Of Legendary Libido -2008- -uncute- - Ko... — A Tale

Then a shadow fell over his bowl. It was Joy, the accountant who’d dumped him. She sat down.

Khun Ying Noi, drunk at Fulle , tells a new customer: “Ko? Ah, he was the best. He made you feel like the only person in the world. Then he went and became a real estate agent. Very boring. Very happy.”

“I heard you lost everything,” she said. A Tale Of Legendary Libido -2008- -Uncute- - Ko...

The owner, a chain-smoking former actress named Khun Ying Noi, took pity. “Ko,” she said, pouring him a Mekhong whiskey, “you have the energy of a wet firecracker. But your chet —your heart—is too soft.”

Ko smiled. He pushed his noodle bowl toward her. Then a shadow fell over his bowl

Ko nodded, finished his drink, and did something unexpected. He didn’t mope. He looked at the lonely women at the bar—the Korean expat crying over her divorce, the Japanese flight attendant with a canceled layover, the Thai-German model ignored by the bottle-service boys. And he listened .

It started in January. Ko, a 38-year-old producer of low-budget horror VCDs, was dumped by his girlfriend, Joy, a pragmatic accountant who cited “lack of ambition” and “watching Tom Yum Goong three times a week.” Devastated, Ko sought solace at Fulle . Khun Ying Noi, drunk at Fulle , tells a new customer: “Ko

But Ko had a secret weapon: his libido wasn't sexual. It was emotional . His drive was to create euphoria through validation. And in the lonely, hyper-capitalist summer of 2008, that was more addictive than any drug.