Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: Confession of Blasphemy
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After the scores were forcibly released, Seo-ha's school life underwent some subtle changes.
"Hey, Seo-ha!"
A student from the class next door waved at Seo-ha as they passed by.
"Hello."
This was already the fifth time today.
More and more people were greeting Seo-ha first. Mostly students from other first-year classes, but sometimes even seniors he didn't know. Seo-ha already knew the names of every first-year student, but now he was wondering if he needed to memorize all the seniors' names too.
Apart from that, his name was called out much more often in class than before, and the school newspaper club even requested an interview, but Seo-ha stayed grounded and kept doing what he had to do.
One weekday afternoon, Seo-ha headed to the library as usual.
Even though exams were over, the library at this school was always packed. Yet, strangely enough, the window seat on the third floor that he liked had been empty lately.
It was the students' own way of showing respect to the top scorer across all subjects, but Seo-ha had no idea.
'Lucky.'
He set down his bag and opened his notebook. Then he went to the reference room to find the book he needed to study today.
'There it is!'
Seo-ha was infamous at the library as a demanding patron.
He always requested them to acquire books that weren't available.
Seo-ha returned to his seat with the book.
This was one of the approaches Seo-ha had chosen to tackle the challenges of the Four Color Theorem. It was a concept mainly used in computer science, but it was also a branch of mathematics.
'There are just too many cases to compute.'
It was already known that the theorem held if you divided a planar graph into thousands of special cases and checked them one by one, like Appel and Haken did. It was just beyond human capability.
Seo-ha decided to zero in on that very point.
'What if I could compress it into far fewer steps without enumerating every single case?'
Theory of Computation analyzes how quickly certain problems can be solved.
Among its tools were concepts like automata (mathematical models of computation), formal languages, and polynomial verification. Seo-ha wanted to borrow these to express graph coloring possibilities in a different way.
'Instead of dividing cases, create a new decision rule.'
To achieve this, there was a lot of theory he needed to study.
Sunset light filtered through the library window.
Seo-ha rested his elbows on the book, his eyes tracing the formulas he had written. The pencil in his right hand raced busily across the paper.
In Seo-ha's mind, the automata he had constructed connected one by one, and the graph's vertices overlaid on top. Moments later, the myriad cases blurred and scattered, only to reform in orderly array from his fingertips.
'Ah!'
The test model he had tried showed promise. But as he pushed to more complex stages, it was like fog rolled in, obscuring the path.
'Not enough on its own, huh?'
Seo-ha lost track of time, attempting connections over and over.
Winter was furious.
Glancing at her watch, the appointed time had already passed by 10 minutes.
'Keeping me waiting?'
Winter had never waited for anyone in her life. Others always arrived early. Not that she had ever been late herself.
Irritation welled up.
Unable to hold back, she sent a text, but no reply came.
She sent another.
Still nothing.
'Not even reading them?'
Beep.
-Unable to connect because the phone is powered off.
Her hand trembled as she gripped the phone.
"Argh! Fine! You'll never see me again!"
Winter grabbed her math book and stood up. She shoved open the music room door and stormed out.
Thud, thud... thud.
But her steps gradually slowed until they stopped completely.
It hadn't been that long since they met, but no matter how she thought about it, Seo-ha wasn't the type to break a promise without reason.
Suddenly, something he had said before nagged at her.
'Sometimes I need peace of mind.'
His calm eyes as he said it, the way he had desperately pleaded that he wanted her.
Come to think of it, his complexion hadn't looked great. Was he sick?
"Alright! I'll come get you myself."
Winter decided to check on him in person.
She crossed the lawn and followed the path.
The scenery began to change. For the first time since enrolling, Winter set foot in the science department area.
An eerily quiet campus.
Winter caught her breath without realizing it and halted her steps.
The buzz from the liberal arts side, the silly jokes and laughter, the smiling students playing instruments on benches—none of that existed here.
"Why is it so quiet?"
The stark concrete buildings seemed to turn even the wind into silence.
The bulletin board had stiff public notices and strings of incomprehensible words.
For some reason, the passing students' faces all looked weary and indifferent.
'Can anyone live in a place like this?'
Winter forgot this was even the same school.
Then, voices from nearby students drifted over.
"Hey, what has Seo-ha been up to lately?"
Her heart dropped at the familiar name.
"No idea. Heard he asked the librarian to get him some theory book? Exams ended days ago."
Tae-jin shrugged, and Ki-beom nodded lightly.
"You gotta respect that. My cousin's in a PhD program for new materials, and even he doesn't grind like that."
Unable to hold back, Winter called out to them.
"Hey!"
Both students turned, then jumped in surprise.
