The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 137

Teacher Lee Byung-se came to find Jin-hyeok.

Usually, a teacher would summon a student, but it wasn’t surprising that he came to find him. If a laid-back physical education teacher were to summon this model student, whose father was the school’s biggest sponsor, he would surely receive a scolding from other teachers, as well as the principal and vice-principal.

‘The track and field meet is scheduled for September.’

‘Really?’

Jin-hyeok, looking unusually pleased, smiled like the other kids. He had already checked the schedule that Yoo Se-ra had given him, but this reaction came out without him realizing it.

Lee Byung-se flinched back at the unfamiliar sight.

‘Can we start preparing in July? Is there a relay race too?’

‘I don’t know if you’ll be a relay runner.’

‘Then I can just do the 100-meter and 200-meter races, right?’

‘Yeah. I’ll register you as a runner, okay?’

‘Oh, and teacher.’

Lee Byung-se, who had turned away with a somewhat displeased expression, looked back at Jin-hyeok.

‘The middle school division also has a 400-meter race, right?’

‘It does, but do you want to try it? I’d rather you didn’t.’

‘Okay, then I’ll just do two events.’

Lee Byung-se’s eyes widened.

He was unexpectedly compliant. His sullen face made him seem stubborn, but when you actually talked to him, he wasn’t. As he moved up grades, he became more like his peers and acted friendly, so it seemed he was just shy. Anyway, he was an interesting kid.

‘Alright.’

It looked like the coach was reporting to the athlete, but Lee Byung-se and Jin-hyeok didn’t find it strange. Only a few friends giggled as they watched Teacher Lee Byung-se leave the classroom.

Lee Byung-se, walking with his hands in his gym pants pockets, scratching, thought, ‘Did something go wrong?’ But he had only done what he was supposed to do.

‘He said he’d participate in the 3rd grade [the final year of middle school].’

Then he grinned.

Even though he hadn’t been consistently doing track and field, Jin-hyeok’s running ability, which he had observed during physical education classes and fitness tests, was better than Yeom Byung-taek’s. Tae Yang Middle School had never had good results in competitions anyway. For Lee Byung-se, it was just an event to get some fresh air.

***

Was middle school 3rd grade this busy in his previous life? Jin-hyeok briefly searched his memories. But all he remembered from his school days was studying until his books were tattered and torn. Textbooks weren’t enough, so he had read and memorized all sorts of books in the school library from the 1st grade until graduation.

But now he was busy.

Well, he had chosen this life, so he didn’t intend to complain.

He still woke up before sunrise, ran to Gubong Mountain with his uncles trailing behind him, and after washing up and eating breakfast, he immediately got on his bicycle.

‘I’m off!’

He rode the 10 kilometers to school at a frightening speed. It used to take him about 30 minutes, but now it seemed like he could get there in 20 minutes. Even though he wasn’t pushing himself, he was faster than the bus since he didn’t have to stop.

‘Jin-hyeok, hey-.’

Yeom Byung-taek and Jo Seul-chan, who were already running around the track, waved at him as he warmed up.

After running a few laps around the school track, he would grab the rope at the wrestling team’s outdoor training area and climb it. Looking at his bulging arm muscles, it seemed like he was climbing with just his arm strength, but that wasn’t the case. Like when doing pull-ups, he used the strength of his back to minimize the fatigue in his arms. When he reached out and grabbed the rope, his back muscles spread out like a fan, and when he pulled, he squeezed his back muscles along with his pectoral muscles.

‘Ugh, I’m gonna die! Jin-hyeok! What does this have to do with track and field— ugh!’

Jo Seul-chan, who was trying to follow Jin-hyeok, fell onto the sand.

Whew-whew-.

Jin-hyeok, who had finished 15 round trips, caught his breath.

‘Yeah, what does it have to do with it?’

So what if it didn’t?

He was just doing it because it was fun and something he always did. There was nothing more enjoyable than the feeling of tension rising in his muscles and his body warming up.

After completing his scheduled morning workout, Jin-hyeok helped the track team friends correct their postures.

He had been doing this consistently since the 1st grade, but he hadn’t been able to do it properly because these guys kept running away. But now that a competition was scheduled, Jo Seul-chan and Yeom Byung-taek were also starting to take it seriously. He wished they had done this sooner.

‘Seul-chan, when you run, try to consciously keep your knees inward.’

Jo Seul-chan was still using a dog-trot running style.

