Translator: Dreamscribe
Anonymous board,
[Let’s be courteous when using the laundry room.]
-This is really too much. If your laundry is done, take it out right away or put it in the dryer! I’ve got so much studying to do, how long am I supposed to wait for this?!
└ Ah, I think I’m getting PTSD. Laundry hell.
└ Filed a complaint with the student council.
└ The reservation system itself is flawed. Is first-come-first-served fair?
└ There’s no other way. Do you have a better idea?
└ Even just cracking down on no-shows would make things better than now.
└ You guys are just lazy. I always get up early in the morning and use it comfortably.
└ Can’t they just increase the number of washing machines?
└ There are already ten, and you want more? Might as well open a laundromat.
Student council president Baek Jun-gi let out a sigh as he read the board.
“There have already been over 20 complaints about the laundry room this week. Shouldn’t we come up with a countermeasure?”
Vice president Min Do-hyun raised his hand.
“Isn’t it because it’s being run on a first-come, self-managed basis?
We could fix the reservation app and assign different recommended times to users. If we just reduce the bottleneck times, the number of washing machines we have should be enough, so I think it’ll work.”
The Gifted High School allowed students quite a bit of autonomy. The use of the laundry room was one such area.
But that also meant they had to solve even these detailed issues on their own.
“Hmm...”
Jun-gi mulled over Do-hyun’s suggestion and nodded.
“That’s a good idea. Anyway, the reservation app we’re using now was made by our sunbaes.”
“I heard it was made three years ago. Back then everything was analog, and during peak times, everyone had to stand in line holding their laundry baskets....”
The current system had been gradually established over time. But as technology advances, systems also need to evolve.
That afternoon, the student council visited the computer club, “Bit Forge”.
Creak-
The small clubroom couldn’t be called clean by any stretch of the imagination.
Desks piled high with cables like mountains, computer towers thick with dust, and empty energy drink cans scattered everywhere.
As they opened the door, the distinct unpleasant smell of electronics hit them, carried by the damp air.
Baek Jun-gi wrinkled his face.
“At least try cleaning up, for god’s sake!”
Students in hoodies sitting inside stared blankly at them. Complicated graphs and lines of code were running endlessly on their screens.
One of them stood up to greet them.
“Student council president? What brings you here?”
“It’s about the laundry room reservation app.”
Vice president Do-hyun spoke politely.
“Oh! That? Our club sunbaes made it. It’s a mess.”
Laughter spread through the clubroom.
“If you know that, could you maybe fix it? Let’s overhaul the reservation system.”
As soon as the president finished speaking, a girl wearing a baseball cap threw out a comment.
“It’s free, that’s the problem. If you paid us, everything would be solved.”
‘Why isn’t there a single normal person here?’
Jun-gi barely suppressed his rising anger and spoke gently.
“That’s not an option. Free is the principle. We can’t take money from students.”
At Jun-gi’s firm words, the clubroom fell silent for a moment.
“But why do we have to do it? There’s no reward.”
A boy in the corner, with one earbud in, leaned back in his chair and added his voice.
The president sighed.
“Aren’t you students at this school too? Since we’re all using it, wouldn’t it be nice if it were more convenient for everyone?”
It was a logical statement, but it didn’t resonate with them.
“We’re not inconvenienced though? I do laundry once every three weeks anyway.”
“Nice. I do it once a month.”
“I just take it all home.”
Jun-gi eventually raised his hand.
“Fine, name your terms. Something we can actually agree to.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the requests poured in.
“Obviously budget. Give us brand new computers.”
“Expand Wi-Fi throughout the school.”
“Make jackets with our club name engraved.”
Min Do-hyun whispered with a dumbfounded expression.
“This is basically a wish list of desires.”
Jun-gi’s expression turned cold.
“Not a single one of those is possible. But how about this instead?
If you don’t meet the student council’s request, your club will undergo an audit. We’ll compare all the budget you’ve received so far with your actual achievements and thoroughly investigate whether your club has any reason to continue existing. And we’ll include an environmental hygiene inspection too.”
