Translator: Dreamscribe
“Thirty minutes?”
Seo-ha made a surprised expression.
Gyeo-ul faintly smiled, as if she had expected this.
What she had seen when she finished her performance was Seo-ha, eyes closed, fully immersed in the music.
At first, she felt proud thinking that, even as a classical music novice, he was listening to her performance so seriously.
But when he didn’t open his eyes even after five minutes, she started to worry.
Was he sick? Or was her performance insufficient, failing to bring him the ‘peace of mind’ he needed?
That was when Seo-ha muttered in a barely audible voice.
“...Encoding the boundary. Transition rules are local... four types... Ducky, I think I’ve figured it out.”
Sensing something unusual, Gyeo-ul approached Seo-ha and carefully observed him.
His eyeballs were constantly moving beneath his closed eyelids. It seemed like he was holding an invisible pen in his right hand. He was making small movements, incessantly writing something in the air.
‘Image training?’
But why now?
Feeling happy by herself, worrying by herself....
She suddenly felt like an idiot. But before that, another thought came to her.
She didn’t understand what Seo-ha had muttered, but it might be a significant moment for him.
Special inspiration does not always come when you want it.
She had experienced a similar moment while doing music.
When she received a brief lesson from a famous German pianist, he had told her,
“The human brain can hardly distinguish between an actual performance and an imagined one.
Just by visualizing it in your head, your skill improves. Not only do you understand the flow of the piece better, but even your finger movements become more refined. Of course, that’s when you’re concentrating as if it's a real performance.”
So she had been watching Seo-ha for the past thirty minutes.
“Right, it looked like you were thinking about something. Did you get any results?”
Gyeo-ul somehow felt like she no longer had the energy to be angry.
‘This boy’s head must be full of math right now.’
When she had an upcoming competition, she couldn’t think of anything besides performing. So although it felt like a loss, she decided to generously forgive him.
“Yeah, I really got a big result.”
Seo-ha showed his teeth and smiled brightly.
Gyeo-ul hesitated for a moment, then took something out of her bag.
“What’s this?”
A CD inside a clear case,
On the cover, handwritten in silver metallic pen, it said:
[STUDIO Moon, Han Gyeo-ul Private Session]
-Relaxation track.
-For personal listening only, do not distribute externally.
“I’m going overseas next month for a competition. I thought you might need it, so I recorded it just in case.”
Gyeo-ul hadn’t forgotten that he had tried to record her performance.
Seo-ha took the CD and didn’t know what to do. Then, as if he had made up his mind, he spoke.
“Han Gyeo-ul.”
“Yeah?”
“I was just a burden to you today. I’m really sorry.
There’s a problem I’ve been struggling with for over seven years. I really want to solve it, but I’ve always been stuck, and it’s been painful. But today, thanks to you, the hardest part got solved.”
Gyeo-ul’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Seven years? Then just how old were you when you started...”
“So what I want to say is... thank you. I’ll definitely repay this favor someday.”
Gyeo-ul’s lips curved into a small smile.
“Alright, whatever it is, I hope you solve it soon.”
“Once I do, you can ask me for anything. If it’s something I can do, I’ll do my best to make it happen.”
“Really? No take backs?”
“Yeah.”
Gyeo-ul sent Seo-ha off first, seeing that he looked in a hurry.
Then she opened the piano cover and played Debussy’s 'Clair de Lune' again.
The moment the first note rang out with the pedal half-pressed, the tension in her stiff shoulders melted away. Earlier, even while playing, she hadn’t been able to shake the frustration, so what had changed?
Now, she felt freer than ever.
***
Seo-ha’s footsteps quickened as he headed to the dormitory.
The night air was pleasantly cool.
'I need an environment.'
Seo-ha wanted to start his research right away. But there were more than a few things bothering him.
First of all, he needed a space where no one would disturb him.
He was planning to release Ducky for this research.
‘Home’s not an option, and the dormitory is even worse. It would be perfect if there’s a chalkboard or whiteboard. I don’t know how many days it’ll take, so I’ll need a place where I can wash. Most importantly, it has to be a place where no one comes.’
The start would have to be on Friday afternoon no matter what.
That’s when most students go home. At the very least, he’d secure two and a half days until Monday.
If more time was needed, he could file for a sick leave.
Back at the dormitory, he played the CD Gyeo-ul had given him.
Gyeo-ul's performance resonated softly.
‘A recording from a studio really is different.’
The sound quality was so good, it felt like he could even hear Gyeo-ul’s breathing between the notes.
When he closed his eyes, though it didn’t come close to a live performance, it certainly had a calming effect to some extent. It could serve as a form of insurance in an emergency.
Starting the next day, Seo-ha began searching for a location.
The first place he considered, the shared seminar room, was already fully booked.
The music room was ruled out due to many pre-med students nearby. The project room had expensive equipment, so it was locked at night.
‘The school’s a no-go? Then let’s try outside.’
When he visited a study café in front of the school, he was told that only one person alone couldn’t use the room due to potential accidents.
‘Another dead end today.’
Seo-ha leaned against his bed and plugged in his earphones.
Track 1 – 'Clair de Lune'.
Seo-ha had come to like this piece.
Though it was his first time hearing it through Gyeo-ul’s performance, perhaps because it had inspired him, it felt new every time he listened to it. His breathing began to stabilize.
Then a location suddenly came to mind.
‘Ah! There was that lecture room Professor Kim Ji-yoon uses.’