Kim Young-tae, his elementary school teacher, also knew about Jo Seul-chan’s problem, but he didn’t correct it much, saying he wanted the kids to enjoy exercising.

‘Even so, he should have corrected their posture a bit…’

Some teachers would beat their students to force them to adopt their style. Now that he thought about it, it seemed that Teacher Kim Young-tae hadn’t corrected them, but rather had been neglecting them. He was a teacher who often said that he wanted the time spent exercising to remain a pleasant memory.

Well, it wasn’t hard to understand, since many athletes quit during the process of correcting their posture.

Tae Yang Middle School was… not a place for athletes. They were just fast students who were gathered when there was a competition, and Lee Byung-se was just a supervising teacher, not a coach.

‘Jin-hyeok, I have bowlegs, so my knees don’t touch.’

‘I’m not saying to force them to touch. I’m saying to run while thinking about keeping them together.’

If Jo Seul-chan had met a coach who was obsessed with results, his knees would have been tied together with a belt. Or he would have been kicked out for not having talent in track and field. That’s how severe Jo Seul-chan’s bowlegs were. It was quite impressive that he could run the 100 meters in the 12-second range with those legs.

‘When your knees are apart, the force escapes outward when you push off the ground. That’s how you injure your knee ligaments. The force should go down, and your knees should extend forward to gain speed.’

Jo Seul-chan, who often had to rest from training due to knee pain, nodded with his mouth open.

You couldn’t tell him to run wearing a tight skirt. It was frustrating that they couldn’t follow his instructions, but Jin-hyeok decided to do his best to help his friends with their posture. He thought it wouldn’t be too difficult to correct their posture since they were still growing.

‘Okay, I’ll try it. Ugh-!’

Jo Seul-chan, who was sitting on the ground, stretching his legs and trying to keep his knees together, screamed while grabbing his pelvis and knees. It must have been difficult to force his joints into place.

‘Seul-chan, slowly. Do it little by little.’

Jin-hyeok touched Jo Seul-chan’s legs and determined that his joints weren’t impossible to correct. Of course, this was just Jin-hyeok’s guess as a non-expert.

‘I can’t put splints on both sides of his joints.’

He ordered him to continue doing a stretch where he lay on the ground, supported by his arms, and lifted only his upper body. And he didn’t forget to tell him to keep his feet and knees together.

‘That position will be comfortable.’

‘Oh, it’s comfortable. Ugh- it’s refreshing?’

It would be refreshing.

The tension on his thighs and ankles would be relieved temporarily as the pressure on his knees was reduced.

While Jo Seul-chan was training to keep his knees together, Jin-hyeok had Yeom Byung-taek do in-place walking.

‘Think of lifting your knees up to your chest, and don’t let your toes spread out. Make your right foot step where your left foot stepped.’

Yeom Byung-taek had a severe pigeon-toed walk.

He also used a pigeon-toed style when running, so he often complained of ankle pain.

‘My dad says it’s because our family is noble.’

He was gradually adapting to his peers, but he couldn’t keep up with these guys’ humor.

These young kids were spouting nonsense that sounded like something boring middle-aged managers would say. Look at him now. Yeom Byung-taek was looking at Jin-hyeok, grinning, as if he liked his joke. His nostrils were also flaring. But he quickly became dejected at Jin-hyeok’s cold expression.

‘How do you know if your family bought their noble status in the late Joseon Dynasty [the last Korean dynasty]?’

Jin-hyeok, who was about to raise a valid counterargument, swallowed his words, worried that his friend’s bones might break.

Instead, he decided to fix this noble walk.

‘Because your feet are spread out, your feet can’t absorb the impact from the ground, and it goes to your ankles.’

‘How does Jin-hyeok know that?’

How would he know?

It was just because his posture didn’t look good. He hadn’t learned it separately, but his understanding of the human body was quite high.

‘That’s not important. This week, don’t push yourself to run, and let’s focus on changing your posture step by step.’

‘Okay. That jerk keeps making us pull tires, and it’s no fun.’

‘But two people are missing?’

‘One transferred to Chuncheon Technical High School to play soccer, and the other quit. He said it wasn’t fun.’

The relay race was ruined.

He was a little disappointed. There was no event as tense and fun as the relay race. The smooth, seamless baton passes and the all-out sprints of all the runners had the power to excite the audience.

Even at the rural middle school’s spring sports day, all the students would cheer regardless of the rankings. Just looking at that, you could tell how thrilling the relay race was. If the audience was like that, how would the athletes feel?

