"The item Club Prez brought. Sorry, but its operating principle is too simple. It doesn't suit the nature of the competition we're entering."
Gyeongwon had a troubled expression on his face, as if he couldn't bear to break the truth to someone he respected. He seemed to find it hard to reject something brought from the future by none other than me, using an item that was bound to be a hit.
I nodded for him to go on, indicating that I was fine with it and he should continue explaining.
Then, Gyeongwon nodded as if he understood and opened his mouth again.
"Alright, let me start by sharing my thoughts. Last year's Presidential Award at the Science Exhibition went to Chungbuk Science High School, and the title of their project was 'A Study on Greening Desertified Areas through the Creation of Structures Optimized for Lichen Settlement.' You get what that means?"
"…No."
Everyone shook their heads.
He continued explaining with a troubled expression on his face.
"The year before that, the winner was Duru High School in Sejong, and their project was about calculating a precise Rydberg constant through the sun spectrum analysis of a tri-phosphor lamp. The year before that, the topic was a study on the beat phenomenon of a traditional Korean bell using a bicycle rim."
"...I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Are you even speaking Korean?"
"Exactly."
Gyeongwon nodded as if he was expecting it.
"Basically, if you want to win an award at a competition like this, you've got to bring something that people can barely understand. Something difficult, complex, and obscure. To put it nicely, it means it needs to have some real scientific depth. But the magnetic hinge that Club Prez brought? Sure, the concept is good. It's already been commercialized in the future, so it must be a highly practical item. But whether you can win an award at a science fair with this is a completely different matter. The scientific principle it uses is pretty much at a middle school level. What I mean is, there's no deeper scientific depth to really dig into."
"..."
"In that sense, like I said earlier, this magnetic hinge. It's… it's more suited for an invention contest than a science fair."
"An invention contest rather than a science fair...."
I mulled over his assessment.
He was definitely right.
At the end of the day, a magnetic hinge just means attaching a magnet and a hinge to a door.
It's not a difficult or complicated story.
Could something like a magnetic hinge really beat a project that determines the Rydberg constant through spectral analysis of a tri-phosphor lamp at a science fair?
"..."
Even I found myself scratching my head over it.
"But this really is a hundred-percent hit item…"
"As an invention, Prez. As an invention."
Gyeongwon let out a sigh, sounding a bit regretful.
"The kind of high-level content the science fair wants… it's just a bit off the mark."
"..."
The members' expressions turned gloomy for a moment.
They looked at me as if they were wondering what to do now.
The water had already been spilled, and the preliminary round was next week.
"…But, you know, anyway, Clover Corp is going to buy the intellectual property rights of this later...?"
Still hesitating, I tried to explain further.
"Since it's a product they'll sell in the future, wouldn't they recognize its value…?"
In my previous life, they recognized its value early on and bought the invention.
What about in this life?
"…That's what I'm saying, Prez. Whether it's a commercial hit and whether it wins an award at a competition, those are two different things."
"Then, as for scientific depth, can't we add in something ourselves…?"
With Gyeongwon's discouragement, I felt backed into a corner right from the start.
Still, it was only the first step.
Carefully, I tried to persuade Gyeongwon with measured words.
"Since friction and magnetic force are intertwined, if we try to unravel it in a complicated way, it might be possible to..."
For example, instead of the toy-like name 'magnetic hinge', what if we called it 'improvement of passageway connection structures using magnetic materials'?
"…Well, that does sound a bit more sophisticated, Prez."
Gyeongwon reluctantly nodded, wearing a pained expression.
I kept pressing on with my persuasion.
"And like I said before facing the Principal earlier, there are definitely times when being weak actually makes you stronger."
"...?"
"Since we're from a regular high school compared to the science high school students, if we highlight that well, the judges might take into consideration that our scientific principles aren't as in-depth..."
I hesitantly shared my opinion with Gyeongwon.
If I couldn't even convince the guy in front of me, there would be no school preliminaries, no regional competition, and no national competition.
The very first gatekeeper to appear was Judge Ahn Gyeongwon, a prospective science high school student (not an actual science high schooler, obviously).
