The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 53

Jinhyuk’s eyes gleamed as he observed Hong Gijun’s reaction.

‘Wouldn’t this be an answer to the question you asked before the accident? If you’re that person, you’d naturally notice, wouldn’t you?’ Jinhyuk’s gaze was filled with anticipation.

However, Hong Gijun’s response was disappointing.

‘Hmm-. I see. If that’s the case, aren’t you enjoying it enough now?’

‘Yes, I guess so…’

Jinhyuk’s reply was tinged with disappointment. It felt like he’d cast a line and come up empty, like a fish not biting the bait. He’d even held his breath and spoken at length, but was this old man a different person from that grandfather? When Hong Gijun had suggested betting on the Olympic rankings, Jinhyuk had secretly been pleased, thinking he might be a regressor, but now he just felt inexplicably sad.

On the other hand, he could understand.

If such a stroke of luck happened to just anyone, it wouldn’t be called a stroke of luck.

‘If that’s what it means, then that’s a relief.’

Perhaps it was because he had listened to Jinhyuk’s thoughts, which he rarely heard, in such detail, but Hong Gijun’s expression was exceptionally bright.

‘I was worried you might be wandering, so I asked to see you, but if that’s the case, this old man has many ways to help. I even have something in mind.’

Jinhyuk nodded absentmindedly, barely listening.

It was a habit he had when he was engrossed in something.

‘If I ask directly and it’s not true, what a mess that would be.’

He even considered asking like Yujin.

‘Ehehe-, I came from the future, you know? You came too, Chairman? Ehehe.’

No, Jinhyuk shook his head.

To put it mildly, that was a line that would get you sent straight to a mental hospital. In fact, Hong Gijun and Son Kwangyeon were people capable of doing just that.

‘If things go wrong, I’m screwed.’

Even Yuk Seongchan’s father and Jo Ilheon had almost been hospitalized by the village chief for saying they’d seen ghosts. Jinhyuk wasn’t usually one for jokes, nor was he talkative, so he had to avoid asking in a joking manner.

‘How did I get this new life? I can’t rot in a mental hospital.’

‘People who speak boldly in front of difficult people, whether they’re young or old, only exist in dramas.’

Reality was heavy.

It took a lot of courage to even say a single word. Jinhyuk swallowed the words that wouldn’t come out.

And even if Hong Gijun believed in Jinhyuk’s regression, it was still a problem.

‘Since I don’t know what this old man’s intentions are, it might be better not to reveal it.’

No matter how trustworthy Hong Gijun was, there was no telling how he would react if he knew the truth. Well, there might be room for exploitation, and if he saw him as a competitor, things could get complicated in many ways.

‘Let’s observe a little more.’

Jinhyuk nodded, having reached that conclusion.

Had he been thinking too long?

Hong Gijun looked at Jinhyuk with a strange expression as he frowned, shook his head, and nodded to himself. There was even a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

‘Aren’t you curious about what I’m planning?’

‘……I am curious.’

Jinhyuk pouted. He understood why Choi Mikyung’s lips protruded when she talked to him. It was because she didn’t get the answer she wanted. He was learning another thing about the world and people.

‘I’m thinking of helping you with the ordinary life you’re talking about.’

Why?

Our family is well-off even without you, old man.

‘How much do you know about your mother?’

‘I know as much as I need to.’ He wanted to say that, but Jinhyuk had nothing to say.

Both his mother and father acted like they had stories to tell. Jinhyuk hadn’t delved into it because he thought the happy present was more important than a painful past.

Jinhyuk knew well how cruel it was to stir up painful memories.

He couldn’t act like a child, so he had swallowed his curiosity and lived on. He didn’t want his parents to be in pain, and he didn’t want to be rude enough to hurt anyone to satisfy his curiosity. If he was curious, he could just endure it. He was more confident in his ability to endure than anyone else.

‘This is a secret, but I’ll tell you. Ahaha-, I looked into it because your mother asked me to, not because I was doing a background check. Don’t misunderstand.’

So…

She told Hong Gijun, but not her own son. While understanding the parents’ feelings of worrying that their adolescent son might be upset, Jinhyuk felt sorry for Hong Gijun.

