Translator: Dreamscribe
"Why is our Seo-eun so upset?"
Five-year-old Seo-eun had her arms crossed and was stubbornly staring at the sky to the left.
Mi-young tried to soothe her by speaking gently, but Seo-eun puffed out her cheeks even more and turned her head away completely.
"My pretty Seo-eun, just tell mommy a little bit. What’s going on?"
Standing on her short legs with her lips stuck out in a pout, it was as if she was proclaiming to the world with her whole body that she was angry.
Mi-young looked at that and laughed because it was so cute.
"Seo-eun, what’s wrong~?"
Seo-eun began to sob as if the world had wronged her.
"Oppa!"
"Yes, oppa."
Sob.
"Oppa didn’t play with me for two whole days. He said he would play with me after the competition, but he lied."
Tears fell one after another from Seo-eun's eyes.
"He’s probably with a guest right now. They’ll leave soon, so let’s wait just a little."
Richmond? Edward?
A famous professor had come early to talk with Seo-ha. After experiencing this a few times, Mi-young had become immune and didn’t get as nervous as before.
‘Seo-ha will take care of it himself.’
"Then, can mommy do it instead? I’ll teach you."
Mi-young let out a sigh.
There was a lot she needed to do, but it didn’t seem like her daughter was going to let her go easily.
"Okay! Let’s do it with mommy!"
"Okay!"
Seo-eun dashed off to her room. Then she came out carrying a basket. Inside were colorful number cards that Seo-ha had made. Mi-young had seen the kids playing with them before, but she didn’t know the rules of the game.
The cards were divided into two types. Large numbers and small numbers.
"If mommy puts out a card, I’ll break it down with these cards. The more cards you use, the better!"
The card she was given. A large number.
Mi-young pulled out the card that said 90.
"90? Then I’ll..."
Seo-eun mumbled while rummaging through her cards with her small hands.
"Hmm... first, 2! Then 45 is left, next... 3! Now 15 is left, so 3 and 5!"
Seo-eun excitedly picked up each card and laid them down.
"Tada! I used four cards."
She clapped her hands and looked delighted. Then she held out her palm.
"Candy!"
Mi-young stared at her daughter with a dazed look on her face.
‘This is number play? Son, what on earth are you teaching your sister?’
Mi-young placed a candy in Seo-eun’s hand.
"Now it’s mommy’s turn! Give me a bigger number!"
The couple had never taught Seo-eun anything.
But Seo-ha had been holding his sister every day and at some point began reading her books. Then came Korean alphabet lessons. It didn’t take long to finish numbers, alphabets, and even the multiplication table.
‘Though I didn’t expect he was teaching her prime factorization.’
It seemed Seo-eun was just happy to play with her oppa.
She didn’t perceive it as studying at all.
Being human herself, Mi-young couldn’t help but wonder, ‘Could Seo-eun be like her brother too?’ But her daughter was different from Seo-ha.
Her son handled everything on his own. The thirst for knowledge that led Seo-ha to search for and read books was not seen in Seo-eun. But it didn’t matter. She was growing up bright and healthy, and that was enough.
Chul-ho did feel a bit left out since his daughter had become completely fixated on her oppa, but...
"Pfft."
She laughed thinking about her husband sulking at being pushed down to third place at home by his daughter.
***
"Are you done talking?"
It was only after a long time that the professor came out. He looked at Mi-young with a face full of things to say about his conversation with Seo-ha but simply gave a polite farewell and left.
"Yes. He’s a professor from some university in the U.S., and he asked me to publish a paper."
"A paper? Isn’t that something difficult?"
"Nah, not really. He said I just need to organize the problem I solved and write it well. He even said he’d handle the submission for me."
Mi-young still couldn’t understand.
Weren’t papers something at least college students wrote? She tried to get used to having a genius son, but Seo-ha always exceeded her expectations.
"But why a paper all of a sudden?"
"He just brought it up while he was here to give me something."
Seo-ha, as if he just remembered, pulled out a box from behind. It was a fairly large box, and the sender was marked as "Korean Mathematical Society".
"Huh? What’s this? It’s pretty big?"
Mi-young took the box and was surprised by its weight.
Curious, she brought a cutter and carefully opened the box. Inside was an item wrapped in cushioning material.
"A book?"
She opened a case designed to unfold like a book, and a certificate printed with gold lettering appeared.
[49th National Mathematics Competition - Grand Prize]
"They really put effort into making this."
Mi-young admired it as she examined the certificate. It was made of thick paper with gold embossing.
[Name: Yu Seo-ha]
Her heart swelled at the thought that her son had been recognized at a national competition. Before she knew it, Seo-eun came over and was rummaging through the box like a cat.
"Mommy, a plate!"
It was a silver plate-shaped trophy.
Mi-young looked back and forth between the certificate and the trophy with a moved expression. She thought she should place them somewhere everyone could see. But Seo-ha didn’t seem interested in them at all.
"Kyaaah!"
Seo-eun was delighted.
Perhaps because she liked the shiny object, she gripped the plate tightly with both hands as if it were hers, and Seo-ha lifted her up and played airplane with her.
As Mi-young tried to tidy up the box, a document fell out from the bottom.
