The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 127

< The Unsent Season (2) >

Moon Seok-il held a white envelope in his hand.

Judging by the silhouette against the fluorescent light, it was definitely a cassette tape.

It wasn’t hard to guess what it was.

‘The person planted in Daejeong must have found something.’

It must have been about the time Moon Seok-il came to see him after returning from Seoul. He had heard that he even investigated and won over the client.

Since he had a rough idea, he thought it would be better to hear about the predictable matters later. It was because he could easily guess what the content would be.

Then, he should check the other matter first.

Jin-hyuk asked directly,

“Did Mr. Hong Ki-joon ask you to do something?”

Oh my-.

Moon Seok-il laughed in disbelief.

Not only did that grim reaper-like figure appear, but this kid was acting as if he was inside people’s heads. That was why he couldn’t talk nonsense in front of Jin-hyuk.

“Yes. He gave an order, and you’re the only one I can ask for an opinion.”

He had experienced it at their first meeting and acknowledged it ever since, but wasn’t this kid special? In fact, he had intended to ask Yang Kang-wook, but he sought out Jin-hyuk instead. No matter how smart he was, it wasn’t something he could ask Yang Kang-wook, who always walked the straight path.

Jin-hyuk waited for Moon Seok-il to explain in detail.

This uncle was good at organizing his thoughts, but it took him time to get to that stage. It was frustrating, but he couldn’t just poop his pants. He respected Moon Seok-il’s routine and waited.

Moon Seok-il, who had been frowning and tapping his temple with his index finger, finally opened his mouth.

“It seems like they’re planning to drastically increase the number of S personnel. They’re all young now, but if they delay recruitment, there might be gaps later, and it seems like there are quite a few requests from the wealthy and politicians.”

Jin-hyuk nodded silently.

It was as if he could see what Hong Ki-joon had been up to during the time they hadn’t met. He must have started building relationships with figures in the political and business circles in earnest. Rather than influencing their actions, he was just trying to win them over.

However, he couldn’t just meet them indiscriminately. He would have filtered out those with ties to Daejeong as much as possible, and to start that process, he would have scouted intelligence agents skilled in tracking and gathering information, disguising them as S personnel.

‘Mr. Hong Ki-joon can’t have good feelings towards Daejeong either.’

He almost took that drug addict as his son-in-law.

His desire to screw them over wouldn’t be much different from Jin-hyuk’s.

Anyway.

“You’re not asking for my consent, so what kind of opinion do you need?”

“A way to proceed discreetly. The reason you’re telling me directly instead of going through Manager Min is that S has many secrets.”

“Isn’t it already a well-known security company?”

“The VIP service is confidential. The client pool itself is small.”

Ah, I see.

It was understandable since it was a different concept from the commercial security service that simply selected and trained martial arts-related personnel.

Moon Seok-il picked up a piece of candy from the desk and wiggled his eyebrows. It was a large, sugar-coated candy, Jin-hyuk’s favorite sweet.

Jin-hyuk held out his hand, palm up. You can just eat it, why do you keep asking for permission?

Ts-ts-.

Rolling the candy in his mouth, Moon Seok-il continued.

“I heard you’re in charge of the S personnel? So, he said that if there’s something difficult, you’ll take responsibility and give your opinion.”

“Ah-.”

He was definitely receiving dollars in return for that.

He had never seen the dollars, but he was receiving the payment statements by registered mail every month. It was a considerable amount.

“If there are resources to secure personnel, the more the better. They’re like private soldiers.”

How could Jin-hyuk not know Hong Ki-joon’s feelings?

In his past life, Jin-hyuk had saved the president of Sein Machinery, who was almost attacked by striking union members, twice. Even though there were bodyguards. They were called bodyguards, but they were always sweating in the face of the union’s iron pipes and shouting. There were restrictions on active use of force due to various circumstances, but it was also because their skills were not good.

If Jin-hyuk hadn’t subdued the violent union members, someone would have had their head cracked open. It was something that was possible because Jin-hyuk was still young and had not been long since he was assigned to Seoul.

