About a week ago, Cody Soto and Ross McCray dropped their close friend Chris Jeon off at Los Angeles International Airport.

Soto had one thought on his mind: “I just watched my friend go into war. Did I just do that?”

The plan: join the rebel movement against Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya. Jeon, a math student at UCLA, had a camera, a small backpack with a couple sets of clean clothes and a one-way, $800 ticket.

Soto and McCray tried to talk him out of it, but Jeon – a high-adventure spirit who has apparently also spent four months living with an indigenous tribe in Costa Rica – had his mind made up.

“As soon as Chris says he’s going to do something …” Soto said, trailing off. “He’s so spontaneous.”

And the next thing Soto knew, he was looking at a picture of Jeon surrounded by Libyan rebels, with an AK-47 in hand and garbed in a very familiar blue Lakers jersey.

That’s when it hit him – Jeon had actually done it. And now the world knew about it.

“I’m so shocked, I didn’t know it was going to blow up like this,” said Soto, an incoming UCLA transfer student. The two were roommates last year, sharing marathon studying sessions in Powell Library and the Tough Mudder obstacle course experience.

When Soto saw the picture, he remembered a late-night dinner months earlier at Denny’s, when Jeon first spoke of the idea. But he is still astounded that Jeon reached his goal: joining what Jeon termed a “real revolution.”

He also made one point very clear.

“It’s not for attention,” Soto said. “He’s a very humble person, very kept to himself.”

On Thursday, The National, an English-language newspaper in the Middle East, found Jeon living with rebels outside of Sirte, Gadhafi’s hometown.

“It is the end of my summer vacation, so I thought it would be cool to join the rebels,” Jeon told The National.

He also pleaded, “Don’t tell my parents.”

The story sparked a media frenzy and captured the attention of readers across the globe. There are conflicting reports of Jeon’s status – some outlets are reporting that the rebels have sent Jeon home. Others say that Jeon is still being celebrated as a kind of mascot.

His friends have followed the news reports with shock and worry. Soto and Jeon grew up in the same region of South Orange County and went to neighboring high schools.

Soto calls Jeon his “brother,” describing a calm, daring person with an insatiable taste for adventure.

Those adventures have included catching baby alligators and a solo climb of Mount Baldy. Jeon strives to test his limits, Soto said – drawing from a “life is short” mantra.

Jeon also took a trip to Seattle with nothing more than a dollar in his pocket, a trip that included getting kicked off of park benches. And he has the pictures to prove it. They all like to document their adventures, Soto said.

Soto and Jeon have video footage of their experience completing Tough Mudder obstacle course, which calls itself “probably the toughest event on the planet.” The route involves fire and electrical obstacles, and hypothermic ice-dunking in the snow on Big Bear Mountain.

Two days before heading to the airport, Jeon returned from a well-paid summer internship with an investment banking firm in San Francisco in August. He had turned down a job to finish school.
But then Soto got a call.

“Can you and Ross drop me off at the airport?” Soto heard his friend say.

He and McCray agreed. When the two picked Jeon up from his parents’ house in Orange County, they didn’t go inside, Soto said.

And worry underlay a lighthearted trip to Los Angeles International Airport.

“We didn’t want him to go,” Soto said.

But once Jeon puts his mind to something, there’s no talking him out of it, Soto said.

“Ten times out of 10, if he says he’s going to do it, he’ll do it,” Soto said.

It remains unclear how Jeon got as far immersed into the rebel lines as he did. Soto said he and McCray were not part of the planning process.

The first thing he would do when he gained computer access, Jeon told his friends, would be to send them a message. They haven’t heard anything yet.

For now, Soto is staying positive about Jeon’s return.

“He’s going to be back,” Soto said, a look of certainty crossing his face. “He’ll definitely be back.”

He also made a prediction.

“This is not the biggest thing he’ll do.”