#60 <Growing Pains (3)>
“Soft but seems to have no effect.”
The headache remained.
For a moment, I wondered if Yoo Jin had some fantastic ability, but it turned out to be just a fantastic imagination.
Honestly, it was disappointing.
“Is this the so-called adolescent delusion I’ve only heard about?”
I fully woke up and came to my senses. It seems I got better when it was time to get better. Indeed, the night has the power to make you think more.
Jin Hyuk chuckled to himself.
What’s impossible in imagination? In delusions, it might even be possible that Hong Soo-jung’s drool while sleeping cured me.
“This kid, she’s so damp.”
Hong Soo-jung has a habit of drooling in her sleep. I’ve witnessed it quite often when we’ve been on flights together for business trips or training.
“Just piling up delusions and random thoughts.”
In a world full of mysterious phenomena, the shoulders of someone thrown into it alone couldn’t feel light. Without anyone to confide in, the headache wasn’t easy to bear.
“But it’s nice to hold my sister.”
I hugged Yoo Jin and went to the fridge to open it.
It’s awkward to call her a baby now, but babies are curious. Even now, she’s stretching her short arms toward the fridge.
“Yoo Jin, that’s soy sauce.”
“……”
Yoo Jin didn’t mimic my words for once. The disappointed look in her eyes must be my imagination.
I chugged the barley tea straight from the heavy glass bottle, showing off its golden hue.
“Ugh, is this my esophagus?!”
The cold sensation swept down to my stomach. It was a chill that let me track the barley tea’s journey in real-time.
It really felt like growing pains. I even felt taller. My sweatpants had gotten shorter over the past few days, revealing my ankles.
Jin Hyuk stood against the wall to measure his height.
It might not be precise, but I could compare it to my previous height.
“Did I grow 5 cm in ten days?”
Am I a plant? Jin Hyuk muttered like a madman.
A vegetable human? No, this is weird. A plant-based human?
Compared to my past life, this growth is five years faster.
Whoa, I let out a sigh.
“I need to buy new clothes.”
But it didn’t seem like this kind of rapid growth would happen often.
This was also based on intuition, but now it felt like it had surpassed even the realm of sixth sense.
While Jin Hyuk was shocked by his height, the dads were amazed for a different reason.
“Wow, Jin Hyuk reached the top of the armrest, right? He’s exactly at the armrest now.”
Son Kwang-yeon and Hong Ki-jun, who were watching the TV broadcast, were surprised because of South Korea’s overall ranking.
But Jin Hyuk knew. By tomorrow morning, there would be another gold medal in the marathon, and South Korea would rise to 7th place. He didn’t know the overall ranking, but the marathon, with its single gold medal, was famously predictable.
“If this keeps up, I’m doomed…”
Jin Hyuk, who often felt hungry due to his fast metabolism, swallowed the milk on the table with regret. It seemed like Hong Soo-jung had left it, as it was lukewarm.
Wait, but what happens to the bet if no one guesses correctly?
Son Kwang-yeon voiced the same question.
“Then we’ll go with the closest guess.”
Hong Ki-jun casually tossed out the answer.
Hong Ki-jun’s words made Jin Hyuk’s head even more confused.
If we end up in 7th place, which is between 6th and 8th, who wins between Dad and me?
“We can go by the number of medals.”
Currently, 7th place is Hungary. They have the same number of gold medals as South Korea, 11, but their total medal count is 30, two more than us. So if Hwang Young-cho wins the gold medal as in the original history, South Korea will rise to 7th place with 12 gold medals…
Jin Hyuk quickly checked the medal count of the 6th place country.
Spain, 22.
“Right! Is this my victory?”
When Hong Ki-jun proposed the bet, Jin Hyuk briefly suspected him of being a regressor. The suspicion almost disappeared after the conversation at the school playground and seeing him mess up the Olympic rankings. But intuition doesn’t rely solely on evidence.