Silence swept over the clubroom.
The president of Bit Forge cleared his throat and signaled to everyone with his eyes.
“Well… it’s true that we do have the code the sunbaes made.”
“We’ve always respected the student council. Just tell us what you need us to do!”
Jun-gi looked satisfied.
“Great! What we want is simple.”
The president pulled over a whiteboard and started writing down the requirements.
-10 washing machines, 12 dryers.
-Night noise restriction: 00:00 - 05:00
-Priorities: lab coats, club group laundry, weighted priority for students with disabilities.
-Ensure fairness.
-Minimize average wait time, minimize path conflicts, minimize idle time for washers and dryers.
Yeon-woo, the president of Bit Forge, looked at the board and scratched his head with a troubled expression.
“President, we can make the app just like that. But that recommendation engine, you do know it’s absolute hell, right?”
“Why?”
A short-spoken female student suddenly cut into the conversation.
“Impossible. This isn’t just app development. Too many objectives. Probability, optimization, fairness issues, demand fluctuations, seasonal effects.
It’s thesis-level. Graduate research project difficulty.”
“But we still need a solution.”
As the president seemed irritated, Yeon-woo proposed a compromise.
“Let’s compromise. Just remove the fairness requirement. Then we’ll find a way to make it work. If it’s just about running the machines at maximum efficiency, we can do that.”
“Be reasonable. Would you accept it if every recommendation for you was always late at night or during meal times?”
Yeon-woo’s voice rose in frustration.
“Then what the hell are we supposed to do?!”
“I'm telling you to try to make it possible. We’ll recognize it as a school project. There’ll be a decent budget. And of course, you’ll get performance evaluation credit.”
Yeon-woo’s face flushed red, as if blood had rushed to his head.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! Search the entire world, is there a high school student who can actually do this?”
Looking at the fired-up Yeon-woo, the girl spoke briefly.
“There is.”
“Huh?”
The two of them looked at her at the same time.
“If it’s the God of Mathematics, Duck Lord, it’s possible.”
On the girl’s monitor was a small duck figurine attached to it.
***
Seo-ha had no idea what was happening.
Suddenly, people had swarmed in and surrounded him without a word. Then he was dragged to this place.
[Bit Forge]
As he sat in a chair, the student council president, looking embarrassed, explained the situation.
“So you’re saying you need me to make a laundry algorithm?”
“You got it right away. Please, I'm begging you. These are complaints that have piled up for years. If we just ignore this, the student council might go down.
Since it’s a school project, you’ll get a perfect score for the second semester’s IT subject.”
Jun-gi brought his hands together and earnestly pleaded.
“But I don’t know how to program.”
“...What?”
Everyone was left speechless at Seo-ha’s innocent expression.
Since the IT subject was part of the curriculum, most students at the Gifted High School had studied coding even before admission.
“Could I maybe learn it now?”
“It’s urgent right now, how’s that going to work?”
The Bit Forge president shook his head, saying it was impossible.
Still, if Seo-ha set the mathematical logic and the club handled the overall coding, they might be able to make it work.
“Possible now. Here’s the book.”
Na-ri appeared from somewhere with a guidebook and handed it to him.
‘What’s she trying to do by giving him that now?’
She was already a strange character, but right now, no one could guess what Na-ri was thinking.
“Thank you.”
“We are classmates. Casual speech is fine.”
“Okay!”
Seo-ha accepted the book.
Watching the two of them get along so smoothly, Jun-gi and Yeon-woo suddenly realized just how old they felt.
[Python, From Beginner to Advanced]
“Even the title’s scary. Isn’t there just a beginner’s book?”
At Jun-gi’s words, Na-ri shrugged.
“This was on top.”
Seo-ha sat in the chair and began reading.
From the first page, unfamiliar words like function scope, iterator, and generator poured out.
But as he turned the pages, a smile slowly spread across Seo-ha’s face.
