Violent Interlude (part 1)

The rain poured into the narrow lanes of Insadong as night fell upon the city.

The district, a mish-mash of art galleries - looking like global architectural hiccups - and indescreet alleys filled with flourescant restaurants, was cut low that night due to the deluge, the death scream of a typhoon that nearly wiped out a chinese city you've never heard of and most likely never will visit.

The rice wine from dinner was doing its job perfectly as I was toured around one of Min Suk Cho's buildings. Cho, you should know, was the designer of the Dalki Theme Park. It was a fine building, one of those that architects design in school but never really get to build. But here, in the car wash rain in Seoul that night, it existed - if not so much in the flesh - at least in concrete.

On the edge of the buildings inner courtyard, a series of shops filled with art and jewelry lined a single outdoor ramp beginning at ground level and snaking its way to the top.

It was there, at the top, where I saw him.

Joshua had told me the architecture community was small and very close knit, but I didn't know this was what he meant. Cho himself, standing with a group of well-heeled architects, was in his very building. Looking proud, the only way I could put it.

My heart raced. He could tour around other architects but could not call me back with directions to Dalki???

I don't remember most of what happened after that, but according to others, it went something like this...

I ran up toward him, pushing aside the Prada-clad architects, pullled out my digital camera and let out a burst of flashes that nearly blinded Cho. As he grabbed for his eyes, I picked him up and ran with him all the way back down his single-ramped building. It looked a hell of a lot easier going down, even with the still-stunned Cho on my back.

As I reached the ground floor, i took off my jacket and tied Cho's hands behind his back with it. The rain had nearly emptied the main street outside except for a single taxi slightly down the block which I ran toward. I threw Cho in the back, locked both of his doors while I got into the front and commanded the taxi driver to start. We had a long journey ahead of us.

By this time, Cho began to emerge and I told him, calmly (according to the taxi driver) that he was going to take me to Dalki...