My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 105

After that, it was a non-stop frenzy of wedding preparations.

I think I understand why people these days avoid getting married. Wedding preparations are truly back-breaking labor. We could just register our marriage, but everyone loves formalities and pomp.

Especially with all kinds of advertisement offers and variety show appearance requests pouring in for Jung Pureum, preparing the wedding was literally a hellish forced march.

“But I still think we should accept all the home appliance ads.”

“But….”

“No buts! I’ll do air conditioner, refrigerator, and washing machine ads all of them!”

“….”

“And while we’re at it, we get electronic product sponsorships too. How about that, hyung’s plan?”

“It’s incredibly mercenary.”

Only mercenaries can get air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines cheaply.

To be honest, I could just buy them with my own money and be fine, but seeing those people grovel and beg Jung Pureum to shoot just one ad made me conclude that I should squeeze them dry down to their very marrow.

Why does Korea love Olympic gold medalists so much?

I thought his popularity would be fleeting, but even after Jung Pureum laid low for several weeks right after the Olympics, his popularity didn’t cool down.

Would you believe that because he proposed in an interview, fans actually increased with comments like “A married man? Actually, I like that”? It’s a completely different trajectory from me, who gets into trouble just by breathing.

Thanks to that, all sorts of broadcasting stations sent Jung Pureum requests to appear on variety shows.

When Jung Pureum refused, there were many cases where they applied pressure through universities or sports associations, asking him to please appear on TV. Since he avoided media exposure like that, it made him look like he had no interest in making money, which was another plus, and his fan base grew even thicker.

Well, to sum it up, the increase in fans was a good thing. Thanks to that, we were able to quickly replace his coach.

After the Olympics, Jung Pureum’s coach was literally discarded like a used rag. Finally, an opportunity arose to kick him out. It’s amazing that Jung Pureum endured that coach from elementary school all the way until now, solely to participate in the Olympics.

It was fortunate that an athlete who identified himself as being from the same university as Jung Pureum posted a whistleblower account online about the university swimming team.

Right after the Olympics, Jung Pureum attempted to change coaches by switching his affiliation to the university side, but the coach clung to Jung Pureum like a leech.

However, when the whistleblower kept pressing on the coach’s verbal abuse and doping issues among the university swimming team members, the coach could no longer cling to Jung Pureum.

I don’t know who the whistleblower was, but I’m truly grateful.

How did they blow the whistle with such perfect timing? At first, I thought Jung Pureum might have put his university senior up to it, asking, “Could you please blow the whistle regarding the coach?” But there’s no way the kind and good-natured Jung Pureum would do that.

“You should seriously consider variety show appearances too. Not all of them, but wouldn’t one or two be okay? As a fan service.”

“Are you okay with it, hyung?”

“Me?”

“With me appearing here and there. I was uneasy when hyung said he went on TV because of Gongjindan….”

What is there to be uneasy about? Even though there are fans who say they want to assassinate me and marry Jung Pureum, they only exist online anyway.

As the broadcast I appeared on to promote Gongjindan was unearthed from the depths, my face also spread all over various online communities.

Contrary to my expectation that I’d get a ton of hate, the reactions were surprisingly mild.

Even Jung Pureum’s fans who had raged about the eight-year age difference seemed to forgive me once they saw my face, so it was fortunate that my portrait rights were sold. Back when I appeared on that show, I was going to a dermatologist.

Of course, regardless of that, the people who dislike me are holding rituals to make us break up. But what use is online shamanism? Anyway, Jung Pureum is marrying me this winter.

It’s ridiculous to be jealously possessive in a relationship that’s already marked. Now that Jung Pureum has become a sports star, as the older partner, I have no choice but to understand the obsessive fans with a generous heart.

But Jung Pureum didn’t seem to like my understanding attitude. He seemed to want me to actively oppose his appearances on public broadcast.

“To be honest, I am a bit worried. In the comments on your game videos on YouTube, people keep asking if I’m good at fighting.”

“…Should I sue them?”

“Sue them for what? They’re all joking.”

“….”

“If you respond to humor with seriousness, you lose.”

I brought up the idea of Jung Pureum appearing on one of the popular public broadcast variety shows, <Catch Man>.

<Catch Man> is a variety show that consistently gets good ratings. It’s also a long-running show that has survived on public broadcast for years.

The basic format is a chase between fixed panelists and guests, and name tag ripping, but the episode that requested Jung Pureum was said to be a semi-sports competition featuring only Olympic gold medalists. With some chasing mixed in as well.

So, it means we get to see Jung Pureum not just swimming, but also doing archery or shooting. Just imagining it makes my heart satisfied. It’s the perfect variety show that would satisfy both fans and me.

