The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 43

12 Parties Spring Up Like Bamboo Shoots
Over 1,000 Candidates Nominated
14th General Election Parties
13th, 14 Parties Compete, No Seats, Registration Canceled
By Lee Geo-san

It was a newspaper from February 27, 1992.

Sitting on a chair in the yard, Jinhyuk let out a shallow sigh as he read the newspaper.

‘Why are they all like this…’

It was a field he had no interest in before, and it was the same now. Stories he could understand intellectually but couldn’t feel any connection to. Is a political badge that important? Understanding other people’s motivations is truly difficult.

‘I don’t like becoming famous.’

In the meantime, a light pink cloth was wrapped around Jinhyuk’s neck.

Squeeze-.

“Cough-”

“Oh my, did I tighten it too much?”

Even his mother’s flustered laughter was a source of happiness.

His mother always trimmed his hair, but today was a bit more special. The middle school’s hair regulation was a sports-style cut, and Jinhyuk was no exception.

It was the day Son Jinhyuk got a buzz cut.

“Mom will cut it nicely for you.”

The warm water in the spray bottle was sprayed with a hissing sound.

Still, please don’t comb my ears, ouch.

Every time his mother touched his hair, his eyes closed and sleepiness washed over him.

“Our son, already grown up so much that he’s going to middle school-”

Han Yu-young trailed off.

Don’t get emotional over such a simple thing. Even so, Jinhyuk also sniffed and comforted his mother in his heart.

“Jinhyuk, middle school isn’t like the kids in the small rural school. You might get teased because of your way of speaking or personality…”

“Yes.”

It wasn’t hard to understand what his mother was worried about.

Even his closest friend, Choi Mi-kyung, often called him an old man.

‘I am an old man, though.’

Immature kids tease and do that kind of thing.

Jinhyuk was someone who got angry at people who dug into and mocked others’ pain, but he wasn’t hurt when he was called an old man.

‘Well, if I just control my strength well, I can graduate from middle school without any problems.’

Like elementary school. Jinhyuk clenched and unclenched his fist, reaffirming his resolve.

Every time he clenched his fist, his forearm trembled. It felt like his strength was increasing every day.

Snip snip, the sound of scissors was like a lullaby.

Although the air was still cold, the sunlight was warm enough in late February. Jinhyuk began to nod his head to the warm sunlight and his mother’s soft touch.

However, the sweet drowsiness was instantly blown away by the appearance of a disturber.

“Ahem!”

His father, who was sitting on the porch, cleared his throat, having appeared at some point.

Soon, Son Kwang-yeon began to strum his guitar.

Thump-thump-twang-.

“Leaving home- taking the train- the day I go to training camp-”

It was a folk song released in 1986, Kim Hyun-sung’s ‘Letter from a Private’.

This dad, really…

His father’s folk-infused singing style and guitar skills were excellent, but it was not a welcome song for Jinhyuk.

‘I didn’t do military service, I was commissioned as a warrant officer…’

It was a strange reason, as always.

Jinhyuk sent a signal with his eyes to Janggun, who was enjoying the music under the porch.

‘Janggun, bark!’

Hehehe-.

Static-, poor reception.

Janggun, who had his chin on his front paws, slyly turned away from Jinhyuk. How dare a mere sergeant give orders to Janggun?

‘Dad’s voice is good.’

Still, his father’s song was good to listen to. Jinhyuk thought that he must have inherited his father’s good singing ability, but then Jinhyuk’s hair stood on end because of another soul who was absorbed in Son Kwang-yeon’s song.

“Aigoo-”

Ah, Mom…

It seemed like she was keeping rhythm to Dad’s song.

Jinhyuk intuitively knew he was doomed.

‘I’ve got a bald spot.’

His mother rubbed the area where the bald spot was, as if she felt sorry for him.

After a few of his father’s songs, the haircut was finished.

Jinhyuk didn’t feel awkward or unfamiliar with his appearance in the mirror. He just felt good. Even with a shaved head, his mother had trimmed his hair.

