The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 235

I tapped my heels together at the bus stop.

It was something I’d unconsciously picked up from my time in the military, a habit I’d developed whenever I had some time to think.

‘Is there still time before the bus comes?’

After a moment’s thought, Jin-hyuk turned back.

Tap-tap-tap- Huff-.

He arrived at Choi Mi-kyung’s house with quick steps, catching his breath.

‘This is embarrassing for a guy.’

“Mi-kyung-ah! Let’s go to school!”

It was the first day of his second year, and he wanted to go to school with a friend. If he went alone, he might get another 1818 on his pager [a common pager code in Korea, often used to express frustration or annoyance].

The lights were on in the living room and kitchen, so Mi-kyung might be up.

Creak-.

The front door opened, and a delicious smell rushed out before anyone else.

‘Mmm, clam doenjang jjigae [Korean soybean paste stew] smell.’

He’d eaten less than ten minutes ago, but his appetite was already back.

It was so bad he was starting to wonder if he had dementia, not just a big appetite.

The face that appeared at the door was Kim Soon-bok.

“Oh my, is that our Jin-hyuk?”

“Good morning. I was going to go to school with Mi-kyung.”

“That girl is still sleeping?”

Oh, dear. He’d come all this way with high hopes.

Maybe she was planning to go to school late since there was no wrestling practice today? Still, he’d thought she might be eager to go early to hang out with Lee Seung-hoon, so he’d knocked on the door. What a shame.

“Ah… Well, I’ll go ahead then.”

“Have you eaten breakfast?”

“Yes!”

It looked like he’d have to go to school alone.

Whoosh-.

The sound of the bus in the still-dark morning made him think of a spaceship he’d never seen. If he closed his eyes, he felt like he was floating in space, without a body or ego.

The Helios bus, which he’d first ridden a year ago, slowly began to slow down.

Screech-. Thud-.

“Hello.”

“Yo, our gold medalist is going early again today?”

There were six bus drivers who operated the first bus.

Since he used the bus every day, he’d become friendly enough with them to exchange greetings and chat.

“All the boys in this neighborhood get their motorcycle licenses and ride around on bikes, but Jin-hyuk likes the bus?”

“Hahaha. It’s safer.”

Motorcycles were scary.

He’d only just learned to ride a bicycle for the first time in this life, and now a motorcycle? No!

There weren’t any kids like that at his current high school, but in middle school, he’d seen a lot of students get into accidents while riding motorcycles without a license.

There was the guy who walked around on crutches with a cast on his leg, the guy with scabs all over one side of his face from a bad scrape, the guy with both arms broken who he wondered how he was even living, and… the guy who was left as a bouquet of flowers on his desk.

They weren’t close, but it was only natural for him to feel sorry for them as a human being.

The postman who always ate his lunch on the porch at Jin-hyuk’s house had also been hospitalized after being hit by a bus in town the winter before last.

“Why? A man should ride a motorcycle and pick up chicks!”

“I want to live a long and peaceful life.”

“Hahahaha!”

The bus driver laughed heartily.

He must have found it funny that the kid who used to just read books or mumble to himself was now making jokes, now that he was older.

“Jin-hyuk was never going to live a quiet life, was he? His face is all over the TV and newspapers.”

“I just won’t get any bigger.”

“Hahahahaha!”

Thump-.

The driver, who had been holding his stomach and laughing, shifted gears, and Jin-hyuk braced himself, putting his weight on his feet. The bus had stopped in a place it usually didn’t, for some reason.

“Is someone there?”

“Oh my, oh my, is that the daughter of the house that raises all those cows going to school too?”

That sleepyhead is up already?

Could Kim Eun-jung be interested in the wrestling club?

In any case, it seemed he’d achieved his goal of going to school with a friend on the first day of the semester.

*

Kim Eun-jung was a know-it-all.

That was the image that had been in Jin-hyuk’s mind for a long time.

That didn’t mean he disliked her or that they had a bad relationship.

“Ugh! It’s so cold in March! Oh, Jin-hyuk, what a coincidence to meet you on the bus.”

“…Hey.”

When they were in kindergarten, she’d called him a snot-nose and made fun of him when he had a cold. He knew she didn’t mean any harm, but her thoughtless actions had hurt his young heart and remained an unforgettable memory.

