A few days ago, someone I met at the same place I met Chris Richin was leaving the country and invited me to his "July 18 - G & V - we hate visa party." A few days later, more precisely 7/25 (Fri) at 4:44pm, I got the following Facebook message from G:
Hi guys, as you know me and V are leaving so we're making a BBQ tomorrow to say ciao to all of you. the BBQ is from 8.30 onward at 11 w**** ave. you are all invited! we're gonna buy some burgers and beers, you are more than welcome to bring more food and beverages! see you tomorrow ciao (..) I'm leaving on Monday..
I decided to attend, if anything, to say goodbye to someone I may never see again, who extended me the courtesy of inviting me to both of his goodbye parties. The least I could do was drop by to the very last one to say goodbye.
I got there a bit late, as I was trying to squeeze in a few appearances that night. In the kitchen, 3 people were talking, one of them bearing a striking resemblance to Benedict Cumberbatch (you know, the dude associated with cats who even has a tumblr). I mentioned it to him and he seemed surprised. In any event, I grabbed my Korean Soju and went to greet the host. Talked to him for a bit, he mentioned he's not drinking at all as he had to undergo a driver's license test upon his return to his native country. This made little sense to me, and besides, I had the rather unpleasant surprise to see Chris Richin there. Hoping it's a bad apparition that was soon going to dissipate into the summer night, I went back to Benedict, who mentioned he's from Germany. "Von" Cumberbatch, I thought. We started talking about countries and universities, and a girl sitting there mentioned her family is from Moldova. The province or the Republic? I asked and she wasn't sure, but she knew it's the unhappiest place on Earth. I mentioned that a recent Economist chart was plotting self-reported happiness vs HDI and Moldova wasn't doing that bad - it wasn't rosy, but it certainly wasn't the worst.
Throughout the conversation M, someone who was a good friend of Chris Richin, kept coming into the room and doing something behind me - I could tell from Benedict's eyes, but the moment I'd turn back, she'd stop. It was strange, but I put it on her having had too much to drink.
Later on, Chris Richin comes into the room, seemingly to grab a glass of water, then he stops facing me to listen to the conversation. He didn't seem to get what we were talking about so eventually he jumped in with: "I don't know what he's telling you but he's lying. He did bad things to me (..)"
I don't remember what he was saying, it sounded like a fantastic story, but we both listened to him until he was done. Then there was silence. Then he left and we continued our conversation.
People were going to go to some bar next and I was about to leave as well, so was waiting for a pause in the conversation to go outside and say bye. Only that Chris Richin came back into the room and started talking to the non-existent wind again. My Soju was done and I wasn't going to listen to his non-sense again, so I went to my backpack, grabbed my bottle of Hakutsuru Sake - I had initially brought it to gift it to G, but stopped after he told me he wasn't drinking - and started walking toward the exit. Once again, Chris Richin threw an insult my way, to which I replied, mindful that he might follow me outside, in which case there wasn't much point in leaving the kitchen. I told him that I wasn't there to talk to him, nor did I take much pleasure in listening to him and he should mind his own business. As I exited, he precipitated after me and pushed me, causing me to drop the bottle on the floor. I pushed him back and a few guys restrained him and took him outside.
I sat down and tried to talk to other people but everyone was tense. I still didn't see G anywhere. M came by and was quite obnoxious, so I grabbed my backpack and left.