Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Special Graduation
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“Seo-ha! Didn’t I tell you? If you just master the Rabona kick and the leg fake, you’ll never get embarrassed no matter where you go!”
Ki-beom’s shout echoed thunderously across the athletic field.
As the sun dipped toward the horizon, three guys were kicking a soccer ball around on the field.
Seo-ha had gotten a message from Tae-jin saying he absolutely had to come to school for something important. He hadn’t realized it was soccer.
“What’s the key to the leg fake?”
Seo-ha rattled off the ingrained response to Ki-beom’s question.
“S...style?”
“Exactly! That’s what makes it look cool. Even if it doesn’t fool the opponent, if it impresses the crowd, it’s a success.”
Tae-jin chimed in with a look of disbelief.
“Hey, that’s kinda lame, isn’t it?”
“No, I’m right. Seo-ha’s got these long arms and legs—learn a few personal skills like that, and he’ll be a star in no time. It’s about making a strong first impression.”
Seo-ha asked uneasily.
“What if we lose the game?”
Ki-beom approached Seo-ha and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Listen up, Seo-ha. You like soccer, but you’re not planning to go pro, right?”
“Right.”
“Exactly. In neighborhood games, who remembers the score? But nail a leg fake like that once, and the kids will talk about it for a week straight. Especially the girls—they’ll go nuts. If you look cool, you win regardless of the score.”
Ki-beom’s words carried a strange persuasiveness. Seo-ha nodded solemnly.
“The Rabona’s all about the arm movement. At the moment of impact, spread your arms naturally to keep your balance.”
Under their guidance, Seo-ha attempted the Rabona kick over and over.
The ball mostly flew off in weird directions, and Seo-ha frequently lost his balance, tumbling onto the grass.
After a long practice session, his form started to come together bit by bit.
“That’s it! Perfect.”
“Your form’s spot on.”
The two had been worried that Seo-ha, who’d been painfully shy at the start of the semester, might struggle to fit in at school in America.
So they’d come up with soccer tricks that would turn him into an instant social star.
Pwaaang—
After dozens of tries, a perfectly struck Rabona kick finally sailed into the goal.
“I did it!”
“Nice one!”
“Yes!”
The three hugged each other in celebration.
No one knew if it would actually work, but one thing was certain—they’d had a blast.
“Did they get into an accident or something?”
Woo-hyun muttered under his breath as he checked the time on his phone.
The road, usually clear at this hour, was bizarrely jammed today.
He glanced at the gift box on the passenger seat, then floored the accelerator the moment the light turned green.
Vrooom—
A few days earlier, Woo-hyun had gotten a call from Seo-ha.
-Teacher, you’ll come to the graduation, right?
After hanging up, Woo-hyun checked his face in the rearview mirror.
“Must be all that good sleep—my skin’s looking fresh.”
Every night, the fluorescent lights of the lab came back to him.
Eliya Kronen’s cold gaze as he reviewed papers. Himself, too tense to even breathe properly.
“This place isn’t normal. You should get out while you can.”
Colleagues shaking their heads as they packed their things.
“I thought I was different.”
But half a year later, Woo-hyun left the lab in exactly the same state.
He’d thought making a ton of money from success would make him forget.
His lectures went great.
Woo-hyun was a natural performer, and students raved about his acting.
“Teacher! I raised my math grade three levels after your class.”
“I got into college! I’ll worship you as my benefactor, teacher!”
“My kid got a top grade thanks to you. Thank you so much.”
There was fulfillment, too.
He could explain high school math with his eyes closed, but Woo-hyun treated every lesson like a stage performance, scripting it from start to finish.
From board work to nagging timing and joke delivery—every element was calculated.
Before long, he was called a “top-tier instructor.”
Students and parents idolized him like a god, and offers from media kept coming.
Every time he saw his face on massive billboards, Woo-hyun’s cheeks burned.
Luxury apartments, pricey sports cars, numbers piling up in the bank.
But the nightmares never stopped.
“Damn you, Eliya Kronen!”
Cursing him changed nothing.
The reason was simple.
The one Woo-hyun truly hated was himself.
Then he met a certain boy.
The kid studying the Four Color Theorem with crayons and colored paper.
That day, Woo-hyun finally understood Eliya Kronen’s feelings.
Comparing himself to Seo-ha made it clear.
To geniuses like him, they were worth no more than photocopy runners.
Life is unfair. Especially when it comes to talent.
But what enraged him most was the thought that such talent might go to waste.
[100km to Daejeon]
‘Most geniuses aren’t what you’d call normal.’
Why had Newton hidden calculus for 30 years after discovering it?
He could guess. Their inner worlds were too precious; real-life problems were beneath them.
“I know I’ve proven this perfectly. So can’t they handle the verification themselves?”
Seo-ha had said something similar.
What if no one had found him that day?