‘Our mom’s skills are the best.’

Such a great sports cut with just scissors, without clippers.

The bald spot that felt flat on the back of his head would soon be filled.

‘I won’t let anyone who teases me get away with it.’

I shouldn’t control my strength with anyone who teases me about the bald spot. His earlier resolve had flown away with the spring breeze.

Jinhyuk smiled in the mirror.

He looked like a fool.

Even though he was younger, forcing a smile was still awkward.

***

When a new school year and semester begin, a battle of wits starts.

Especially when schools change, the degree is even more severe. For example, when moving from elementary school to middle school…

It’s about sizing each other up, looking at their impressions and physiques to distinguish who to be careful of and who to take lightly. Tae-yang Middle School, where Jinhyuk was going, was no different. It would be even more so because it was an all-boys school.

Of course, it’s not just about sizing each other up.

At home, the cuckoo clock announces the exact time.

“Sex! Sex!”

The start of a new semester is announced by the sex parrot [a common term for students who make lewd comments].

These guys never go extinct in all-boys schools. As long as hormones exist, they will enjoy a life close to eternal. They are more tenacious creatures than dinosaurs.

“Hey, you son of a bitch, this X’s tits are so big.”

“Ah, get it away-”

“Look, you bastard! Isn’t it good-!”

There are also guys who unfold pornographic magazines together, using unfiltered language. These guys would force it on you even if you said you didn’t want to see it.

“Hole!”

“It’s a pair. Give it to me.”

“Ugh, this bastard is a pro.”

There are also guys who play ‘jjaljjali’ [a type of gambling game] with a sincere heart full of gambling spirit.

Most of the students were from Tae-yang Elementary School, so it didn’t seem to take long to get close. There would be many cases where close friends were assigned to the same class.

“Energy wave!”

“Solar flare!”

“Agh-! My eyes-!”

Aren’t those guys really crazy? Jinhyuk closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

‘Peace like a river.’

Still, the highlight of the new school year is the uninvited guest who bursts through the door.

Bang-!

“Hey! Class 1! Which bastard is picking a fight?”

These guys come into other classes and make people frown.

Jinhyuk sighed deeply.

The small rural elementary school with only one class was nice and cozy.

Coming from elementary school to middle school, the world had changed drastically.

All six of his friends who graduated from the same school were in different classes, so he had no one to talk to.

‘What was it like before?’

Jinhyuk, who had given up on meditation, unfolded his furrowed brow and looked out the window.

He saw the wrestling team members training in the morning.

‘The wrestling team doing duck walks around the playground every morning is the same as before.’

He had attended this school before.

At that time, he graduated from Tae-yang Elementary School in the town and entered Tae-yang Middle School. There were a few friends he had known since elementary school, and no one picked on Jinhyuk, who was of medium height and quietly studied.

But this life’s Jinhyuk had become a student from the countryside.

“Hey! Can you fight?”

A voice from a guy from another class hit Jinhyuk’s ears.

Most of the kids in the class would be unfamiliar with Jinhyuk, so he understood that they had been giving him curious and wary looks for almost an hour. But such a belligerent tone was not welcome, even for the gentle Jinhyuk.

“Hey, Oh Jong-dae. You’d better not mess with him?”

A welcome voice.

It was Jo Seul-chan.

“What’s this bastard?”

This bastard is calling me a bastard on our first meeting, making me feel bad.

Jinhyuk got up from his seat at the unwelcome curse.

Creak-.

The chair slid back.

When Jinhyuk, who was much taller than him, glared at him with a seemingly angry look, the guy named Oh Jong-dae froze. After the winter break, Jinhyuk’s height had exceeded 170cm, and he was repeating physical training every day that would make athletes cry. Just standing there, he exuded a unique aura.

Jinhyuk lightly moved his lips.

“Hey. Is your name Oh Jong-dae?”