[Prize Money Information]
-Prize Amount: 1,000,000 won
"There’s prize money too? And this much?"
In their tight household budget, 1,000,000 won would be a great help, but Mi-young couldn’t bring herself to think about spending it.
‘I’ll save it for Seo-ha. We don't know what might happen in the future...'
It was the day when the name Yu Seo-ha began to be known across the country.
***
Faculty office of Sejong-based Gifted School,
Su-jeong stood blankly holding a certificate. The paper in her hand trembled slightly.
[49th National Mathematics Competition - Gold Prize]
"Gold Prize? Me?"
Su-jeong’s voice was full of disbelief. It was something that had never happened before in her life. She had always been first. In every test, in every competition.
"Yes. It’s unfortunate this time."
Her homeroom teacher, Park Young-ho, who also taught math, shook his head.
"Teacher, isn’t this a mistake? I didn’t make any mistakes. I knew all the problems and wrote down perfect solutions and answers. It was a perfect score, how could I not win the Grand Prize?"
Hmm.
Her teacher looked troubled.
He too hadn’t doubted that Su-jeong would get the Grand Prize, so upon seeing the result, he immediately called the organizers to check.
-There was a small error in question 4. The student who received the Grand Prize corrected it perfectly. It was a major topic among the professors. Actually, it was going to be accepted as a multi-answer question, but a professor from Stanford objected.
Edward Han.
When Young-ho heard that name, he got goosebumps. Why would a world-renowned mathematician be involved in a Korean competition?
He had once spent several sleepless nights in college trying to understand Professor Han’s papers.
His approach to the “Navier-Stokes equation regularity problem” published at the age of 34 had shocked the mathematics community. He had proposed an innovative methodology for this fluid dynamics core problem.
Since then, he published over 30 papers in top-tier journals and boasted world-class citation numbers.
If he had personally chosen the Grand Prize winner, the society would have had no say.
Young-ho explained all this with effort, but from Su-jeong’s perspective, it was hard to accept.
"I don’t know what I did wrong. If the answer had been wrong, I would just study hard and get it right next time. But that’s not it. Teacher, what am I supposed to do if I want to be first? Wait until the Grand Prize winner goes off to college?"
‘Why is she so desperate?’
Only then did Young-ho realize that the student before him was just fifteen years old.
Blinded by her mathematical achievements, he had failed to see her as a student.
"Su-jeong."
"Yes?"
"Do your parents give you a lot of stress about your grades at home?"
Young-ho asked cautiously.
According to the information recorded in the student file, Su-jeong’s father was an engineering professor at Seoul National University, and her mother was a doctor. Based on experience, families like this often placed considerable academic pressure on their children.
This child might also be forced to study under conditions close to abuse.
However, the response that came was completely unexpected.
"Huh? What do you mean by that? My parents have been begging me to cut down on academys since I was little. Especially my dad, he always nagged me to skip classes and go out on weekends, and I had such a hard time pushing him away."
Su-jeong looked at Young-ho like he was a strange person.
"Huh?"
"Yes?"
"Then why are you so obsessed with rankings? A Gold Prize is still an excellent result."
"I just... I like being first. That feeling of standing alone at the very top. The moment when others look up at me... it's really..."
Su-jeong’s eyes sparkled. It was like the craving of an addict for a drug.
"...so ecstatically overwhelming that I can't stand it."
Su-jeong closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest as if hugging herself. Then her body shuddered.
Rattle.
Goosebumps rose on Young-ho’s arms.
"Su... Su-jeong."
‘She’s not normal. A mental disorder? But she seems so perfectly fine most of the time... Her mom’s a doctor, so what exactly is going on at home?’
Various thoughts crossed Young-ho’s mind.
He tried to subtly back away, but suddenly Su-jeong’s eyes opened wide and she leaned forward.
Young-ho flinched at the unknown force behind her intensity.
"Teacher, that’s why I’m asking. The Grand Prize winner is a senior, right? Graduating this year, right? Well then, starting next year I’ll be first again, so there’s no need to worry.
Honestly, it wouldn’t matter even if he doesn’t graduate. I just had some bad luck this time. Who would’ve known that professor from the U.S. would be so unreasonable? Still, better to be safe, so I just want to confirm. What’s his name?"
"Yu Seo-ha."
"I’ve memorized the names of the top 20 math students in Korea, and I’ve never heard that name before. Clearly, this time luck was on his side."
She had always been quiet, so no one knew. That she could talk this much.
Now it made sense.
She must’ve been quietly enjoying all the praise being poured on her.
The nonstop stream of Su-jeong’s words left Young-ho mentally drained. He decided to end this conversation quickly.
"He’s an elementary school student."
Su-jeong blinked, as if her brain had stopped functioning.
"...What?"
"Yu Seo-ha, the one who got the Grand Prize. He’s an elementary school student.
I got a copy of his answer sheet and read through it myself, but honestly, I couldn’t fully understand it either. I'm sorry for being an inadequate teacher."
It was a sincere apology, but it seemed she didn’t hear anything at all, there was no focus in her eyes.
"...That’s impossible."
A great crisis had come upon the 15-year life of Su-jeong.