The First Night in Angeles: A Tale of My First Trip

In early November 2017, I went to Angeles with two friends. It was a 3-night, 4-day trip.

It was everyone's first time traveling abroad, and it was only my second. My first international trip was also to the Philippines, to Boracay, coincidentally.

Finally, the day of departure arrived. We met at Yatap Station, arrived at Incheon Airport, and boarded the plane.

Since it was everyone's first time abroad, and only my second, we all tried to sit by the window to look outside.

After a four-hour flight, we arrived. My heart was pounding.

But wait??

The friend who was supposed to pick us up wasn't there...

Uh oh..

All of us, including myself, had only graduated from middle school or high school. At the time, we were doing odd jobs like delivery, supermarket stocking, and pyramid schemes. Suddenly, we were over 3000km away from Korea, alone at night. What were we supposed to do?

The only person I knew in the Philippines was the friend who was supposed to pick us up. We came here solely because of him. None of us knew more than "hello" and "hi" in English. We had never been here before, knew nothing, and understood nothing. Three of us were stranded in a foreign country late at night, and we started to panic seriously.

Gate 3... This seems to be the meeting spot, but why can't I see him?

What do we do now?

He said he'd be here to pick us up, so why isn't he here?

Let's send him a text.

There's no internet or Wi-Fi here.

Let's wait and have a cigarette. He'll come.

Ten minutes passed, and he still wasn't there.

Now we were truly panicked. We looked like passengers on the Titanic just before it sank.

Why hasn't he come after ten minutes? Are we screwed?

Seriously, are we going to die here?

We shouldn't have come here. Why did we agree to come?

Think of a way! We can't die here!

Let's borrow a phone from an airport guard. I have his Philippine number on KakaoTalk.

But none of us know English. How do we talk to him?

We'll have to say "You smartphone, smartphone, please" and show him KakaoTalk, using body language. What else can we do?

Will he lend it to us?

We'll have to pay. But I only have $100 in my wallet...

Are we going to give him $100 to borrow his phone?

Dude, our lives are on the line right now. We have to give it to him. What choice do we have? If we can't contact him and can't meet him, we'll all become international orphans and die here! We'll die!

Death... death... die... At that absolute word that determined our fate, we all became solemn for a moment.

I took out $100 from my wallet and approached the guard with a gun, saying:

Sorry, you smartphone, please.

What!??!

You smartphone, smartphone!! Please, please!!

My smartphone?!!

Yes, yes!!

And I showed him my smartphone with KakaoTalk.

The guard took out his phone.

Oh no. The guard's phone is a feature phone!!

What the....

As I was fumbling with the $100, extremely flustered...

I heard a familiar Korean voice.

I'm a little late. You waited, right????

A familiar face. No, more than a familiar face. A face of salvation. Was this what it felt like to meet God? I can't think of a good analogy. It felt like being captured by terrorists and meeting special forces who came to rescue me at the moment of execution.

Damn it, damn it, damn it! Ugh, I'm saved now. We're saved!! Why are you so late? Ugh, we thought we were all going to die here because we couldn't see you!! Ugh!!

Everyone, relieved as if they had met God, grumbled, "Why are you so late? We almost got into a fight."

I don't want to stay here for another second. Let's get out of here first.

Quickly, we loaded our luggage into my friend's old Toyota Corolla and drove around, looking at scenery we couldn't see in Korea. We went to a bar with a bull's head logo on the sign. When I told my friend that we thought we were all going to die because he wasn't there, he just laughed and apologized.

Before we knew it, my friends and I became arrogant again. We leisurely ate beer and snacks, talking about the earlier incident as if it were nothing, and spent the night.

The End..