My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 13

Contrary to what he had told Jung Pureum about not hurting, Moon Yeonghwa collapsed right after the filming. To be honest, part of it was probably due to emotional stress.

He was taking all this herbal medicine and still couldn’t control his internal heat. Truly, the world was wrong. He wasn’t even a Taeyangin, so why did his body run so hot?

Still, after confirming that the television interview had been successfully aired, his condition quickly improved. Kim Miyoung marveled at him for dusting himself off and getting back on his feet in just half a day.

“Our director is such a mood-based person.”

If only mood could become health… Moon Yeonghwa smirked and watched his television appearance about three times over.

The influence of public broadcasting was phenomenal. Now he understood why restaurants paid extra just to get on a single popular food program.

His clinic’s revenue had jumped dozens of times in just three days. Kim Miyoung even suggested that maybe they should sell online as well.

But selling medicinal ingredients online felt iffy. He had seen diet herbal medicines sold online occasionally. But selling mass-produced, factory-made products without even checking a patient’s pulse—if something went wrong, it would be putting the cart before the horse.

It was true he wanted to succeed, but he couldn’t just tell people to buy medicine without any consultation or pulse diagnosis just to make money. That wouldn’t be a Korean medicine doctor—that would be a thug. That’s when the Korean Medicine Association would sue him.

Still, you had to strike while the iron was hot.

Even while bedridden, he changed the clinic’s appointment system to an online one and hired a vice director to assist Kim Miyoung with various tasks.

“Senior, you’re finally looking lively again.”

“How is it? Is the vice director job manageable?”

“Of course. Everything’s great except running into Baek Wonhee on my way home. I’m really glad things are going well for you, Senior Yeonghwa.”

The vice director he hired, Nam Jungyoon, was his junior from university. Though they weren’t particularly close, they shared an unavoidable commonality. That was… they both hated Baek Wonhee.

There’s a saying: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. He didn’t know the exact reason Nam Jungyoon hated Baek Wonhee, but as long as they shared the goal of ‘Down with Baek Wonhee!’, he was no different from an ally.

Hiring him as vice director was a bit concerning because he was a latent heat alpha. Moon Yeonghwa asked him multiple times if he was sure it was okay, worried that his own pheromones might stimulate Nam Jungyoon’s traits.

To his questions, Nam Jungyoon coolly replied, “We’re both latent heat, what’s going to happen?” True to his looks, he was a straightforward guy.

“By the way, why do you hate Baek Wonhee so much?”

“Senior, you really were a loner.”

“What? Hey, why are you suddenly attacking someone who’s just sitting here?”

“It was pretty famous, actually. That I broke Baek Wonhee’s molar.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. He kept picking fights with me because I’m an alpha. Saying I should live like an animal instead of trying to be a doctor, or find an omega and become a kept man.”

Oh….

As expected, discriminators never stop at just one thing. Maybe Baek Wonhee could even be called fair-minded.

There were far more people who hated omegas and liked alphas, but he hated both equally. In a way, he practiced equality through hatred. It wasn’t easy to hate everyone so evenly.

“I could have just let it slide, but you know, Senior, I have a fiery temper.”

“Are you a Taeyangin?”

“Asking about constitution like it’s an MBTI….”

“If your temper is fiery, your body runs hot.”

“That’s really strange. But I actually am a Taeyangin.”

As expected, Korean medicine deserved a reevaluation from an anthropological perspective. It was even more accurate than MBTI.

In fact, alphas were very likely to be Taeyangin. The ancestors who talked about the harmony of yin and yang had actually been onto something.

Still, perhaps because Nam Jungyoon was a latent heat alpha, his pheromones were barely noticeable. He was probably controlling them well. In that regard, he was clearly different from Jung Pureum, who let his pheromones drip everywhere when he was with Moon Yeonghwa.

Since he had an alpha nearby anyway, Moon Yeonghwa decided to make good use of Nam Jungyoon. A vice director was supposed to do all sorts of things, just like office workers at small and medium-sized companies.

From now on, this guy would handle alpha-related issues. Since he had to sell the alpha-transforming Gongjindan, having an alpha in the clinic was also advantageous.

“Anyway, I was surprised you contacted me first, Senior.”

“I was surprised too when you said you’d come here instead of the university hospital.”

“Come on, I’ll make a lot more as vice director than at the university hospital.”

“If our clinic succeeds, I’ll renegotiate your salary.”

“Haha, that’s reassuring. It’s good for building my career too. And I wanted to work with you, Senior.”

“With me?”

“Yeah. Senior, you were actually pretty popular back in college.”

“I was?”

“You didn’t know? Even though people said you had a bad temper, a lot of them tried to get close to you because they wanted to get along.”

“You mean there were that many thieves trying to hitch a ride on group projects?”

“Well, there was probably some of that too. But there were also a lot of people who genuinely liked you. Because you worked so hard, Senior….”

This was news to him. He had heard the bad temper part often enough, but he couldn’t recall anyone actively expressing liking toward him. He clearly remembered people who picked fights, though.

Moon Yeonghwa looked at Nam Jungyoon with a bewildered expression.

With thick eyebrows, a defined nose bridge, and dimples that appeared on both cheeks when he smiled, his refreshing face struck Moon Yeonghwa anew.

“I even liked you for about three days myself, Senior.”

“Three days?”

At those words, the bell hanging at the clinic entrance jingled. The timing was impeccable.

