Translator: Dreamscribe
The arrivals hall at Hanover's Langenhagen Airport was already packed with a sea of mathematicians and reporters who had gathered from all over the world.
The moment Seo-ha came through the arrivals gate, dozens of reporters latched onto him.
Click.
Click.
"Seo-ha! Over here, please!"
"How does it feel to be in Germany?"
"Which mathematician do you respect the most?"
Seo-ha stopped walking and answered their questions as honestly as he could.
After barely managing to make his way out of the airport, he climbed into the car that had been prepared in advance. Looking out the window, he saw flags announcing 'ICM 20■■' fluttering all over the city.
"So we've finally arrived. Riemann's hometown."
Theo murmured, as though overcome with emotion.
"So this is where the center of the modern mathematical world once stood."
"With weather this gloomy, it must have been good for concentration."
"It's hard to believe so many great figures were all active at the same time in this little city."
Besides Gauss, Riemann, and Hilbert, Hanover had also been the stage for Emmy Noether, the mother of modern algebra. In an era when a woman doing mathematics seemed out of place,
she had lectured at the university without pay, under the name of a male colleague. What was it that had given Noether such passion?
Su-jeong felt a solemn hush settle over her heart.
Seo-ha rested his head against the window and watched the airport recede into the distance. The image of Riemann's back, the one he had seen in his dream the night before, kept flickering through his mind.
Thump.
Thump.
Ever since coming to this city, his heart had seemed to race.
'This is troublesome. Why can't I settle down like this?'
It was a strange thing.
The Riemann he had seen in the dream said nothing to him. He simply stood at the end of a dark corridor with his back turned, standing still as if waiting for something.
As the car turned into the city center, Gothic spires came into view.
Upon reaching the hotel, the group hurried to unpack, then went down for a late lunch.
"Seo-ha, aren't you nervous?"
Theo asked, cutting his schnitzel with a knife.
"About the lecture?"
"No, the Fields Prize winner gets announced right after the opening ceremony tomorrow, you know."
"Ah, right, that's true."
"What, had you forgotten?"
Seo-ha just smiled.
It wasn't that he had forgotten, but it was true that it had been pushed far down his list of priorities.
And even that was because of a promise he'd made to Seo-eun.
That evening, Seo-ha prepared for the next day's lecture in his hotel room. The time allotted to him was one hour, including the Q&A.
He was mulling over what to say in that short span of time when his phone rang.
Ding.
-Want to come down to the lobby for a sec?
It was Gyeo-ul.
He had heard she couldn't come because she had an important concours next month.... Seo-ha shot up from his seat.
He hurried into the elevator, rode down, and as he stepped into the lobby, he spotted someone who gave off a glow oddly out of place among the crowd.
Gorgeous waves of brown hair flowed softly down over her shoulders. She wore a chic dress with a thin coat thrown over it.
Slightly upturned eyes; an alluring beauty who called to mind a pretty cat sat on the sofa, reading a book.
"Han Gyeo-ul!"
She lifted her head.
Contrary to his expectation that she would look gaunt from preparing for the concours, Gyeo-ul looked more full of life than ever. She rose from her seat and walked over to Seo-ha.
"What's going on? You said you couldn't come."
When Seo-ha asked in surprise, instead of answering, Gyeo-ul pushed her face right up close to his.
"Hold still for a second."
Seo-ha drew in a breath without meaning to.
As she leaned in close, a faint citrus scent drifted over.
"Wh-what is it?"
"Shh!"
Gyeo-ul's eyes swept over every corner of Seo-ha's face. She took hold of his chin and turned it this way and that, and she studied the dark circles under his eyes intently.
"Your face has wasted away. Are you actually eating properly? German food's worse than you'd expect, isn't it?"
"I'm fine. I had schnitzel and sausage earlier."
"Yeah? Well, that's a relief."
Seo-ha's face was full of confusion. Had she really crossed the Atlantic just to ask him something like this?
"Take this."
Gyeo-ul pulled something from her pocket and placed it in Seo-ha's hand.
Seo-ha's eyes widened.
"Huh? This is...."
"Tomorrow's an important day, right? Just think of it as insurance."