Jung Pureum didn’t like the idea of leaving me behind to shoot ads or film variety shows while we were busy preparing for the wedding, but I thought differently.

We need to put this guy on TV so that YouTube comments like “Can Moon Yeonghwa fight?” and “Make Yeonghwa hyung pay more taxes” will appear a little less.

“Don’t worry about the wedding preparations. We’re leaving half of it to the wedding planner anyway.”

“But, we haven’t even chosen the invitation design yet….”

“I’ll commission a design company for a classic, modern, elegant but kitschy design.”

“We haven’t done the wedding photoshoot yet.”

“We agreed to do that after I bulk up a bit.”

“Then we’ll never get it done.”

“What?”

Jung Pureum was grabbed and shaken by me.

Lately, I’ve been diligently going to early morning swimming sessions under Jung Pureum’s guidance. Solely for an amazing wedding photoshoot.

The problem is that because I use the apartment community center pool, I often get surrounded by the older ladies who enjoy early morning swimming.

Still, it’s much safer than a public pool. Since before Jung Pureum won gold, about nine out of ten of those ladies were favorable toward him.

“Anyway, I think <Catch Man> would be the best. A physical variety show would be more comfortable for you than a talk show.”

At my words, Jung Pureum reluctantly nodded.

I’ve never had a good experience getting involved with broadcasting stations, but Jung Pureum’s fortune is different from mine. As Monk Mujeong said, Jung Pureum has a fortune where people admire him even when he does nothing.

Jung Pureum is the plus and I’m the minus, so the two of us have the best compatibility, he said.

I recalled the cultist Monk Mujeong’s compatibility reading. I shouldn’t fall for cultists, but thinking about it again, it did seem oddly true.

∞ ∞ ∞

Jung Saebom stared at me with a sour face.

I stared back at Jung Saebom with the same expression.

“You said it wouldn’t happen, and now you’re finally getting married.”

Her tone was cold, but Jung Saebom didn’t oppose our marriage. Instead, she just offered well-wishes that we should get married quickly and take Jung Pureum away to live elsewhere. Although she said it in a slightly cursing tone.

“Yeah, I heard you’re getting married this winter?”

“…It’s too soon, isn’t it?”

I was currently facing the lady next door together with Jung Pureum. Just as Jung Pureum had come to greet my family, I was now formally showing my face to Jung Pureum’s family.

Facing the lady next door not as the neighboring Korean medicine doctor but as a prospective son-in-law, my heart was pounding. I didn’t think she would oppose our marriage, but you never know with people.

“Soon? If you can prepare well, it’s better to get it over with quickly.”

“Pardon?”

“If it gets delayed even a little, Pureum would have gone crazy.”

“Ah, Mom.”

“Look at him pretending to be mature next to Yeonghwa. Now I can finally say it. Pureum has been singing about marrying you since he was little. And not just singing, he was singing it like a round song.”

“At first, I thought it wasn’t because of Gongjindan, but that this kid wanted to marry you, Yeonghwa, so much that he even changed his secondary gender through sheer willpower.”

The neighbor uncle, who had been clinging to the lady’s side, chimed in. More too-much-information followed about how he also wanted to change his secondary gender because the lady was an alpha when they were dating.

“Honey, be quiet for a bit.”

“…Mmhm.”

“Dad talks too much.”

The lady next door and Jung Saebom stopped the uncle, who was going on and on about his love story. Silenced by two alpha females, the uncle deflated and shrank into the corner of the sofa.

“Pureum.”

“Yes.”

“I think I understand why you turned out the way you did.”

“Right? In our house, the weak don’t survive….”

As Jung Pureum and I started whispering, Jung Saebom said she couldn’t stand to see a couple and stormed out first. She said she absolutely would not be a bridesmaid at the wedding. I wasn’t expecting it anyway.

I was satisfied just that Jung Saebom didn’t call me her brother-in-law. That would have given me the creeps.

Anyway, greeting Jung Pureum’s parents went several times more smoothly than when we went to my house.

“Now you’re really family.”

The lady next door patted my back vigorously. With the touch of a former shot-put athlete, my body kept lurching forward.

My back hurt a little, but the word ‘family’ made a corner of my heart feel warm and fuzzy. We were already almost like family, but now we were truly bound within legal boundaries.

“Please take good care of our Pureum.”

I felt grateful anew to the lady next door.

If it weren’t for her, I would have spent my college years depressed. I probably would have barely managed to survive.

And I wouldn’t have developed this kind of relationship with Jung Pureum either. We would have just been awkward neighbors who occasionally ran into each other in the elevator.

Without a word, I hugged the lady tightly. She hugged me back.

The feeling of being inside someone’s boundary comforted me. I was no longer as anxious as before. The world is still unkind to me, but around me, there are many people who firmly believe in me.