Just eavesdropping on the adults’ conversation was enough to fuel the suspicion.
Hong Ki-jun’s rise to success was faster than before. No, faster doesn’t even begin to describe it.
“He’s already become a CEO.”
Jin Hyuk didn’t remember exactly what his past trajectory was like.
Jin Hyuk wasn’t the type to dedicate his life to the company or be loyal to the owner. He only had a rough outline of the company’s history in his head. Yet, his intuition told him that Hong Ki-jun’s current growth was significantly faster than before.
“Isn’t it more than ten years ahead?”
As Yoo Se-ra said, could the achievements he made in a few years span a century? If living a month like ten years is possible, then it’s entirely plausible.
Yoo Se-ra is the same. It’s not hard to predict that Hong Ki-jun is behind her early interest in basic physical education, even before the 2002 World Cup.
Anyway, Jin Hyuk’s intuition still suspected Hong Ki-jun.
“That guy’s like a reservoir’s ice.”
From a distance, it looks solid, but you never know when it might crack and swallow someone whole.
It was an ominous chill.
That chill faintly covered the pores on his head.
Anyway.
The world remains the same, but the history of the people Jin Hyuk knew has changed too much.
“That guy Yoon Sung-dong and the bad crowd disappeared from school. It must be because of me.”
Touching things here and there has changed the world I knew.
There’s no other way to explain it.
“I hate puberty. I really hate it. Someone, take my puberty away.”
At some point, it’s become hard to stay calm and focus on just one issue.
Jin Hyuk quietly turned inward.
“Eat well, work hard, and grow fast. That’s all good. But the hormones are going crazy, and my head is noisy.”
The tension between the heat inside and outside his skull, clashing like weapons, quickly traveled down his facial bones and even tickled his jaw.
After all, what’s needed is physical growth, and the brain is still somewhat functional. So, if only the body grew and the brain stayed the same, it would be fine. But, as expected, things don’t always go as you want.
I fell asleep early but woke up and couldn’t sleep again. I spent time listening to the dads’ conversation and thinking about this and that. Jin Hyuk held Yoo Jin, who was mumbling in her sleep, and lay down again.
“Shiveb nim tando nadiskab af nedrakdart ee hko af nedrakmarf…jiyo?”
But what is Yoo Jin saying? I don’t know what language it is, and the accent is unfamiliar. Did Jo Il-hun say that? Yoo Jin seems to be babbling nonsense like a baby from this neighborhood until she enters kindergarten.
“Huh, fascinating.”
Listening to Yoo Jin’s sleep-talking, sleep washed over me.
Soon, I stepped into the realm of dreams.
It was a dream of having an intellectual conversation with Yoo Jin.
“Bakslik bwil sasajos ab snipdet-jiyo?”
“There are two bottles of sweet soy sauce in the fridge?”
“Oppa will give it to Yoo Jin, right?”
“Yoo Jin, rolpalok ab gideg aks gaz, gnilksla nim.”
Hehehe.
Yoo Jin giggled, dreaming a happy dream.
It was a dream of riding on her brother’s back, floating on a sea of sweet soy sauce.
Already past dawn, waiting for morning.
Amid the cozy sound of insects outside the window screen, Hong Ki-jun proudly told Son Kwang-yeon.
“We’ve decided to acquire Daewoong Telecom.”
“Such a big company? Wasn’t it quite solid? But to acquire it so suddenly without any news?”
“We did some work.”
“Not some manipulation, right?”
The two men giggled quietly, careful not to wake the three children sleeping sprawled in the living room.
“Actually, they had a lot of debt. Enough to make the whole group wobble.”
“You must have made a deal.”
As they say, like knows like. Without much explanation, Son Kwang-yeon understood.
“Would you refuse if I asked for your help?”
“I have no social experience and am just an ordinary farmer now.”
“Ordinary people are all dead.”
