My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 14

The next day, Nam Jungyoon abruptly asked about Jung Pureum in the middle of eating lunch.

“Doesn’t that kid like you, Senior?”

“Hey, do you have to say that kind of thing while eating kimchi fried rice?”

“What’s wrong with kimchi fried rice? Wouldn’t it be weirder to say it while cutting steak?”

“Shut up and just finish your food.”

He said things like “I like you” often, but Jung Pureum and he were like family.

He was temporarily acting as Jung Pureum’s guardian because the kid had become an alpha because of him. But that didn’t mean their relationship had changed.

It would be too strange for a relationship to change just because someone’s secondary gender changed. He wasn’t some… slave to pheromones. People should live like people.

“That’s not it. He and I have an eight-year age difference. If I dated a kid that young, I’d go to prison.”

“What does age matter in love? I could tell he’s a dominant alpha.”

“He used to be a beta.”

“Ah, so he’s the one who presented after taking that Gongjindan? I saw it in the articles, but they kept him anonymous there.”

“Would I ruin the life of someone just trying to live normally by making it public?”

“Normal? He looks like a born alpha—how is that normal? He’s clearly an athlete just by looking at him.”

“Anyway, drop it. He’s just my neighbor dongsaeng.”

Despite his firm attitude, Nam Jungyoon didn’t seem convinced. Instead, he just looked at Moon Yeonghwa with a deeply interested gaze.

“Senior, you’re still popular.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

Had someone put drugs in his kimchi fried rice?

Moon Yeonghwa suspiciously glared at Nam Jungyoon’s kimchi fried rice. Catching his gaze, Nam Jungyoon pulled the bowl closer to himself, saying he was going to eat it all himself.

How petty and dirty. It wasn’t like he wanted that kimchi fried rice anyway. Moon Yeonghwa shoved his own order of kimbap into his mouth.

He had been worried ever since Jung Pureum stormed out like that and hadn’t contacted him first. Had the coach yelled at him for skipping practice? Or had he really gotten upset because Moon Yeonghwa looked unwell yesterday?

Rarely, he sent a message first, but there was no reply. Since the read receipt never appeared, it seemed Jung Pureum hadn’t even checked it.

He knew that if Jung Pureum was sick, he lived with his family, so Jung Saebom or his mother would take care of it, but he still felt uneasy for no reason.

“Senior, you’re so consistent.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Consistently oblivious, I mean.”

“That’s funny. I have great awareness.”

“People who say that are never the ones who actually have it.”

Nam Jungyoon, who had already finished eating and placed his plastic spoon on top of the empty bowl, laughed dryly.

He was already worried sick about Jung Pureum, and now this guy was grating on his nerves too, killing his appetite. When Moon Yeonghwa stopped touching the half-eaten kimbap, Nam Jungyoon picked up his chopsticks again, saying he’d eat that too. Anyway, you had to give Taeyangin credit for their appetites.

Pushing his share of food onto Nam Jungyoon, Moon Yeonghwa thought about Jung Pureum. Was he really sick or something?

If not, then Jung Pureum deliberately ignoring his contact was impossible unless the world had ended.

After work, it was pure coincidence that he ran into Jung Saebom at the convenience store near his house.

Because he had been worried about Jung Pureum since lunchtime, he greeted Jung Saebom cheerfully when he ran into her after a long time.

But Jung Saebom, with a face like she had stepped in dog poop, told him not to greet her outside and brushed past him. Anyway, when it came to rudeness, no one could match her.

“Hey, let me ask you one thing before you go.”

“What.”

“Where’s Pureum?”

“Why are you asking me about Jung Pureum?”

“Because you’re his sister.”

“We’re worse than strangers.”

“How can siblings be worse than strangers?”

“Because we’re siblings, that’s why we’re worse than strangers. Worse than strangers, and we just earn money off each other—that’s what siblings are.”

Hearing it, it kind of made sense.

“If he’s ignoring your contact, either he can’t check his phone because of training, or you did something wrong.”

“Hah, is that damn coach tormenting the kid again?”

“Why do you automatically assume the former?”

“Because I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“….”

“The more I hear, the more I think I need to grate that coach’s face on a grater. He keeps harassing a kid who does well on his own. That’s abuse, abuse.”

Jung Saebom looked at him with an incredulous face. Even so, she shrewdly took the ion drink he had bought for her.

As she turned and walked away without a word, he shouted after her, “Tell Pureum to send me a message when he comes in!” Of course, no reply came.

Jung Pureum and he could meet whenever they wanted, easily. All he had to do was ring the doorbell next door and they’d see each other.

Sometimes Jung Pureum would be away from home for weeks to months due to competitions or training camps, but even then, he always told Moon Yeonghwa where he was going.

Come to think of it, it was strange. He didn’t seem like the type to tell his own sister where he was going, yet he always informed Moon Yeonghwa.

It meant he trusted Moon Yeonghwa more than his sister, obviously. Sorry to Jung Saebom, but there was no hyung like him.

He recalled Jung Pureum looking at him with those round, bright eyes. Was it because Nam Jungyoon had said weird things? For some reason, Jung Pureum was on his mind more than usual.

So… what was it? That Jung Pureum liked him?

Speaking humanly, he liked Jung Pureum too. Just not romantically. The same must go for Jung Pureum. Liking your neighbor hyung as a romantic interest? That seemed difficult.

