Ch. 9 — 09
“Hoo, first off, I apologize for grabbing and twisting your arm out of nowhere.”
“No, no. I acted in a way that caused a misunderstanding, so…”
“Well, as long as you know.”
“Yes. I am truly sorry.”
“You said you’re a teacher?”
“Yes. I’m an elementary school teacher.”
Hyung-man scanned the man, twitching an eyebrow.
Well, he didn’t look entirely put-together, but he definitely didn’t give off the impression of a criminal.
Moreover, his claim that he approached Cheol-jun because he saw him from across the street and thought he might be in danger roughly made sense.
To an outsider, it could have been a very concerning scene.
Hyung-man knew how to judge his own appearance objectively.
“Well, since it was a mutual misunderstanding, let’s go our separate ways.”
“Yes. Yes.”
Hyung-man gestured to Cheol-jun.
“Let’s go, squirt.”
“Okay!”
“A stranger talks to you, and you just entertain them?”
“He didn’t seem like a bad person. Besides, I knew you’d be nearby, Uncle.”
“Hey now. You can’t just judge people by their appearance. Look at your uncle. Even though I look like this, I’m incredibly gentle and kind.”
“……”
Go Chang-ho stared blankly at the child’s retreating back before hurriedly speaking up.
“Excuse me…”
Cheol-jun and Hyung-man turned their heads.
Go Chang-ho parted his lips.
“Which school does he go to…?”
Hyung-man furrowed his brow.
“And what are you going to do with that information?”
“No, it’s just…”
Hyung-man carefully inspected the man.
Shabby clothes, unkempt hair, and patchy stubble from not shaving for a few days.
He might be a teacher, but his appearance certainly didn’t fit a private elementary school.
“Tsk, tsk. Well, you don’t need to know.”
“Ah…”
Hyung-man scrunched his nose once and started walking. Cheol-jun turned around and bowed his head.
“Goodbye.”
“Huh? Uh… Ah. Goodbye.”
With a face full of regret, Go Chang-ho gave a small wave.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
When Hyung-man called, Cheol-jun scurried over and stuck to his side.
“Hey. When did you figure out I was following you anyway?”
“From in front of the apartment complex?”
“Hah, but I was being careful while tailing you…”
“I just saw you when I peeked back.”
“I-Is that so?”
“Yes!”
“Anyway, you can’t just trust people based on their appearance. You don’t even know if that guy is actually a teacher. Judging by the way he looked…”
“You judged him by his appearance too, didn’t you, Uncle?”
“Hey. The nuance is different here.”
“What’s nuance?”
“Uh…? Well, you see…”
And, one week later.
The day of the guardian interview before transferring to Hanyoung Private Elementary School.
“Hah…”
Cheol-jun glared sideways at Hyung-man, Hyung-man scratched his head awkwardly, and Chang-ho blinked blankly as he looked at the two of them.
*
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*
“Um, about that day…”
“Oh, my. Don’t mention it.”
“To think I dared to twist a teacher’s arm…”
“Not at all. It’s fine.”
“Hah, and you’re from Harvard, too… Such an incredible person…”
“It’s nothing special. It’s just a place to study like any other.”
“Haha. So that’s why you had that American style.”
“…Pardon?”
“You know, your hairstyle…”
“Ah…”
After an awkward reunion, the two sat facing each other.
Cheol-jun found the conversation between the two of them incredibly amusing.
Their attitudes changing depending on the situation felt like a mathematical formula.
“So, does this mean Cheol-jun has never received any formal education until now?”
“Ah, yes. I’ve only heard what he’s told me as well.”
At Hyung-man’s words, Chang-ho looked at Cheol-jun.
When their eyes met, Cheol-jun smiled radiantly.
“Cheol-jun. So what kind of studying did you do in China?”
“Books. My dad brought me a 2nd-grade elementary school textbook. That’s the only thing I read. Ever since I was eight.”
“Ah, anything else?”
“A nature exploration book and a science encyclopedia in Chinese. But there were some missing pages in the middle.”
Chang-ho nodded silently.
The child definitely looked smart, but it would be difficult to judge him entirely based on an intellectual assessment.
Because you can’t know what you haven’t been taught.
Just then, Hyung-man subtly chimed in.
“Well, he did get some tutoring for a little under a month.”
“Tutoring?”
“Yes. It was mostly math and English, but Cheol-jun is so smart that even the tutor panicked a bit…”
Chang-ho’s brow narrowed slightly.
No matter if it was just elementary school level, one month was far too short.
The guardian might think he had caught up to some extent, but the tutor likely skipped several units just for show.
Crash courses usually just hammered in the important concepts to quickly advance through the curriculum.
“Hmm, I don’t place much importance on grades. I will teach him slowly according to his level. Fortunately, the class I’m in charge of has a small number of students. I can set aside extra time for him, and since the child is smart, he’ll quickly catch up to his peers’ level.”
