Translator: Dreamscribe
[Elijah Cronen has posted something!]
[What kind of situation is this that even the final boss of the mathematics world has appeared?]
[Who is that?]
└Currently number one in the math world.
└Even if you summon mathematicians from the past, he could go head-to-head with the big names.
└The Chinese kids are totally defeated. Every one of their attacks is being blocked.
└They say he’s a great master, but why is he so petty ㅋㅋㅋ
└There were quite a few mathematicians who said Yu Seo-ha’s score of 6 was too much, but they’re all deleting their posts now ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└I’m a math major, and what kind of world does that little kid live in? You might not get it, but Elijah Cronen is truly amazing. To us, he’s practically a god.
└Which university will Yu Seo-ha go to?
└At this point, probably free pass to every university in the world?
└I want to live with that brain just for a day. I’m curious how the world would lookㅋㅋㅋ
At that time, there were people shedding tears of joy, it was the math YouTubers.
"Is this for real? Math videos are getting views?"
They had been getting four-digit average views, but now they saw their chance and rowed their boats in unison.
[Who is Elijah Cronen?]
Views: 320,000.
[Why did Elijah Cronen highly praise Yu Seo-ha?]
Views: 800,000.
[In-depth analysis of IMO Problem 6.]
Views: 150,000.
[Why did China object to Yu Seo-ha’s score?]
[Second place in the Olympiad, has Korea truly become a math powerhouse??]
As the public’s interest grew, countless videos poured out. Of course, the names that appeared without fail in every video were Elijah Cronen and Yu Seo-ha.
And finally, the paper that Professor Edward Han presented on behalf of Seo-ha put an end to everything.
The paper titled “Curvature Correction of Viviani’s Theorem” began as follows.
-This paper was inspired by a problem solved by Yu Seo-ha, the first author, in a math competition.
This research is based on an independent geometric investigation conducted by Yu Seo-ha, and I (Edward Han) state that my role was to organize his ideas into mathematical language suitable for a paper and to supplement the proofs.
When news spread that Viviani’s theorem, by the famous Italian mathematician and disciple of Galileo, had been improved, reports began in Italy first.
Then the article was re-imported back into Korea.
└Does anyone understand what this means?
└Feels like stuff like this has been happening a lot lately, or is it just me?
└Math nerds, it's your turn.
└A 12-year-old published a paper with a Stanford professor.
└It’s not co-authored. That kid is the first author. It’s in the preface.
└Isn’t that fake? Like resume padding?
└Would a Stanford professor would risk his tenure and falsify a paper for a random kid?
└I’m a math teacher. The theorem was known to apply only in flat planes for 300 years, but it was expanded to work on curved surfaces too. It’s a concept in Riemannian geometry, so it’s not an earth-shattering achievement, but still, unbelievable at that age.
└Isn’t this the same Elijah Cronen kid?
└Correct. IMO first place. Even before that, he dominated all the high school math competitions nationwide.
The controversy passed, but the fame remained.
Seo-ha became the most famous 12-year-old in Korea.
And right now, he was in the middle of an admission interview.
“Yu Seo-ha, please come in.”
Korea’s Science Gifted School, the place every genius in the country dreams of entering.
Seo-ha, neatly dressed in slacks and a shirt, carefully entered the interview room and bowed his head.
“Hello, I’m Yu Seo-ha.”
The interview hadn’t even started yet, but the interviewers’ lips were already twitching with smiles.
From the principal on down, the staff were in a festive mood.
IMO first place, and the youngest ever!
A super-prodigy already acknowledged by a math giant!
The fact that such a student was applying to their school made the principal feel like his cheeks would explode with joy.
If he ever won a Nobel Prize or Fields Medal in the future, this school would be remembered as a prestigious institution for generations to come.
“Please have a seat. Oh, is the chair too high?”
The physics teacher hurriedly got up and tried to bring a cushion to the chair.
“No, it’s fine.”
Seo-ha waved his hand in surprise.
“Wait, why is the physics teacher doing that? Of course, it’s our math department’s job to take care of him.”
