My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 18

While feeding him a meal, I pressed Jung Pureum about what that “secret” was. Normally, if I asked this much, he’d even tell me his bank account password—but now he kept his mouth firmly shut, as if there really was some reason.

It felt a bit much to keep interrogating the kid while he was eating so well, so I changed the subject.

“Why does that coach of yours treat you like that?”

“The coach?”

“Yeah. From what I saw, you were running the hardest, but he only kept nagging at you.”

Jung Pureum put down his spoon and lowered his gaze with a sad expression. Finally, it was time for him to tell me the story of his ill-fated relationship with the coach.

But contrary to my expectations, Jung Pureum kept his mouth shut and deflected, saying the coach did it to other kids too. Why did he start to speak and then stop?

“I saw it with my own eyes—what do you mean?”

“More than that, hyung, did you come close to watch us running?”

“Yeah. Since you weren’t answering. I didn’t go into the gym, just watched the outdoor training.”

“Why did you do that? It’s dangerous.”

His voice, full of concern, was directed at me.

Even though the concern was clearly for me, it reflexively irritated me. I hadn’t gone into the gym—I’d just watched outdoor training from a distance—and yet I had to be worried about like this.

Of course, in the sports world, alphas were definitely the majority, so even as a latent heat omega, it was certainly dangerous for me to approach closely. Omegas without an imprinted partner were vulnerable to alpha pheromones.

Besides, I wasn’t a dominant omega but a latent one. A dominant omega might endure it, but being latent, I was inevitably weaker to the hierarchy. Even now, having smelled the pheromones of those sweaty guys, my stomach was churning and my appetite was gone.

But regardless of that, Jung Pureum worrying about me just because I saw him training was truly humiliating. I’d even watched him win medals in elementary school!

“Auntie, give me a bottle of soju!”

I didn’t feel like eating anything, but I craved alcohol. This damn world. I planned to use the power of alcohol to ignore my troubled feelings.

“You’re going to drink?”

“Not much. You don’t drink.”

“If I don’t drink with you, how are you going to finish a whole bottle by yourself?”

“Your hyung drinks well. Don’t worry.”

“Hyung’s capacity is barely one bottle of soju.”

“Oh, come on.”

How could you know the bitter taste of life? I poured the soju the auntie brought into a beer glass instead of a soju glass, gurgle gurgle.

At that, Jung Pureum looked between me and the glass with trembling eyes. His look that said “Are you really okay?” sounded about like, “You sure?”

“Considering your career, it’s fortunate you became an alpha.”

“….”

“I feel a little hurt sometimes. It seems like our relationship has changed just because one secondary gender changed.”

After downing an entire beer glass of soju in one go, the words inside me unavoidably spilled out.

Normally, I wouldn’t have said such things. But perhaps because it had been so long since I’d seen Jung Pureum, I couldn’t control myself. It was because my pride was wounded by being worried about.

Jung Pureum looked at me with a strange expression, then took the remaining alcohol away from me. There was still about a glass left. It felt wasteful to leave it, but since I had to go to the clinic tomorrow, I didn’t stop him.

“How has our relationship changed?”

“Huh?”

“It seems the same to me. Hyung just thinks of me as a cute dongsaeng, whether I’m a beta or an alpha.”

Not just a cute dongsaeng. The most precious neighbor dongsaeng I cherish and want as my own little brother.

When I nodded, Jung Pureum smiled with the expression of an enlightened Buddha. His attitude of “I knew it” was exasperating.

“Still, it can’t be exactly the same as when you were a beta. Remember when I collapsed?”

“Yes. You collapsed before the broadcast appearance.”

“The Western doctor said that if I kept taking that herbal medicine and constantly coming into contact with an alpha, my body would inevitably deteriorate.”

“….”

“Come to think of it, maybe that’s why Jung Saebom is cold to me. No matter how close we are, I’m still an unrelated omega, so she must have been uncomfortable.”

Having said what I wanted to say, the alcohol quickly went to my head. I normally wouldn’t get drunk on this much. But drinking straight soju on an empty stomach must have made me tipsy faster than usual.

Still, it was just enough to feel good. A bit hazy, but my reason was intact.

“So, it’s going to be hard for us to stay as close as before. Since we’re alpha and omega, we inevitably affect each other. It’s not that I’m saying I won’t take responsibility for you just because I signed a contract—”

“Then we can just sleep together, can’t we?”

I dribbled the soju I was sipping straight down. …Is this kid crazy? I frantically grabbed tissues to wipe my wet hands and the table.

The tipsiness that had been slowly rising just moments ago was doused like cold water over my head at Jung Pureum’s single remark.

“If you’re having a hard time because of pheromone exposure, if you’re suffering because of heat cycles… we can just sleep together. I’m an alpha now too.”

The auntie who had been serving us was in the back, muttering something about how kids these days were so forward, and it rang out particularly clearly. Please pretend you didn’t hear. Why do you always have to hear these things?

Anyway, I was so flabbergasted I couldn’t speak. Was he trying to put handcuffs on my wrists in a different way because he couldn’t sue me legally?

