Seoha woke from his sleep.
He checked the clock. It was 9 p.m.; outside was already dark. Being in the hospital had completely ruined his circadian rhythm.
When he opened the curtains, he saw rain falling steadily. Seoha sat on the edge of his bed and gazed out the window, lost in thought.
'Why did something like this happen?'
It felt like cells that had been dormant in his mind were awakening.
'Is Deoki hiding?'
He could sense its presence.
But it was as if it had fallen into hibernation; no matter how much he called, there was no answer. Just as Seoha was undergoing changes due to his contract with it, perhaps Deoki was also adapting in its own way.
Whether because his body had yet to adjust to his changed senses, a headache flared.
Seoha desperately tried not to reveal it on his face. Explaining a cause only he knew to the doctors would be an arduous task.
Besides, if he were found out, he might have to undergo examinations all over again from scratch. For now, his intention was to hide it as best he could and get discharged first. He was no longer a thirteen-year-old boy now. Given time, he was confident he could control this degree of strain however much he needed.
Plip-plop.
Raindrops struck the windowpane and trickled down. Seoha stared blankly at them before raising a finger and slowly tracing it across the glass. The sight of the water droplets' trajectories merging and splitting under gravity's pull. To another's eyes, it would look like he was playing around, but to him, an entirely different landscape was visible.
'Convergence of paths in an uncountable space.'
A concept that had been hovering at the brink of the 8th Stage was faintly revealing its form. To not lose that sensation, Seoha closed his eyes and tried to draw out the formula.
Energy flowed like raindrops.
At first, it was a single faint point. It slowly spread, becoming a line, then gathered again to form a plane. And in an instant, light scattered and a new space opened.
A world composed of formulas.
A place where everything existed simultaneously, and thus had no beginning or end. Seoha spent a long time swimming through that space he had named himself.
"...I told you, I'm just going to see his face and come back!"
"You can't do this. Please make an appointment to visit during the permitted hours!"
At the sounds drifting in, his eyes opened.
It seemed someone was quarreling with a security guard outside the hospital room. It wasn't the first time, so he tried to ignore it, but the voice sounded familiar.
He quickly got up from his seat and opened the hospital room door.
Creak.
"..."
Seeing Gyeoul standing in the corridor, Seoha found himself speechless.
She must have come through the rain; her body was soaked through. Her outer garment, heavy with water, hung low and clung to her. Water dripped steadily from the ends of her sleeves. Her white sneakers were ruined in the muddy water, as if she had run frantically.
More than anything, it was her face that pained his heart.
Where had her usual composure and confidence gone? It was still cold early spring, and her face was deathly pale from forcing her way through the rain in the biting weather. Her disheveled hair stuck to her cheeks, making her look haggard.
"Han Gyeoul!"
Gyeoul flinched, then slowly turned her head. And upon discovering Seoha's face, she collapsed right onto the floor with a thud. Tears welled up in her reddened, bloodshot eyes and soon mixed with the rainwater, streaming down her cheeks.
"...You, I swear."
A fragile, trembling voice.
Whether from the cold or from relief, sobs were mixed in her voice. Gyeoul, weighed down by the rainwater, looked as wretched as a kitten left alone in a torrential downpour.
"What happened?"
Seoha's eyes widened.
He hurried over and lifted her to her feet. Only after confirming that Seoha's condition wasn't as bad as she thought did the strength leave Gyeoul's shoulders. But then, all at once, a surge of sorrow and embarrassment flooded over her.
"I thought something terrible had happened to you..."
Her lips trembled before she swallowed her words. Then she thrust her hand into the pocket of her wet coat.
"No. It's because of this. I came to give you this, so don't get the wrong idea."
"W-wait a minute."
Before he could say anything in response, she spun around and began walking in the opposite direction. With every step, her ruined sneakers squelched. Yet the resolve not to look back was so palpable in her retreating figure that Seoha couldn't bring himself to stop her.
He looked down at the envelope Gyeoul had handed him.
[Han Gyeoul Recital]
Arts Center, two days from now.
He remembered her saying she was going to hold a recital in Korea. But he couldn't understand the idea that she had forced her way through the rain at this late hour just to deliver an invitation.
"Seoha."
At Miyeong's voice, Seoha turned his head. She was walking toward him carrying paper bags in both hands. Since Seoha's hospitalization had been prolonged, she had gone to Okcheon to take her husband and daughter home and to bring back some things.
"Here. I didn't even think to grab this earlier because everything was so hectic."
"Thank you."
As he took the cellphone, it struck him.
He hurriedly checked his messages. The moment he turned on the screen, notifications flooded in like a waterfall.
"This is a mess."
