The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 103

***

The wrestling team’s training grounds.

Jinhyuk, who had climbed the rope, slowly descended. He wasn’t using his feet, but rather pulling himself down hand over hand. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t that he was struggling, but rather he was squeezing every last bit of strength from his arm muscles as he lowered himself. The sweat glistening on his ripped back and arm muscles shone like jewels under the rising sun.

It was routine for Jinhyuk, but it seemed different to those watching.

‘Hoo-, a human weapon was right here.’

Moon Seok-il, who had been quietly observing, exhaled, his cheeks puffed out. He was already taller than him, but how could he have built such a body at that age? ‘I think I was probably sleeping in at this time back in the day, getting annoyed at my mom for hitting me to wake up.’

Students who had arrived early stared strangely at the man wearing sunglasses, but Moon Seok-il didn’t care. If you cared about what others thought, you weren’t a pro.

Jinhyuk, who had come down from the rope, turned his gaze to Moon Seok-il. Moon Seok-il, who had caught a glimpse of his blue eyes, unconsciously stood at attention.

“Are they all okay?”

“Uh, they’re getting casts and being hospitalized, that kind of thing. They’re all better now.”

It wasn’t easy to speak casually while standing at attention.

Moon Seok-il, who had a cast on his right hand, was in the best condition. Jung Sang-tae and Kim In-rang couldn’t chew food for a while, and Kang Heon-chang, who had six broken ribs, had surgery to remove the blood that had pooled inside him. The doctor said it was a miracle that his bones hadn’t pierced his lungs, considering how much blood had accumulated in his body.

“Did you find out who was behind it?”

Last night, Jinhyuk had answered Moon Seok-il’s call as if it were a call from a friend. Moon Seok-il wasn’t oblivious, so he came to school as per Jinhyuk’s message, ‘Let’s meet at the wrestling training grounds at seven tomorrow morning.’

“I found out who ordered it.”

“And?”

Although he had experienced it before, Moon Seok-il thought that Jinhyuk’s deep gaze was different from that of ordinary people. ‘Could it be that a real, living tiger had disguised itself as a human? Maybe the grim reaper he had seen before wasn’t a hallucination, but this guy himself? It even felt like he was staying in the human world to enjoy some kind of game.’

The reason Jinhyuk’s gaze seemed so scary was that he didn’t trust Moon Seok-il and his group. Jinhyuk wasn’t naive enough to easily forgive and trust those who had tried to harm his family.

Moon Seok-il was also well aware of their respective positions.

They were no different from death row inmates who had been granted a stay of execution.

“I told them that the job was done.”

It was as Jinhyuk had instructed.

However.

“Won’t they come to check?”

‘Then you guys will be in danger too.’

Moon Seok-il, understanding Jinhyuk’s message, responded.

“Well, they might, but they might not.”

It was embarrassing that the four of them had been beaten by Jinhyuk, but Moon Seok-il and his colleagues were people that no one could touch. They were highly paid, and they never failed at a job.

“If they find out it’s a lie, you guys will be in danger.”

“They probably already know. We can just disappear.”

Unlike someone, they wouldn’t take his family hostage. Moon Seok-il swallowed the rest of his words.

Anyway, wasn’t hiding what Moon Seok-il was good at? If the person who ordered it tried to do something, they could just hide. And even if they had succeeded, it was obvious that they would have used another fixer. It was like throwing away a dirty tissue instead of reusing it. That’s probably why they had been followed.

“Anyway, once you do that kind of job, you have to live in hiding for a long time.”

That’s why they get paid so much.

Jinhyuk, who was stretching his arms while bending his upper body to loosen his stiff back muscles, nodded casually.

“My dad is hiring people.”

He had been debating whether to say those words for a long time.

Jinhyuk needed people. Wouldn’t it be okay to use Moon Seok-il and his colleagues? Since he had already tied their families with an invisible string, they wouldn’t dare to do anything foolish. And it was better to keep dangerous enemies where you could see them. Of course, he would have to discuss it with his dad.

“I’m making you an offer.”

However, Moon Seok-il read Jinhyuk’s gaze differently.

This wasn’t an offer, it was an order.

“I’ll think about it.”

He mustered courage from his gut and salvaged his last bit of pride.

Jinhyuk nodded.

It was still an encouraging answer. It was just a shot in the dark, but he hadn’t refused. That alone was enough to think there was room for improvement in their relationship.

‘I’ve given them enough fear, now it’s time to give them trust and show mercy.’

Jinhyuk took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pants pocket and handed it over.

Moon Seok-il took it and unfolded it. It contained the addresses and contact information of their families, which they had written down as their life insurance.

“I didn’t write it down separately or memorize it.”

