Tintin in Korea

Tintin and Snowy were boarding a Korean Airlines flight to attend a regular session of the International Press Institute (IPI), as observers. Resting his head on the back of the seat with half- closed eyes, Tintin was thinking of Chang who was also flying to Korea from China to participate in the same forum. ‘I’m going to meet you soon’ he mumbled to himself with a big smile and his heart throbbing with great expectation. At the same time, Snowy was sitting in the corner of the cargo shivering with fear of imagining Koreans who eat dog.

At 5; 00 pm,
Tintin heard a knock at the front door,
“Sir here’s a message for you.” The tall and handsome uniformed bellboy said when he opened the door.
“Thank you.” Tintin shortly replied and opened the envelope-‘Welcome to Korea. How’s Snowy?’-
‘Umm it must be Chang’ he smiled.
Snowy still looked feel uneasy and refused to eat. “Come on Snowy, here’s your favorite meal” patting Snowy on the back Tintin whispered.
-Tin tin, you know, I reckon that I might die here- Snowy sighed faintly and closed heavily his eyes. “You look so tired.” “Be strong my old fellow.” Tintin said inspiringly

At 7pm,
Chang visited to Tintin.
“Wow! Chang!” “Tintin”! They tightly embraced each other.
“How are you Tintin?”
“How are you Chang?”
“We haven't seen each other for ages.”
-Wooah Wooah- -Hi chang- Snowy waged his tail intensely walking around them.
“Oh, hi Snowy,” Chang said delightfully, “you are still looking good.”
“You are really lucky guy, Snowy. Aren’t you?”
“What a nice sweet room! Chang said softly glancing around room.
“It’s especially for guests with pets.” Tintin said slowly. “Actually, Snowy costs me a lot.” “Ha,ha,ha,”
-What? That’s human- Snowy barked few times. -I absolutely didn’t want to visit Korea but you insisted that I come!-
“Let’s have a dinner.” Tintin said. “We can go upstairs, there is a good restaurant with fantastic night views.”
-Please, don’t eat any strange food. - Snowy sighed again quietly and turned around.
Live music in the restaurant put Tintin and Chang in a good mood.
While Tintin and Chang were enjoying their meal, three people (one looked like a European the rest of them were Korean) sitting opposite side their table kept taking sidelong glances at Tintin.
Then, European looked at his wristwatch and spoke in hushed tones.
“Be quick without any mistake.” “Got it?”
Then two of the men left their seats quietly.
“Okay, shall we move to the sky lounge to have a drink?” Tintin said after he and Chang finished the dinner
“Sounds good”.

“Cheers!”
“Cheers!”
“I’m really glad to be here.”
“Me too”
Both of them were quiet for a while as they recalled their past in Hukou.
Chang, by the way, what are those? Tintin broke the silence as he looked down at the neon signs Umm… Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge… oh, Yale over there”
“Those could be private English schools like in China” Chang said firmly.
” “Have you read the article? Chang continually and eagerly spoke to Tintin
“Well, middle class Koreans are spending up to 40% of their disposable incomes on English tuition.”
“Really?” Tintin seemed to be surprised.
“And the problem is, private language schools employ anyone who has blue eyes and fair hair,”
“What?” “It doesn’t make sense”
“So, even criminals, prostitutes and drug users could teach English here, as long as they forge the certificate.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve read the Korean Times.”
‘Umm… it’s unbelievable.” Tintin said doubtfully. “Anyway what time is it now?”

At 9:00 pm.
Meanwhile, sitting on the carpet in front of the window, Snowy merely looked down at the street. He got up and started to growl angrily when he spotted an advertisement for a picturesque dog’s farm with a luxurious restaurant. Then, Snowy heard something strange sounds. He pricked up his ears and carefully crept close to the main door.

“Bang!” All at once, Snowy was knocked down.
“Here’s a rubbish bin.”
“Be quiet!”
“Move! Move! Quick”
“Ueaps! Blood!”
“Shit,!”
“Move! Quick!”
Two men, wearing cleaner’s uniforms, hid quickly as Tintin and Chang got out of the elevator.
“Hey, Snowy” Tintin and Chang looked around the room searching for Snowy.
“Where are you?” Tintin whistled.
Tintin! Chang yelled “There’s some blood here.”
“Where?”
“Oh my goodness.”
“What’s happened to Snowy?.”
“Mmm.. let me think for a second.”
“Let’s call my Korean friend, he is a journalist, we need his help.”
Chang hurriedly picked up the phone.
“Wait! Please wait a moment.” Tintin said urgently. “Chang give me a second please.”
Tintin sat on the couch folded his hands in his lap and closed his eyes for a while.
Suddenly, he got up and asked to Chang. “Did you send this message to me this afternoon?”
“What’s this?”
“No, absolutely not.” Chang said anxiously looking over the message.
“Chang.”Tintin said determinedly. “I need your Korean friend.”
“No problem, Tintin.”


