Chapter 21
Counseling Center.
While we were waiting in the lobby, swinging my feet back and forth, Ms. Park Jisu came out.
"Hello, teacher."
"H-hello, teacha!"
"Oh my, you're here again. And little Yuarin came too."
"Ah, h-hello..."
Arin fidgeted and bowed her head.
Still, seeing her greet them first made me feel how much Arin had grown.
"Come in."
We took our seats in the counseling room.
Mom explained what had happened recently.
She talked about what happened at the kids' café and Arin's social skills.
Ms. Park listened without changing her expression, nodding calmly the whole time.
"It was to be expected. It's common for gifted children to have trouble socializing with their peers."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. Yuarin, like Yua-yeon, is a child with exceptionally advanced brain development. Her intelligence is in the top 0.27 percent. For children like that, the standard for peers isn't biological age.
"So from Yuarin's point of view, three- and four-year-olds simply don't seem rational. They can't communicate, they throw tantrums, they act unpredictably..."
"Y-yeah... they were yelling, throwing things, and everyone was so dumb..."
"Arin, that's enough!"
"Hieet!"
"Then, teacher, how should Arin learn social skills?"
Mom asked with a worried expression.
"We need to change the approach. Yuarin's mental age is far ahead of her actual age. In pedagogy, social skills develop best when interacting with people at a similar intellectual level. She'll only really get to experience the joy of conversation when she's around older kids or adults who can actually understand what she says."
"Yeah... I like an older sister who understands me better."
Arin nodded and agreed.
"Another thing to keep in mind. Forcing Yuarin into groups of biological peers could actually backfire. Their unpredictable behavior can cause anxiety and stress. On the other hand, adults and teenagers follow rules and communicate rationally, so to Yuarin, they may actually feel safer."
"I see... I understand."
In other words, the kids' café had been an environment that caused Arin nothing but stress.
No wonder it had been driving her crazy to be told to play with other kids in such an uncomfortable place.
I should have noticed it in advance... Sorry, Arin!
"Then what would be the best thing to do?"
"In a group with rules and structure, it would be good to naturally make connections with older kids. I heard Yuarin has been getting into board games lately, right? How about looking into a nearby board game club, chess club, or go center? A place like that might actually give Yuarin a sense of stability and an environment where she can practice interacting with others."
Hearing Ms. Park Jisu's words, the thought that came to mind was this:
'Raising even one genius properly is brutal...'
That was true for me, and true for Arin too: anything that strayed far from the average came with all sorts of growing pains in its own right.
Mom had joined a mom cafe and studied hard for child-rearing information,
but unfortunately, both of her daughters were outliers beyond 3 sigma...
So the usual methods of raising a normal child didn't work, and it must have been a real struggle.
The counseling session ended.
We thanked the counselor.
"Thank you for the kind explanation."
"Thank you, teacherrr-."
"Th-thank you..."
Ms. Park Jisu smiled faintly and replied.
"If you ever run into difficult problems as you grow up, feel free to visit again anytime. Oh, by the way... is Yua-yeon okay?"
"Ah, are you talking about me?"
"Yes. I was wondering if the problem the younger sister had been facing was actually something the older sister had already faced first."
"Ah, haha... I'm fine."
Awkward.
I scratched my head and answered.
As for me...
I had the cheat code of memories from my previous life, so there was no problem.
Because I had been a professor, I also had plenty of experience lecturing college students.
Even back when I was doing my doctorate in the United States, I had even survived a grueling thesis defense.
Simply talking to strangers wasn't difficult at all.
I just preferred thinking alone, so I had never felt the need to join any group until now.
...But saying it like that makes me sound like a total loner.
Hmph, I'm not a loner...
I'm just a homebody who likes staying home...
We left the counseling room.
Creeeak-.
As soon as we left the counseling room, Arin glared at me with unhappy eyes.
Then she pouted and complained.
"...Hmph, you don't have any friends either, sis... and yet you're only picking on me..."
Yikes!
"I do too have friends."
"Then name one friend. Anyone."
"U-uh... g-give me a little time..."
I started thinking hard.
'What name am I supposed to say?'