“Huh? Uh…”

Oh Jong-dae’s narrow eyes widened like lanterns. Why wouldn’t they? Aside from his tall height, he had a strong jawline and broad shoulders that were hard to see in a middle school student, and his sharp eyes when he frowned. Oh Jong-dae, who was quite sturdy from doing judo, was like a kid in front of Jinhyuk.

Even his voice sounded like a beast growling.

“Get out.”

“Y-yes, I will.”

Oh Jong-dae hesitated, then his face turned red and he hurriedly left the classroom.

Kkkkkkk!

The classroom was filled with laughter.

“That idiot! Serves him right!”

“Oh, that’s so refreshing. When I think about how I was beaten by that bastard in elementary school, oh-”

The envious gazes of the classmates were fixed on Jinhyuk.

Jinhyuk tried to ignore the gazes of the children.

This kind of attention is not good. The kids might become subtly dependent on Jinhyuk, and they might ask Jinhyuk for help when they get into a fight with another class.

‘I’m going to stay quiet.’

Jo Seul-chan approached Jinhyuk, who was sitting in his seat. Jo Seul-chan shook hands with Jinhyuk and talked about how they had been doing.

“Wow, Jinhyuk was like a hyung [older brother or male friend] from way back. Now he’s really like a hyung. How tall did you get? Ji-beom moved to Suwon last year to play soccer. Yeom Byeong-taek is in the same class as me, and he’s going to do track and field in middle school too.”

It seemed like there was a friend who went to track and field competitions before, and that was Yeom Byeong-taek. Well, only Son Jinhyuk’s future had changed, not the futures of the other kids. But what was strange was that he was in the same Class 1 of the 1st grade as in his previous life.

“Hey, but who are those two seats in the back for? Are they late on the first day?”

Jinhyuk knew who the owners of those seats were.

They were the seats for the wrestling team friends. They were kids who quietly came in during the second period and quietly listened to the class. They were gentle kids, unlike the usual athletes.

‘Shin Woo-sung, Lee Seung-hoon.’

In his previous life, Shin Woo-sung had died before reaching the age of 35.

After wrestling until middle school and graduating from a local university, Shin Woo-sung had worked in seafood wholesale, drove a live fish truck, and then died after being stabbed in a bar one winter. At the time, Jinhyuk was on an overseas business trip, so he couldn’t attend the funeral.

‘I couldn’t even pay my respects. He was one of my few friends.’

Lee Seung-hoon only wrestled until the first year of high school and then focused on his studies. It was because of an injury. After graduating from high school, he took classes at the Open University and helped his father with his fishing business in his hometown. He was a friend who would wait at the terminal and greet him enthusiastically when he came down by bus during holidays or vacations.

‘Friends who protected me.’

They went to different high schools.

Jinhyuk, who wanted to escape the attic, left for a boarding school in another region with a scholarship. Even so, Shin Woo-sung and Lee Seung-hoon would come to Jinhyuk’s school and show off their strength to make sure no one was bullying him. It was so obvious how good they were that it was annoying to explain it separately.

‘If it weren’t for you guys, I might not be here.’

*

The first period of the first day was a time for introductions with the homeroom teacher.

The homeroom teacher was the same as well.

She was a shy science teacher who would probably get married next year.

“Uh, kids. We need to elect a class president.”

The children’s eyes were fixed on Jinhyuk. The kid who had been class president in his past life didn’t raise his hand and stayed quiet. Jinhyuk sighed without realizing it. He had planned to live quietly and normally without doing anything in middle and high school.

Following the children’s gazes, the teacher’s eyes also reached Jinhyuk.

She was pointing at the attendance book with her finger.

“The name is… Jinhyuk?”

“I’ll do it.”

He spoke as student-like as possible.

But the reaction of the teacher and his classmates was strange.

To them, it sounded like a low growl, as if he was being blunt.

Homeroom teacher Kim Sun-sook adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose and stammered.