At 11:00pm,
Snowy had a splitting headache as he recovered from unconsciousness.
“Where am l?”
Snowy tried to lift up his head and have a look around
He could see some spots of blood on his forelegs and realized that he was a wearing collar which was connected to a leash that tied to a pillar
“What’s wrong?”
“Where is Tintin and Chang?
“Keep an eye on Snowy.”
“Why don’t you kill snowy?”
“Shut up!”
“You gonna sell Snowy aren’t you?”
“Watch the dog!”
“Shit!”
“I’ll call Tintin right now.”
Two men quarrelled beside Snowy while Snowy pretend to still be unconscious.
Sometimes later, Snowy opened his eyes and caught them nodding. He thought to himself “It’s good chance to escape”
Snowy quietly wriggled his forelegs to loosen managed to get it off. Then, he crawled carefully without making any noise and eventually, successfully got away.
However, Snowy didn’t know where he was.
He was exhausted and drifted off to sleep. In the meantime, Chang’s friend arrived at the hotel.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Tintin and thank you for coming.”
“Hello I’m Kim and I’m sorry to here what has happened Tintin, but don’t worry we’ll find snowy soon.”
“Thanks Kim.”
“Take a seat please.” At that moment, the phone rang.
Tintin grapped the phone.
“Hello, hello”
But the line went death.
“Kim, it needs to be advertised in the newspaper ASAP.” Tintin said seriously showing a picture of a man.
“Who is he?” Kim asked.
“He is a terrorist who seemed to have already got information about me.”
“What?” Chang claimed and said “let me see the picture……Mmm…looks familiar.” Chang scrutinized the picture for a while. “Oh! Tintin, this looks like that guy I saw just before.”
“Where?”
“In the restaurant”
Tintin hovered around the phone, keep thinking of his mission which was to find out the terrorist’s location. The phone rang again.
“I’ll get it” Kim said hastily.
Kim spoke in Korean language on the phone for a while.
“What did they say?” Chang asked, after Kim hung up the phone.
“Did you write something nasty about our culture of eating dog?”
“Umm… yes I once wrote about Asian’s food culture: eating dog in Korean, whale in Japanese and monkey in Chinese respectively to the ‘New Era’ which is a popular periodical in the world.” Tintin said helplessly.
“It’s revenge. They are threatening you to sell snowy to a restaurant.”
“But, Tintin, we don’t eat pet dogs.” Kim tried to explain.
“Yeah, I admit that we eat dog but a certain breed of dogs, not like snowy.”
“Anyhow, I think, someone has kidnapped Snowy to take my attention away from finding the terrorist.” Tintin said suspiciously. Meanwhile elsewhere in the city.
“Wow, look at the white dog over there!”
“Where?”
“Mom the dog seems to be hurt.”
“Please don’t touch it.”
“Are you okay?” The little girl looked at snowy carefully and said gently “open your eyes.”
“Oh, he’s still breathing! He’s Alive!”
“Oh, poor thing! The woman said sadly.
“Mom, we should take the dog home.”
“Well, okay then, but we should find its owner.”
“Mom, shall we talk to the police?”
“Honey, it’s better to call to the radio station.” “They can broadcast the details.” “Anyway, what happened to this dog?”
“Who’s its owner?” her mom murmured.
Early the next morning around 6:00am.
“Yes sir, I’ll do it right now.”
The terrorist was wearing black gloves and sunglasses after finishing the cell-phone call, He walked towards 63 building, the tallest building in Korea.

At the same time, Tintin got a phone call from Kim .He said that he had got information about the terrorists from readers and that the photo was of his English teacher at a private language school. He had taught the reader until last week in an evening class, which was located in 63 building.
“Shit, Snowy was tricked.” Tintin and Chang got dressed in hurry and ran to the highest building. Meanwhile, Kim also drove to the building.
“What are you going to do?” Kim asked. “Tintin I think it’s better to tell the police.”
“No, if the terrorist notices that we have found his location, he will destroy this building earlier than in his original plan.” Tintin said.
Chang you keep an eye on this exit and Kim, you just pretend to be a plumber and this….
Tin tin looked at the blueprint of 63 building as he told Kim what to do.

On the 39th Floor.
The terrorist entered the toilet and tapped to find a ventilation shaft. Tintin watched him from the surveillance screens on the ground floor ‘Okay, we’ve got him’
Five minutes later on the 39th floor
Kim saw the Tintin give him the ok sign.
Kim opening the door and talked to him
“I ah~ umm speak English not” Kim tried to explain he had to fix this toilet using gestures with few English words in order to let him get out.
Tin tin was hiding behind the door waiting for the terrorist
Tin tin heard the door open, and hit the man over head with a stick knocking him out.
‘Bang!!!’


At 8:00 am,
Kim said Snowy had been found and now he was at a vet’s.
Tintin exclaimed. “Oh! Thank goodness!”
On the way to the vet’s clinic, Tintin explained his mission: 63 building where the IPU meeting was to be held was targeted during the forum period. So the terrorist disguised himself as an English teacher to explore the building structure in advance. “It was piece of cake for him.” Kim said calmly. “Snowy!” Tintin yelled with tearing coming to his eyes as he hugged Snowy.
-Tin tin, where were you- Snowy was staring at Tintin for a while and slowly wagged his tail silently saying -please never write anything about different cultures again.-



Two weeks later, Tintin and Snowy were boarding a Korean airlines flight. Resting his head on the back of the seat with half -closed eyes, he’s thinking of cultural differences and Booming English study in the Asia region with a bitter smile, whereas, Snowy was sitting in the corner of cargo hold thinking about a little girl who saved his life with a big smile.