Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Charting the Prodigy's Path
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Clap!
Yoon-mi smacked Woo-hyun's back without mercy.
"Ouch! That really hurts. Your hand's on fire!"
Woo-hyun jumped, rubbing his back.
"I can't go on living like this!"
"But it worked out, didn't it?"
"Sigh... I must be crazy. Setting up a meeting between you and the parents."
There was a bit of commotion, and Seo-ha's parents shot him some sharp looks, but Woo-hyun had successfully convinced Seo-ha. Truth be told, it hadn't taken much convincing.
'No way a genius like that could endure twelve years of pointless drudgery.'
Seo-ha stared blankly, as if the idea had never crossed his mind before. Soon enough, he agreed that grade-skipping was absolutely necessary for him.
But South Korea was one of the most conservative countries when it came to grade-skipping and early graduation. Elementary school skips in particular were so strict that there were often years with not a single case nationwide. Seo-ha met the criteria easily, but it would still waste unnecessary energy.
'School isn't just about studying, after all.'
Learning basic social skills and emotional development among peers were essential for any human.
So they settled on six years of elementary school.
Participate in major domestic competitions during the lower grades to build a reputation, then conquer the world in sixth grade. Woo-hyun's heart raced at the thought of consulting on the future of the world's brightest child.
"Still, I'm not going to America."
He was grateful for her bold declaration of her own opinion.
He'd initially thought America was the only answer, but upon reflection, it wasn't necessarily true. Top U.S. universities made early graduation practically impossible, even for the most brilliant students...
"Okay. No problem. Of course, going there someday would be ideal... Do your parents have any specific wishes?"
At Woo-hyun's question, the two hesitated before cautiously revealing their true feelings.
"If possible, we'd like him to graduate from a regular school, not just take the GED. We know college matters, but school life only comes once in a lifetime."
Tap tap.
Woo-hyun drummed his fingers on the table.
"No issue at all."
There weren't many people who knew the gifted education system as well as he did. Woo-hyun knew a path that would satisfy both Seo-ha's future and his parents' wishes.
"Really?"
"There's a place called Gifted High School."
"Ah... I've heard of it. There's one nearby, right?"
Woo-hyun nodded at Cheol-ho's words.
"Yes, not far—in Sejong, Incheon, and Busan. The best part is that as special schools, they're not bound by the elementary and secondary education laws."
"What does that mean?"
"It means you can enroll right after finishing elementary school, no problem. Legally skips three years of middle school. Plus, Gifted High School has linkage programs with KAIST, so you can start learning college-level math immediately upon enrollment. Those credits will count toward your degree later, of course."
"Oh! That's convenient."
Seo-ha's eyes finally sparkled with interest.
"Right? You could finish the college curriculum in two years at Gifted High, then enter KAIST and wrap up your master's in another two."
KAIST's integrated bachelor's-master's program made it entirely feasible. The professors would have no choice but to accept it.
"Th-then..."
Mi-young shifted in her seat, anxious.
"Seo-ha could have a KAIST master's by age sixteen. And no tuition needed. With the right mindset, he could snag scholarships anywhere."
"Is getting into Gifted High School really that easy?"
The couple still looked worried. Admission itself was no problem—Seo-ha would easily make the cut among the hundreds admitted yearly. The issue was his age.
Woo-hyun grinned.
"That's why I'll make sure no one can object."
After the heartfelt, all-out consultation, Yoon-mi was starving. They walked to the empty lot where they'd parked.
"Hop in. I'll guide you to a great spot."
Woo-hyun cheerfully climbed into Yoon-mi's compact car.
"This place any good?"
Pretending not to hear, Yoon-mi pulled out onto the road. An awkward silence settled in the car during the drive. As she drove, she reflected on the day's events.
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
"You were kinda cool today."
A surge of emotion welled up in Woo-hyun.
"I've always been cool, you know."
Unfortunately, the local specialty—fish noodle soup—wasn't to his taste.
Four years later, at the grand auditorium on Seoul National University's Gwanak Campus.
"Our girl can do this, right?"
Min-ji's mother fussed with her daughter's collar. It was November, and a chill already hung in the air.
Two years earlier, Min-ji had been crushed by her failure to get into science high school.
'What did I lack...?'
Her first taste of failure since birth. But Min-ji couldn't accept defeat so easily.
'I started calculus at ten, too.'
That winter break, she channeled her crushing inferiority into study fuel.
For the next two years, Min-ji pushed herself to the bone. She wrestled with proof problems all night, riding with her mom to competitions across the country every weekend.
