Click!
‘What on earth is going on?’
The photoshoot was continuing even though the scheduled time had passed.
Click! Click!
The shutter sounds rang out in succession.
The lights were so bright that Seoha couldn't stop blinking. The glare was piercing, as if burrowing into his face.
But the more he blinked, the more serious the photographer's gaze became.
“Good, that expression right there! It’s natural.”
He lowered his stance and brought the camera up.
Seoha let out a small sigh. He had thought this would be a simple profile shoot, but the photographer was displaying excessive enthusiasm.
When Seoha ran his hand through his hair, the man reacted immediately.
“That movement right there, please hold it just like that for a moment.”
Click, click!
“Hmm… The background is lacking. Could we perhaps go outside?”
“Excuse me?”
Wasn't the shoot supposed to take place in a classroom?
“Right now is the best time for natural light.
Having taken some shots, I can see you take the light beautifully. It’s a face the camera loves. I think we’ll get some great photos, so please come this way for a moment.”
In the end, Seoha let himself be led outside the building.
The weather outside was beautiful.
A spotlessly blue sky, rare for winter, and sunlight cast a warm glow over the campus.
He set Seoha's position and pose.
“Good. Hold that until the light touches your face.”
Click!
He checked the LCD screen and let out an exclamation.
“Wow! Perfect. Anyone can see this is an A-cut.”
Staff members gathered around the camera and murmured.
“It really came out beautifully.”
“Isn’t this like a fashion pictorial?”
Even after the shoot ended, his work was not done.
“If I touch it up a bit, the atmosphere will really come alive…”
He transferred the files to a laptop and retouched the photos. He raised the shadows slightly and lowered the contrast and saturation. With that, the image transformed into something with a completely different feeling.
“This is it.”
He had obtained a good result from an unexpected place.
It was the moment one more photo was added to his portfolio.
* * *
Megan, who was on her way to work at the cafeteria, stood blankly in front of a poster on the bulletin board.
A white shirt, a black jacket, a languid expression.
“Ah, those eyes!”
He clearly looked annoyed.
She knew she shouldn’t, but something hot welled up inside her chest.
“Dangerous, dangerous!”
Her head sent out warning signals.
Megan shook her head, trying to shake off the thoughts. But before she knew it, her gaze had drifted back to the poster.
‘And here I thought I was the only one who knew that charm…’
Megan bit her lip.
The photographer who took this shot undoubtedly had excellent taste, just like her.
Light traced the line of Seoha’s profile, emphasizing his slender neck.
A feeling of purity and clarity, yet simultaneously of precariousness and cold.
It was the point that had pierced straight through her heart.
Click.
Megan carefully took out her phone and snapped a picture of the poster.
‘Wouldn’t it be okay to take just one?’
Rustle.
She tried to tear it off, but the poster was firmly fixed to the wall.
Passersby looked at her with suspicious eyes. Megan hurriedly lowered her hand and gave an embarrassed smile.
After her shift, she logged into her social media account.
[It seems a public lecture is being held at MIT.]
-Those interested should try attending. The student on the poster is apparently the lecturer.
She posted nonchalantly.
After all, on social media, you never say what you really want to say outright. As expected, reactions came immediately from followers who shared the same taste.
└Who is this person?
└Is he really a student? Not a model?
└He feels like a child actor.
└Surprisingly, he is a student. Moreover, apparently he solved some difficult problem and is appearing as the lecturer for the event.
└15 years old. Heart-fluttering, right?
└He was a minor? Whew, that’s a relief. I almost wrote something dangerous.
└Me too LOL
└No matter how I look at it, he seems to be flirting with the older girls. What are we gonna do about that expression!
└He’s an MIT student, so he must be super smart? Plus one point.
└He’s such a pretty boy? If I had a little brother like that… I have so many things I’d want to try.
└He looks like he stepped out of an anime.
The posters covered not only the math department but all of MIT.
The main building entrance, each department’s bulletin board, the cafeteria, even the library corridors. Wherever you went, there was Seoha in a white shirt and black jacket.
His slightly tousled hair, his gaze looking down indifferently, and his uniquely annoyed expression all strangely drew the students’ gazes.
Students walking past the posters often stopped to take pictures.
“Isn’t this that kid?”
“Yeah, he’s famous in the math department.”
“He’s cute. Should I go to the colloquium too? I’m curious about his voice.”
“If you aren’t a math major, you probably won’t understand a thing, you know?”
That afternoon, a suspicious post went up on Reddit.
[Is this poster real? Or fake?]
-Someone sent this to me, saying the person in the photo is a colloquium lecturer at MIT. They say he solved some decades-old open problem—is that really true?
He looks too young. His appearance doesn’t fit either. It looks exactly like a profile picture of a Korean idol trainee.
└You guys gotta understand. Kids at MIT have a complex about their looks. Since K-pop is hot these days, they probably made this ridiculous composite LOL
└Say something that makes sense. Why would someone with this face do math? There are much easier ways to make money everywhere.
└Huh? It’s really true, though? I’ve seen that poster at school.
└It’s real? Don’t lie!
└Have you been deceived your whole life? Just google it and photos will come up. Of when he was younger, though.
└How old is he?
└I think he’s 15. There are lots of articles if you search. If it’s true, just how much of a genius is he?
└It’s fake. I guarantee he’s a trainee at some Korean entertainment company.
└Can I repost this?
└I’m gonna post this on Instagram too.
The meme known as “MIT’s Boy Genius” began gaining traction online.
It took less than a day for the Reddit post to spread to other platforms. At first, most reactions were cynical, saying it had to be a composite.
