The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 82

Moon Seokil’s jaw tightened.

Now that he thought about it, that woman was a real pain in the ass. The nameless woman who commissioned the job. She had only introduced herself as ‘Ms. Baek.’ Anyway, they were in a situation where they were being driven to their deaths because of her.

It was an order to kill them, but he swore he had no intention of harming civilians. Because the target was an ordinary civilian, not a villain.

The problem was that they were careless, thinking he was just a country bumpkin living in the countryside. But there were people they couldn’t see, sharing the situation with each other through wireless communication. He didn’t know who they were. He thought about giving up, thinking it was strange, but the down payment was too big, and he had already used it for his colleagues who needed quick cash.

‘Yeah, if it was an easy job, there would be no reason to pay us a huge sum.’

Moon Seokil gritted his teeth and unbuttoned his sleeve.

It was too far to retreat, and now it was too late to resolve it through conversation. Only Jeong Sangtae had been unfairly beaten.

Kim Inrang threw a right hook. The sound of the wind being cut was heavy.

Even though it was an unpredictable punch, Jinhyuk’s guard was already up. It looked more like he was trying to grab the fist rather than guard it.

But it was a feint by Kim Inrang.

Just a moment ago, the fast Jeong Sangtae had been in a bad way after going in for a close-range attack. Kim Inrang had no reason to take a risk.

“Got you.”

Kim Inrang, having retracted his right hand, grabbed Jinhyuk’s right shoulder with his left hand and smiled with satisfaction. It was a seemingly kind face. But it was a smile he couldn’t maintain. The joy of success was short-lived. Kim Inrang’s mind went cold as he realized that what he had grabbed was not a person’s shoulder, but rather a rock.

It was at the same moment that he saw one corner of Jinhyuk’s mouth twist upwards.

“What…”

Jinhyuk let out a word like a sigh, as if he was dumbfounded.

At the same time as Jinhyuk restrained Kim Inrang’s forearm with his right arm, he extended his left arm.

He just extended it.

‘So what if you grabbed me?’

Slam-!

It was too fast for Kim Inrang to avoid. It was the same attack he had used on Jeong Sangtae.

Kim Inrang’s jaw was directly struck by Jinhyuk’s palm, which was lightly raised towards the sky. He collapsed to his knees and fell powerlessly.

As he lost consciousness, Kim Inrang realized. Jeong Sangtae hadn’t fainted because of the impact on his jaw or the back of his head. The impact from the young man had passed through his jaw, nasal cavity, and brain, and exited through the top of his head. Kim Inrang’s nose felt spicy, and something was dripping down. In a delusion that his head had been turned to mush, darkness came to his consciousness.

He had never imagined that his body, trained through hard training, would collapse so helplessly. The short, empty time felt too long. The pain proportional to the perceived time tormented his soul.

‘Two down, so two left?’

Jinhyuk was never careless. He had dealt with the first two easily because they were careless, but these guys were used to group combat. The numerical disadvantage was still a fact.

‘Those two will get serious now. Should I get a little tense?’

But he didn’t shrink back or get scared. Any other teenager would have peed their pants facing adults with bulging eyes and good physiques, but Son Jinhyuk had a clear reason to face them.

He was less excited than when he participated in track and field events.

‘These guys are definitely monsters.’

Jinhyuk wondered as he watched numbers 2 and 3 rush at him. They were fast and strong, even to Jinhyuk’s eyes. He wondered if humans could be this agile.

The hands that would extend and quickly retract to avoid grappling techniques, the deliberately strong steps, the weaving that was sure to be faster than his judgment. It was a movement that could truly be called ghostly.

‘But they’re slow.’

Has his dynamic vision improved?

Was it because he was in a desperate situation? He felt like his brain was spinning furiously inside his skull. He felt the top of his head was hot.

Jinhyuk casually placed his hand on his head while dodging the attacks. It wasn’t hot at all.

Clack-.

The two of them launched a coordinated attack, as if to subdue Jinhyuk’s arms one by one.

