The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 122

***

When Son Yu-jin was a baby, she used to go to her father’s study and read books with him. Although, to be precise, she listened to him read while sitting on his lap, anyway.

She didn’t understand it because it was difficult, but she vaguely remembered the content.

It was about how every human being is a universe in themselves.

It was part of a philosophical thought, and some agreed, others denied it, and some reacted that they didn’t understand. But how many people would be interested in such words? The book also added that most people are not interested in philosophy or the universe.

However, many agreed with the following:

‘Every baby is born as a universe.’

As time passes, they lose the mystery and power of being a universe.

Only after growing taller, gaining weight, and developing their brains do humans begin to think, and humans define this as growth. However, the expression ‘growth’ might be correct from a human perspective, but it was a wrong expression from the universe’s point of view. The moment they become aware of being human, they are deprived of their qualifications as a universe, so it would be more appropriate to call it weakening or secularization rather than growth.

Six-year-old Son Yu-jin, who woke up from sleep because of a crying baby who was hungry, is living proof.

‘I didn’t sleep much.’

Son Yu-jin’s memories were fading. Memories from when she was a baby. It also included memories of performing miracles as a universe. When she was a baby, she healed her mother’s illness, and when she was bitten by a snake, she pushed out the poison herself and treated the wound. She also unconsciously restored her exhausted older brother’s energy after a fight with a wild boar.

She performed miracles naturally because she desperately wanted it with a heartfelt desire, but Son Yu-jin only vaguely guessed what triggered her to have such miraculous abilities.

It was the day she came out of her mother’s womb. Her mother was losing her life force and then came back to life. At that time, someone placed their hand on her mother’s belly. Son Yu-jin, who was a fetus, instinctively reached out to meet it. A clear yet warm, contradictory energy flowed in. It was the moment when Son Yu-jin’s weak heart beat strongly and she started kicking.

Even though she was forgetting, the memory engraved in her body was stronger than her mind. That’s why she was able to heal Hongsi’s wound and the baby’s illness yesterday and today. At least, it was fortunate that her ability was maintained enough to save the baby.

‘I shouldn’t do it anymore.’

It was something she couldn’t do even if she wanted to.

Because it wasn’t a miracle she performed with her own ability.

Son Yu-jin also knows that it’s not her own talent.

She healed the baby by borrowing her brother’s power. The strange incantation that came out of her lips on its own was also like that. It was like a witch’s spell hidden somewhere in her unreachable mind. It means that she didn’t use it knowingly, but it came out naturally when the situation called for it.

The more she learned the words her mother and father used, the faster she forgot about her babyhood. She also no longer goes to her brother’s room every night. Pushed by the knowledge that was flooding in like a tide, her memories from when she was a baby disappeared into a small secret room in her mind. Perhaps because she was a smart child, Son Yu-jin’s speed was fast.

And so, she was gradually acquiring humanity.

Son Yu-jin’s childhood was coming to an end.

‘I guess my brother is still sleeping.’

The strange power that she thought only existed in her brother’s ‘mya-mya’ [a sound like a cat’s meow, often used to describe a cute or mysterious power] was scattered throughout her body, not just in her heart. In particular, it was also in her lower abdomen and head. When she took the power out of her heart, power flowed into her heart from all over her body.

‘Ehehe-.’

She wished her brother would rest a little during times like this.

He’s the first one to wake up at home, and even after coming back from school, he’s busy having meetings with his uncles.

She looked at her younger sibling, Jeong-won, who was nestled in her mother’s arms, wriggling.

Heh-, she was so sleepy that her eyes were half-closed like her brother’s, but Son Yu-jin’s mouth smiled contentedly.

The fact that she had protected her younger sibling as her brother had asked gave the little one a sense of accomplishment. It was more moving than when she brought warm water to her coughing mother and was praised.

Her father, who was preparing breakfast, looked back at her mother sitting at the table.

“Is Jin-hyuk sleeping in?”

“Didn’t he go for a workout?”

“General and Hongsi are in the yard?”

The dog friends who would have followed if her son had gone for a workout were sprawled out in the shade of the zelkova tree. The bicycle was also parked in its usual spot. Then Jin-hyuk was inside the house. It was a deduction anyone could make.

“Did he go to the gym?”

“He usually works out outside when the weather is nice, it’s strange.”

Son Yu-jin’s eyelids, which were slowly closing, flickered open at her parents’ conversation.

No, my brother must be sleeping.

“Doesn’t our youngest son’s complexion look like it’s changed?”

“Haha. It does. The fair-skinned baby has turned reddish.”

Son Yu-jin was happy with her parents’ reaction to noticing her younger sibling’s change.

She sat on the sofa, dozing precariously, but still smiling.

