Chapter 2

2

I found myself lying in a hospital bed for some reason.

‘What on earth happened?’

I lay there, moving my body this way and that. It was such an unfamiliar sensation. Though I had never learned it, my hands and arms moved as I willed them to.

It felt like something I had always known.

The feeling was so new that I spent a long time just doing that.

‘I can move my body.’

It must be a given for others, but I found the movement of every muscle and joint incredibly wondrous.

I could watch it all day without getting bored.

‘But… my skin is a bit dark?’

It wasn’t completely black, but as a Korean, my current tanned skin felt very strange.

I immediately got up and stood in front of the bathroom mirror.

“Surely, I’m not… Black?”

Now, the shock I felt this morning when I saw ‘that’ makes more sense.

But how could the past Kim Chul-soo suddenly become Black?

“Ah…”

I felt dizzy.

*

I took deep breaths for a while to calm my trembling heart.

‘First, let’s figure out the situation.’

I tried to gather as much information about myself as possible in the hospital room.

Fortunately, there was a patient chart attached to the bed.

“……”

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

‘I’ve heard that foreigners have good physiques, but…’

The face of ‘Rohan Kim’ I confirmed in the bathroom was at least in his mid-20s.

And with a height of 187 cm, he was only 16 years old?

I wondered if it was a typo, so I searched through my (his) belongings and found a freshly issued California driver’s license.

‘He was a fresh-faced high school student…?’

I’ve heard that kids these days develop physically faster, but America seemed like a whole different world. This was the physique of a 16-year-old. It would take some time to get used to it.

‘Is there anything else?’

Finding no further clues in the patient chart, I thoroughly searched the wallet where I found the driver’s license.

I expected to find family photos, a student ID, or something like a parent’s car (since he’s a minor)…

“Huh?”

I found 50 twenty-dollar bills, which amounted to $1,000 in cash. Isn’t that a bit too much for a high school student?

‘Is he from a wealthy family?’

There was nothing else of note. The wallet was filled with various brands of condoms.

“Ah!”

Since I have no experience in this area, I felt embarrassed and threw them all in the trash.

Just then, someone entered the hospital room.

“…Rohan!! What are you doing?!”

“Ahh!”

Suddenly, a Black woman smacked my back and started picking up the condoms from the trash.

“I don’t care who you meet outside, but I told you to always use protection!”

She then started putting them back in the wallet one by one.

‘Who is she?’

She called my (his) name and her actions suggested we were close.

If I looked closely at her face, would I remember something?

She had light brown skin and brown eyes, which seemed to shimmer with gold in the sunlight, making them very attractive.

Her features were sharp, and she seemed to love heavy makeup, giving her a very glamorous image. It was hard to guess her age.

‘She’s too young to be my mom, and an aunt? No, if she’s close enough to remind me about condoms, she must be an older sister with a significant age gap.’

Feeling my intense gaze, she approached me again and smacked my back.

“Ow, it hurts…”

“I hit you because it hurts, so of course it hurts! Do you even have a brain in there?”

As she raised her hand to hit me again, I desperately called out.

“Hey… Sis? I… I can’t remember anything right now. Can we sit down and talk?”

“Sis??”

She froze. Our eyes met briefly, and her face twisted into a terrifying expression.

Thud – Smack! – Thud

“Do you think you can get away with it just because you’re a bit bigger? What do you mean you can’t remember? Did you think calling me Sis would make me less angry? Well, let’s see if Mom can shock you back to your senses!”

I realized that regaining my senses wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Her strength was incredible, and each hit felt like it could kill me.

“Really, I’m so upset. The first thing you do after almost dying from a drug overdose is throw away condoms, huh?”

While desperately trying to avoid her slaps, I didn’t miss the clues in her words.

‘He had a drug overdose?’

A rough scenario formed in my mind.

A son rushed to the hospital after a drug overdose. His mother, receiving the news, felt her heart sink and her anxiety grew as she rushed to the hospital.

Upon arriving, she saw her son standing fine and felt relieved. But like any mother, her relief quickly turned to anger.

‘How dare he ruin his health with drugs when his parents gave him such a great physique?’

Having lived my whole life as a quadriplegic, I felt angry at the unknown Rohan Kim.

