Chapter 87
The dean was leading the way down the hallway when he suddenly spoke up, as if he had just thought of something.
“Come to think of it, Professor Yoo A-yeon and Student Han Seol-ae are both closely connected to the late Professor Shin Yi-jun, aren’t they?”
“Ah, yeah. That’s right.”
Why was he bringing up Professor Shin Yi-jun all of a sudden?
What the dean said next was completely unexpected.
“As it happens, Professor Yoo A-yeon has been assigned the exact same office that Professor Shin Yi-jun used eight years ago.”
“Eeeeeek! Really?”
I cried out in shock.
Mom, who had pursued her master’s degree in that very office, also opened her eyes wide.
“Yes. When I checked, I found that among the vacant offices available for use, there happened to be the one Professor Shin Yi-jun used in the past.”
The dean smiled gently.
“So I thought it must be fate and deliberately assigned that room to Professor Yoo A-yeon. It should also be a familiar space for you, Student Han Seol-ae.”
To think the dean had shown us such thoughtful consideration.
I hadn’t expected it at all.
…Huh?
But wait. Is this really consideration?
An office with the unusual history of a professor suddenly dying there?
Was it really appropriate to deliberately give that to a brand-new seven-year-old professor?
Wouldn’t a stranger mistake this for workplace bullying?
Hmm. The dean’s sense of timing was a little strange, but…
Oh, well. Who cares?
The more familiar the place was to Mom and me, the better!
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The dean reached the door of the research lab at the end of the hallway.
The nameplate read:
[Professor Yoo A-yeon’s Special Research Lab]
Click-.
The inside was spotlessly clean, as if it had just been cleaned.
The bookshelves, desk, and everything else were gleaming-.
“…This brings back memories.”
Mom murmured softly.
A faint longing colored her voice.
Dad also seemed familiar with the place, because he walked over to the window and gazed out at the view.
“That’s right. I used to come here often to pick you up after work, Seol-ae.”
The two of them reminisced in gentle voices about the memories connected to this space.
“Ooh… Stories from before I was born! Tell me, tell me!”
Arin peppered Dad and Mom with questions about their past.
I slowly wandered around the empty research lab, taking everything in.
‘That’s right. Eight years ago, Professor Shin Yi-jun collapsed here with a kgh!, clutching his heart.’
I see it! The gap in the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis!
That was what he shouted before holing up here for three months and devoting himself entirely to research, only to pass away so pointlessly.
Thinking about it left me feeling kind of strange~.
Good grief. Professor Shin Yi-jun. You really should have taken better care of your health.
I’m going to take excellent care of mine and live for a long, long time!
I’ll eat my meals regularly, close my books and go nini-night the moment I get sleepy, and go straight to the hospital whenever I’m sick.
Oh, and just so we’re clear.
I’ve lived with Yoo A-yeon’s identity for seven years now, so I no longer think of Professor Shin Yi-jun’s memories inside my brain as my own.
It’s like watching a movie from a first-person perspective and considering the memories to belong to someone else, not me.
That’s called dissociation (解離) in psychiatric terminology, right? That’s exactly the state I’m in.
So while I’ll happily gobble up all the vast academic knowledge Professor Shin Yi-jun possessed—nom nom, chomp-chomp, gulp-—Professor Shin Yi-jun’s self no longer exists in this world.
Besides, I already finished something like a public self-memorial in front of a thousand mathematicians when I was five.
I brushed away my stray thoughts.
Then I walked over to the large desk and tapped on it.
It was sturdy, which was nice, but it was much taller than the children’s desk I used at home.
It was a standard size designed for adults, with a tabletop height of seventy-five centimeters.
At my height of 118 centimeters, it came up to my chest when I stood straight.
If I wanted to use it somehow, I’d have to lift my elbows and keep my shoulders terribly tense, which would give me awful posture.
If I made one wrong move, I could herniate a disc while I was still growing… No way!
Then I happened to glance to the side and saw a huge whiteboard covering the wall.
It was so big that covering it with equations would probably take ages.
The problem was that it was also mounted way too high, so I had to rise up on tiptoe and stretch- just to reach the bottom edge.
The entire interior had been designed for adults.
This, this. It definitely needs to be normalized, doesn’t it?
“So far, we’ve only changed the nameplate. The interior is still exactly as it was. Of course, I realize it isn’t suited to Professor Yoo A-yeon’s height. If there’s anything you need, please let me know. I’ll pass it along to the administrative office.”
When the dean said that, I shouted without hesitation.
“A height-adjustable desk! And a children’s chair! Please lower the whiteboard all the way to the floor too!”
My private research lab couldn’t be worse than the study chair I used at home!
The dean blinked at my immediate answer, then let out a hearty chuckle.
“Hoho. Understood, Professor. Please let me know if there’s anything else you need.”
“Um… Can I change everything in here?”
“Of course. Professor Yoo A-yeon is a special professor to whom the president has granted an exception. This level of support is only natural.”
“Yayyy-!”
Now that I had permission, I was going to customize the place as cutely as a decorating game!
