An Overwhelming Genius
Choi Jung-woo.
A first-year in middle school, yet he had won the Silver Prize in the High School 2nd Grade division at this year's KMC.
The only first-year middle schooler to pass the first round of the KMO in the high school division in June.
He was the pride of Seohan University's Gifted Program and a well-known prodigy even in Daechi-dong.
The Gifted Program held intensive classes or project sessions for about four hours starting at noon on Saturdays.
At Seohan University, students usually had to wait until their second year of middle school to enter the mentorship program, where they formed small, elite teams with university professors to write a research paper over the course of a year.
But because he was so special, as soon as he became a middle schooler, he was already working on a one-on-one research paper with a professor—not even in a group.
He had heard it was a first in the history of Seohan University's Gifted Program.
Walking slowly through the campus, Jung-woo stopped under a sprawling tree and looked up.
The sunlight filtering through the branches sparkled.
Going to a gifted high school is a given, of course...
A smirk spread across his face.
While high school seniors were getting nosebleeds trying to solve past KMO high school division first-round questions, he had hummed and solved them in his mom's car on the way to his Daechi-dong academy.
Heh...
A blueprint of his future unfolded before him, riding on the sunbeams between the branches.
First, selection for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) national team and a gold medal.
Early admission and early graduation from a gifted high school.
Becoming the youngest student to enter MIT, followed by becoming the second Korean to win the Fields Medal.
A perfect prologue, worthy of the first page of a biography, was currently in progress.
Jung-woo lowered his gaze and glanced at the university students walking around campus.
Hmm...
By the time he reached their age, he would probably already have been offered a tenured professorship at Princeton or Harvard, receiving standing ovations from the global mathematics community.
Jung-woo pushed up his glasses, which had slid down his nose, and let out a small snort.
In truth, even Seohan University's Gifted Program was a pond too small for his stature.
Even if the Dean begged him to bring glory to Seohan University, promising any kind of unprecedented treatment, he would have to coldly reject it and head to MIT.
The one-on-one mentorship paper he was currently working on with a professor?
Rather than him receiving instruction, wasn't it more like a charitable act of bestowing the inspiration of his sparkling genius upon the stiff, calcified brain of a professor?
Sigh, living as an overwhelming genius is so exhausting. It's so hard to adjust to the level of those around me.
Jung-woo, who let out a dramatic sigh under the empty tree, felt his shoulders puff up, but then a slight blemish on his otherwise perfect recent record came to mind.
His lips pouted involuntarily.
...
Specifically, the Silver Prize in the KMC High School 2nd Grade division.
Well, it was a slightly disappointing result, but hadn't they said he was the first middle school first-grader in history to achieve it?
Contrary to his thoughts, Jung-woo's brow furrowed deeper.
Seriously... Did he just memorize all the past questions?
Because there was one more "first."
And it was an achievement so massive that it couldn't even be compared to his own.
He had just remembered that kid—the fifth-grade elementary schooler who had won the Grand Prize in the KMC High School 2nd Grade division.
On top of that, a perfect score in both the preliminaries and finals.
Since they had sat right next to each other in the preliminary exam room, he vividly remembered that obnoxious face.
He was acting so incredibly cute...
How many cartons of milk did he bow and accept from the high school girls that day?
Normally, that milk would have been his...
Ah, wait, maybe not?
Anyway, all the attention that should have naturally gravitated toward him...
Sigh, am I getting old too? I guess youth really is a weapon...
In any case, he had expected to see the kid at the KMO as well, but perhaps memorizing past questions through advanced study wasn't enough to cut it for the KMO. No matter how much he searched the list of first-round passers—which he had obtained through his academy teacher—the kid's name was nowhere to be found.
Then again, the KMO high school division was not such an easy world.
Choi Jung-woo scrunched his nose once and started walking again.
Actually, all the thoughts swirling in Jung-woo's head were a sort of self-hypnotic delusion he had started indulging in after becoming obsessed with a theory he saw on YouTube recently: "The future is designed exactly as you firmly believe."
Ah... I totally ruined the ending.
He should have ended the delusion on a high note, but remembering that kid brought him crashing back to reality. Even though no one was reading his mind, his face flushed red.
Jung-woo was a boy who was very well aware of embarrassment.
In any case, Choi Jung-woo had been highly alert to the strange atmosphere flowing through Seohan University lately.
Today, the math professor supervising his project, as well as the graduate students, had massive dark circles under their eyes.
It wasn't just today.
They had similar faces last week, and the week before that.
He had been incredibly curious, and today he happened to overhear the graduate students talking.
An incredible research project that will shock the natural sciences academic community is underway?
Jung-woo cocked an eyebrow.
Still, since he was quite doted on at the Gifted Program, they usually let him take a look at most research projects.
But when he casually asked about this one, they said absolutely not.
They said it was because the Dean himself was supervising the research, but he did manage to find out where it was being conducted.
It should be fine to just peek through the window, right?
