The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 140

As the end of June approached, Lee Byung-se reviewed the athletes’ profiles ahead of the provincial qualifiers for the selection of participating athletes.

“Is Jo Seul-chan about average height?”

Lee Byung-se hadn’t had a reason to go to track and field meets for a while. Because there were no athletes. But the kids who had consistently participated in track and field meets in elementary school had advanced to middle school. Thanks to that, he could officially skip out on work during competitions. Although their age was low and their skills weren’t outstanding, their results always led to elimination in the provincial preliminaries.

Driving the van, booking accommodations for the athletes, and then grabbing a room far away to drink instant coffee. The next day, he would return with the kids who had been eliminated in the preliminaries, and that was it. For three years, he had been enjoying the fun of managing the track and field team in name only, using the sponsorship money and budget.

All Lee Byung-se did was buy snacks and measure the 100m record every morning and evening. Yeom Byeong-taek and Jo Seul-chan knew more about track and field training. His job was just to make sure the competition went smoothly without any accidents.

A few days after telling Son Jin-hyuk that the national competition was scheduled for their third year, as promised. When he came to work, lazing around, there was a new kid he had never seen before.

“Who are you?”

Lee Byung-se asked, with no bad intentions, but with a sufficiently rough voice and a delinquent impression.

Park Sang-gi flinched and bowed, seeing Lee Byung-se’s gold tooth glinting in the sunlight.

“I’m a transfer student…”

“A transfer student?”

He was clearly someone who had done some exercise. Tall, too.

Jin-hyuk, who was next to him, spoke clearly.

“Teacher, Sang-gi is also a student at our school, so he can participate in the provincial qualifiers, right? It would be great if we could go to the competition together. There’s also the relay race.”

“Hmm-.”

Lee Byung-se put his hand on his chin and nodded. It wasn’t like he couldn’t skip out on work just because one more event was added.

“Alright, let’s do it.”

Lee Byung-se started by measuring the 100m record.

[100m Record]

Son Jin-hyuk 11.5 seconds.

Yeom Byeong-taek 12.7 seconds.

Jo Seul-chan 12.6 seconds.

Park Sang-gi 12.9 seconds.

Yeom Byeong-taek’s time would be reduced by about 0.5 seconds when running on the track. Jo Seul-chan’s ‘puppy run’ didn’t make much difference on any track. Park Sang-gi, who was said to have played soccer, had a decent time on the sand even with his sneakers on. While Yeom Byeong-taek and Jo Seul-chan recovered after a few breaths, he seemed to be struggling, so it didn’t seem like track and field was in his blood, but his explosive sprint was worth watching.

‘But Son Jin-hyuk, that guy is really…’

His record was one thing, but after taking a deep breath, he immediately stabilized his breathing?

He remembered his conversation with Kim Young-tae from Taeyang Elementary School the other day.

– Jin-hyuk is a guy who became a national-level athlete on his own without any systematic training. And that guy’s dream is to be a farmer. It’s such a waste.

Isn’t it achieving his dream if he retires from track and field and becomes a farmer?

Lee Byung-se’s eyes were smiling as he recalled Kim Young-tae’s words.

– Oh my, I thought he’d be back in a day as usual, but Jin-hyuk made it to the finals, so I had to book the inn for another day. Hahaha!

If things go well, this skip-out could last more than four days!

Lee Byung-se’s heart was burning with excitement.

“Teacher,”

“Huh? Uh, uh? What is it?”

He was imagining a pleasant time while thinking about the coffee at the city’s tea room. Lee Byung-se, who was excited, was startled by Jin-hyuk’s call.

“Are we going to have a training camp during the summer vacation?”

Why is he suddenly fired up?

Does he like tea room coffee too?

***

It was unexpected.

Hong Ki-joon had been worried that his daughter might be upset if she heard that Jin-hyuk had called while she was asleep. Hong Soo-jung was like a sunflower to her ‘prison’ oppa [a term of endearment for an older brother figure], so it was a reasonable concern.

As Hong Ki-joon, who had resolved to be faithful to his family in this life, it was natural for him to be keenly aware of his family’s every move. But it seemed like it was an unnecessary worry.

“Aigoo-koo-, our Soo-hyuk is eating his baby food so well?”

Hong Soo-jung was busy pushing baby food into her younger brother Hong Soo-hyuk’s gaping mouth. She liked her maternal grandfather, and even her exclamations were like an old man’s. Hong Soo-jung had become a sister who took care of her baby brother more than her mother, Yoo Se-ra.

