Not directly related to this article. [Created using AI]
Not directly related to this article. [Created using AI]

A woman left to pay the entire restaurant bill after her blind date slipped away mid-meal and cut off contact tracked down his workplace and ultimately recovered the money, according to a story that recently came to light.

The account was shared on JTBC's "Sageon Banjang," a current-affairs program, which featured a dispute between two people who met through a blind-date app over who should foot the bill.

According to the woman, identified only as A, she had recently met a man of similar age, identified as B, through a blind-date app. Because the two lived more than an hour and a half apart by car, A suggested they meet at a midpoint, but B said it was no trouble and came to her neighborhood instead.

The two went to a dak-galbi restaurant. Midway through the meal, B said he had received an urgent message from work and stepped outside — and did not return for more than an hour.

B then left the chat room on the blind-date app, which had been their only means of contact, leaving A to pay the entire bill of about 44,000 won ($32) on her own.

Furious, A made inquiries and tracked down B's workplace, contacted him there and obtained his personal phone number. She then called him and demanded full reimbursement.

"It wasn't about the money — I was outraged that someone could just disappear and leave a person sitting alone in a restaurant," A said, explaining why she had insisted on being repaid in full.

B pushed back, arguing that he had driven more than an hour and a half to her side of town and saw no reason to cover the whole bill. He offered instead to split it and send her half — 22,000 won.

"Using work as an excuse to leave and then quitting the chat room on top of it — isn't that just basic bad manners?" A said.

Critic Choe Hyeong-jin, who reviewed the story on the program, said that no matter how uninterested B may have been, walking out of a blind date without explanation showed a complete lack of basic courtesy. He advised people to arrange blind dates through mutual acquaintances rather than apps.

Park Sang-hee, a psychology professor, said the money was beside the point. "What about the time she spent waiting, and the mental stress of being suddenly cut off? Is getting the money back really enough to call it even?" she said.


jshan@heraldcorp.com