The Paper Goes Public
Three days after meeting Professor Park Mu-yeol.
Ding-dong~
A text came in on Mom's phone from Professor Park. It was the OK sign via the contact info we'd exchanged last time.
"Heehee."
I knew Professor Park would respond like this!
We'd coordinated via text with Professor Park, agreeing to submit the paper to the arXiv at a set time.
'Paper file—PDF and TeX versions both ready...'
I carefully filled out each required field for uploading the paper.
Author: Yoo A-yeon. Affiliation: None. Degree: None.
Sigh~ It felt kinda empty with nothing but my name in the fields.
Normally, a paper with such meager specs would get buried quietly in a dump of tens of thousands of others. Unclicked, unread, unremembered.
"But now I've got solid backing!"
Click~ I hit the submit button.
And just minutes later, a notification popped up.
Endorsement Approved — Park Mu-yeol (KAIST Department of Mathematics)
"Wheee~."
Just an endorsement approval, but why did it make me so happy?
'Thank you so much, Professor Park!'
Professor Park Mu-yeol supported Yoo A-yeon far more enthusiastically than he'd promised.
He posted the link to her paper in a Discord channel for number theory researchers, promoting it.
In academic communities, Professor Park Mu-yeol's comments carried real weight.
When someone known in analytic number theory used the word "seriously," it wasn't something to brush off.
Professors researching number theory at prestigious institutions like Princeton University, Stanford University, and Oxford University clicked the link with skeptical expressions.
On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis
[Author: Yoo A-yeon, Han Seol-ae]
'No big discoveries this time either, probably.'
Papers claiming to prove the Riemann Hypothesis popped up a dozen or so every year.
All ten out of ten were sloppy patchworks with shaky logic. Researchers could spot the flaws just skimming a few pages.
So they clicked this one without much expectation.
But this paper was different.
Pages turned, and turned, and turned some more.
"...This isn't nonsense?"
No obvious logical leaps jumped out. Of course, fully verifying a theoretical paper this length would take experts months to years, even as a team.
Couldn't declare it right or wrong on the spot.
But at least... the first impression was different.
And that sense of anticipation spread quickly.
Respected researchers began chiming in one by one.
Rumors spread like wildfire.
And the ones most sensitive to the buzz were the academic journalists chasing gossip.
They latched onto the issue fast, churning out sensational headlines.
Comments under the flood of articles started brimming with excitement too.
Math Majors Gallery. After the articles, Yoo A-yeon's paper became the hot topic there.
After I submitted the paper to arXiv, Mom kept peeking at her phone whenever she had a moment.
"A-yeon, articles are piling up like crazy."
"Yeah?"
"Don't wanna check?"
"Nah."
"Not curious?"
Shake shake~.
"All this hype is just noise. No verification, no peer review—it's viral for buzz. Doesn't matter at all."
I did want praise. But proper praise.
Only after the proof was confirmed and academia officially recognized it—then I wanted the applause.
Not this premature attention when nothing was certain.
And besides.
'I already learned once: Obsessing over online opinions never ends well.'
The incident where my gallery lurking made A-rin cry still weighed on me.
'Right now, spending time with A-rin is more important.'
"A-rin, play with big sis~!"
"Yay~!"
"Whatcha wanna play?"
"Draw pictures!"
A-rin pulled out the 48-color crayons from her birthday gift.
'48-color crayons...! So cool...!'
Not 12 or 24, but a whopping 48 shades to choose from!
The spectrum of visible light the human eye can see—from about 380 nm (violet) to 750 nm (red).
Split into 48 parts, each light fragment packed into a stick. Output any color on demand with your heart's whim—a total cheat item! To me, this is a magic wand!
"A-rin, can sis use these crayons too?"
"Yeah!"
"Thanks!"
My sister's the best. Lending this cheat item to big sis so readily.
Flap~ We spread a big sheet of drawing paper on the living room floor. 'Gotta draw those Dreamland friends from last time!'
Pink dolphin. Sky-blue cat. Sheep flying in the sky. Blonde girl in a black dress.
We drew freely.
Wiggle wiggle~ My feet kept kicking happily as I drew.
"Sis draws so good!"
"Right?"
"Who's this kid?"
"Friend from Dreamland. 50,000 of 'em swarming around. Super fun friends."
"Ooh! Wanna be friends later too!"
After drawing, we played a board game.
The new animal card battle game we'd bought. Split the cards, play matching conditions to dump your hand first.
"You do this one like this, this one like that... Got it roughly?"
"Yeah!"
I explained the rules to A-rin and started the game.
'Sorry A-rin, but even against a 3-year-old, I go all out.'
This is a 5-year-old's resolve!
"Sis, I'm gonna win."
"Hmph. Won't be easy~?"
Won the first round easily.
"Again!"
Second round easy win.
"Again!"
Third round easy.
"Heehee."
"Ughhh~!"
I worried she'd cry from frustration, but A-rin didn't.
Instead, she stared at her cards, then flipped them one by one, recreating the last game's plays.
"Do it like this, then this and lost, but if do this then win..."
A-rin wasn't clearing the board in defeat—she was reviewing why she lost.
'A 3-year-old doing game review?'
"A-rin, whatcha doing that for?"
"Hmm... Dunno. Just?"
"Oh?"
30 minutes later, A-rin still hadn't won a single game against me. But her mid-game plays were no ordinary 3-year-old's.
"A-rin, was it fun?"
"Yeah! But... next time I'll win!"
"Yup, looking forward to it."
After playtime ended and A-rin toddled off to the bathroom alone for chick-chick time.
I said to Mom.
"Mom."
"Yeah?"
"Think it's about time for A-rin to get tested too."
"What?"
"IQ test."