A World of Absolute Answers

Having finally gotten a smartphone, Chul-jun completely lost track of time.

Before, he had felt incredibly stifled because there was no one he could ask when he had a question, but now, everything was right here.

Whenever he searched for something he had been curious about, a mountain of information would instantly flood the screen.

Of course, cross-referencing was essential.

Sometimes, completely absurd nonsense would slip into the results.

Whenever a single question mark popped up and he searched for it, dozens more would sprout in its place.

How does the ceiling of Uncle Hyeong-man's car open?

Ah, so they call that a sunroof.

The mechanism works by a motor pushing the glass...

Then how does a motor move?

The principle of an electric motor?

Electromagnetic induction?

Then what is electromagnetism?

Electromagnetic force?

Is light also a type of electromagnetic wave?

The speed of light?

300,000 kilometers per second?

Seven and a half times around the Earth in one second?

What about to the Sun?

8 minutes and 20 seconds?

So the Sun we see right now is the Sun from 8 minutes and 20 seconds ago?

Then what about the stars?

Proxima Centauri?

4.2 light-years?

Light from 4.2 years ago?

One question mark would chase another, multiplying rapidly on its own. His heart pounded with excitement.

"Do your best at the things you enjoy," they said, right?

Chul-jun smiled brightly and conjured up another question mark.

How does a car move?

The principle of an engine piston?

An infinite world of knowledge was unfolding right in the palm of his hand.

He loved swimming in it. He had never imagined that learning things could be this much fun.

And so, within just a single day of getting his smartphone, Chul-jun fell into a severe addiction.

Meanwhile, Hyeong-man, who had been secretly watching him, let out a deep sigh and tapped on his own phone screen.

A mathematics major from Seoul National University.

Five years of experience specializing in tutoring elementary school students.

While she wasn't at the absolute top tier where Gangnam parents would literally beg for her services, she was a (self-proclaimed) near-star tutor whose schedule was always booked solid at least a semester in advance.

Her previous student had suddenly immigrated overseas, leaving her with an unexpected gap in her schedule. Thinking it was better than doing nothing, she had taken on a last-minute tutoring gig without even doing a prior level assessment. Today was the very first day.

And yet, Cha Se-young, a (self-proclaimed) highly successful elementary math specialist in Gangnam, could only stare blankly at the child sitting in front of her.

"S-so... you've just been studying like that by yourself all this time?"

The remarkably pretty child smiled brightly.

"Yes!"

At the child's innocent response, Cha Se-young swallowed hard.

Is this child abuse...? No, that's going too far. Neglect? Abandonment? Whatever it is, this is incredibly serious.

Even if he lived in China and was in a unique situation, how could this be? I mean, did they not even have internet? If you just search YouTube, there's a mountain of content on elementary math. Ah, maybe he couldn't watch YouTube because he was in China?

But still, to think that watching simple number-play videos was the extent of his education. And the only textbook he had ever studied was a Chinese elementary school second-grade book?

How am I supposed to teach a kid like this?

Cha Se-young's pupils trembled.

*

After a brief conversation to gauge the child's level, Cha Se-young stepped out into the living room and sat across from the guardian, frantically trying to organize her thoughts.

"S-so, how is his level?"

Se-young flinched.

This guardian of his looked terrifying.

Is he a gangster?

He was introduced as the boy's uncle, but he had a massive build, a menacing scar near his left eye, and wore a thick gold bracelet and necklace...

Cha Se-young swallowed hard and spoke cautiously. She needed to get out of here first. She had no confidence in teaching a child who was basically a blank slate, and more than anything, this guardian uncle was absolutely terrifying.

"Well, his basic education is a bit... ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠You see, I specialize in advanced, accelerated learning, so his current level is..."

"Come on. He's just an elementary schooler. You can just teach him whatever you know."

"B-but..."

"I heard from Dong-wook that you're highly praised for how well you teach kids..."

"Ah..."

Se-young let out a heavy sigh internally. Why did her uncle introduce her to a household like this? He said this man was his most respected senior, but what was this? Was her uncle a gangster in his youth? Wasn't he just a retired civil servant?

"I-I've never really taught anyone starting from the absolute basics..."

"He'll learn fast. The kid is incredibly smart. His IQ is 120!"

Well, the kid did look smart. He was also so adorable that she had been smiling the entire time they talked.

"Alright, three times a week. Since his IQ is 120, let's make the tutoring fee 1.2 million!"

