Translator: Dreamscribe
The heat had retreated, and before anyone realized, autumn had arrived.
Sri finished his master's program and began his doctoral studies in applied mathematics. Dean Thomas grabbed Whitman and ranted that it was outright fraud, but a student's choice could not be forced.
Seo-ha had become a junior.
A genius who had solved several long-standing problems, the head of Apex Lab who was shaking the world of mathematics. The fact that he was still an undergraduate was a bitter irony.
"If you want, an early graduation next semester isn't impossible."
His meeting with the dean from half a year ago came back to him.
MIT's early graduation policy was extremely strict. To prevent student burnout, the maximum credits a student could take per term were tightly capped, and they also had to complete the science core and HASS (Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences) courses.
"I'm fine the way things are. I'm not planning to push myself."
The school had already shown him plenty of consideration.
Through ASEs (Advanced Standing Exams), they had waived a large number of foundational courses, and he had even been granted the privilege of receiving credit through exams and papers in lieu of attendance.
To demand more under such circumstances would, in Seo-ha's view, be far too shameless.
'And there's nothing especially inconvenient about it.'
With Ben's addition giving him more breathing room, Theo was now preparing his doctoral dissertation.
Either Minimum Energy Theory or ST Compression would have been more than enough to earn him a degree, but Theo refused on the grounds that they weren't achievements he had reached alone.
Whoosh-
The autumn breeze blowing in through the window was rather chilly.
Seo-ha turned on the tablet sitting on his desk. The screen was full of articles he had started but not yet finished reading.
[Gen MZ heading to classical concert halls? The cultural phenomenon brought on by pianist Han Gyeo-ul]
Ever since her collaboration with the New York Philharmonic, her recognition had been climbing vertically.
Click.
Seo-ha tapped on a video.
└Came in for the thumbnail and now I've been stuck here for an hour.
└Does she look pretty because she plays well? Or is it the other way around? An expert needs to weigh in here.
└Curtis Institute, where Han Gyeo-ul studies, is the global #1 music school.
└She won 1st place at the Tchaikovsky Junior Competition ㅋㅋㅋ what are you on
└At the junior level she was definitely a known name. Now she's probably aiming for the Big Three competitions, right?
└Her face is the entire plot. If classical doesn't work out, she could just go be in a girl group ㅋㅋㅋ
Not just in Korea, but at Curtis and the New York Phil too, Gyeo-ul was being treated like a treasure. It was the first time any of them had seen a classical music video clip rack up viewer counts like this.
Her looks and performance were becoming the most intuitive and powerful gateway for introducing difficult classical music to the general public.
-It's a good thing I taught you the piano. But you know you still have a long way to go, right? Next time we meet, I'll drill you mercilessly.
Seo-ha let out a small laugh as he read the text message.
He no longer taught Gyeo-ul mathematics, but it seemed the lessons that had begun in the music room would continue for some time yet.
Glance.
Seo-ha looked at the clock on the wall.
Today was the day the family was supposed to eat dinner together. Lately, between his research and his frequent absences from home, Seo-ha had been weighed down by the thought that he hadn't been paying enough attention to his sister.
"Maybe I'll head home a little early?"
The Riemann Hypothesis wasn't going anywhere, but Seo-eun would grow up in the blink of an eye.
Seo-ha hurried to pack his bag.
MIT was a school, a workplace, and a playground for Seo-ha all at once, but home was the only place where he could return to being just an ordinary boy.
Creak.
'Hm? Strange.'
Normally Seo-eun would have come running out at the sound of the door opening, but today there was no sign of her. When he checked the kitchen, he found his mother slumped over the dining table, fast asleep.
Slip.
Seo-ha brought a blanket and draped it over Mi-young's shoulders.
As he climbed the stairs and approached his room, he heard a strange sound from inside.
Crash, bang!
Startled, Seo-ha threw the door open.
"Oh, oppa! Why...why are you home already?"
Seo-eun's eyes went round, and then she began edging backward as if trying to hide something.
Normally she would have been the first to come running with a greeting, but today she looked flustered, like a child caught doing something naughty.
Faced with this unfamiliar version of his sister, Seo-ha's mind grew muddled.
'Why is she trying to hide it? There shouldn't be anything strange in my room.'
Seo-ha knelt on one knee to meet Seo-eun's eyes. Then he gently stroked her hair.
"Seo-eun, what's wrong? You don't need to be that surprised. It's okay to play in oppa's room."
