Rough

She is slumped in the seat, one arm out the window, head lolling on the arm, obviously the worse for the lunchtime soju. Her partner is pulling at her, trying to get her to sit up straight, thumping her head into the back of the seat. She bats at him with the slow-motion clumsiness of the truly drunk, and he jerks her arm aside. Soon she is slumped over again. He thumps her on the back and she starts retching, then mumbles at him and he settles back in his seat.

We are on the 3 o'clock bus from Suwon to Jeju.

Her hair, with brown and blond streaks and a bad perm, is coming adrift from the clasp holding it at the back of her head. Is she wife, girlfriend, 'companion'? He is in a suit, but is sweating the soju sweat.

Variations on the thumping, jerking, mumbling, passed out stupor continue to play during the next half an hour or so, until they reach their stop. He wakes her, starts gathering parcels tied up in well used black bags, and then does up his fly and belt. They stumble off the bus.

Scenes like this have played themselves out with variations on the Sunday afternoon bus trip during the last two years. Not every trip, not every bus, but enough to not be anything special. At least, to the rest of the Koreans on the bus, nothing to intervene in.

But then, they never do intervene in anything that I, coming from the west, would consider close to assault. Whether it's the kids at school, the teachers and kids, or the bus passengers, rough handling seems to be the only way to interact.

There is a word in Afrikaans - hardhandig. Literally translated this means 'with hard hands'. It seems that the Koreans prefer to interact with hard hands rather than with gentleness.