Cha Se-young blinked. What kind of absurd logic was that? Besides, 1.2 million for three times a week, two hours per session? Her usual rate was 100,000 KRW per hour. Two hours, three times a week would normally be 2.4 million KRW a month. Sigh... is he slashing the price in half just because we have a mutual connection—

"Ah, is the weekly rate too low? I heard successful tutors make around that much."

"...Pardon?"

What? A weekly rate? Then that meant 4.8 million KRW a month?

"Please, I'm asking you. He has to go to school as soon as the semester starts, so we just need to get him up to a fifth-grade level. Deal?"

Cha Se-young immediately bowed ninety degrees.

"I will do my absolute best! Fath—no, Uncle!"

*

Sitting back down in front of the child, Cha Se-young furrowed her brow as she tapped on her educational tablet. She had just searched on her phone to check the curriculum for a second-grader in a Chinese elementary school. It turned out to be almost identical to Korea's second-grade elementary curriculum.

Second-grade level, huh...

Se-young pulled up the second-grade math curriculum on her phone screen.

First Semester: Reading and writing three-digit numbers, various geometric shapes, addition and subtraction up to two digits, measuring length in centimeters, classification, introduction to multiplication concepts (skip-counting, multiples).

Second Semester: Reading and writing four-digit numbers, memorizing the multiplication tables (1 to 9), measuring length in meters, telling time, basics of tables and graphs.

Sigh... Kids in Gangnam finish all of this in kindergarten...

The evaluation problems she had brought to assess his level were displayed on the tablet, but it seemed she wouldn't be using them for now. They were all sixth-grade and middle school level questions.

Since they live in Daechi-dong, I just assumed advanced learning was a given...

Cha Se-young turned off the tablet and looked at the boy. His round eyes were incredibly beautiful. He looked just like a doll. Just looking at his face felt healing. He was on a completely different level from other eleven-year-old kids. On top of that, he was remarkably calm and polite. His aura was the complete opposite of his guardian's.

Well, elementary school math shouldn't be too hard...

First, the key concept to solidify from the second-grade level was multiplication.

"Alright, Chul-jun. Have you memorized the multiplication tables?"

"Multiplication tables?"

"Ah... I mean, times tables..."

"I know multiplication! It's when a number is repeatedly added by the amount specified."

"Oh, right. So you know the concept. Memorizing that from 1 to 9 is what we call the times tables."

The boy blinked his round eyes.

"Do I have to memorize it?"

"Yes. That way, the multiplication you'll do in the future will be much easier."

Chul-jun furrowed his brow. Why memorize it? You can just look at it and know the answer instantly.

But he probably shouldn't say that out loud. First, he needed to gauge the level of average kids his age.

"Teacher."

"Yes?"

"Do kids my age learn things like this?"

"Um... no. Actually, they learn much harder things."

"Like what?"

Cha Se-young hesitated. She was worried that a child who lacked even the basics might get intimidated and give up entirely.

"Well, Chul-jun, let's start with what I teach you and slowly climb up, step by step. Okay?"

Chul-jun smiled brightly.

"Yes, Teacher!"

*

After returning home, Se-young downloaded an educational app tailored to elementary school students.

Let's start with the second-grade level...

Two days later, on the first official day of tutoring.

About an hour after they began going over second-grade math.

"I'm all done, Teacher!"

"A-already?"

Chul-jun, who had just finished solving all the way up to the fifth-grade problems, smiled innocently.

"Kids my age can solve all of these, right?"

"Uh... yeah. Yes, they can."

*

Se-young stared blankly at the tablet. Honestly, if she hadn't witnessed the child's level rising in real-time with her own eyes, she would never have believed it.

There were parents like that sometimes. Parents who, wanting to emphasize how special their child was, would claim their kid had only studied up to their current grade level when ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they had actually done extensive advanced learning. If she gave a half-hearted "Wow, amazing," the kid would look proud, and the parents would beam, saying, "Our child is incredible, right?"

She might have thought this was one of those cases.

But this child truly had zero foundation. While he was incredibly good at mental addition and subtraction, he had tilted his head in confusion at two-digit multiplication. Yet, the moment she explained the concept, he began solving them effortlessly in his head. He didn't even know what fractions or decimals were, but after a brief explanation, he grasped the concepts instantly. Then, he immediately solved addition and subtraction problems involving fractions and decimals.