The joy of her first podium finish. Third place, but she'd never been happier. Plenty of science high kids placed below her.
'See? I wasn't wrong.'
But the more competitions she entered, the lower she ranked.
'Here they come.'
They rarely dressed up, but now they did—science high students filing in as a group, uniforms crisp. The air seemed to shift as they walked, with regular high schoolers like her buzzing in response.
But the nation's top high school wasn't theirs.
"Gifted High School."
Someone whispered.
The gathering of Korea's sharpest minds. Min-ji had never even dreamed of it. They settled in one spot, trading invisible glares with the science high group.
'You're human after all.'
Min-ji mused, watching the science high kids' discomfort. This year, only two science high students made the International Mathematical Olympiad team. Gifted High took the rest. Rumor had it one was a middle school third-year.
Min-ji subtly searched for her. Im Soo-jung. The face from the articles.
Petite, skinny. No makeup, hair tied back. She even seemed noble, like a halo effect.
'Pretty face, too.'
What did it feel like to become a national math rep at that age? Untouchable, a heavenly genius. Studies born of spite had their limits. Knowing someone like her made giving up inevitable.
'This'll be my last competition.'
Time to prep for college entrance. The contests had started as an inferiority fix, but they'd add points to her application.
Lost in thought staring at her, Soo-jung suddenly whipped her head around. Her delicate face twisted in a fierce scowl.
'What?'
Min-ji's gaze followed.
Thud thud.
An elementary school boy. He'd tucked a dorky button-up into jeans—like a mini nerd trend. It almost made her laugh.
'What grade? He's pretty cute.'
She'd love dressing up a little brother like that... From Seo-ha's perspective, it was a huge effort by his parents for Seoul. The fanciest outfit from the biggest store back home.
Soo-jung's eyes burned with intensity as she watched the boy.
'Ah!'
She'd heard the rumors. Since early this year, an elementary kid sweeping top prizes at major events. Yoo Seo-ha, was it? Soo-jung's expression confirmed it wasn't just talk.
The boy himself seemed oblivious to the attention. He glanced at his admission ticket and found his seat.
Min-ji watched, mesmerized.
Seo-ha sat and pulled a pencil from his case. A lower-grades one with a figure attached.
'A duck?'
'Ah, makes sense. Losing to a kid like that would shatter anyone's mentality.'
Seo-ha calmly gazed out the window. Over the past four years, his math had evolved dramatically.
Woo-hyun sent books every month or two—contents so captivating that Seo-ha counted down the days.
A world apart from encyclopedias. Graph theory, network science, Riemann and non-Euclidean geometry, histories of math and great mathematicians' lives.
The eerie dance of complex matrices, equations tricking intuition—the deeper he dove, the more obsessed Seo-ha became. Finally, he realized math was the grand language for decoding and rebuilding the world.
But there was a minor side effect.
"Why solve it like that?"
A vein bulged on Woo-hyun's temple. He usually let it slide, but he couldn't ignore Seo-ha turning a five-line proof into ten pages. Do that on an exam, and time would run out.
But the child's words pierced him.
"Teacher, that proof is so crude."
Woo-hyun examined it. Proof of the general formula for Pythagorean triples.
"It's the classic parameterization from Euclid's Pythagorean theorem. Five lines, done."
"That's just using the formula. To show why this triangle has that structure..."
Seo-ha sketched a large right triangle and inscribed a square inside.
"This method's beauty is reaching the conclusion using just square rotations and triangle similarities. Geometry intuitively explains it all."
Seo-ha began geometric transformations on the diagram. Rotate the square 90 degrees clockwise, reposition the right triangle along the new hypotenuse. Two squares merged into equal-area rectangles, branching complexly.
'Deriving integer conditions from similarity ratios...'
Insane. Genius. Woo-hyun realized he could no longer teach this child.
'Seo-ha's mathematical self is growing daily.'
"Time to hit the competitions."
'Let the judges have the headaches. I can't wait to see if they award the grand prize or not.'
He wondered how they'd handle Seo-ha's wildly different answers from model solutions. Even blind, they'd recognize genius math when they saw it.
"Yes!"
"Big ones only. Poor kids competing against you."
Skip local levels. He didn't want tender sprouts crushed by a truck. Casualties inevitable, but they'd soon accept it as a genius storm.
One and a half years until elementary graduation. The year-long Olympiad trials could start next year.
'First, drop a bomb on the math old guard to prepare their minds.'