The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 204

“Hmm-.”

Jang Jinnam nodded, his voice deep.

Son Jinhyuk is an athlete who trains alone, supported by his agency, without a mentor.

Even though he wasn’t pushing himself as hard as Jinhyuk, Jang Jinnam had also endured grueling martial arts training without a partner, so he could vaguely understand the loneliness.

“But, Oppa says that breaking records isn’t easy.”

“Yes. He said his recent scores are similar to last year’s.”

Jang Jinnam didn’t bother correcting Son Yujin’s expressions. It was enough if he understood.

Son Family Manor.

This is what Yang Gangwook called the area of the Son Gwangyeon family, which had grown to resemble a manor. SSS agents also refer to this place as the Son Family Manor.

Anyway, everyone in the Son Family Manor knows that Jinhyuk is having difficulty breaking records.

Although he is quiet and always looks sleepy, Jinhyuk is kind to the people around him. His careful actions reveal a tenderness that makes it hard to believe he is a person hiding immense power.

That’s why it’s even more shocking.

That he endures that hellish training alone, with no one to nag or help him.

After finishing night self-study and returning home late from school, Son Jinhyuk sprints 3km at full speed and throws up what’s in his stomach. He pushes himself so hard that his intestines feel like they’re turning inside out.

He rinses his mouth with clear water and sprints another 1km, then throws up the water he just drank.

He does ‘burpees,’ an exercise that involves repeatedly going from a standing position to a prone position with hands on the ground, until his breath reaches his chin, then runs again. Until he collapses on the track.

He repeats that every day.

‘It must be the path of a pro.’

He said that even after running like that, his records showed no signs of improving. Nevertheless, when the day changed, Jinhyuk’s face would return to normal. He would go to school with his stubborn, closed lips and sleepy eyes, and play with his younger siblings.

Even the SSS agents, who had already experienced superhuman endurance, didn’t dare go near Jinhyuk when he was working out. They said it was painful just to watch. Kim Inrang and Kang Heonchang, who used to run with him, are also trying to avoid Jinhyuk.

“Uncle, are you lonely because you cook alone like our Oppa?”

“I’m not lonely at all because Yujin is here.”

Now that he’s used to the mole’s work, and it’s become simple, all Jang Jinnam does is make soup and fill the refrigerator with side dishes. The agents cook their own meals and eat separately.

He doesn’t spend much time at the mole’s house during the day, and when he goes to work, all he does is explore the neighborhood like an adventurer, observing and collecting things. How could he be lonely?

“Oh, right. Inrang uncle is going to fix up the house that Park Jaesoon left behind and live there.”

“I heard. Mud houses are good for old people. Inrang’s mother has bad joints, so if she fixes it up and lives there, it’ll be good. I’m picking these pine shoots to make enzymes for Inrang’s mother.”

Booooom-.

When the sound of a bus was heard in the distance, Son Yujin and Jang Jinnam’s ears perked up as if they had made a promise.

“Ah! It’s Oppa! Oppa’s here!”

As soon as she turned her body in the direction of the sound, Son Yujin began to sprint out of the forest as if she were flying. When Son Yujin ran towards Choi Mikyung’s house, five dogs that had been hiding in the forest jumped out and followed her.

Jang Jinnam, who was about to stop her, lowered his hand.

How can a little kid run so fast?

“Hmm-. There are a lot of empty buses at this time, what is she going to do if Oppa isn’t there….”

Jang Jinnam, whose tone wasn’t strange when he was talking to himself, sent a worried look.

***

It’s a shame that I can’t see Oppa when he goes to competitions, but it’s good when he comes back after the competition. It’s even more welcoming when I see him after a few days, and my heart beats even stronger.

“Oppa-!”

“Oof-! My baby! How did you know Oppa was coming?”

“My heart was beating on the bus!”

Yujin, who was held high in the sky by her brother, opened her arms wide and smiled until her eyes disappeared.

‘What does it mean that her heart was beating on the bus….’

I had asked her before, but Yujin couldn’t explain it, saying she didn’t know what she meant either. I thought that even my smart sister had things she couldn’t express concretely, so I didn’t press her further.

“Yujin, Uncle is here too. Oh, I feel carsick.”

Min Yongrak, with his potbelly, staggered.

“They say if your stomach is upset, you should drive. They say people who drive don’t get carsick.”