Thinking that he couldn’t get caught, he quickly took a back step. He shook his arms like in a judo grappling match. He dodged the continuous attacks with light footwork. It was a movement that even Jinhyuk couldn’t understand with his head, as if his body was moving on its own.

‘They definitely wouldn’t have been easy opponents before.’

They were much more sensitive in their movements than athletes like Choi Taeyang. If it had been before his growth spurt, he would have been beaten up. They were that skilled.

But in front of Jinhyuk’s skill, which even read their breathing, they had been reduced to ordinary people.

It was an overstatement to call them ghosts.

Crack-.

An elbow struck the right side of Kang Heonchang’s, number 2, who was trying to subdue Jinhyuk’s right arm. Jinhyuk had lowered his body and moved forward, striking with his elbow. The attack, chosen because he couldn’t throw a punch due to the short distance, flashed like lightning.

“Guh-!”

Kang Heonchang let out a scream as he was suffocated by the pain and fell to his knees.

Oops, I couldn’t control my strength. Jinhyuk muttered inwardly.

Kang Heonchang knew. His ribs were broken and piercing his insides. It seemed his lungs were okay since he could breathe, but it was a serious injury that could kill him if he didn’t go to the hospital quickly. He should have insisted on giving up, even if Moon Seokil cursed at him. Regret washed over him. The sound of the sneakers scraping the cement pavement as the young man moved was terrifyingly eerie.

“Shouldn’t you stop? Are you going to kill all your colleagues?”

Jinhyuk, having created some distance from number 3, Moon Seokil, said.

Moon Seokil didn’t let his guard down and looked at his motionless colleagues. Kim Inrang was okay since he had fallen forward, but Jeong Sangtae, who had hit the back of his head, and Kang Heonchang, who had broken his ribs, were in danger.

It hadn’t even been a few seconds since he had told them to subdue him. That fact was even more painful.

Jinhyuk opened his mouth again. He let out a long breath.

“Hoo-, to be honest, I’d be more comfortable killing you all. You know why, right?”

Jinhyuk had clearly heard their conversation about what they were going to do to his parents. He briefly thought that it might be better to kill and bury those kinds of guys.

But even if he dealt with them, the next problem was what to do next.

Because he didn’t know what kind of troublemaker would shake the peace next time.

“If you tell me honestly, I’ll let you go. Just tell me who sent you, why, and what they told you to do. You guys definitely didn’t come here for good purposes.”

“Kuhm-”

Moon Seokil glared at Jinhyuk and swallowed a groan.

But his eyes, which couldn’t hold out for long, fell down on their own.

‘Did I… get scared?’

He had planned to take them quietly if they could talk. But he knew that the expectation that they could talk was insignificant because their positions were different.

It was shocking that his colleagues had been defeated, but they were friends who couldn’t defeat even one Moon Seokil even if the three of them attacked.

Moon Seokil had to make a choice. There was only one way to take his colleagues safely.

He reached behind his back. He was skilled in all martial arts, but what he was most confident in was his dagger skills.

As he gripped the flat, hard hilt of the knife, courage raised its head again.

“Mister, you shouldn’t use that.”

Moon Seokil’s hand was faster than Jinhyuk’s warning.

***

“Rock Seohum- Even if you hate me- I- I love you so much-”

Jo Ilheon, who didn’t know what was happening on the road above the house, was humming a song with excitement. He had a talent for singing all the popular songs like a folk song, making people chuckle. He had gotten a precious wild boar, so it was understandable that he was singing.

Choi Janghwan, who was cutting the meat, threw a jab at him.

“Hey, you rascal. You’re an old man who can’t even get married, and you’re singing because you’re happy?”

“Huh? What does singing have to do with getting married?”

Fact violence was timeless, so Jo Ilheon felt a pain as if the knife in Choi Janghwan’s hand was piercing his chest. The delicate knife skills he was using to butcher the wild boar seemed to be cutting into his ribs.

“Brother is good at butchering pigs, and he’s good at cutting into my heart. Anyway, you’re a real man.”

“What, you punk? A real man? Am I a real man?”

