Chapter 25

“Mom, Dad.”

“Huh? What’s up, son?”

Both the mom, who was feeding her now four-year-old daughter Yoo Jin, and the dad, who was smiling at his daughter, turned their heads in surprise at Jin Hyuk. It had been rare for their son to speak up or initiate a conversation since the “Tonkatsu Incident” that sparked the Seven-Day War.

“I have a competition next week at Taeyang Middle School.”

“Why? What kind of competition is it this time?”

Dad, Son Kwang-yeon, asked, already thinking about how another award would soon be added to their collection.

Jin Hyuk excelled in every subject—math, science, art, music, and even computers. He swept awards at every competition he attended. His parents had reached a point where they were only curious about which subject he was participating in, not the outcome.

“It’s an athletics competition.”

“Ha ha ha ha!”

Dad suddenly burst into laughter.

Wasn’t this going too far? Math, science, art, and music weren’t enough—now an athletics competition? It was too much.

He was thrilled.

“That’s my boy!”

“Hoho, he must take after his dad.”

Mom always put her husband first. Even in the midst of this, she subtly praised him. Looking at their son, who at thirteen was already as tall as his mom, Jin Hyuk’s parents were filled with happiness.

“So, do you need anything?”

That’s why he called, Dad.

As always, Dad seemed to have a knack for reading Jin Hyuk’s mind.

“Running shoes.”

“Oh, right. You’ll need spikes, huh?”

Son Kwang-yeon was a man of common sense and knowledge. He knew what kind of shoes were needed for sprinting. His son, who had grown so tall but was still as precious as ever, deserved the best. What shoe store wouldn’t sell to him?

“I don’t need spikes. My current shoes slip a bit on the sandy ground.”

He wasn’t a professional athlete, so he didn’t think he needed spikes. Even when measuring his time with Teacher Kim Young-tae, he felt a slight slip with each step. He just wanted shoes with good grip to avoid any regrets during the competition.

“Alright. Let’s go shopping tomorrow. Are Asics or Rapido good these days?”

For some reason, Dad seemed more excited than Jin Hyuk. Is this what parental love feels like? Jin Hyuk wondered. Having never been a parent in his previous life, he couldn’t even begin to imagine the feeling.

But.

‘Since Dad’s happy, I’m happy too.’

If it were soccer or baseball, would they have stopped him, worried he might get hurt? Of course, there weren’t any schools nearby with those kinds of sports teams, but Jin Hyuk was curious about his parents’ thoughts.

He even wondered if they’d let him join the wrestling team if they liked him doing sports.

Taeyang County was famous for wrestling.

***

Taeyang Elementary School in town.

“Teacher Kim Young-tae. Is the county athletics selection tomorrow?”

“Yes, Vice Principal.”

“We have the provincial representative for the marathon, and we’ll probably have one for the sprint too, right?”

Being a coastal area with a large landmass, there were schools and branch schools everywhere, but most of the population lived in the town. Naturally, Taeyang Elementary had the most students. More students meant more potential—potential to produce talented athletes.

“At least one student should make it.”

Two students from each administrative district compete in the sprint. They are selected based on their times, and since it’s a timed event, there’s no room for judges to intervene or for the school to influence the outcome. This meant that even if it was their own student, they couldn’t favor them.

“Just one? Why? Is there another school standing out?”

Kim Young-tae handed the vice principal the record sheet. Sixteen athletes had made it to the county finals. The list was sorted by 100-meter times, and the name at the top looked familiar.

“Son Jin Hyuk?”

The vice principal’s forehead wrinkled in surprise.

“Son Jin Hyuk? The Son Jin Hyuk from the academic competitions?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“What? 12.12 seconds? Isn’t that a middle school record?”

The vice principal, who had no eyebrows like Tanaka, shouted in disbelief. Kim Young-tae muttered under his breath, annoyed. Even in middle school, that wasn’t an easy record.

He didn’t like the vice principal’s habit of denying reality by blurting out whatever came to mind, but since he was his superior, Kim Young-tae held back.