It was common sense that it was impossible. Because he was eight years older than Jung Pureum, and his secondary gender was latent heat omega. Even when Jung Pureum was a beta, Moon Yeonghwa had always been an omega.

Rarely, betas did cross the boundary and like alphas. Jung Saebom’s parents were exactly that case. A special case that even led to marriage.

But usually, like in his own family, betas married betas.

If even one alpha or omega mixed into the bloodline, embarrassing trait-bearers like him would be born across generations, so betas dating omegas was much rarer than betas dating alphas.

Though he had become an alpha after taking the Gongjindan, Jung Pureum had been a beta for nineteen years. He knew Moon Yeonghwa’s traits, had seen all kinds of unsightly things living next door—it would be hard for him to like Moon Yeonghwa romantically. Jung Pureum had eyes too.

Jung Pureum had even seen Moon Yeonghwa go three days without sleep, without washing, without eating while preparing for exams. He’d probably seen him stab neighborhood alphas with long needles over ten times.

For someone to like another person, there had to be some illusion, right? If someone could still have illusions after seeing his degenerate state, they needed to get their eyesight checked.

But once it started bothering him, everything seemed suspicious.

The incomprehensible favor Jung Pureum had shown him, the strange wariness toward people around him—one by one, they caught his attention.

It was also strange that he was suddenly worrying about this. Was it because Jung Pureum had become an alpha? If so, that was truly the worst.

Suddenly, he hated himself.

If so, he’d be no different from the deus ex machina pheromone people he despised. Taking Jung Pureum so seriously just because he’d become an alpha—that wasn’t right.

Shaking his head, Moon Yeonghwa headed home carrying a plastic bag full of retort pouch foods. Jung Saebom, who had left before him, had long since disappeared from sight.

Everything was going well, yet his heart felt heavy for no reason. His clinic’s revenue had been on a steady upward trend lately, and the Gongjindan he created was selling like hotcakes.

Not only Kim Miyoung, but the newly hired vice director, Nam Jungyoon, was also doing great work. In particular, Nam Jungyoon was a genius at consultations. He had a talent for taking the pulse of betas who wanted to become alphas and discussing how much medicine they needed.

Without Kim Miyoung or Nam Jungyoon, Moon Yeonghwa probably wouldn’t have been able to row this hard even when the tide was in. Business was all about improvisation at every moment.

So it was a situation where he could just laugh foolishly and be happy.

Work was going well, and everyone around him, except Baek Wonhee, was a good person. The broadcast PD still contacted him occasionally, but he was handling it appropriately, so there was no problem.

Yet his heart felt heavy.

With a heavy heart, his steps were also heavy. It took a whopping eighteen minutes to reach his front door, which normally would have taken less than ten. Of all numbers, eighteen. Why did even the minute count have to sound like an insult?

“Hyung.”

As he grumbled and got off the elevator, he was so startled he nearly died of cardiac arrest.

“What the hell, why are you standing there like that?”

As soon as he stepped out, the hallway sensor light came on, illuminating Jung Pureum standing in front of his door. It wasn’t like a ghost had suddenly popped out from a corner like in a horror movie, but his heart was pounding.

At least make some noise before standing there. If he’d been any more startled, he would’ve thrown the plastic bag first.

Noticing that he had been surprised, Jung Pureum rubbed his own cheek with an awkward face, apologizing for startling him. Under the orange-tinted sensor light, he could vaguely see Jung Pureum’s split lip.

“What happened to your lip?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Nothing, my ass. What happened? Why are you getting beaten up and walking around looking upset? Was it that damn coach again? Want me to report him?”

“It’s really not that.”

Jung Pureum had been a swimmer since elementary school. Athletes typically started training from a young age. He didn’t know about other countries, but in Korea, athletes usually followed an elite track. If they didn’t manage their competition records from a young age, getting into college was difficult.

Jung Pureum was the same—he had gone to schools with strong athletic programs from elementary through high school. Thanks to that, he had competed in all sorts of swimming competitions since elementary school, with an impressive list of awards. It was a fitting result for the child of former athletes.

Like Moon Yeonghwa, who received various support from his grandfather, Jung Pureum had received a lot of help from his parents. Unlike before, when he was told as a beta that he wouldn’t be able to have a long athletic career, now that his traits had changed, even making the national team—which primarily selected alphas—was no longer a dream.

But from what Moon Yeonghwa had observed, the athletic world had a pretty severe hierarchy. Especially when the coach was a bastard, the people around him would act up too. It wasn’t all about everyone laughing together and saying, “Let’s work hard together and burn our youth!”

He’d heard rumors that the sports world enforced strict discipline, but the coach who had been in charge of Jung Pureum since middle school was a complete bastard in many ways.

At a time when he should be applauding Jung Pureum for doing well, the coach periodically grabbed him like a rat. Even Moon Yeonghwa, just the neighbor, had long noticed the coach’s extremism. That’s how wretched he had to be.

What the hell did “talented kids need to be overworked because they might get complacent” even mean? He still didn’t fully understand the logic that good kids slack off easily and need periodic discipline.

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like the coach was desperate to block a promising athlete’s future, yet the coach packaged it as “mental education.”

Treating harassment as education in the eyes of others—the sports world was too harsh.

Moon Yeonghwa reached out and cupped Jung Pureum’s cheek.

His fingertips were damp with moisture, probably because he hadn’t properly dried his hair. If he’d been in the pool all along, it made sense he couldn’t have received Moon Yeonghwa’s messages. You couldn’t check your phone underwater.