“You’re a real man, what else would you be?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Jo Ilheon, that braggart, was strangely good at talking. Choi Janghwan had never won an argument with him, so he decided to agree at that point. If he were to scold him for calling an elder a ‘man,’ he would sit down on his butt and lament his fate, saying, ‘Is a man who can’t get married supposed to live?’

‘Damn it, he should have just closed his eyes and gone when the matchmaker from the township office, Kwak Hyangrim, came.’

Jo Ilheon had waved his hand, saying she wasn’t his ideal type. He wanted someone who was at least as good as Son Gwangyeon’s wife, or someone who looked like a human when standing next to Han Yooyoung.

Kwak Hyangrim was a rare beauty in the neighborhood, but that bastard was unnecessarily picky. Choi Janghwan, who had cursed with his eyes, silently cut the ribs.

“Why are you leaving so much meat on the ribs?”

“I’m going to give it to our Jinhyuk. He’s growing, so he needs to eat well.”

“Brother, Jinhyuk is bigger than us. What do you mean by us? He’s bigger than most adults. Maybe the only person in the neighborhood bigger than Jinhyuk is Taeyang.”

“He’s big, so he needs to eat more!”

This time, Jo Ilheon lost.

A satisfied smile appeared on Choi Janghwan’s face, having tasted victory.

“But why do you call someone else’s son ‘our Jinhyuk, our Jinhyuk’? My sister-in-law does that too.”

“I received Jinhyuk, you punk. He’s like my own son.”

“Oh my, that’s too much.”

It was a well-known fact, but Jo Ilheon asked again, not wanting to lose.

“What can I do! Mother went to Daejeon to take care of my youngest sister, and the work is urgent, and there’s no one but me. My wife is recovering after giving birth to our Migyeong. I received him with trembling hands.”

Choi Janghwan, having said that, stopped cutting and sighed, as if recalling the old days.

He hadn’t even received his own daughter directly. Choi Janghwan, who wasn’t even forty at the time, couldn’t ignore Son Gwangyeon’s request when he came to him with a pale face in the early dawn. He had received the newborn Son Jinhyuk with trembling hands.

‘It must have been later than this time of year.’

It was a moonless night in early autumn. Relying on the bright starlight, he had walked along the field path to Son Gwangyeon’s house. Even though it was her first birth, Han Yooyoung had bravely given birth to her baby alone.

Was it because he had come into the world too early? The baby was very small and trembled with a bloodless body. Still, he was trying to live. The small fist that the little one was clenching tightly was deeply engraved in Choi Janghwan’s mind.

“I just received him, just received him. It was a strangely cold day, so the baby suffered.”

He didn’t even cry. He only made whimpering sounds, and when his mother gave him milk, he sucked it like a gentle puppy. There was a saying that a baby who didn’t cry couldn’t talk, so he wondered if that was why he was so quiet.

“Hoo-, just thinking about that time makes my heart pound even now. But it’s a relief that he can talk.”

“But what will Jinhyuk become when he grows up? He’s big, he’s strong, he’s good at running, he’s good at studying. And what about his looks? He’ll be popular with the girls, right?”

“No way. Our Migyeong says he’s a ‘goja’.”

Cheop-!

Choi Janghwan clicked his tongue loudly with a sigh.

“Huh? A ‘goja’?”

Jo Ilheon’s eyes, which were bloodshot from drinking, widened like a rabbit’s. A ‘goja’?

That young one was a ‘goja’? Oh, poor thing. They say heaven is fair, but did it give him all the talents and then take them all away?

Did it shake off all the seeds like shaking off sesame seeds?

‘Goja’ meant a person with outstanding talent, or a tall person, so it was a perfect fit for Jinhyuk, but in this neighborhood, ‘goja’ meant a man with incomplete reproductive organs, a eunuch.

“But how did Migyeong know that?”

Migyeong is still young, right? Jo Ilheon twisted one corner of his mouth.

Huh? Choi Janghwan’s expression, which was tilting his head, also changed like a fool.

When a woman holds a grudge, frost falls even in May, and in a village, if Choi Migyeong is disappointed, even a macho man becomes a eunuch.