The Infinite Return
"Hey. That Pyo guy, he went to the PC bang today too, right?"
Do Seon-ju quickly nodded at Cha Seon-hyeok's question.
"Yes! He texted me."
"Whew... Keep your wits about you. We can absolutely never let Cheol-jun meet those philosophy kids. Got it?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Those guys are masters at bewitching people with their words."
"I know."
"Especially a kid with an insanely high IQ like Cheol-jun—if he starts talking to them? He'll get hooked instantly."
"Oh, come on. Our Cheol-jun is incredibly smart, though..."
Cha Seon-hyeok quickly shook his head.
"It's precisely because he's smart that he's more vulnerable! He's starving for fundamental questions. Those guys are bastards who can buy and sell the universe without using a single mathematical formula. The moment Cheol-jun asks, 'Why?' it's game over. You fell for it too. You drank with that Pyo guy a couple of times and almost jumped ship to the philosophy department yourself."
"Aaaah! Please, not my dark past..."
"Anyway, that's the department we need to be most wary of. Got it? If he's sitting there again next time, do whatever it takes to ease his mind and send him off to the PC bang like we did this time. Apparently, puberty hits in the fifth grade these days. If he gets swayed by those swindlers during that turbulent phase of storm and stress, there's no turning back! Keep that in mind!"
"Yes, sir!"
Do Seon-ju answered with military precision, but Cha Seon-hyeok's eyes were filled with anxiety.
Surviving four years in that philosophy department was impressive enough, but the people who went on to grad school and were pursuing their doctorates were truly masters of logical eloquence.
Naturally, the professors were on a level of near-madness.
They knew how to establish authority with the word 'essence,' cloud one's vision with grand discourses, and naturally absorb an opponent's logic only to throw it back at them twofold. They were all gathered there.
In other words, they were masters of gaslighting, doing it naturally and instinctively without even intending to.
Cha Seon-hyeok had fallen victim to it once himself.
He had merely dipped his toes into philosophy as a general education course, only to lose an entire year as if bewitched by a cult.
The reason Cheol-jun visited Seohan University had to be, without exception, the astronomy department.
If he ever wandered over to the College of Humanities, the astronomy department might just be blown to smithereens by the dean's own hands.
This was a matter of life and death, of pure survival.
"I'm counting on you! Do Seon-ju!"
"Yes, Professor!"
Cha Seon-hyeok gnashed his teeth.
Philosophy had to be blocked at all costs.
With just a few words, they would scramble your mind, coaxing you to realize on your own that a wider ocean lay beyond the fortress walls you had so sturdily built with logic, until you had no choice but to open the gates with your own hands and walk out.
A discipline that was the ultimate form of evil hypnosis, wrapped in the sweet packaging of 'truth.'
They were a breed that must never, under any circumstances, cross paths with Cheol-jun.
For Cheol-jun, though exceptionally brilliant in mathematical knowledge, was still an innocent child who knew little of the world's truths.
Now that they had stretched out their evil clutches, he had to keep his wits about him.
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Min Chan-woo hesitated for a moment.
He could easily show the kid how famous he was just by pulling up a few YouTube videos on his phone.
But that felt incredibly pathetic.
It was one thing for the kid not to recognize his face, but trying that hard with a child who didn't even know his songs felt too miserable, too desperate.
Has this kid never experienced any culture at all?
So, though his pride was deeply wounded, he forced a smile and changed the subject.
"...Haha. Right. Are you having fun playing in the water?"
"Yes!"
"You seem to play well by yourself."
"Hehe."
The kid was so bright and innocent.
Smiling so warmly.
He was so incredibly cute that Chan-woo found himself wishing he had a younger brother just like him.
Suddenly, he grew curious about what went on inside a child's head at that age.
What kind of thoughts made him giggle and laugh so joyfully?
"By the way, what were you thinking about that made it so fun?"
The child's eyes went wide and round.
"Wow! You're the first person to ever ask me that!"
"...Huh?"
"People don't really ask me questions unless I talk first! Oh, wait. They do ask me things, but I think you're the first person to ask me what I'm thinking!"
"Ah... Really?"
Suddenly, he thought of the uncle from earlier.
He looked really scary...
Was he incredibly blunt?
He had seemed affectionate enough at a glance, but perhaps he wasn't the type to tenderly ask a child about his inner thoughts.
"Um... Should I call you hyung? Or uncle?"
Min Chan-woo didn't particularly want to be lumped into the same category as that middle-aged man.
