32. Hanon Thirty One
Two weeks ago, in front of Namseo Middle School’s office.
Kyungsoo asked Incheol with an anxious expression.
“Really? me… Aren’t you going to get scolded by your math teacher?”
Incheol shook his head with a serious expression.
“Why are you mad? I’m being honest about what you found.”
“You might be angry about why the teacher brought it now.”
Incheol said with an annoyed expression.
“That’s what I told you earlier, ma’am.”
At Kyungsoo’s hesitant expression, Incheol decided to put a wedge.
“Did you see mine last time on the Nintendo Game Boy?”
Kyungsoo’s eyes changed at Incheol’s words.
“I’ll lend it to you for a month.”
“really?”
At Kyungsoo’s question, Incheol nodded, and Kyungsoo went into the school office and headed for Kim Kiha’s seat.
＜Mathematics Olympiad Previous Questions>
Gi-ha Kim, who took the book, said to Kyung-soo with a serious expression.
“So… Last Wednesday, you were on a weekday, and you found this in your class trash can?”
“yes… .”
“Then why did you bring this up now?”
“I, that… .”
“it’s okay. Tell me.”
“To be honest… I knew someone had thrown it away, so I tried to sell it to a used bookstore. By the way, I took it to the used bookstore yesterday and looked… I saw the teacher’s name on the book and brought it back.”
When Kim Ki-ha opened the cover of the book, the inside cover had his own words written on it.
‘Young-miya, I wish you good grades in the Math Olympiad! From Teacher Kim Ki-ha.’
Kim Ki-ha thought for a moment before opening his mouth.
“Did you say your name is Kim Kyung-soo?”
“yes… .”
“By the way, is the Kyungsoo 12? Thirteen and a half?”
“Twelve and a half.”
“Yeah, right, I was in class 12. But the class leader of class 12… Is it Lim Yeon-ji?”
“Yes, Roeji is right.”
Teacher Kim Ki-ha nodded with a hardened expression.
* * *
Thursday, one day before the Math Olympiad.
After the third period, I forgot lunch with the children.
Suddenly, the classroom door swung open.
It was Jin-seok, who was the weekly number.
“Guys! The 4th period patriotic inquiry is held on the playground! Stop eating and get out of here! Um-ha-ha—-!”
just as expected… .
The classroom was soon filled with the screams of children.
The Patriotic Assembly, which was canceled on Monday, was scheduled for 4th class today, because the homeroom teacher said it would be held indoors due to the weather.
After the national rites were over, the headteacher’s discourse began.
Because of the unusually cold weather, white steam spurted out of his nose every time he took a breath.
The principal emphasized his mental strength and said that he did not wear underwear even in winter.
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Nevertheless, he has never caught a cold, and he said that the secret is a strong mental power.
The headmaster’s words, emphasizing mental strength, continued endlessly, and the feeling of the fingertips inside the glove was about to disappear.
“ruler! Then I will give you one last good news.”
When the word “last” came out of the principal’s mouth, the attention of all the students was focused.
“This time, in our Namseo Middle School final exam, we got a perfect score again.”
The final exam scores have not been released yet.
I understand that the report card will be released on the day of the school vacation next week.
By the way, I am not the perfect scorer mentioned by the principal.
My score for this final exam will be 98.2.
According to Incheol-i, this test was a little on the easy side, so I expect my overall rank will be between 3rd and 5th place.
Perhaps… Did Youngmi get a perfect score again?
After the final exam, Yeong-mi’s expression looked good… .
While I’m looking forward to it… .
The headmaster, who was restless, said with strength in his voice.
“Lim Yeon-ji, a first-year class 12 student, got a perfect score of 100 in all subjects! Everyone applaud!”
The students, who were tired of the cold, pretended to clap and clap, and the principal continued.
“Tomorrow, Lim Yeon-ji will represent our school in the National Mathematical Olympiad. We all know that our school has traditionally always won prizes in math olympiads, and last year even produced a winner. I believe that our student Yeonji Lim will continue the proud tradition of the school in this competition as well.”
The principal spoke with a very serious expression on his face.
“This is not to say that I am the same Mr. Im! ha ha ha!”
I’m going to die from the cold, but making such a sloppy gag… .
The only people who laughed were the teachers under the podium.
Poor teachers… .
“ruler! Everyone applauds Lim Yeon-ji with a heart of support!”
When the conversation was over with a clap of clapping, the same classmate standing behind said in a low voice.
“Jeongho, aren’t you going to the Math Olympiad too? Is not it?”
I nodded, and he continued.
“Sheesh! Isn’t it just that the class 12 class leader is too floating?”
After the patriotic inquiry, the students rushed into the school building.
The sound of children grunting could be heard everywhere.
“Who the hell is Lee Ji-ji? Because of him, we’ve been shivering in the cold for 5 more minutes now. Ugh—-.”
“Byeong-shin, it’s not Lee Ji-ji, but Lim Yeon-ji. Don’t you even know Korean?”
“I know, man! It’s palatal! Changing from Lim Yeon-ji to Imyeon-ji?”
“It’s palatal. Ugh, are you proud of being a stone head? Not palatal, but consonant assimilation!”
“ah… ! Is that a consonant fairy tale? Oh oh! Also… The one who learned is different!”
