– So… the earth can't be flat. If it were flat, where would a falling person even go? Down? But where is that 'down,' exactly?
Unwan found himself pondering his own words.
'Interesting. Down. But where is that down? The underworld?'
He arrived at that thought, but immediately withdrew it.
– No, that can't be. First, the "down" I'm talking about would be the edge enge of the Earth, and even if it were, it should lead to the boundary of the underworld. Second, if the underworld really exists there, how is it structured? If I were nature itself, turning it into the opposite of the Earth would have been natural and beautiful. But there's something else here. If that's the case, why are these two worlds pulling toward each other?
Unwan thought, and thought, and thought some more. These questions weren't meant for someone his age. Yet it seemed as if his mind wouldn't stop until it found an answer, even if it exploded in the process.
'Pull… pull… aha…'
He flipped the paper over and began to draw on it again with makeshift ink.
– Here's the Earth.
Unwan drew a line down the center of the paper and a simple person above it.
– And this is the underworld.
He didn't even try to draw what the other world looked like; he just made a square.
– If both I and this square jump, I land on the Earth, it lands in the underworld. So, if I'm not mistaken, our positions are being pulled together. But why are they sticking together? And…
Unwan smiled and continued talking to himself. Since his first experience, he had learned so much, but ever since then, talking to himself had been his constant companion.
– What if not only these two worlds, but everything is pulling toward each other? Why can large things attract each other, but smaller things shouldn't?
Unwan scratched the Earth with a triangular stone, drawing a straight line. He placed that stone and another like it at each end of the line, observing them. But as always, even after several minutes, they didn't move.
'Ah, so no.'
He wanted to believe otherwise, but the truth wasn't what he hoped. Unwan picked up the two stones with a sigh and returned them to their spots.
As he threw the stones, his hand accidentally brushed the feather for smaller writing.
'oh, damn.'
The feather lifted a few centimeters before falling to the ground, wobbling from side to side.
Clack. clack. clack.
Unwan's eyes widened. It was as if a light had turned on in his mind, a spark igniting. For his era, it was a flame. He had thrown the stones ten centimeters high, yet they fell at almost the same time as the feather, which hadn't even risen five centimeters. Their start times differed slightly, but within one or a few seconds, they had landed together.
This spark cost Unwan his energy. It inflated his hope. He knew hope was a toxic, but anything beyond the necessary limit was indeed toxic.
He quickly picked up one stone in his left hand and the feather in his right, holding them at nearly the same height before releasing. Naturally, the stone hit the ground long before the feather did.
'Hmm… so pulling force affects not only the two objects but also their weight.'
Unwan stood in silence for a few seconds, then the joy on his face vanished suddenly.
– Wait, if the world and the underworld are stuck together, we can roughly consider them as one. But if someone crosses that edge, wouldn't they stick to it due to pulling force instead of falling straight down? Eh, I'm getting confused. I need another sheet.
Unwan might have felt mentally exhausted. He had solved questions that even adults with experience couldn't. Yet he still wanted to know more. Again, and again. His face held joy.
Even in his dreams, the Unwan of that age would have been proud remembering the many things he had discovered for the first time in a single day. Most questions remained unanswered, but that didn't stop him, couldn't stop him.
Unwan took another sheet. He drew the Earth again, differently this time, as a crooked rectangle. Very small in height.
– Huh, here's the Earth. That's me. And this is square object. If I fall from here… wait, if that happens, the Earth isn't flat again. Does that mean I'm on the right track?
'Hey, idiot, don't get confused. Yes, you're on the right track. The Earth is a rectangle.'
Unwan paused to think.
– A rectangle. Hmm, a rectangle…
It felt like he had overlooked something. But he didn't know what it was. Believing the Earth was rectangular, even simply square, was almost impossible for him. He had learned more in a single day than some people of his era could handle. Yet he was still only interpreting the laws of nature in his own way.
Unwan slowly, deeply, reexamined everything he had understood. He was getting closer to the answer.
– Yes, here it is. If pulling force is related to both the objects and their mass, why doesn't the Moon fall to the Earth? Birds, sure, they move as if tossed by a feather, covering distance like a tiny maneuver. Assuming this is correct, we can't escape pulling force. But then why isn't the Moon falling? Is there a mistake somewhere?
Unwan already knew. The Moon was huge, yet it only appeared so to us because of distance. He had understood this once when watching Keli run from far away until he appeared at his true size.
'Distance swallows the size of an object—an undeniable fact.'
Yet he still couldn't find the answer to his question and felt a headache coming on. His mind had wandered, thinking not about the Moon but about distance.
– 'Distance swallows the size, distance swallows the size, distance swallows the size…' he whispered.
Suddenly, his thoughts stopped, and he focused on only one thing. The word "swallow" had startled him.
– What if it can swallow force too?