My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 107

Jung Pureum, yielding to my pressure, shot two or three home appliance commercials. I even specifically picked out the types of home appliances for him to advertise. Refrigerator, washing machine, air conditioner… truly essential appliances.

Not long after, I was able to easily find the commercials Jung Pureum had appeared in. Because they always aired before the weekend drama series that my mom had started watching.

Seeing Jung Pureum holding a kimchi container and smiling in front of the refrigerator door, a flood of thoughts came to me. This kid must have had a hard time filming those ads.

Sure enough, every time he came back from filming, Jung Pureum looked like his soul had been drained.

Because on top of the electronic product ads I’d forced on him, he also had to shoot pictorials for clothing brands that the university demanded, holding his new coach hostage.

I only outwardly expressed displeasure about Jung Pureum’s clothing shoots. Inwardly, I was smiling brightly at the thought of getting my hands on a photobook that capitalism was legally packaging up for me.

I didn’t like the university squeezing Jung Pureum, but it was a good thing that it spread his fine appearance far and wide. The spirit of Hongik Ingan—to spread goodness widely for the benefit of all—is important.

“Isn’t that Jung Pureum?”

“Where?”

“What? It really is Jung Pureum!”

Is there such a thing as a fake Jung Pureum?

The problem was that as Jung Pureum’s fine looks became known to the world, the number of people who recognized him increased sharply.

Because of that, Jung Pureum couldn’t come in and out of our clinic as freely as before. The clinic was already overflowing with patients, and when Jung Pureum showed up, it caused a commotion.

After the commercials aired, even going to our early morning swim lessons wasn’t easy. Because word got out that Jung Pureum came to the early morning swim, people who weren’t even residents of our apartment complex started gathering in groups to gawk at us.

The life of a celebrity is truly the worst. After <Catch Man> airs next week, even more people will recognize Jung Pureum. Just thinking about it gives me a headache.

“Are you Jung Pureum, the athlete?”

One female omega, who had started coming to our clinic through Lee Seolwoo’s introduction, sidled up to Jung Pureum.

As if she couldn’t control her pheromones either, a subtle pheromone scent spread through the air. I tried to think positively. This patient must really need that herb to clear her heat cycle!

“Could I have your autograph? And if it’s okay with you, I’d love to take a photo together too….”

“A photo might be a bit difficult.”

“Really? I’ll just keep it for myself.”

Jung Pureum hesitated for a moment at the sudden fan request. After all, Jung Pureum is a swimmer, not an entertainer. It wouldn’t be easy for him to adapt to these kinds of requests.

I looked up and waved my hand at Jung Pureum, who was looking at me, signaling him to give the autograph quickly. Jung Pureum, seeing me like that, looked a little sullen and scribbled his signature.

To be honest, I felt a tiny bit—no, about as much as an ant’s tear—of a sense of crisis. If we weren’t marked, I would definitely have been having all sorts of thoughts.

However, for a marked alpha or omega, the pheromones of other sub-gender individuals don’t have much effect.

That person probably knows that too. She probably just couldn’t control her pheromones due to the joy of meeting a celebrity. No particular intention….

“By the way, you have a really great body.”

…Or maybe there is?

I was shocked when I saw the female omega, who had gotten both an autograph and a photo, touch Jung Pureum’s forearm. Hey, why are you touching someone else’s arm? Don’t you know that unwanted physical contact is sexual harassment?

Of course, I also sometimes touch Jung Pureum’s chest. Because it’s just so touchable!

But I’m Jung Pureum’s prospective husband, and that person is just a patient who came to our clinic for medicine. She’s a complete stranger.

I could see Jung Pureum flinch and pull back. But by then, all sorts of patients at our clinic had already gathered around Jung Pureum in groups. Having seen someone else get an autograph and photo, everyone else approached to get something too.

The generous, broad-minded understanding of the older partner with a sports star lover began to crack.

Is this right? I stared blankly at Jung Pureum, surrounded by all sorts of omegas, unable to do anything.

Jung Pureum couldn’t cut people off as sharply as he used to. The reason was obvious. He was worried that if he coldly pushed people away at our clinic, my reputation would suffer.

Especially since there had been a noticeable increase in malicious posts about me lately.

[But isn’t that place, that person’s clinic, the one that had fraud issues before?]

└[Yeah, that’s right, but I think they aired a correction?]

└[What controversy does that person have?]

└[The Gongjindan that turns you into an alpha is from W Clinic]

[I saw some YouTuber review it before, and that Gongjindan was confirmed to be a scam… A beta YouTuber took it for over a year and didn’t turn into an alpha]

└[That stuff only works on kids, like height-increasing herbs]

└[Still, the price was reasonable for herbal medicine]

└[The fact that they sell it at a reasonable price in the first place is a scam lol. If it had genuinely good ingredients, there’s no way it could be that price]

[Why does Jung Pureum propose to a problematic omega of all people? Isn’t the whole idea of an omega making a potion that turns you into an alpha absurd in the first place? If it were possible to become an alpha, wouldn’t he have become one himself? Why is he still an omega?]