‘Our Chairman, he’s been taken for a ride by Mom and Dad. He’s too nice.’

He was sure that his father, who was always with them during vacations, was even worse than his mother.

Even though he was once called the boss of bosses, the owner of a group, he was now acting as a bamboo forest for a farming couple. He looked somehow pitiful. Perhaps that was why Hong Gijun’s eyes were filled with melancholy and his shoulders were slumped.

‘I heard about it while your mother was talking about the elder’s false accusation…’

Jinhyuk was able to hear about Kim Eungnyeo’s past actions, which he hadn’t heard from his mother.

‘……There’s no way to prove the damage now, and what those people took was just some jewelry. Things like jade hairpins, and pre-currency reform bills… Even if there are victims, we have to consider the statute of limitations. And the elder put his concubine’s daughter on the family register as a legitimate child, so it’s hard to define them as robbers or thieves. He must have been a very generous person.’

Jinhyuk sighed involuntarily.

Ah! They hadn’t harmed me yet, but they had already done something terrible to my mother. He had felt it when he was living with law books in the high school dormitory, but the statute of limitations was really… Jinhyuk shook his head, briefly thinking about the Code of Criminal Procedure. This wasn’t important now.

Some of the things Jinhyuk vaguely knew also came up.

‘I don’t think someone who was a teacher in a village where they traveled by ox cart would be involved in such a thing. According to your mother, the people the elder mainly met were children or people from the neighborhood.’

That seemed likely.

Even in the neighborhood where Jinhyuk lived, there were hardly any visitors from outside until a few years ago. He had heard that the place where his mother lived was even more rural.

‘We have to assume that the reason he was taken away was due to someone’s tip-off. Back then, it was more sensitive than it is now, and anyone could be taken away on suspicion of being a spy with just a letter or a phone call. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any connections in that area yet. So, I can’t guarantee the results.’

Jinhyuk felt like he had been given homework.

Of course, even if he was going to steal his father’s land for his younger sibling, shouldn’t a normal son at least try to resolve his mother’s resentment?

‘I initially asked to see you because I was worried about you, but I’m saying all sorts of things. I’m sorry. Hehehe-.’

Hong Gijun’s expression was too carefree to be seen as someone who was sorry.

He must have been frustrated because he had no one to talk to.

In the past, Director Hong Sujeong had also made such a carefree expression. With a pimply and yellow face, she would go in and out of the bathroom, and finally, she would bloom like a bright evening primrose.

‘She was pretty…’

Jinhyuk quickly shook off the thought that was trying to wander off to Samcheonpo [a Korean idiom meaning to go off-topic], rubbing the floor with his sneakers.

‘Are you saying I should look into it later?’

‘Huh? What?’

‘The story you told me about my maternal grandfather.’

‘No? That’s not it?’

Hong Gijun blinked as if he didn’t understand what he was saying.

‘Don’t I need a place to vent? Jinhyuk is still young, so he probably doesn’t know what it means, and he’s the most taciturn person I know. Or is he not? Is he not young? Does he know everything?’

Hong Gijun scratched his cheek. He was avoiding Jinhyuk’s gaze, rolling his eyes around. Now that he looked, they were about the same height, and Jinhyuk was even bigger. He was too well-developed to be called young.

‘Am I… being taken for a ride by this old man?’

‘Oh, the weather is nice.’ Hong Gijun looked at the sky like an old man.

The weather was nice? It was all cloudy, about to rain.

Perhaps Jinhyuk’s narrowed eyes were too much for him, Hong Gijun smacked his lips and changed the subject.

‘Anyway, it’s a relief! I thought you were wandering. The moment you go down the wrong path, your talent and everything will turn into a weapon for evil. In that sense, I wanted to ask about your career path.’

‘I’ll do whatever I can. It’s not like I have to choose just one thing.’

‘Hehehe-. I’ve been outsmarted. That’s right. There’s no need to stick to just one thing.’

Jinhyuk took a deep breath and put strength into his voice. His gaze was directed towards the middle school students running around the playground.

‘I hope nothing happens.’

‘Huh? What do you mean?’

‘They’re still kids. Yoon Seongdong too. I hope they have a chance.’

