The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 68

“Dad, there’s an old man who lives alone in the neighborhood,” Jinhyuk said to his dad when he got home.

As he left Cheon Gil-ryong’s house, he had a chance to look around, and it didn’t seem like he was living in poverty. Garlic and dried pollack hung from the eaves, and he could glimpse some precious ingredients through the half-open shed door. Still, he wanted to help in any way he could.

In a neighborhood with a lot of land but not many people, Son Gwang-yeon also knew about Cheon Gil-ryong’s existence.

“Those kinds of people have a lot of pride, so I’ll ask the village chief if there’s anything we can do to help. Providing what they need is the real way to help. Kkeueueung-”

Son Gwang-yeon lay on the living room floor, rubbing his back. His serious tone didn’t match his fidgety movements, but what could he do when it felt like he was burning and he couldn’t reach the spot?

Jinhyuk was impressed, thinking his dad was doing yoga.

It was so clean. Such a decisive decision without any fuss. And his dad always kept his word. Now, Jinhyuk just had to keep his promise. He thought he should catch more gobies this fall.

‘To do that, it would be good to buy a new reel fishing rod.’

Exciting. He should buy an expensive one. Bamboo fishing rods might stimulate a man’s analog sensibilities, but sensibility doesn’t catch fish. Hong Gi-jun broke into Jinhyuk’s excitement as he was about to embrace the spending spirit.

“Why does Jinhyuk call you ‘Dad’?”

That’s the problem with adults. They ask about things that aren’t a big deal just to satisfy their curiosity. Well, it was an issue worth being curious about. Even the kids in the countryside started calling their fathers ‘Dad’ by the time they were in the upper grades of elementary school.

Normally, he would have answered ‘just because,’ but now Hong Gi-jun was the one managing Jinhyuk’s 40 million won. He thought he needed to be a little kinder.

Money is the best, after all.

“Because I like calling him that.”

It was like a compensation for the days he was sad he couldn’t call him that.

He knew he couldn’t explain it in any words.

Then, Hong Gi-jun asked an unexpected question.

“What are you going to call me?”

Come to think of it, they hadn’t decided on a title for him yet.

What do people usually call them in this situation? Excuse me? Mr. Hong? The adults in the neighborhood usually say, ‘Hey, look here.’

‘Calling him ‘boss’ would suit my taste.’

Jinhyuk’s social growth had stopped at the age of nine. His body was a child, but his mind was that of a middle-aged man, so even after returning to the past, he hadn’t developed from there. Calling the parents of his neighborhood friends ‘uncle’ and ‘aunt’ was enough.

‘It seems like he wants to be called something different.’

Uncle? No, it’s my 40 million won. Uncle? Is that what people usually call them?

But Jinhyuk knew Hong Gi-jun’s personality. He was the type of person who enjoyed being treated specially in subtle ways rather than being openly flattered.

Jinhyuk came up with a difficult answer.

“Father…”

“Hahahaha!”

It seemed like that was the right answer.

Hong Gi-jun even clapped his hands and was delighted.

Life is really hard, even after being reborn. And it’s true that you never know what will happen in life. Who would have thought that Son Jinhyuk would end up sucking up to someone?

Yu Se-ra, who had been watching from the kitchen, threw down the bean sprouts she was trimming and ran over. It was exactly like the actions of the little Hong Su-jeong.

“Jinhyuk! What about me? What about me?”

Why are they all like this, really?

***

The moon was bright as it neared the full moon.

Early in the morning, Jinhyuk woke up and sat on his bed, admiring the round moon that brightly illuminated the room. The chilling blue light made his heart ache as it passed through his retina and optic nerve.

‘It’s still beautiful.’

Perhaps it was because his relief was too much, he was full of energy and found it hard to fall asleep early. The night before, he had run more than usual, and he had done twice as many pull-ups and jump ropes.

It was also because Yu Se-ra, who was excited to be called ‘Mother,’ kept offering him makgeolli [Korean rice wine], making it uncomfortable to stay in the house. Hong Gi-jun and Yu Se-ra kept toasting and finished all the makgeolli.