Moon Seok-il bit his lip. Putting aside the physical beating, he felt like he had been mentally defeated by this kid ever since they had met at the hospital. Still biting his lip, he slightly bowed his head as if to say goodbye and turned away.

Jinhyuk’s voice caught Moon Seok-il’s ankle.

“You still haven’t told me who ordered it.”

‘Is this guy trying to leave without paying his life insurance?’

Jinhyuk already knew the answer, but it was time to check if this guy knew it properly.

“Ah…”

Moon Seok-il smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.

***

Autumn was deepening, and winter was approaching. The harsh sunlight of autumn had faded, and the wind was starting to get cold. Han Yu-young took Yujin out for a walk in her stroller around the neighborhood. A luxury sedan with a Seoul license plate was parked in Jinhyuk’s yard.

How lucky it was to have a dog in such a desolate situation.

Janggun circled around the four kneeling men as if he was teasing them.

Occasionally sniffing their butts.

Son Kwang-yeon bit his lip at Janggun’s antics.

“Please get up. Let’s talk standing up.”

“We cannot get up until you forgive us.”

Moon Seok-il brought Kim In-rang, Jung Sang-tae, and Kang Heon-chang, who had been discharged from the hospital, to Son Kwang-yeon. They suddenly knelt in front of Son Kwang-yeon, who was playing catch with Jinhyuk in the yard.

Jinhyuk, who was watching from a distance, frowned.

‘Why the heck are they kneeling?’

‘Are these old people following old ways?’

He had asked for a meeting with his dad for the future, but he had never told them to beg for forgiveness like that.

‘It’s so childish, I can’t watch.’ Jinhyuk turned his head away.

“Forgive you? I need to know what happened to forgive you.”

“We were ordered by Park Woo-jung, the president of Daejeong Electronics.”

Son Kwang-yeon’s face hardened. Even though he already knew, he couldn’t ignore the name Daejeong and Park Woo-jung.

Moon Seok-il, with his head bowed, began to recite the details.

“…Upon reverse tracing, we found Park Woo-jung, the eldest son of Park Woon-chul…”

He left out the part about coming to his senses after being taught a lesson by Jinhyuk, but he told the truth as much as he had confirmed. Unfortunately, the information that Moon Seok-il could gather without harming anyone was limited to that.

For Jinhyuk, it was a decent result, though not perfect. He could be sure about both Park Woo-jung and Moon Seok-il.

Son Kwang-yeon put his hands behind his back and gazed at the sunset for a moment.

‘Why did they treat me like someone who shouldn’t exist?’

He had heard that Park Yoon-young, the daughter born between Park Woon-chul and an actress who was over twenty years younger than him, had jumped from her apartment in New York.

Even that was quietly buried and not properly known in the country, so even though evidence of murder was found, it quietly disappeared from public interest. Daejeong Group must have silenced the media, so the soundproofing effect must have been perfect. There was a rumor that Chairman Park Woon-chul’s health had deteriorated after Park Yoon-young’s death, but that was something only Chairman Park himself would know. However, it did coincide with the timing.

“So… are you saying you couldn’t do the dirty work?”

“That’s…”

Moon Seok-il felt a sense of detachment from the world in Son Kwang-yeon’s voice as he asked back.

It was a shocking matter. Anyone who had someone who was ordered to kill them in front of them would be terrified. However, Son Kwang-yeon, whom Moon Seok-il faced, showed a bold demeanor. ‘Could it be that he was so calm because it wasn’t the first time? Fear shouldn’t be so easily immunized?’

It was a natural reaction since he didn’t know Son Kwang-yeon’s personality.

As if he had never been cold or hardened, Son Kwang-yeon’s face had returned to its usual light.

‘Nothing new.’

It was certainly a strange experience to have someone come and confess like this.

However, he had lived under surveillance and observation since he was young. After his mother passed away, he lived a life close to seclusion until he became an adult. He entered university as a scholarship student and stayed in the dormitory. As he lived like that, his only friends were Yoo Se-ra, whom he had known since childhood, and his university friend Hong Ki-joon.

With his hands behind his back, Son Kwang-yeon looked at the sunset in the west and urged them to answer.

“There must be another reason. If you changed your mind, you didn’t have to come before me, did you?”

“But we wanted to apologize and let you know about the danger.”

Moon Seok-il was inwardly flustered by Son Kwang-yeon’s detached appearance, but he calmly made excuses. ‘Perhaps he could be so calm because he was the father of that extraordinary child,’ he thought.

“I understand. Get up. It doesn’t seem like it’s my place to forgive you or not. But did you find out who I am and why they would order such a thing?”