Moon Seok-il nodded. Munching on the candy.

“The training location is the problem. They’re planning about a hundred people, but we can’t bring them here and train them at Gomgym.”

“A hundred people…”

Jin-hyuk rested his chin on his hand and paced around the room.

Although it was a legitimate business, it was an organization like a private army that wanted to avoid exposure. They only needed to provide the necessary personnel to VIP clients, and there was no need to expose the scale. It seemed like they intended to handle it very secretly.

‘The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword can also kill the pen.’

Could it be a sword aimed at Daejeong’s scholarship students in the worst-case scenario? Of course, if it reached that point, it would be after a situation where the system collapsed and the country was ruined. That wouldn’t happen, but strategy starts with preparing for the worst-case scenario.

Where would be good?

There was also the method of creating a large underground space.

With the construction method used for Gomgym, 100 people would be no problem. However, to accommodate them all, the issue of accommodation and meals had to be resolved. It meant that it couldn’t be solved with just a dome-shaped gymnasium.

Then, a piece of information from the past flashed through Jin-hyuk’s mind.

“You know there are training grounds for special forces in national parks, right?”

“I know. How do you know?”

Moon Seok-il blinked without showing any surprise.

What could he hide from this kid who knew state secrets like they were newspaper headlines?

If the missile launch site in Anheung was a publicly known secret, the special forces training ground in the national park was top secret. There were quite a few units that trained in places close to people, including ambush training that didn’t catch the eyes of park officials and tourists in the mountains, as well as night infiltration training.

Such training grounds were non-standardized temporary training locations, while there were also training grounds with accommodation facilities. Among them, quite a few facilities were abandoned as the mood for reconciliation between North and South Korea was created.

Jin-hyuk sat back on the bed.

“There should be quite a few uninhabited islands in the coastal national parks.”

“Oh, right.”

It was a well-known fact that South Korea had many islands and uninhabited islands, so it was nothing new. Three sides were surrounded by the sea, and there were about 3,000 attached islands, more than 90% of which were uninhabited.

Jin-hyuk chuckled like a middle schooler and gestured with his chin.

It meant, ‘Do I need to explain more?’

“There was a suitable place nearby.”

Moon Seok-il, realizing Jin-hyuk’s intention, opened his notebook.

He stopped writing and frowned for a moment. It was the expression that his team members used when they had something in mind but couldn’t express it concretely, and needed detailed instructions. Jin-hyuk knew it well.

“You can get information from your old colleagues. The location of closed training grounds. If you cross-reference it with uninhabited islands not marked on tourist maps, it should work. Leave the matter of negotiating with the agencies to Mr. Hong Ki-joon.”

Moon Seok-il’s pen danced across the page.

It was easier to move as instructed than to think for himself.

Now it was time to reveal the second matter.

Moon Seok-il took out the cassette tape from the envelope.

“Chief Shin sent this.”

Jin-hyuk nodded calmly. He had already expected it.

Just as Moon Seok-il, who had inserted the tape into the mini component, was about to press the play button.

Knock- knock-.

A light knock, it was Yu-jin.

Moon Seok-il quickly stopped his hand, and Jin-hyuk slowly opened the door. It was Jin-hyuk’s way of being a good older brother to open the door himself when his younger sister came.

“My baby, what is it?”

“Ehehe-.”

Yu-jin was becoming more and more like her mother every day.

Just looking at her smiling with her eyes twinkling like stars, it was obvious. She was twisting her body shyly, and it seemed like she couldn’t speak openly because Moon Seok-il was there.

‘She’s asking for formula.’

Jin-hyuk took out the formula from the desk drawer. Whether Moon Seok-il saw it or not.

“Say ‘ah’.”

“Aaaah-.”

If Yu-jin’s head was bigger, she would have fallen backward. That’s how serious Yu-jin was about formula. Jin-hyuk carefully scooped a spoonful of formula so that his younger sister wouldn’t choke. Then, Jin-hyuk also put a spoonful in his mouth.

Now, they would move their mouths and melt it. Um-, it’s savory. There’s no other taste like this in the world. It’s more delicious than a 100-won vending machine milk.

