【Episode 10 – Eleanor Young (1)】
“Western kids really are different.”
“How so?”
“In Korea, you hardly ever see kids raise their hands and point out that class went a little over time. And no one asks you not to give a quiz just because there’s a ‘wine and cheese.’”
“Really?”
“Even if there are, they only do it after getting somewhat close. Someone doing that at the beginning of the semester… there are almost none.”
“Professor Lindberg didn’t mind, though. He even joked about it.”
“Was it really a joke? Wasn’t he being sarcastic?”
Depending on your perspective, you could see it that way. But I know from experience. He’s not that kind of person.
“He wasn’t.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Anyway, thanks to Frank, we got one less quiz.”
“That’s true.”
“From experience, I think you need the ability to voice your opinions like that. Especially if you want to become a lawyer. Though of course, you shouldn’t do it all the time.”
While I was talking with Sein about what had happened during the lecture earlier, Michael and Donguk hyung approached the table where we were sitting.
And behind them, Eleanor Young was walking toward us with her friends. For a moment, our eyes met, and the instant I raised my hand to greet her, she turned her head.
*Huh? What? Didn’t she see me?*
No. She definitely saw me. She had turned her head on purpose.
“What are you guys talking about so interestingly?”
“Huh, how did you and Michael come here together, oppa?”
“We ran into each other at the school entrance on the way. Shall we go then? That pasta place in SoHo?”
I think there’s some kind of misunderstanding…
“Wait a minute. I’m going to go talk to Eleanor for a second.”
If that was the case, I wanted to clear it up right away.
***
If you walk south from school for about ten minutes, you reach SoHo District.
A street that was once packed with factories inside cheap cast-iron buildings had now transformed into a space frequented by artists and hipsters.
Who knew how this street would change in the future, but for now, it was one of the most vintage yet youthful districts in Manhattan.
“The atmosphere here is really great!”
“Right? I had a meal here with a lawyer I know at a firm on the weekend, and the food was delicious and it was nice.”
The “pasta place” Donguk hyung mentioned was located in a SoHo back alley that looked like the backdrop of a magazine spread.
While Sein was excited by the atmosphere of the place she was visiting for the first time, Michael was more curious about the conversation I had with Eleanor.
“What was with Eleanor?”
“Huh? Ah. I greeted her at the start of the lecture, but she just passed by as if she hadn’t seen me. So I tried greeting her again in the lounge earlier, but she walked past me again too, so I thought there might be some misunderstanding and went to ask.”
“Yeah? What did she say?”
“She said there wasn’t anything like that.”
“Eleanor didn’t look like she was in a very good mood, though.”
“You were observing that much from far away?”
“You know, it’s a face that’s hard not to look at.”
“True. It is a face that’s hard not to look at.”
Even Donguk hyung chimed in at Michael’s answer.
“Ah, could it be because you said you’d do the Contract Law (Commercial Law) assignment with me?”
Originally, I had taken Professor Richard Cox’s Contract Law alone. But then, Donguk hyung had switched classes because he found Professor Alastair Mitchell’s pronunciation hard to understand, so now the two of us were taking it together.
I had never promised Eleanor that I would do the assignment Professor Richard Cox had given us together. I had only said that to brush it off when Michael showed excessive interest in the note with her phone number on it last time.
“That’s not it.”
“What did you ask her?”
“Huh?”
“What did you ask Eleanor?”
“Why are you so interested?”
“Isn’t it that you’re unusually uninterested? All the guys at our school are interested in Eleanor. It’s so bad that even Columbia Law kids know about her.”
“You know people at Columbia Law too?”
“Yeah. I do. Stop changing the subject. What did you say to Eleanor?”
“Hey, are you interrogating me? Stop asking.”
“Didn’t I tell you? My dream is to become a criminal lawyer. Mr. Je, what did you say to Miss Eleanor Young?”
This side of Michael wasn’t particularly unpleasant. Because he asked and listened to people here and there without hesitation, he was able to gain diverse connections and information, and he always shared them with us. At times he would cross the line, but when he did, he was someone who knew how to apologize cleanly.
“I didn’t say anything special. I just asked, ‘Did I do something wrong to you by any chance?’ Then she said, ‘No.’”
“Mr. Je, are you sure? It didn’t look that way to me. Her expression was like, um—how should I put it? As if someone had asked her out on a date and she was thinking, ‘Who the hell does this guy think he is?’”
“What? Hahaha.”
At Michael’s joke, Donguk hyung and I burst into giggles, and Sein shook her head with an expression that said she couldn’t stop us.
“Ah, right. Eleanor gave you her phone number, didn’t she?”
“So?”
“Did you call her?”
“No.”
“Ahh, that’s it.”
“What’s ‘ahh, that’s it’?”
“You got her number last Friday, right?”
“Yeah.”
“But you haven’t called her until now?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s what I’m saying. A girl gave you her number, right? You should have contacted her on the third day.”
“Don’t you watch too many romantic comedies?”
“That theory is surprisingly accurate, you know. The ‘Three Day Rule.’ Go ask around. Girls believe in it. She didn’t say it, but that’s probably why she’s upset, right? Especially girls like Eleanor. She’s probably never been turned down in her life. But you turned her down. ‘This is the first time a guy has treated me like this. Sob sob.’ That’s what she’s probably thinking. You should go ask again.”
The Three Day Rule. It was a dating theory(?) that was once popular in North America, where the man who received a woman’s number had to wait three days before calling. If he called the next day, he seemed too desperate; if he called on the second day, it seemed too calculated—so he had to call on the third day. I had heard it because Sujeong liked romantic comedies.
“Are we filming a romantic comedy right now? But wasn’t that theory about waiting at least three days? Not that you should call after three days.”
“Exactly. If you don’t call even after three days, it means ‘I’m completely not interested in you.’ Therefore, you sent Eleanor the message, ‘I have absolutely no interest in you.’”
“What are you talking about. Hey, stop with the nonsense. Are you going to the ‘Wine and Cheese’ event tonight? Hyung, you’re going too, right?”
At the time, I thought it was nonsense…
Michael’s joking words turned out to be right. That was it. I could confirm it at the “Wine and Cheese” event held that evening.
***
NYU,
Pullman Hall, 2F.
Sexton Lounge.
A “Wine and Cheese” event hosted by the mid-sized New York law firm
As the event was ending, Eleanor approached me.
“Talk with me for a moment.”
Eleanor Young (2)
A “Wine and Cheese” is a formal party.
Ah, of course, you could call it a “wine and cheese” if you invite friends over to your house and casually serve wine and cheese, but generally speaking, a “wine and cheese” refers to a social event with a certain degree of formality.
One of the first things you experience upon entering law school is a “wine and cheese.”
On the first evening of orientation, new students attend a “wine and cheese” with professors and mentors in attendance, and similar events continue the next day as well.
That’s not all. The school partners with various law firms throughout the semester to allow them to host “wine and cheese” events on campus.
The reason the school places so much importance on the “wine and cheese” experience is because, for a lawyer, networking skills are required just as much as legal knowledge.