Close Interview with Yoo A-yeon (2)
As soon as the interview began, I dashed off to the study with quick little footsteps.
Michael followed me inside and filmed the room from every angle.
The bookshelves were packed with journals, academic papers, newspapers, and art books—nothing but the so-called difficult ones.
Michael picked up one of them and raised an eyebrow at the cover.
“This is… a research journal.”
“Yeah, I read it every month when a new issue comes out.”
“You read this? Regularly?”
“Ni-hi-hi, of course!”
I struck a peace-sign pose toward the camera.
I naturally reached for the latest issue. It was brand new, still wrapped in plastic!
With a satisfying rip, I tore off the packaging and plopped down on the sofa.
Rustle, rustle. I flipped through the pages. As I focused on the content, my feet kicked up in the air.
While I was absorbed in reading, Dong-hyun asked from beside me.
“What are you reading right now?”
I pointed to the table of contents so the camera could see it clearly.
“This issue has a lot of papers on algebraic geometry. It seems to be asking whether we can restrict the rational solutions of algebraic geometric curves using Galois groups and p-adic geometry. This looks fun. Hehet.”
Dong-hyun brought the camera closer to the page, filled with English text and equations.
“Do you understand this?”
“Um… I don’t understand everything completely. Papers in top-tier math journals like this summarize years of the author’s research, so the content is extremely deep. That’s why there are often terms I don’t know. But if I follow the logical structure carefully, I can understand it to some extent!”
I repeated the explanation in English for Michael’s benefit.
Michael muttered to himself.
“Are you really five years old…?”
“Yes!”
I kept flipping pages and reading.
Dong-hyun suddenly asked, “Do you have a habit of kicking your feet when you’re immersed?”
“Eek…! H-how did you know?”
Surprised that he had figured out my secret so quickly, I closed the book and stared at him.
“You’ve been doing it since earlier. Sorry if I interrupted.”
“Ah!”
I stopped my feet at once, neatly folded my legs on the sofa, and corrected my posture.
Embarrassing… I wanted to be the elegant lady Yoo A-yeon in front of the camera!
“…Ahem. It’s an unconscious reaction.”
I tried to focus on the journal again, but even knowing the camera was rolling, my legs kept trying to kick out.
These cheeky legs! Can’t they stay still!
I smacked my thighs with my fists to discipline them.
“Ouch…”
I rubbed the sore spot vigorously with my palm.
“Pfft.”
“Huh-huh-.”
The uncles hid their faces behind the camera and started holding back laughter.
“Hing…”
Left with no choice, I ignored the kicking and kept reading.
One paper in particular caught my eye.
I want to read this with Mom…!
I ran over to Mom, who was folding clothes in the room.
“Mom, Mom.”
“What is it, A-yeon?”
“I want to read this together!”
I held out the latest issue with both hands. Dong-hyun filmed the scene.
Whispering behind the camera, Dong-hyun said to Michael, “Finally, we’re seeing some childlike behavior. Though the book isn’t something a child would normally read.”
Mom finished folding the clothes and sat on the living room sofa. I gently climbed onto her lap.
“Our A-yeon, which part do you want to read together?”
I pointed with my finger.
“Galois sections and p-adic geometry of curves.”
“Yeah! There!”
Mom skimmed the abstract and table of contents.
“It says they proved part of Grothendieck’s section conjecture? That’s an impressive achievement.”
“Yeah, yeah! That’s why I want to read it with you…!”
“Alright, alright. It looks really difficult again, but let’s read it together.”
As always, Mom began reading the paper sentence by sentence.
“We consider a smooth projective curve Y of genus g ≥ 2 defined over a number field K.”
“Ooh.”
Leaning against Mom, I listened with sparkling eyes.
“The Grothendieck Section Conjecture predicts that rational points of Y correspond bijectively to sections of the étale fundamental group sequence.”
Mom took out a notebook and began taking notes where equations appeared. The reporters brought the camera closer.
1 → π₁ᵉᵗ(Ȳ) → π₁ᵉᵗ(Y) → G_K → 1
locᵥ : SecSel(Y/K) → Y(Kᵥ)
The densely written algebraic relations made the reporters shake their heads. To anyone unfamiliar, algebraic geometry equations really do look like alien script.
Mom muttered while writing, “Hmm… I don’t quite understand this…”
I looked at the part where she had stopped.
Aha.
She seemed puzzled why the principal trichotomy had suddenly appeared.
“Mom.”
“Yeah.”
“The reason the principal trichotomy appears here is…”
I pointed at her notebook.
“Originally, the Lawrence–Venkatesh method works well when the Galois representation is semisimple, but in non-semisimple cases, it’s hard to control the sections with the existing method alone.”
Mom nodded. “So you divide the representation into three cases and handle each separately?”
“Yeah. That way, we can cover even the non-semisimple cases.”
“Aha. As expected of our A-yeon. So smart.”
“Huheheh.”
Pat, pat. Mom wrote down what she understood and gently stroked my head.
The reporters filming us wore bewildered expressions.
“Um… Han Seol-ae-ssi?”
“Yes? What is it?”
“Didn’t you say you have a master’s in mathematics?”
“That’s right.”
“But our mom is really good at math! The title is master’s, but the level is PhD!”
I gave Mom a thumbs up.
“W-well. Even if we overlook how A-yeon knows the difference between master’s and PhD level…”
“How are you able to teach your mom?”
It seemed the uncles were surprised that I was explaining the paper’s content to Mom.
But in our house, it’s normal for the super smart Yoo A-yeon to teach the family…
I gave them a simple explanation.
“Hehe. It’s simple. I’m a genius, so I understand everything at a glance! That’s why my math comprehension is higher than Mom’s!”
I puffed out my chest proudly and thumped it with my fist.
“But more than that, didn’t you know that since my lecture? The fact that I don’t fall short even when compared to professors in terms of math level.”
“Hmm… I couldn’t believe it back then either, but seeing it again like this…”
“That’s awesome.”
After the math journal reading time with Mom ended, I suddenly got up as if I remembered something.
“Ah, right!”
I walked briskly into the master bedroom.
“…?”
Question marks appeared on the reporters’ faces.
I came out holding a single sheet of paper.
“I thought I should show this to the reporter uncles!”
I thrust the document in front of Dong-hyun. He lowered the camera and filmed it. It was the result sheet of the Wechsler Children’s Intelligence Test.
Name: Yoo A-yeon
Verbal Comprehension: 160 Visual Spatial: 160 Fluid Reasoning: 160 Working Memory: 160 Processing Speed: 160
Full Scale IQ: 160
It was a document proving that my IQ was 160!
Dong-hyun asked, “What is this?”
“It’s my IQ test result! Perfect scores in all areas according to Wechsler! IQ 160! 4 sigma! Top 0.006%! How about that, pretty amazing, right?”
I bragged while pointing at the numbers on the document.
Michael filmed it as well.
“One sixty.”
“Yes! One sixty! By the way, Wechsler says they can’t properly measure intelligence above 160! So even though I actually have intelligence above 4 sigma, I’m just satisfied with 4 sigma!”
“…When was this taken?”
Michael asked.
“26 months after birth!”
I spread my fingers to emphasize the number 26—two on my left hand, six on my right.
…It was a joke. Just kidding.
Michael said while filming the document once more, “I’ve interviewed a lot of people, but never anything like this.”
I grinned.
“Of course! Because I’m the smartest person on Earth!”