“Then… Those drab khaki curtains aren’t cute either, so please change them to something soft and pink~. The sofa is too dark and gloomy too, so please replace it with one in a brighter color. And the wallpaper—”
How had the professor who used this room before me managed to live with such drab colors?
He must have had a middle-aged man’s taste.
“A-yeon… The wallpaper too…? Aren’t you letting your personal tastes run a little wild?”
Mom tried to stop me with an anxious expression, but…
“It’s fine. We’re getting plenty of support, and more importantly, this is my private research lab. Having an environment where I can focus on research is important.”
The dean said it was fine, picked up a notebook, and began scribbling notes.
“Heheh. I knew you had good taste, Dean!”
“The contractor will come later, so I’d appreciate it if you could oversee the arrangement yourself.”
“Yep! Sounds good!”
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A few days later.
Mom and I went to work alone to check out my research lab after everything had been changed.
Shalala~
If the research lab I had seen before had felt drab, gloomy, and middle-aged-man-ish…
The remodeled research lab was pink and cutesy, and super cute!
There was even the super-expensive motion desk I’d never dared dream of using at home, along with a custom chair sized to me so my feet wouldn’t dangle in the air!
My sweet suite, packed to the brim with my personal tastes!
“Uheheh-. I love it! This is my research lab from now on!”
Now this was what Professor Yoo A-yeon’s special research lab should look like!
Who am I?
I’m the genius with an IQ of 160, the former owner of an iPhone, the first author of the paper proving the Riemann Hypothesis, the master of the three great arts of fashion, hair, and makeup, the niece of a lawyer, the owner of a personal seal, the owner of a Nentendo, and the owner of this research lab.
I’m the owner of the research lab~ I’m the owner of the research lab~
I’m going to smash all the unsolved mathematical problems in here with a hot chomp-chomp-!
“Heheh, our Professor Yoo A-yeon must be happy to have such a cute room?”
Mom chuckled and ruffled my hair.
“Yep! I totally love it!”
Since I shared my living space with Arin at home, I had never dared to decorate a room entirely according to my own tastes.
It felt great to receive generous support and decorate a room with 100% personal indulgence.
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After enjoying the research lab, we stepped out into the hallway.
Then.
We heard someone greeting us.
“Oh, hello.”
When I looked straight up, I saw an unfamiliar professor standing there.
He had just come out of the research lab next door, so I guessed he was my office neighbor.
He was a man who looked to be in his early forties.
“Hello. I’m Han Seol-ae.”
“Hiya-! I’m Yoo A-yeon, the new professor!”
I bowed my head too and greeted him brightly.
The professor had been staring at my beautiful mother, but then he slowly lowered his gaze and discovered me.
“Hmm? Ah, ahh! So you’re Professor Yoo A-yeon! Oh my, you’re my neighbor.”
Since I was far below his usual eye level…
My tall mother had entered his field of vision first, so he must have thought he was greeting her.
Good grief.
Being short is a little sad at times like this.
I’ve even been doing my stretching exercises regularly lately, so when am I finally going to shoot up?!
“Professor Yoo A-yeon. I really enjoyed the lecture you gave explaining the Riemann Hypothesis two years ago.”
The professor smiled warmly, bent at the waist, and extended his hand.
I grabbed it with both hands and shook it up and down- boing-boing-.
“My name is Kang Tae-ho. I specialize in graph theory.”
“Oh, graph theory! You work on something super fun! What exactly do you do? Coloring? Hamiltonian paths?”
(*Graph coloring: A method of assigning colors to vertices so that vertices of the same color do not touch each other)
(*Hamiltonian path: A path that passes through every vertex exactly once)
Professor Kang Tae-ho burst out laughing when I answered with sparkling eyes.
“Haha, you’re exactly like you are on television. You’re overflowing with passion for someone who’s seven.”
“Heheheh.”
“These days, I’m researching algorithms.”
While we were exchanging greetings…
Perhaps they had heard the voices echoing through the hallway, because professors from the other research labs began peeking their heads out one after another.
“Oh, is that the famous Professor Yoo A-yeon?”
He was a kindly-looking professor who appeared to be in his late thirties.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Jung Hyun-woo. I work with PDEs, or partial differential equations.”
“Hello.”
“Hello! PDEs! You work on something super cool!”
“Haha, hearing that from the person who proved the Riemann Hypothesis leaves me at a loss for words.”
Professor Jung Hyun-woo let out a hearty laugh.
“These days, I’m researching wave equations. Since that’s my field, I also collaborate with professors of physics.”
“Wow! That sounds fun! Let’s work on a joint research project sometime!”
“Are you interested?”
“Yep! I’m super good at quantum mechanics too!”
I solved my paper proving the Riemann Hypothesis using an approach for finding energy levels, so it had a strong connection to physics as well.
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After that, I exchanged greetings with the professors who came out to welcome the new professor.
Their fields of study were all different, but every one of them welcomed me warmly.
“Wow, honestly, I never imagined I’d become colleagues with someone more than twenty years younger than me. The world really is full of surprises if you live long enough.”
Everyone looked dazed when they saw the seven-year-old professor who had actually come holding her mother’s hand.
People who react after seeing the news and people who see something right beside them naturally experience it differently.
“Nihihi. Please take good care of me, senior professors!”