Chapter 67
We approached the Office of Education's complaints desk.
We drew a queue ticket and waited a little.
Fidget-fidget-.
While we waited, our cheeks became Aunt's playthings.
At last, when it was our turn, Mom stepped forward first.
“Hello.”
“Hello. What can I do for you?”
“It looks like my child won't be able to complete ordinary elementary schooling, so I came to apply for designation as a gifted-education special-case student.”
“Huh? Gifted... what's that...?”
The clerk at the window paused for a moment.
They gave the impression that this was the first they'd ever heard of it.
Well, that was only natural.
Maybe early graduation or early advancement, sure.
But that even stronger gifted-whatchamacallit system is something only a tiny handful of geniuses nationwide ever get recognized for.
Our family hadn't even known the system existed until Aunt researched it and came here.
“It means a child with outstanding talent, who, under the clauses of the 「Act on the Promotion of Gifted Education」, needs the 「Elementary and Secondary Education Act」 to be applied differently.”
Aunt explained in stiff legal jargon, raising a finger.
It's so stiff it could knock all your teeth out.
I still don't want to go to the dentist!
The clerk, tapping away as they looked up the Gifted Education Promotion Act Aunt had mentioned, said,
“Um, well... I think we need to first confirm the reason you're applying for gifted-education special-case status. Procedurally, first...”
Aunt calmly cut in.
“Could I perhaps speak with the person in charge of the department?”
“Ah, well... we need to hear your reason for applying first. Usually it's a school recommendation letter, or a giftedness test result...”
Aunt skipped the preliminaries and got straight to the point.
“Would you take a look at this?”
The Millennium plaque.
A certificate guaranteeing a one-million-dollar award.
A top-tier math journal.
An IQ test result showing 160.
She spread them all out on the desk at once.
The clerk looked over the items one by one, eyes wide.
The name engraved on the plaque.
The name written on the certificate.
The author's name on the journal cover.
The name written on the IQ test.
The name engraved on all of them was the same, down to the three syllables.
Yu. A. Yeon.
The clerk's eyes grew wider and wider.
“......Gasp. Yoo Ah-yeon? The genius girl from that documentary?”
“Heehee, yup-. That's me-.”
I raised my hand and showed off.
The clerk's face turned pale.
“Just a moment, please...”
Then they jumped up from their seat and ran off somewhere else.
They must have gone to report it to their boss.
“Team Leader, Team Leader! Th-there's... Yoo Ah-yeon here. Yes! That genius kid who went abroad and won an award last time!”
Soon after, a middle-aged man called the team leader came hurrying over.
Then he led us to the break room inside.
“Haha... could your group please sit here and wait a moment? This petition... is something I can't handle on my own.”
“Okay.”
Thud-.
We sat down and waited at our leisure.
By contrast, the middle-aged man called the team leader started frantically calling all over the place.
His voice was extremely urgent.
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We waited endlessly in the break room.
Mom and Aunt steeped green tea bags in steaming hot water in paper cups and slurped them down.
Arin and I just gulped cold water down glug-glug-.
I'm still at the age where I'm extra sensitive to tea's bitterness.
Arin said, swinging her legs back and forth.
“Sis, how much longer do we have to wait?”
“No idea.”
“I'm bored.”
“Then let's play imaginary chess.”
“Okay. Then I'll take White and start. First move, e4.”
“Then I'll play e6.”
“...Sis. Are you still hung up on the time you lost to me in France with the French Defense?”
“No, I'm not? I'm not holding anything against you at all? More importantly, hurry up and make your second move! Where did the chess player go!”
“Hee... I can't believe my sister could be this petty. I'm seeing you in a new light-.”
How much time had passed?
By the time I'd scored one win, one draw, and one loss against Arin in imaginary chess.
We heard a sound from outside.
Skreeeeech-.
The sound of tires screeching as if someone were driving in a hurry.
When I looked out the window to see what it was, a black luxury car pulled quickly into the parking lot.
‘Man, they drive rough.’
Then a man got out of the passenger seat and dashed over.
‘Huh, he's coming this way?’
The door opened, and the man came in panting.
“Huff... huff... sorry to keep you waiting.”
The man caught his breath and handed over his business card.
“I am the Seoul Metropolitan Superintendent of Education.”
Our family all looked at the business card he handed us at once.
A high-ranking official like the superintendent had run here because of us?
It was an action that was hard to understand.
High-ranking people were supposed to stand there with their hands behind their backs, harrumph-harrumphing, stepping across stepping-stones made of people and sitting on chairs made of people, weren't they?