“Ah, well, the tutor even called him a gifted child…”
“…Yes. Gifted.”
Chang-ho looked at Cheol-jun.
He still vividly remembered the shock of their first meeting that day.
An insight far beyond his years.
If that tutor had also experienced that kind of insight, it made sense they might say something like that.
“Well, since this isn’t a common situation, let me just do a quick check of his intellectual level. There aren’t many questions, so it won’t take long. You can just take a look around the school for about 30 minutes and come back.”
“Ah, yes. Yes.”
Hyung-man stood up, patted Cheol-jun’s head once, and walked out of the classroom.
Chang-ho handed Cheol-jun a pencil.
“Alright, from now on, you’re going to take a test with me…”
Cheol-jun’s round eyes sparkled as he looked at the test paper.
*
*
*
The intellectual level assessment consisted of five subjects:
Korean, Social Studies, Science, English, and Math.
Truthfully, he had no intention of making him solve every single question.
By just picking out a few essential questions, he could quickly gauge the child’s level.
However, the speed at which the child solved the problems was extraordinary.
Korean.
He looked at the passage exactly once.
He never checked it again.
He instantly grasped the core of the question and found the answer.
For spelling and spacing questions, he wrote down the answers without hesitation the moment he read them.
Out of 15 questions, Chang-ho asked him to solve 5, and he got them all right.
Social Studies.
He struggled a bit with this subject.
It felt like he didn’t know the answers simply because he hadn’t learned them.
Out of 5 questions, he only got two right, and both were from the geography and regions section.
He left all the economics and society section questions blank.
At this, Chang-ho narrowed his brow.
Most children, when faced with multiple-choice questions they don’t know, would at least try to guess an answer that looked plausible, but this child simply shook his head at what he didn’t know.
Science.
He shook his head at questions about strata, fossils, and plants.
However, the moment he saw a question related to changes in the state of water, he got it right.
Chang-ho pointed out a question about separating mixtures, and he got it right instantly as well.
English.
Originally, public education English started in the 3rd grade, so 4th-grade public elementary school English focused on listening and speaking.
However, Hanyoung Private Elementary School had English classes starting from the 1st grade.
Therefore, there was a written assessment level for the 4th grade as well.
[Choose the appropriate word for the blank.
The book is ( on / in / under ) the desk.]
[Which of the following is not the name of a food?
① pizza ② pencil ③ rice ④ milk]
These were the types of questions.
The child answered them all correctly without much difficulty.
Well, the guardian did say the tutoring focused on math and English.
For now, his level was better than the kids in public elementary schools.
Before pulling out the math test paper, Chang-ho reviewed the tests Cheol-jun had completed so far.
Chang-ho wasn’t just looking at whether the child got the right answers or not.
He was carefully observing his attitude toward the problems and the process of deriving the answers.
Chang-ho was surprised by two things.
First, the questions he left blank.
He accurately recognized the boundary between what he knew and what he didn’t know.
At that age, perfect metacognition is difficult.
However, the child shook his head immediately without hesitation at questions he didn’t know.
He completely lacked the thought that not knowing something was shameful or wrong.
It was natural.
Because he hadn’t learned it.
Chang-ho liked this part quite a bit.
Second, answers derived from understanding, not memorization.
He didn’t know the questions about strata and the life cycle of plants—which required memorization to know—but he answered the questions about the state changes of water and separating mixtures after pondering for a moment.
Accurately catching that brief moment of thought, Chang-ho knew.
He didn’t just instantly pick a word he knew; he momentarily deduced and understood the principles to find the answer.
Chang-ho twitched an eyebrow and handed him the math test paper.
He said he learned math from the tutor, right?
He skipped large numbers, small numbers, and angles entirely.
“Alright, do you want to try solving this?”
375 × 24 = ?
Multiplying a three-digit number by a two-digit number.
The moment he pointed to the problem, the child scribbled with his pencil.
‘…Huh?’
The answer came out immediately through mental math, without setting up a vertical equation.
“…And this one?”
816 ÷ 34 = ?
Scribble, scribble.
Dividing a three-digit number by a two-digit number, also mental math.
He also wrote down the answer the moment Chang-ho pointed to an addition problem involving fractions and decimals.
‘Hah…’
Chang-ho narrowed his brow.
This wasn’t something you could just teach someone to do, right?
Staring blankly at the math test paper, Chang-ho spoke.
“Uh, can you just see the answers right away?”
Cheol-jun blinked his round eyes.
“Yes.”
“Um, did you learn this?”
Cheol-jun pondered for a moment, then nodded.
He had learned multiplication and division from his tutor.
“Yes!”
“Um, from your tutor?”
“Yes!”
Chang-ho’s brow narrowed further.
This was possible just from being taught?
Suddenly, he grew intensely curious about the child’s level.
“Cheol-jun. Did you learn things harder than this too?”
“Yes!”
