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# Chapter 5. I Became a Genius International Student
‘He made it? On his first try?’
The first shot Hyunsoo had ever taken in his life hit the rim, but somehow managed to fall in at the last moment.
“Oh, you got lucky.”
Naturally, Jessie thought the same thing. So she casually retrieved the ball and handed it back to him.
“Here. Keep that feeling and try shooting again.”
“Okay.”
‘Miss. Miss.’
Jessie knew it was petty, but she even cursed him silently in her head.
Swish—
“……?”
But Hyunsoo made an even cleaner shot.
“This is fun. I should've played basketball when I was younger.”
After that, even without any further advice from Jessie, he corrected his own shooting form and cleanly made nine out of
ten shots.
Jessie asked with an expression of disbelief.
“You... You've played basketball before, haven't you? You're actually really good, but you're pretending you can't play
just to prank me. Right?”
“...Hmm? Why would I do something like that? I just followed what you taught me.”
“Ha.”
Because Hyunsoo said it with such an innocent expression, her mind became even more complicated.
‘Could it be that he's talented at teaching other people? Am I a genius after all???’
---
Hyunsoo continued learning various types of shots from Jessie.
Even with the same one-handed shot, it felt different depending on the distance and angle. Later, he learned more
dynamic running shots as well.
Swish—
Swish—
Swish—
Hyunsoo mastered each shot so quickly that it was impossible to imagine he was a beginner.
Usually, he only needed to try something three or four times before it became natural to him.
“Are you kidding me?!”
Jessie was stunned, but Hyunsoo had actually expected something like this to happen.
‘This really is a perfect body.’
The moment he regressed, Hyunsoo realized that his body was extremely special.
He had spent a long time professionally researching artificial human bodies.
He had analyzed the physical data of countless men and women of all ages and had succeeded in developing the most ideal
physical model.
The so-called golden-ratio physique.
A supreme model in which the bones, muscles, nerves, and everything else were harmoniously optimized.
‘The reason the company was able to become so successful was also because of the superiority of that physical model.’
Various artificial bodies based on that model, including prosthetic arms and legs, were able to give disabled people the
chance to live ordinary lives again.
It was, quite literally, a perfectly engineered artificial body.
‘And I ended up getting that perfect body.’
Because he had spent his entire life perfecting that model, he knew the moment he saw(?) it.
His body was exactly that perfect physique his company had developed.
Hyunsoo thought he had been even more shocked by seeing this body than by the fact that he had regressed.
The body of seventeen-year-old Lee Hyunsoo had definitely not been like this...
How had this happened?
He thought about it every day, but there was never going to be an answer.
‘It's not like anyone can explain it to me.’
Instead, he gradually became fascinated by his own body.
He had already sensed it while exercising, but learning basketball this time made it even clearer.
‘It's not simply that I have a good physique. There's an incredible amount of potential hidden inside me.’
Simply put, it wasn't just that he had the hardware.
It felt as though the software had been installed as well.
Could his extraordinary memory and intelligence actually be products of this body?
For some reason, Hyunsoo felt certain that they were.
‘Just where is the limit of this body?’
His heart began pounding wildly.
After spending half his life trapped inside a paralyzed body, he had now gained an ideal body overflowing with vitality.
For the first time in a long while, his desire as a scientist to test its limits began stirring inside him.
---
The group PE class was held for one hour every day.
Hyunsoo didn't need to attend every session, but he had genuinely started enjoying basketball.
And Jessie was extremely enthusiastic about helping him.
“Good! You're doing great!”
“I feel like you're more excited than I am, Jessie. Am I imagining things?”
“Not at all. I'm naturally an energetic person. But... why don't you try out for the basketball team while you're at it?
You know that you can receive basketball team training as one of the privileges of a Free Class, right?”
She spent several days teaching him everything from the fundamentals of basketball to the rules of the game.
---
“What are those two doing?”
There was a man who had been watching the two of them closely.
He had a thick beard and looked more like a teacher than a student, but Deante was definitely in the same grade as
Jessie and Hyunsoo.
“Hey, who's that guy that Jessie has been hanging around for days?”
“Don't you know that Asian guy? He's gotten really famous after scoring a perfect score on the level test.”
“A perfect score??”
