Burden of Proof
"Nami, this might be a bit sudden, but since we've become family like this, it's fate... Nice to meet you again."
Se-min awkwardly extended his right hand toward me.
"Must've been quite the show for you, huh? Enjoying a full drama from those prime seats."
"It wasn't on purpose...! What was I supposed to do in that situation?!"
"That's your take, Se-min oppa. Or should I say Se-min-ssi?"
"Hey, that's cold...! You started calling me oppa, might as well stick with it."
I wished Korea had a culture of calling each other by name. Good customs should be adopted from anywhere.
"We'll see. But aren't you busy? Isn't it exam season?"
"Exam season or not, when isn't it? Wait... are you kicking me out?"
"Your instincts aren't completely off."
"We've only met in VR before—this is our first face-to-face, and you're already this harsh, Nami?"
"Still, I'm grateful you submitted the re-investigation request for me. Looks like your offer to help wasn't just empty words."
My head throbbed. I grabbed some ice from the freezer, wrapped it tightly in a plastic bag, and pressed it to my forehead. The chill spreading through my scalp felt wonderful.
Diagnosis
"What're you doing?"
"Checking my cortisol levels."
"You know what cortisol is? Wow... you really know everything, don't you?"
"Not everything. Just what I know."
Levels were normal enough. I could chalk up that crying fit earlier to my body resetting to baseline.
"So, where'd Professor Cheon go?"
While I'd stepped away to wash my face, he'd chatted with Se-min and rushed out the door.
"Probably to see my dad."
"Why would Professor Cheon meet your father?"
"Well... my dad was the prosecutor in charge of the Walpurgis case..."
What? Excitement overrode my thoughts—my hand shot out before my brain caught up. Suddenly, I had the young man by the collar, yelling.
"Why tell me now?! Ha, so the villain was right here... No wonder it's always darkest under the lamp."
This was straight out of those debutante novels from my past life: I Married the Enemy's Son. But what could I do? I was ready to kill the parents of the man who saved me if it came to it.
"Misunderstanding! My dad was handling a case in Jeju back then? He was stationed at the Jeju District Prosecutors' Office from the start..."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah, he was the deputy chief prosecutor there... Look it up."
I gently released his collar. His shirt was wrinkled, so I smoothed it out with a touch of aura.
"...I'll let you live."
"Whoa, totally shameless...! Anyway, since it was a nationwide incident, he's probably checking with my dad, now the Seoul Central District Prosecutor."
"Prosecutor... and Seoul Central at that? Can't exactly rule out any connection then."
"Can you stop painting my dad as the villain...? I hate him human-to-human too, but I think he's at least moral and upright."
I'd overheard him on the phone with Professor Cheon. His voice carried from the elevator through the front door. I considered sharpening my ears with aura but decided against it. He had his reasons.
"..."
"..."
We just stared blankly at each other in awkward silence.
"If you've seen enough, time to go."
"That's too much. Your dad called me mid-PK—polyklinik—and I bolted out."
PK? Not penalty kick in context... though even that would be bad.
"Whatever it was, was that okay?"
"Of course not. So hang out with me a bit. Big Uncle asked me to watch you."
Makes sense—he wouldn't leave without worrying. Must've begged Se-min to keep an eye on me, dragging this out.
"Fine, then help me film a video."
"What video? Oh, the one to expose at the tournament?"
"Yeah. So get off your butt!"
I yanked Se-min's arm, pulling him up, then pointed to the camera on the high shelf. "Grab that." No need to waste aura on it—child labor.
While I checked if the camera powered on, Se-min sat on the sofa, scanning me like a specimen.
"Nami."
"What now? Stop being annoying."
"Just watching you is fascinating. You think of yourself as a genius, right?"
"My mind's just mature."
"Really? Doesn't seem like it..."
"Then figure out the mana potion side effects or whatever."
"That'd be academic news gold. How's the academy? Seen other geniuses like you?"
"Why?"
"A cute junior I knew from high school vice pres asked me the same. Got curious."
