The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 161

< Kwakran's Summer Camp (9) >

Park Sang-gi had experienced all sorts of company dinners since his elementary school days playing soccer.

Roasted duck, pork belly, beef, meat buffets, chicken, Chinese food…

If he had to pick the best, last night’s pork belly party was by far the greatest.

The perfect harmony of savory pork belly with all the fat rendered out, and the gochujang [Korean chili paste] made by Son Jin-hyuk’s mother, was so fantastic it brought tears to his eyes. The sight of the pig fat dripping down the pot lid and catching the firelight was still vivid. It wasn’t fat; it was like jewels dripping from the pot lid.

‘……Am I going to die?’

But now, cold sweat was dripping down his face.

It felt like someone had tied a knot in Park Sang-gi’s intestines and was pulling it tight.

The stomach pain was so bad he couldn’t straighten his back, and tears were welling up.

Click-.

In his haste, he turned the doorknob without knocking, but the door was firmly locked.

He had barely made it to the bathroom with his stomach clutched, but someone had already claimed it.

“Kkeuheueueu-.”

Damn it.

Someone was clearly dying inside.

Farewell, my friend……

‘……To the third floor.’

It felt like his sphincter’s lifespan had ended. No matter how much he sent the signal to ‘hold it,’ it was going crazy, trying to flutter like a butterfly.

Thud-.

The third-floor bathroom was also locked.

Bang bang-.

He knocked with all his might.

“Ehhh……”

He heard the dying voice of Yeom Byeong-taek.

Park Sang-gi, holding his stomach with one hand and blocking his rear with the other, headed to the first floor.

‘……The adults should be there.’

Sweating profusely, he finally arrived at the first-floor bathroom.

‘It’s open!’

He saw Han Yu-young busily preparing food, moving back and forth in the yard.

He felt guilty seeing his friend’s mother putting in so much effort every day.

Ah, he should have just eaten what was given to him. Or, as Son Jin-hyuk said, he should have only eaten the well-cooked stuff.

He was about to head into the bathroom with tears in his eyes when-

“Euchachacha! I’m, I’m gonna go! Go!”

Whoosh-.

A gust of wind made Park Sang-gi’s body sway.

‘……Jin-hyuk’s dad is incredibly fast too.’

Park Sang-gi no longer had the energy to offer to his rear-end. He was sure that the moment he moved to find another bathroom, the tension he had been focusing on his rear would dissipate.

‘……Am I screwed?’

If he were to collect the cold sweat running down his neck and chin in a bowl, he would record more than a liter of sweat. Maybe it would help with the severe summer drought this year.

Park Sang-gi sat down on his knees in front of the bathroom door, his rear-end blocked with his heels.

He could vaguely understand the desperation of the Dutch boy who blocked the dam.

If his heels failed to hold it back, Park Sang-gi would die of embarrassment, and the others in the house would die of absurdity. In the end, everyone would die.

‘……Please.’

He wasn’t this desperate even when he asked his girlfriend, Park Jung-hwa, to date him.

Ah, come to think of it, Jung-hwa and I are both from the Miryang Park clan. Park Sang-gi tried his best to think of other things.

He hoped his father’s business was just urination, but he didn’t hear the sound of water falling.

His mind gradually went blank, and Park Sang-gi realized he was doomed.

But then.

Grrr-.

Shwa shwa shwa-.

Click-.

‘……Huh?’

He heard the sound of washing, and then the door opened a moment later.

“Sang-gi, what are you doing? Do you have something to say to my dad? Are you trying to bow?”

Son Gwang-yeon, who had found Park Sang-gi kneeling in front of the bathroom door, widened his eyes like a rabbit, shaking his hands.

“……Give it to me.”

“What did you say? Ah, I can’t hear you-”

“……Move aside.”

As Son Gwang-yeon moved aside, Park Sang-gi crawled on the floor with all his might.

Park Sang-gi didn’t know that the men in this house also sat down to urinate. But who cared? Now he could finally do his business.

The blood seemed to have drained from his face, leaving it cold.

‘Ah, I feel dizzy.’

Being found dead in a friend’s house wasn’t the problem.

As long as it didn’t reach his girlfriend’s ears.

Barely sitting on the toilet seat, Park Sang-gi shouted the battle cry he had learned from Son Gwang-yeon in his mind.

‘Gaaaaal……’

***

The whole family took care of the kids without even having breakfast.

Son Gwang-yeon started the car, and Yu-jin, still half-asleep, took out slippers from the shoe rack and neatly turned them around. So that the patients could wear them comfortably.

‘It’s strange. Even when Yu-jin touches them, they don’t get better.’

Maybe it was because she was still half-asleep, but even when Yu-jin stroked their stomachs, the friends’ stomachaches didn’t go away.

