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## Chapter 3. When I Opened My Eyes (3)
“No? I hate them. Actually, not just hate them. If you asked me to name the animal I hate most in the world, without a doubt, it would be alligators. Is that enough of an answer?”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“How can someone who hates alligators that much win at this golf course? I find that really amazing.”
“Hey, hey. That's a competition. What kind of golfer has a weak mentality?”
“As expected! You really are the undisputed world number one and the one and only golf genius Korea produced.”
“Why bring that up? Let's just play golf today.”
A shadow suddenly fell over his face.
It was unfamiliar.
In the more than ten years I'd known him, I had never once seen that expression.
Or perhaps it was an expression he had simply never shown me...
“Hyung! Do you know what my real wish is? I'm asking seriously.”
“Your real wish?”
“Yeah.”
As expected, there was something else he had been hiding.
I decided to simply ask without saying anything else.
That was the least consideration I could show him.
“Fine. Let's hear what our spoiled rich boy's real wish is.”
“Yeah. I have to tell you now. It's time.”
He muttered as though he were talking to himself.
Something felt strange.
He was different from the Lee Jae-seong I had always known.
I tilted my head slightly.
Perhaps it was nothing more than my own impression.
I still had no idea what was really going on inside him.
“Okay. Tell me.”
He opened his mouth with a calm expression.
“I wish you would disappear from this world, hyung.”
“What?”
I was confused, but at the same time, I understood him.
I knew all too well the sense of loss and self-loathing he must have felt from remaining in second place year after year because of me.
Even so, I wanted to confirm it.
So I carefully asked,
“...Why?”
“As long as you exist in this world, I'll always have to remain in second place. And...”
‘And? Was there something more?’
While I was momentarily lost in thought, he shook his head.
Then, with a bitter smile, he muttered self-deprecatingly,
“No. That's reason enough by itself.”
I had no choice but to nod.
Because it was true.
At this point, I felt that I should say what I had wanted to tell him for a long time.
It came straight from my heart. It was also sincere advice from someone who genuinely cared about him.
“Do you want me to tell you why you can't take first place?”
He stared straight at me.
“Yeah. Tell me.”
“Okay. It's something I've wanted to tell you at least once. I guess today is the day.”
“Go ahead, then. Tell me why I can never take first place!”
There was an edge to his voice.
I bit my lip.
It wasn't something easy to say. I needed courage to say it.
But I had to.
If I didn't tell him, he would have no choice but to remain where he was.
“The difference in skill between you and me is negligible. You could say there's practically no difference at all. In some areas, you're actually ahead of me.”
“Forget the consolation. So?”
“But there's one thing. I think the problem comes when you play against me.”
“What problem? Keep going.”
“Your excessive competitiveness is the problem.”
An obsession with absolutely having to beat me.
That was ultimately what led to his downfall.
He nodded.
“That's right. You saw it exactly, hyung.”
“Try to enjoy the game. That's how you'll be able to surpass me.”
“Easy for you to say. It's not like I haven't been trying... Ah, forget it.”
He shook his head.
“I don't know anymore, hyung. I'm sorry.”
Something was in his hand.
It was a stun gun.
I didn't know when he had taken it out, but without hesitation, he pressed it against the back of my neck.
Bzzzzzt!
My entire body stiffened like a log, and I collapsed where I stood.
He then picked me up and carried me toward the water hazard.
“I made sure they weren't fed for a week just for today. They'll be tearing into you like crazy soon. That's the only way I can completely get rid of the evidence.”
Whether I could hear him or not, he muttered a few words before throwing me without the slightest hesitation toward the place where the alligators were gathered.
Just as he had said, the starving alligators rushed at me all at once, tearing into and biting my entire body.
One tore at my head, another at one of my arms.
The rest greedily ripped apart my remaining limbs and torso, swallowing the chunks of flesh ravenously.
That was how I died a gruesome death.
At the hands of the younger man and brother I had loved and cherished most in this world.
“Ugh, this pisses me off! No matter how many times I think about it, wasn't that too much? I cared about and loved that bastard so much, and he killed someone, no, he killed me, for a reason like that. How does that even make sense?”
As the memory resurfaced, my teeth trembled with rage.
But I had to endure it.
No, what else could I do if I didn't?
There was nothing I could do anyway.
Resignation soon turned into acceptance.
I didn't know whether I was lucky or unlucky.
But since I had been reincarnated anyway, wouldn't there eventually be a chance for me to get revenge?
‘Let's think about this as positively as possible.’
I forced the negative thoughts out of my mind.
An opportunity would definitely come.
Just as it always had before.
---
It was my seventh day staying at the hideout.
It had been the most peaceful and yet the most depressing period of my life.
As an athlete, I had never once spent an entire week doing absolutely nothing but eating, sleeping, and using the bathroom.
“I should call... No, forget it.”
I wanted to call Mi-yeon, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
There was nothing I could say to her right now.
I couldn't exactly tell her, ‘I'm Yoon Choseong, but I've been reincarnated.’
Moreover, if I called her just to hear her voice and then hung up, she might mistake me for a stalker and become anxious.