The words in the book were unfamiliar, but the structure was all too familiar to him.
‘Scope is like the boundary of assumptions and conclusions in a proof, iterator is induction, generator is an infinite sequence.’
The code was nothing more than new symbols. The principles inside were mathematical logic already engraved in Seo-ha’s body.
Seo-ha realized that a programming language was ultimately just a collection of logic and rules.
His heart began to race.
The fact that the intangible logic dealt with in mathematics could now be realized in reality through the form of code was incredibly exciting.
Before they knew it, two hours had passed.
Since it was awkward to leave, everyone waited for Seo-ha while doing their own tasks.
Tap.
Seo-ha closed the book.
“Would it be okay if I came again next week? There are a few things I’d like to research.”
He had finished reading a professional-level textbook in just two hours.
‘Don’t tell me he already understood all of that?’
Everyone in the clubroom awkwardly nodded.
Seo-ha headed straight to the library and made his way to the computer science section.
‘It was a fascinating language.’
Now that he understood programming, he felt like he knew what was needed to solve the laundry room issue.
[Operating Systems and Scheduling]
[Computer Networks]
[Game Theory and Algorithmic Design]
Back in the dorm, Seo-ha placed the books and notebook on his desk and turned on his laptop.
Whirrr-
“Alright, let’s give it a try.”
Clack, clack.
First, he set up the overall framework.
There were some mathematical theories that came to mind.
Clack, clack.
The deeper the night got, the longer the lines of code on the screen became.
‘What else do I need?’
There were a few ideas he had seen in books that seemed worth applying to the app.
Random delay simulation to prevent clashes when multiple users reserve at the same time, instant response event processing that mimicked ghost calls.
‘Let’s implement a reward system.’
Even a simple incentive model that would control students’ choices by giving and receiving credits.
After finishing the rough design, Seo-ha went to sleep with a contented expression.
***
A week later,
Seo-ha was like a completely different person.
Clackclackclackclackclack-clack!
Code poured out in a storm on the screen in front of him.
Yeon-woo was in his third year of high school, but he had five years of coding experience.
Multiple competition wins under his belt.
Yeon-woo couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
‘He definitely learned Python for the first time just a week ago.’
Seo-ha’s hands danced over the laptop as if possessed.
Creak-
“You ready?”
As the president walked in, Seo-ha turned his chair around.
“Let me start with the conclusion.”
The president and vice president quickly pulled out their notebooks, ready to take notes.
“Perfect fairness is impossible.
But a state where no one suffers significantly, mathematically referred to as EF1 (Envy-Freeness up to one item), can be achieved.”
“E-F-One?”
Seo-ha turned his laptop around to show the screen.
It displayed a simulation result filled with graphs and tables.
“Yes, it refers to a state where if one person concedes just once, the feeling of envy disappears. In other words, over the long term, everyone gets roughly equal opportunities. Of course, the machines can also be operated at nearly maximum efficiency.”
Yeon-woo’s eyes widened.
“T-That can actually be implemented as a system?”
He had heard it was a challenge worthy of a thesis, but the kid in front of him was calmly explaining it as if it were nothing.
“Fairness can be maintained through probabilistic weighting and a reward structure. When we combine the two, we can capture both efficiency and fairness.”
Yeon-woo let out a hollow laugh.
“You’re saying you’ll implement EF1 for a laundry room?”
A student with earbuds in also stood up.
“If this is possible, winning the grand prize in a programming contest would be a walk in the park.”
“Very difficult, but possible. Realistic. Just requires extreme mathematical ability.”
Na-ri looked at Seo-ha with a satisfied expression.
Baek Jun-gi and Min Do-hyun stared intently at the simulation graphs Seo-ha had prepared.
The washing machines and dryers operated simultaneously, and the queue lengths shrank.
The red-marked unfairness indicators gradually disappeared and eventually stabilized at a very low level.
“Waiting time drops by 35%.”
Do-hyun’s voice trembled.
“As expected, the God of Mathematics.”
Na-ri said proudly.