in Korea and gangs in countries like Canada and the States are very different. If anything, I respect gangs in Korea. They're all about business ties and networking, that's how they work. If I wanted a cellphone, I'd go to one that owns a cellphone store, and in return if he wanted to workout he'd come to my boxing club. They're business men in suits. Don't get me wrong, under those suits are full body tattoos, but they're not showy and barbaric like other gangs. I guarantee you, the best looking and most respected men at my club, gang members. They weren't feared though because as long as you respected them like everyone else, they meant no harm. They didn't have the inflated ego that needed feeding. They knew their strengths and it wasn't picking on the weak, like the average Joe.
At one point, there were a couple of dozen gang members training at my boxing club. They're not what makes me nervous with living in a country so close to Korea though. It's who may also still be connected with them that makes me worries -- Snickers. They still regard me as his, so I keep a low profile and don't disclose my relationship status.
People don't understand the life I lived in Korea because I never let them know about it plus people only see what they want to see and that's the truth. Random bruises on my face or scratches on my back, people are quick to write it off as an injury from boxing. Members came into the boxing club one day and a whole glass wall was missing but no one asked. Neighbours never asked questions when the club lights were on at three in the morning and the place was buzzing with 15+ angry men coming in and out, one of which dragged a person in through the front door. Note here, the front door is up several stairs and is over 12 feet in height, so it's quite the public door.
People only see the picture you paint for them and the picture I painted was full of unicorns and rainbows, apparently.
No one really knows why I left so suddenly but then again no one really questions it. I'll write stuff on Facebook or post tidbits of it here but I know people are only confused by it because, like I mentioned, people only see the picture I painted for them.
I was an underground fighter in Korea at one point, a business owner who supported a local gang to help fund my business because I didn't have the money to do so myself, and then I was a victim of domestic abuse too in love with my business to leave it and leave my dogs behind. I left a life that you only see in the movies, a life that still makes me the elephant in the room, but it was a life that I had finally taken responsibility for and did something about.
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