Unlike Moon Yeonghwa, who had his back to the door, Nam Jungyoon, who was standing by the reception desk, changed his attitude for some reason.

“Is this your first time here?”

“No.”

Just from the voice, it was Jung Pureum. A question mark appeared above Nam Jungyoon’s face. For some reason, this guy, who seemed fairly accustomed to service work, didn’t deliver his next line.

Were they exchanging some kind of signal? Moon Yeonghwa slowly turned around to greet Jung Pureum.

“You’re here.”

Jung Pureum had his usual face, but Nam Jungyoon still looked puzzled.

Regardless, Moon Yeonghwa introduced them. They’d be seeing each other often, so it’d be good if they got close like hyung and dongsaeng. Maybe they’d have things in common as fellow alphas.

Nam Jungyoon looked back and forth between him and Jung Pureum, then turned toward the newly created vice director’s office, which had been cleared out from the herbal storage room. Kim Miyoung, who had come out of the herbal preparation room, also took a step back.

…What was going on? Both of them, except for him, seemed to have sensed some kind of crisis.

Because Kim Miyoung and Nam Jungyoon had slipped away, leaving him alone, Moon Yeonghwa was suddenly left one-on-one with Jung Pureum. What was this—he could understand Nam Jungyoon, but why was Kim Miyoung running away?

“Hyung, you really were popular in college.”

“No, not really.”

“Wasn’t it just that hyung didn’t know?”

“That can’t be. Nobody talked to me.”

Though, now that he thought about it, people had talked to him, but he probably ignored them because he was studying. It hadn’t been long since he graduated, but his college days were already hazy.

Unless someone like Baek Wonhee followed him around making a fuss, he could hardly even remember his classmates’ faces. As Nam Jungyoon said, he was an outsider. He only studied hard and never participated in things like college festivals.

He skipped MTs with all kinds of excuses, and the only times he showed his face were the mandatory freshman welcome events in his first year. After that, he avoided everything, using his constitution as an excuse.

What popularity was there to speak of? Objectively speaking, there were far more classmates who graduated without ever having a single conversation with him.

Who were these people who supposedly tried to get close? He only remembered those who picked fights, not anyone who showed liking. Or wait, was picking fights the modern way of showing liking?

At best, he might have been known as “there’s an omega in our department,” but the only people he could say he was “close” to were his major professors.

Even with Nam Jungyoon, they had only exchanged a few words before graduation because they both hated Baek Wonhee. He was a considerate junior, so they had exchanged contact info because he said he’d share exam notes.

“…Who is that person?”

“Our vice director. I just hired him.”

“….”

“The patient load suddenly increased, so I hired a junior from college.”

Looking at Jung Pureum’s sulky face, for some reason, Moon Yeonghwa felt strangely conscious of him. He had intended to say something like, He’s a latent heat alpha, so get along with him! But the words didn’t come out easily.

It was all because Jung Pureum was making a face like an abandoned puppy. Did people normally get jealous when a close hyung brought in a junior they didn’t know?

Well, that could happen when you’re young. Moon Yeonghwa reached out his hand toward Jung Pureum’s head. Even though he had grown so tall, he still rubbed his head against Moon Yeonghwa’s palm like a child.

Moon Yeonghwa let out a deep sigh.

“You didn’t skip practice again, did you?”

“I came after finishing properly.”

“Your hair isn’t wet, though.”

“….”

“I knew that damn coach would cause trouble again. Stop coming to see me so often and take care of your own business first.”

“Hyung.”

“Yes.”

“Is your body okay?”

Thus, the nagging about training hard was sidestepped. Moon Yeonghwa was about to say he was fine, but those dark eyes looking at him made him lose his words again.

Jung Pureum always grinned in front of him, but sometimes he looked this subdued. It was the same at the barbecue restaurant when they got into a fight with those alphas.

“I’m fine. It was just emotional stress.”

“…Even though you’re not well, is it okay to hire an alpha as vice director?”

At that, he burst out laughing. If being unwell meant he couldn’t have an alpha around, the first one who should be kicked away from his side was Jung Pureum.

When he laughed, Jung Pureum turned his head away, looking sullen again. He definitely knew that acting cute like this made Moon Yeonghwa like him.

“You don’t need to worry about me, kid.”

“….”

“You take care of yourself first. A young brat like you worrying about your adult hyung.”

At the words “young brat,” Jung Pureum’s eyes narrowed slightly. He was an adult now too. Well, people in their early twenties naturally feel like adults.

Moon Yeonghwa had also thought he was an adult back then and would argue with his parents not to treat him like a child. Sure, sure, that’s understandable.

“Hyung is….”

“Huh?”

“Really the worst….”

Did he hear that correctly?

What did he do… Suddenly, he was condemned as the worst hyung ever. What?

With those words, Jung Pureum left the clinic with a sorrowful expression. As the bell on the door jingled, Kim Miyoung, who had been hiding in the herbal preparation room, approached and whispered behind him.

“You made him cry.”

Her sipping of yulmucha was conspicuously loud.

Moon Yeonghwa turned to look at Kim Miyoung, his bewilderment not yet fully faded.

“Am I really that bad?”

“Well, I don’t think you’re the best.”

At Kim Miyoung’s harsh assessment, his heart somehow felt torn. Why? He was a hyung who even bought beef for him—so why was he the worst?