"You were in student council?"
"I was student council president back in the day."
"Whoa... the school's standards must be..."
My hands paused on the camera setup. If anyone ever asked if I'd met a genius, I'd say yes without hesitation. Maria Euphrasia Terarubi. Black Tower's tower master. The empire's top talent in Kaizen Empire, mastering not just foundational magic but economics, politics, statistics, astronomy, logic, algebra, physics, medicine. Not like a blue lizard hoarding centuries of trivia. Her human mind built an ivory tower of knowledge in just fifty years—untouchable.
Try challenging her with shallow past-life scraps like relativity or quantum mechanics, and she'd say, "Heard some academy kid brags about his memory." Modern genius myths crumble fast. "It's you, idiot?" God balanced it with a shattered personality and alcoholism. And she was the one person I admired most.
"Not at the academy now. Maybe one among people I know. Here."
I handed Se-min the camera, cutting the chit-chat.
Click.
"Don't take pics... Wait, actually, take some to check the framing. See how I look."
Click. Click-click-click-click.
"You actually filming right?"
"Ah! My camera!"
I reviewed the shots. Amid normal ones, a extreme close-up of my nostrils filled the screen. Deleted.
"No messing around—do it properly. I'm serious."
"Got it! But what about lines? Got any planned?"
"Thinking now. Give me ideas."
I was never good with words. Misunderstandings from talking, or silence causing issues. Crafting transmutation circles from math formulas was talent; so was weaving language to sway crowds. With flair, I'd have been Hitler in my past life. Same beaten end, though.
"I'm STEM too—writing's not my thing."
"Not helpful at all."
"Hearing that from a seven-year-old stings, oppa's heart..."
"Won't call you oppa even if you poke. The start's what matters."
Good beginnings salvage bad endings. For an interview, what would viewers see first in a prepped clip? And think of me first? Amazement? What exactly? Not zoo giraffe vibes. Denial? Even at fourteen, skeptics abound—would "same avatar" convince masses? Instinct denies the unnatural.
Key: Mirror my usual self perfectly in reality.
"What was your first impression of me?"
I asked Se-min—the most objective viewer. Professor Cheon was biased.
"Wanted to hunt you down?"
"...Not in LoL. When you learned I was seven."
"Thought someone was scamming me. Only believed after checking your name at the orphanage."
"Yeah, that's the vibe everyone gets."
Absurd story: Survived seven years in a capsule from birth.
"Appeal to emotion's always worked since ancient times. Like with Big Uncle today."
"..."
"Ah, sorry...! Don't wanna cry? Hmm."
Cry again? No way—not unless I saw Seola.
"Living room's weird anyway—film in your room? More natural."
"What's the difference... Fine."
I led him to my room. Desk a mess of paper wads—enough floor space, though.
"What's all this? Numbers?"
Se-min pointed to yellow Post-its.
"This? 1049 and 1051. What's common?"
"Hmm... Both primes."
Spot on.
"Right. Primes differing by 2 are twin primes."
I loved math/physics naming: 2 apart twin, 4 cousin, 6 sexy.
"No... that's not it."
Se-min backed away.
"Can't scribble on walls—Post-its."
I slowly spun, taking in the wall.
"This whole wall... what's it say?"
"Proof that there are infinitely many twin primes."
"You learned online?"
"Why solve a proven one?"
Math's puzzles. Thrill of first 1000-piece jigsaw fades on repeats.
"Unsolved, so I did."
Silence hit. Se-min deep-breathed, knelt to my eye level.
"Nami... I just realized something huge."
His intense face pushed me back.
"Wh-what?"
"No need to convince the public. Just show you're Korea's one-of-a-kind treasure."
"Treasure...? What?"
Se-min grinned mysteriously, arms skyward.
"Make 'em unable to resist protecting you—they'll prove it themselves."
"Middle school syndrome much? Eat something bad?"
He whispered his plan.
"What do you think? Good, right?"
"Did you eat something bad?"