Deante had entered the school as a basketball prodigy, but his level test score had been in the thirties.
And even that was a score he had managed to get because he had unexpectedly been a fairly good student in middle school.
‘It's just that the difficulty here is insane. I was actually pretty good at studying back in my neighborhood.’
Of course, he was currently barely maintaining a C average, so he was in a precarious position where one slip-up could
get him cut from the basketball team as well.
To someone like him, a perfect score was practically unimaginable.
“He studies his ass off, so now he's learning sports from a girl. He should be ashamed of himself.”
“If he's that smart, what's wrong with learning some sports? He'll have no trouble making a good living. I wonder how he
studies. Does he have some kind of private tutor?”
“...You idiot. Why don't you just go ask him? If you become friends with him, maybe he'll even teach you his tricks.”
“Oh, now that you mention it, you're right! I should go ask him now.”
His friend really did head straight toward Hyunsoo.
“That bastard.”
Deante casually played around with the basketball while watching the three of them, which had somehow become a group of
three.
Jessie's laughter was especially irritating to him.
‘Maybe I'll embarrass him tomorrow.’
Bang!
He smirked and effortlessly threw down a dunk.
---
Jessie carefully reviewed the detailed schedule she had created and monitored herself, the “Hyunsoo Basketball Training
Schedule,” and smiled with satisfaction.
‘My training really is working.’
It was the fate of an assigned mentor to somehow get him accepted onto a sports team.
‘Should I help him start enjoying basketball now?’
Jessie tapped Hyunsoo on the shoulder and said generously,
“Want to play a game with the others today? The guys play pretty fiercely, even making bets, but let's join one of the
mixed games where everyone just plays for fun.”
“Oh? Should we? Sounds fun.”
Hyunsoo readily accepted Jessie's suggestion.
It was Friday anyway, so the coach had given the students freedom to exercise however they wanted.
“Let's practice just a little first.”
Clack—
The feel of the basketball fitting naturally into Hyunsoo's hand felt incredibly familiar.
It was as though he had held a basketball tens of thousands of times.
“...Hmm?”
He was about to take a shot when he heard his name being called from the neighboring court and had no choice but to
stop.
“Did you say his name was Hyun? Anyway, we'll make Hyun the last player on our team. We should give the transfer student
a chance at least once.”
The boys' basketball game Jessie had described as one where they “played fiercely enough to make bets.”
From what Hyunsoo had observed over the past few days, the games were so intense that at least one person was injured
during the mere twenty-five minutes of play.
Hyunsoo noticed the attention focused on him and pointed at himself.
“Me?”
“Yes, you. We're on the same team, so let's do well. There's a hamburger riding on this, so you'd better play well.”
Before Hyunsoo could even process what was happening, he was led onto the basketball court by the hand of a Black man
over two meters tall.
Hyunsoo was 185 centimeters tall, which put him in roughly the top five percent in height in Korea, but among the men
playing three-on-three basketball here, he was the shortest.
The Black man, who introduced himself as Deante, was both tall and powerfully built.
“I'll pass you the ball often, so do your best. Let's have some fun, Yellow.”
“……”
In the blink of an eye, the team had been formed.
---
Hyunsoo was on the same team as Deante, who had brought him over, and Charles, a brown-haired white student who had been
friendly toward him over the past few days and asked him questions about studying.
“We don't have any special strategy. Just follow the flow. Attack when we're attacking and defend when we're defending.
Yellow, you know the half-court rules, right?”
Hyunsoo frowned.
“Yellow?”
“Yeah, Yellow. Your skin is yellow.”
‘It's been a while since I've encountered such blatant racism. Then again, it's still 2020.’
He chuckled and didn't take it seriously.
“Then how about our smelly friend takes a step back when he's talking?”
“Pfft.”
Charles burst out laughing.
Deante, the target of the remark, clenched his teeth, his face showing that he was desperately holding back his anger.
“You're a witty guy. In this game, you're responsible for Lloyd. If you stick close to him on defense, you'll realize
that what comes out of my body is actually perfume.”
“……”
Hyunsoo involuntarily flinched when he looked at the man Deante was pointing at.
Lloyd looked to be around two meters tall, similar to Deante, but his build was on an entirely different level.
Deante was also extremely solidly built, but his physique was like that of an athlete.
