The steakhouse was, just as rumored, excellent.
““Wow...””
The steak the server brought out was nearly the size of a cutting board. At its overwhelming presence, the three of them let out exclamations at the same time.
Click.
“So Americans eat meat this big.”
Miyeong took out her phone and snapped a picture.
Gulp.
Seoeun swallowed.
Miyeong carefully picked up her knife and cut into the meat. The blade went in more easily than expected.
“The meat is tender!”
While Miyeong was cutting the steak, Seoeun gripped her fork and knife tightly in both hands. A moment later, she opened wide and bit into the large piece her mother had cut for her, then broke into a blissful smile.
“It’s so yummy!”
Seoha hurriedly cut into his steak as well.
When he took a bite, juices poured out of the thick meat like a waterfall.
At first, it had seemed like there might be too much meat, but the salad and mashed potatoes served alongside it kept making them eat without end.
Before they knew it, the enormous steak had vanished cleanly.
“Mom, I can’t eat anymore.”
Leaning back against her chair, Seoeun patted her stomach.
“What did you and Seoeun do today?”
Seoha had been worried about his mother and Seoeun, who didn’t know English, but judging from their expressions, it seemed they had enjoyed themselves in their own way.
“Today? Seoeun had the time of her life.”
At her words, Seoeun’s eyes sparkled as if she had been waiting for this.
“Oppa! People called me a princess!”
“A princess?”
At Seoeun’s words, Miyeong let out a small giggle.
“I dressed her in a hanbok.”
“You brought a hanbok?”
“Yes, I remembered seeing it on television, so I brought only Seoeun’s. I dressed her in the hanbok and took her to the park, and people kept coming up to talk to us. They even lined up to take pictures with her.”
Seoeun flashed a proud V sign.
“Even to me, she really looked like a doll. The skirt and the otgoreum fluttered a little in the wind, and this child who usually runs around everywhere became so well-behaved once she was in a hanbok. She’s terribly shy with strangers, too, but today she greeted people so nicely.”
Seoha nodded.
Seoeun tended to open her heart easily to people who were kind to her.
“Hehe. I was super popular.”
Miyeong playfully touched the tip of Seoeun’s nose.
“And so your nose went right up into the sky.”
“Everyone was nice to me!”
Miyeong opened her phone and showed him the photos.
Under a clear sky, his younger sister in a hanbok was smiling brightly among the crowd. Seoha felt truly relieved that this first trip abroad for the two of them would remain a good memory.
* * *
The morning of the second day of the forum,
The MIT campus was filled with energy despite the cold air.
Groups who had grown close while networking the day before were gathered here and there. Some exchanged opinions over coffee, while others checked their presentation materials on tablets.
Seoha neatly fastened the button of his jacket and entered the venue.
Today’s topic was “Interdisciplinary Research between Mathematics and Other Fields,”
a session exploring what new insights emerge when mathematics meets various fields such as physics, life sciences, and the arts.
For hundreds of years, mathematicians had ceaselessly expanded their domain. As a result, modern mathematics no longer meant only “numbers and formulas.”
In physics, it had become the language of quantum mechanics and relativity. In the life sciences, it had become a tool for interpreting gene networks and protein structures, and in economics and sociology as well, it had become the foundation for predicting human choices and the flow of markets.
Recently, the logic of mathematics had even begun seeping into the realms of art and creation.
MIT, too, encouraged such attempts by mathematicians.
The session proceeded in the form of free presentations by researchers from various countries, with no restrictions on field.
Seoha sat in the same seat as yesterday, exchanged greetings with Yusuke and Maria, then listened attentively to the researchers’ presentations.
The first presenter was a university student from France.
He introduced research analyzing the aesthetic balance of artworks through topological patterns.
The golden ratio of the Mona Lisa, Van Gogh’s brushstrokes, Kandinsky’s lines... His presentation, interpreting all of these as the “functionalization of geometric sense,” was interesting even to Seoha.
After that, the researchers took turns presenting their achievements. One analyzed the nonlinear patterns of cell division by linking mathematics with biology, while another presented an attempt to combine mathematics with linguistics and model sentence structure through graph theory.
When all the presentations had ended, gentle applause spread through the hall.
Soon after, Professor Whitman, the dean of the mathematics department, stepped onto the stage and took the microphone.
“Excellent presentations.”
He wore a bright expression, as if pleased with their research.
“The achievements you showed today demonstrate that mathematics, which in the past remained only as equations on paper, is now expanding into a common language of the world.
Seeing mathematics meet so many different disciplines like this is truly moving.”
Applause broke out once again among the audience.
“Now, let us take some time to freely discuss and exchange ideas with the presenters. On a day like today, sudden inspiration may come through conversation.”
At his words, the researchers began moving from their seats.
People gathered around small round tables, checking one another’s name tags and asking about affiliations and fields of study.
Seoha was just about to approach a researcher who had given a presentation related to music to continue the discussion.
Clack—
The sound of the door opening was heard.
Everyone’s gaze naturally turned toward the back.
Step, step.
Two elderly men with graying hair slowly walked into the hall.
Whitman’s brow furrowed for an instant.
The gentle smile that had lingered on his lips throughout the presentations disappeared as well.
“Why have these gentlemen come here?”
Whispers flowed among the professors nearby.
They were Professor Leonard, the dean of the physics department, and Professor Ramanathan, an authority in computer science of whom MIT was proud.
Leonard smiled leisurely, as if it were nothing at all.