...Was that too much of a prejudice?
Arin whispered in a small voice.
“Sis, who is that guy?”
“He says he's the superintendent of education.”
“Eigenvalue? That's the one from matrices, right? The thing you kept saying was super important.”
“...No, not an eigenvalue, the superintendent of education... he's a really high-ranking person.”
The superintendent uncle sat down and wiped the sweat from his forehead. From now on, I'd have to call him Uncle.
“I came straight over after receiving the report. Sorry to have kept you waiting.”
Aunt said with a smile.
“Not at all. Thank you for coming despite being busy.”
“H-hello, mister-!”
“Ah, hello-.”
The uncle looked at the documents on the table.
The plaque, the certificate, the journal, the IQ test.
Then he glanced at me.
“Student Yoo Ah-yeon, no, little Yoo Ah-yeon... that's right, isn't it?”
“Yep! That's right!”
The uncle slowly looked over the documents and said,
“Could you please tell me, step by step, what brought you here today?”
We sat up with proper manners.
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“We came to keep this child from going to elementary school.”
Aunt began her explanation calmly.
“First, I'd like to say that this child isn't just someone with a high IQ.”
The uncle nodded and listened quietly.
“At six years old, she already has knowledge at the elementary, middle school, high school, and university-major level, as well as beyond master's and doctoral level. And she's not only outstanding at math. She has already mastered seven languages. Her language ability is also at a very high level.”
“Seven languages...”
“For a child like this to go through six full years of elementary education as-is would be a waste of her time, and on a national level, a loss. It would mean failing to make use of the abilities she already has and just tying her down.”
Aunt laid out her argument calmly and logically.
It felt like a courtroom lawyer suddenly shouting, “Objection!”
After Aunt finished, the superintendent uncle spoke slowly.
“Yes, of course. We're aware of that part as well.”
Then, after hesitating for a moment, he went on.
“Actually, we wanted to contact little Yoo Ah-yeon first.”
“Huh? Really?”
I asked in surprise.
“Yes. I had just met with the president of Seoul National University and spoken with him. The president made a very strong request.”
The uncle continued.
“He said that we absolutely had to give mathematician Yoo Ah-yeon the best possible treatment as a researcher at a domestic university. Solving the Riemann Hypothesis at just six years old? That's undoubtedly a genius unprecedented in history. He said that under no circumstances could we let such talent leak overseas.”
“Hee... I see.”
The president of Seoul National University had been running around behind the scenes, sweating bullets, trying to get me into SNU somehow.
I thought high-ranking people were all supposed to have butts weighing, like, 100,000 pounds.
(100,000 pounds ≒ 45,359.237 kilograms)
No, wait.
Could I really be such a big shot that I'd actually make a guy with a butt that heavy move?
It was the moment Aunt's words from yesterday really hit home.
Maybe I was more amazing than I thought?
“Heehee-.”
The uncle kept talking.
“But we couldn't even figure out where little Yoo Ah-yeon was, so we had a hard time identifying her on our end too.”
“Huh, really? Isn't that something you can find out if you investigate?”
“No, no.”
The uncle waved a hand.
“Unless you're a law-enforcement agency, it's illegal to single out and track down individuals like that. Even the documentary was thoroughly careful not to expose her personal information, so there was almost nothing to go on. Besides, there are more than 500 people nationwide with the same name, Yoo Ah-yeon. Even if we searched for children age seven or younger living in Seoul, more than 20 came up.”
“Ah, I see.”
Even for someone high up in the education office, they couldn't just peek at personal information like Big Brother.
She was an internet-famous beauty, but her personal information had been kept tightly under wraps.
It must have been surprisingly hard to track her down.
Heehee. I'm the mysterious Yoo Ah-yeon whose personal details are hard to find-.
Then the school enrollment notice I got...
It must have just been the result of mechanically pulling every six-year-old child living in this district into Excel and handing the notices out one by one.
The uncle straightened up again and said,
“I'm dying to exempt little Yoo Ah-yeon from compulsory education as well.”
As I listened, I thought to myself,
‘So this uncle was planning from the very start to find me and stamp me as a gifted-education special case, huh?’
Please stay in Korea, sob sob-.
I could feel that silent plea.
The superintendent uncle took out some documents and said,
“I'll explain the necessary procedural steps first. First—”
We let out a sigh of relief when we heard that.
Anyway, I thought it was going to be a hassle, but it got resolved in one shot, so I'm happy!