Jin-hyuk helped his friends into his dad’s car and got into Moon Seok-il’s car.

Moon Seok-il had come because he had something important to say, but he thought it was more urgent to take his friends to the hospital.

“We can talk while we’re going.”

“Since we’re going to the hospital anyway, let’s take Senior Jang with us.”

“Uncle Jin-nam too?”

“There was some trouble in town last night.”

Did the uncles in town have a pork belly party last night?

Is that why Uncle Jin-nam also has a stomachache?

Well, he’d find out if he waited.

Last night, Jin-hyuk had been incredibly busy, and he was worried about his friends, so he closed his eyes and waited quietly. His feverish body quickly cooled down, and he shivered. The air conditioning was definitely the best in the car.

The car, carrying the three men including Jang Jin-nam, started smoothly, and Moon Seok-il began to tell the story of last night. He started by explaining that he had no intention of monitoring Kim Eung-nyeo’s family, and that he had only stepped in to help Kim In-rang’s romance.

Jin-hyuk had to agree with the statement that he was worried that Kim In-rang would cause an accident because of Hwang Ga-yoon. Kim In-rang was probably being controlled by his hormones rather than reason.

Last night.

The scarred man answered the questions obediently, even while grinding his teeth.

“We’re people who have the right to get paid fairly. Huh?”

The man, who had been waving the paper in his hand, looked dumbfounded.

The document in his hand was now in Moon Seok-il’s hand.

Moon Seok-il, who had checked the document with a tired gaze, gave him a contemptuous look.

“Is illegal usury fair?”

“If you borrow money, you have to pay it back, that’s just how it is, right?”

The scarred man continued to resist.

“Ah, well, it seems like you guys are a bit capable, so we’ll go along with it, but today’s not the only day, and this isn’t the only place to get money-”

“What are you talking about?”

“You don’t need to know.”

The scarred man looked out the window.

He checked to see if his companion who had been thrown out was okay, then muttered and headed for the exit.

“We can get it from General or Jimmy or whatever. That guy borrowed money from them, saying they were his in-laws-”

That’s when it happened.

Jang Jin-nam blocked the exit.

“That’s a bit difficult.”

Jang Jin-nam’s eyes, which had shown nothing but indifference, twisted menacingly.

The scarred man had to pay the price for saying what he shouldn’t have.

“They didn’t know where we came from, but they’ll know now.”

Jang Jin-nam had gone berserk because the man had mentioned Son Gwang-yeon’s company, so they would be fools if they didn’t know. Moon Seok-il smiled bitterly and suppressed the urge to look back.

After hearing the explanation, Jin-hyuk massaged his forehead with his hand.

The situation seemed strangely tangled and untangled at the same time. It was ambiguous.

Jang Jin-nam, who had been fidgeting in the back seat, tapping his two index fingers together, suddenly stuck his head out. Then, he tapped his left palm with his right fist.

“Like this, tap tap-, I just took care of their hands.”

What kind of person would use the expression ‘just took care of their hands’ while beating up a gang of thugs?

He was hitting them with fists like rocks, so where did the ‘tap tap’ sound come from?

Jin-hyuk managed to maintain his composure and asked again.

“Will there be any repercussions?”

“There won’t be any problems. I even called Heon-chang to make sure they were dealt with properly. They were the guys who run the nightclub in town.”

He was about to ask if reporting to the police wasn’t the first thing to do, but he stopped himself.

He didn’t know what kind of relationship had formed between them, and there was no guarantee that they would take proper action even if he reported it. They would investigate secondary incidents such as violence or murder caused by loan sharks, but the police don’t investigate loan sharks themselves. There was no reason to investigate without a complaint. Who would sue whom when they were the ones who borrowed the money?

“Did Uncle Jin-nam get hurt fighting after breaking into the nightclub?”

“He did break in, but he didn’t get hurt fighting. He slipped. Someone spilled alcohol on the floor.”

Pfft-.

Unable to contain his absurdity, Jin-hyuk finally burst out laughing.

So, it was a story about having a fun action scene.

Jang Jin-nam, who hated violence, had a surprisingly bright face.

He turned his gaze to Moon Seok-il, who was driving.

“It’s better not to report to Hong Ki-joon-”

“I already told him.”

Was he a natural warrior? He was unnecessarily loyal.

A light sigh escaped him.

“What did he say?”

“He said I did a good job.”

Another sigh escaped him.

Hong Ki-joon had changed too.

The chairman, who had been so cautious and like a strategist, seemed to have returned with a magnanimous spirit.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the chairman’s actions after his return.

If everyone was given an equal chance to start over, would they all have the same dream?

Jin-hyuk didn’t agree.

He could roughly picture what kind of goals ordinary people would set, but Jin-hyuk and Hong Ki-joon were unusual people.

