The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 212

It’s not just office workers who suffer from Monday blues.

In the past, I was always buried in books at school and in the dorm, spending more time at work than at home, so I didn’t know, but now that I commute from home, I’ve realized that high school students also have Monday blues.

For Jinhyuk, this was quite a surprising discovery.

‘Am I getting old, or am I getting younger? Why am I so sleepy?’

He got off the bus and trudged along, matching his pace to Choi Mikyung, who was yawning widely, trying not to let her fall behind.

Choi Mikyung, even though her house is just around the corner, walks like a zombie who has completed a full marathon.

‘Ugh, a yawn-. If we go to school for five more days, it’ll be Sunday.’

To look forward to Sunday from Monday, Choi Mikyung is an excessively optimistic creature, no matter how many times I see her.

‘Hey, Jinhyuk. But isn’t Saturday better than Sunday? It ends early, and there’s no night study hall.’

That was something Jinhyuk also agreed with.

On Saturdays, he could go to the beach with Yujin and carry Jungwon on his shoulders to the back mountain. Well, the uncles seem to drink beer, watch baseball on TV, and even bet on it, but I don’t know what’s so fun about that silly ball game. Playing with Yujin is much more fun.

‘You know-, that’s why I like Saturday the most. Sunday is disappointing from the morning.’

I like Sundays though.

Jinhyuk listened to his friend’s chatter and silently moved forward.

‘This morning, I gave carnations to Mom and Dad, and even though they said, ‘Why do we do this kind of thing?’ they were so happy. My brother’s face always turned bright red whenever he did that, hahaha-. Even though he’s so big.’

That’s probably why they like daughters.

‘That brother was probably just embarrassed.’

Jinhyuk could vaguely understand Choi Taeyang’s feelings. Still, seeing him take care of such things, despite his size, shows that he’s a thoughtful person. Maybe that’s why Choi Mikyung became so attached to her brother.

It’s an event that Jinhyuk has never missed since returning. Although he was embarrassed, he would gather his courage every year to give them flowers or a flower basket, thinking that it was a blessing that they were alive and healthy. His parents couldn’t hide their happiness, even though they were a bit awkward.

Now that his younger sister has grown up, Yujin will be the representative from this year. It was a decision made with the judgment that a cute and affectionate daughter would be better.

– ‘Unity!’

Playful Yujin saluted her brother like a warrior who had been given a great mission. I don’t know who taught her the salute, but anyway.

‘Hey, Vice Manager. See you tomorrow morning.’

‘Rest well.’

Jinhyuk, who had been holding back, finally opened his mouth and waved to his friend.

It was when he was crossing Choi Mikyung’s yard to head home.

Hehehek-. A wet dog bark cutting through the darkness.

There was only one creature that could make such a sound.

A small dog was coming to greet him along the narrow path between the fields.

‘Hey, what were you doing that made you late today? You’ve been late a lot lately?’

Janggun’s time for greeting him was getting later and later.

The guy who used to come all the way to the bus route was only coming out now.

I wondered if he was sick, so I had Yujin check on him, but Janggun was healthy.

He wasn’t even ten years old yet, so I wondered if his reactions were slow due to old age, so I showed him to veterinarian Park Buro. But Park Buro had the same reaction every time he saw Janggun.

– ‘Heh, is this guy a lion? In my 29 years of experience, I’ve never seen such a healthy mutt-. Look at that glossy mane. He’ll live longer than me-.’

No matter how strong Janggun is, he couldn’t live longer than Park Buro, who wasn’t even sixty.

I wish that were the case, but reality doesn’t always go as we wish. Knowing that fact, Jinhyuk felt even more saddened by the fading life. That’s why he was so sensitive to even the smallest changes in Janggun. Because he was his most precious friend, no matter what anyone said.

He asked, comically distorting Janggun’s cheeks.

‘Hey, you. Why have you changed lately? You’re not sick, right?’

Woof-!

‘Be good from now on. Don’t make me worry.’

Woof-!

What’s the point of talking so much when we can’t even communicate?

Janggun probably had his own doggy business. Maybe he was late coming home because he was playing with Bomi.

Still, worried, he added a reminder.

‘If you’re sick, you have to whine.’

That’s when it happened.

Hehehek-.

‘Ugh! That fishy smell!’

Jinhyuk held his nose and stepped back.

Hehehe-.

‘Agh- this little rascal-.’

He was late because he was having Chunma catch fish to eat!

It seems he habitually takes fish out of the waterway to eat when it’s dark because the adults scold him during the day.

Janggun’s actions flashed through his mind like a panorama.

‘That’s a great thing to do-.’

Hehehet-.

Janggun wagged his tail like a propeller for the first time in a while.

It’s an action he only does when he’s extremely happy.

That’s not a compliment, you rascal.

***

‘I’m home.’