Now Jeong-won will grow up and eat dirt.

‘Mom and Dad don’t give food to sleeping babies.’

That was why she was trying to stay awake no matter what.

It wasn’t easy to breathe while trying to stay awake while sitting. She puffed up her chest. Perhaps because some of the power she had taken from her brother was still left, her heart was beating hard and distributing power to her arms and legs. Her belly also bulged, but unlike when she had eaten a lot of food, her belly, which hardened when she needed to pee, was tense.

Gurgle-.

‘Give me some too. Beef seaweed soup.’

I need to recover.

***

Jin-hyuk wiggled his hands and feet while lying in bed.

At first, it was difficult to breathe as if his heart had shrunk, but now he could move his hands and feet and inflate his chest and lower abdomen at will.

‘Through the nose, to the brain. From the brain to the chest, from the chest to the lower abdomen. When exhaling, in reverse order.’

Ssssh- Hooo-.

Breathing, which used to happen automatically, now required him to be conscious of each part as if he had obtained a newly created body. It was like setting up a machine for the first time.

The consciousness, skilled in image training, breathed life into his lifeless body. Gradually, his heart beat strongly. His hands and feet also gained more strength.

‘I’m okay.’

Jin-hyuk, who had massaged his arms while keeping his eyes closed, felt relieved.

He felt like a dried squid because all the moisture had been drained from his body, but there was no change in his physical condition.

It was a strange night.

He had just fallen asleep listening to Yu-jin singing, but it felt as suffocating as if he had been crushed by a container. The pressure that pressed down on his chest was incomparable to when he had entered a 5-meter diving pool during his military service.

‘I had a dream for the first time in a while.’

Now that he could move his body, he could open his eyes, but he deliberately kept his eyelids closed. As dreams usually do, they would evaporate when he opened his eyes. He pressed his closed eyes to remember the dream. He retraced the dream, feeling a tingling current rising from his stomach to his cheeks, as if he had drunk cold water.

– 【Do not try to get up. This is also for you.】

– ‘What?’

– 【Are you happy? Is the life of an ordinary human worth living?】

– ‘What are you talking about?’

– 【The world is overflowing with evil, like a full glass of wine.】

– ‘No, there are many good people too.’

– 【Trivial and trivial, short and short.】

– ‘Hey-.’

King Sejong said something like that.

Since the frequencies do not match, I cannot communicate with that bastard at all.

‘It was like a city phone [a public payphone].’

No, a city phone can have two-way communication once connected, but that guy was just babbling like a radio and then disappeared. The multi-access era is about to open beyond two-way communication, but that guy seems to live in an old-fashioned world.

It was the voice of the shadow he had heard several times.

At dawn, he couldn’t stand the suffocation and tried to wake up, but he couldn’t move as if he was having sleep paralysis. He had never experienced sleep paralysis, but that was the only phenomenon he could compare it to.

He tried to regain his senses as he felt the strength draining from his body.

But the shadow stopped him.

– 【Do not try to move. What is emptied will be filled. Rest will restore your vitality.】

That shadow must have said that because it doesn’t know about Korean schools.

If you’re late, they hit your butt with a mop handle or your palms with bamboo roots, so what kind of rest is there for a student? According to friends who have been hit, it hurts like hell. It must feel bad too.

So.

‘I have to get up.’

Anyway, that was the end of the unsettling dream. Even if he tried to recall it by groping through his imagination, he could only grasp darkness like a carbon copy.

It didn’t take long for him to fully recover his condition. Thanks to the meditation he had been doing every day, which shone brightly in the moment he needed it, Jin-hyuk quickly got up from his bed.

His clenched fist was trembling, and his vision was clear.

Gurgle-.

“Mom-, Dad-!”

He quickly changed his target.

Dad prepares breakfast these days, so he had to call the actor accurately so that the person wouldn’t feel left out.

When he burst open the door, the smell of soybean paste stew that vibrated throughout the house assaulted his stomach. The smell of beef seaweed soup, which tempted tired souls, was also mixed in the air.

He didn’t step on the stairs and landed in the living room in one leap and dashed to the dining table.

Yu-jin, who was dozing off at the table, was startled. She looked like she had seen a ghost.

Son Gwang-yeon, who was putting rice in the seaweed soup for Yu-jin, was the same.

“Son? Weren’t you sleeping in?”

“I have to eat and go to school. Dad, please give me a ride. I think I’m late.”

“What are you talking about, today is Sunday?”

Oh, crap.

······ That’s a relief.

***

The TV news was buzzing with the news of the bombing at Mokpo Airport.

It was a time when safety negligence was as common as air, so he thought it would just be a brief stumble and pass, but it was unexpected.