But I couldn't exactly say Yu Jin-hoo here.
That was a friend from my previous life, not this one.
Bringing up Professor Park Muyeol's name made even less sense.
"Hmmm... Sis, you really don't have any friends, do you?"
"I do too..."
Eventually, after much deliberation, what came out of my mouth was.
"...Eeung Eeung... one-two-one... one-eight-two..."
"...Huh?"
"Eeung Eeung One-Two-One One-Eight-Two! My friend's name!"
It was the anonymous user, ㅇㅇ(121.182), whom I'd had a keyboard battle with a few months ago.
... What's-it-called.
There's that saying that if you fight, you become friends, right?
A keyboard battle is essentially a fight, so it isn't exactly weird to say that ㅇㅇ(121.182), the one I fought, is my friend too, right?
Right?
"Sis, your friend's name is Eeung Eeung One-Two-One One-Eight-Two?"
"Y-yeah..."
"R-really? That seems kind of weird."
"I-isn't it amazing...? I-I think it's amazing too. Ahahaha..."
Embarrassed, I cleared my throat and avoided Arin's gaze.
I hope she buys it...
Pff, pfft.
Mom, who had been listening from the side, covered her mouth and tried to hold back her laughter.
Arin seemed to sense something off about that...
But she apparently had too little life experience to point it out.
A three-year-old couldn't possibly know about anonymous forum users.
"...All right, I got it."
Arin gave up on pointing out my contradiction.
'Hmph. This is the difference between verbal comprehension 160 and verbal comprehension 133, Arin. Don't even think about beating me in a war of words!'
I breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat from my forehead with my sleeve.
✒️✒️✒️
Lately, Arin had been showing a lot of interest in board games.
It was partly because I had been combing through board game databases and gradually raising the difficulty from games that were easy for Arin to learn.
But it also seemed that doing things together as a family was pretty fun for her.
"Dad! I need wheat! Let's trade my wood for it!"
"Oh, Arin. Of course Dad desperately wants to trade wheat for wood too. But Dad needs that wheat to build a village. Specifically, to keep you in check. A truly tragic fate, wouldn't you say?"
"Eeeek—! Dad's mean!"
"Heh-heh-heh. Who told you to run away with the game from the start? Sit there quietly and take the pressure!"
And the more strategic and tactical the game got, the more you could see three-year-old Arin's brain heating up.
Toasty~
"Heehee. Arin, your forehead is super warm-!"
"Uu... sis, I'm concentrating right now..."
On top of that, she seemed to have a strong competitive streak, because win or lose, she'd review each game for about ten minutes after it ended.
"...Ah, if I had done it like this here, I would've won, huh...?"
She's my little sister, but she's really a genius I'm excited to watch grow.
Meanwhile,
our family was looking into communities for Arin, just as Ms. Park Jisu had advised.
"A board game club would be tough. Games with lots of rules would be hard for Arin to understand, and more than anything, since it's a social club, I didn't think they'd take a three-year-old."
"Then maybe the only places nearby worth going to would be a chess club or a go center?"
After hearing that much, I voiced a question.
"But is there a chess club around here? That's incredibly niche in Korea. I don't think there are many people who play it."
"Yua-yeon. That's old news. Chess is hugely popular among young people now."
"Huh? Why all of a sudden?"
I tilted my head.
"Ah, since Yua-yeon was born in 2020, you wouldn't know. Around 2020, there was a Netflix drama about chess. Was it The Queen's Gambit? That show was a huge hit, and it sparked a worldwide chess boom. That's why so many young people got into it."
"Huh... really?"
"Yeah. Look at this."
Dad turned on his smartphone and showed me a promotional photo for the chess club.
Most of the people in the photo who were enjoying chess looked young.
That said, it wasn't only children; there were plenty of adults who looked like college students too. The age range was probably roughly from elementary schoolers to college students.
Back in my day, chess was the ultimate hipster game only die-hard enthusiasts enjoyed. When did it get this popular?
Is this what the flow of the times feels like...
"Anyway. Let's try teaching Arin chess and go, and take her to the meetups for whichever game she takes an interest in."