Being told he couldn't do it only made Jung-woo more curious.
So, as soon as the Gifted Program project ended, he was walking toward the astronomy lab, which was said to be at the very end of the College of Natural Sciences building.
...Huh?
As he walked, Jung-woo spotted someone and his eyes widened.
A small child walking along, munching loudly on puffed rice.
Why... why is he here?
It was the very kid he had just been thinking about.
Because Jung-woo's legs were much longer, the distance between them quickly closed, but he didn't want to pretend to know him for no reason.
The only time he had seen his face was at the KMC preliminary exam room.
He had been so fixated on this kid, and his own brain was so good, that he remembered the face vividly. But if the kid didn't recognize him, it would be a massive blow to his pride.
What should I do? Should I just walk past?
As he hesitated, he ended up matching the kid's walking pace from behind, when suddenly the kid whipped his head around.
Jung-woo's eyes locked with a pair of round, wide eyes.
"Oh? Hello!"
"...Uh. Hi."
"We met at the exam room back then, right?"
"Ah, did we? I don't really remember..."
"Yes, we did! We sat right next to each other during the KMC preliminaries!"
"Really?"
"You don't remember, Hyung? I recognized you right away!"
"..."
"Here!"
The kid suddenly thrust a round piece of puffed rice toward him. Caught off guard, Jung-woo reflexively grabbed it.
"Ah, th-thanks."
"Hehe."
Jung-woo swallowed hard.
He's... he's cute...
Seeing him again like this, it wasn't that he was acting cute; he was actually just cute.
Ever since becoming a middle schooler, Jung-woo had detested elementary school kids, but he couldn't help but melt before that bright, beaming face.
"What brings you here, Hyung?"
"Huh? Me? Oh, I'm in the Gifted Program here."
"Hehe. I'm so happy to see you here again!"
"Uh... me too."
The kid smiled brightly.
He really smiled a lot.
Jung-woo felt a bit awkward, but he managed a slight smile in return.
"Are you going home now?"
"Th-no. I was going to check something out before I leave."
"Where?"
"Well, it's a lab..."
Jung-woo was in a bit of a dilemma.
He had only planned to sneak a peek through the window of the astronomy lab, but if this kid saw him doing that, it would look incredibly uncool.
Looking at the direction they were walking, they seemed to be heading the same way...
Ah...
Before he knew it, distracted by their conversation, they had already arrived in front of the astronomy lab.
When Jung-woo hesitated, the kid tilted his head.
"Is this where you wanted to go, Hyung?"
"...Huh? Well..."
What should he do?
Should he peek inside, and if he saw a professor he knew, ask for a favor?
For some reason, he wanted to look cool and influential in front of this kid, rather than pathetic...
While he was hesitating, the kid suddenly started walking straight toward the lab door.
"Oh? Hey. Hey! Chul-jun!"
The kid turned around and looked at Jung-woo with round eyes.
Ah...
He had accidentally let slip that he knew the kid's name.
"Wow! Hyung, you know my name too?"
Back then, when he heard that the elementary schooler who won the KMC Grand Prize had that name, he had memorized it without realizing.
He had even searched thoroughly for any articles about him.
Actually, it was a name so old-fashioned that it was hard to forget once you heard it.
"Ah, well, it just suddenly came to me."
"Whoa! How did you know my name?"
"..."
"Tell me your name too, Hyung!"
"It's... Jung-woo. Choi Jung-woo."
"So you're Jung-woo Hyung."
Chul-jun grinned, pulled his phone out of his bag, and held it out.
"Give me your number too!"
"Y-your number?"
"Yes! This is the first time I've made an older friend here. I want us to be close!"
"Ah... uh. H-here."
"Thank you!"
He bowed politely and grabbed the lab door handle.
Startled, Jung-woo quickly grabbed the kid's arm.
"W-wait a minute!"
"Huh? Weren't you going in here?"
"...Huh?"
"You've been staring at the astronomy lab the whole time we were walking. And this is the end of the College of Natural Sciences building anyway."
"Th-that's..."
Just then, the lab door swung open, and a math professor stepped out.
It was someone Jung-woo had seen a few times during intensive classes—a blunt and rather terrifying professor.
Jung-woo flinched.
As Jung-woo hurriedly tried to bow and greet him,
"Oh? Chul-jun!"
"Hello!"
"Ah, perfect timing. The proof for removing the small divisors keeps throwing an error on the computer... It seems like something is off in the Diophantine condition range you pointed out. Could you take another look at the third-order perturbation formula mapped to these coordinate values? The Dean just arrived too, and the atmosphere in the lab is absolutely freezing because of this."
Jung-woo blinked.
The math professor, notorious among the Gifted Program kids for being blunt and terrifying, was making that kind of face?
And he was asking a fifth-grade elementary schooler to look over a formula?
What on earth did he just hear?
...Small divisors? Third-order perturbation? Diophantine condition?