Though he was a valuable talent, knowing his friend’s stubbornness, Hong Ki-jun’s words were just a probe. Of course, his help would be a great asset, but he had no intention of dragging his friend, who lived like a recluse, back into the world. It was safer in the countryside.
“If Soo-jung’s dad gets released, we can raise our son to work for us.”
Drinking the lukewarm barley tea that had been in the fridge for a long time, Hong Ki-jun rolled his eyes to look at Jin Hyuk. The boy, who had snugly tucked the two little ones in his arms and was curled up like a shrimp, sleeping as if puberty was someone else’s problem.
“If Jin Hyuk says he’ll take care of our daughter, we’ll think about it.”
“Don’t even joke about that. That’s for the kids to decide.”
“What’s wrong with our daughter-.”
Hong Ki-jun, about to flare up, quickly controlled his voice, glancing at the sleeping children.
Son Kwang-yeon turned his gaze to the family photo on the wall.
“Fate is something we don’t know.”
Hong Ki-jun had no choice but to agree with his old friend’s words.
Fate and connections are unpredictable. Just look at Son Kwang-yeon, living in a countryside with no connections.
Even in summer, the countryside dawn was cool. Yoo Jin slept in her brother’s arms, and Hong Soo-jung burrowed into the gap like a nursing puppy.
“Peaceful.”
Hong Ki-jun admired the idyllic scene the children presented, realizing that his friend, who had lived a lonely childhood, had finally found peace.
“Yes, this was the life he dreamed of.”
Hong Ki-jun’s reflections on escaping the harsh city life were interrupted by Son Kwang-yeon.
“Hey, do you really like our son? He’s just an ordinary country boy.”
You might as well say all ordinary people are dead.
He knew but asked anyway.
“Like him or not.”
What fourteen-year-old could show such boldness, staying calm even after causing a major incident? His personality? I thought he was shy, but it turned out he refrained from speaking to avoid unnecessary words. Yet, he takes care of the little ones who follow him, even the dog.
I felt like I’d truly seen him for who he was.
“Just grow up quickly.”
No, live happily and grow slowly. Looking back, those were the best times.
Well, he’s already taller than most adults.
As Hong Ki-jun’s gaze lingered on Jin Hyuk, who was curled up in the dark, shivering from the cold.
His arms were pinned by the little ones, but somehow the blanket had risen to his chest.
The blanket seemed to rise on its own, covering the children, and Hong Ki-jun’s face turned pale. It felt like the blood was draining from his head.
“Did I drink too much?”
His wide eyes scanned the unfamiliar silence.
In the sudden quiet, he looked at his friend, who was nodding off while sitting.
As if someone turned up the volume, the TV commentator’s voice suddenly grew louder.
[Hwang Young-cho! Hwang Young-cho! South Korea’s Hwang Young-cho enters the Montjuïc Stadium in the lead! What a moving moment! The hero of Montjuïc! Hwang Young-cho!]
Hong Ki-jun clenched his fists and smiled with satisfaction, his eyes red.
Grrroooaaak.
He let out a long burp and wrinkled his nose at the sour smell.
He had drunk so much makgeolli all night.
At least, being at Son Kwang-yeon’s house, he could drink until his nose was crooked.
*
The dads sat on the porch with a Go board between them, the morning bird songs as their music.
Hong Ki-jun pointed to a distant persimmon tree. Dozens of sparrows perched on the tree, then hopped to the ground, repeating their antics.
“Why do those sparrows only do that on that tree?”
“How should I know? Every year, every month, every day, only on that tree. Even in winter, no exception. Must be their hideout.”
A hideout.
Hong Ki-jun propped his chin and stretched his neck. Below, the fields, waterways, and streams were visible, and beyond, the hill led to the bus road and distant Gubong Mountain.
To the east, a forest led to the town, and to the west, the sea.
It was cozy.
“I’m a sparrow too.”
A cozy and safe place.
He scanned the surroundings once more, admiring the scenery.
Whereabouts is Team Leader Yang?