“Since it’s a coincidence, should we sit together?”

Kim Eun-jung pushed her padded butt forward, so Jin-hyuk hugged his bag and moved to the window seat.

“Eun-jung, you woke up early today?”

When she was little, Kim Eun-jung was taller and stronger than her peers. She was so healthy that she never seemed to catch a cold. It was probably because she’d been eating beef since she was a baby. Beef baby food, beef porridge, beef soup, beef side dishes, this beef, that beef…

But maybe there were limits to what you could achieve just by eating, because now she was only a little taller than Choi Mi-kyung. Of course, genetics and exercise were just as important as nutrition for growth.

“I woke up early because my stomach hurt, and I had nothing to do, so I thought I’d go to school. It must be fate.”

“Okay…”

She was just so optimistic.

To put it nicely, she was optimistic, but to put it badly, she was the type who didn’t think much. She said whatever came to mind and did whatever she felt like.

“Is it because I’m getting older? I’m so tired and worn out.”

The prevailing theory in academic circles was that Kim Eun-jung, who ate beef every day, was tired because she used all her energy digesting it. It could also be because her congenital rhinitis prevented oxygen from reaching her brain properly.

“It’s all because of this messed-up Korean school system. School and I are enemies, enemies.”

Well, that didn’t seem wrong…

But she blamed others too much, even going so far as to blame aliens and foreigners for her problems.

“They say that UFOs are zapping the radar in the sea off Japan, causing earthquakes. The Japanese can’t stop the UFOs, so I’m tired too. Isn’t that amazing cause and effect?”

“…It’s amazing, I guess.”

It was probably lasers, not UFOs.

She’d pick up some strange rumor and start chattering about it, and even if her friends didn’t pay attention, she’d stick to them until she finished what she was saying.

In his past life, Team Leader Son Jin-hyuk had used his skills to shut up people who talked nonsense. But Kim Eun-jung used a skill that was on another level.

“How about taking some health supplements? I hear a lot of people are taking them these days.”

“Ugh, no. They say if you take that stuff, you’ll have a hard time dying.”

“…”

She often used a way of speaking that left him speechless.

It was like she was arguing that she lived to die. He’d only suggested it because he thought health supplements were something you took to live a healthy life.

‘Is it a talent to make nonsense sound plausible?’

Jin-hyuk closed his mouth again.

He could have a back-and-forth with Choi Mi-kyung, and she often said things that were helpful, but Kim Eun-jung was like someone who was practicing some strange path on her own.

Like the people who appeared on the show ‘I am a Storyteller’ and blamed the world. Team Leader Son Jin-hyuk, who liked documentaries, would sometimes turn on the cable channel on his days off, and that show would be on. As he sipped his canned beer and listened to their stories, there were quite a few people who had tried to make a fortune through risky investments and then blamed the world when they lost everything. Well, that was just the impression he got from a few of them.

“Eun-jung, your padding looks nice.”

“Padding?”

“Parka.”

“Oh. My youngest uncle bought it for me during the holidays.”

In the past, he wouldn’t have associated with someone like her, but now he just accepted it and didn’t dislike her or deliberately distance himself from her.

Kim Eun-jung was a friend he’d grown up with in the same neighborhood, and they’d seen each other at their best and worst.

“Jin-hyuk.”

“Yeah?”

She’d been watching foreign movies, so she called him differently than the other kids.

“Are you going to run for class president?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Why was she asking the same embarrassing question as his dad?

“I can’t run.”

“Oh, dear…”

Kim Eun-jung had never been a class president, but it was only polite to ask her why.

“Why can’t you run?”

“There’s the top student in the humanities in our class. I think she’ll win. She’s my enemy.”

Jin-hyuk and Choi Mi-kyung were in the science track, while Kim Eun-jung was in the humanities track.

“Ah… I see.”

What was he supposed to say?

But he didn’t have any complaints.

He could consider this a normal conversation.

“My cousin said thank you for the autograph.”

“No need to thank me. We’re friends.”

Whoosh-.

Just as he was about to enjoy the brief silence, Kim Eun-jung spoke again.

“My cousin lives in Seoul. She’s pretty.”

“Oh, okay…”

“Aren’t you interested? It’s a coincidence, isn’t it?”

