Last week, during the Typhoon Wukong related rain, I had a strange experience on the way to work. I got out of the taxi with my umbrella in hand. As I was walking to work, a sudden surprise downpour started. I opened my umbrella and kept walking.
Behind me, I heard opening umbrellas and a person running. The running footsteps got closer to me, and suddenly there was a man under my umbrella with me as I walked. Instant "personal space" violation.This office worker had a dress shirt, tie, and finely sculpted hair. He said, in Korean, "Let me share this umbrella with you."
It’s not like I was going to kick this guy out and run away, as he had no umbrella and he wanted to stay dry, but it was still strange for me. I continued to walk, and when we got to the corner where I needed to turn, he asked me "This way or that way." I pointed and turned, and we did a dance to avoid other people on the sidewalk while still walking in step with each other while in an uncomfortably close proximity to one another.
Unluckily for him, my school was not far away from the corner, so I told him this was were I was going inside. He thanked me, than ran off, possibly to find the next person with an umbrella to leap frog to, I don’t know.
Someone worried, I checked my wallet, keys, and bag for anything missing. Everything was there. It seems that the man wasn’t a creative pick pocket, but rather just a guy caught in the rain.