└[Plastic surgeons don’t operate on their own faces either, so what’s different about a Korean medicine doctor?]

└[Oh lol logical]

└[That’s bullshit. These days, monks shave their own heads with clippers]

└[Are you comparing a monk to a doctor?]

[Guys, stop hating out of jealousy. You’re just mad because you thought Jung Pureum didn’t care about looks, but it seems he cares more about face than personality lol]

└[What’s that supposed to mean? Jealous? lol. That person isn’t even that good-looking anyway]

└[Yeah, look in the mirror and look at that person again. There’s a squid in front of the mirror lol]

└[Sun-deoks’ logic is ridiculous. When we say something about him dating a controversial omega, they immediately start judging his face. So if he’s pretty, being a con artist is fine?]

└[I’d rather have a pretty con artist than an ugly one]

└[Agree x2]

The <Curious About Everything> episode on Gongjindan kept being unearthed and making things difficult for me. People reacted more strongly to the original broadcast that pointed out “It’s a scam” than to the correction broadcast that aired afterward.

I can’t check all the underground online communities, but in the communities exposed externally related to Jung Pureum, issues about me kept popping up every time.

Still, it seemed people were aware that I’m a private citizen, so they didn’t call me by name outright like before. I had truly become a curse word among them. Everyone wanted to say nasty things but didn’t want to get sued.

Jung Pureum’s frequent visits to our clinic were also a minor source of controversy.

I don’t know why that becomes a controversy, but claims that I’m using Jung Pureum for viral marketing of the clinic kept popping up.

I was truly astounded.

The person who did viral marketing for our clinic wasn’t Jung Pureum, but Lee Seolwoo. And the reason our clinic is insanely crowded is because I make really good herbal medicine.

Even at the recent academic conference I was invited to, everyone took notice of the herbal medicine and Gongjindan I created. I even received praise that it was an innovative formulation enough to overturn the traditional Korean medicine world that had only adhered to conventional manufacturing methods, and yet they’re whispering about it being a scam again. It’s absurd.

The Jung Pureum you all like so much also took the Gongjindan I made and went from beta to alpha—how is that a scam….

Anyway, in this situation, if Jung Pureum showed even the slightest neglect to fans, it was obvious all arrows would turn toward me. Word would spread that the sports star wouldn’t even give an autograph because ‘that person’ was at the clinic.

All that talk about character was a real problem. A swimmer just needs to swim well—why do they keep evaluating his character?

Of course, Jung Pureum has excellent character too, but thinking that his character is judged by every little action made my blood boil. Ah! You call yourselves fans! You’re not exam proctors, so why so many evaluations!

“Since there are other patients, would everyone please return to your seats?”

Rather than watch Jung Pureum’s character get picked apart, I’d rather take the bad rap myself.

I grabbed the person who kept touching Jung Pureum from behind. If an alpha touched an omega like this, they’d be caught red-handed, but since an omega touched an alpha, I couldn’t even report it.

I quickly pushed the flustered Jung Pureum into the vice director’s office. When I told him to stay put in there until the evening consultations were over, Jung Pureum nodded obediently with a dejected look.

It wasn’t until three hours after locking Jung Pureum in the vice director’s office that the evening consultations finally ended. Rubbing my stiff shoulders, I knocked on the vice director’s office door.

“Pureum, you can come out now.”

What kind of “The patient’s gone, you can come out now” situation is this?

Jung Pureum finally opened the door and stuck his head out. I grabbed him and pulled him into the director’s office.

“You worked hard waiting.”

“Not at all. I just didn’t know there would be this many patients even at this hour… I guess I came too early for nothing.”

“What do you mean for nothing? It’s nice to see you at the clinic after a long time.”

“Really? If you’re okay with it, hyung, should I come more often?”

That won’t work. It would give fuel to the nonsense of those claiming I’m using you for viral marketing.

Appearing on <Curious About Everything> once is enough. If I reappear under a title like “Business using a sports star? – The Light and Shadow of Viral Marketing,” it would be the end.

When I remained silent for a while, Jung Pureum put on a pitiful expression again.

I reached out and pulled Jung Pureum into a hug. Then I started rubbing the areas where he had been harassed earlier.

Ugh! Even though the marking means he’s not affected by others’ pheromones, I could faintly sense someone else’s pheromones on him, as if a territory had been marked.

My mood turned unbelievably sour. Feeling someone else’s pheromones on my prospective spouse was worse than I’d imagined.

To hell with being a generous, broad-minded older partner and all that!