Math teacher Park Young-ho scolded as he snatched the cushion away.
A student who, once admitted, would soon become the school’s top output. The interviewers had long forgotten their original duty of evaluation.
Still, the interview had to proceed.
The interviewers asked Seo-ha various questions.
“What is your dream for the future?”
“I want to become a mathematician.”
At Seo-ha’s response, the math teachers clenched their fists subtly in a victory pose.
“Did you apply to any other schools?”
“A teacher I know told me to just in case, so I also submitted applications to the gifted high schools in Busan and Incheon.”
The interviewers were flustered by Seo-ha’s answer.
“Ahem! Why would they tell you to do such a pointless thing...”
The interviewers exchanged glances.
“Then, what made you apply to our school?”
“Uh… well… because it’s the closest?”
Seo-ha’s honest answer made the interviewers’ minds briefly go blank. Then, chemistry teacher Jung Mi-kyung hurriedly began speaking.
“Yu Seo-ha! Our school meals are the best in the country. Also, we provide each student with a personal study room.
And the uniforms are so nice that students from other schools are all jealous. All our teachers hold at least a master’s degree.”
The interviewers seemed more nervous than Seo-ha himself.
After finishing what could barely be called an interview and felt more like a school orientation, Seo-ha returned home.
“Oh my! You’re back already? How did the interview go?”
“Yes, Dad gave me a ride.”
Mi-young was washing Seo-eun, who was a mess from playing in the mud.
Seo-ha went over to his mother and massaged her shoulders, pulled on Seo-eun’s bun-like cheeks, and then headed to his room.
“Phew...”
He couldn’t get used to it.
The whole world was kind to him. But he was sinking deeper and deeper into depression.
Creak.
Seo-ha opened the bottom drawer.
A neatly stacked collection of over a hundred notebooks filled with records of failure.
He took out the most recent notebook.
“154th attempt.”
Today, it was time to try applying the modular theory he had been studying recently.
Seo-ha sat at his desk and picked up a pencil.
‘Define each vertex as v₁, v₂, v₃… and use the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix A.’
Several hours passed. But for Seo-ha, it felt like a fleeting moment.
The sound of Seo-eun running on the wooden floor, Mi-young preparing dinner, Chul-ho coming home and shaking off his shoes, none of it reached Seo-ha’s ears.
His consciousness remained solely in the world of mathematics.
‘If d(f) is the number of edges surrounding each face, then Euler’s formula imposes an average constraint.’
His wrist began to ache, but he forgot even the pain.
But no breakthrough came, even as night fell.
Modular theory could not fully capture the topological constraints of planar graphs.
The essence of the coloring problem was both combinatorial and topological. Was it arrogant to approach it from a purely number-theoretic angle?
Snap.
The pencil lead broke.
Thud.
Seo-ha threw the pencil he was holding against the wall.
It felt like Ducky was telling him not to do that, to calm down.
“What, do you think you could solve it? If so, I’d gladly give you my body. Go ahead, try!”
Ducky gave no reply.
“I knew it. You’re just my calculation switch. Don’t interfere with me again.”
Seo-ha picked up the pencil that had bounced off the wall and sat back down at his desk. He stared at the duck at the end of the pencil.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it.”
Getting angry wouldn’t change anything. The problem was still there, and the solution was still far away.
Knock knock.
“Seo-ha, dinner’s ready.”
Mi-young’s voice came from outside the door.
“Yes, Mom. I’m coming.”
Seo-ha closed the notebook and put it back in the drawer, then stood up.
The 154th attempt ended in failure, but that was it for today.
Even while eating dinner with his family, Seo-ha’s mind remained full of mathematics.
“Oppa, what are you thinking about?”
Seo-eun paused with her spoon and stared at Seo-ha.
“Huh? Oh, sorry.”
“Oppa, you didn’t even play with me today!”
Seo-eun pouted, clearly upset.
“Sorry. I won’t do that next time.”
When Seo-ha gently patted her head, the corners of Seo-eun’s mouth lifted.
Chul-ho saw this and said with a laugh.