I have to win him over first, only then could I deceive the school judges next, and eventually even the judges from Clover and the government.
"…Even in Superstar KAY, you know how Higak won in the finals? When he competed against Joonbak, the show set up the narrative that way, remember? Joonbak was portrayed as someone who studied abroad in the U.S., while Higak was shown as a ventilation repairman who had a poor childhood… That narrative really worked. It's the kind of setup you always see in movies, right…?"
"..."
[T/N: Superstar KAY is a South Korean music audition reality show that ran on Mnet from 2009 to 2016 and produced eight seasons.]
"Maybe we could try pushing that kind of narrative too..."
I glanced at Sunah quietly.
This thing would be a hit.
It would definitely be a hit.
I was one hundred percent sure, because I've seen it from the future.
The problem was how to convince the judges.
"…For example, imagine this: among a crowd of brilliant, privileged science high school geniuses, there's a girl from an ordinary liberal arts high school. She lost her parents at a young age and grew up poor, taking care of her grandmother alone, and she's the one who presents a project…"
If the judges had any brains, they would see that the item itself was flawless, there was no doubt they would recognize its value.
However, the basic scientific principle is too simple, would it really be okay to give this an award from the perspective of a science fair?
The hesitation part is skillfully targeted with emotional appeal.
"…Among the arrogantly wealthy, natural geniuses who were born gifted and have never known failure, a poor girl participated in the competition."
My narration slowly echoed inside the clubroom.
The members listened quietly with a focused look.
"The girl has a sick grandmother. Just before coming to the competition, the girl promised her grandmother that she would definitely win an award..."
"..."
"The grandmother, not fully in her right mind, lay bedridden but struggled to lift herself and held the girl's hand. She advised her to be careful of cars when she goes out and not to follow strangers… In her grandmother's eyes, her granddaughter forever remains the child she was. The girl nodded."
"..."
"And time passed, and the day of the competition arrived. It was morning."
Ahn Gyeongwon, who was 100 times more intelligent than her, got out of a luxury foreign car dressed in expensive clothes, these elite brainiacs were escorted by their similarly fancy dressed parents.
In front of them, the poor Sunah, with no one to see her off, nervously made her way alone into the competition hall.
Rich kid Dukhun smirked as he bumped her shoulder while passing by, and rich kid Lee Joon mocked her, asking how someone dressed so poorly ended up among students from elite science high schools.
"…Time passed and passed, and before long, it was the girl's turn to present."
Unlike Ahn Gyeongwon, who confidently flaunted his genius in front of the judges, Sunah's voice trembled, and she kept stammering.
'But that very content is what makes it better!'
A project completely built on scientific principles found strictly within the standard school curriculum, unlike the science high school geniuses before her who boasted knowledge from advanced university-level courses, perfectly aligning with the competition's original purpose: a fair contest for all students nationwide.
But it was more practical, more relatable to everyday life, and ready for immediate sale, more so than any other contestant's project.
So then, what choice would the judges make?
"It's important to really make good use of the grandma here. Like, the whole reason we pushed this project should somehow be tied to why the grandma's bedridden. Something like, 'Grandma, are you watching? I made this invention for you…' a line like that would be great to throw in."
Sunah looked at me and blankly nodded.
With her bobbed hair and cute appearance, like a baby bird.
Blinking her eyes slowly with a dazed 'wah~' expression, she had the kind of appearance that makes you want to protect and take care of her.
For middle-aged judges with children around her age, she was more than enough to stir up their sympathy.
"What do you think, guys?"
"..."
"Guys?"
Only then did the club members snap out of it, as if waking from a trance and each shook their heads.
"…Damn. I thought I was watching a movie or something."
"Hey, so how does it end? Don't leave me hanging in the middle."
"…The ending is Sunah's team wins and presents the trophy to her grandmother. That's how we can make it happen."
After roughly settling on the conclusion, I looked at Gyeongwon, the judge of our club.
"How is it? Do you think it'll work?"
"..."
Gyeongwon seemed to be lost in thought with a blank expression.
Soon, he opened his mouth.
"…Prez."
"Yeah, tell me."