He knew that he shouldn’t hesitate in these situations and that he had to answer clearly and decisively. And if it was the cousin Kim Eun-jung was talking about, it was probably the daughter of that aunt who treated non-believers like devils.

‘Getting involved would be a headache.’

Jin-hyuk’s brain immediately produced a result that even a supercomputer would have trouble calculating.

“I’m not interested.”

“Hah. I guess you need a beauty like me to catch your eye. I’m sorry, but I’m going to be popular when I go to college.”

Ha-. He couldn’t hit her, and it was so frustrating. If he flicked her head, his fist would be the only thing that hurt.

Should he just get a motorcycle license like the bus driver said?

‘I should have waited for Mi-kyung and gone with her…’

If Choi Mi-kyung had been there, Kim Eun-jung wouldn’t have been able to say a word. Choi Mi-kyung was scary to Jin-hyuk, but she was even scarier to other people.

Kim Eun-jung couldn’t make a peep when Choi Mi-kyung glared at her. When Choi Mi-kyung started spitting out venomous words at someone bigger than her, other people would line up behind her, like a pack of velociraptors hunting.

That’s why Jin-hyuk had given Choi Mi-kyung the nickname ‘Choi-lociraptor’. Only in his mind.

Their small size compared to large dinosaurs was also a common trait.

“Jin-hyuk, I’m sorry.”

No, you don’t have to be sorry.

Drrr-.

He was hesitating, unable to find the words to say, when his pager vibrated.

‘Mi-kyung, that brat, must have just woken up?’

She really was a piece of work.

「1818181818181818」

Oh, wow, he was right.

It really was Choi Mi-kyung.

Maybe it would be better to take the test…? The license.

*

‘If you elect me as class president…’

‘If you don’t elect me as class president, you’ll have a harsh year…’

‘If you don’t elect this guy, you’re screwed. There’s no number 2 or number 3…’

What should he say in his speech today to get even one more vote?

While he was thinking about his speech, ignoring Kim Eun-jung’s words, the bus passed the health center.

He saw Yoo Jae-woon doing calisthenics in the empty lot in front of the health center.

‘He doesn’t skip it even in this cold. He’s so diligent.’

When Jin-hyuk waved, Yoo Jae-woon also raised his hand and waved back.

‘He’s such a nice guy.’

Kim Eun-jung kicked Jin-hyuk’s foot. She seemed unhappy that Jin-hyuk’s attention was elsewhere.

“It must have been when I was in the second year of middle school. I was studying at the reading room until dawn and was coming home-”

Hey, don’t lie.

You didn’t go to the reading room.

“I was almost home when the sky turned bright. I looked up and saw a UFO… I’m enemies with UFOs.”

Hey, it’s UFO.

He listened to Kim Eun-jung’s nonsense, a mix of fantasy, sci-fi, shamanism, and horror, with one ear and let it out the other, and then he saw the hill that led to the town.

‘That man is standing there again today?’

He seemed to be the owner of the large chicken farm in the distance, and he always looked at the road with a look of regret around this time. He’d been seeing him standing there for over a year now. When he was riding his bike, he hadn’t noticed because he was focused on the road ahead. It was like he was waiting for someone.

“Hey, hey, so that UFO kidnapped our cow and artificially inseminated it, right?”

What was she even trying to say?

“But the cow was pregnant, but no calf came out-”

So they returned the cow, it seemed.

The aliens were nice.

“It was so strange that my dad rubbed the cow’s belly. Then gas came out, pwaaaah! Isn’t that amazing?”

Sniff-.

Kim Eun-jung sniffed and continued to tell her amazing story.

‘You’re more amazing.’

It was the story of how aliens had kidnapped a cow and artificially inseminated it, but they’d messed with a bull instead of a cow, so only gas came out.

“They did that to a cow! Because of those guys, the greenhouse gases on Earth are getting worse, so it doesn’t snow in the winter and it’s hot in the summer.”

Yeah.

It seemed like she was right. Jin-hyuk just nodded silently. He’d reached the point where he just accepted it. It was Kim Eun-jung’s theory that cow farts were causing the greenhouse effect.

Hmmm-.

A rough snort came out.

He didn’t want to criticize his friend, so he’d just been listening, but as time went on, he felt like his mind was going dark.

‘I’m sooooo tired.’

To hell with fate, he was going to cut this connection right now.