That place was a seminar room exclusively for college-level pre-enrollment, only used for classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. From Friday afternoon through the weekend, it should be completely free to use. It was located at the far end of a hallway corner, with almost no foot traffic.
At the front, there was a massive chalkboard and two mobile whiteboards. The windows were narrow, and with double-layered blinds, it was ideal for blocking outside visibility.
As expected from a research room, the prep room in the back had running water. It should be enough for basic washing.
And most importantly, it was a place Seo-ha could access.
Since he had a student card for the advance credit course, he could get permission from the management center by saying he needed to study for a presentation.
Once the location was decided, he felt impatient.
‘Still, I should get permission from the professor.’
Of course, he wasn’t going to mention that he planned to use it overnight. That only needed to be reported to the management center.
The next day, Seo-ha contacted Professor Kim Ji-yoon and asked for help.
Surprisingly, when Seo-ha mentioned he had something to research, she gladly granted him permission to use the classroom over the weekend.
'I might come by later?'
Those words weighed on his mind, but she only came to school on Tuesdays.
Seo-ha was confident he could finish everything before then.
Now, what remained was supplies.
On Thursday afternoon, Seo-ha dragged his large suitcase, normally used for going home, and headed to a big supermarket.
Unfortunately, the school didn’t provide meals on weekends.
Seo-ha thought about what food would be necessary for survival over three days.
A pack of bottled water containing 500ml x 20 bottles, and an ion drink to prevent sodium deficiency. Seeing dried jujubes reminded him of home. He picked up a bag along with some mixed nuts.
He bought chocolate and biscuits that could be stored at room temperature, and a few instant rice porridges. He also grabbed a few energy bars and some protein bars popular with fitness people.
‘Is this enough?’
At the counter, the cashier glanced at the suitcase and smiled.
"Going on a trip somewhere?"
Seo-ha awkwardly laughed and mumbled a reply.
After checking out and stepping outside, the suitcase felt pretty heavy.
Low odor, no dishes, nutrient-rich.
‘Supplies secured!’
He had spent nearly all his allowance, but he was satisfied.
He clenched his fist and did a small fighting pose.
For someone like Seo-ha, who had hardly any travel experience, this was the best he could do.
***
Ding dong deng-
Friday. The bell signaling the end of classes rang out.
The atmosphere in the classroom instantly heated up.
“What are you doing this weekend?”
"I have a family gathering."
"What about you?"
"Lucky you. I have to catch up on my overdue assignments."
The hallway bustled with students heading home.
Seo-ha waved goodbye to them, then headed toward the management center.
The staff member at the desk quietly stared at Seo-ha’s student ID card, then checked the post-it note attached to the front. He nodded.
“Please make sure to return it once you’re done using it.”
Seo-ha politely received the card key he handed over.
“Yes!”
The sun slanted between the buildings.
As students were exiting through the front gate, Seo-ha walked toward a different destination.
Beep-
When he tapped the card key, the door opened smoothly.
The lecture room, unused since the day before, carried a cool air inside. Seo-ha first approached the windows and drew down all the blinds.
He rearranged the tables into a ㄷ-shape and set one chair in the center. Then, he placed all the materials he had prepared on the table.
One by one, he pulled out the books he had borrowed from the library. And lastly, there were more than a hundred notebooks.
Seo-ha stared at them quietly, then picked up the one on top.
Sssrrk.
As he flipped through the pages, colored sticky notes were attached here and there, alongside handwritten formulas.
Thinking back now, the theory was absurd. A purely one-dimensional simplification.
Back then, he had truly believed that this would be enough to prove it.
[Four Color Theorem, I will prove it!]
The handwriting was uneven and unrefined.
It must’ve been when he was around eight years old, give or take.
“Hoo…”
Seo-ha let out a deep breath.
At first, it had definitely just been a light curiosity.
When had this coloring game, which had started half as a joke, become a goal he absolutely had to achieve?
Each time he hit a wall, more notebooks piled up.
And with every failure, his knowledge grew.
Slap-
Seo-ha slapped both cheeks with his hands.
'Let's not get lost in sentimentality.'
He divided the notebooks into three piles.
First, the ones to discard.
The early theories like area preservation hypothesis and angle-sum matching tricks were one-dimensional ideas that were no help to the proof.
The second pile was on hold.
Ideas like adjacency indicators and directionality markers might still have potential for use.
The third pile was notebooks he could actively make use of.
Preliminary drafts of the boundary pattern dictionary, lists of local rules, and research on parity invariants.
These were worth revisiting.
He took out chalk, organized it, and set up the two whiteboards on either side.
'There's plenty of paper too.'
Seeing the box full of A3 paper sheets put his mind at ease.
After finishing the setup, he created a supply station in the corner.
Water bottles, paper cups, a CD player borrowed from the audiovisual room, and the food he brought, all laid out neatly on the table.
Lastly, he sent a text to his family.
Mi-young had felt disappointed that her son said he’d be staying at school to study over the weekend, but since it had happened even during exam periods before, she didn’t seem too bothered.
Gulp.
A wave of nervousness suddenly washed over him.
‘What if it doesn’t go as I planned?’
But there was nothing he could do. Seo-ha was determined to see this through this weekend.
He closed his eyes and focused his mind.
One minute. Two minutes passed.
Suddenly, Seo-ha’s eyes flashed open.
“Ducky, let’s begin.”