The same would happen if I hovered around her.
So I thought it would be better to refrain from confusing her for the time being.
Sneaking over occasionally to secretly take a look at her would be fine, so for now, I decided to comfort myself with that.
Truly, it had been a week filled with every possible conflicting emotion, with the joys and sorrows of life and death constantly crossing paths.
Time passed slowly.
I had a few phone calls with Suhyeon, the caddie I was friendly with.
Most of them were formal conversations asking how I was doing.
When would the bump go down? When could I start working again?
The number of customers at the golf course was increasing, but there weren't enough caddies. On top of that, more and more madams were canceling their bookings because Na Tae-su wasn't showing up at the golf course.
Apparently, he had been fairly popular with the madams.
Man or woman, you had to be good-looking first.
That was why the head of the golf course operations department kept having Suhyeon check on Na Tae-su's condition.
Even after reincarnating, this guy's popularity showed no signs of fading. Tsk.
I got up from the sofa and stood in front of the mirror.
The unfamiliar face of a man stared back at me.
I still hadn't gotten used to it.
‘Well, I'll gradually get used to it.’
After all, I'd spent 35 years looking at one face, and it had changed overnight. It was only natural.
Still, I had been reincarnated two years younger...
I took comfort in that.
The bump on my forehead had almost completely gone down, leaving only a faint trace.
At this point, it didn't seem like there would be any major problem with returning to work.
And I suddenly wanted to feel the grass beneath my feet.
The fact that I missed the field even in this situation proved that I really had been born to be a golfer.
“I should tell her I'll be able to work starting tomorrow.”
I immediately called Suhyeon.
She greeted me in a delighted voice.
“Oh! That's great, Tae-su. Then I'll see you tomorrow.”
“Yes, see you tomorrow.”
Now I had to get used to this guy's voice too.
So throughout the week, whenever I had time, I read books aloud or talked to myself about random, meaningless things.
Enough to make anyone watching think I was crazy.
As a result, even my voice gradually started to feel familiar.
And I steeled my resolve.
Solemnly, like a general going onto the battlefield with his life on the line.
From now on, I had to live as Na Tae-su, not Yoon Choseong.
At last, I was ready.
‘All right, let's go.’
I left the hideout exactly as I had when I departed from the dormitory.
---
A week after the bump appeared on my forehead, or rather, one week after my reincarnation, I received my first assignment sheet in the caddie waiting room.
I was a little nervous, but at the same time, I couldn't help laughing.
The King of Golf, Yoon Choseong!
Yoon Choseong, the king of the field and a golf genius renowned throughout the world, was now wearing a caddie uniform and holding an assignment sheet...
But now I had to erase Yoon Choseong from my memories.
And I had to do my best at the role I had been given.
That was the destiny of someone who had to live a second life.
‘All right. Let's give it our best.’
With renewed determination, I loaded the customers' golf bags onto the cart.
It was my first time working as a caddie, but fortunately, I was able to handle everything naturally, as though I were already accustomed to it.
My body was reacting automatically.
‘Okay! This should be smooth enough.’
My first customers as a caddie after reincarnation were four middle-aged men.
Judging by the unfamiliar names written on the list, they didn't seem to be regulars.
You potbellied old men, consider this an honor for your families.
Do you even know who I am... Ah, right. I have to erase Yoon Choseong now.
But could I really erase him that easily?
Whether this was reincarnation or possession, I was still a soul filled with resentment.
‘I'll forget the glory of the past, but I won't forget the grudge.’
I renewed my resolve once more and climbed onto the cart.
“All right! If you're ready, we'll get going.”
As I started the cart and signaled that we were leaving, one of the men spoke politely.
“Mr. Na Tae-su! Please take good care of us.”
“Yes, I'll do my best.”
As soon as I finished answering, another man spoke with a mocking tone.
“Oh, come on. You're already sucking up before we even start.”
“Hey, isn't calling a caddie that politely a little much?”
“Oh, please. Since when were you such a polite guy?”
“I am that kind of guy, you know?”
The two men began bickering before they had even started playing golf, and the people standing nearby muttered among themselves.
“Those idiots are starting again.”
“Hahaha, whenever they come to the golf course, they always have to engage in this kind of psychological warfare.”
“That's true. Without this nonsense from them, things would be boring.”
“Exactly. Hahahaha.”
Judging by how casually they spoke to each other and how little formality there was between them, they all seemed to be friends of roughly the same age.
Well, that was the kind of banter unique to middle-aged men.
‘Ah, could they be those troublemakers?’
Looking at them carefully, I felt like something was coming back to me.
Watching the two bicker brought back a memory.
They weren't regulars, but I think they had been customers last month.
The group of high-handicap beginners who had made ridiculous jokes at Suhyeon.
Telling her that she had a pretty face, that her dimples were charming, asking what she was doing after they finished, and so on.
Cheap, sleazy attempts at flirting that weren't funny, romantic, or even remotely appealing.
Come on. Get a grip, gentlemen!
That's why people call you old men!
I quietly shook my head and started the cart.