Chapter 247

Translator: Dreamscribe

The next morning, a short announcement was posted on MIT's official website.

[Department of Mathematics Faculty Appointment Notice]

-We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Yu Seo-ha as a Tenured Professor in the Department of Mathematics. His appointment will take effect immediately upon completion of his military service.

It was only two lines long, but the impact was enormous. The first to react were the students who would actually be taking his classes.

[Official! Yu Seo-ha is joining the math department as a professor next semester?]

└Wow!

└Professor Yu Seo-ha!

└Won the Fields Prize as a teenager and became a Tenured Professor at twenty-two ㅋㅋㅋ

└I'm looking forward to it. I've only heard rumors about him, so I wonder what his classes will be like?

└You too? Same!

└Course registration is going to be a war.

└Everyone wants in. The server's gonna crash ㅋㅋㅋ

└I'm in computer science, but students from other departments can take it too, right?

└Physics department joining the battle!

└Cute little things. Enjoy yourselves while you still can ㅋㅋㅋ

MIT's pride, the youngest Fields Prize winner in history.

A few professors and graduate students wore complicated expressions, but the students were simply delighted.

The news soon spread to Korea.

Domestic broadcasters made it their top story of the day. A photograph of Seo-ha taken at Gyeo-ul's recital appeared on the studio's giant screen.

The reporter pointed to the prepared graphics and continued in an animated tone.

“This appointment completely shatters conventional academic norms. Normally, after earning a doctorate, it takes around fifteen years of progressing through the ranks of Assistant Professor and Associate Professor before reaching this position. However, as soon as Dr. Yu's doctoral dissertation review was completed, MIT's Department of Mathematics and its board approved his direct appointment as a Full Professor without a single dissenting vote.”

The screen changed to footage of the Charles River and the MIT campus.

“Meanwhile, Yu Seo-ha, who is currently serving in the military, is expected to travel to Boston immediately after his discharge and officially begin teaching. At just twenty-two years old, the appointment of the youngest Tenured Professor in MIT history has drawn the attention of academia worldwide to Massachusetts.”

The broadcast had barely ended before Korean internet communities and social media practically exploded.

[Yu Seo-ha just got MIT tenure ㅋㅋㅋ]

└Wow, they're locking in a kid who hasn't even finished his military service yet as a Tenured Professor ㄷㄷ MIT must've been desperate. Probably scared someone else would snatch him up, right?

└Getting appointed in your late thirties would already be insanely fast ㄷㄷ

└MIT: Report for work the second you get discharged ㅋㅋㅋ

└Age doesn't matter when his achievements crush everyone else's. What possible reason would there be to oppose it?

└I was jealous for a second, then I realized living as Yu Seo-ha sounds way too exhausting and came to my senses.

└Graduate students older than him are gonna have to call him Professor. Most of his students will probably be around his age.

The Korean Mathematical Society even put up a congratulatory pop-up on its website, something it had never done before.

And once word of that spread, ordinary users flooded the site, causing it to go down for the first time since the society was founded.

“If we produce the results, we can do it too!”

“Exactly. Yu Seo-ha opened the door to a new era.”

Young graduate students and reform-minded scholars were deeply moved by MIT's decision. They hoped Seo-ha's unconventional path would help change the rigid hierarchy of Korean academia.

Ben, who had been checking the community reactions, smirked as he read one of the comments.

“They're happy now.”

A lot would change once Seo-ha officially became a professor.

MIT's Department of Mathematics was already among the best in the world, but Seo-ha standing at the lectern would give it an entirely different weight. Students who had been torn between MIT, Harvard, and Princeton would all flock to one place.

And if Life Matrix was added to the course catalog, the result would be a disaster too horrifying to watch.

Mathematics alone would already push them to their limits, and molecular biology would be piled on top of that. Even medical school students confident in their math skills might try sneaking into MIT just to take Seo-ha's class.

And before long, they would discover that Life Matrix was a field that went far beyond tumor treatment.

“Sounds fun.”

Yu-Riemann Geometry and Life Matrix.

How many students would actually survive such a hellish curriculum? On top of that, the professor would be Seo-ha. Ben found himself wondering if there might even be a wave of students dropping out.

Clack clack.

└Cute little things. Enjoy yourselves while you still can ㅋㅋㅋ

***

Before anyone knew it, autumn had reached its final stretch.

Warsaw.

A city where a long history, the scars of war, and soul-stirring music coexisted.

“It's chilly.”

Gyeo-ul stepped out of her lodging and raised the collar of her coat.

Click, click.

Her footsteps quickened as she walked down the street.

It had been a long journey over the past several months.

The competition that began with the preliminary round had whittled away countless contestants through the first and second main rounds. Now, only ten people remained who could stand on the stage.

When she had first arrived in Warsaw, she had not been confident that she would make it this far. Chopin's music had always been a difficult challenge for her.

Walking along the stone-paved street beneath the gray sky, Gyeo-ul put in her earphones. She played a recording of her own performance from the second main round last week.

'So that's what it sounded like.'

She didn't like it.

But she couldn't quite tell what was wrong. When she told Seon-hwa about her concerns, Seon-hwa gave her this advice.

“That's because you're listening with a performer's ear. Why don't you ask someone else?”

“Who?”

“The person who's probably listened to your playing the most.”

Ever since she was six years old, Gyeo-ul's mother had accompanied her to every competition she entered. Yet the face that crossed Gyeo-ul's mind at that moment belonged to someone else.

'Seo-ha.'

She remembered a conversation they had once shared.

“Do you listen to the CDs I recorded for you often?”

“Yeah.”

“How often?”

“Whenever no one's around and I'm not thinking about math. No, sometimes I listen while writing equations too, so....”