I understood her feelings all too well. To witness her son, who had just come back from the brink of death, throw away all the condoms must have been infuriating.

‘I need to clear this misunderstanding.’

I firmly held her two hands, which were about to slap my cheeks, and spoke seriously.

“I’m still young and plan to remain a virgin before marriage, so I threw away the condoms because I don’t need them.”

“……!”

‘Did it work?’

Her eyes trembled intensely, as if she was about to cry. I quickly searched for a tissue, but that was a mistake.

A moment later.

She urgently called for a doctor, and as soon as the doctor arrived, she got straight to the point.

“Doctor… I think our son has amnesia. Can you help make sure he never regains his memory?”

“…….?”

*

The doctor was very surprised by the mother’s (her) request but, after a brief examination, discharged me.

“Let’s go home.”

For some reason, she had become very gentle and drove me in her car.

‘Hmm, not from a wealthy family, I guess?’

Although my wallet had a significant amount of money, her car was an old, shabby Japanese compact car, probably about 20 years old.

There was a sense of disconnect, but I decided to gather information for a while. I believed in the Korean saying, “Silence is golden.”

‘So, this is the California I’ve only seen in movies.’

From the license plate and road signs, I realized we were in the famous state of California.

The weather was so nice and the atmosphere so relaxed that I almost forgot about gathering information. I quietly enjoyed the scenery outside.

“……”

Occasionally, I felt her gaze on me, but I had nothing to say and just sat there.

“We’ve arrived. Let’s go in.”

‘He lives in a pretty rundown neighborhood.’

We arrived in a small town on the outskirts of Oakland. Unlike the area near the hospital, there were many old houses, and the streets were poorly maintained, making it seem like a neglected area.

Our (his) house had a very modest appearance, but it felt cozy inside.

“Your body probably isn’t fully recovered yet, so go rest in your room.”

“Ah, yes…”

I answered but couldn’t help but look around.

“Do you not remember where your room is?”

She scrutinized me. I had no choice but to nod honestly.

“Here it is.”

She opened the door for me.

It was a very small and messy room.

‘The living room and kitchen were very clean, but only this room is dirty?’

I soon understood why.

She sat on the bed and chuckled.

“Since you didn’t have a seizure when I came in, I guess you’re not faking it. Phew.”

She led me to the bed and lay down, stroking my head like she was looking at a baby.

“I won’t nag you about things you can’t remember. Take some time to rest. I’ll call your school.”

She covered me with a blanket and kissed my forehead, then paused at the door and looked back.

“Do you need anything? Are you hungry…?”

There was something I needed. I had never gone this long without ‘it’ and was suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Especially in this room, I couldn’t find any trace of ‘it,’ which made me increasingly anxious.

“Um, do you think you could bring me a book?”

“…What?”

She looked as if I had asked for drugs or a gun.

‘Ah, the original owner of this body must not have been a reader…’

Even with the excuse of amnesia, being too different from the original ‘Rohan Kim’ would surely raise suspicion.

I needed time to understand my surroundings, so I decided to maintain the existing persona as much as possible.

“Haha, just kidding. I don’t read books.”

“R-right? It was a very funny joke.”

Her eyes still held suspicion.

“Um, can I have my phone?”

“Oh, right. You gave all your belongings to me as your guardian. I didn’t plan to keep them, but I forgot in the chaos…”

I calmed her down, even though it was a minor issue.

“It’s only natural. I’m a minor, and my parents are the legal guardians, so the hospital followed the procedure. Besides, it was a drug overdose. It’s understandable to be worried.”

“…Right. Rest well, and call me if you need anything.”

“Yes, thank you for today.”

“……”

She looked at my face several times before leaving the room.

‘From her reaction, it seems I wasn’t this polite before. But… even if it’s a persona, I can’t be disrespectful to adults.’

I sighed and started searching through the phone.

I needed to gather more clues about myself.

Since I looked fine, I would eventually have to return to my daily life… but the road ahead was long.

I didn’t know the family relationships beyond my mother, and at 16, I should be in high school. I needed to know what classes I took, if I had friends, and many other challenges lay ahead.

In that sense, the phone was a treasure trove of information I desperately needed.

“Ah!!”

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the contents of the phone.

‘Who are you, Rohan?’

American Physique Genius 3