Jin-hyuk’s calls, which had been coming every evening for three days, had stopped abruptly. It was the final exams and training camp? Anyway, he was busy with a lot of things to prepare.

His daughter, Hong Soo-jung, didn’t seem to care.

She was acting like a child whose top priority was playing with her younger brother, who would soon be turning one.

“Daughter.”

“Huh? Why?”

Hong Soo-jung didn’t even look at her father and focused on feeding Hong Soo-hyuk. As if she were Yoo Se-ra’s daughter, she had even copied her impudent tone.

“Don’t you have to call ‘prison’ oppa?”

“Why would I?”

Only then did Hong Soo-jung turn around and tilt her head. Her eyes, which looked just like her mother’s cat eyes, were blinking. In those eyes, the three words ‘no interest’ were deeply engraved.

Hong Ki-joon puffed up his cheeks.

‘This isn’t good.’

Has she already lost interest in ‘prison’ oppa?

At this rate, the meaning of desperately growing the group would be diminished. It was all for the sake of ensuring that Hong Soo-jung would benefit from it.

One could argue that it’s okay since he also has a son, but Hong Ki-joon had too many unspeakable circumstances.

It was the condition for regression.

‘Did I make an empty promise?’

It wasn’t by coercion either.

He had made a contract with the shadow himself, so he couldn’t blame anyone.

As he was suffering in silence, Hong Soo-jung said something unexpected.

“Dad, you told me that you never know what might happen, so you should make careful decisions in everything. You said that since life is only once, I should carefully consider everything and manage it well.”

Hong Soo-jung shrugged her shoulders.

Her expression was indifferent, but Hong Ki-joon didn’t miss the way the corners of his daughter’s lips slightly curled up.

It was like being hit in the back of the head with a hammer. Before he could even judge whether what his daughter said was right or wrong, the shock that hit his throat was immense.

‘When did my daughter grow up so much?’

Has she become so mature now that she’s in the upper grades of elementary school?

Isn’t she too different from her mother’s personality? No, I think I heard that Yoo Se-ra was also mature when she was young. Unlike other kids, she was mature during her puberty, but she went crazy as she got older. Then, has she already hit puberty? They say kids these days are fast, and it’s true.

In the past, he had been so negligent of his family that he hadn’t even noticed how his daughter had grown up. As if a sponge was absorbing water, Hong Ki-joon’s heart was filled with emotion. It was the newfound joy of someone who had regained the time he had missed. The thrill of seeing a bus that he thought had left waiting in front of him was nothing compared to this.

Yes, let’s not repeat the regrets of the past life.

Hong Ki-joon suddenly hugged his daughter.

“Eee-? Why is this dad being so gross?”

She was horrified, but Hong Soo-jung only tightened her arms to avoid spilling the baby food, and didn’t shake off or push away her father, leaning her back against his chest.

“Ooo-boo-.”

Hong Soo-hyuk, who didn’t know anything, was chasing the spoon with his open mouth, making smacking sounds.

Click-.

At that moment, Yoo Se-ra, who was carrying a tray with vegetable juice, opened the door and came in.

Yoo Se-ra’s eyes sparked when she saw the father and daughter in a back hug.

“What are you doing with a girl like my daughter, you jerk!”

She’s not like my daughter, she is my daughter…

Anyone who hears that would misunderstand.

If you add up the time we’ve lived together, it’s over 50 years, but that woman is always strange.

She has so many flaws.

***

Taeyang County has winding roads, as well as land.

“Ah! It’s refreshing!”

At 80km/h.

Jin-hyuk, who had stretched his arm out the passenger window, exclaimed.

It was the season when it was about to get hot, and the wind that touched his hand felt cool and warm.

‘Hmm. As I keep doing this, I’m starting to think of this feeling as real. Is this virtual reality?’

Even though he didn’t know what the actual texture of Mya Mya was like, Jin-hyuk had reached a point where he perceived his repetitive delusions as reality.

As he drove down the winding road, Jin-hyuk thought of the word ‘life’.

If someone had watched Jin-hyuk’s past life from afar, they would have thought of it as a side-scrolling game. A game where you destroy obstacles that appear according to a set scenario and proceed only in the direction guided by the system. When one episode ended, you would naturally open the next episode, or if you wanted to stay in that place, you just wouldn’t move the directional keys.

‘I lived a really boring life.’

But the life he was reborn into was complex, and it wasn’t divided into sections like an arcade.

He had a home, he had to go to school, and he also had a company he was unofficially affiliated with.

