The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 24

The office manager, while sorting through the mail, discovered something. Though called a manager, they were actually the only administrative staff member.

It was an official document related to sports, so they sought out Park Jae-seung, the sole physical education teacher.

“Mr. Park Jae-seung, there’s an official document here?”

“Let me see.”

Park Jae-seung, with his intense eyes and prominent cheekbones, showed interest in the unusual mail. His gentle way of speaking didn’t match his wild, warrior-like appearance and sharp voice.

“What’s this all about?”

“Well, it’s, uh… It says that the Chungcheongnam-do Boys’ Sports Festival is in May, and they want to select athletes to represent the county. Even rural schools without sports teams should send athletes, that’s what it says.”

“We don’t have a sports team, so who are we supposed to send? We don’t have a wrestling team or a soccer team.”

“Track and field can be done alone, you know.”

“We only have ordinary students, who are we going to send?”

“It means they’re giving opportunities to ordinary kids, so who cares who we send?”

Talking nonsense. Park Jae-seung said with a laugh.

“Well, who was it, that kid? The one who’s good at studying and tall. The class president, I mean.”

“He’s the only one we’ve got.”

Son Jinhyuk.

He was an ordinary student everyone knew.

***

In early to mid-April, with the warm spring sun and sea breeze, the ‘ppilgi’ sprouts begin to emerge. These are the young shoots of the ‘tti’ grass [a type of reed]. Also known as ‘ppibi,’ these sprouts hide a soft, sweet white flesh inside. Even now, with easy access to snacks, they were a welcome spring treat for the rural children.

‘I should give some to Mom and Yujin.’

Even Jinhyuk, who usually runs everywhere, walks home when the ppilgi sprouts appear.

He scans the roadsides and rice paddies with a hawk’s eye, hunting for the sprouts that hide their white flesh inside green armor.

When focused, finding ppilgi wasn’t difficult. It was still a time when many other sprouts hadn’t emerged. The contrast between the dark soil, brown grass, and green sprouts made them easy to spot.

“Jinhyuk, did you pick a lot?”

There goes that transitional teenager, Choi Mi-kyung, again.

She asks even though she clearly sees a handful in Jinhyuk’s hand. Her eyes narrow like a blackbird spotting prey. Her mouth is constantly chewing on ppilgi.

Her habit of picking wild berries with a gourd on her head hasn’t gone anywhere. [A gourd is a dried, hollowed-out fruit often used as a container.]

If she were born in the city, she would be chewing gum. Jinhyuk narrowed his eyes in response. But he could never win an eye-staring contest with Choi Mi-kyung.

‘Sigh, I’m going to get robbed again today.’

Jinhyuk was faster than anyone, but Choi Mi-kyung’s jaw was faster than Jinhyuk’s hands.

It meant that her eating speed was faster than his picking speed.

Jinhyuk obediently offered the ppilgi and thought. Maybe this child will turn into a cow after her transitional period.

“Just give me half. You said you’d give some to Yujin.”

Oh, how generous. Seeing that she didn’t take it all, Choi Mi-kyung was indeed a good friend.

Well, he would have given it to any other friend who asked. They were just kids, after all.

‘Adults should be generous.’

There was also the reason that he had to be careful until the results of the stool sample came back. It would take more than a month for the results to come out. He just hoped that the fact that he gave someone else’s poop wouldn’t be revealed.

Jinhyuk walked home with Janggun, sometimes ahead and sometimes behind.

He rinsed the ppilgi with water, peel and all. The flesh would be clean thanks to the peel, but he washed it for his sister, just in case.

He sat on the porch and peeled them one by one, handing them to his sister.

At first, he tried to put them in her mouth, but she seemed to have grown a bit. Yujin took them with her own hands, breaking them into appropriate sizes before putting them in her mouth.

Watching her, Jinhyuk thought his sister was a genius. Other babies would just shove them in whole and even try to push them in with their fists. They would even choke on them, but Yujin ate them carefully, like a little fox. She only ate the sweet part and spat out the rest, but to her brother’s eyes, it looked like genius.

Even his mom, who said it could be dangerous for babies, was surprised to see Yujin eating, saying she wasn’t like other babies.

Yujin, enjoying the sweet taste, didn’t forget to smile at her brother.