‘Ugh- since there’s no relay, it’s a shame, right?’

‘Yeah. It’s even better because I’m in the same school as Jin-hyeok.’

‘Byung-taek, don’t rest and keep lifting your legs, think of stepping on the ground with your big toe, and step only with your toes.’

Jo Seul-chan, who was watching Jin-hyeok correct Yeom Byung-taek’s posture, grinned. Jin-hyeok, who was already over 180 cm tall, looked like a track team coach to anyone. Even though the content he was teaching was not very fundamental.

‘Hehehe-! Ack-!’

Jo Seul-chan, who was stretching, laughed while lying down and twisted his back. Jin-hyeok sighed and shook his head. Still, it was fun to exercise with these friends every morning. It had already been three years.

After adjusting Yeom Byung-taek and Jo Seul-chan’s postures, he headed to the wrestling team’s equipment room.

‘Coach, hello. I’m going to use the tubes.’

‘Yeah, sure. But what are you going to do with the tubes?’

Sung Bu-hyun, who was watching the wrestling team members stretching, asked.

He was definitely from Seoul, but in two years, his accent had completely changed to that of a native of Tae Yang County.

‘For shoulder exercises.’

Jin-hyeok took out two black tubes from the wrestling team’s locker and hung them on the horizontal bar. These weren’t the tubes you pulled with both hands against the horizontal bar. He hung two narrow tubes, about a hand’s width, on the horizontal bar and pulled them one arm at a time, like doing cross-country skiing. His elbows were at a right angle, and he only pulled his arm to a position perpendicular to the ground, repeating it with a constant speed and force. At the same time, he bent his upper body forward and kept his chin tucked in.

Whew-whew-.

Soon, large beads of sweat were popping up everywhere. Sweat was dripping from his chin.

‘Jin-hyeok, what kind of exercise is that?’

‘Shoulders and sides.’

‘Does that make you run faster?’

‘It’ll help.’

The track and field sprint was a race where you poured all the power in your body in about 10 seconds. You couldn’t get good results by running with just the strength of your legs, and it was impossible to generate explosive power in a short time.

The arms, which worked as hard as the legs, also needed to be considered in terms of movement and strength. Because they were naturally trained while sprinting, the arms were an area that everyone knew about but overlooked.

‘You need good shoulders for sprinting.’

‘Jin-hyeok, you have good shoulders.’

‘If they’re better, I can run faster.’

Yeom Byung-taek closed his mouth. It wasn’t wrong, but how much was that monster trying to build up his shoulders? The muscles on his sides were also shaped like ribs, and just looking at his sides, he looked like Mr. Korea from the TV show last weekend.

‘I’ll try it too.’

Jo Seul-chan, who was flopping around like a squid on the ground, challenged himself to pull the tubes.

The horizontal bar was at a height that required him to reach out, so the conditions were similar anyway. Jin-hyeok told Jo Seul-chan where to step and how to position himself, and then decided to watch him.

‘Hup!’

Jo Seul-chan’s face turned red as if it was about to explode. He looked like he was about to give birth. But he couldn’t pull the tube even an inch.

Yeom Byung-taek, who was watching, said in a heavy voice.

‘He’s pooping, he’s pooping.’

‘Hehehe-! Aww! Why are you making me laugh! I almost pulled it all the way-.’

Yeom Byung-taek and Jo Seul-chan laughed while holding their stomachs.

‘There should be weaker rubber bands in the wrestling team’s equipment box. You guys should try it when you have time.’

Jin-hyeok, who had been laughing with his friends, cleaned up and grabbed his clothes.

‘I’m going to shower and go to class first.’

‘Okay-, see you later-.’

‘Jin-hyeok, bye.’

They were kind and innocent guys. The corners of Jin-hyeok’s mouth slightly lifted as he walked away from his friends.

The wrestling team’s dormitory and indoor training area had a shower room. Although it only had cold water, he had been taking cold showers like it was nothing even in the winter, so was a cold shower in June a big deal?

‘Coach, I’m going to take a shower.’

‘Oh, just do it, why do you ask for permission every time?’

Sung Bu-hyun barely held back from saying, ‘We built the shower room with the money your father gave us.’ He was told that the support would be cut off if he said that.

Under the pouring cold water, Jin-hyeok pondered about Jo Seul-chan and Yeom Byung-taek.

‘They haven’t improved at all.’

Jin-hyeok would be able to prepare for the competition comfortably if his friends’ level improved.

How could he take these cheerful guys to the competition?