"Let's give it a try."
* * *
Gray coat.
Broad shoulders.
Detective Park Gangwoon, having finished his day's work, stepped into his musty officetel room.
His colleagues would tease him about smelling like a lonely widower whenever they dropped by, but ever since he lost his fiancée more than ten years ago, uncovering the truth behind the mysterious phenomena hidden in the world's shadows had become his sole purpose in life.
It was a very old story, too dark to tell the students he recently got acquainted with, so he never mentioned it. But that only pointed out his investigation into the strange tales had been going on for so long it had become almost a habit.
Detective Park Gangwoon investigated the world's crimes on his workdays, and investigated the secrets behind the world on his weekends.
His colleagues called him persistent whenever they saw him being like that, but in truth, that wasn't the right word.
Because being persistent implied someone sweating and struggling to achieve something.
To Detective Park Gangwoon, investigating the hidden side of the world was neither persistent, nor strenuous, nor sweat-inducing.
It was like his honest appearance, something he carried out quietly and steadily each day, purely the inertia of life itself.
The evening sunset poured into the living room.
The Detective sank heavily onto the worn-out sofa in his old apartment and lit a cigarette.
The twilight, slipping into the unlit room, casted its glow across half of the Detective's face as he held the cigarette between his lips.
How long will this go on?
With that vague thought in mind, the Detective reflected on the day he had taken off as annual vacation.
In the morning, he visited the boarding house where the managers kept quitting because of some strange occurrence, briefly looked over the building, then parted ways.
Around lunchtime, he met a runaway teen who claimed to see ghosts, shared a meal with them, and then handed them over to the authority.
'It wasn't a ghost, it was schizophrenia.'
In the afternoon, he responded to a report about strange crying sounds coming from the ceiling of a top-floor apartment. He explained that the noise was actually the vibration of an internet device on the roof, lifted the machine, and placed soundproof mats underneath before leaving.
Around sunset, he found a car owner who reported hearing the crying sound of a baby, rescued a cat trapped in the net, and then returned home.
None of them were related to strange phenomena, just absurd reports from ordinary citizens who were making a fuss.
However, the Detective was not disappointed.
Because he realized that the darkness lurking behind the shadows of this world, which he had only suspected with vague intuition, was not some random incident, but the work of some giant monster.
And since he knew that it would engulf the world three years later, Detective Park Gangwoon couldn't stop.
The Detective stubbed out the fully smoked cigarette in an ashtray full of cigarette butts, then took out the rice that had been wrapped in plastic wrapper and frozen in the freezer and put it in the microwave.
After having a quick meal with the side dishes in the refrigerator, Detective Gangwoon put on his coat and stepped outside again.
It was time to go check on some more reports of strange phenomena that only appear in the evening.
* * *
"Here?"
"Yes, oh dear~ Really. Every evening, some woman keeps humming~, and when I think about it, isn't our house the last one on the street? But I keep hearing it, so it's creepy! It gives me goosebumps!"
"Wait a moment."
Leaving behind the chatter of an overly enthusiastic middle-aged woman, Detective Park Gangwoon pressed his ear against the wall.
Sure enough, beyond that was just the empty air outside the apartment, but clearly, the humming of a woman could be heard.
[… Everybody… Four, in, cess… Oh, yeah.....]
But it wasn't an unidentified humming, it was definitely the humming of the lyrics from a recent pop song.
Concluding it was a person, the Detective, with the cooperation of the security guard, checked around the nearby neighbors and eventually discovered that a female student living in the downstairs apartment was the culprit.
"Noise doesn't always come from the direction where you hear it. Sometimes it travels diagonally along walls or pillars, and sometimes it's noise from apartments below, but strangely, it travels up the pillar and you hear it from the ceiling, just like now."
"Oh, I didn't know that..."
Stopping the middle-aged woman who was apologizing and offering fruits, the Detective took a business card out of his pocket.
"This has my phone number on it. If you hear any strange noises again, please contact me."
"Oh dear, I'm really sorry… please take the persimmons, persimmons…"
"It's alright, really, you didn't have to..."
"Please take them, oh my…..."