Train Wedding of Teary Eyed Orphans a Hoax

Stories that warm our heart and make us just a little less bitter come along every so often. But one story in particular seemed to grab the collective heart of Koreans over Valentines Day. Too bad it was as real as a cubic zirconium. The invention of the camera phone has made almost anyone any idiot an instant Steven Spielberg. The impromptu wedding ceremony was captured on video phone by a fellow subway rider who then posted the heart warming story on a personal blog. (Yeah, that's what any normal person does with footage of strangers...) The unbelievable love story was instantly picked up by the media and presumed to be both unedited and completely factual. (Who needs fact checkers when someone else will do the work for free, right?) The groom explained on the video..."I grew up an orphan and we're too poor to afford a wedding hall, so we're going to have our wedding here on subway line No. 5, where we first met." He asked someone in the car to officiate, but got no takers. So he recited a short vow and put a ring on his bride's finger as she wept. (See picture on right.) But the fellow riders had a right to be skeptical of the impromptu wedding and the accompanying hard luck story. As thousands offered to donate money for a honeymoon for the couple on the bog, some people decided to investigate the hard luck story and found out it was all a hoax. (::collective gasp::) The 'wedding' was a performance piece staged by students at Hoseo University in South Chungcheong Province. Prof. Kim Dae-hyun, the drama club's advisor explained the performances was a 'pilot project' of seven members and apologized for the misunderstanding and the students made a mistake in failing to tell passengers it was just a play. Bloggers were not so accepting of the apology. One user commented "I don’t believe anything any more. The event has made me more suspicious of society.” And maybe everyone is now a little more cautious about accepting what they read on a blog.