“Uh, it’s not that you can just say you’ll do it. We have to get other candidates too…”

Still, no student raised their hand.

An unusual silence fell, unlike a typical middle school first-grade classroom full of troublemakers.

The flustered teacher spoke haltingly with a red face.

“We have to vote and pick a vice president, so we need more candidates…”

Jinhyuk frowned at the fatigue of the silence.

He nudged the back of the friend sitting next to him.

His partner jumped up as if stung by a bee.

“Y-yes! It’s me! I’m Chae Gyu-ho!”

Chae Gyu-ho was a bespectacled friend with a lot of acne already. He was short and wore glasses, and seeing him sitting in the back, he must have been pushed by the other guys and had no choice but to sit next to Jinhyuk.

“Um, kids? Are there any other candidates?”

As if he had been instructed by the homeroom teacher, Jinhyuk scanned the classroom.

‘Look at me.’

Jinhyuk looked around the classroom and gestured with his chin at the child he made eye contact with, and each time, the number of candidates increased.

It was a strange phenomenon. Such compliant students.

Kim Sun-sook, who had foreseen the success of the class president election, put her hands together as if praying and smiled brightly.

“Okay, now let’s hear the candidates’ pledges?”

Thinking that she was a teacher more suited for kindergarten than middle school, Jinhyuk went up to the podium.

Jinhyuk announced his pledges with a listless face.

As was typical of Son Jinhyuk, it was sincere and straightforward.

It was an uncharacteristically lethargic presentation.

“I don’t want to be class president. I want to go to school quietly and normally. I would be grateful if you didn’t elect me.”

Wow-! Clapping-!

They were strange guys. What part of that was so moving?

Out of a total of 47 students, 2 were excluded. Jinhyuk became the class president, and Chae Gyu-ho became the vice president.

‘Why are you voting for me when I said I didn’t want to do it?’

They were really guys whose psychology he couldn’t understand. Is this the start of their rebellious phase?

After the teacher left, Chae Gyu-ho glanced at Jinhyuk and muttered.

“Class president. P-please take care of me…”

During break time, he talked with his partner and vice president, Chae Gyu-ho. His dad had taught him that on the first day of a new school year, you should start by investigating your partner.

“I have two older brothers, but we’re not very close. They’re like enemies, haha.”

His brothers were also good at studying and had gone to science high school and prestigious private high school.

At first, Chae Gyu-ho hesitated, unable to speak informally, but when Jinhyuk smiled, he relaxed and smiled with him.

Before the second period started, Jinhyuk spoke in a rather loud voice.

“If anyone ignores the vice president, tell me.”

The classroom, which had been filled with murmuring, became quiet.

They were strange guys, as always.

Jinhyuk intuitively knew that his normal middle school life had begun.

*

About halfway through the second period.

Sli-i-ide-.

The back door opened carefully, and two large men entered. They were guys with good physiques, as expected of wrestlers.

Jinhyuk, seeing his tearfully welcome friends, forgot that he was in class and waved his hand.

But his friends’ reactions were strange.

‘Ah, I made a mistake.’

They didn’t know Jinhyuk.

When Jinhyuk waved his hand, Shin Woo-sung and Lee Seung-hoon blushed and avoided his gaze. They were probably embarrassed or thought it was a provocation from a guy who could throw a punch.

‘I shouldn’t make them misunderstand.’

Since Shin Woo-sung and Lee Seung-hoon’s seats were right next to his desk with only one aisle between them, Jinhyuk quickly showed them the textbook with the lesson progress. There was no progress to speak of since it was the first class.

Only then did his friends smile and nod. They also didn’t forget to shake hands, avoiding the teacher’s eyes.

‘Cute guys.’

They were so pure and kind, that’s why they took care of Jinhyuk.

‘But where are those guys going?’

His friends left the classroom as soon as the second period ended.

Jinhyuk’s brow furrowed slightly.

It was because Shin Woo-sung and Lee Seung-hoon’s expressions were too dark.

‘They look terrified?’