“Ehee-”

His sister didn’t even have all her baby teeth yet. Seeing her smile with her gums, her eyes disappearing, Jinhyuk felt his heart sink. His mom called this kind of smile a ‘funny face smile.’ She really did smile like a funny face, but it was the prettiest funny face in the world.

Jinhyuk also became a funny face.

“Nuhuhuhuhu-. Yujin, is it good?”

Yujin nodded and bounced her bottom while sitting. It was a movement she showed when she was really excited and happy. Jinhyuk’s stomach churned along with the rhythm. His heart ached even though he wasn’t sad. It was a very strange and new phenomenon for Jinhyuk.

‘I wish she would grow up slowly.’

After returning as a child, Jinhyuk had found time to be boring.

But with a sister like this, who cared how slow time flowed? With his family together, he even thought it wouldn’t be bad if time stopped right now.

“Yujin, it’s cold. Let’s go inside now.”

“Yesh-”

He picked up his sister and went inside.

The smell of burning bean pods from a distant empty field was savory.

***

With the start of the year’s farming season approaching, Son Gwang-yeon was using his time sparingly.

He was flipping abacus beads, tapping on a calculator, and writing something in a ledger. Muttering to himself.

‘He’s so focused that he’s not even asking to play Go [a strategic board game].’

In Jinhyuk’s eyes, his dad seemed like someone who enjoyed his work.

Looking over his shoulder, Jinhyuk saw that the ledger was filled with the number of rice paddies and fields, the number of equipment needed, and the manpower and dates to be deployed.

“Ugh! I need to pee! I’m gonna pee! Go!”

“……”

When Mom wasn’t around, he changed completely.

While his dad was making a fuss and rushing to the bathroom, Jinhyuk took a closer look at the ledger. He intended to subtly correct any errors by asking as if he was just curious. After all, he had learned that a regressor should use their knowledge to influence the past.

It was Jinhyuk’s arrogance.

Son Gwang-yeon was no ordinary farmer.

‘Was Dad really a humanities major?’

Jinhyuk didn’t even think about the fact that he was also a humanities major.

In the past, he had worked at Se-in Heavy Industries, managing construction schedules by comparing project plans and progress charts, and calculating the rate of progress. He was the invisible hand of the construction site, coordinating civil engineering, construction, machinery, and electrical work to prevent conflicts and ensure that schedules were met. Depending on the site, he was also the most powerful working-level employee. He had the authority to change schedules.

‘I thought I knew a lot too.’

It was absurd to apply complex construction plans to farming, but his dad’s plan was close to perfect. He had even prepared past weather information and added notes to prepare for any unexpected variables. Who could plan and execute farming at this level of planning?

‘It’s a waste.’

It wasn’t that he was looking down on farming, but he thought he was too good to be wasting his talent in the countryside. On the other hand, that was probably why he became a wealthy farmer.

‘This calculation is a bit off. According to the formula Dad wrote, the manpower should be…’

Chwaa-.

The sound of the farming genius washing his hands came from the bathroom.

Jinhyuk quickly erased it with an eraser and re-entered the numbers.

Soon after, Son Gwang-yeon whistled and bragged, shaking his hands.

“Whee-. My plan is perfect as always!”

Jinhyuk also nodded inwardly. Even if there were minor errors in the calculations, his dad was someone who didn’t need much advice.

A chuckle escaped him.

Even though he had regressed, he had no place to use his talents and knowledge, nor did he feel the need to.

Jinhyuk decided to just finish cutting his toenails.

‘My introverted toenails. Will they grow back pretty if I pull them out once?’

He had dangerous thoughts.

***

The next day, during the third period, Mr. Park Jae-seung called Jinhyuk out to the playground.

Two men in their mid-30s and mid-20s, dressed in athletic wear, were waiting.

‘It’s Mr. Kim Young-tae?’

How could he not know? He was someone he had seen every physical education class after transferring to Taeyang Elementary School in the town in the past.

Mr. Park Jae-seung explained. There was nothing special about it.

“Our Jinhyuk is going to have to run a bit. He’s the fastest, you know?”

Would it be okay to run in jeans and a button-down shirt? Well, he always ran around like this, so it wouldn’t matter. Jinhyuk nodded to Park Jae-seung.