Lloyd, on the other hand, was, putting it nicely, a super heavyweight.
‘Is this what they mean when they say someone can seriously injure you just by brushing against you?’
Charles then scolded Deante.
“Hey, Lloyd should be your assignment. Why are you creating such a mismatch?”
Just as he said, Lloyd was the tallest player on the other team, while Hyunsoo was the shortest on their team.
He was pointing out that the other team would likely target the mismatch throughout the game, which would put a heavy
defensive burden on Hyunsoo, a basketball beginner.
Deante merely shrugged.
“Then I'll be a mismatch too. But Lloyd is basically a center, while I'm a scorer, so our side has a much bigger
advantage, doesn't it? It's better for me to be free on offense. Right? Don't tell me you're scared, Asian friend.”
“Hmm, I'm scared.”
“What?”
Deante was actually startled when Hyunsoo readily admitted it.
“I'm playing basketball for the first time in my life, starting with this PE class. Wouldn't it be intimidating to play
basketball among you guys? There's also the difference in size... You and Lloyd are starters on the basketball team.
Wouldn't it be strange if I were scared?”
“Huh? Uh...”
Jessie, who had been watching the situation for a moment, also stepped in.
“Well said. What are you guys trying to do, bringing someone who's never played a basketball game before into this? What
if he gets hurt?”
Deante looked back and forth between Jessie and Hyunsoo with a sly expression.
“What is this? Jessie, are you his babysitter or something? Aren't you being a little too protective?”
“Ah, what kind of nonsense are you talking about? I'm his assigned mentor, so of course I'm going to look after him.”
“Heh. Well, you're a junior now, too. It's about time you started dating. I'll be rooting for you.”
“...Ugh, I'm only going to hurt my mouth talking to you. Let's stop the nonsense there, okay?”
Deante carefully watched Jessie's expression change.
‘Is she actually embarrassed?’
He grinned and draped an arm around Hyunsoo's shoulder.
“And you're not the only one looking after him. Everyone's desperate to play with us, but I'm deliberately giving him a
spot. Isn't this a good opportunity to make friends?”
“That only applies when you can actually play basketball. What does he know...”
Jessie looked at Hyunsoo and couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence.
‘Why is this guy suddenly acting like this?’
As Deante said, there was no better way to become friendly with people than sports, and games like this, where the best
students in each PE class gathered together, were a great stage.
Players often developed a sense of camaraderie as teammates, and since the participants were already fairly skilled at
basketball, they were also entertaining to watch.
Deante, in particular, was a starting player on the high school varsity basketball team. He had built up quite a fanbase
around school.
Most of the students were already gathering around the court, waiting for the game to begin.
It was childish, but in a high school setting, this was one of the fastest ways for an ordinary student to make a name
for themselves and build a kind of “popular” image.
‘But that doesn't apply to Hyunsoo.’
That was only true if you were genuinely good at basketball or had an outgoing personality and could put on a good show.
If you were instead humiliated, you were much more likely to become the target of jokes for quite some time.
“Well, we can't force someone to do something they don't want to.”
Deante removed his arm from Hyunsoo's shoulders.
“Do it if you want, and don't if you don't. ...You can't do it without your babysitter's permission anyway, right?”
“Hahahahaha!”
The students watching burst into laughter.
Apparently, Jessie's direct involvement had backfired because she was so well-known around school.
‘He'll probably be embarrassed for a little while. There's no need to make a bigger deal out of this...’
“Uh...?”
Jessie subtly signaled for him to leave, but Hyunsoo was already casually rotating his joints and warming up.
“You said we were going to play a game. What are you doing? Are you going to stand there until class ends? Your smell is
already giving me a headache, so I'd rather play on your team. At least that way, we won't have to guard each other.”
“Hahaha! Did you hear what that guy just said?”
“Heh heh. Deante really does smell a little.”
“I thought Asians were only good at studying, but this guy can roast people pretty well too.”
‘This bastard?!’
The laughter was much louder than it had been when Deante teased Hyunsoo.
Apparently, the students were shocked because nobody normally dared to talk to Deante like that.
Crack—
“Then let's start right away.”
A playful glint flashed in Hyunsoo's eyes.
‘This looks like a decent stage.’