‘Since we’ve lived once, we’ll try to fill what we couldn’t fill. Like me.’

Hong Ki-joon had enjoyed almost everything in his previous life. Wealth, fame, and a bit of power. But he must have been disappointed. It was a life where he had to live cautiously, walking on thin ice.

But what about now? He had a son he didn’t have before, and information and immense power.

They said that deprivation breeds obsession. He thought that he would be obsessed with the power to wield his strength without being mindful of others. However, he also guessed that there were suspicious restrictions on Hong Ki-joon’s regression, so he couldn’t act as he pleased.

As the only person who could guess Hong Ki-joon’s deprivation, it wasn’t difficult for Jin-hyuk to understand him.

Jin-hyuk also wasn’t aiming for success, wealth, or beautiful women, but for the daily life he couldn’t enjoy in the past.

However, he had a slightly troublesome problem at hand to be lost in sentimentality.

It was just a little bit.

He wasn’t afraid to face it alone, and he had many allies.

“The organizations in the provinces won’t be all there is.”

Yesterday, there was a news report about nationwide gangs on the evening news. It was no secret that large organizations were forming alliances with or absorbing organizations in small provincial cities to expand their power and secure their interests. The organization that Moon Seok-il and Jang Jin-nam had dealt with was smaller than a lizard’s tail.

Could it be that the brothers had stepped in for Kim In-rang’s romance and ended up touching a huge organization they didn’t even know the identity of?

Moon Seok-il, understanding Jin-hyuk’s concern, reached out his right arm and patted Jin-hyuk’s shoulder.

“That’s why I reported it.”

“Those guys can be bought with money, right?”

But he was worried because he knew that Hong Ki-joon wasn’t that kind of person.

He was definitely not the kind of man who would compromise with those guys.

“It’s not about money.”

The corners of Moon Seok-il’s mouth curled up meaningfully.

Only then did Jin-hyuk understand the intention.

‘He’s trying to unleash the monsters.’

The SSS agents of Sakdo.

They were confident that they could even eliminate a head of state hiding in an iron jar with just 100 of them.

It seemed like an intention to respond to illegality with illegality, and to power with power.

“It’s not about using power for one person. It’s a testing ground. I suggested it. It’ll be a good place to do a real-world test without needing to control their power.”

Jin-hyuk simply nodded in response.

Weeds grow back even if you cut them down and pull them out. To completely remove weeds, you have to remove the seeds, but the seeds scatter everywhere. Not only that, but even if a tiny root remains in the ground, it will sprout again. It was certain that they would set fire, plow the land, and even apply pesticides to the soil.

‘Many people will get hurt.’

Even if it was somewhat contrary to his beliefs, Jin-hyuk had no intention of overstepping his authority in Hong Ki-joon’s business. It would be better to step back decisively when yielding, as it would seem more cooperative.

“They’ll keep coming back even if you get rid of them.”

“It’s a different issue to get rid of them when you see them and to pretend not to know when you see them.”

Jin-hyuk, who nodded with a bitter taste in his mouth, changed the subject.

“How did he look?”

Jin-hyuk’s feelings became complicated once again as he listened to Moon Seok-il’s explanation of his observation of Hwang Young-mo.

His abdomen was severely distended, his skin was dark, and the whites of his eyes were yellowish.

“It seems like even his family didn’t know when he got sick. Well, he must have been wandering around outside.”

Kim Eung-nyeo also cried while hugging her husband, whom she had met after a long time.

They had lived together for over 20 years, so it was natural that she wouldn’t recognize him because of his severe illness. It must have been a touch of pity.

He had loved alcohol so much that his liver seemed to have reached the end of its lifespan. Since he couldn’t gamble often due to lack of money, it was possible to assume that he drank more alcohol than in his previous life.

In a small town, he had used Jin-hyuk’s success in the bar exam to borrow money and got stabbed in his previous life, and this time, he repeated the same foolish act by using Son Gwang-yeon. The only difference was that he avoided being killed thanks to Kim In-rang.

‘Some things don’t change. Should I say it got worse?’

But he lived about four years longer in his previous life.

“Can you take care of him until he’s stable and safe? I heard the store is a mess.”

“Yes. Heon-chang is there, and he’ll be back soon, so you focus on your training. In-rang has decided to stay by his side anyway.”

If it was Kim In-rang, who was currently a slave to his hormones, he would be faithful.

He should use his head, not just his body.

“Your friends didn’t seem that serious. They’re healthy kids after all.”

“Yes.”

The complexions of his friends, who had gone to the bathroom, had improved a lot.

He was just worried about the fact that they were complaining of joint pain and muscle aches all over their bodies.

Jang Jin-nam, feeling uncomfortable with the serious atmosphere, tapped Jin-hyuk’s seat back.

“In-rang’s sister-in-law is very virtuous and pretty.”