Confessions of a Cat-holic (174)

DK Kim was an acquaintance of Sammy's. But that was all I knew about him. Apart from the fact that he spoke authentically without a trace of Asian accent, I just knew that he went to a prep school called St Paul's. He was not very outspoken and I did not recall I had ever talked to him. The only interaction I had had with him was that Sammy asked me to fetch him a book outside Carmen hall when we were all freshmen. In my vague memory, he might have joined an a cappella group but he did not attend any of my classes or belonged to any student clubs that I joined. He was not engaged in the Korean Student Association or any sort of the likes. So there was no way I could get to know him on a deeper level.

After he graduated from Columbia, he worked as an intelligence officer and aide to commanding general for the Republic of Korea Defense Security Command. I heard he also joined the Air Force of Korea. I guessed this might have explained why he looked so secretive. His looks caught my eyes for certain but there was so little I knew about him despite my extensive network of acquaintance at Columbia. After he finished his military service, he then attended Harvard Law School. For his internship, he worked at CJ E&M Corporation's International Business and Legal Affairs team. After that, he worked as an associate at a Korean law firm named Kim and Chang then Fried Frank and King & Spalding. He was recently working as an assistant general counsel at Molina healthcare.

The opportunity cost of dating Edmond in my prime years at college was way too high. I was forgoing the chances of meeting my future husband on campus, even though I had to say that Columbia was one of the most competitive battle field in the world.

Because of Eric Rhee, I tried out for the fashion show model for KSA. But as I said, I failed the first time because I was asked to walk in the middle of a hall at Lerner in front of a few Korean guys. I felt very awkward to be walking like I was hot in front of opposite sex and I kind of just got it over with in the middle of the try-outs. I didn't know how competitive it would be to be selected as a model for the fashion show and to be honest I never intended to get on stage like that, as if I was hot, attractive and ready to flaunt my body.

The person who recommended me to try out was Mike Cho. Mike was a student from California, and specifically a renowned prep school called Harvard Westlake. He had all the resources to do well in school, given that he was well-off, good looking and sane. He was a classics and biology dual major, well prepared on the pre-med track. I hadn't heard from him since graduation but I knew from LinkedIn that he matriculated at Tulane's medical school and he was then a resident physician at University of Hawaii. He was also a breast imaging fellow and diagnostic radiology resident at the Duke University Health System. He worked as a radiologist at Bay Imaging Consultants Medical Group before he became a full time medical instructor of radiology at Duke University where he was also assistant residency program director and assistant professor at the radiology department.

He offered the highest bid to be Sammy's date on date auction and we were kind of close in freshman year.

So Michael Cho suggested me to try out for KSA's fashion show and then it was Sei Wook Kim on the judging panel. I felt very strange to be auditioning in front of a guy. Sei Wook Kim, like Michael Cho, was also in my year from the engineering school. He was an active member and committee of the KSA.

Sei Wook Kim looked like 鄧梓峰 who looked like Buzz Lightyears. He was an IEOR major too. But I didn't think I had a lot of classes with him because I accelerated my studies a little bit to be in the same class with Eddie. Yes, I could be an aggressive go getter when it came to dating. Sei Wook Kim was a good friend of Peter Kang who was a graduating senior and chairperson of the KSA at the time. They had started a venture together while Peter worked at Lehman Brothers and Sei Wook was still a student at the time.