“Yeah. If you get your license first….”

He was smart, so he had no problem passing the written test, but the practical driving test repeatedly tripped up Min Yongrak.

SSS agents were by his side to guide him, but Min Yongrak’s spatial perception was so bad that it was hard to see it as human. Even the good-natured Jang Jinnam shook his head, saying, ‘I’d rather teach Janggun to drive,’ so that says it all.

“What were you doing, my baby?”

“I was playing in the mountains with Uncle Jinnam.”

Jinhyuk held Yujin in one arm and headed home.

“Was our Oppa very bored?”

“Ahaha-. It’s okay. Once it’s over, it’s quick. It feels like only a day has passed even though I was gone for four days.”

Four days. The grass on the side of the road had grown more, and the spring sun had become hotter.

Yujin, who went to school without her brother, had become more mature.

‘I’m the only one who hasn’t changed.’

I just enjoy it, so I repeat the hard training, but I felt like I had reached my limit.

Whether I run when I’m full of energy or when I’m tired, the record is only 0.1 seconds different.

Even though I’ve already reached an unparalleled level, the feeling that an invisible chain is restricting my sprint wasn’t very pleasant.

Maybe it’s a physical limitation.

The limitation of Asians that everyone talks about.

Jinhyuk was not someone who believed in such things.

He believed that the human body could grow as much as it needed to, and that there was no limit to human ability. He was a living witness himself.

‘Do I have to admit the limits of my body….’

It was a lonely and powerless insight, but there was nothing to be sorry about.

What more could I want when Yujin, who was holding my cheek, was looking at me with sparkling eyes?

“Oppa, why didn’t you talk into the microphone yesterday?”

“Oh. Sujeong’s mom blocked the reporters.”

Hong Gijun had pressured the reporters, and many had come, but Yoo Sera blocked their approach, using the excuse of protecting the athletes, saying there were more games left. Jinhyuk comfortably ignored the couple’s invisible war of nerves.

Knowing Hong Gijun’s intentions, he just thanked Yoo Sera and focused on the game.

“But Yujin’s hands-. Ugh- dirty-.”

“Ehehe-. It’s not dirty-. It’s sticky.”

“Okay.”

The tension of the competition was released, and fatigue swept over me, and the precious weekend had passed, but the time I spent with Yujin was a rest in itself.

“Oppa, you must be tired, you should rest?”

“Huh? Why?”

Jinhyuk’s eyes, which were looking at his sister’s expression as if she was disappointed, soon found the pine shoots held in her small hands.

Pine shoots?

Suddenly, a good idea came to mind.

“Yujin, shall we go boating?”

***

Pine shoots.

They start to appear from the end of March, when they meet the warm sea breeze and spring sunshine.

By April, they grow longer than an adult’s finger, and in early areas, they scatter pollen all over the place in April, and in late areas, in May. They are unwelcome guests for city dwellers, but country people lived with it. After all, it’s part of nature and a messenger that announces the season.

Only when pine shoots grow well can pine trees grow thick, and those trees can be used for carrying poles, mulberry picking sticks, and firewood. Some people interpreted it as a message predicting a good harvest, and for that reason, it was also considered a symbol of good luck.

There were also those who revered it, saying that many people die in years when too many pine shoots dry up and die.

Tap-, tap-.

Jinhyuk held Yujin’s hand in one hand, and in the other, he gathered a handful of well-grown pine shoots.

“Oppa, are you making enzymes too?”

Yujin’s eyes widened.

This Oppa said he was going boating, but he came to the mountains!

He said it was dirty, but he picked a lot of pine shoots!

“I’m going to go boating with these.”

“How?”

Yujin’s eyes, which had grown even bigger, shook.

I thought this Oppa was about to die, but he’s finally gone crazy.

“Okay-, let’s go to the water now.”

It’s better to show her directly than to explain it.

There were so many things to play with that I haven’t been able to show her this fun thing yet, so it’s understandable that Yujin is questioning it.

We moved to the side of the waterway and settled down in a place with wide steps.

“Look closely. If you put this lightly on the water-.”

When Jinhyuk floated one shoot on the water.

“Oooooooo-!”

Yujin jumped up and down and cheered.

The pine shoot began to cut through the water like an arrow.

It wasn’t just flowing, it was pushing forward, thanks to the repulsive force created when the resin from the cut surface of the pine shoot met the water.