‘Should I listen to some music?’

Click-.

He pressed the play button on the cassette player on the side table next to his desk. Hong Gi-jun had brought it, saying it was the latest, top-of-the-line mini component from Sein Electronics, and it had two cassette tape slots and a CD player built in.

Of course, it had auto-reverse, so there was no need to change the tape.

‘Relaxing while listening to music, in my life?’

A song by an Australian band called Air Supply started playing.

The piano intro, which made you feel like you were flying above the clouds in a clear sky, was a song that made his heart flutter.

Sitting on the bed and listening to music made the corners of his mouth turn up.

‘It’s amazing when I think about it.’

In his past life, the MP3 player he bought after being discharged from the military was Jinhyuk’s first media player. But this time, even when he lived in a mud house, he listened to the radio while lying with his head on his mother’s lap, and he listened to songs on cassette tapes.

And now, a mini component. It was something Jinhyuk was using for the first time.

‘Should I mess around with C++?’

Since he couldn’t sleep, he was curious about various games.

He shook his head. Hong Gi-jun had gifted him programming books along with a 386 computer, saying it was the latest product from Sein Electronics, and while it was fun, he felt restless sitting down. He used to be able to sit all day without any problems, but it seemed to be a side effect of adjusting his body to active work.

“But I don’t know how to leave you-”

He was humming along to the song in a small voice when he turned his eyes to the window.

Jinhyuk’s eyes widened, and a chill ran down his spine.

‘What is that!’

It was a shadow.

At a distance that was impossible to discern with the human eye, Jinhyuk glared at the dark shadow with sharp eyes.

On a moonlit night when even the dogs weren’t barking, a shadow appeared in a place where there were no houses. It moved without any hesitation, not even looking around. The shadow disappeared back to where it came from.

To Jinhyuk’s eyes, it looked like a prearranged action.

When he followed it with his eyes, he saw a dark forest where the shadow had disappeared.

The only word that came to Jinhyuk’s mind at that moment was:

‘Spy!’

During the spring tide when the full moon rises, the mudflats become a deep sea at high tide. The army had built outposts and operated TODs [Thermal Observation Devices] for night surveillance, but it was nearly impossible to monitor the winding coastline of the West Sea with a large force.

There was a story from before Jinhyuk was born.

It was something that happened in a distant village, and the story of the village chief’s head disappearing after he went to sleep was still famous in the neighborhood.

The son of a man who had worked as a servant under a landowner had crossed over to the North right after the armistice agreement of the Korean War. He couldn’t forget the humiliation and hardship his father had suffered while working as a servant, so he came down with a high-performance boat during the full moon high tide and cut off the old landowner’s head with a sickle.

– “But how did they know it was him?”

– “How would they know? It was the full moon, so it was bright, and the old man’s son saw him on his way back from a social gathering. He said that the guy who had disappeared 20 years ago was carrying a bloody bundle, so he thought it was strange, and he wondered if he had seen it wrong because he was drunk. The next day, when he woke up and the old man’s head was gone, he realized what had happened.”

He remembered huddling with his mother and trembling while listening to Jo Il-heon’s stories when they still lived in the mud house. Even though there was no chance that a spy would come. That’s how much more terrifying spies were than ghosts to ordinary people.

‘There’s no way a spy would come to our village!’

It might seem like a different time, but even now, the phrase ‘Confess and find the light’ is still erected like a tower in the town square and at the entrances.

Moreover, if they were operating in a place where the house where his family lived was clearly visible, it was unsettling.

He quickly changed his clothes.

He couldn’t just report a spy based on uncertain information, so he was trying to find at least some clues.

Click-.

“Heik-!”

He almost kicked Yu-jin, who was sleeping in a frog position in front of the door. But thanks to that, he changed his mind about moving hastily and regained his composure.

She was a strange younger sister. Whether he woke up in the morning or woke up in the early morning, she was always sleeping here.

As always, Jinhyuk first laid his younger sister on the bed and covered her with a blanket.