Gyeo-ul's mouth fell open.

'Then just how many times has he listened to them?'

He had been repeatedly listening for ten years to the little more than ten CDs she had sent him.

As she walked down the street, Gyeo-ul looked up at the sky.

The weather had already turned cold.

“It's freezing.”

She wasn't in good condition.

Since arriving in Warsaw, Gyeo-ul had not slept through a single night. For the first few days, she blamed the jet lag. After that, she blamed the unfamiliar bed at her lodging.

But even after several months, with the finals now just ahead of her, her eyes still opened at exactly two in the morning as if on cue. She would close them again and toss and turn, trying to fall back asleep, only to eventually leave her lodging early in the morning. That had become her routine.

Her nerves were on edge. Her fingers also felt heavy. Fortunately, though, she was in a good mood today because of the text she had received yesterday. Gyeo-ul took out her earphones and put them in her pocket.

-I'm about to board the plane. See you tomorrow.

'See you tomorrow.'

And that tomorrow was today.

“Taxi!”

The airport came into view.

Gyeo-ul took a mirror from her bag and looked at her face.

'I look terrible.'

Dry skin and an expression worn down by exhaustion.

She took out her scarf and wrapped it several times around her neck so Seo-ha wouldn't see her face.

[Incheon KE935 - Arrived]

Every time the automatic doors opened, people poured out.

Travelers pulling suitcases, drivers holding signs, a father catching a child who came running into his arms. Gyeo-ul quietly scanned the crowd.

And-

Step, step.

A dark navy coat, and a single small suitcase.

A tall young man walked out. It was Seo-ha's face, one she had not seen in half a year.

Beeep-

She couldn't hear anything.

Even amid the commotion of the airport, only the sound of his footsteps reached Gyeo-ul's ears with perfect clarity. Her scarf was pulled all the way up to the tip of her nose, but Seo-ha's gaze stopped precisely on her.

“It's been a while.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you cold? Why are you covering your face?”

“I don't know. Don't look at me.”

Gyeo-ul abruptly turned her head away and walked toward the exit.

Rattle.

She heard him hurry after her.

Inside the taxi heading downtown, Gyeo-ul could feel his hesitant gaze. He was undoubtedly putting that brilliant mind of his to work, thinking furiously.

'Did she catch a cold?'

'Did I say something wrong?'

She felt a little bad, but she simply didn't want him to see her face right now.

'Sorry, just for a little while.'

She could make it up to him by buying him dinner at one of the good restaurants she had found while staying here.

“Let's check in first. I made a reservation at a restaurant.”

“Okay.”

Seo-ha was always a man of few words.

Did he apply the mathematical efficiency he loved so much to conversations as well? Her disappointment lasted only a moment. She knew how he truly felt, so even his blunt manner seemed cute to her.

“We've arrived.”

The taxi stopped in front of an elegant, old-fashioned building.

Hotel Bristol.

Opened in 1901, it was one of Warsaw's most historic hotels. When Seo-ha asked her to recommend somewhere to stay, Gyeo-ul had confidently suggested this place.

Ivy climbing the outer walls had turned the colors of autumn. The pale ocher stone walls and arched windows combined to create an elegant atmosphere.

“I'll help you. They probably speak English too, but people tend to be nicer if you speak the local language.”

Seo-ha's eyes widened.

“You can speak Polish too?”

“I've lived here for months. Of course I can!”

Gyeo-ul puffed out her chest and took the lead.

She pushed through the revolving door, revealing the hotel interior. Luxurious marble floors and classic wooden furniture lined the walls. A large grand piano stood in one corner of the lobby.

Seo-ha kept looking around in admiration.

“I didn't realize there'd be this many people in Warsaw.”

Just as he said, the hotel was packed. Unfamiliar languages could be heard from every direction.

It was the season of the Chopin Competition, held once every five years. Classical music enthusiasts and pianists from around the world had gathered here, along with their friends and families. Add countless reporters and tourists on top of that, and even this normally tranquil hotel looked like a bustling marketplace.

The two approached the check-in counter and got in line.

After a short wait, it was their turn. Gyeo-ul met the employee's eyes and fluently explained their business in Polish.

"Dzień dobry. Mamy rezerwację na nazwisko Yu(Hello, we have a reservation under the name Yu Seo-ha.).”

“I'll check the reservation list.”

Clack clack.

The employee's fingers moved busily across the keyboard.

At that moment, the employee's eyes widened as she checked the list. She looked at the passport and entered the name again and again. Cold sweat began to bead on her forehead.

“Um.... Would you mind waiting a moment?”

With a flustered expression, the employee asked for their patience before hurriedly making a phone call. They could hear her speaking urgently in Polish with the person on the other end.

“Yes, that's right. There's a reservation under the name Yu Seo-ha.... But the system says that room has been occupied since yesterday.”

An ominous feeling slowly crept into both of their hearts. Eventually, the employee ended the call, carefully lowered the receiver, and put on the most apologetic expression she could manage.

“We are truly sorry. Because so many guests arrived at once for the Chopin Competition, it appears there was a conflict with a reservation made through another platform.”

“What?”

“Huh?”

Seo-ha and Gyeo-ul both stared blankly at her. The employee repeatedly bowed her head as she continued.

“It appears the room was double-booked. We're contacting nearby hotels right now, so we should be able to find a room for you shortly. Since this was our mistake, the hotel will cover the full cost.”

However, even after thirty minutes, then an hour, they still could not secure the room they had been promised.

It was finals week for the Chopin Competition, an event watched by the entire world. Every vacant room in the city had already been gone for some time.

Seo-ha looked utterly stunned.

Whoosh-

As the hotel doors closed, a cold wind swept over the two of them.

*****

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