Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: The Prodigy's Playground
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-By performance, you mean competitions, right?
“Of course.”
-Isn’t it a bit early for a first-grader to enter competitions? I don’t even know where to send him.
“I can only answer that once I’ve accurately assessed the child’s capabilities.”
-Hmm...
“Why? Not sold on it?”
-Seo-ha. Ah, that’s the kid’s name. Their family looks so harmonious. I couldn’t help worrying if I’d be stirring up trouble in a happy home. If we just leave him be, won’t he keep living happily like this?
“Maybe. But the price of that choice would be losing any chance at a future Fields Medalist or Nobel winner.”
Honestly, Woo-hyun’s take that simply leaving things as they were might bring more happiness wasn’t wrong at all. Even if the kid shone now, there was no guarantee of future success.
Woo-hyun couldn’t even imagine how grueling and agonizing the life of a mathematician without talent truly was. Of course, it wasn’t something he should say, having fled from the very starting line himself.
-But why competitions? Wouldn’t it be better for him to skip grades and follow the regular school system? He’d have to go to university anyway...
“Like I did? That’s a second-best option at best.”
-You said it was tough for you when you were a kid too, right, Oppa?
“Whenever word gets out about some prodigy, people line up to grab and shake them down. Sometimes it’s genuine interest, but mostly it’s dirty scheming to use the kid for their own achievements.”
Suspicious glares never let up, parents buckle under intense pressure, and meanwhile, the child starts doubting themselves: Am I really that good? Or am I just overhyped like everyone says?
-Ah... I think I get it.
“But overwhelming achievements change everything. Results from competitions or papers that only that level could produce? Everyone shuts their mouths.”
Objective proof cuts out the pointless drama. And it gives the kid unshakable confidence in themselves.
For a mathematician embarking on that distant, hazy path, self-assurance was more vital than anything.
-So, you’ll come?
“To Okcheon?”
-Yeah.
“Are you nuts? You know how much I charge per day?”
-That damn money talk! You used to be so cool, Oppa. You know that’s not the case anymore, right?
A shadow of self-mockery crossed Woo-hyun’s face. A heavy weight settled in his chest, shame coursing through his veins like fire.
The young mathematician who’d burned the midnight oil at the blackboard, eyes alight with the promise of cracking an unsolvable riddle, was long gone.
What was I like back then?
Whenever he’d lifted his head, equations had exploded in his mind like fireworks. He’d believed those sparks would one day reshape the world. But now, the numbers that gripped him most were scrawled not on a blackboard, but in contracts.
The shattered remnants of the dream he’d abandoned himself seemed to claw at him viciously. It was a dream that had flickered out without going far—why did it still hurt so much?
Maybe this was the moment to finally sort it all out, Woo-hyun thought, delivered through Yoon-mi’s words.
Oblivious to his inner turmoil, Yoon-mi pressed on.
-Honestly, I didn’t want to say this, but at my level, I can’t even gauge Seo-ha’s limits. I can’t tell what’s possible or where he’s hitting a wall. It feels utterly pathetic. You wouldn’t get this feeling, right, Oppa?
How could he not? He knew it all too well.
“Fine. I’ll clear a day. Find us a good restaurant.”
-Hehe, thanks! Full Okcheon course coming right up.
His head already throbbed at the thought of ditching his schedule, but picturing Yoon-mi after all this time? Not such a bad feeling.
A weekend afternoon in an Okcheon hanok.
While Mi-young prepped dinner, Seo-ha stared intently at his baby sister, who was mesmerized by her mobile.
Is she different from me?
He seemed to grasp words around this age, but judging by her blank reactions, Seo-eun wasn’t there yet. Spotting him, she parted her lips as if trying to say something.
“Got something to tell Oppa? Me too. I hope Seo-eun starts talking soon.”
Seo-eun beamed innocently. It was so adorable that Seo-ha couldn’t help poking her chubby cheek ever so gently.
Squish—
The soft flesh yielded under his fingertip, then popped back to shape when he pulled away.
“O!”
Seo-ha’s eyes went wide. He pressed again.
This time, both cheeks at once.
The jelly-like give was downright addictive.
This is fun.
As Seo-ha played with his sister, guests arrived at the house.
“Hello. This is Seo-ha’s place, right?”
“Oh! Teacher!”
Mi-young spotted Yoon-mi mid-laundry and dashed into the yard. Cheol-ho, mixing formula, peeked out and slipped on his slippers.
“Hello, ma’am! I’m Seo-ha’s homeroom teacher.”
She’d called ahead to set it up, but getting lost had made her late.
“I’ve been waiting ever since you said you were coming. Please, come in. But who’s this gentleman?”
Mi-young pointed at the man standing behind Yoon-mi.
Tall and lean, dressed in what looked like an expensive suit—but he kept fidgeting with his tie, clearly uncomfortable. His sharp features gave off a faintly irritable vibe.
“I’m Shin Woo-hyun. Teacher Kim Yoon-mi mentioned a student she wanted me to see, so I tagged along.”
Yoon-mi jabbed Woo-hyun’s side at his stiff greeting and jumped in.
“He might not look it, but he majored in math at Princeton. He’s a famous instructor now. Way better than me at sizing up Seo-ha, so I brought him.”
“Huh? So this is about Seo-ha... Come inside, please.”