“Isn’t 15 the age to enter high school? And they say he solved an open problem?”
“Is this a setup? Are they filming a Korean drama at MIT?”
“But the photo looks so real. It doesn’t look like a composite.”
“Isn’t this some nobody K-pop idol? Is the company doing a viral promotion?”
But one post changed the atmosphere entirely.
[I’m an employee who works at the MIT cafeteria, and the poster is real.]
-Not to mention someone stole and shared the photo I took. Where’d they throw away their manners? You guys should take more interest in science too. You’ll find out soon enough how famous Seoha is.
But I understand you all. Because I too feel like he’s a being detached from this world.
What put the final period on the controversy was MIT’s official account.
As if conscious of the online buzz, they responded swiftly to the issue.
[Massachusetts Institute of Technology @MIT]
-Yes, he is a real person. He is a student our school is proud of.
Furthermore, it is true that he presented a solution to an open problem and that a colloquium regarding it is being held. There are no qualification restrictions for attending, so please come in large numbers.
#MITsEtherealBoyGenius #Mathematics #NoFakebutTruth #ComeandSeeHim
Buzz—
Buzz—
Seoha’s phone vibrated endlessly.
They were messages sent from Korea.
-Yo! You made the news.
-Seoha, you’re on the real-time search trends right now.
-Wow! You really photograph well? Acting all modest, yet you sure pulled that pose shamelessly LOLOL
-Glad to hear from you. I’m still using Quack-Quack!
-You haven’t played soccer yet? I’m dying here.
-LOL
Seoha’s face turned beet-red.
When MIT’s official account responded, social media feeds grew explosively.
Internet tabloids thirsty for gossip began writing articles one by one, and it finally spread even to Korea.
He clicked the link he had received via text.
[Why did MIT verify a Korean student?]
[The MIT boy in question revealed to be Korean.]
[He wasn’t an idol trainee! Korea’s genius boy trending on social media.]
Embarrassing headlines filled the screen.
Seoha put down his phone and let out a deep breath.
“Hmm—it’s quite the commotion in your home country too, huh?”
A voice came from behind.
Seoha jumped in surprise and flipped over his phone.
“Ellie!”
“Your expression looked so strange, I thought something was wrong.”
“Surely you saw it too, Ellie?”
Ellie smiled playfully.
“Wouldn’t it be hard not to see it? It’s about our school.”
“Hah—”
Seoha grabbed at his hair.
He had never once wanted fame. Least of all like this.
“I’ve been through it too, so there’s no need to worry so much.”
“You too, Ellie?”
She nodded.
“Not as much as you, but whenever I went out and won awards, my face would end up in the local papers. ‘Intellect as outstanding as his appearance,’ ‘Eleanor Windsor, blessed with both beauty and brains,’ things like that.
Even when I got second place, only my photo came out. I felt so sorry for the kid who got first.”
“Ah…”
“I was angry at first too, but now I’ve decided to think of it positively. It’s better than not being recognized no matter what you do.”
“Is it?”
“Yes, the world is much less interested in math than you think. No, rather, they hate it.
Ninety-five percent of Americans have never even heard of the Riemann Hypothesis. Sixty percent of adults answered that they have Math Anxiety—a tendency to avoid mathematics.
But look! There are so many people saying they’ll come to the colloquium now.”
She pulled up a webpage.
Several comments had been left saying they would come to MIT to see the boy in question.
“Ellie is right.”
Youngest-ever first place at the IMO, proof of the Four Color Theorem, establishing important theories on the Riemann Hypothesis and Quantum Chaos, and even Smale’s problem.
Though he had accomplished no small number of feats, he had never before received such widespread attention.
All because of a single photo that happened to turn out well.
Seoha decided to take it easy.
Ellie patted his shoulder as if proud of him.
“I read through the whole paper. I’ll be rooting for you at the colloquium too!”
She smiled and walked away.
‘If people become more interested in mathematics, it’s a good thing.’
Seoha consoled himself with that thought.
The day of the colloquium,
the event was held in Capriccio Hall, the central hall of MIT’s main building.
Originally, a colloquium was a quiet affair where related personnel, a few math journal reporters, and professors in charge of verification gathered to listen to the paper’s contents.
But this day was different.
Tripods and cameras were set up at the hall entrance. People wearing press badges around their necks walked around, shutters clicking incessantly.
“Look, that’s the student. The one from the poster.”
“Really? He looks even younger than in the photo.”
“Isn’t it unbelievable? He’s only 15. And yet he solved a decades-old open problem.”
The murmuring never ceased.
Professors were busy preparing the seats, and MIT publicity staff were swamped dealing with the media, their expressions a mix of bewilderment and excitement.
The hall was already packed to capacity.
Not only students, professors, and scholars, but even outside attendees who could never normally be seen had taken their seats.
Thud, thud.
Someone walked into the hall.
This time, murmurs broke out among the mathematicians.
“It’s Eliya Cronen.”
The air changed.
Officials seated in the front row rose to greet him. The reporters’ cameras all turned toward him in unison.
“My goodness, he really came.”
“I didn’t know he’d come to a colloquium.”
Thud, thud.
Without sparing the reporters a glance, he walked quietly.
The hem of his long coat brushed the floor as he passed.
He stopped at the front center seat with the best view of the lecture.
Whitman extended his hand to him.
“I didn’t hear you were coming.”
Cronen answered dryly.
“I wanted to see how big the fish I missed was.”
The corner of Whitman’s mouth slowly rose, and soon a smile spread across his entire face.