The atmosphere was too serious to brush off as a joke. I glanced sideways at the soju bottle. Strange. Jung Pureum hadn’t drunk a single sip.

“Pureum. How am I supposed to sleep with you?”

I calmly started to soothe Jung Pureum. Yes, this is all the coach’s fault. The coach worked Jung Pureum so hard that he’s saying things like this.

But Jung Pureum defiantly retorted, asking why not. Surely this wasn’t puberty—supposedly scarier than middle school syndrome?

“The reason I’ve been avoiding hyung lately is because I had my first rut.”

“…What?”

To think I’d hear the thing he wouldn’t tell me no matter how much I pressed, in this way.

It was fortunate that he ultimately couldn’t hide anything from me, but the revealed secret was a bit… something. An alpha’s rut was something I couldn’t help with.

I’d been careless because Jung Pureum was the only known case of someone becoming an alpha at nineteen. I assumed he’d experience a rut since he was an alpha, but I complacently thought it’d be fine since it was a late presentation.

Moreover, he was a dominant alpha, so he was more sensitive to pheromones. The limit of enduring with medicine and willpower was up to latent heat. There was a reason Lee Seolwoo drank more herbal medicine than I did.

But because I’d been thinking of him as just an adorable beta dongsaeng, I assumed Jung Pureum would be exempt from the ruts that all other alphas went through. I thought even if a rut came, it would be mild or much later.

Even if he felt a bit awkward about it, I needed to introduce him to Lee Seolwoo, a fellow dominant, as soon as possible. Even if he wasn’t interested in dating, who knew if they might align on cycle relief?

“Hyung said he’d take responsibility for me.”

“Uh….”

“But I don’t see why we can’t sleep together.”

Jung Pureum, putting on the most pitiful act possible, poured the remaining soju into his water glass. His attitude of just drinking it anyway looked quite resolute.

I frantically reached out, snatched Jung Pureum’s water glass, and threw it into my own mouth so he couldn’t take it back. An athlete drinking alcohol? No way.

I thought about it logically. We’d even written up a contract as superior and subordinate in exchange for not filing a legal complaint. It wasn’t a verbal agreement—it was a written contract.

Of course, I’d skimmed and signed it, and without a notary, it wouldn’t hold up in court, but a promise was a promise.

Then, was I supposed to take responsibility for Jung Pureum’s rut?

…Oh, crazy. That’s not right. Why would family do that?

“Um… I’ll introduce you to a dominant omega as soon as possible.”

Jung Pureum was, if you had to classify him, a trustworthy alpha. But even so, me doing anything with him—no matter how I thought about it—made no sense. He was in elementary school when I was in college! It wouldn’t be the Korean Medicine Association that would condemn me—it would be the entire nation’s ethics standards association.

I was the one who drank, but Jung Pureum buried his head on the table. Startled, I reached out to him.

He was acting this strangely. Yes, this was definitely all the coach’s fault. I mentally raised my middle finger at the coach I’d never even exchanged a word with.

Corrupting my adorable baby angel neighbor dongsaeng Jung Pureum. I will never forgive you.

∞ ∞ ∞

There’s a saying: pull the horn while it’s hot. Koreans are all about speed—whatever it is, getting it done quickly puts the mind at ease.

Our clinic was steadily growing. Just then, a lease spot opened on the upper floor of the building, so I was looking into business expansion.

Since business was going well, I decided to forcibly arrange a meeting between Lee Seolwoo and Jung Pureum. So I called Jung Pureum to come at the same time Lee Seolwoo was scheduled for his appointment.

Kim Miyoung, who had been coordinating the schedule, lamented once again. Oh dear, oh dear… With Kim Miyoung’s inexplicable wailing as background music, I prepared to execute “Pursuing Romance at the Clinic, Version 1.”

I’d tried to get them to meet elsewhere in a more moderate way, but Jung Pureum’s resistance was too strong.

But having heard about the rut, I now felt an obligation to introduce Jung Pureum to other omegas as soon as possible. It was absolutely not that I just wanted to pass the responsibility to someone else because I didn’t want to deal with it.

“Our Pureum… what are we going to do.”

Nam Jungyoon lamented along with Kim Miyoung.

They’d barely exchanged a few conversations, yet they were already so close—the phrase “our Pureum” bothered me. Our Pureum? Why is Jung Pureum your Pureum?

Anyway, Jung Pureum, oblivious to everything, was scheduled to visit the clinic on the pretense of a date with me. As soon as the two of them entered the same space, I’d play love house background music and shout, “I hope you two get along well!” and it’d be done.

Nam Jungyoon criticized my plan as “the kind of thinking someone who’s never properly made friends would have,” but I wasn’t the type to crumble under such harsh evaluations.

“Hyung!”

Just then, the bell above the clinic door jingled.

Jung Pureum, with an unusually bright expression, said he’d already planned the entire date course and hugged me tightly. Kim Miyoung sighed deeply behind me.

Haha, he could just follow that date course with Lee Seolwoo instead. I gently patted Jung Pureum’s back while waiting for Lee Seolwoo’s arrival.

Come, sweet dominant omega!