He solved order of operations without even being taught, and figured out factors, multiples, fraction and decimal multiplication, and averages all on his own. Aside from occasionally asking if kids his age could do all of this, he barely asked any questions.

In the end, he had completely conquered the second-grade to fifth-grade curriculum in just a single hour.

Se-young had been there for every step of this process. She was the one who taught him the basic concepts, and she was the one who explained fractions and decimals. There was no need for repetition. He understood everything the very first time she said it. She watched him think deeply in real-time, and she saw the pure, immense joy on his face whenever he solved a problem. It was absolutely not the face of someone pretending.

What on earth is this kid?

Se-young was thoroughly bewildered. She had never taught an eleven-year-old who had reached this age with absolutely no foundational knowledge.

Is his comprehension just incredibly fast because his brain is already fully developed for his age?

Assuming that for now, she pulled up sixth-grade problems on the screen.

"Alright, this unit is about dividing fractions, which requires an understanding of ratios. Looking at this problem, we need to use something called a proportion..."

The boy listened to her explanation, his round eyes sparkling. Se-young flinched slightly at an atmosphere so vastly different from other kids who looked like they were dying of boredom. Usually, students sat there because they were forced to by their parents, but this was her first time seeing a child like this. Well, she had heard rumors of kids who were obsessed with studying from a young age, but she had never actually met one.

"So, a proportion is..."

"Oh, do I just need to solve this problem?"

"Huh?"

Se-young quickly formulated how to explain this problem in her head. According to the textbook, since 3 + 5 = 8, you divide the total by 8, so 24 ÷ 8 = 3 is one unit. Then, solving it with equations, 3 × 3 = 9, and 5 × 3 = 15...

"Chul-su gets 9, and Yeong-hui gets 15, right?"

It was an impossibly fast mental calculation for a child his age. Se-young blinked and nodded.

"This is fun! Give me another one!"

"Ah, uh..."

The key topics in sixth-grade math were division of fractions and decimals, percentages, graphs, order of operations, proportions, and pi. This child grasped all of those concepts in just ten minutes.

The way Chul-jun studied math was entirely different from other children. While others acquired the concept first and then moved on to solving problems, this child extracted the concept from within the problems themselves.

Once they reached the sixth-grade curriculum, he barely even asked questions. He substituted everything he had learned so far into the new problems and found the answers on his own. In fact, Se-young was the one who wanted to ask him questions just to understand how his mind worked.

"Oh, 8 and 5."

"...How?"

"Is it wrong? I'm sure of it..."

"No, no. It's correct, but how did you get that?"

"If the difference is 3, then the larger number is 3 more than the smaller one. If you subtract 3 from 13 and divide it by two, you get 5. So the larger one is 8."

"..."

It went on like this.

And there was absolutely no need for repetition. Once he understood a concept, he didn't even want to look at problems with similar concepts. And then, he would ask again.

"Fifth-graders can all do this, right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah..."

That day, Se-young ended up advancing the curriculum all the way to third-year middle school concepts: square roots and real numbers, quadratic equations, advanced quadratic functions, and trigonometric ratios. She had no choice; they had too much time left over.

"Fifth-graders can solve all of these too, right?"

"W-well... actually, this is..."

When Se-young shook her head with a dazed expression, Chul-jun looked incredibly flustered.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Chul-jun found math to be incredibly fun.

It was a perfectly predictable world. A world with absolute answers.

The world he had lived in until now had always been uncertain. A place that was safe yesterday could be dangerous today, and he had twice experienced the sudden, complete disappearance of those he relied on most. Chul-jun's world had too many variables, and no correct answers.

But mathematics was different.

One plus one was two yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Under any circumstances, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠whether in China or in Korea, it was always two. There were rules, and those rules never betrayed him. There was no such thing as an unsolvable problem. Even if he got stuck, an answer always existed.

He loved that. For an eleven-year-old who had lost his father and ended up in an unfamiliar country, the fact that there was at least one absolute, certain thing in the universe brought him immense comfort.

Ah, this is so much fun.

He had gotten a bit too excited. Judging by his teacher's reaction, it seemed he had gone quite a bit ahead of average fifth-graders. Well, Uncle had told him to do his best at the things he truly enjoyed.

What other problems are out there?

Chul-jun quickly turned on his phone to search for more math problems. But the screen looked strange.

...Huh?

"Kiddo. Go to sleep early. No more phones at night from now on."

At Hyeong-man's low, rumbling voice, Chul-jun slumped his shoulders, his face a mask of utter despair.