“How does it do that?”

“Can you see the resin flowing from the cut here?”

“Yes, yes-.”

I can see it.

Yujin tends to put her hands together in front of her and bow when she sees something amazing. Just like when she gets milk from her brother.

“This pushes the water like oil. They don’t mix.”

“Really, really? There’s a rainbow color left in the water!”

Squeak, squeak-.

Yujin kept shouting as she watched the rainbow-colored oil slick that the pine shoot boat made on the surface of the water.

If the pine shoot had only moved forward, it would have been just okay, but the visual effect left by the boat was that mysterious.

“How did Oppa know about this?”

“I used to play like this with Mikyung when I was little.”

“Ah! Now I want to try too-.”

How could a curious child stay still? Yujin rushed at her brother as if she was going to snatch it away.

“Oppa will give it to you. Yujin’s hands are too small to hold them all.”

Jinhyuk handed Yujin the pine shoots he was holding one by one.

It’s a place for his sister anyway, so it’s enough for him to just play the role of a helper.

“Ehehehehe-! Oppa, look at that! It overtook it! It’s as fast as Oppa!”

Jinhyuk just sat on the steps and watched.

His sister, who was jumping up and down with joy.

It was when the sixth pine shoot boat left Yujin’s hand.

Splash!

“Eek!”

One of the pine shoots that had gone far away disappeared after hitting some aquatic plants.

To be exact, it was as if something in the water had swallowed it.

Yujin, startled by the violent noise, fell on her bottom, but fortunately, she didn’t fall into the water.

“There’s a monster living in the water!”

Oh my, my ears hurt.

Stop yelling, you little rascal.

“It must be a snakehead [a type of predatory fish].”

“Does a snakehead eat pine trees?”

“Maybe… maybe it’s trying to protect something?”

Jinhyuk is neither an ecologist nor a fisherman, so he doesn’t know much about their habits.

However, according to what he heard from Jo Ilheon, snakeheads tend to watch the surface of the water around May to protect their eggs, and they swallow everything that passes by.

It wasn’t May yet, but there might be some that were speeding.

Or not.

“Maybe someone released bass.”

A long waterway.

Although it is private property, it is open to everyone.

Fishermen appear upstream or downstream, although they don’t come near the house.

I heard that the bass, which was brought from the United States, is as voracious as the snakehead, so maybe it was that guy’s doing.

Son Gwangyeon had told the SSS agents to keep an eye on the waterway to make sure there were no accidents, but he asked them not to control the anglers. On weekends, he would take walks along the waterway with his wife and bodyguards, picking up trash instead of taking a walk.

‘He doesn’t want to push people away.’

It was obvious what my dad’s intention was, even without explaining it.

Anyway, since we don’t know what’s in the water, it would be reasonable to assume that it’s one of the predators.

“Oppa, what is a bass?”

“It’s an exotic species. A fish brought from another country.”

“Did they immigrate?”

“Something like that.”

What would be a good way to explain it to a child who is showing endless curiosity?

Since people brought them, is it forced immigration?

“They say it’s an ecosystem disruptor-.”

Jinhyuk stopped talking as he was about to explain.

‘Ecosystem disruption….’

It sounded like a description of himself.

Although he hides his power and doesn’t use it, his body, which far exceeds the realm of ordinary people, is enough to make it seem plausible.

Sigh-.

I smacked my lips at the bitterness.

“Ecosystem disruption. It’s difficult. Is that bad?”

“Well… it’s not that the bass is bad, but isn’t it the people who brought them and managed them irresponsibly who are bad? They’re living things too, but it doesn’t seem like a mature attitude to me to kill them indiscriminately, saying they’re protecting native fish. They end up catching and eating native fish anyway.”

“Which country did the bass immigrate from? Can’t we go there and disrupt it too?”

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

A child’s calculation is so simple that it’s easy to understand.

“Maybe the snakehead is doing it… They say there are no natural enemies of snakeheads there.”

They’re probably going crazy over there?

An eye for an eye, a snakehead for a bass.

It’s even. What’s another professional term for that? To settle the score?

“Ooh-. That’s cool.”

Yujin seems very pleased with the snakehead’s revenge.

It’s getting worse.

The mouth that is getting bigger and bigger has reached the level of a snakehead.