Seoha went back into the hospital room and carefully read through the messages.
Jihun, Dogyeong, Changseok, Jiye.
Names he longed to hear. Not just from Korea, but from Elina Hugo at MIT, and even from Dean Whitman.
He slowly scrolled down the screen.
Han Gyeoul, Han Gyeoul, Han Gyeoul.
"-Seoha, can we meet this week? I need to give you the recital invitation."
"-Why aren't you replying? Busy?"
"-Are you sick? Did you collapse? You're on the news right now."
"-Call me when you get this."
"-The article saying you're critical isn't true, right? Please answer your phone!"
"Article?"
Seoha stared at the screen for a moment, then opened a portal app with trembling hands. He typed his name into the search bar.
[Fields Medal Laureate Yoo Seoha, Emergency Transport to Seoul National University Hospital in Unconscious State. Government: "Unable to Confirm Facts"]
[Mathematician Yoo Seoha Critical? Seoul National University Hospital Currently Under Control]
"What on earth is this?"
The internet was in an uproar.
It had started with an article posted by a minor online media outlet without verification. A video taken from a nearby rooftop was attached to the article, apparently as a tip.
Whup-whup-whup-whup—
A scene of a helicopter landing at the Seoul National University Hospital helipad, followed by footage of waiting medical staff rushing toward it.
The face on the stretcher was plainly visible. It was himself, unconscious with an oxygen mask on.
As he scrolled, articles poured out.
[Yoo Seoha Critical Condition Rumors Shock Academic Community]
Seoha pressed his palm to his forehead. His headache worsened.
Thousands of comments were attached to the articles. Posts from figures in the mathematics community, ordinary people who had rushed over after seeing the news, and even comments in English, Chinese, and Japanese were mixed in.
└Isn't this fake?
└Seems true. I'm hospitalized at Seoul National University Hospital right now, and the atmosphere is weird. Men in suits are wandering around.
└Huh? Why is the government controlling it?
└For someone like Yoo Seoha, it's right that he's managed at the national level.
└Aah! God is too cruel. Did He take him because he might develop a time machine? Because a singularity would come to the world?
└They said critical, not dead. Don't say such inauspicious things!
└Is this a reliable source?
└There's video. And testimony from Okcheon residents on SNS. They say multiple ambulances came to Yoo Seoha's house.
└There's a post written by the MIT dean. Our professor read it and ran out of class. (link)
Seoha clicked the link as if entranced.
Click.
[What It Would Mean for Humanity to Lose Yoo Seoha — For Those of You Who Do Not Know Math Well]
"-When Newton discovered universal gravitation, humanity finally understood the principles of celestial motion. When Einstein presented the theory of relativity, we learned of the limits inherent in space-time."
A hundred years since then, humanity has yet to see the world beyond. And Seoha was the one who, through his 13-Stage Hypothesis, showed for the first time the possibility of breaking this solid wall represented by the theories of Turing and Einstein.
"Is it still difficult to understand? Then let us posit this. There is the greatest library in human history. Yet the books in that library exist only inside the mind of a single person. Of course, they have not yet all been written out. But what if we were to lose him?"
"O, Lord, take me instead! And please, protect that noble flame that will sustain humanity's next millennium."
└Harold Whitman. It really is a post by the dean of MIT's Math Department. I get chills just reading the translation.
└I don't know math, but was Yoo Seoha really this level?
└He really is on that level. Please let it be a false report.
What on earth had happened while he slept? It felt as though a massive storm had raged.
Just as he thought he needed to correct the situation quickly, the main articles on the portal site began changing in real time.
[Breaking: Joint Statement from Ministry of National Defense and Seoul National University Hospital — "Rumors of Yoo Seoha's Critical Condition Are Clearly False"]
"-It was merely a temporary fainting spell due to overwork, with no health abnormalities. He has currently regained consciousness and is resting stably."
Just two hours after the false report broke, the hospital director, who had been at home, was called in to stand in the briefing room. Word had it that the Presidential Office had ordered the fact-check directly.
"Oh my! Did you see that, too?"
Miyeong, who had entered the room, sighed as she took things out of the paper bag and organized them. On the way up, after receiving a call from an acquaintance in the car, she had felt as though her heart had stopped. With trembling hands, she had called the hospital, and found that it was indeed a false report.
"Yes, I saw. I'm sorry for worrying you, Mom."
"No. You should be grateful the world cares so much about you. But are you really sure there's nothing wrong? It's not even the first time you've collapsed, and I just can't seem to feel at ease..."
"I'm completely healthy!"
Seoha sprang up from his seat and threw his arms up in an exaggerated motion.