‘Welcome home-.’

‘Oppa, welcome back-.’

‘Eung-, Daddy is a boo-boo-.’

His parents, who were sitting on the sofa, Yujin, who was lying in front of the incubator with her chin in her hands, and Jungwon, who was clapping in front of her mother, all greeted Jinhyuk.

Jinhyuk smiled like a fool without realizing it.

‘My Monday blues are disappearing.’

It was a scene he saw every day, but his family smiling at him. What a sweet energy drink.

‘Sit here. Yujin wrote a letter today, and we haven’t opened it yet because we wanted to open it when you came.’

His mother’s patience, waiting to open it with her husband and eldest son, was truly amazing. She must have been pacing around all day with that palm-sized pink envelope.

Han Yuyoung opened the envelope and read the letter in a clear voice.

‘To Mom and Dad,

From Son Yujin, Class 1-1, Number 18, Eodong School

Hello, Mom and Dad. I am Son Yujin, the class president of Class 1-1, Number 18, at Eodong School.

I don’t have much to say, but the teacher told me to write a letter, so I’m picking up my pencil like this.

I don’t know how grateful I am that you gave birth to me and raised me.

Thank you for giving birth to my brother too.

Thank you for giving birth to Jungwon too.

Is it good to be married, Mom and Dad?

Goodbye.

From Son Yujin.’

Heuk heuk-.

Dad couldn’t laugh out loud and was rolling around on the living room floor, thumping it with his fist.

Mom was also biting her lip, trying to hold back her laughter.

‘Hehehe-. Why are you laughing?’

Kind Yujin was embarrassed but also seemed a little sad. The smile on her face was unnatural and awkward.

Jinhyuk, noticing his younger sister’s expression, quietly hugged and comforted Yujin.

‘You guys are too much. What’s so funny that you’re laughing like this?’

In the past, he had seen such people at work, and in this life, at school.

People who laugh with tears and snot, even though it’s not that funny.

The so-called ‘dad jokes’ were typical, which were similar to elementary school puns.

At least kids’ puns are cute.

What’s so funny that grown adults are giggling? In Jinhyuk’s eyes, it was just the ugly humor of people with low intelligence. That’s why he never understood them.

Of course, it wasn’t that Yujin’s letter was a pun, or that his parents were the type to react to dad jokes. It was just that he was slightly, very slightly, resentful of his parents for not considering Yujin’s feelings.

Han Yuyoung, wiping away her tears, comforted Yujin.

‘Oh my-. Yujin, I’m sorry. Mom laughed too much. It’s because it was so similar to the letter your brother wrote when he was eight years old. I guess that’s why they say blood is thicker than water.’

Uh?

Jinhyuk’s face, which had been holding and stroking Yujin’s cheeks, turned cold.

Ah, so that’s why they were laughing? I almost misunderstood.

‘Ah, my stomach hurts. Dad laughed for the same reason. Saying ‘I don’t have much to say, but I’m writing because I was told to’ in a letter, is that something you should say? It’s just like Jinhyuk, exactly the same. Hehehe-.’

Dad was lying on the kitchen floor like an overturned frog.

Hehe-.

Jinhyuk’s smile also turned awkward, like his younger sister’s.

‘But me?’

I don’t know.

I don’t remember at all.

Never.

***

Zzz- Didik-.

On the dawn of Teacher’s Day, Son Yujin, who had been living in the living room for two weeks, woke up to a strange sound.

‘What is that sound?’

Her eyes were not fully open because she was still sleepy, but her ears perked up, listening for the source of the sound. Finally, Son Yujin’s eyes snapped open when she found the source of the sound. It was an eye-opening experience that would make even a blind man jealous.

‘Oh oh?’

Blue.

As if a wave was rippling, a faint vibration spread across the jade-colored surface.

That’s how it looked to Son Yujin’s eyes.

It was also blue for the life inside the egg.

It seemed to be struggling to break the eggshell, hitting it with its head and beak, resting, and repeating.

‘What should I do? It’s too weak.’

The heart that had been beating so hard was losing its vigor, and the body that had been stretching was curling up as if trying to return to the egg. Unable to hold its neck up, its head was also facing the floor. It had run out of strength.

That’s when it happened.

A sturdy hand was placed on Son Yujin’s shoulder.

‘Would you like to help, Yujin?’

It was Son Yujin’s brother, who had finished preparing for school, speaking in a calm and low voice.

‘Is it okay?’

‘You said you remembered when I helped you when you were in Mom’s belly. When it’s hard to come out on your own, it’s okay to help from the outside.’

Wouldn’t that bird also desperately want its mother’s help?

Even if it had clearly expressed its refusal, it would be okay to help a being that didn’t even have the strength to ask for help, right? Like when giving first aid.

That’s what Jinhyuk thought.

‘Then, for Lucky-.’