Gyeo-ul flashed a sly, smiling glance.
She tidied up Seo-ha's tousled bangs, then stepped back a pace, looking satisfied.
Gyeo-ul, standing beneath the dazzling lights of the hotel lobby. It felt as though the air around her alone had grown radiant.
"I'll be there tomorrow too, you know."
Gyeo-ul waved and walked off into the distance. Beyond the hotel doors, he could see her hair scattering in the night wind.
Seo-ha stared blankly down at his palm for a while, then went up to his room.
***
The next morning, the members of Team Apex were dressed quite differently from usual.
Theo, who always dressed comfortably, had put on a neat suit, and Sri and Ben had prepared new clothes for the occasion as well.
Click-clack.
Cecilia and Su-jeong walked out into the lobby.
The men's mouths fell open. Cecilia wore an elegant navy dress.
It was an aristocratic, dignified outfit that cast off her usual image as a cerebral researcher.
"Hmph!"
"What's gotten into all of you? You're acting like you've never seen me before."
Su-jeong wore a red dress. That intense color was beautiful against her almost pallidly white skin.
Looking bashful, she primly tucked her hair behind her ear.
Sri murmured with a dazed expression.
"Wow, I had no idea our team had models like this. Couldn't you dress up like this once in a while normally too?"
Su-jeong shot a quick glance at Seo-ha.
He too wore a shirt Mi-young had ironed and a newly bought suit. The clean, well-fitted clothes suited him.
Seo-ha still wore the look of someone deep in thought about something.
"All right, shall we head out? History is waiting for us."
With Theo's half-joking words, the group boarded their private van.
The area around the venue was already teeming with tens of thousands of people. As they entered the hall, everyone's eyes went wide.
"Is-isn't that Andrew Wiles? The one who proved Fermat's Last Theorem......."
"My goodness, there's a whole cluster of Abel Prize winners over there. Just how many medals are in this one spot?"
An elderly gentleman passing through the corridor; scholars seated on benches locked in heated debate. More than half of them were giants whose names appeared on the author lists of mathematics textbooks.
It was no exaggeration to say that every lineage of modern mathematics had assembled beneath this enormous dome. When they caught sight of Seo-ha, they approached with intrigued expressions.
"Oh, so this is the Seo-ha everyone's been talking about."
An elderly professor, his silver hair neatly combed back, came over warmly and held out his hand. On the name tag pinned to his chest was a name any mathematician would hold in awe.
"It's an honor, Professor Andrew."
"The honor is mine."
Starting with him, the scholars in the vicinity began crowding over one by one.
"Wonderful to meet you! I'd been keeping an eye on you ever since the Four Color Theorem, but I never imagined you'd already grown this much. My students were all glum, saying they'd have to rewrite their papers thanks to you. Hahaha!"
"Same with my kids. The majority opinion is already that the topology textbooks will have to be rewritten. There are just too many theories missing."
"Seo-ha, my boy, did you really solve the Riemann Hypothesis? You're not planning to announce it today, are you? Give me just a little hint. If you spring it on us all of a sudden, I think my heart might stop."
"Make me one promise. You're young! Even if you fail, never let it crush you."
Their tone was full of playfulness, but in their eyes there was an unmistakable curiosity and anticipation. The rumors had already spread far and wide.
For nearly two centuries the Riemann Hypothesis had stood like an impregnable fortress, and now the masters watched with warm eyes the boy who was trying to cross its threshold.
"I'll do my very best."
Seo-ha bowed his head politely in greeting.
The faces of the team members, who had hung back a few steps, were filled with pride. Seo-ha and his companions exchanged greetings with people in a dizzying whirl as they made their way to their seats.
Looking to the side, he saw the Fields Prize candidates gathered in the very front row.
Seo-ha carefully checked his seat as well and sat down beside them.
"Wow... there really are so many."
The crowds that filled the hall.
Beneath the high ceiling of the Hanover Dome, tens of thousands of mathematicians were packed tightly together. Not far off, he could see his family.
In the left-hand corner, Gyeo-ul sat with a tense expression. When her eyes met Seo-ha's, she broke into a broad smile.
