Chapter 18
Chapter 18
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: The Allure of Geometry
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Seo-ha followed behind Soo-jung.
After leaving the cafeteria and rounding half the building, a vending machine for drinks came into view.
Soo-jung stopped there.
"What drink do you want?"
"Cola."
Clunk.
Soo-jung pulled out a cola and pressed the button for coffee for herself.
Click.
Seo-ha, unaware of the full situation, found the moment awkward. He felt a bit glad that she'd gotten angry on his account.
Misreading his stiff expression, Soo-jung smiled softly.
"Don't hate them too much. They're not really bad kids."
She sipped her coffee awkwardly, as if embarrassed by her own defense.
"Huh?"
"Min-ho, you know, the tall one! He used to be really kind. I've known him since fifth grade. Lots of kids struggled to adjust when they first came to the Gifted Academy, and Min-ho helped a ton of them out back then."
"He looked kinda scary..."
Soo-jung shook her head and spoke quietly.
"He's just anxious."
"About what?"
"Kids at the Gifted Academy have heard they're special since they were little. Same for me. But then they realize they're not? It's hard to accept. Min-ho's probably under pressure to achieve something big before he gets older. Sung-chan next to him too."
What if Min-ho had never come to the Gifted Academy?
Soo-jung had seen so many kids crumble under that burden and pressure.
"Were you like that too, noona?"
At Seo-ha's question, Soo-jung's eyes widened in surprise, and she pointed at herself with her index finger.
"Me? No way. I've never doubted myself once. Not until I met you."
"What did I do..."
"It's just a thing. I kinda get those kids.
You're not even from the Gifted Academy, and you're way younger than them, but you're getting all this attention now.
Seo-ha, you're pretty famous? Pretty sure everyone around here knows you by now. Meeting you woke me right up. Made me think I can't slack off."
Seo-ha listened quietly, but one thing still eluded him.
"Where does that sense of being special even come from?"
"Huh?"
What were these people so obsessed with?
"Does someone else calling you special actually make you special? From what I know, none of the truly exceptional people from history acted like that, so I was curious."
Soo-jung stared at Seo-ha with a blank look.
She'd never thought about it before.
'Specialness isn't completed by someone else's recognition?'
Soo-jung realized the premise she'd held—that recognition was a necessary condition for specialness—was wrong. Praise should come as a result, not a pursuit. Chasing fame alone might lead straight to ruin.
But humans aren't that strong. That's why they crave validation in advance, using it as fuel to push forward.
'Like being in debt.'
Soon, those around them would demand repayment for the recognition they'd given. Your turn now—show us that specialness.
Seo-ha turned and walked away.
Soo-jung wanted to follow, but her feet felt rooted in place.
The second period began.
Problems on algebra, calculus, and geometry.
'This geometry one's pretty fun.'
Seo-ha breezed through the first two problems and smiled at the last one, number six.
It was engaging—something to really think about.
Scratch scratch.
Seo-ha twirled his pencil and filled in the answer sheet.
A coordinate plane was already unfolding in his mind.
'A reflection angle problem.'
Three points scattered obliquely on the circumcircle. And the depth H, slightly offset from the center.
Seo-ha saw what others couldn't.
'The position vector of the depth is the sum of the three vertices' position vectors.'
A circle with OH as diameter drew itself in his mind.
Seo-ha's eyes lit up. The corner of his mouth twitched upward.
'If I set the coordinate system at the circumcenter...'
The symmetry of the triangle formed by the intersection points.
All distances from the circumcenter to each intersection equal, and their beautiful relation to the original triangle's pedal triangle—the one formed by the feet of the perpendiculars from a given point to the sides.
A seemingly simple figure hid a wealth of geometric structure.
The problem setter must have been captivated by this elegant symmetry of the reflection transformation.
'Hm?'
Mid-answer, Seo-ha sensed an odd presence.
Drip drip.
Goosebumps prickled his arm. He slowly glanced sideways, just his eyes.
And froze in shock.
"That's right. Exactly!"
The female proctor stood behind him, peering at his answer.
Whispering approvals too soft to hear. She probably didn't even realize she was making sounds.
When Seo-ha turned to meet her eyes, she flinched in surprise.
"Ahem... ahem."
Even after returning to the podium, her suspicious behavior continued.
Pretending to pass by while staring at Seo-ha's sheet, or glancing his way every few moments from afar.
She prowled like a dog desperate for the bathroom.
The assistant behind her mouthed please stop over and over, calming the professor down.
Beeeep—
While Seo-ha watched them, second period ended.
The professor hurried to the podium and switched to a stern face.
"Time's up. Hand in your answer sheets. Results will be notified within two weeks."
Before the students left, Professor Kim Ji-yoon glanced at Seo-ha.
A few days ago, the news from her TA had been a total shock.
"Professor, a student made a Latin square out of the first exam answers!"
"What?"
Professor Kim had shot up from her seat.
But when she learned it was an elementary kid, she was floored.
Even prodigies need time to mature, yet Yoo Seo-ha seemed exempt from that rule.
Then she snapped out of it.
'There's Eliya Kronen, after all.'
Exceptional beings, like gifts from the gods for humanity, had always existed across East and West, ancient and modern. If she was the one to discover such luck?
She checked with the math society: he'd swept grand prizes in every competition he'd entered. In the high school division, no less.
Professor Kim Ji-yoon made up her mind. She would secure Yoo Seo-ha for the math world, no matter what.
And she'd hastily revised the problem.
It was tough, but solving it would immerse you in the mystical beauty of geometric forms.
'Not this time.'
Korea's math scene was dismal.
