Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Prodigy Selected for IMO
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The news of a child genius emerging always sparks a buzz.
Yoo Seo-ha's selection as Korea's IMO representative quickly spread like wildfire, gracing the front pages of major newspapers and portal sites.
Pour.
Steaming barley tea fills the cup.
Woo-hyun tried to recall the last time he'd had barley tea but drew a blank.
Slurp.
The nutty barley aroma soothes his mind.
"Thank you so much for looking after our Seo-ha, Teacher."
To Mi-young, Woo-hyun was a benefactor.
"No need. I did it because I wanted to."
Woo-hyun set down his cup and shook his head. Frequent visits to Okcheon had built a rapport with Seo-ha's parents. He appreciated the couple's simple sincerity.
'So many parents exploit their kids for gain.'
After the article came out, Woo-hyun had felt uneasy. He trusted the couple, but the world was full of bad actors.
"Still, Seo-ha got this far thanks to you. You told him what to study, sent books... Come to think of it, what you said a few years ago came true."
She hadn't fully believed he'd get a KAIST master's at 16.
She'd just figured a famous instructor knew better than they did. But as years passed, his words were proving true.
"I appreciate that, but I came today because I'm worried."
Woo-hyun's expression turned serious.
"Worried?"
"Several places must have already contacted you since the article."
"How did you know? Phones haven't stopped since yesterday..."
Her face darkened.
Mi-young found the overwhelming public attention burdensome compared to before.
"As expected."
Woo-hyun nodded calmly.
"We have no idea what's going on..."
It seemed they hadn't signed any contracts or had serious meetings yet. Woo-hyun breathed a sigh of relief.
"Who from?"
"A few educational companies, and even big corporations offering sponsorship."
"Educational companies?"
"Yeah. They make textbooks and offer lectures. They said they'd give Seo-ha free books and classes. Scholarships if results come in..."
Woo-hyun's brow furrowed, his eyes sharpening.
"Those shameless thugs without an ounce of business ethics!"
"Pardon?"
Mi-young flinched at Woo-hyun's uncharacteristic roughness.
"Sorry. Got emotional."
Woo-hyun composed himself.
"It's common in the industry. They want to claim credit for Seo-ha's future successes. 'The student who took our lectures and used our textbooks won IMO gold.' That's their pitch."
And they weren't even paying properly—truly shady operators.
"Oh no, I had no idea. Thanks for telling me."
"Big corporations are no different. The bigger they are, the less they do losing deals. It'll become shackles when Seo-ha grows."
Mi-young nodded at Woo-hyun's words.
"So, just keep going as we are?"
"Exactly. For a genius like Seo-ha, the key is a free environment without interference."
During their talk, Seo-eun sneaked up behind her mom and peeked out.
She shouted at Woo-hyun.
"Ah! Scary teacher!"
Woo-hyun gave a wry smile.
Being Seo-ha's little sister, he'd been curious and given her a simple test.
But wow!
Astonishing memory and mental math skills.
When she wanted to learn number crunching, it turned out to be prime factorization.
Tempted, he'd taught her a bit, but she somehow caught on and fled in terror.
Since then, Seo-eun kept her distance from Woo-hyun like a wary cat.
'Did Seo-ha teach her?'
What was he planning to raise his sister into?
Woo-hyun grew curious.
Winter passes, spring flits by.
Seo-ha has now become a sixth-grader.
And now it's already May, the season where early summer heat starts to linger.
Quite a few changes had come to Seo-ha in the meantime.
For one, he'd grown taller.
His old clothes no longer fit.
But the biggest change was in his mind.
Seo-ha sat at his desk, scribbling in his notebook. Unlike usual, it was filled not with equations but words.
"What are you writing?"
At Mi-young's question, Seo-ha closed the notebook.
"A diary."
But it wasn't a diary.
Deeply immersed in math, Seo-ha realized he couldn't fully eliminate his obsession. So he sought a way to live with it.
He didn't despair. Instead, he took a scientific approach.
A narrative therapy technique from a psychology book: externalization, separating the problem from himself.
'Treat the obsession not as an enemy, but a roommate.'