“I measured it twice.”

Kim Young-tae answered shortly, as if he didn’t want to explain further.

“Was the track short?”

“I measured it again after the race. It’s 100 meters. The field is quite large.”

Even though the population was small, the rural school had plenty of land. More land meant a larger field. A few cows even wandered around one side of the field.

Kim Young-tae checked Son Jin Hyuk’s record again. Even though he had written it down himself, it was hard to believe.

“12.12 seconds.”

That was a time you’d expect from a professional athlete wearing spikes on a professional track. And at a national-level competition.

“Is it being held at our school tomorrow?”

“It’s at Taeyang Middle School.”

The county finals, where representatives are selected, are held on the same day and at the same place as the middle school competitions. There was no other reason. It was just more convenient to do it all at once. That’s how most things were handled—administrative efficiency took priority over the students’ conditions.

The vice principal sighed in disappointment.

He wanted to see this monstrous elementary school student who dominated academic competitions and was also good at running.

‘The principal tried to transfer him.’

You might think it’s just an elementary school, but a student’s achievements reflect the school’s achievements. Accumulating awards in various competitions changes how the education office views the school. A famous school attracts more students, and more students mean more funding. Just look at the wrestling team. All school administration is based on student performance and the school’s ability to attract talented students.

Anyway, Taeyang Elementary’s plan to transfer Son Jin Hyuk fell through.

The student refused. His parents said their child’s opinion was important and didn’t argue back.

For three years, Taeyang Elementary failed to produce any top awards in academic competitions. All because one student from a rural school, Eodong Elementary, swept them all.

The vice principal, with sharp eyes like Suzuki, muttered something that cut to the core of Jin Hyuk’s nature.

“A monster…”

***

It was clearly spring, but the sky was so blue it could have been autumn. The plane trees already boasted leaves as big as an adult’s head. It was the tree Jin Hyuk had loved so much in his previous life. The large tree always provided shade, allowing Jin Hyuk to live like a shadow, a person who didn’t exist.

The field at Taeyang Middle School, newly renovated for the upcoming sports festival, was clean. Well, it was still a sandy field.

Jin Hyuk wandered around the wrestling team’s practice area in the corner of the field.

‘This is where it was.’

The place where he used to sit on a tire and read books during sports festivals.

The place where he spent time alone, pulling on wrestling training tubes during picnics and school trips.

The swing he used to sit on during lunch breaks swayed in the spring breeze.

There was Son Jin Hyuk, a middle schooler smaller than the thirteen-year-old Jin Hyuk now. Sitting on the swing with an expressionless face.

Jin Hyuk carefully grabbed the swing’s ropes. He slowly pulled it back and let go.

The middle school Son Jin Hyuk turned around with a startled face.

The bruises and scratches on that face made the current Jin Hyuk feel a scar in his heart, like a lump.

‘How scared were you back then? How lonely and hungry were you? Huh, Jin Hyuk?’

Now you’re happy, reunited with the family you always wished for.

But even if the wounds heal, the scars on the soul remain.

Jin Hyuk sat quietly on the swing where his past had existed and then disappeared.

People say you should move forward.

Some say you need to look back and reflect to grow.

What’s the right answer? It doesn’t matter. Jin Hyuk thought that only a wild animal caught in a trap moves forward purely on instinct. The instinct to move forward even after realizing it’s trapped, leading to a sad and foolish fate of strangling itself.

‘If I didn’t have the memories of the past, I wouldn’t have been able to save Mom, Dad, Yoo Jin, or even Jang Gun-i.’

I would have repeated the nightmares of the past like a fool, like a blank canvas.

Even if this life is satisfying, you can’t forcibly erase a past that won’t fade. Jin Hyuk decided to live with the scars of the past, comforting the old Son Jin Hyuk as if hugging him.

‘You’re the scar I’ll take responsibility for.’

You were also me.

***

During his growth spurt, there were many days when he went hungry, so he hovered around the wrestling team. The wrestling team had meat dinners after evening practice, and Jin Hyuk wanted to join just to eat meat.

