Day 410: Into The Void

I really do hate goodbyes. And later on this week I'll have to go through another one.

Young-Seok is about to be abducted and disappear from our world. He'll vanish one day very soon (Monday, actually) and I may never see him again. He'll be here on Earth, in Korea, but uncontactable (a new word, I know). And there's nothing we can do to avoid it. As much as we all desperately want to, we cannot save him.

Young-Seok is about to join the Korean military.

All males in Korea are required to serve in the Korean military for 22 months, and by law there is almost nothing they can do to escape it. Conscription may no longer exist back home, but here's it's still a reality for Koreans. Techically only at an armistice with North Korea, and therefore still sorta at war, or at least in theory could be at a moment's notice, the Republic of Korea keeps a large and active military at all times. Generally accepted as a males 'rite of passage' into adulthood, most Korean guys serve their time in the military mid-way through their university degrees. Some do end up staying in it longer and making a career out of it, but most just try to get it over and done with before they return to academia and then the corporate world.

Young-Seok does NOT want to go in at all. Things between him and Michael are really great. He enjoys his job as a swimming instructor at the pool. He enjoys spending time with his family and friends. And now his life has to go on pause for two years. It sucks. The hardest part is that for the first 100 days he isn't allowed *any* contact at all with the outside world. No visits. No phone calls. No letters. No email. This isolation process for all new recruits is done to 'break in' the new young men, and to reinforce to them that their world is now the military world, and so they better get used to it. Talk about a harsh introduction.

So in just a few days Y-S will leave us, and what sucks even more is that by the time he's allowed contact/visits, I will have left Korea already. I consider him a true friend of mine (not just Michael's boyfriend) and I will certainly miss him. Off he goes into the void, into that parallel military dimension, into that world within our world. I wish him the best of luck. Hang in there Y-S! Our thoughts are with you! :-)