“Oppa is studying really difficult things these days. Seo-eun, you’ll understand when you grow up.”
“Then I won’t grow up! I have to play with oppa!”
At Seo-eun’s words, the whole family laughed.
After dinner, Seo-ha took a walk to clear his head.
He went to his sister’s room and saw she was already asleep.
On her desk, the Union Jack duck and gold medal he had given her were proudly displayed. Seo-ha reflected on how impatient he had been lately.
In truth, Seo-ha knew it too. These days, his family was treating him more cautiously than before.
"Really pathetic."
He entered his room and ran his fingers along a familiar bookshelf. Then he pulled out a book.
[Blaise Pascal]
A man with curly hair and delicate features stared at Seo-ha.
“Pascal, I guess I’m not someone as brilliant as you.”
Pascal proved at age 12 that the sum of the angles in a triangle is 180 degrees. It was based on Euclid’s parallel postulate, but the important thing is that no one taught him that.
Pascal discovered it while drawing on the ground with a tree branch.
And at just 16, he proved Pascal’s Theorem, considered a major discovery in geometry.
That’s why, to Seo-ha, who dreamed of being written into the same pages of history as the geniuses of mathematics, age 12 was a crucial time.
No one knew better than himself how pointless this obsession was.
There were surely great mathematicians who didn’t produce any results in their youth.
But that was over now.
Because it made his family sad.
“I won’t cling to being twelve anymore. In the end, all I need to do is achieve something greater. Honestly, was it really that hard using Euclidean proofs?
Just watch. In the end, I’ll be on a page ahead of yours.”
Almost the age to become a middle schooler.
No matter how brilliant, no human could escape the rule of puberty hormones.
***
The warm spring sunshine filled the schoolyard.
In front of the school gate, students holding their parents’ hands and families with flower bouquets bustled about.
“Dodam, our precious Dodam. Under the clear skies of Okcheon…”
The school song echoed in the auditorium. When the song ended, the host proceeded with the ceremony.
"Graduating student representative, Yu Seo-ha."
The auditorium stirred.
“He’s the one who skipped middle school and went straight to the gifted high school, right?”
“Honey, honey! I told you we need to send our kid there too.”
“Wow, his parents must be so proud.”
All eyes in the auditorium focused on him.
He gave a small cough and cleared his throat, then began reading the prepared farewell speech.
“Today, as we all celebrate our graduation…”
It was a speech pieced together from a writing guidebook, but sniffling could be heard here and there.
“Sniff sniff.”
“Waaah…”
"...The scolding and praise of our teachers will all remain in our hearts for a long time."
Looking at his dear friends, Seo-ha felt his emotions rise too. Perhaps that’s why he blurted out something unprepared.
“I’m going to a different school a bit early, but I’m still the Seo-ha you all know. Let’s all meet again someday!”
At the unexpected line, laughter erupted from here and there. Then applause soon filled the auditorium.
Seo-ha, his ears turning red, quickly stepped down from the podium.
Camera shutters clicked from all directions.
Children with bouquets, parents in suits, everyone was busy taking commemorative photos. And Seo-ha was the school’s biggest star.
“Let’s take a picture together!”
“Can I brag that I’m your friend?”
A few girls came running, waving their hands. Their eyes were already red, as if they’d been crying.
“Our son is really popular.”
Chul-ho whispered in awe, glancing at his wife.
“Good thing he’s not like you, right?”
Meanwhile, someone familiar approached Mi-young.
“Hey! Yu Seo-ha!”
“Huh?”
It was Min-su, who had once visited Seo-ha’s home with workbooks.
“You go on ahead. I’ll definitely come too. Got it?”
He shouted with a solemn expression, as if facing his lifelong rival.
"Oh! It's the nice oppa!"
Recognizing someone, Seo-eun peeked out from behind their mom.
“Eek!”
Min-su, startled, screamed as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.
“One, two, three!”
Click.
Seo-ha also took a commemorative photo, holding a bouquet, with his family.
Yu Seo-ha, 13 years old.
Starting this spring, he would finally become a high school student.