Son Kwang-yeon turned his gaze to his son, who was standing expressionlessly in the distance, and opened his mouth. Jinhyuk was pretending not to hear the adults’ conversation, repeatedly throwing a baseball into the air and catching it with his glove. The height of the ball was abnormally high, but it wasn’t a situation to be surprised about.

Moon Seok-il stood up and answered Son Kwang-yeon’s question.

“We haven’t found out yet.”

He had investigated and threatened Shin Sang-yeol, but there was no information he could get. For such a person to be just a lizard’s tail, he had learned that it was not easy to approach a big shot.

“I see. You’ve come a long way, so why don’t you have dinner before you go?”

“Ah, we-”

Just as he was about to politely decline, Son Kwang-yeon’s heavy voice pressed down on the men’s shoulders.

“Have dinner.”

“Yes.”

Moon Seok-il and the men bowed deeply.

It was a gentle tone, but it was a voice with an irresistible power.

Moon Seok-il quietly guessed Son Kwang-yeon’s identity.

‘This guy has a different smell too.’

He even wondered if he was from the Daejeong bloodline.

However.

‘No, he’s not. There’s nothing similar about them.’

Anyway, this is a big problem.

‘Hey, are we going to choke while eating?’ Jung Sang-tae muttered.

***

Moon Seok-il and his colleagues strolled along the stream with light hearts.

While they were admiring the rural scenery while watching the red sunset.

Son Kwang-yeon, along with his son, washed away the dust of emotions.

Until now, he had only vaguely glossed over things, saying that there were various things going on.

Jinhyuk perked up his ears. He had expected the cause and effect of the incident and why his dad lived in the countryside, but he had never had a proper chance to hear how his dad had grown up.

“I’m sorry I’m telling you now, Dad. Are you upset?”

“No. Why would I be upset?”

“Is it because our Jinhyuk is so mature and deep, that’s why you didn’t ask?”

If he were an ordinary child, he would have asked every holiday, ‘Why don’t we go to grandpa’s house?’ Son Kwang-yeon was aware that he was being considerate by his son.

Jinhyuk didn’t bother to dig deeper because he thought there must be a reason why his parents didn’t talk about it. It wasn’t his parents’ fault that they had become like that, and as a result, it hadn’t harmed the current Jinhyuk. Jinhyuk was happy just to have his parents, and he was doing his best to protect that happiness.

“Jinhyuk-ah.”

“Yes.”

Son Kwang-yeon grabbed Jinhyuk’s shoulder firmly as he was silently fiddling with his glove. Jinhyuk’s deep eyes followed his father, who was younger than himself in his previous life.

“Dad only saw his grandfather in pictures. My grandmother also passed away early. That’s why I wanted to be a dad to Jinhyuk, and I wanted to give you a mom.”

Son Kwang-yeon smiled kindly as he said that.

‘I’m Son Jinhyuk, who’s living his second life.’

‘I’ve lived longer than my current dad, and I’ve lived another five years after coming back. Strangely, my dad is more mature than me.’ Jinhyuk was so moved by that fact that he couldn’t speak.

“Thank you, son…”

‘What are you thanking me for?’

‘I’m the one who’s grateful.’ Jinhyuk, who had already grown as tall as his dad and had broad shoulders, buried his forehead in his dad’s chest like a child.

***

When they were eating, Yujin lightened the mood.

Yujin talked to everyone, but she showed particular interest in Kim In-rang, who was the most handsome and the only one with fair skin among the four.

“How old are you, mister?”

“Thir, thirty-three…”

Yujin folded her fingers one by one.

Then she held out both fists to her mom.

“Wow! Mom, look at this? He’s eaten a lot, right? Yujin’s fingers are gone?”

After the meal, Jinhyuk handed a note to Moon Seok-il.

“I’ll contact them, so go and see them. They’ll be helpful.”

“Okay.”

Jinhyuk frowned as he watched Moon Seok-il’s car leave.

No matter how many times he tried, dealing with people was not easy. Especially connecting various people in the middle was even more so. He had to force relationships, but he had to try to make them look natural. It was like packaging an absurd business into a plausible report and pushing it forward, which even made him feel self-loathing.

‘If it weren’t for Janggun and Yujin, it would have been very awkward and solemn.’

He didn’t know what his dad was thinking when he suggested they eat together, but he was grateful for his younger sister’s existence.

“Son. Did you send those guys to the standard that I told you?”

Son Kwang-yeon asked, sitting across from him at the Go board.

“Yes.”

Son Kwang-yeon’s eyes lit up as he looked at his son, who answered without hesitation.

“Do you really want to use those guys? They’re dangerous people.”

‘How should he explain it?’

‘That they were helpers who would help him find his daily life.’