Chapter 49
That evening.
After a long time, a family meeting was held.
The four of us sat around the dining table.
I spoke first.
“The award ceremony will be held in Paris.”
Dad asked.
“Paris? Paris in France?”
“Yeah. The ceremony is in the Sorbonne University auditorium.”
Dad tilted his head and said,
“But why France of all places? A-yeon proved the Riemann hypothesis. And A-yeon is only six years old. Can't they make an exception? Can't it be held in Seoul?”
“That's just how Westerners are, I guess.”
I made a shrugging gesture.
Yu A-yeon special move, shrugging.
“Europe has traditionally been strong in pure mathematics, so the academic community tends to gather there. That’s why most natural science events are held there. Even though the Clay Mathematics Institute is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the U.S., and was founded by Harvard alumni, the important events were all held in Europe.”
I continued, sipping my cocoa.
“In fact, thanks to Professor Park Muyeol’s connections, I held a lecture in South Korea, and I was deeply grateful that Western mathematicians flew all the way there to attend. It’s a grueling trip—12 hours by plane from Europe, 12 hours by plane from the U.S.”
‘It was the same in my past life.’
I reminisced for a moment.
When I studied abroad for my doctorate, and later when I was a professor, I often attended overseas conferences.
And most events related to pure mathematics were held either in the U.S. or in Europe.
It was rare for them to be held in Asia.
That was reality.
Dad let out a small sigh and said,
“That part can’t be helped. But getting to Paris won’t be easy...”
Mom said,
“First, the most important issue. Do all four of us need to go to Paris?”
Nod-nod-.
I nodded.
“It’s just my personal wish, but I’d love it if Mom, Dad, Arin, and I could all go on a trip to Paris together...”
Wriggle-wriggle-.
I carefully said, touching my index fingers together.
“It’d definitely be fun for our whole family to go somewhere together and have a good time...”
Dad gently rested his hand on my head.
Swish-swish-!
Then he tousled my shiny hair.
“Heh!”
“If A-yeon wants it that badly, then it can’t be helped. Paris it is for the four of us.”
“Really? Yay-!”
“Oh! Paris! Eiffel Tower! I wanna see it too!”
I threw both arms up and cheered.
Arin’s eyes sparkled with interest too, and she tapped the desk tap-tap-.
“Then let’s sort out the problems. First: Dad’s job.”
Dad held up a finger.
“Looking at the event schedule, it runs over two days, right? If you factor in the time it takes to go to Paris and back, we’ll need at least a week. Since I’d be using all my vacation days at once, I need to talk to my boss.”
Taking all my vacation days at once wasn’t impossible, he said.
As expected of our dependable dad.
“Second: expenses.”
Mom raised her hand and said,
“Four round-trip tickets plus lodging costs. When you think about it, that’s no small amount. Paris isn’t exactly cheap either.”
I said,
“Since Clay is inviting me, they’ll probably cover transportation and lodging.”
“Are you sure?”
“Come on. I don't know about the other invited guests, but I'm the main character! The Clay Mathematics Institute isn’t such a stingy organization that it wouldn’t cover even that. They’ll probably splash out and put all four of us in business class and a five-star hotel, right?”
Dad snorted a laugh.
“You’re really confident.”
“Hmph. That’s right! I’m Yu A-yeon, Clay’s invited VIP guest!”
Proudly~
I struck a double peace sign with a confident expression.
“Still, we should check to be sure, so I’ll contact Clay myself and ask what they’ll cover.”
“Okay. Then third is the airplane issue.”
Dad looked back and forth between Arin and me.
“It’s well over twelve hours on a direct flight to Paris. My daughters are both first-timers on a plane, right? Planes can be really scary, you know?”
Arin shot her hand up.
“I’m not scared!”
“You won’t know that until you actually ride one.”
“Muuu-.”
Arin puffed out her cheeks.
I also agreed with the part Dad was worried about.
Normally, when you fly above the clouds, the changing air pressure makes your ears feel stuffy.
At times like that, the Eustachian tube, which connects the ear and nose, can quickly regulate the pressure and make things better.
But in children, the Eustachian tube is much shorter than in adults, and the muscles that open and close it are less developed, so pressure regulation is quite difficult.
So when you fly, they say it feels like your eardrums are about to burst?
On top of that, children’s hearing cells are sensitive, so the loud noise of a plane is very stressful, and the vestibular system in the inner ear is sensitive too, so they get motion sickness easily.