It was just a wish, but there was no need to explain it in detail.

Hong Gijun nodded silently. The corner of his mouth, which was not visible to Jinhyuk, twitched upwards.

‘Let’s do that for now. The kids.’

Hong Gijun’s expression became genuinely cheerful.

Hong Gijun rolled up his sleeves, checked his watch, and started a different conversation.

‘I’m not a genius like your father. I just had a knack for studying. But even that, I couldn’t surpass Son Kwangyeon. I slept less and studied more than that guy. That guy did manual labor, tutoring, and even drove a taxi. He never gave up the top spot even while working part-time. Ugh- that disgusting guy.’

Even as he said that, Hong Gijun looked happy. The memories he shared with his father must have been that deep.

‘Dad really had a good friend.’

Hong Gijun kept chattering beside him, but Jinhyuk couldn’t hear him. He was worried about how to repay Kim Eungnyeo for what she had done to his mother, and how he would live his life in the future. Listening to Hong Gijun’s story was making his ears feel like they were bleeding.

‘……Just live as you please without worrying about anything. Just don’t cause trouble. Are you listening?’

‘Yeees-, yes.’

Perhaps Jinhyuk’s serious expression bothered him, Hong Gijun didn’t forget to give him a reminder, as if he could see into Jinhyuk’s mind.

‘There’s no need to try so hard to do anything. She said that they are also living beings and should live, and that she didn’t want to cause them any harm. Seeing that, your mother is a general, no, a noble person.’

Hong Gijun quickly corrected his expression. He wondered why they had named their dog that way.

‘Frankly speaking, if your mother had the intention to do so, she would have already told your father. If she had, would your father have stayed still?’

Jinhyuk thought there was some truth to that.

With his father’s connections, he could harm even people who couldn’t be touched by the law. At least, people living in this area. He didn’t know what her true intentions were, but maybe his mother was planning to keep it all to herself.

‘As expected, the greatest adult in our house is Mom.’

If that was what his mother wanted, it was better to bury the past for now.

Forgiveness and revenge were his mother’s responsibility.

That was the case for now.

As if he wasn’t interested in Jinhyuk’s reaction, Hong Gijun’s mouth started running again.

‘Where were we? Ah, right. Your father, you see. He was peeing in the mudflat, and this guy aimed at a crab hole- bubbles were rising, and it was hard to tell if it was crab foam or pee foam- Khahahaha-!’

‘……’

This time, Jinhyuk looked at his watch. Hong Gijun had been talking to himself for 20 minutes already, this was the first time he had seen him like this.

He talked about this, then that.

Wasn’t he talking too much, enough to make you lose your mind?

In the era Jinhyuk lived in, they called it a brain fart.

‘When is this old man going to leave?’

He couldn’t organize his thoughts.

It was as if he was trying to disrupt his concentration, endlessly pouring out stories.

***

‘Huh? Mom? Dad? You haven’t left yet?’

Jinhyuk, who was returning to the classroom, found his parents looking around the school. Of course, Yujin and Janggun were with them.

Son Kwangyeon, with a somewhat dazed look in his eyes, mumbled.

‘We were waiting for you to come before leaving.’

‘I was supposed to help Taeyang hyung with his training.’

Jinhyuk occasionally helped Choi Taeyang, Shin Woosung, and Lee Seunghoon with their personal training.

Today, he had caused a big accident, so Choi Taeyang was using some strange logic, saying he needed help with his wrestling training. Jinhyuk thought that Choi Taeyang was definitely Choi Mikyung’s older brother.

‘Then we’ll go first in Gijun’s car.’

‘He already left.’

‘Huh?’

‘He talked to some detectives and then left.’

‘Ha, this bad bastard. He came out in his own car.’

Hong Gijun’s revenge was unexpectedly achieved.

It was like he was getting back at them for being taken for a ride, punishing them in one go.

Son Kwangyeon pictured Hong Gijun laughing heartily while driving.

‘You son of a-.’

Son Kwangyeon closed his mouth, noticing his wife’s gaze.

The Seoul man had shown too many pathetic sides today.

Son Kwangyeon had no choice but to hail a taxi.