By the way… That’s the linkage rule… .
The next day, Friday morning.
Yeong-mi, I, and Lim Yeon-ji headed to Korea University with Kim Ki-ha, our class teacher.
It was past rush hour, so the subway was very quiet.
Yeong-mi was taking out her previous question book and doing her final review.
Lim Yeon-ji was looking at a piece of paper the size of a palm… .
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Numerous mathematical formulas were clearly written on the paper.
Most of them were formulas learned in middle school math or even high school math.
With nothing special to do, I was squinting at the newspaper that the homeroom teacher was looking at, and on the front side of the newspaper, the main exam schedules of this year’s top universities were laid out.
And in the article below, the necessity and problems of this exam were explained in detail.
These days, the main exam for each university is by far the hottest news.
Almost every evening, there was a story about the main exam for each university in the news, and the reason was that the CSAT was given too easily a while ago, so the ability to discriminate with the CSAT alone was low.
Therefore, the prevailing opinion was that a main examination for each university was necessary.
However, a few days ago, the case of a retaker who was pessimistic about the SAT performance was widely reported, and from then on, public opinion was gradually forming that the main exams at the top universities should be abolished.
When we arrived at Korea University, we had lunch at a restaurant with our homeroom teacher.
While eating lunch, Lim Yeon-ji looked at the palm-sized piece of paper, and as she left the restaurant, she put the paper in her coat pocket.
The test site was the auditorium of the gymnasium of Korea University.
The huge auditorium was lined with desks and benches, and it seemed that there were more than 500 seats, enough for the number of desks prepared.
Outside the auditorium, we could see not only teachers and parents, but also reporters from broadcasting stations and newspapers holding large cameras.
It was a moment when I realized that flying and flying in middle schools across the country is an event that all first-year honor students participate in.
5 minutes before the start of the exam.
All students were seated in their assigned seats.
Yeong-mi’s seat was quite far from me, and Lim Yeon-ji was placed quite close to my seat.
“ah! ah! mic test! Microphone test!”
A roaring voice came out through the speaker.
“Pencils and erasers will be provided separately. Now put all your belongings in your bag. Say it again. Please put all your belongings in your bag. All wallets and coins in your pockets should be put in your bag!”
For reference, from the moment I entered the Namseo-dong subway station today, I have not missed a single scene of Yeonji’s every move.
Even if it’s a good thing, don’t do anything bad to Youngmi.
The broadcast came again telling them to put all their belongings in their bags, and college students in blue vests with the words ‘Volunteer’ stamped on them handed out answer sheets, pencils, erasers, and question papers folded in half so that the problem was not visible.
Then a camera flash went out from the back of the auditorium.
I turned my head in curiosity,
Reporters standing behind the auditorium caught my eye.
And there was a familiar face.
He was a century journalist.
The moment I saw his face, I frowned involuntarily along with the painful memories of my past life.
I took a deep breath and calmed my mind, then suddenly a good idea came to my mind.
Lee Jae-yi (以夷制夷).
It is an acronym for making an enemy subdue another enemy, and it is also known as blowing your nose without touching your hand.
A rough picture is drawn in my mind… .
By the way… Is it really okay to decorate like this?
I remembered the last time I had a conversation with Team Leader Kim Jung-soo.
* * *
“actually… I have a few more questions, may I ask?”
Team leader Kim Jeong-soo slowly nodded at my question.
“then… Does the story of Dangsan Iron Bridge mean that we can’t change the future even if we know bad things will happen in the future?”
He shook his head.
“I’m not saying it has to be. If it’s to save your girlfriend’s father, like last time, it’s the right thing to do.”
I nodded, and he continued.
“What I want to say is… The fact is that we cannot predict the butterfly effect at all. You will experience it soon, but the world never goes the way you expect it to.”
“Then what should I do?”
“Well. Hmm… The advice I can give you is to create principles.”
“What do you mean by principle?”
“When the butterfly effect goes in an unexpected direction, to defend yourself, you need principles in your decisions.”
“… .”
“In my experience… If you set things like cause and justice as a principle, you will surely be disappointed. There are two sides to everything.”
“Are you two-sided?”
He nodded and said.
“No matter what decision you make, if someone benefits from that decision, it means that someone will inevitably lose. And the damage mentioned here does not mean only monetary loss. It could be someone’s future… Or it could be someone’s life.”
“then… What principles should we create?”
He said stroking my hair.
“You should think about it yourself, right?”
* * *
The test has begun.
Long sighs of children could be heard from all over the auditorium.
I unfolded the folded question paper.
‘As shown in the figure below, the wagon wheel starts at the X point, goes through the Y point, and moves to the Z point. The radius of the wheel of the wagon is 30cm, and the point where the spokes of the black wheel of the wagon meet the rim of the wheel is called A. When the wheel moves and is located at point Y, find the angle XAY and the length of the line segment AZ.’
There was only one problem like this.
It is as I expected.
And this question is almost the same as question 23 on page 241 of the previous workbook.
If there is one difference, how about a bicycle wheel rather than a wagon wheel?
After confirming the problem, I looked at Yeonji Lim, who was sitting at 11 o’clock.
I raised my left hand high, and a volunteer college student supervising the exam came up to me.