He had to spend time with his family, hang out with his friends, exercise, and take care of company matters. He was also keeping an eye on Kim Eung-nyeo’s family, Park Dae-soon, and the Daejung Group. Just like how your gaze moves along a winding road, there were many things to look around and check, like crossing an intersection without traffic lights.

If one event completely ended before moving on to the next, it would be easy to concentrate, but did life ever flow so two-dimensionally? After being reborn, such a life didn’t exist anywhere.

‘I lived too simply.’

He threw a random question at Moon Seok-il, who was in the driver’s seat.

“Everyone lives this busy and hectic, right?”

In his own opinion, Jin-hyuk was still a misfit in the human world, drifting like a buoy that had lost its rope. So he wanted to seek agreement. That he was living well.

“I don’t know.”

Moon Seok-il answered as sincerely as he could.

‘This kid, doesn’t he realize it’s because of all the things he’s started?’

He heard that they were having a training camp during the vacation. It was to improve his friends’ records and for teamwork, but a player who was pushing for a training camp that even the coach wasn’t involved in.

Anyway, he’s an interesting guy. He’s at an age where no one would say anything even if he lazed around, but he lives so hard, like he knows the end of the world.

The car carrying Jin-hyuk passed through the town and drove for nearly 50 minutes on a two-lane road towards a beach in another area, reaching a small port on the coast.

A coast guard approached Moon Seok-il as he got out of the driver’s seat.

“Do you have company today?”

“Ah, yes, thanks for your hard work. He’s my nephew.”

Thanks to seeing each other often and being familiar, the coast guard’s demeanor was relaxed.

Moon Seok-il also had no reason to be nervous. It was a port he frequented for boarding for work.

“Please fill this out.”

Jin-hyuk opened the document file that the coast guard handed him. It was a form to fill out with his resident registration number, name, contact information, and guardian.

‘My guardian.’

Should I write my mom’s name or my dad’s name?

Jin-hyuk was briefly immersed in happiness. Jin-hyuk still felt excited every time he had to fill out family information at school. What was it about writing his name that made him so happy?

As he was writing, the coast guard’s additional request came.

“Please show me your ID as well.”

Uh?

He still had to wait two more years to get his resident registration card.

There was no way he would have brought his student ID on a Sunday.

As he was just blinking, Moon Seok-il pulled out a document from his pocket and held it out.

“This is my nephew’s identification certificate. Check this.”

“Don’t you have an ID card?”

“Can’t you tell by looking at his resident registration number? He hasn’t gotten his ID card yet.”

The coast guard’s eyes widened at Moon Seok-il’s rebuke.

It was surprising that someone who looked bigger than his uncle was not only still a minor but also didn’t have a resident registration card.

Fortunately, there were no comments about him being old-looking or a soldier.

Sakdo.

That was the name of the island where the SSS training facility was located.

It was said to be one of the countless uninhabited islands in the West Sea that didn’t appear on maps.

While waiting for the boat to come from Sakdo, Jin-hyuk strolled along the breakwater.

Ahead of the full-fledged summer, the sun and wind were hot, but the sea breeze made his heart feel refreshed. The sound of the waves hitting the tetrapods [large concrete blocks used to protect shorelines] also made his eardrums feel cool.

‘What kind of fish can be caught here?’

The holes in the tetrapods that received the undulating waves and then gurgled out seawater were fascinating.

He had occasionally gone boat fishing during company workshops, but he had never tried shore fishing in a place that wasn’t his hometown. It was similar to how you’re no different from a novice when you’re outside your home turf.

Even if you go out into society, professors and doctors are just silly old men in fields that aren’t their major.

Moon Seok-il smiled as he saw Jin-hyuk’s eyes sparkling. It was amazing to see such an innocent look on that kid’s face.

“Why, do you want to go fishing? They say there are baby rockfish and flounder.”

Ah, nothing special. Jin-hyuk nodded, looking into the tetrapod holes with his arms crossed. Rockfish and flounder were fish that Jin-hyuk could often see in his neighborhood. Although there weren’t many rocky areas, so mostly gobies, mullets, sea bass, and black porgy were common.

“When is the boat coming?”

“I’ve contacted them, so they’ll come on time.”

It was when Moon Seok-il was looking at his wristwatch.

Jin-hyuk’s sharp eyes caught a suspicious object.

‘That’s the boat.’

It wasn’t a common fishing boat or leisure boat, so he could recognize it at a glance.

The boat, which quickly appeared through the light sea fog, was an 8-seater combi boat with the letters ‘SSS’ in red on a black background.

It was a bridge that would lead Jin-hyuk to a new world, and a gateway that would put him at the starting line of his design.