【Episode 45 – All I want for Christmas is... (1)】
｢It’s the most wonderful time of the year~｣
No matter where you go in New York in December, Christmas carols echo everywhere. I think I heard the same carol more than five times on the way to the airport, but the reason I’m not sick of it yet is because Christmas still hasn’t arrived.
“Hey—Jason, over here! Over here!”
“Baby, Merry Christmas, I missed you.”
“Merry Christmas, Kelly.”
Greetings coming from here and there.
Regardless of the weather, the airport was bursting with people. It was the end of the year, and with delays and postponed departures, it was chaotic enough to make your head spin.
Fortunately, the person I was waiting for was someone who stood out easily even in that huge crowd.
“Eleanor!”
She walked out of the gate in comfortable clothes, just like last time.
Hearing her name, she looked my way at once and raised her hand to wave. Then she said goodbye to the colleagues she’d come with and approached me.
“You really came out.”
“You don’t have much luggage.”
“It was only four days, so what.”
“I thought models would be different.”
“They prepare all the clothes over there anyway, so…”
“Then, shall we go?”
“Where?”
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“I’m hungry.”
“Anything you want to eat?”
“Yeah. Pizza. A pepperoni pizza with sauce dripping off it.”
“Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
Eleanor and I took a taxi to Chelsea, where her apartment was. The traffic wasn’t great because of the snow that had fallen overnight, but it was a decent enough drive.
Rather, I found myself wishing we could arrive a little later.
*
｢All I want for Christmas is you~~｣
A pizza joint hidden away on a street in New York’s Chelsea district.
Sure enough, that familiar song was playing.
“Pepperoni?”
“Pepperoni. And Pepsi.”
Strangely enough, she liked Pepsi instead of Coca-Cola.
It was our first time eating together since watching the New York Knicks game in November.
For the past few weeks, I’d been swamped dealing with the Go Jaesuk case; fortunately, Eleanor had also been busy with modeling work.
This week, there had been some show in Paris, France, so she was on her way back from there.
“How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Model while going to law school.”
“I’m the one who’s curious. Working as a research assistant while doing moot court competitions and pro bono cases. How do you do it?”
“Well, you know, I just make good use of my time, split it up.”
“I also just make good use of my time, split it up.”
“Huhu.”
“Keke.”
It was a strange feeling.
When I first saw her at NYU ten years ago, I had no interest in her. I think it was the same for her.
To each other, we were just something like “a pretty girl who studies well” and “an Asian kid with an interesting name.”
We’d only ever said hi in passing; we’d never sat down and talked like this.
So when I returned here and she showed interest in me, I was very surprised.
‘Why? Why is she interested in me?’
It was sudden and absurd.
Just as the regression was beginning to feel real, her interest rather felt like it was undermining that sense of reality, so to speak.
“I really didn’t think you’d come out.”
“Didn’t you tell me the flight arrival time so I’d come out?”
“Well, yes, but… you seem like the kind of clueless guy who wouldn’t do this kind of thing, so I didn’t expect it.”
“Isn’t your expectation of me too low?”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Since you went to a game with me even though you know nothing about basketball, I figured doing at least this much is only good manners?”
“See? Even now.”
“Huh? What?”
“It’s okay not to know. That in itself is charming, if anything. Oh, by the way, how did you know I don’t know anything about basketball?”
“After the first quarter ended, you asked, ‘Is the second half all that’s left now?’ so I realized.”
“Keke. Busted.”
“Huhu.”
She was clearly different from me.
Sometimes I wasn’t sure if I was accurately understanding what she meant.
But what was clear was that those very differences fanned my interest in her and made me want to know more.
“So, have you sorted things out?”
In the middle of laughing and chatting about trivial things, she looked into my eyes and asked.
She was talking about Sujung.
Of course, she didn’t know Sujung. She’d never met her, nor even heard her name. She only knew of her as the reason I hadn’t accepted her confession last time.
“I sorted it out a long time ago.”
I just hadn’t had the chance to put a period on it.
“Really? Then are you going to ask me out now?”
Eleanor was nonchalant yet bold.
“Can I ask just one thing?”
“Ask me a hundred.”
And she was witty.
“Why on earth did you become interested in me?”
“Is that question asking why a charming, intelligent woman like me gave her phone number unasked to a stiff guy like you who seems to have no interest in women?”
“If you insist on putting it that specifically… yes. It can’t be because I didn’t call even after getting your number, right?”
“Well, that’s part of it too.”
“No way. Really?”
“Hahaha.”
She didn’t answer and let the suspense hang. So when I asked again, she suddenly threw back,
“Have you seen
“Jerry Maguire? You mean that old movie with Tom Cruise?”
“Yeah. Have you seen it?”
“I have. They play it so much on TV around the holidays that it’s impossible not to see.”
“That’s my answer.”
“Huh?”
“I said, that’s my answer.”
“….”
“….”
This time, too, I couldn’t understand what she was getting at, but I didn’t ask further. I felt it was okay to leave some things unknown.
It was already dark outside.