[This is Kim Yu-deok from Mokpo Airport. While the terrorist’s demands are not known exactly-.]

Let’s see, if it’s a terrorist······.

‘Is it me?’

In fact, Jin-hyuk had made a few more calls at set times.

He thought that a proper investigation would only be possible if an investigation headquarters was set up. So, he called from school and home, imitating a North Korean accent that didn’t stick to his tongue.

He also mixed in some curses that didn’t stick to his tongue.

– “Can the South Korean dog heads find this body? Demands? There is no such thing. Just let them lose their strength in the Omu-rim [a remote mountain area] and die shitting themselves.”

Well. It’s a bit embarrassing.

Jin-hyuk smacked his lips, recalling the atrocities he had committed.

“If it’s true, it’s a big deal. But is it possible to plant a bomb at an airport?”

“If a person sets their mind to it, what’s impossible? It seems that it was easy to infiltrate because it was a small local airport where security was not strict.”

Jin-hyuk ignored his parents’ conversation and enjoyed his rare leisure time.

Because the precious Yu-jin was dozing off like a chick that had taken medicine, he hugged her and patted her. Perhaps because her brother’s embrace was cozy after a long time, Yu-jin hugged Jin-hyuk’s neck and purred.

“Jin-hyuk’s vacation is this week, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then we should start tomorrow.”

“What?”

“They’re moving the waterway.”

It meant using pumps to draw water from the existing waterway to the new waterway.

They were trying to use the time when the rice paddies were filled with water as much as possible and didn’t need any more, so it coincided with the summer vacation. They had to finish the work before it got hotter so that they could start the construction to cover the existing waterway.

“What does vacation have to do with it?”

Jin-hyuk asked, moving back and forth like a rocking horse, worried that Yu-jin, who was purring and twitching occasionally, would wake up.

“We’re going to catch fish, so it wouldn’t be right if the students were missing.”

“Wow-.”

That sounds fun.

He thought he had only done it once when he was nine years old.

When all the water was drained to dredge the waterway, the villagers who heard the broadcast from the village hall went to catch crucian carp and snakeheads.

‘It’s been so long that it’s hazy, but I think it was fun.’

When he was nine years old during summer vacation, it was a memory from his past life. It would be strange if he remembered it clearly.

“Are they draining the water starting tomorrow?”

“That’s what we have to do. We’ll have to mobilize pumps from each house and bring all the hoses.”

It was a village event, a festival that happened only once every few years.

Everyone, young and old, enjoyed themselves while rolling around in the mud.

‘SSS will like it too.’

Men are happy even with just one ball, so how happy would they be if they caught live fish flopping around in a drained waterway? It was welcome news for Jin-hyuk, who knew how much they were itching for action in the peaceful countryside life.

Jang Jin-nam would run out of the kitchen and punch and kick in the air, and Moon Seok-il and Yang Kang-wook would practically live in the gym. Even the agents who were off duty would come to teach swimming and practice breakfalls on the mat alone. Thanks to that, the huge gym never had a dull day.

“Can’t we do it in early August?”

“Yeah. We can postpone it for about two weeks. But why do you ask?”

There’s something at the end of July, so I need to check that first.

That’s not all.

The inexplicable anxiety that had been lingering around his chest disappeared as if washed away when he said early August. The top of his head became warm.

‘Could there be a reason to postpone it?’

It was a sixth sense that had manifested after a long time.

Should he call it an unconscious command? It was similar to the day he went to Yuk Seong-chan’s to buy octopus.

Son Gwang-yeon looked at Jin-hyuk, who had a blank look on his face, with concern. It wasn’t new for this kid to be daydreaming during a conversation, but he was worried because the frequency had increased recently.

“Son?”

“It’s nothing······.”

Instead of answering, Jin-hyuk slyly placed his hand on the phone in his pocket.

Even if he was identified as a terrorist, he hoped he would get through it safely.

It wasn’t for anyone else.

‘I feel so proud-.’

It felt like an old wound was being healed.

He had only thought of it as saving someone, but he realized through the process of making prank calls, etc. that all of it was a journey to seek comfort for himself.

Of course, from a social normative point of view, it was a bizarre deviation that could not be called a righteous act.

Hehe-. He made a smile that was appropriate for a deviation.

Now his sly smile is quite plausible.

It must have been the first time when he cursed Choi Mi-kyung to have her teenage butt blocked. After a few more prank calls, he was awakening his middle schooler sensibilities.

One more time. Hehe-.

Son Gwang-yeon looked at his son with a frown.

“Jin-hyuk, are you sick?”

They say that boys go crazy when they reach the second year of middle school, and it seems that it has finally come to my son too.