A strange tension hung over the hall, as if something were about to happen today. Seo-ha was suddenly struck by a feeling of guilt.
It was because he was in no position to fulfill their expectations right now.
'Please, Ducky. Not today.'
[5.]
[4.]
[3.]
[2.]
[1.]
With the countdown, the large screens on either side flickered to life. The achievements the mathematical world had made over the past century flowed across them like a panorama.
Hilbert delivering an impassioned speech at the 1900 Paris congress; the letter Ramanujan had sent to Hardy; Emmy Noether taking the podium; a young Gödel, who in his day had been a handsome, dapper figure,
the scene of Alan Turing cracking the Enigma, and then John Nash and Alexander Grothendieck appeared on the screen one after another.
The footage passed through Andrew Wiles and Perelman and ended on the image of Elijah Cronen solving Read's Conjecture.
A majestic orchestral performance rang out through the dome.
In keeping with tradition, the host nation's German Federal President gave a congratulatory address, and then the chairman of the International Mathematical Union stepped up to the microphone.
"A thought suddenly occurred to me. If someone were to lock the doors from the outside right now, just how great a loss would the world have to bear?"
He looked around the hall.
"Or perhaps it would simply grow more peaceful, with all the troublesome people gone."
"Hahahaha!"
The mathematicians roared with laughter at the chairman's joke.
"We have a long schedule today, so I'll get straight to the point."
Woo-hyun glanced quietly to the side. The award ceremony began right along with the opening.
Mi-young, hands clasped together, was offering up a prayer to some unknown god.
Seo-eun, too, was staring straight ahead, hugging her doll tightly.
'You old geezers up there. Please, give it to the one who deserves it. And don't pull anything weird.'
He clenched his fists tight.
His palms grew damp. Suddenly, the past flashed before his eyes.
'Teacher, that answer is crude.'
'If I really am the genius you say I am, someone with the kind of talent that comes along maybe once a century, then there's no way I couldn't solve something as trivial as the Four Color Theorem, is there?'
Woo-hyun nodded, then murmured quietly.
"Yeah, to you, Seo-ha, it must have been only that much of a feat. And you proved it. Now show me a wider world."
The chairman picked up the gold envelope resting on the podium.
The rustle of paper carried through the microphone and echoed across the entire hall.
In an instant, as though a vacuum had formed, the murmuring in the hall died away. Tens of thousands of gazes converged on a single spot.
"The Fields Prize is the most honorable decoration given to young mathematicians. But at the same time, it is also a heavy request: that they go on, with all their strength, to broaden the horizons of humanity.
Praying that today will not be the most glorious day of the recipient's life..."
The chairman opened the envelope and drew out the card.
The candidates seated in the front row gulped, swallowing hard.
"I can say with certainty that in all my life I have never once seen a candidate as deserving as this recipient.
Republic of Korea, Seoha, Yu!"
Seo-ha's eyes went wide.
""Whoaaaaaaaaah!""
An explosive roar erupted as though it would burst through the ceiling of the Hanover Dome.
Mi-young covered her mouth and wept. Seo-eun threw up her arms in a cheer while holding Justin. Woo-hyun shot to his feet, then went limp and ended up slumping back into his chair.
Theo, fists clenched, rose from his seat and threw his arms around Seo-ha. Cecilia, Sri, and Ben were cheering. Su-jeong, eyes brimming with tears, stood up and gave Seo-ha's back a push.
"Seo-ha! Hurry, go!"
He slowly rose from his seat.
Looking over, he saw Gyeo-ul far off in the distance. With reddened eyes, she gestured as if to say, go on, get out there.
Click!
Click, click!
Dozens of cameras fired off their shutters without pause, like machine guns.
When he climbed the steps and stood on the podium, the German President came over to him with a beaming smile.
"Congratulations."
He whispered the word in a low voice and held out his hand.
A golden medal engraved with the portrait of Archimedes. It was hung around Seo-ha's neck.
Clap clap clap!
Applause like a raging tide filled the hall.
Eighteen years old.
It was the moment an immortal record was born in Hanover, one without precedent in history and one that would never, for all time to come, be broken.
*****
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