Moon Seok-il stared blankly at the siblings, who were smearing white powder around their mouths and munching. It was strange that they were hiding and eating formula, and the kids looked a bit lacking. These kids were definitely extraordinary, but they did unexpected things without warning.

Jin-hyuk, who made eye contact with Moon Seok-il, asked with a nonchalant expression,

“Would you like a bite?”

He didn’t seem embarrassed at all. Well, it wasn’t illegal, but it didn’t seem like something to be proud of. Anyway, he was a unique guy.

Speechless, Moon Seok-il just shook his head. He still had a candy in his mouth.

“Go play now. Your brother will talk to uncle for a bit and then come down.”

“Okay-, ehehe-.”

Jin-hyuk said, wiping the powder off his younger sister’s lips.

Honey sweeter than formula dripped from his eyes.

The tape wasn’t played until Yu-jin left and Jin-hyuk had finished melting and eating all the formula.

***

A few days ago, Seoul.

Swish-!

A morning newspaper flew across a spacious office decorated in a luxurious style.

Shin Sang-yeol, who had quickly knelt down, bowed his head.

“I’m sorry!”

Park Woo-jung’s rough breathing, staring with bloodshot eyes, replaced the silence.

Shin Sang-yeol rolled his eyes, trying not to make a sound, and examined the newspaper.

Agribusiness, Sein Group, Hong Ki-joon, and Son Kwang-yeon.

The keywords that made Park Woo-jung furious were quickly combined.

‘I’m screwed.’

His head dropped involuntarily. As he was despairing, an annoyed voice made Shin Sang-yeol flinch.

“Hey, you bastard! Don’t you know how Baek Young-rim died, that you’re handling it like this?”

Baek Young-rim, Shin Sang-yeol’s predecessor. He was an employee that Park Woo-jung always kept close and cherished. He was the shadow-like secretary of the dark figure, who served him in the company and even in the bedroom.

He was perfect at his job and kept his mouth shut. However, he knew too much about Park Woo-jung’s temper. Furthermore, he had collected a vast amount of data separately. Park Woo-jung exploded at the data that organized the evidence of Park Yoon-young and Son Kwang-yeon’s murder instigation in chronological order.

Shin Sang-yeol still vividly remembered that day. To avoid becoming like Baek Young-rim, he had to secure an escape route.

“Somehow, I’ll-.”

“Again, you bastard! How can you touch a guy who’s in cahoots with Hong Ki-joon in Korea!”

Park Woo-jung, who was nearing his sixtieth birthday, boasted a loud voice.

A temporary tinnitus rang in Shin Sang-yeol’s eardrums.

“Hoo- shit. I’m going crazy.”

As far as Park Woo-jung knew, no one had donated more to the presidential election fund than him. He had also received information that the Sein Group, which was famous for not having ties to the political world, had not donated a single penny. But somehow, there were rumors that the government was watching Sein’s every move since the civilian government came into power.

So much so that there were even rumors that Sein had encouraged the real-name financial transaction system [a system requiring all financial transactions to be done under one’s real name] behind the scenes. That was proof that Sein was clean.

Yu Myung-sun had gone senile. He set up a successor with no roots, and now those with no roots were colluding with each other. The Sein Group was a thorn in his side in many ways.

Park Woo-jung hurriedly took out his blood pressure medication and swallowed it.

“I’ll thoroughly investigate it, just in case.”

Crash-!

A heavy, thick glass ashtray flew over Shin Sang-yeol’s head.

It seemed to have collided with a flowerpot behind him, but Shin Sang-yeol didn’t dare to check and trembled while lying face down.

“I’ll leave the investigation to the strategy team, so you go and catch that bastard!”

“That bastard, you mean-.”

“You bastard-!”

Shin Sang-yeol covered his head as Park Woo-jung picked up the second ashtray.

Fortunately, it didn’t fly, but he almost wet himself.

Wasn’t it right here that Baek Young-rim’s head was smashed by an ashtray and he died?

“I’ll catch him!”