"I think 'hyung' would be better."
"Wow! I like that too!"
As Min Chan-woo watched him with a warm smile, the boy spoke up with an excited face.
"But can I answer now?"
"Huh?"
"What you asked earlier!"
He had only asked to be polite, but seeing the kid look so incredibly thrilled and eager to answer was adorable.
Did he just need someone to talk to?
At any rate, he really wasn't shy around strangers.
That was a relief.
It was much better than an awkward silence.
"Yeah, sure. What were you thinking about while playing?"
The child smiled brightly.
"Hehe. Well, you see..."
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Min Chan-woo's eyes widened to their absolute limit.
"So, about the ocean... I think it dies a little bit every day and is born again."
"...What?"
Min Chan-woo's mouth hung slightly open.
Profound words, completely unimaginable coming from an elementary schooler, were pouring out of the child.
The boy gazed quietly at the horizon as he continued.
"The ocean water evaporates from the heat of the sun, right? It rises into the sky to become clouds, falls as rain, and flows back into the ocean through the rivers. The water droplets flowing through my body right now have actually existed for hundreds of millions of years. Maybe they were once pieces of a star that exploded and scattered a long, long time ago."
"..."
"That's probably why the ocean never gets old and always feels brand new. Because it keeps changing and flowing, and in the end, it always returns to the ocean. Everything changing is differentiation, but when you add it all up, it becomes a giant integration, remaining forever."
Min Chan-woo swallowed hard.
What exactly were differentiation and integration again? I know they're math terms, but...
Hearing words like 'differentiation' and 'integration' from that tiny mouth was surprising enough, but what shocked him even more was the weight of the meaning those words carried.
It was as if a fifth-grader were discussing philosophy.
As if spellbound, Min Chan-woo began to hang on the child's every word.
"Since you've buried your feet in the sand here, Hyung, you've become one with the ocean too. This sand is both a memory and a part of the ocean!"
The child smiled warmly and spoke again.
"I looked at the sky earlier, and I couldn't see a single star because of the blue sky, right? But they're definitely still there. They haven't vanished; they're just hidden by a light that's too bright. Isn't it so cool that just because we can't see something, it doesn't mean it's gone? I think the ocean is like that too. It feels like there should be an end beyond that horizon, but actually, the Earth curves itself into a sphere, so it just spins around and comes right back to me. Since the beginning and the end meet, you could say that infinity isn't about constantly moving forward, but rather a state of constantly returning to yourself."
"..."
"The ocean doesn't need to count numbers. Every time a wave comes, it wipes the sandy beach back to zero and starts over. Zero repeats infinitely, but it's not boring because every single time is the first time! It must have been like this billions of years ago, too. I wondered if the reason the ocean doesn't age is because it differentiates itself at every single moment, living only in the instant!"
"..."
"Even in a single tiny bubble, all the saltiness and temperature of the ocean are contained. The laws of the universe are so vast that they're invisible, and they're full of things humans can't dare to fathom, but they're actually hidden inside these tiny fragments too. Since the whole is contained within the part, in a way, I am the ocean, and you are the ocean too, Hyung. If we're made of atoms that came from stars, then we must have been connected since a long, long time ago, right?"
Min Chan-woo's mouth fell open even wider.
He forgot to reply, forgot to even make a sound.
"That's why even though this is my first time here, it doesn't feel unfamiliar at all. It feels like being held in the arms of a friend I've known for a very long time. That's why it's so fun! The feeling of already being inside the right answer without even having to calculate it? You should come into the ocean too, Hyung! Or, since your feet are touching the sand, are you already a part of the ocean?"
"..."
The child smiled brightly, his face thickly smeared with sunscreen.
"Wow! Now that I've said it out loud and laid it all out, I think my thoughts are finally sorting themselves out! This is really different from math. I'm glad you asked, Hyung! It helped me organize things a bit before they got all jumbled up! Thank you so much!"
Min Chan-woo's pupils shook violently.
This kid... What on earth is he?
The afternoon sun was behind Min Chan-woo's back.
And just a moment ago, a cloud had blocked the sun, casting a shadow.
But as the cloud drifted away, the boundary of the sunlight began to creep back toward them.
As the slowly moving sunlight finally illuminated the boy head-on, perhaps because of the white sunscreen, his face and entire body seemed to radiate a brilliant glow.
Was it because the words pouring from that tiny mouth were so surreal?
It felt as if all the light in the world was shining solely upon this small child.
