Chapter 86
Now that I had become an elementary schoolgirl professor, I gave everyone in the audience a little bow.
Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-.
A storm of applause poured down.
“Heheheh.”
I gently took the stiff appointment certificate in both hands and totter-trotted down from the stage.
The appointment ceremony continued even after that.
The other newly appointed professors went up onstage one after another to receive their appointment certificates. They all wore mature, solemn expressions.
I sat in the audience, turning the appointment certificate in my hands this way and that as I grinned foolishly.
“Uheheh-.”
No matter how many times I looked at it, I never got tired of it.
How was I supposed to contain myself when my name was printed right here in such big, bold letters?!
Oh, right. Come to think of it.
Before this event began, the university president had given me a little heads-up.
Apparently, Seoul National University’s public relations team had invited a whole crowd of media outlets and prepared a press conference for Professor Yoo A-yeon’s appointment.
Among all the people becoming new Seoul National University professors in the spring semester of 2027, I was the only one holding a press conference.
Why?
Obviously, I was the cutest, smartest, most famous, and most newsworthy one of them all!
No wonder the reporters came charging in with their eyes blazing.
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After the appointment ceremony was completely over.
Once everyone leaving the venue had gone.
I went back up onstage for the Professor Yoo A-yeon press conference.
By then, the audience was packed with reporters holding cameras.
During the appointment ceremony, the other professors had been sitting there too, so there hadn’t been enough seats.
But now that everyone who was leaving had gone and seats had opened up, the reporters waiting in the hallway had rushed in all at once-.
When I had turned down all those countless interview requests because they were such a bother, agreeing to only two interviews.
Had these reporters thought, “Ugh, I’m sooo jealous of that reporter who managed to land an interview with her!”?
Pitter-patter-.
Thinking that, I firmly stepped onto the footstool and climbed up onto the podium.
Countless eyes were fixed on me.
Honestly, I was a tiny bit nervous.
But Mom, Dad, and Arin were waving both hands and cheering me on with all their might.
With my family cheering me on, I could face anything with confidence!
I made V signs with both hands and held them beside my face.
Peace peace-.
It was a habit I had whenever I was being photographed.
“Hello! I’m Yoo A-yeon, and I’ve become a professor! I’ll begin the press conference now!”
Click-click-click-.
The moment my greeting ended, countless flashes burst all around me.
They were so bright they looked ready to blast my eyes apart.
And so began the press conference for the world’s first seven-year-old professor.
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Countless reporters eagerly raised their hands, all watching for a chance to ask a question.
“Me! Professor Yoo A-yeon!”
“Please look this way just once!”
“Over here too!”
“Nihihi.”
Seriously.
Even if I was the most popular person around, weren’t they all being a little too enthusiastic?
Even most idol press conferences probably couldn’t match this level of excitement.
I pointed at the bespectacled male reporter in the front row.
“Then I’ll take the first question from the reporter wearing glasses over there!”
The bespectacled reporter answered.
“Ms. Yoo A-yeon, first of all, I sincerely congratulate you on becoming a professor at Seoul National University.”
“Heheh. Thank you!”
“The rumors of your appointment as a professor have become reality, astonishing the entire country. As the youngest person in history to become a professor at the age of seven, could you tell us how you feel?”
I clasped my hands neatly and answered.
“I’m really happy because I can focus a little more on the mathematics research I love most and work together with other mathematicians! And I’m super excited to think that I’ll be able to nurture students who are passionate about mathematics!”
Click-click-.
The flashes kept bursting all around.
“Next, the female reporter sitting toward the back!”
“Many people across the country are amazed by Ms. Yoo A-yeon’s genius. However, some people also worry that, at such a young age, seven-year-old Ms. Yoo may be confined too much to academics and research. Could you say something about that?”
Oh, this was the kind of question that the five hundred billion Yoo A-yeon fans around the world would be curious about.
“Thank you for your concern!”
I calmly began to speak.
“Even so, at home I live a perfectly ordinary seven-year-old’s life! I play board games with my little sister, and we go outside and run around together too.”
I waved my hands back and forth as I continued.
“It’s just that mathematical research is the most fun thing in the world to me, so I spend a lot of time on it. I absolutely don’t study all day every day! When my head starts throbbing, I exercise to clear my mind. And on weekends, I often go out with my family!”
I smiled brightly and told the five hundred billion Yoo A-yeon fans around the world,
“So you don’t have to worry too much!”
The reporter nodded as if reassured.
Just then.
A male reporter raised his hand with a fairly sharp expression.
“Yes, the reporter over there!”
“The fact that Ms. Yoo A-yeon would become a professor, which you revealed in an EBC interview several months ago, has caused considerable repercussions in Korea.”
Oh, this felt like it was going to be an aggressive question.
But a press conference was also a kind of defense.
