怎么说 "Wingman"? part I

Last Friday the boys and I headed out to the semi-new Korean club. Forgot the name and location of the club or at least it has been repressed by my subconscious. A week before, we had all promised our Korean friend that we would all go there this past Friday. Said friend had attended the club's opening night a couple weeks ago, where he met his current "girlfriend". I was told said girlfriend wanted to introduce us to her friends. Where do I sign up?

For some reason we plan to meet and leave the Tao at 8:30pm(太早了!). Didn't actually leave until 9:45pm, which is how things kind of work in China. While walking to pick up a cab my Korean friend and I talk a little more about the evening to come. Through this conversation I gleaned a few more kernels of information and put together a very different picture of what to expect that night. It turns out that the girlfriend also works at the bar along with her friends that we are supposed to meet. The ladies all work as "Hostess girls" at this Korean club. Hostess girls are employed by the club and are paid money by clients to pretend to like you and drink your overpriced alcohol. I think the rate for these particular ladies was 300RMB for the night. I've heard the going rate is between 200RMB - 700RMB. However, since my friend was dating one of these girls we were going to receive this special privilege for free.

So the crew hit the club around 10pm or so, K-lou and I got some quick pre-gaming with a semi-nasty 白酒and orange juice concoction. We walk in like movie stars and are immediately led to our private room on the 2nd floor. On the way to our room, I did a quick scan of the joint and noticed it was mostly empty with the exception of a few groups of ladies at various tables and older business men (turned out to be this way for the rest of the night). So the 7 of us + 1 girlfriend are hanging out in our room. We are given the soft sell on why we need to buy 3 bottles of cognac..done (1,700RMB). Actually not a bad price and we were told the bottles would be saved for us if we didn't finish them that night. We spend the next 30min or so sipping cognac and green tea. Our Korean friend and his woman were getting cozy in the corner while the rest of us were just chilling and pretending to not be uncomfortable.

Korean friend asks his woman about the rest of her friends, considering that was the only pretext for us being at this place. I get up to use the bathroom and come back to find all the seats in our room occupied by "the girls we were supposed to meet".......to be continued.