A feeling as if he were facing a deity.
It was as if he had been hypnotized.
At this moment, Min Chan-woo felt like falling to his knees before the child.
"Ah, it's hot! I'm going to go play a bit more!"
Staring blankly at the back of the child running toward the sea after pouring out such monumental words, Min Chan-woo shook his head vigorously.
Only after shaking it for a long while did he finally snap back to reality.
His throat was incredibly parched.
He quickly opened the cooler, pulled out a beer, and began to chug it down.
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"Haha. Nice car. It's like a tank."
"It's a company car."
"Is it really okay to just drive a corporate car around like this?"
"We're out to get some fresh air because one of our artists is dealing with depression and a slump. Why not?"
"He looked fine to me."
"On the outside, yeah. That's why it's even more heartbreaking. You don't know what it feels like when a talent you used to have suddenly stops working, do you, Oppa? I've seen so many kids break down like that. But imagine how it is for Chan-woo. It wasn't just any talent; it was a talent hailed as a once-in-a-lifetime genius. And now, it's broken."
Yeon-mi gazed quietly out the window.
Having watched him since his childhood, when he used to sing so confidently with that bright face, made her heart ache all the more.
"I'm just so grateful he isn't talking about ending his life..."
"Sigh..."
"Anyway, the timing was perfect. Dragging him out like this at least makes him act like a human being."
"Haha. Why won't you let him drink, though? He's not driving, so what's wrong with a nice, cold beer?"
"He's a total lightweight."
"A lightweight?"
"Someone who can't hold their liquor."
"Hmm?"
"Two large cans of beer and he's completely wasted."
"Haha."
"By the third can, he passes out."
"Well, that can happen when you drink."
"His drinking habits are just..."
"Hmm?"
"Sobbing, lamenting his life, singing... Anyway, it's a bit much."
"Haha. I'd love to see that. The famous singer Rian throwing a drunken fit. I've seen plenty of washed-up Hallyu stars throw drunken tantrums, though."
Yeon-mi glared at Hyeong-man, wrinkling her nose slightly.
"Are you talking about me?"
"Haha."
"Give him a few drinks around bedtime later if you want to see it that badly."
"Should I? Oh, look, we're here."
The white Rolls-Royce slid smoothly into the raw fish restaurant's parking lot.
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"Thaaat's whyyy... I can... sing... reaaally well toooo..."
Cheol-jun blinked his round eyes, then reached out his tiny hand to gently pat the back of the hyung he had met for the first time today.
He couldn't quite understand the slurred words, but he knew exactly what they meant.
Because the man had already repeated the same thing several times.
To sum it up, this hyung desperately wanted to sing well, but it wasn't working out.
Is he like Arin? A trainee?
At any rate, seeing a hyung who was much older than him sobbing while completely drunk made it hard to just leave him alone.
He felt a bit of regret because he wanted to play in the ocean a little longer before the sun dipped below the ridge.
Well, there was always tomorrow.
"I'm... Riannn!"
"Yes, I know! Rian Hyung! Your name is really unique and pretty!"
"Cloud... Walkkk!"
"The song title is really pretty too! I was thinking a lot while looking at the clouds earlier, but I couldn't have ever come up with a phrase like that!"
"Ughhh, sob!"
Pat, pat.
Cheol-jun let out a soft sigh, pulled out a wet wipe, and wiped the runny nose of the crying hyung.
The man's head was bowed low, and with tears and snot dripping down, the sand beneath him was already quite damp.
Wow, this hyung's sadness and pain will be preserved in the ocean's memory too. That's actually kind of beautiful!
"Snort!"
"There, one more time."
"Sniffle!"
Stroke, stroke.
"You'll do great, Hyung. Come on, fighting!"
"Figh-tiiing..."
Then, suddenly—
Smack!
Cheol-jun quickly looked up and blinked his round eyes.
Smack! Smack!
Aunt Yeon-mi was mercilessly slapping the hyung's back.
It was truly brutal.
"Are you out of your mind? Throwing a drunken fit to an elementary schooler..."
Quickly reading the room, Cheol-jun stood up and began to sneak backward.
"I swear, you'll be the death of me! I told you not to drink!"
Smack!
Cheol-jun quickly turned around and dashed toward the ocean.
There was still a bit of sunlight left.
He could play a little longer.
A broad grin spread across his face.
Smack!
"Get a grip, will you?!"
The frequency of Aunt Yeon-mi's voice echoing behind him was quite high.
They did say she used to be a singer...