Chapter 52
When the first week’s travel itinerary was mostly filled in,
I opened Mom’s laptop and started searching.
“Hmm... Isn’t there anything in France around this time?”
Mom watched from the side.
“Ayeon, what are you looking up?”
“Just browsing for other events. It’d be tiring to run around here and there without Dad.”
The first week was one thing.
But Dad wouldn’t be with us the following week.
So it would be hard for Mom alone to take the two of us far around.
So I was looking for something fun that wouldn’t be hard on our legs.
Drurrrk-.
As I scrolled down.
“Huh?”
Something perfect caught my eye.
It was the schedule for official FIDE chess tournaments.
(FIDE: the International Chess Federation, an abbreviation of the French Fédération Internationale des Échecs.)
A list of youth tournaments being held in France was laid out.
I checked the dates.
There was a tournament that overlapped with the period we’d be in Paris.
‘A European chess tournament...’
I’d been to Europe many times in my past life, but back then I didn’t play chess, so I’d never experienced a chess tournament.
But Europe takes chess seriously.
It was famous for having lots of players who had started playing chess when they were our age.
The player pool was far stronger than Korea’s.
And if I thought about building up Arin’s skills too...
‘This would definitely be a great opportunity for Arin too. I can’t let this slip away!’
“Arin.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you want to enter a chess tournament in France?”
Arin’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Uh, uh?”
“It’s a youth tournament. The one in Paris.”
I turned the laptop toward Arin.
A photo of the tournament scene: a huge hall with countless European grade-school kids lined up side by side, playing chess.
Arin looked at the screen, then lowered her head and fidgeted with her index finger.
“But... those are people I don’t know.”
“Right.”
“They’re foreigners.”
“Right.”
“I’m scared.”
I looked at Arin for a moment.
“Arin, even when you first signed up for the chess club, you played against older kids you didn’t know, right?”
“......That was...”
“And life means constantly meeting people you don’t know. If you only ever play against familiar older kids, you’ll turn into a dummy, you know?”
“Hng... I don’t like being a dummy.”
“And Arin, there are lots of kids in Europe who play chess from a very young age, you know? If you come to this tournament, there might be friends around your age who are better than you.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yeah. Europe’s chess culture is much more advanced than ours.”
Arin looked back at the youth division tournament scene.
Among them were often even younger players than us, some of whom had entered while being held in their mothers’ arms.
“...Wow.”
Arin’s expression began to change.
In Korea, she had always played only against kids older than her.
But in Europe, there could even be a four-year-old who did nothing but eat and play chess, and they might even be much better than Arin.
That thought made Arin’s eyes change a little.
“......What happens if I go?”
“It’s just a tournament. You play against a bunch of people in turn.”
“If I lose?”
“If you lose, you just do better in the next round.”
Arin fidgeted with her index finger a little longer before saying,
“......Yeah. I want to go. I want to enter a tournament too...”
Her voice was small, but her resolve was firm.
I grinned and said,
“Then I’ll enter too. If my little sister is going, there’s no way I, the older sister, can stay behind.”
“Thanks, unnie.”
“Yeah. But the venue is this~ big, so we might not even run into each other.”
Arin looked slightly relieved.
“It’s okay. If I know you and Mom are with me, I feel braver.”
Pat pat-.
Mom patted Arin.
“Arin, you said that well. I’ll give you a praise sticker.”
“Heheh.”
Mom gave Arin a praise sticker and said,
“Ayeon, but are you and Arin able to participate in the tournament too?”
“Yeah. Totally fine! It’s an open tournament, so foreigners can join too! The tournament categories are Under 8, Under 10, Under 12, like that, and since we’re under eight, we can enter all of them!”
Tap-tap-tap-.
I pulled the laptop back and continued searching.
“To enter a tournament, first we need to get a FIDE ID. We have to contact the Korean Chess Federation to get one, and then use it to apply online for the tournament.”
Once you get an ID, the chess federation records the player’s rating and every tournament they’ve won or lost.
Because it carries that much credibility, you can go around saying, ‘Oh, my rating is this much~ ahem~,’ with your chest held high!
Just that alone was exciting.
✒️✒️✒️
A few days later.
We went to a photo studio to get our passport and FIDE ID photos taken, click-.
“Little miss, you can’t hold up your fingers when taking a passport photo.”
“Eek... I’m sorry... I did it without even thinking...”
Both Arin and I got scolded for making double peace signs... hng.
Since I always had the habit of making a peace sign in front of the camera, Arin, who grew up watching that, picked up a similar habit too.
That’s how scary unconscious habits are.
‘Still, it was worth going to the hair salon for the photos. Heheh.’
Since I was taking part in a formal event where mathematicians gathered, I went back to that hair salon and tidied up my flowing wavy hair.
My hair, swaying like waves, was truly adorable.
Arin also kept pestering me to let her get her hair done too after seeing mine.
Since she was still under five, they said a perm could hurt her scalp, so the salon wouldn’t do it.
Instead, the hair designer tied Arin’s hair into cute low twin tails, and Arin grinned at the mirror, looking pleased.
“Heehee-.”
Anyway, after all sorts of twists and turns.
We got the photos taken, made our passports, and received official FIDE IDs from the chess federation.
With our IDs in hand, we immediately registered for the tournament under the names Yoo A-yeon and Yoo A-rin!
Click-.
“Just wait for us, French elementary schoolers. The Yoo sisters, Yoo A-yeon and Yoo A-rin, are coming to crush the tournament-. Nyihihi-.”