The plane had arrived a bit late, and traffic had been bad, but we’d been chatting about this and that without realizing how much time had passed.
“It’s snowing again.”
“So it is.”
“I guess it’ll snow a lot this year.”
“It will.”
“How do you know?”
Because I’ve been through it once before.
“Huh? The news forecasted it that way.”
“Really? It’ll be cold.”
“Yeah.”
The two of us silently watched the large snowflakes falling outside the window for a while.
“Want to stay over?”
Without turning her head from the window, Eleanor asked.
“Sure.”
---*---
Monday, December 24,
Christmas Eve.
After making my way across slippery roads, I finally stepped inside Vanderbilt Hall.
Watching snow-covered roads and buildings from inside a warm apartment is definitely different from actually walking on them.
Still, watching Washington Square Park covered in snow with a warm coffee in hand, my heart softens.
“This snow is no joke. Was your Harlem apartment okay?”
While I was warming myself up like that, Sein had approached me before I knew it.
“Yeah. It was fine. Why? Was there a problem at the dorm?”
“No. It’s just snowing so hard. There was an old movie called
“I know it. The one where a snow storm freezes all of New York, right?”
“Right, right. That was totally the vibe. I went out for a bit on Sunday to buy something and thought I was going to freeze solid.”
Sein was exaggerating slightly, but it had really been cold.
“But I think it’s a little better today.”
“Yeah, it’s a bit better today.”
“Oh, how was the show?”
“The show? Ah! You mean the tickets Attorney Duncan gave us? It was fun! We had wine nearby afterward too.”
While I was talking with Sein, Michael appeared this time.
“What’s up.”
“You look really bright-eyed today.”
“It’s just the weather making me look like this.”
“I heard the show was fun?”
“Ah, that. I didn’t go.”
“You didn’t go?”
“Yeah. I didn’t go.”
“Yeah, this guy said he was going to a party and didn’t go.”
“Columbia Law School alumni gathering. Man—the drinks they serve there are on another level.”
“Why would you go there again… forget it. Never mind.”
“Want to go together later? I picked up some business cards.”
“No thanks.”
“Oh, right. Heon, did you finalize your summer internship? My brother keeps asking. They seem really interested in you. Since it’s the firm my brother’s at, I don’t want to go, but still, Kirkland is a pretty good place, isn’t it? You’re not interested?”
“There’s a place that wants to interview me for a summer internship, so I’m going to check it out first before deciding.”
“Where?”
“DMBG.”
“DMBG?”
Davis, Miller, Banhill and Garland.
An email arrived Friday evening. The recruiting officer would be coming to New York early next year and said they’d like to have a meal together.
It was an interview offer.
Someone I Met at the Skadden Year-End Party (1)
｢A few weeks ago,
Civil Law class.
“For the next three lectures, we will learn about defamation (defamation: injury to reputation). There will be a short quiz at the end of the lecture, so…”
Professor Lance Skinner of Civil Law had precise pronunciation.
Pronunciation varies, and it is difficult to say which is more correct, but his style was to clearly pronounce voiceless consonants like [s], [t], and [k] at the ends of words and to speak according to standard phonetic notation.
In short, a lecture that drilled into your ears. Even with your eyes closed, the content slipped right in.
“Under Anglo-American law, defamation is divided into two categories. One is libel—defamation by writing—and the other is slander—defamation by speech. Furthermore, defamation is divided into defamation per se and defamation per quod according to its content…”
Civil law is the law that governs infringements of rights and damages occurring between individuals in daily life.
There are major systemic differences between Anglo-American civil law—tort law—and Korean civil law.
Civil law based on the civil law system, as in Korea, is statutory law; that is, there are legal provisions, and when these are violated, the structure is one that holds the violator (tortfeasor) liable for the resulting damages. However, civil law based on common law, as in England or the United States, is a structure where, when another party’s rights are infringed, the court determines whether that infringement was indeed an illegal act.
Of course, in the former system as well, the court determines whether the act was a tort. However, while the court in the former cannot punish if there is no relevant legal regulation, the latter is not so.
Even if there is no relevant legal regulation, if the court determines that the act infringed on the other party’s legitimate rights and that there is no reasonable grounds to tolerate it, it defines the act as a tort.
Therefore, in a common law system like Anglo-American law, it is often said that “the courts make the law,” and it is a structure where precedent is given more weight. (Since there are not legal regulations for every tort.)
“Defamation per se refers to cases where the writing or speech is defamatory to anyone who sees it, and defamation per quod refers to cases where the writing or speech is defamatory when viewed in light of the victim’s condition or circumstances…”
It cannot be said that one system is better than the other. The civil law system has the inconvenience of having to wait until relevant legislation is enacted to resolve disputes arising in legal blind spots (for example, parking disputes within an apartment complex parking lot not subject to traffic laws), whereas the common law system carries the risk that results can differ drastically depending on which judge you face (even in practically identical disputes).
However, from the standpoint of one studying law,
“Then today, let’s talk about the case of Ashton v. Kentucky, which deals with the conflicting interests between freedom of speech and defamation.”
It is true that common law is a bit more interesting.｣