If he thought he could attack me with this, he was mistaken.
Don’t underestimate me, someone who had already defended a paper without a hitch in front of a thousand scholars!
“There has been considerable backlash among exam takers and parents, with some saying, ‘Appointing a preschooler without even a degree as a professor is favoritism and a loophole.’ What do you think about this?”
I had expected this to be a question that would come up sooner or later.
I took a moment to choose my words.
Then I adjusted my grip on the microphone and answered without wavering.
“I’m well aware that some people can’t help looking at this situation uncomfortably.”
I lowered my voice for a moment to draw the reporters’ attention.
“But!”
I put all my strength into my voice!
“Universities are, at their core, places where people conduct academic research and prove new knowledge! And I proved the Riemann Hypothesis, and the entire mathematical community has finished verifying that proof. On top of that, I proudly published my paper in the most prestigious top-tier journal in the mathematical world!”
The reporters quietly listened to my words.
“If there were someone who had produced research more valuable than my paper but was denied a professorship solely because they didn’t have a degree, then yes, I would have become a professor through favoritism.”
I puffed out my chest and tapped it with my fists-.
“But if that isn’t the case, then I believe my appointment as a professor is an entirely appropriate result of my academic achievements!”
A moment of silence passed.
Then.
Several reporters nodded in admiration and busily scribbled away with their pens.
When a seven-year-old answers back this logically, everyone’s left speechless, right? Right?
This is Yoo A-yeon!
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After that.
Time flowed on as I answered the reporters’ questions without a hitch.
Before I knew it, it was time to end the press conference.
“Then I’ll take the final question.”
At the moderator’s prompt, a reporter slowly raised a hand.
I pointed to that reporter.
“The world calls Ms. Yoo A-yeon a genius the likes of which history has never seen. I’d like to know how you normally think and feel about your own genius and your intellect, which is superior to that of other people.”
A question about Yoo A-yeon’s genius!
This was my favorite kind of question.
Because it gave me a chance to brag as much as I wanted!
Unless someone asks first, I don’t reveal my IQ, which is my most precious piece of personal information after my height and weight. But if someone does ask, I’ll kindly tell them!
I grinned and proudly raised my shoulders.
“Heheh. I’m the greatest genius in the whole world! For your reference, my IQ is 160, the theoretical maximum on the Wechsler scale!”
“Hahaha-.”
A small laugh broke out among the reporters.
“Since my brain is so amazingly smart, I think I’ll be able to solve the unsolved problems of mathematics one after another in a flash-. So I’m super, super excited!”
Click-click-.
My innocent answer spread warm laughter here and there, accompanied by flashes.
Ugh.
But these flashes were no joke when it came to dazzling my eyes.
Important people hold press conferences that often. Do their eyes really stay okay?
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The press conference ended in a warm and friendly atmosphere.
Our family followed the dean of the College of Natural Sciences to Seoul National University’s College of Natural Sciences.
We were going to check out the research lab I had been assigned.
“This way.”
The dean led the way and showed us around.
The College of Natural Sciences wasn’t made up of a single building.
On one side of the campus, several small buildings stood together as one complex.
“This entire complex is the College of Natural Sciences. As you can see over here, there are Buildings 22 through 27, as well as Building 56.”
“Eek. It’s sooo huge. So this is where big sis goes to work…”
Arin, who had been toddling along while holding Mom’s hand, opened her mouth wide in amazement.
The dean pointed at the buildings one by one.
“That building is used by the Department of Statistics, and that one over there is used by the School of Physics and Astronomy. The building that the Department of Mathematical Sciences will use is Building 27 over there.”
“Ooh…”
Dad, who had attended Seoul National University, looked as if he was feeling nostalgic too.
“Wow, I remember this place. Arin, see Building 25 over there? I studied in the Department of Statistics in that building.”
“Gasp! Were you a professor too, Dad?”
“No, just a student.”
“A student? Then did you do dictation here?”
As a preschooler, Arin had no clear boundary between elementary school students and college students.
“No, it wasn’t dictation… Actually, now that I think about it, is dictation really the wrong word? You’re just frantically copying down whatever the professor writes on the board.”
Flash-.
Dad wore an expression like he had just attained enlightenment.
In fact, weren’t elementary school students and college students fundamentally learning the same things?
It was a profound philosophical question.
We followed the dean’s guidance into the Department of Mathematical Sciences building.
The lower floors were lined with classrooms for student lectures.
When we went up to the higher floors, the professors’ research labs stretched all along the hallway.
Hmm~. This familiar sight.
Although Yoo A-yeon’s body had never experienced this place before.
This was a scene that remained perfectly preserved in the memories of Professor Shin Yi-jun, who had also once worked at Seoul National University.
Even the distinctive smell of the hallway and the angle of the sunlight coming through the windows.
For some reason, it made the tip of my nose tingle-.