Then a thought flashed through his mind.
'Han Gyeoul?'
Everything made sense.
The state of mind she must have been in to run all the way to the hospital.
"Mom! Give me some clothes, please."
"Huh?"
"I need to go somewhere urgently right now!"
Seoha pulled a coat out of the bag Miyeong had packed and threw it on hastily.
"But it's raining so hard outside!"
"Later!"
He dashed out of the hospital room and headed for the elevator.
But a security guard in a black suit blocked his path. Even after a lengthy scuffle, the guard remained immovable, claiming he had no orders to the contrary. In the end, Seoha had to call the Minister to get him switched out.
"Then I shall escort you."
"Yes! Thank you!"
He already knew where he had to go.
The house he had visited as a child—Gyeoul's home.
"Please take me to Daesagwan-ro."
Seoha sat in the back seat and looked out the window. The raindrops were growing thicker. He belatedly realized he had come out wearing hospital slippers, but he had no intention of going back.
About twenty minutes later, the car gradually slowed.
"We've arrived."
At the end of Daesagwan-ro, a luxurious mansion surrounded by high walls.
Indubitably, it was the same house he had visited in the past.
Ding-dong—
A moment later, a voice came through the intercom.
"Who is it?"
It was a low, composed man's voice.
"Hello, my name is Yoo Seoha. I'm a high school friend of Gyeoul's."
"..."
A brief silence passed.
"Come in."
Shortly after, accompanied by a mechanical sound, a clack signaled the gate opening.
Ascending the stone steps, he found the man waiting in front of the front door.
'Gyeoul's father.'
He was a tall, broad-shouldered man.
He had a gentle impression, but the gaze with which he regarded Seoha was sharp. Seoha thought that Gyeoul had inherited her father's eyes.
"It's a pleasure to meet you for the first time."
Seoha bowed politely to him.
The man wore a somewhat displeased expression. Instead of answering, his gaze swept Seoha up and down. The jacket hastily thrown over hospital scrubs, hospital slippers, unkempt hair, and the security guard in a black suit waiting behind him.
"Welcome. A friend of Gyeoul's? But what to do? It seems my daughter doesn't want to see you right now."
A sudden sense of déjà vu.
It wasn't an unexpected situation. Seoha's shoulders slumped powerlessly.
"Is she very angry?"
"Ah, yes. And when my daughter gets angry, she stays that way for a very long time."
He put on a satisfied expression.
A name his daughter had talked his ears off about. Gossip about him being a once-in-a-century genius, how much wealth he possessed—none of that was his concern.
The first man his daughter had ever taken an interest in. The daughter who had followed him around everywhere since she was little had shyly brought up another man's name; it had felt like the sky was falling. He had intended to send a warning if the brat was impertinent, but the young man's appearance was different from what he'd expected.
The history of his daughter's interest in him was long.
Therefore, the years he had followed Seoha's issues were also long. Such an outstanding person—how many people must flock around him. Even if he had caught a celebrity complex and developed an overbearing personality, it would have been an unavoidable environment.
Yet the first time seeing him in person, he was a polite young man with neat looks. Most of all, the deeply disappointed face at hearing he couldn't meet his daughter pleased him.
But there was one thing he had to check.
"Are you ill anywhere? I heard it was a false report, but any family history?"
"N-no! None! Both my parents are healthy!"
He nodded.
"That's a relief. As that child's father, let me apologize. Her moods shift like boiling porridge; indeed, when we went to Europe together last time..."
He went on at length about Gyeoul, whether it was boasting or complaining, one couldn't tell.
"Come again next time."
"Yes! After all, there's the recital in two days."
Seoha bowed repeatedly and withdrew.
The security guard approached and held an umbrella over him. After Seoha sat in the back seat, the guard closed the door and gave him a light bow. Relief flooded over him at the fact that the man his daughter had fallen for was no common good-for-nothing.
"He's gone?"
As the car disappeared from view, Gyeoul opened the door and poked her head out tentatively.
"Yes. If you were going to hide and listen like that, why didn't you just come out?"
"No!"
"Hahaha! That's right. That'd only be fair. When you were angry before, you didn't talk to me for a month. Let's make it two months for him."
Gyeoul's eyes went wide.
"What are you talking about, Dad?"
"Huh? Weren't you angry and couldn't stand the sight of him?"
Gyeoul looked at him with an expression he had never seen in her life.
"That's not it! I cried so much today that I look ugly!"
Slam!
The sound of the door closing roughly.
He stared blankly at the closed door. His shoulders trembled over his tightly clenched fists. He had intended to treat him well because he seemed like a decent young man, but it seemed he would have to cancel that decision after all.