He flew down the stairs like a flying squirrel so that no footsteps could be heard.

It didn’t take him more than a few seconds to quickly move to the front door, put on his shoes, and go out into the yard.

Woof-.

“Shhh-. Don’t follow me.”

Jang-gun, who had gotten up happily, laid back down with his front paws, as if he was disappointed.

It couldn’t be helped. Jang-gun would be helpful in tracking, but he didn’t know what kind of danger might be waiting.

Sasa-sak-.

He focused his strength on the soles of his feet to minimize his weight. He ran on his toes so that no sound or footprints were left behind. He crouched down as much as possible, as he had learned in night infiltration training.

‘Was it called a ‘debok’ [a hidden cache or drop point]?’

He was definitely taught that way during his military service.

A place where spies hide necessary items or use as a means of communication with other spies.

It was the perfect time to make contact, as the sea needed for boat operations was created deep inland. If a suspicious person was moving at a late hour as if they had prearranged and trained, he judged that it was definitely a debok.

‘If I search, I’ll find evidence.’

How much was the reward?

Jinhyuk’s secularly reborn heart suddenly started beating fast.

He moved like the wind, choosing only the shaded furrows. He didn’t know if anyone was watching, and he actually felt like someone was watching him.

He arrived at the place where the shadow had lingered and quickly disappeared.

There was a rock the size of a small jar.

Kheu-, he couldn’t help but admire it. Even to Jinhyuk, it was an amazing choice of location.

It was a rock located exactly five steps away from the small pond towards the east field, at the intersection of two fields and two rice paddies.

‘It must be their own rule. For selecting a debok.’

Now, if he moved this rock, a small pit would appear, and inside it would be a square can. Jinhyuk took a breath, thinking about the reward money and national security.

‘Su-jeong told me to become famous.’

It was a chance to become the most famous middle school student.

Deureuk-. When he applied force, the heavy rock slid away with a vibration.

‘Oma? Why is there nothing?’

When he removed the rock, two earthworms were wriggling, and three small black bugs with pincer-like tails scurried away. It was a world where a few pale, almost white, grass roots lived precariously, relying on the brown soil, unable to receive sunlight.

But Son Jinhyuk wasn’t one to give up here.

Jinhyuk began to track the place where the shadow had disappeared.

He concealed himself as much as possible and moved along the path where the shadow had disappeared.

‘They look like combat boots.’

He didn’t know if spies wore combat boots, but the footprints on the rice paddy ridges were not from shoes or sneakers.

His disappointed heart started beating fast again.

How long had he been following the footprints, being careful not to even make a sound?

‘Haa-, I’m screwed.’

There were too many fallen leaves in the forest where the shadow had disappeared.

Because the moonlight didn’t reach, there were no traces of the leaves being pressed down.

He couldn’t just go in recklessly. It would be a problem if a bullet flew from an unseen place. No matter how confident he was in fighting, he couldn’t guarantee victory if a highly trained agent was armed with a gun.

‘They’re the kind of guys who can hit a target even if they’re blindfolded and only hear the sound of footsteps.’

There was no guarantee that a spy was hiding in the forest.

The sounds of insects were interfering with his hearing, but if someone was hiding in the forest, there should be some disturbance, and it should be easily detectable. But the forest was silent. The silence made him feel like his courage was shrinking.

‘Let’s be realistic.’

He had no choice but to wait for the next time.

Jinhyuk went back into the darkness, pondering how he could catch the spy. He pricked up his ears, feeling like he was being watched from all sides.

When he returned to his room like a stray cat, Yu-jin was fast asleep, and a Michael Bolton song was playing on the mini component.

‘I just got a good night workout.’

Cheop-.

Jinhyuk couldn’t fall asleep for a long time and stared at the debok.

With only his eyes peeking out from behind the curtains.

‘I should ask Dad to buy me a telescope.’

A telescope that can see well at night would be expensive.

Thump-thump-.

He was excited at the thought of having an expensive telescope while facing a spy.