The science department's gender ratio was 8.5:1.5, and that 1.5 wasn't much different from the guys—hoodies and tracksuits every day, thick horn-rimmed glasses hiding dark circles, gray in color like them.
But Winter was different.
Her soft brown hair glowed faintly, her blouse neatly ironed, shoulders straight, eyes sparkling with vibrant life. She was radiant gold.
For the first time since enrolling, they realized the school uniform could look pretty.
Winter ignored their fluster and cut straight to it.
"Do you know Yoo Seo-ha?"
"Yes! We do!"
They nodded like fools.
"Where is he now?"
She looked young, but Winter had a cool, commanding presence.
A stark contrast to their scruffy selves.
"Probably the library, third floor..."
Before Ki-beom finished, she turned and walked away without looking back.
"Whoa! She's here for Seo-ha, right?"
Ki-beom blinked in disbelief.
"Can't you tell?"
"Take back what I said about respecting him. A little squirt pulling off romance even my bro couldn't..."
"Cut it out. Pathetic."
Tae-jin patted Ki-beom's shoulder.
"No, but seriously, does this make sense? He crushes studies, and this is how the world works?"
"..."
They felt a greater sense of defeat toward Seo-ha than during the exams.
Winter paused in front of the library door to catch her breath.
She didn't want to seem like she had rushed over to Seo-ha.
"I thought you were sick or something, but here you are, perfectly fine?"
She was genuinely angry. She despised people who didn't value promises.
"I'll say one thing and leave. Then we'll never see each other again."
What was that about "as natural as breathing"?
She hated people who made promises they couldn't keep for even a month.
She took a deep breath and opened the library door.
First time here.
The sound of turning pages and a low cough came from inside.
'Third floor.'
Winter climbed the stairs.
'Everyone in science works this hard, huh.'
To not disturb the seriously studying students, she climbed carefully, muffling her footsteps.
The third floor was different from the second—no partitioned reading rooms, just open tables. Nearby shelves were neatly lined with countless books.
She walked slowly and lightly around the floor.
Heading to the window, she spotted him.
Sunset poured through the glass. Seo-ha sat at its center.
Winter's feet stopped on their own.
Seo-ha was absorbed in his book, oblivious to the world.
His brows furrowed deeply, then relaxed into an innocent smile.
'His eyelashes are so long?'
His long, slender fingers gripped the pen neatly.
He was writing complex equations unlike anything she'd ever seen, extending and revising them repeatedly.
Watching him lost in his own world, Winter felt breathless.
She had come to yell, but the irritation burning in her chest was gone.
She stood there speechless for a while until Seo-ha checked his watch, startled, and looked at his phone. Their eyes met.
Fluster, surprise, apology.
His usually expressionless face shifted dramatically in seconds. He jumped up and approached her.
"I'm really sorry. I set a phone alarm, but I didn't realize the battery was dead."
His face was full of regret. Any lingering anger in Winter melted away. But she didn't show it.
"Thanks to you, I spent 30 minutes looking for you."
The sunset deepened, illuminating Winter. Her hair sparkled, and even her ears flushed red.
"I... I'll get ready right now and we can go. I'll make it up to you later, I promise."
Seo-ha hurriedly packed his bag.
As they left the library, Winter said to him,
"How about today instead of later? Buy me some tteokbokki after studying."
"Sure thing!"
They walked the path together to the music room.
Winter glanced back. The once-dreary science buildings no longer looked depressing.
At the music room, Winter sat right at the piano.
"Play first?"
"Yeah, that's what I feel like today."
Ding, diiiing.
As Winter began playing, Seo-ha closed his eyes.
The piece was Debussy's Clair de Lune.
The poignantly beautiful melody filled the room.
Winter felt stifled.
She didn't know why, but she knew what to do in moments like this.
She poured everything into the performance and let it fly away.
Winter infused her playing with all the emotions she felt now.
Seo-ha closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
The notes from the keys gently soothed his complicated mind.
All his worries and concerns seemed to fade away.
Thump, thump.
His heartbeat synced with Winter's tempo.
Seo-ha felt at ease. He reflected on the day.
'What was I trying to do today?'
He remembered.
He had been trying to create a new decision rule.
Seo-ha steadied his breath and recalled his interrupted train of thought.
'Where did I get stuck? Oh! More complex automata modeling.'
His mind delved deep into the blocked problem. It spread instantly.
Scattered fragments of thought found each other and merged. Finally, they formed a complete logic.
'Got it!'
You can't fill the entire planar graph.
But if you encode only the color information on the boundaries to create a finite automaton, you can determine if those boundaries can expand to four colors using local rules.
Now Seo-ha was certain.
'I can solve this.'
He opened his eyes to see Winter teary-eyed.
"You've been like that for over 30 minutes."