Son Yujin opened the incubator door.

It was still a warm and cozy space, just like when she rolled the egg every day.

‘Try using this.’

Son Yujin took the popsicle stick that her brother handed her.

Tock- Todok-.

She tapped carefully, being careful not to hurt the bird.

‘It’s not working well-.’

‘It’s harder to take away strength than to give it. It’s like that with everything.’

Her brother had told her to try to use easy expressions that came from the heart rather than difficult or fancy words when writing in her diary. He had called that writing with less force.

Encouraged by her brother, Son Yujin took a deep breath and bit her lip tightly to strengthen her resolve.

Tock- Tock- Tock-.

After tapping a few times along the cracks that Lucky had drawn like a sketch.

Kki- Kkii-.

The broken eggshell fell off, and Lucky’s voice finally leaked out.

‘Good job. Keep going.’

Her brother, kneeling on one knee behind her, only encouraged her in a quiet voice, with his hand on his sister’s shoulder, without taking any action.

Her brother was behind her.

There could be no greater encouragement for Son Yujin.

Holding her breath, she put her other hand into the incubator.

‘Okay, now you can peel it off with your hands.’

With her brother’s one-sided support behind her, she slowly peeled off the shell.

It was a sacred moment.

Son Yujin’s heart was pounding fiercely, and her eyes were getting teary.

She had directly saved it and brought it into the world as a living being. What kind of emotional description could represent this young heart?

Kki- Kkii- Kkaaa-.

A bird with a translucent red body and eyes as big as marbles. It had finally completely escaped from the egg, but it had not yet opened its eyes and was struggling to cry with its mouth wide open.

Worried that the baby bird might be startled, Son Yujin asked quietly. She couldn’t take her eyes off the bird.

‘Oppa, what do we do now?’

‘Feed it this. It’ll be enough for a day.’

Son Yujin obediently accepted what her brother handed her.

It was a pair of tweezers and a can of bloodworms.

Ah, her brother had prepared it in advance.

‘Wow-, it’s swallowing them without even chewing.’

‘Yeah, it is.’

There was no need to explain that it was because it didn’t have teeth.

Yujin probably already knew that.

Yujin was just saying anything because she was so moved.

‘Would about twenty-five degrees be okay?’

Her brother, muttering to himself, lowered the temperature of the incubator, which had been set at 37 degrees, and put on his backpack.

‘Good job, Son Yujin.’

Watching her brother pat her head and leave the house, Son Yujin thought.

‘I didn’t write a letter to Oppa.’

Why didn’t she think of that on Parents’ Day?

He was like a parent to her.

Since it was Teacher’s Day, she should write one today.

It would be good to use the emails that she often exchanged with her brother!

‘Lucky, eat a lot.’

When she got back from school, she would write a letter to her brother and go catch bugs.

A smile never left Son Yujin’s face.

***

‘Letter to Oppa’

It was always the same title.

Jinhyuk, who was checking his emails before going to bed, opened the email his sister had sent as usual.

‘My dearest, Oppa’

Jinhyuk’s eyes were filled with surprise as he looked at the salutation.

Oh, it felt like something new and sincere was pouring out from the beginning?

‘What is this······.’

The content was also different.

Usually, it was about what she ate at school, what the weather was like, and who fought with whom and who she stopped.

‘Hello. This letter was first started in the capital of England and has been circulating 192 times a year, bringing good luck to the recipient, and now it has been passed on to you. This letter must leave your side within 7 days. You must send 7 copies of this letter to people who need good luck. You can make copies. You may call it superstition, but it is true······.’

Ah, Yujin.

Did you have to do this to your brother?

The following was a story that someone in England won the lottery a few days after sending this letter, and that President Kennedy of the United States threw this letter away and was assassinated three days later.

‘She probably sent it with good intentions.’

How could that young child know what kind of atrocity she had committed?

Anyway, Son Jinhyuk was not a man who would be swayed by such superstitious letters.

‘If you send this letter, you will have good luck for 7 years, and if you don’t, you will have bad luck for 3 years······.’

······ That’s what Son Jinhyuk of the past was like.

Look at him now. Because of the troubling phrase, Jinhyuk’s eyes were filled with conflict.

A person with a lot to protect, a person with a lot to lose, is easily startled by even a gentle breeze. Even a lucky letter can shake their heart.

Let’s see.

Who is there to send this email to?

First, my best friend, the delinquent Choi Mikyung-.

Toda dada-.

Jinhyuk’s hands, which surpassed 1,000 keystrokes on the Sein Computer Typing Practice, began to perform a dazzling triple axel on the keyboard. Copying and pasting would be enough, but there’s nothing more fun than writing it yourself.

‘This letter was first started in the capital of England······.’

Hehehe, you delinquent. Receive this lucky letter I’m sending you!

Go!