To Sung Tae, all friends were good friends.

I and Sung Tae lived in the same neighborhood in Bongwon-dong in the western [now central] Seoul, and went to the same middle school and high school in a short walking distance. They were private schools and most students lived away from them. After the high school, Sung Tae and I were the only ones to go to Sogang University. Bus services to Bongwon-dong were either non-existent or unreliable and we had no choice but to walk about 45 minutes to school.

In the evening, Sung Tae liked to play billiard and have a drink with friends. So as not to walk back home alone, he taught me to play billiard and drink rice wine. Whenever I hit a ball, he said, "Good shot! You are so talented!" Sometimes he dragged me into the half-underground drinking hole just outside the school.  In the confusing period after Korean War, I started school early while most of my classmates started late, and I was only 17 when I started college. I tried to disappear quickly into the place because I knew I was what his actual age was.

I never saw my father drink or play billiard, and my parents and Pastor Lee told me only bad kids do such things. Though Sung Tae's drinking buddies might have been bad kids, I knew Sung Tae was a good kid. I thought being so good-natured as to be naive, Sung Tae thought everything his friends did was good because they were good people. There was no such thing as a bad person to Sung Tae. I have never seen him get mad at anyone.

Sung Tae always drank more than he could afford, and would moan, "Aaaggggh, aaagggh." once he passed out at the entrance of Ewha Women's University, and in the morning when he heard how the Ewha girls giggled when they saw him lying down in the middle of the road, he declared, "I will not drink again!" In the afternoon, he said, "I will not drink too much again!"

We no longer lived in the same neighborhood or walked to school together when Sung Tae left the college to begin his military service with the army a year or so before he was to graduate. I began my military service with the air force after my graduation. Just around the time when I completed my military

service, he went to Canada and disappeared. Even Jung Ho didn't know where Sung Tae was.

I came to Detroit in 1976 and worked for a Korean businessman, Mr. Cho, who owned several wig shops throughout the area. Mrs. Cho told me that she went to Peabody College and was a teacher at Ewha Kindergarten before she came to the States. Yes, she knew Sung Tae's mother who was the director of the Kindergarten. I called Sung Tae's mother who lived in Toronto, and could get in touch with Sung Tae in Calgary. We met in Toronto when he came to see his mother. When he saw me for the first time in many years and I told him that we were all looking for him, he said, "So are you happy?" I thought it was and odd question, but I thought what he meant was he was happy to be found by me.

When Jung Ho came to Atlanta where his second older brother Jung Sup lived, though he was an inexperienced driver in the U.S., he drove to Detroit, and Sung Tae, who was between jobs, drove all the way from Calgary to Detroit with a pregnant Judi. So for the first time in a long time, we the Gang of Three from Bongwon-dong sat down for a few drinks. Sung Tae drank too much and moaned, "Aaagggh, aaagggh." We laughed and said that he couldn't "throw his bad habit to a dog." I now realize it was no laughting matter as I heard his drinking habit might have contributed to his untimely demise,. But all we boys drank at that time and when we did, we did heavily. The only reason why I never passed out was that I would get sick first.

I next and last saw Sung Tae and Judi in Honolulu at the high school's 40th anniversary reunion in Honolulu in 2004. I flew in on one night, sat in a hotel room where I watched the boys drink, and flew back the next night. Sung Tae and Judi said that they would rent a car to explore the island.

 

I always thought I would go to Calgary to see Sung Tae, Judi and their children, Patti, Kori and Keven. For 40 years. There were even direct flights from Atlanta to Calgary at one time, but I still couldn’t go. Though I only saw Sung Tae once in the past 36 years, and I rarely called him or sent Christmas cards, I always thought about him. Just thinking that he was somewhere on the same continent made me feel good. I am sure I will find him again when I go to the place where he went. Maybe I will try to find his mother first to ask her where he is.