Chang-ho brought over a blank sheet of paper and used his pencil to write down a 5th-grade mixed operation problem with natural numbers.
24 ÷ (3 + 1) × 5 = ?
Scribble, scribble.
The four arithmetic operations with fractions.
Scribble, scribble.
‘…All this with mental math too?’
While he was at it, he wrote down a 6th-grade problem.
Mixed operations with fractions and decimals.
Scribble, scribble.
‘……’
Proportional expressions.
Scribble, scribble.
Chang-ho, who had barely been managing to hide his panic, finally widened his eyes.
“Uh, do you know harder things too?”
Cheol-jun smiled radiantly.
His uncle had told him to show the teacher everything he knew for now.
He said that way the teacher could evaluate him accurately and counsel them.
“Yes!”
“…Up to what have you learned?”
Cheol-jun took a moment to organize his thoughts.
What was the very last thing he learned?
He had learned so many things completely out of order, all jumbled together, that it was hard to pinpoint.
Still, there was something he had been continually asking his teacher about recently while doing calculations.
“Trigonometric functions.”
At the completely unexpected answer, Chang-ho’s mouth flapped open and closed.
“…What? Why?”
He was so flustered that the words slipped out wrong.
“Um, to accurately calculate the position of the stars…”
“Stars?”
“Yes. If we set the observer’s latitude as ϕ, the star’s declination as δ, and the hour angle as H, then you can find the altitude angle using sin h = sinϕsinδ + cosϕcosδ cos H. That’s spherical trigonometry, and you also need the trigonometric addition formulas and the law of cosines for it.”
“…Huh?”
Chang-ho’s mouth hung half open.
‘What on earth did they teach an elementary schooler?’
On top of that, they taught trigonometric functions and spherical trigonometry by applying them to astronomy?
Trigonometric functions themselves are at a 1st-year high school level, but the formula the kid just mentioned is at the level of a university astronomy undergraduate.
‘And they made an elementary schooler understand that?’
Chang-ho hurriedly turned his head and looked out the classroom window.
He made direct eye contact with the guardian, who was peeking inside wondering if the test was over.
When Chang-ho quickly nodded, the guardian slid the classroom door open and walked in.
He hadn’t even sat down yet when Chang-ho’s mouth opened on its own.
“Just who on earth is this tutor?”
The guardian awkwardly scratched his head.
“Ah. It’s my acquaintance’s niece…”
They say the world is wide and full of eccentric geniuses.
“C-Could I possibly speak with her on the phone?”
“Ah, here…”
When the guardian found the number and handed it over, Go Chang-ho quickly took his phone.
Forget the guardian interview; he needed to hear the voice of this great educator right this second.
*
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*
—So you can think of this as typical stress-induced hair loss. Have you been under any particular stress lately? It often recovers naturally once the source of the stress is resolved. For now, I’ll just prescribe a topical medication and some nutritional supplements.
Stepping out of the dermatology clinic, Cha Se-young let out a deep sigh.
Stress.
Stress, huh.
She had it.
An immense amount of stress.
—Teacher, the formula to find the angular distance between two stars is
right? But this is the exact same structure as the law of cosines in spherical trigonometry. So if we think of the sky as a sphere, is it the same principle as finding the distance between two points on a plane?
—Teacher, you can find the distance from Earth to a star using d=1/p, right? Where p is the parallax angle. But…
—Teacher, if a star’s brightness is inversely proportional to the square of its distance, could we also apply
like this…
—Teacher, Kepler’s Third Law is…
—Teacher, …
—Tea…
Cha Se-young shook her head vigorously.
She was practically hearing auditory hallucinations now.
“Ah! I don’t know either!”
At first, it was so fascinating and fun.
Because she had never seen such an incredible child before.
The kid was so pretty and cute that just talking with him was immensely enjoyable.
She had even had thoughts like this:
If, someday in the future, this child becomes a phenomenally great person, would he maybe introduce her to the world as his very first teacher…?
However, starting from the second week, her steps heading there had become incredibly heavy.
Because she increasingly found herself unable to properly respond to the child’s questions.
Throughout the lesson, she was barely surviving by frantically searching up celestial mechanics and spherical astronomy on her phone.
Even then, she’d sometimes slip up and say something wrong, and the child would correct her.
And that wasn’t all.
When conversing in English, she was actually the one learning.
She had told the guardian that she had nothing left to teach him, but he just told her it was fine and asked her to just fill out the one month.
And ultimately, she ended up with stress-induced hair loss like this.
‘Sob…’
Se-young unwittingly felt a surge of sorrow.
That pretty, cute face now looked like a demon to her.
No, it wasn’t that she hated him.
The expression he made when he asked questions out of pure, innocent curiosity was so cute that it was genuinely addicting.
So she couldn’t do this or that, and was just suffering in silence.
‘…Huh?’
Suddenly, her phone vibrated.
‘Ah…’
It was the guardian’s number.