Of course, he was rejected.

– “You’re too small. You don’t look strong.”

That wasn’t the only reason.

Parental support. Joining a sports team required more than just school or education office funding. Especially at Taeyang Middle School, famous for its wrestling team, promising students even transferred from Gangwon and Jeju, and parental support was abundant. Coaches and directors even bought luxury cars with the extra money. They knew they couldn’t expect any support from Jin Hyuk.

‘Shin Woo-sung was the son of a butcher, and Lee Seung-hoon was the son of a fishing village head.’

They were the friends who had brought fame to the school through wrestling in his previous life. If nothing changed, he would see them again when he entered middle school.

Since they were too busy with sports to focus on academics, Jin Hyuk helped them a lot with their studies, and they protected him, who had no friends, like a screen. They even shared snacks from the wrestling team. Shin Woo-sung and Lee Seung-hoon remained friends with him even after they entered society.

Next year, he would enter middle school. Jin Hyuk’s heart raced at the thought of seeing his friends again. Apart from the old memories, the sadness of losing his parents had long been pushed aside.

***

Fidgeting.

“Hey, Son Jin Hyuk. Don’t shake. When you hear the gunshot, just run. Got it?”

“Yes.”

Teacher Park Jae-seung, who had come as the supervising teacher, tucked Jin Hyuk’s shirt into his shorts as he spoke. It reminded Jin Hyuk of a dad taking care of his little son, and he chuckled.

The Youth Sports Festival.

Even though it was just the preliminaries, it was the first time Eodong Elementary had participated since its founding. So, it was understandable that Park Jae-seung was nervous. Jin Hyuk answered firmly to the trembling teacher and entered the waiting area.

“Group 3, ready.”

Sixteen students were divided into four groups of four for the preliminaries.

The top four from the first round would be selected, and after a 30-minute break, the finals would be held. The final four would definitely participate in the festival. Two would be sprint representatives, and the other two would be relay runners.

The pink shorts and uniform hastily prepared by the school felt unfamiliar.

Jin Hyuk loosened the shirt that Park Jae-seung had tightly tucked in and carefully watched the starting positions of the kids in the front group.

‘Ah, that’s right. It’s better to lean forward so your weight shifts forward.’

Even in his previous life, he had been interested in sports and often watched sports highlights. The explosive power of the black and white athletes who dashed out like racehorses at the sound of the gun, their thighs ready to burst, and their deltoids like they had been injected with volume. He had been so captivated by them that he had done a lot of sports himself.

“Group 4, ready.”

Even though he wasn’t running on a professional track like those athletes, Jin Hyuk felt like he had become a track athlete. The empty concrete structure of the rural middle school transformed into an Olympic stadium, and he could almost hear the cheers of the packed audience.

“On your marks.”

He placed his feet on the starting blocks, adjusted as he had observed from the front group. He spread his hands slightly and placed them inside the starting line. The sand grains pricking his knees were annoying, but he decided to ignore them.

The kids in position glanced at the next lane.

Jin Hyuk felt their gaze and made eye contact with one of them, nodding in greeting. The kid, startled by Jin Hyuk’s unusually deep eyes, nodded back silently.

Once the athletes were ready, the next signal came.

“Set.”

The athletes all straightened their legs.

As their legs straightened, their upper bodies leaned forward.

The stadium audience held their breath.

It wasn’t that he was nervous.

Gulp.

His heart was strangely pounding.

Inhale-exhale.

He took a breath, exhaled only a third, and stopped.

The gun would fire soon.

“Lower your heads.”

Someone must have seen the gun.

It was a common mistake among kids unfamiliar with the rules. Jin Hyuk, who also wanted to look, didn’t feel like blaming them.

“Set.”

A foul that wasn’t a foul caused the starting signal to be given again.

Inhale.

He took a breath. A silence as if even the air had stopped flowing descended.

Crack!

The sound of the paper gunpowder tore through the air.