First, he gave it a name.
'Ducky.'
Bound to be a nasty temperament, so he named it after the grumpiest duck.
Ducky loves perfect patterns and beautiful symmetry, obsessively cataloging the world in numbers.
Seo-ha allocated fixed daily time entirely to Ducky.
Time for full immersion in whatever Ducky wanted.
Outside that, he'd negotiate: 'Not your time now!'
Treated this way, Ducky was no longer just a nuisance.
Having Ducky double-check math was a delight.
When writing answers, Ducky's meticulousness shone—filling in even the details Seo-ha habitually skipped.
Tap tap.
Opening his closet, Seo-ha paused at the pencil-top duck eraser.
"You'll understand, right?"
The duck didn't reply, but Seo-ha felt answered.
He picked a black windbreaker over plaid.
A wave of aversion hit.
"Ducky, we're compromising bit by bit."
Seo-ha gritted his teeth, pulled it on.
Bearable. Even felt okay.
Ducky was fickle.
Some days accommodating, others resistant.
But they shared a love: math.
[Algebraic Topology]
Complex structures of homotopy, homology theory.
[Hₙ₊₁(X,A) → Hₙ(A) → Hₙ(X) → Hₙ(X,A) → Hₙ₋₁(A)…]
"Ducky, let's check this sequence together."
Ducky's obsessive precision shone, verifying arrows and conditions in the diagram instantly.
Seo-ha was sure Ducky loved precise sequences as much as he did.
Not every day was smooth.
Some days Ducky insisted on checking every countable interval of an infinite series.
"That's endless. Let's wrap it up."
Ducky quieted.
He'd worried, but it was a huge success.
Seo-ha closed his book, gazing at Ramanujan's theta function.
An infinitely extending beautiful matrix.
Perfect, beautiful, above all predictable.
Peace settled in his heart.
'No problem is unsolvable.'
François Viète's words held no flaw.
Time flies like an arrow, and departure day arrived.
For his first trip abroad ever, Seo-ha tossed and turned all night from nerves.
"Seo-ha, passport's safe in the bag?"
Mi-young, anxious about sending her son overseas, checked his luggage repeatedly.
"Yes, Mom! Don't worry."
The departure lobby buzzed with travelers, families seeing them off, and reporters.
"Yoo Seo-ha! Over here!"
Flash!
Last year there'd been none, but this year, his elementary IMO contestant status drew media crews.
"Nervous?"
"What's your goal?"
"Never had private tutoring?"
As questions poured in and Seo-ha faltered, the supervisor stepped forward.
"Sorry, but he's still young. Keep it brief."
"Yes, Professor."
A reporter thrust the mic at Seo-ha.
"Yoo Seo-ha! Heard no tutoring—what's your secret to math genius?"
Seo-ha pondered, then smiled innocently.
"I just love math.
Oh! Actually, there's a teacher who's sent me books since I was little and given advice."
"Who is it?"
"I'd love to say, but he told me not to. Said to reveal it when I achieve something historic in math..."
"Haha! What a character. Hope it happens."
The reporter laughed, taking it as a joke.
Professor Park checked his watch and cut in.
"Let's head over."
A short walk revealed familiar faces.
Soo-jung with her parents. Sung Ji-hoon in an ill-fitting suit, Go Chang-seok as usual, chatting with families.
Then Ji-ye appeared, flashy like fresh from the salon.
And Dohyun with a determined look.
With all six representatives gathered, the mood relaxed.
Seo-ha crouched to meet the now-taller Seo-eun's eyes.
"No more tears? Bro's heading out."
Seo-eun had cried all day hearing her brother was leaving far away.
But promised a gold medal around her neck, she held back sobs.
"Yeah! No crying. But come back soon? And don't forget my gold medal?"
Seo-ha hugged her small frame, patting her back.
'It was a long road.'
Six years to this point.
He knew rationally it was necessary.
But Seo-ha yearned to tackle the world's towering unsolved problems over contest puzzles.
'Just a few more days.'
The Olympiad, pitting 660 math prodigies from 110 countries, was about to begin.