Even for Jung-woo, who had done an insane amount of advanced study in Daechi-dong, these words sounded like complete gibberish.
"Sure! I'll go in and take a look!"
Chul-jun replied with a bright smile.
"Yes, please! The Dean only calms down when you're around..."
The professor, hastily guiding Chul-jun into the lab as if wrapping an arm around his shoulders, finally noticed the frozen Choi Jung-woo.
"Hmm? You're from the Gifted Program... right? What brings you here?"
"Ah, th-that is..."
While Jung-woo stammered in panic, Chul-jun smiled brightly and spoke up.
"Oh! He's a close friend of mine!"
"Is that so? Well, if he's a guest you brought, Chul-jun... come on in. Your Gifted Program advisor happens to be inside as well."
Chul-jun grabbed Jung-woo's hand and pulled him into the lab, and Jung-woo was dragged in limply with a dazed expression.
Ah, is this a dream?
Watching the kid named Chul-jun hand out puffed rice to the professors in the lab, Jung-woo began to deny reality.
The research was nearing its final stages.
Now, once they verified that everything mapped perfectly onto the roadmap Chul-jun had established, the basic foundation was practically complete.
However, a heavy silence hung over the Dean's office of the College of Natural Sciences at Seohan University.
Sitting on the sofa were the Chair of the Mathematics Department, a chair professor of the Physics Department, and the Chair of the Astronomy Department, who wore the grimmest expression of them all.
Dean Gu Byung-ook scanned their faces one by one before letting out a quiet sigh.
"We need to plan our strategy carefully."
"..."
"Professor Seo."
The Chair of the Astronomy Department slowly raised his lowered head.
"Yes."
Dean Gu Byung-ook lightly patted the shoulder of Seo Young-ho, the Chair of the Astronomy Department, and spoke.
"This is an incredibly radical claim on a global scale. If we publish this as is, it could be seen as throwing down a gauntlet to the entire modern astronomical community. It will even impact papers that have won Nobel Prizes."
As the research neared its end, they had felt an immense thrill at this astonishing new discovery.
But at the same time, the anxiety that had been brewing among the leaders was voiced aloud by the Dean for the first time, bringing the sheer weight of their radical claim into reality.
Expressing it in words made Dean Gu Byung-ook realize just how monumental the gravity of the situation was.
"The first author of this paper is eleven years old. Can't you see it clearly? The kind of backlash we'll face?"
"..."
"I'm sorry to put it this way, Professor Seo, but do you have the authority or power to shield him from that?"
Professor Seo Young-ho reluctantly shook his head.
"Even if we put your name as the corresponding author. No, even if we put my name, or the names of every single professor in Seohan University's College of Natural Sciences, would we even be able to get a proper peer review?"
"...Probably not."
They had recorded the entire process on video.
Although they were the ones who had put flesh on the bones of the framework started by Chul-jun's ideas, no one could deny that the boy was the first author.
Over the course of the research, the boy had developed at an astonishing rate.
In physics, in mathematics, and in astronomy.
If they simply presented this child to the world, the academic community would undoubtedly be thrown into an uproar.
However, the academic establishment would never accept such a radical claim at face value.
It was a matter that could shake the entire field of astronomy.
"Sigh... Unfortunately, there is no scholar with that level of authority in the Korean astronomical community."
They all knew it.
The moment they uploaded this paper to arXiv, global scholars would scoff at the fact that the first author was an elementary schooler before even reading the content.
Refuting the authority that the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan team had cemented in Nature, using an eleven-year-old child from a university lab in Korea—a country considered the periphery of astronomy?
This would become a political battle long before it became a logical one.
And Korea did not possess strong political influence or brand power in the international academic community.
Moreover, a few years ago, the country had been a laughingstock worldwide due to a scandal involving a middle schooler's plagiarized and ghostwritten paper.
Dean Gu Byung-ook observed the department chairs' faces for a moment before speaking again.
"However, we do have a scholar among us Koreans who can command that kind of authority in the mathematical community."
The professors, who had been staring at the table, quickly looked up.
The Chair of the Mathematics Department spoke first.
"Could it be... are you talking about Professor Edward Kang?"
A living legend of the Korean natural sciences who had completely broken down the boundaries between physics and mathematics.
The only Korean Fields Medalist and a core member of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.
Although he was someone who only shone in his later years after escaping the Korean education system, he was a pure Korean who had even voluntarily served in the military.
Dean Gu Byung-ook spoke with a solemn face.
"Yes. Let's publish the mathematics paper first."
In an instant, the professors' faces brightened slightly.
"Of course, Professor Edward Kang is someone who despises the Korean academic establishment, but if he sees Chul-jun in person, he will surely agree to put his name down as the corresponding author."
At Dean Gu Byung-ook's words, the professors quickly nodded.
"Let's send an email first, as politely as possible."
"Yes, Dean!"
"And let's also ask around to see if anyone has a personal connection to him."
"Understood!"