News of a young genius always becomes a hot topic.
The news of Seoha's selection for the IMO national team spread quickly, adorning the main pages of major daily newspapers and web portals.
[12-Year-Old Genius Boy Selected for Korean IMO National Team]
—A record to be remembered forever in Korean educational history was born at a small rural elementary school in Okcheon County, North Chungcheong Province.
Yoo Seoha (12), a sixth-grade student at Dodam Elementary School, has been selected as the youngest member of the Korean national team for the 20xx International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
This is the first time an elementary school student has been selected for the IMO national team in Korea, and only the second time in the world, following mathematician Eliya Kronen, who won the Fields Medal and the Abel Prize.
What is even more surprising is that student Yoo Seoha achieved this result solely through after-school classes and self-study, without any help from private education.
(Omitted)
After this news broke, Dodam Elementary School garnered national attention overnight.
Principal Kim Jaehyeong has expressed his difficulties, saying that the flood of daily interview requests from media outlets has made his work overwhelming.
(Remainder omitted)
└Without private education? Is that even possible?
└It's probably just talk. You believe that?
└Guys, that's Okcheon in North Chungcheong. A rural backwater with a population of only forty thousand, hahaha. There aren't even any academies in the town center, so what.
└Calling it a backwater? I'm an Okcheon County resident, and that's uncomfortable to hear. Keep saying that, and I'll confiscate all your parcels.
└The fearsome Okcheon hub... d-d-d.
└He's in sixth grade? That's crazy. He was picked after beating out all the science high school and gifted high school kids.
└Isn't he the kid who was in the newspaper before? Grand prize at the National Mathematics Competition.
└Yeah, that's right. With that level, it's basically a free pass to Seoul National University, right?
└It's amazing just to compete, but we still have to wait and see the results.
└The student who placed third overall last year is going too. Let's hope for a good showing this time.
* * *
Trickle.
Hot barley tea fills the cup.
U Hyeon tried to remember when he had last drunk barley tea, but he couldn't recall.
Slurp.
The nutty aroma of the barley calmed his heart.
"Thank you for looking after our Seoha, Teacher."
To Miyeong, U Hyeon was a benefactor.
"Not at all. I did it because I wanted to."
U Hyeon shook his head as he set down his barley tea cup. Having come and gone from Okcheon for a long time, he had built a close relationship with Seoha's parents. U Hyeon liked their simple honesty.
'There are so many parents trying to make a business out of their children.'
After the article came out, U Hyeon felt anxious. Of course he trusted this couple, but there were too many bad people in the world.
"Still, Seoha was able to come this far thanks to you, Teacher. You told him what to study and sent him books... Now that I think about it, it's turned out just as you said a few years ago."
She hadn't fully believed his words about Seoha earning a master's degree at KAIST by age sixteen. She had merely thought he would be better than them since he was a famous instructor. But as the years passed, his words were becoming reality.
"Thank you for saying that, but actually, I came today because I was worried."
U Hyeon's expression grew serious.
"Worried?"
"I suspect you've received calls from various places since the article came out."
"How did you know? Calls have been coming nonstop since yesterday..."
Her expression darkened.
Miyeong found the public attention, which had grown to an incomparable level, burdensome.
"As I thought."
U Hyeon nodded calmly.
"We don't know what's what at all..."
Judging by her words, it seemed they hadn't signed any contracts or had any serious meetings yet. U Hyeon let out a sigh of relief.
"Where were they from?"
"Several places from education companies, and even large corporations said they wanted to sponsor us."
"Education companies?"
"Yes. They said they make textbooks and give lectures, and that they would provide Seoha with books and lectures for free. They also said they'd give him a scholarship if he produces results..."
The space between U Hyeon's eyebrows twitched, and his eyes grew fierce.
"Why, these thuggish bastards without an ounce of business ethics!"
"Pardon?"
Miyeong was startled by the rough words from U Hyeon that she was hearing for the first time.
"I'm sorry. I got emotional."
U Hyeon caught his breath and organized his thoughts.
"It's a common thing in the industry. What they want is to package Seoha's future success as if it were thanks to them. To advertise: 'The student who listened to our lectures and studied with our textbooks won a gold medal at the IMO.'"
And to think they wouldn't even pay proper money—they were truly low-quality operators.
"Oh my, I didn't know that at all. Thank you for telling me."
"Large corporations aren't much different. The bigger the company, the less likely they are to do unprofitable business. Later, when Seoha grows, it will become a shackle in one way or another."
Miyeong nodded at U Hyeon's words.
"So you're saying we should just keep doing what we're doing now?"
"Exactly. For a genius like Seoha, the most important thing is a free environment without anyone's interference."
While they were talking, Seoeun secretly approached from behind her mother and poked her head out. And upon seeing U Hyeon, she shouted.
"Ah! It's the scary teacher!"
U Hyeon gave a bitter smile.
He had been interested because she was Seoha's younger sister, so he tried to give her a simple test.
But what do you know! Amazing memory and mental arithmetic ability. When she said she wanted to "break down numbers," he taught her, and it turned out to be prime factorization.
He got greedy and tried to teach her a bit more, but somehow she caught on and fled in terror, running far away.
Ever since, whenever Seoeun sees U Hyeon, she never approaches and maintains a certain distance like a cat.
'Did Seoha teach her?'
What on earth was Seoha planning to raise his sister into?
For a moment, U Hyeon was curious.
* * *
Winter passed, and spring slipped away.
Seoha had now become a sixth grader.
And now it was already May, a season where the heat of early summer could be felt.
There had been quite a few changes for Seoha during that time.
First, he had grown taller.