Seo-ha would’ve tidied the room after finishing the proof and returned to daily life like nothing happened.
Arrogantly terrifying. Purely beautiful.
In the late 17th century, Europe’s scientific community faced a major puzzle.
Kepler had discovered planetary orbit laws, but no one could explain why.
Edmond Halley struggled for years to solve it.
He discussed it with famous mathematicians like Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, but none knew the principle.
Then, in the summer of 1684, Halley visited Isaac Newton, a professor at Cambridge.
“If a planet’s force weakens with the square of the distance from the sun, what orbit would it follow?”
“An ellipse.”
Halley was stunned that Newton stated the unproven solution so casually.
“How on earth do you know that?”
“I calculated it a while back.”
Newton rummaged through his bookshelf and pulled out a paper he’d written years ago.
He’d solved and proven it but never published. Halley was aghast at the eccentricity.
“Ha... What other unpublished papers do you have?”
Halley, holding Newton’s differential equations paper, asked furiously.
“Hmm... Optics stuff and a few theorems on harmonic motion?”
Newton’s expression was like saying, ‘I’ve got a few potatoes and onions left in the kitchen.’
Halley must have had the same realization right then.
‘I can’t just leave this guy alone.’
From that day, Halley stuck by Newton’s side.
He brewed tea when Newton sighed, gathered and organized discarded manuscripts all night, even ran around with proofs fighting printers.
And that wasn’t all.
“No money for publication?”
Newton was indifferent, and the Royal Society, responsible for scientific papers, was broke.
The next day, Halley went to the printer and put down his own money as a deposit.
With Newton uninterested, Halley drove everything.
To save costs, he proofread himself and arranged craftsmen for the new differential notation.
The result was the famous Principia, published in 1687. Humanity finally understood the universe’s mechanics.
The historic line about the apple and the moon following the same law wouldn’t have seen daylight without him.
“In the end, someone has to wipe the geniuses’ asses. Bunch of thunderbolt-headed weirdos who don’t know how the world works.”
Woo-hyun murmured softly.
Halley’s name appears nowhere in the Principia.
But he surely had no regrets.
Screech—
The car pulled into the school parking lot.
[Special Graduation for Yoo Seo-ha, Class of ■■]
A banner fluttered in the wind.
Woo-hyun got out and slowly headed toward the auditorium where the ceremony was held.
“Did you see senior Yoo Seo-ha?”
“I even made eye contact! He’s really our school alum, right?”
“We’re alumni now, aren’t we?”
“Of course. That’s why we came all the way out here.”
The auditorium buzzed with excitement.
Students clustered in groups, eagerly swapping stories about the legendary senior they’d only heard rumors about.
The seminar room still sealed tight like a legend.
The tale of learning Python in a day to build his own laundry app because he didn’t like the existing one—it was common knowledge now.
The math god who’d conquered the IMO in elementary school.
The star of the global math world who’d freshly proven the Four Color Theorem and even dropped a crucial hint on the Riemann Hypothesis.
Freshmen gazed at Seo-ha with eyes full of admiration.
Tap, tap—
The principal tapped the mic twice and looked around.
-Please take your seats, everyone.
The hall quieted in an instant.
-Today, we hold a special graduation for our school’s pride and Korea’s brightest mathematician of this era—Yoo Seo-ha.
-From his elementary school days... shaking the world of mathematics... And it all started right here, the school where you’ll continue studying!
Seo-ha’s face flushed at the principal’s overly enthusiastic speech.
Woooah!
Clap clap clap!
Cheers and applause erupted everywhere, heating up the atmosphere.
-We gather today to celebrate his step into the world. Give a big round of applause to welcome Yoo Seo-ha!
Clap clap clap!
Seo-ha climbed the stage with an embarrassed expression.
His family in the front row waved happily.
Mi-young dabbed her eyes with her fingertips, Cheol-ho cleared his throat needlessly and adjusted his seat, and Seo-eun in her bright yellow duck hat squealed with joy.
Woo-hyun’s lips curved up watching their happiness.
The short ceremony ended, and the event wrapped up.
Woo-hyun approached Seo-ha.
“A gift.”
He handed over a small box.
“You didn’t have to... Thank you.”
“It’s not free.”
“Huh?”
“It’s a fountain pen. Expensive one, so save it for special occasions. You’ll need it to sign those epoch-making papers someday.”
“I’ll do that.”
Seo-ha bowed politely.
Woo-hyun no longer had nightmares.
Just as Halley left no trace in the Principia, he wouldn’t either.
But perhaps someone would remember him as the one who gifted the fountain pen used by a great mathematician his whole life.
The anonymous board overflowed with posts.
“Seo-ha, let’s go.”
The family piled into the car.
The trunk was stuffed with gifts from friends.
Seo-ha opened the intranet.
And looked back wistfully.