No, I joke. Chu likes Khao San Rd, and enjoys talking to foreigners. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?
He has an almond shaped face, large liquid eyes, and long hair pulled back behind his head.
Student Chu wants to be a journalist, and has a particular interest in documentaries. But when he is not watching them, he likes to follow football, and watch movies.
I met Chu once before, when he turned up with friends, to watch football at Mum's shop. We hit it off, perhaps because as a farang I am inclined to ask simple, even naive questions, rather than getting too smart with my mouth.
Chu is a thinker, and can get worked up easily, as I saw this night, when a group of four or five Thais who speak Japanese joined us.
At first I did not remember these folk. They had been drinking somewhere else and turned up in a taxi. The only guy, a man aged in his 50s and wearing a hat, obviously fancied himself as a man about town.
He told Mum he had been educated at a nearby temple as a child, and occasionally comes back to the neighbourhood for a nostalgic look.
One of the women in the group started talking to Chu. She must have said something to upset him, because his face darkened, and he looked intense and worried.
He turned towards me, away from the group, so we could talk without them watching us. The newcomers, meanwhile, started talking to each other in Japanese.
When they started on the Japanese thing, I remembered I had seen this group once before, many years ago - no doubt on another one of Mr Hat's nostalgic return visits. When they first turn up, they start talking to whoever is sitting at the bar in Thai.
Then, once they have invited him to join the conversation, they start to converse in noisy Japanese, which immediately shuts out the newcomer.
I know they like to intimidate people in this manner, because I watched them do it to another hapless drinker last time.
They could carry on talking to each other and the newcomer in Thai, but would rather show off. It is a little game they play.
I told Chu not to get upset. He patted my leg, and thanked me for caring.
After the group left, Chu complained to Mum about the way they had treated him.
Mum, a blunt speaker, was unimpressed. 'You must have said something to upset that woman first, or she would not have reacted,' she said.
Unfortunately, Chu could not remember what he said, as he had been drinking.
'Well, then, you can't complain,' said Mum. 'They were just doing their own thing, minding their own business.'
'I think they came here to show off,' I volunteered.
'You must be happy, you have found another young man to talk to,' Mum told me, referring to Chu.
Most long drinking nights end with Mum making such remarks. Almost inevitably, I am in the company of young straight friends. We laugh. No one cares.
A friend called Chu on the cellphone. He said he was sitting at Mum's shop, talking to me.
'That was a friend. I told him about you after the first night we met,' he said.
'I don't want you getting stressed about tonight. Please take my phone number and call me if you cannot sleep,' I told him, while scribbling my number down on a piece of paper.
He did not call, because maybe, after sleeping on the problem, he forgot about it.
I remember those Japanese-speaking Thais, though. If I see them again, I shall warn my friends what to expect.
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