Mi-young ushered them in.
“Mind if I take a look at the kid’s room?”
Yoon-mi winced at Woo-hyun’s abrupt request, rubbing her temple. It hit her anew just how wrecked his social skills were.
“Pardon? Oh, sure! Go ahead.”
Cheol-ho led Woo-hyun to Seo-ha’s room.
Creak.
The worn floorboards groaned with every step. Cheol-ho grinned sheepishly, picking the sturdiest spots.
Squeak—
“Here you go.”
Woo-hyun nodded his thanks and stepped inside.
More books than I expected.
He pulled out an encyclopedia. Every page showed signs of careful study. Kid’s picture books were shoved to the bottom shelf, while math texts dominated the easy-reach spots.
“These are the kinds of books college undergrads study.”
Woo-hyun slid out Topology by James Munkres—a text he’d pored over himself.
“He started asking for these about a year ago. I work at the county office, so I don’t understand a lick of it, but if my son says it’s for studying, I just buy them.”
Even after peeking at the test papers in Yoon-mi’s classroom, Woo-hyun hadn’t been convinced until now. Self-taught to this level? At his age?
One figure popped into Woo-hyun’s mind: the boy who’d nearly conquered college math before turning eight.
Similar? No—his parents were a doctor and a math teacher. This kid’s talent might outshine even that.
Colored construction paper lay scattered across the desk.
He’s still got a kid side, huh?
Woo-hyun chuckled softly and picked one up. A sketchbook lay beneath, an unfinished map sketched on it. Scribbled symbols filled the margins below.
Hm?
Exactly four colors of paper.
Equations scrawled messily atop the sketchbook.
No way...
Woo-hyun scanned the formulas. They didn’t click at first glance.
“G is V, E... A planar graph?”
He murmured under his breath.
“∀e ∈ E, c(u) ≠ c(v)—adjacent vertices get different colors?”
His fingertips trembled faintly.
“min |C| ≤ 4? K5, K3,3... even planarity conditions?”
The colored paper scraps on the desk caught his eye again.
Red, blue, yellow, green. Precisely four.
“Euler’s formula: V - E + F = 2.”
He swallowed hard.
“My God. He was tackling the Four Color Theorem himself?”
Cheol-ho, who’d been listening quietly, couldn’t hold back.
“Four Color Theorem? What’s that?”
“A theory proposed by Francis Guthrie in 1852. The gist: No matter how complex the map, you can color it with four colors so no adjacent regions share the same one.”
“Sounds tough?”
“Tough doesn’t cover it. For a century, top mathematicians threw themselves at it and failed. It was only ‘proven’ true after computers arrived.”
“That’s not a proof. It’s computation—or programming. Plenty of mathematicians rejected it, but with no alternative, academia accepted it. No serious mathematician chases it seriously these days.”
Woo-hyun fiddled with the paper a moment longer, then broke into a grin as realization dawned.
“Ah! That’s why he was studying topology—to convert maps into planar graphs and define boundaries and faces!”
At that moment, the door creaked open, and Seo-ha poked his head in.
“Mister, did you touch my colored paper?”
Woo-hyun gave an awkward smile.
Mathematicians despised anyone handling their work without permission. The prickly reaction suggested solid credentials for his age.
“Ah... sorry. I’ll put it back.”
“No, it’s fine. Just leave it.”
Worst first impression ever.
He was clearly pissed. Woo-hyun decided to pivot to a topic the kid might like.
“Where’d you get stuck? The coloring conditions?”
“Huh? How’d you know? Do you know this game too, mister?”
Seo-ha’s face lit up in an instant, questions tumbling out excitedly.
Game?
Woo-hyun was speechless. A problem that had crushed countless great minds over a century was just an advanced coloring game to this kid. But he couldn’t concede ground right out of the gate.
“Saw the four colored papers and the adjacent vertex conditions you wrote down. Clicked immediately. Looks like you already nailed the planarity check.”
Seo-ha hesitated, then pulled out his sketchbook.
“Got stuck after that. Adjacent vertices need different colors, right? But when I try it for real, changing the order sometimes avoids overlaps, but other times I need a third or fourth color. It’s confusing whether four’s enough. Sometimes the third edge breaks the rules no matter what.”
Seo-ha tapped a page in the sketchbook.
It was crammed with drawings of colors gradually overlapping.
“See here. Starting with blue makes the last two vertices the same color—no good. So I try red, but then I hit a wall midway...”
Woo-hyun chuckled.
“That’s the trap of coloring order. Even with planarity guaranteed, pick the wrong sequence, and it seems like you need more colors. Dodge it with techniques like ‘inductive coloring’ or the ‘discharge method.’”
“Discharge method?”
“Yeah. Take a big graph, remove one vertex, color the rest, then slide it back in while tweaking to fit within four colors.”
Seo-ha’s eyes sparkled.
“Ah... so even if I hit a snag midway, I can backtrack and swap colors?”
“Exactly. But it’s trickier than it sounds. Doing it all by hand like you hits a wall fast. Proving the Four Color Theorem means verifying every possible case—thousands, tens of thousands. That ain’t a proof.”
Seo-ha’s face fell as reality sank in.
But Woo-hyun felt a rush of exhilaration.
Incredibly, this child was retracing the exact paths the era’s greatest mathematicians had taken toward the Four Color Theorem.