For a child, a plane is a horrific place made up of ear pain + noise + motion sickness, a three-stage overkill combo.
I hadn’t actually experienced it myself; that’s just what the book said.
Dad, who had studied parenting like crazy, was worried about that.
“So Mom and Dad will help as much as we can beside A-yeon and Arin. We should bring earplugs, neck pillows, and plenty of snacks too.”
I raised my hand.
“If we have to be on a plane for 12 hours, we’ll need something fun too.”
“A-yeon, are you bringing your journal?”
Shake-shake-.
I shook my head.
“It’s already a place where I can’t focus and my head hurts, so I won’t bring a hard book that makes my brain overheat. I’ll just bring something easy and fun that doesn’t make me use my brain.”
Arin asked from beside me too.
“Unnie, can’t you bring a puzzle book?”
“You can bring one, but I don’t think you’ll be able to solve puzzles on the plane because your head will hurt.”
“I see.”
“Instead, let’s bring board games that don’t use much brainpower and play them on the plane. We have lots of board games we bought before, right? Card games that are easy to enjoy should be fine.”
“Oh! That sounds fun!”
Arin smiled brightly.
“Then let’s move on from the airplane issue... fourth: safety.”
Mom raised her index finger. Then she said in a low voice,
“Paris is a tourist city, so there are lots of pickpockets. There could be even more dangerous things. Especially children need to be extra careful. When you’re walking around outside, you absolutely must not let go of Mom and Dad’s hands. Absolutely, no matter what happens. Understood?”
Mom stressed it several times, earnestly warning us.
“Mm, okay...”
“Yesss...”
Arin and I nodded, taking Mom’s warning to heart.
Mom said to Dad,
“I think it’d be good to buy clothes with zipper pockets so wallets or phones don’t get pickpocketed.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Dad took notes on Mom’s advice.
“To sum up: work schedule, expenses, adapting to the plane, safety... Ah, right. There’s also the prize money issue.”
“Prize money?”
“A-yeon, how much prize money did you say you’d get?”
“Heehee, one million dollars-!”
I spread my arms wide to emphasize just how huge that amount was.
“Right. One million dollars. At the exchange rate as of May 8, that comes to about 1.47 billion won.”
“Gasp-. That’s a lot...”
Arin gaped in surprise.
“It makes no sense for Mom or Dad to collect this money on A-yeon’s behalf. Even if we later gave it to A-yeon as a gift, gift tax would take 400 million won. Even if we passed it on as inheritance, the state would still take more than 300 million at minimum.”
“W-what! That much?”
It was such a huge amount—money even my past self had never touched—that I couldn’t even imagine them taking such a massive chunk in taxes.
“So from the start, it should be received under A-yeon’s name.”
“I see... But can I open an account?”
“Yes. It’s possible. Even a six-year-old child can open an account if their parents, as legal guardians, consent. And since you’ll be receiving dollars, it has to be opened as a foreign currency account.”
Mom loaded up praise and fired it at Dad.
“Wow, as expected of someone who works in finance, you know money matters inside and out.”
“Heh heh heh.”
Dad laughed, looking pleased.
...So it wasn’t just Mom; Dad also had a weakness for praise.
Well, well, so the reason Arin and I were praise-hungry monsters was all family heritage!
Taking the momentum, I decided to praise Dad even more.
Pat-pat-.
I hopped up onto the chair and placed my hand on Dad’s head as I said it.
“Dad, I didn’t think of that, but you caught it. Dad, you’re seriously the best. That’s my dad!”
“Heh heh, of course. Dad should take care of things like this. Let’s open A-yeon’s foreign currency account before we go to Paris.”
Dad grinned and wrote it down in his notebook.
“...Is there anything else that comes to mind right now?”
“Me-!”
Up-!
I raised my hand.
“Yes, little Yu A-yeon. Go ahead.”
“It’s the language issue! I can speak French, but Mom, Dad, and Arin can’t speak French!”
“Ah, French.”
“I think our family should learn basic French before we go to Paris!”
“Well said. Here, a praise sticker.”
“Hehe.”
Mom gave me a praise sticker. To collect them all, I only had 4 left now. Hehe.
“There are two weeks left until the ceremony. Can we learn French?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Paris is a tourist city, so if you know the basic words and use a few energetic gestures, everyone will understand.”
I held up my index finger.
Yu A-yeon special move, one-second French lesson.
“For French, just remember oui and non for now.”
“Oui?”
“Non?”