“I hope we are not disturbing you. I merely heard that young mathematicians had come, and I couldn’t very well sit still. We’ll only look around for a moment before leaving, so please don’t mind us too much.”
Whitman clenched his teeth, his expression stiff.
Mathematics was the root and foundational language that could extend into any field of the sciences. Because of that, it was a department that frequently lost talent.
“The most outstanding physicists are always found among mathematicians.”
It was a saying considered true in both mathematics and physics.
Newton, who wrote classical mechanics; Euler, the founder of fluid mechanics and celestial mechanics; Fourier of the heat equation; Gauss, who established the formulas of electromagnetism; Weyl, who proposed gauge theory...
All of them had been outstanding mathematicians of their time.
Whitman turned his head.
‘Ramanathan, why on earth is that man here?’
He shook his head.
It was a foolish question. After all, the people who created computers and computer science itself had all been mathematicians.
They were uninvited guests, but no one could stop them. Their gazes came to rest on one person.
Whitman, feeling a jolt of alarm, quickly moved to block them.
“Leonard, Ramanathan. We are in the middle of a discussion session. If you have any personal business...”
But Leonard smoothly cut him off.
“No, it is nothing private. I only thought I might be of some small help if there were any students with a great interest in physics.”
“I, too, thought I might offer a bit of advice to promising students, so I stopped by.”
Seeing them make no attempt to hide their black intentions, Whitman’s face filled with anger. At the same time, he found it strange.
‘They were never people this discourteous.’
But when they walked straight over as if their destination had already been decided and sat in the seats behind a certain student, he could guess the reason.
Their claim of wanting to help the students was a blatant lie. They must have come here to meet Yu Seoha.
His insides boiled.
‘Elijah Kronen. If only he hadn’t done something so unnecessary...’
Yu Seoha’s proof of the Four Color Theorem had drawn international attention because of Kronen’s verification.
Naturally, MIT could not be left out. The school’s internal research network, alumni forums, and even external research institutes had attached themselves to the matter and examined his paper.
Whitman had been unable to hide his astonishment. The boy had not recombined existing formulas; he had constructed an independent mathematical system.
As a result, he had reduced the limiting conditions of a problem previously thought impossible into an entirely new form of functional symmetry.
The mathematical consistency running through the entire paper, and the density of condensed thought hidden within it, had amazed even seasoned researchers.
The structure that eliminated contradictions, explored possibilities, and ultimately converged toward a single solution was truly the work of a genius, one that would not be out of place if called the second coming of Newton.
Whitman could tell.
This boy was not merely an outstanding student. He was a human being whose very mode of thought existed on a higher dimension.
At present, not only MIT but also Princeton, Stanford, Oxford, and even the University of Tokyo in Asia were trying to bring Yu Seoha to them.
How delighted he had been when the boy said he would come here after refusing invitations from Japan and England.
But now, villains from physics and computer science had come to covet the fruit that should rightfully belong to the mathematics department.
Leonard naturally addressed the boy.
“Seoha, Newton explored the laws of physics throughout his life, and Hilbert, too, became deeply involved in relativity in his later years and devoted himself to research in physics.
Considering that the interests of great mathematicians ultimately turned toward the laws of reality... what do you think?”
On Leonard’s face appeared both subtle expectation and certainty. After all, scholars were beings who wished to prove the logic they had established within reality.
Seoha turned to look at him. Then he opened his mouth.
“Professor, I believe physics, too, is a small part of mathematics.”
The hall fell breathlessly silent.
“If mathematics is infinite order, then isn’t physics merely the finite domain within it that touches reality?”
The two professors were left speechless.
Then a loud burst of laughter rang out.
“Khahahahaha!”
Whitman patted Seoha’s back as if he were proud of him.
“Well said! Where did geography and geology come from? From geometry, that’s where! It means the whole world is mathematics.”
Leonard seemed momentarily flustered, but soon nodded.
“That was an excellent answer. It certainly has merit, Seoha.”
His gaze sharpened for an instant.
“But modern mathematics has already differentiated itself far too much.
Geometry, topology, analysis, number theory, category theory, algebra, combinatorics... Now it has reached the point where it is difficult even to understand one another’s language.
Who here would deny the fact that a combinatorics researcher and a differential geometer may not even be able to hold a conversation?”
Leonard looked at Seoha with steady eyes.
“Compared to that, physics is simple. As Stephen Hawking said, we have only one purpose: to explain reality.
Use that outstanding mathematical mind for reality. You may even surpass Richard Feynman. Will you not join us?”
Richard Feynman, the legend produced by MIT’s physics department.
A genius who read the world through equations and a master who completed modern quantum mechanics.
When his name came from Leonard’s mouth, everyone was astonished.
But Seoha shook his head.
“Thank you for your kindness. However, I have never once imagined a life other than that of a mathematician.”
Without being rude, Seoha politely declined his proposal.
Seoha had not yet finished sailing the vast, boundless sea called mathematics. To tell him to be satisfied with seeing only a part of it was no different from torture.
But at the words that followed, Seoha felt as if every hair on his body stood on end.
“I see. That is truly unfortunate. I had intended to show you ‘Quantum Chaos’ in practice today.”
Seoha looked back with eyes that could not believe it.
As if he had expected that reaction, the corners of Leonard’s mouth slowly rose.
There were, at most, around seven laboratories in the world where quantum chaos could be observed with one’s own eyes, rather than through mathematical modeling or simulations.
And naturally, MIT was one of them.