She is too scared to ride the subway anymore.
A popular female celebrity from Korea recently opened up about why she was scared of taking the subway anywhere.
The heartbreaking story was shared by comedian Lee Guk Joo in her latest YouTube video.
Lee, who is currently in Tokyo, Japan, showed her daily life in a vlog uploaded on her channel on June 10. On her way back home from a cafe, the comedian took a cab, which ended up costing her ₩100,000 KRW (about $73.30 USD). She confessed that she didn’t have a choice but to splurge on her transportation because she couldn’t use public transport. “I really want to try taking the subway, but it’s hard for me. I’m kind of scared of the subway,” Lee admitted.
The fear stemmed from past traumatic experiences, which she shared in the vlog. Lee recalled an incident when she was in her first year of college, and she was physically assaulted on a bus.
I was taking a bus that passed through Cheongnyangni to get to school. A woman bumped into my foot as the bus started moving. From what I remember, she bumped into me. I tried to brush it off and move on, but she suddenly called me a ‘crazy b****’ and slammed my head into a pole. I was beaten so badly, I couldn’t think straight.
— Lee Guk Joo
However, this wasn’t a lone incident. She shared that while taking the same bus a week later, she was harassed by an elderly man whom she had yielded her seat to. Eventually, the man got down with her bag, and when she tried to follow him to ask for it back, he tried to lure her into a karaoke room. “I was 20 at the time. I ran like crazy,” she added.
Lee said that these experiences caused her to develop a trauma around public transportation. “Ever since then, I’ve been afraid of confined spaces and bumping into strangers. I’ve gradually stayed away from public transport,” she admitted.
However, the comedian showed a willingness to challenge herself to break out of this trauma. In the vlog, she showed herself overcoming her fear and taking the subway a few days later.
Meanwhile, Lee recently moved to Japan amid a difficult work situation in Korea. You can read more about it here:
Beloved Korean Celebrity Moves To Japan Without Work, Downsizes House And Lifestyle Bigtime