At Seo-ha's words, Seo-eun bit her lip as if trying to hold back tears. Then, after fidgeting for a long moment, she slowly extended the hand she had been hiding behind her back.
"Huh?"
What sat in Seo-eun's small hand was an old, thick hardcover book.
'Linear Algebra'
It was a book Seo-ha had started reading around the age of seven.
An innocent ten-year-old girl, a beaver doll, and a hardcover theory book in her hand. It was a mismatched combination.
Seo-eun reached for the Justin she had set down beside her and pulled it into her arms. From her eye, a single tear that she had been holding back rolled down with a soft plop.
"Why were you looking at this?"
Seo-ha asked in a gentle voice.
"...I want to be good at math."
He had never taught his sister mathematics.
Mathematics was a beautiful language, but at times it brought solitude and pain along with it. Seo-ha simply wanted Seo-eun to spend a little more time playing with her cards and dolls.
"What made you think that?"
Seo-ha lifted his sister up and set her down on a chair.
"Heehee!"
Her mood lifted, Seo-eun crossed her feet and swung them, smiling. But the words that came out of her mouth weren't exactly comfortable to hear.
At some point, the teachers around Seo-eun had started whispering.
"That child is Yu Seo-ha's little sister, isn't she?"
"Yes, I heard too. No wonder she's so unusually clever. Same parents, after all, those genes don't just disappear, do they?"
"But it seems she doesn't have much interest in studying. Apparently her math progress is fairly average compared to her brother's."
Seo-eun stuck her lips out in a pout.
They didn't see Seo-eun for who she was. They were always searching for the shadow of the genius brother lurking behind her.
The math club she had joined at the principal's recommendation.
The teacher in charge would often quiz Seo-eun on concepts she didn't know, and whenever she fell short of expectations, he would let his subtle disappointment show.
Seo-ha's eyes narrowed.
Cambridge, the top school district in America, home to both Harvard and MIT. In this city, education was the largest business industry there was.
The mere fact that the younger sister of someone like Seo-ha was enrolled raised the school's Great Schools score (a school evaluation index ranked on a 10-point scale), which in turn affected the property values of the surrounding area.
In reality, they were using Seo-eun's existence for marketing. The school must have been desperately hoping that, even if not on the level of her brother, Seo-eun would at least show enough giftedness to be put on display.
"So that's why you tried to study this on your own?"
Seo-eun nodded resolutely.
"Yeah! Mom said this was a book oppa read when he was little."
Seo-eun had an optimistic personality.
The type who didn't care about the evaluations or stares of those around her.
But the moment she thought she was bringing shame on her brother, her chest grew tight. The exaggerated fear unique to small children had been weighing down on Seo-eun's shoulders.
Seo-ha pressed a hand to his forehead.
'I really haven't been paying enough attention. And on top of that, they were disappointed in her?'
Seo-ha hadn't simply been letting his sister fend for herself, even if he hadn't taught her mathematics directly.
Through the cube, he had cultivated her overwhelming computational ability and spatial reasoning. Seo-eun now hardly ever made mistakes when playing factorization or prime number games. The sense for closed numbers had been honed sharp inside her head.
On top of that, there was the memory she had trained through memory challenges. But the most important thing had always been Seo-eun's own wishes.
"Seo-eun, do you like math?"
"Yeah!"
"More than drawing pictures or reading books?"
"Hmm..."
Seo-eun brought a hand to her chin and put on a very serious expression. The sight was so adorable that Seo-ha let out a small laugh.
After thinking for a long while, she clapped her hands together with a 'Clap!'
"I think I still like math the most. All the games oppa plays with me are math too!"
Seo-ha smiled.
It was like the foundation work that had to be done before erecting a giant skyscraper, the kind of work that might not be visible from a distance. But within Seo-eun, an astonishingly solid and deep mathematical foundation had been laid.
"Then do you want to be a mathematician like oppa?"
"Huh?"
It seemed she had never thought about it before, because Seo-eun's face went blank.
"What do mathematicians do? Is their job just reading books all day like oppa? In that case, I don't want to."
"Ah!"
Was it because he had been so careful about her health all this time? It seemed her dream of becoming a doctor had been forgotten somewhere along the way.
Seo-eun was at an age where her future dream could change daily. Whichever one she chose, mathematics would be useful, so he decided to put his mind at ease.
"Then would you like to come see oppa at work? Theo and Su-jeong unnie are there too."
He worried that learning the reality might dampen her interest, but Seo-ha wanted to give her the experience.