Talented kids all flocked to med school or engineering. Math majors—the root of the sciences—could be counted on one hand, and most of those went on to med grad school, double-majored into business, or jumped to corporations after graduation.
There was a fundamental reason.
Korean society didn't value mathematicians.
How did France, once mediocre in Olympiads, become a math powerhouse?
By respecting mathematicians.
They acknowledged the endless journey toward the unknown, the agony of striving for truth.
'Such a beautiful field.'
Professor Kim couldn't understand.
If she were a brilliant student, she'd never abandon the pure intellectual thrill of probing the universe's laws and approaching absolute truth.
But this time, she was confident.
Yoo Seo-ha had deliberately gotten one wrong to form the Latin square she'd intended.
This meant he instinctively grasped mathematical aesthetics.
What would become of talent like that at his age?
Math had been led by the US and China for decades.
Ji-yoon lamented Korea's math world reduced to analyzing their research as subcontractors.
'If Korea had someone like Eliya Kronen...'
This wasn't the first time she'd thought it.
Throughout first period, she'd successfully suppressed her urge to talk to that kid.
But seeing the answer sheet he turned in before lunch snapped her patience.
A perfect proof.
Every concise line struck at her heart.
If she could snag Yoo Seo-ha, it'd more than make up for all the talents Korean math had lost.
This field thrived on one true genius leading the entire discipline anyway.
But...
'How do I do it?'
Ji-yoon had never tried convincing a student before.
There'd never been one worth keeping.
Seo-ha grabbed his bag and left the lecture hall.
"Park!"
Ji-yoon called her TA's name out of habit.
Wasn't a TA there to handle the professor's troubles?
"Yes, Professor!"
The TA rushed over.
"Go catch that kid right now."
"Huh? Catch him? Then what?"
Ji-yoon panicked.
She had to tell him to come to the math department, but even she knew the perks she could offer fell short.
"No, scratch that. Go to my office and grab anything good for souvenirs. Got it?"
Professor Kim Ji-yoon threw on her coat, snatched her car keys, and dashed out.
The TA watched her go, eyes welling up.
"Sigh, Professor. You've never done this for me."
But seeing the answer sheet that kid wrote stole his breath. Even as a PhD candidate, he wasn't sure he could've done better.
Swallowing tears, the TA started brainstorming gifts an elementary kid might like.
Seo-ha walked across campus.
'What a great problem.'
The thrill from solving number six still lingered in his mind.
Hoooonk—
A horn blared from behind. Seo-ha startled and stepped aside. But the car slowed, pulling up beside him, and the window rolled down.
Vrrrrm—
"Oh? It's the kid from the test? I'm heading out anyway—want a ride home?"
Seo-ha's eyes narrowed.
The one whose behavior had been weird during the test.
"Mom says I can't get in cars with strangers."
Caught off guard, Professor Kim stammered.
"Oh? R-right! Yeah, that's fair for a first meeting."
"Dad's coming soon anyway."
"W-wait! Let me be straight. Can you give your teacher five minutes?"
"Huh?"
"Just five minutes. I made that last problem in second period. Anything you were curious about?"
Seo-ha pondered.
He did want to talk to the person who'd set that problem.
"Sure! Sounds good."
"Hang on a sec!"
Professor Kim's face lit up.
She quickly parked nearby and returned, sitting on a bench with Seo-ha.
"Sorry for the late intro. I'm Kim Ji-yoon, professor of Computational Mathematics. I had to snag you because your math talent doesn't look ordinary to me."
"Thank you."
"You've heard that a lot, huh?"
"Teacher Shin Woo-hyun and Professor Edward Han mentioned it before."
"Senior Han? You met him? What'd he say? Trying to whisk you off to the US long-term? He already poached a promising undergrad before—now this?"
Professor Kim fired off questions like a storm at Edward's name.
"N-no. He did say coming to the US would be good, but I want to stay with my family. He came because of the paper we're working on together."
"A paper? Hah! I nearly lost you right under my nose."
"Huh?"
"Never mind! Seo-ha, you seem to have studied math pretty deeply. Why's that?"
She'd thought she was the first to spot him. Nope.
"Uh... um..."
The simple question stumped him surprisingly. Finally, Seo-ha spoke.
"Because the world is made of math?"
Ji-yoon's eyes widened.
'Oh my god!'
An answer that hit perfectly.
Fanfare blared in Ji-yoon's head.
"Know the etymology of 'mathematics'?"
She figured he wouldn't, but...
"Mathematikoi."
"Right. The Pythagorean school's name.
Pythagoras was a devotee of the divine. Half priest, you could say. Ancient times, so not our modern god, of course."
Ji-yoon watched Seo-ha's reaction as she continued.
"Pythagoras believed, like you said, that the world was made of numbers. Studying math was approaching divine providence."
"I've loved that part since I was little."
Seo-ha's response made Ji-yoon beam.
"Right? It's like you were born to be a mathematician. Never lose that feeling, okay?"
It was needless worry.
No one disinterested in math would have that insight.
Confidence swelled that med or engineering schools wouldn't steal him away. Relief washed over her.
"Yeah! I want to keep studying math. The world's full of mysteries humans haven't unraveled yet."
"You get it! Why doesn't everyone see that math is the only path to truth?"
Seo-ha glanced toward the school gate.
A man who looked like his dad waved from afar.
"I should head out."
"One last thing."
Ji-yoon had to ask this.
"Sure."
"Why'd you get number 25 wrong on the first exam?"
Seo-ha turned to her in surprise.
Then he smiled brightly, as if he'd known.
"I thought that's what the setter wanted."
As if they'd bonded, Seo-ha waved cutely and walked off.
Ji-yoon stood dazed, watching him go.