Clothes he used to wear no longer fit.
But the biggest change occurred inside his head.
Seoha was sitting at his desk, writing something in a notebook. But unlike usual, it was packed with words rather than formulas.
"What are you writing?"
At Miyeong's question, Seoha closed the notebook.
"A diary."
But it was not a diary.
While completely immersed in mathematics, Seoha realized he could not perfectly eliminate his obsession. Therefore, he had no choice but to find a way to coexist with it.
Seoha did not despair. Instead, he chose a scientific approach.
It was a narrative therapy technique found in a psychology book.
He thought he could resolve it using externalization—a technique of separating the problem from oneself.
'Let's think of the obsession not as an enemy, but as a roommate.'
First, he gave it a name.
'Duckie.'
Since it surely had a nasty personality, he gave it the name of the worst-tempered duck.
Duckie loves perfect patterns and beautiful symmetry, and tries to organize and record everything in the world into numerical values.
Seoha completely allocated a certain amount of time each day to Duckie.
So that Duckie could fully immerse itself in whatever it wanted to do.
Outside of that time, he would negotiate by saying, "It's not your time right now!"
After treating it this way, Duckie was no longer merely an annoying and harmful existence.
When he had Duckie check mathematical calculations, Duckie was delighted.
When writing down problem solutions, Duckie had a very meticulous and thorough personality. It liked to write in detail even the parts that Seoha habitually omitted.
Tap, tap.
Seoha opened the wardrobe and quietly stared at the duck on the end of the pencil.
"You'll understand too, right?"
The duck didn't answer, but Seoha felt as though he heard a response.
Seoha picked up a black windbreaker instead of checkered clothes.
For a moment, a feeling of revulsion surged.
"Duckie, we have to compromise with each other, one step at a time."
Seoha gritted his teeth and took out the windbreaker to put it on.
It was bearable. A feeling that wasn't as bad as he thought.
Duckie was capricious.
Some days it seemed to be in a good mood and willing to do anything, but the next day it would show a rejection response.
But there was something they both liked in common, and that was mathematics.
[Algebraic Topology]
The complex structures of homotopy and homology theory.
[Hₙ₊₁(X,A) → Hₙ(A) → Hₙ(X) → Hₙ(X,A) → Hₙ₋₁(A)···]
"Duckie, let's check this sequence together."
Duckie's obsessive accuracy shone. It instantly verified the directions and conditions of every arrow in the complex diagram.
Seoha thought that Duckie, too, undoubtedly loved exact sequences just like him.
But not all days went smoothly.
Some days, Duckie tried to check every single countable interval of the infinite series.
"That has no end. Let's wrap it up reasonably."
Duckie quieted down.
He had worried whether it would work, but it was a great success.
Seoha closed the book he was reading and gazed intently at Ramanujan's theta function.
The infinite matrix of beautiful functions.
Perfect and beautiful, and above all, predictable.
Peace came to his heart.
'There is no problem that cannot be solved.'
The mathematician François Viète's words were not wrong.
* * *
Time flew like an arrow, and the departure day arrived.
Seoha, who was going abroad for the first time in his life, had tossed and turned the night before due to nervousness.
"Seoha, is your passport in your bag?"
Miyeong, anxious about sending her son overseas, checked Seoha's luggage multiple times.
"Yes, Mom! Don't worry."
The departure lobby was filled with bustling noise.
Travelers, families who came to see them off, and even reporters.
"Student Yoo Seoha! Please look this way!"
Flash!
A camera flash went off.
It hadn't been like this last year, but perhaps due to the newsworthiness of an elementary school IMO participant this year, several media outlets had sent reporters.
"Are you nervous?"
"If you have a goal, what would it be?"
"Have you really never received private education even once?"
As Seoha flustered at the barrage of questions, the team leader stepped forward.
"I'm sorry, but Seoha is still young, so please keep it brief."
"Yes, Professor."
A reporter held a microphone out to Seoha.
"Yoo Seoha! We heard you didn't receive private education. Do you have a special secret for being good at math?"
At the reporter's question, Seoha thought for a moment and then smiled innocently.
"I just like math.
Ah! Actually, there is a teacher who has sent me various books and given me advice since I was young."
"Who is that?"
"I want to tell you his name, but he absolutely told me not to. He told me to tell you later, when I achieve great accomplishments that will be recorded in the history of world mathematics..."
"Hahaha! What an interesting person. I hope that comes true."
Perhaps thinking it was a joke, the reporter laughed loudly.
Professor Park interrupted, looking at his watch.
"Let's head over there."
After walking a bit, familiar faces came into view.
Sujeong was out with her parents. Seong Jihun, dressed awkwardly in a suit, and Go Changseok, looking as usual, were talking with their families.
A short while later, Jiye appeared in a glamorous look as though she had just stepped out of a salon.
And Dohyeon with a determined expression.
Once all six representatives gathered, the atmosphere became much more comfortable.
Seoha bent down to meet eyes with Seoeun, who had grown significantly.
"You won't cry now, right? Oppa will be back."
Seoeun had cried all day again upon hearing that her brother had to go far away.
But after Seoha promised to definitely win a gold medal and hang it around her neck, she was forcing herself to hold back tears.
"Yeah! I won't cry. But you have to come back quickly, okay? And don't forget to bring my gold medal too, okay?"
Seoha hugged his younger sister's small body and patted her back.
'It was truly long.'
Six years to get here.
He understood in his head that it was a necessary process.
But Seoha wanted to wrestle with the difficult problems piled high in the world rather than boring competition problems.
'Just a few more days now.'
In 110 countries,
the Olympiad in which 660 mathematical prodigies compete will soon open.