✒️✒️✒️
Once the specific schedule had been set.
I exchanged emails with the Clay Mathematics Institute again.
It was to confirm the flight, hotel reservations, and so on.
Flight dates.
Hotel check-in date.
Coordination for the award ceremony day schedule and timing, and so on.
Every email we exchanged was so meticulous.
I thought as I corresponded,
‘As expected, maybe because they’re so experienced, they’re really good at running events.’
I’d felt that even while attending overseas academic conferences in my past life.
Europe- and U.S.-based academic foundations were meticulous when preparing invited events.
Then the last sentence of the email caught my eye.
— We are very much looking forward to meeting you.
I grinned when I read that sentence.
“Me too!”
✒️✒️✒️
The night before departure.
I spread a small suitcase out on the floor and started packing.
A black sailor-style outfit.
“I have to wear it to the award ceremony, so it’s absolutely necessary.”
I carefully folded it, shhk shhk-, and tucked it in.
A chessboard and a tactics notebook.
“I need to review before the tournament. Mandatory.”
Swoop-.
Cute bunny pajamas.
“Yeah. I can’t sleep without these. I have to pack them no matter what.”
Swoop-.
The pillow I sleep with.
“What if the hotel pillow doesn’t suit me? Sleep is important. Yeah, of course.”
Swoop-.
The blanket I sleep under.
“This is a must too.”
Swoop-.
And then.
I looked at the large rabbit doll lying on top of the blanket.
This big, cute rabbit doll was named Topy.
Our shared memories went back a long way.
Ever since I was a baby, Topy had been my comfort doll, always by my side whenever I slept.
... It’s not like I invented an imaginary friend and got all invested in it like other kids, okay?
Yeah. Right. This was something unavoidable from a child psychology standpoint.
Babies get anxious quickly when separated from Mom and Dad, so they need something that helps them feel emotionally secure.
In my case, that was Topy.
Scruffy~
Topy’s ears were a little frayed.
“It’d be sad to leave Topy out too. Topy, come here.”
Swoop-.
I put Topy into the suitcase.
Since Topy’s cotton-stuffed body was very puffy, the suitcase filled up in no time.
“Mm! This should be perfect!”
I tried to close the suitcase zipper.
Wheeeek-.
“Uuuu...”
The zipper wouldn’t close.
“Hang in there, Topy! You can do it!”
At that moment.
The door opened and Arin came in.
A huge teddy bear was tucked under Arin’s arm.
That doll’s name was Popo.
It was Arin’s comfort doll too.
Arin looked at my suitcase, which wouldn’t close, and said one thing.
“Unnie, if you’re that greedy, your suitcase will be too heavy and you won’t grow taller.”
“Hmph! Shut up!”
Wheeeek-
I said while pulling the zipper,
“What about you, Arin! You’re putting that gigantic Popo in too, aren’t you! Your suitcase won’t even close either!”
“My Popo is nice, so if I fold it, it fits!”
Arin said proudly as she crouched down in front of her own suitcase.
Then she tried to fold the teddy bear in half.
Push-.
Pussssh-.
“...Huh?”
Naturally, the suitcase zipper wouldn’t close.
The crumpled doll puffed back up again.
Boing-boing-.
Arin bounced off Popo’s belly.
Seeing that, I burst out laughing.
“Puhuhu, Arin, you have to take Popo out!”
“I’m not taking him out! Popo is nice! You’re the one who should take Topy out!”
“Hah? What does being nice have to do with fitting into a suitcase! Topy, cover your ears! Don’t listen to Arin. You did nothing wrong!”
I pressed Topy’s ears down and folded them.
Crumple crumple-!
Because of that, Topy’s face got all squished.
Then.
Mom came into the room.
Mom looked back and forth between our two suitcases.
Mom let out a sigh and said,
“Both of you.”
“......”
“Take the dolls out, okay?”
“...Yes.”
We both looked at our dolls at the same time.
I took Topy out.
Arin took Popo out.
A brief silence fell.
Arin hugged Popo tightly and said,
“Popo gets lonely without me.”
“Topy would get lonely if I disappeared too, apparently?”
I also hugged Topy and said,
“Then Topy and Popo can just stay together, right?”
Mom took the two dolls from us and placed them side by side on the blanket.
So that they were facing each other.
Seeing that, Arin said,
“You two have to get along, okay?”
“Be good, Topy... and don’t get eaten by Popo while I’m gone...”
“Ah, unnie! Popo doesn’t eat people!”
I went back to my suitcase and resumed packing.
Mom looked at my suitcase and said,
“Ayeon, you need to take out the blanket and pillow too. The hotel has pillows and blankets. If you pack a week’s worth of clothes, the suitcase will be full.”
“Ehh, okay...”
On second thought, the blanket and pillow were too bulky and heavy to bring.
Swish-.
I yanked the blanket and pillow back out of the suitcase.
Dust billowed everywhere, kicking up a diamond-dust effect.
“Cough, cough!”
Compared to before, the suitcase space had shrunk dramatically.
It was absurdly roomy, like a discrete topological space.
(*Discrete topological space: a space whose elements are sparsely scattered, basically a ridiculously roomy space)
This time, the zipper closed.
Click-.
Arin also closed her zipper.
Click-.
✒️✒️✒️
We arrived at the airport.
After going through all sorts of complicated procedures.
Because we were only 112 cm tall, even if we stood on tiptoe and stretched as high as we could, the smart facial recognition system still wouldn’t work.
The airport employee personally compared our faces with our passports.
And our family was able to board the ridiculously expensive first-class flight.