"Really?"
Seo-eun's eyes went round, and clutching her beaver doll, she began bouncing up and down.
"Justin! Oppa says we can visit his lab!"
If he had known she would be this happy, he should have brought it up sooner.
'It'll be fine, won't it?'
It had been an impulsive decision.
Seeing her so delighted, there was no way he could take it back now. Seo-ha began to wonder how on earth he was going to convince the school.
* * *
Smale's Problems, energy optimization, and on top of all that the design of Oracle, the system that handled New York City's traffic.
The accomplishments Team Apex had racked up during this time were dazzling.
The more results piled up, the tighter security became. Before anyone noticed, Apex Lab had become a facility that not only the school but also the state government was watching closely.
It was hardly the kind of place a girl in the lower grades of elementary school could come visit on a field trip.
But Seo-ha was the founder of this place, and the head of it, holding all authority.
"Wait here. I'll issue a temporary access pass."
Whirr-
A pass with cute flowers and ducks drawn on it printed out from the color printer.
[Yu Seo-eun - Special Research Assistant]
Seo-eun's eyes went wide as saucers.
For one whole day, she was officially registered in the system under that title. It was an extremely personal abuse of power, but when Dean Whitman heard Seo-ha's story, he laughed heartily and gave his approval.
The team members felt much the same way.
Spending all day clinging to the Riemann Hypothesis in a barren lab full of nothing but numbers and machines was the kind of pain that could leave one's mind drifting away.
In this state of things, the news of an adorable little girl's visit had everyone excited. They had even put off going home and gone through a thorough cleaning.
"Wooow."
A name tag was pinned to her chest.
A gasp of awe escaped Seo-eun's lips. Watching her stroke the badge with sparkling eyes, Seo-ha put on a proud expression.
Seo-eun didn't know exactly what it all meant, but the fact that she had been formally invited into the world her brother belonged to made her heart pound.
Today she had pulled out her favorite outfit.
A yellow dress with layer upon layer of frills that fluttered with every step she took.
When they arrived at the entrance, Theo was already there waiting. Instead of his usual comfortable clothing, he was wearing a sharply tailored 19th-century-style navy suit, gotten from who knew where.
As Seo-eun approached, he bowed at the waist and offered her an exaggerated ballroom-style greeting.
"Good day to you, my lady. I am Theodore, senior researcher of Apex Lab. It is my honor to be your guide on this tour."
Seo-ha was even more surprised than Seo-eun.
He had only mentioned that his sister would be visiting....
The lavish welcome made Seo-eun's eyes go round. But she quickly lifted the hem of her dress slightly and answered with the curtsey she had been practicing.
"Thank you, Theo!"
"Then, please come inside."
When the glass door of the secured area opened, a sight completely unlike the usual Apex Lab unfolded.
The fresh scent of lemon drifted from somewhere. The remnants of snacks and energy drink cans that had been scattered across the desks were all gone.
"Oh my! Seo-eun, welcome!"
Su-jeong came over from inside the lab.
A neat black two-piece suit. Su-jeong had dressed in what she considered the most mathematician-like attire.
"Wooow!"
Seo-eun looked around, her eyes wide with curiosity.
A magnificent geometric pattern was displayed on the giant screen.
"Seo-eun, do you see those sparkling dots over there? That's a universe your brother made out of numbers."
Sri, in a rare turn of events, had shaved and put on a clean shirt.
He hammered at his keyboard with passion, as if trying to show off. Ben, wearing his glasses, stared at the screen with a serious expression as he corrected some numbers.
"Amazing."
A gasp slipped from Seo-eun's lips.
The corners of the team members' mouths twitched upward.
When they finished a circuit of the lab and reached the corner, a white tablecloth was laid out on a table.
Clink.
Seo-ha's mouth fell open.
Cecilia was sitting there in an elegant period dress. As if Ada Lovelace had stepped right out of her portrait.
"Come and sit, little lady."
She gave the team members a look that said how unimpressive their efforts were.
That wasn't how a little girl's heart was to be won. The intricately patterned teapot and the dainty bone china tea set the butler had brought, along with the sight of freshly baked scones with steam still rising from them, were temptingly elegant beyond compare.
"It's like a princess...."
Seo-eun's expression was peculiar. As if she had been bewitched by something.
Her eyes sparkled like diamonds.
Seo-eun thought to herself.
That mathematicians, without a doubt, must be the coolest people in the entire world.
*****
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