“Hey, Jinhyuk. Look here-. When that teacher over there raises the flag, you start. Got it? Don’t be nervous, you little rascal! Take a deep breath, take a deep breath!”

“Yes.”

For some reason, Mr. Park Jae-seung looked more nervous than Jinhyuk.

Jinhyuk was fine.

The regional preliminaries. The preliminaries began by measuring the 100-meter records of athletes from each school. Since all schools had sandy playgrounds without dedicated tracks, the conditions were similar. And since the track and field teacher from the school hosting the county preliminaries visited all the schools to check the records, there was no room for dispute.

Kim Young-tae, the physical education teacher from the school hosting the county preliminaries, thought Son Jinhyuk’s form was unusual. He was tall enough to be mistaken for a middle school student, and his physique was balanced, making him look like an athlete.

‘This is strange. How can there be a kid like that in a rural area like this?’

But he didn’t have high expectations. Kim Young-tae knew all the promising athletes in the region. If there was a talented student, there was no way he wouldn’t know. It was just a formality measurement requested by the host.

Jinhyuk placed his thumb and index finger on the starting line. Originally, he should start after hearing the gunshot, but for convenience, they decided to signal with a flag, so he raised his head and looked ahead.

‘I wasn’t nervous even in the past.’

Whack-!

The flag went up.

Puhwak-!

Jinhyuk’s feet kicked off the ground sharply.

Dududududu-!

Kim Young-tae doubted his eyes and ears.

It was a perfect form.

The knees that went up to his chest, the elbows that came up to his chest height. Even the stride seemed calculated for a short distance. And what about the sound like a horse running?

Dududu- Click-!

The stopwatch was pressed when the ground shook nearby.

Whooong-.

A gust of wind passed by.

12.52 seconds.

‘No way!’

It was a record that made him doubt his own eyes.

He was wearing jeans and a fluttering button-down shirt. His shoes were also ordinary sneakers. It was a record that would be hard to achieve even with discomfort. No, it was a record that could only be achieved in the finals of a national competition in the elementary division.

“Hey, can you do it again just once?”

“Yes.”

Without showing any signs of being out of breath, Jinhyuk returned to the starting line.

His light steps were effortless.

‘The timer must be wrong.’

Kim Young-tae quickly turned to look at the young teacher behind him.

The movement was so fast that the young man, who had been spacing out, flinched in surprise.

“Mr. Lee Cheol-min, please time it with me.”

“Yes, sir.”

Cross-validation. Kim Young-tae requested a cross-check from Lee Cheol-min, a student teacher who had accompanied him as an assistant. But it couldn’t be a problem with the stopwatch. He had already tested it by comparing it with a digital clock. Kim Young-tae also knew that it wasn’t a problem with the device.

‘He was actually fast.’

He made eye contact with Jinhyuk, who was setting up his stance at the starting line and glaring at him.

Flinch-. Kim Young-tae unconsciously shrugged his shoulders.

If an elementary school student sprints 100 meters, they can even throw up in severe cases. Of course, that was the case for children who didn’t exercise regularly. Therefore, the 100-meter run was not repeated immediately, even for the sake of student protection.

But Kim Young-tae wanted to see it again.

‘His body is like a monster.’

There were occasionally elementary school students like that.

A child with a body at the level of a middle school sports team. A child who boasted explosive strength compared to his peers.

The tension created by the unexpected figure made Kim Young-tae’s heart pound.

Jinhyuk, on the other hand, was caught up in a strange excitement.

He had always run moderately during sports days or physical education classes to fit in with his friends, but the unexpected challenge of running for a record made the genius’s blood boil.

‘This is fun?’

Thump-thump-. This time, he hoped he wouldn’t slip at the start. The sand was too slippery.

He placed his hands on the starting line and raised his head, fixing his gaze forward.

Whack-!

The flag went up.

Papapat-!

Jinhyuk’s legs, warmed up by the first attempt, kicked off the ground more powerfully.

The sand flew and dust rose.

Dududududu-!

Whooong-. A strong wind created an updraft from the ground. Kim Young-tae’s shaggy hair was messed up.

Click-click-. The stopwatch seemed to have been pressed late.

Kim Young-tae and Lee Cheol-min, who had checked the stopwatch, made eye contact.