My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan – Chapter 29

Author: nicotine

The coach raised an eyebrow slightly.

It was a swimmer who had fought with Jung Pureum before. His skill was inferior to Jung Pureum’s, and he was older. His career as a swimmer was long, but his competition record was poor.

Even as an alpha, he was the type who would end his career with mediocre results. With luck, he might become a coach, but he didn’t have the talent to go far.

The coach, who had instantly recalled the swimmer’s past record, nodded as if telling him to speak.

“On a day when training ended a bit late… I saw something.”

“What?”

“Jung Pureum, leaving with some omega.”

At the word “omega,” the coach’s face twisted terribly. He hadn’t even accomplished anything yet, and now, barely after becoming an alpha, an omega was already involved?

One of the most important things for alpha athletes to watch out for was omegas. The most dangerous things were drug doping and injuries, with omegas coming in around next.

Since heat and rut cycles aren’t something you can control on your own, no matter how much caution is given, young alphas always end up causing problems with omegas.

“Did only you see that?”

“Huh?”

“I asked if only you saw it.”

“…Ah, yes.”

When Jung Pureum was a beta, omegas weren’t a problem at all. The coach clicked his tongue inwardly, thinking this was why alphas were trouble.

If you get entangled with an omega the wrong way, you never know when or how a scandal might erupt. Maybe in Western countries it’d be different, but in conservative Korean society, when an issue like this breaks, athletes usually go into self-reflection. Even if they achieve good results, the talk behind their backs follows as a bonus.

“Then just keep it to yourself.”

“…”

“You know that Jung Pureum is about the only one here with a shot at the national team, don’t you?”

“…Yes.”

“Don’t cause unnecessary problems.”

“…”

“Just because you overtake Jung Pureum doesn’t mean you’ll succeed.”

The swimmer’s face twisted strangely. The coach keenly noticed that distortion.

He could see that the guy was resentful, thinking he was also an alpha. The coach had met these types endlessly as a beta. Even when he was still swimming, whenever his performance improved even slightly, other alphas would give him those same looks.

Alphas had a peculiar sense of superiority. The world was filled with people who believed they were special just because they were born a little healthier than ordinary people.

That’s why the coach had always been strict with Jung Pureum when he was a beta. Unlike himself, who had to give up his athletic career early due to the wall of secondary sex, Jung Pureum had talent. Now that he’d become an alpha, it went without saying, but even when he was a beta, he was a better swimmer than most alphas.

…In the end, he too became an alpha, though.

“Jung Pureum!”

Just then, Pureum finished his thousand meters. Gasping for breath, he came out of the lane and looked at the coach who was calling him.

His condition seemed low, but his record itself had improved. The coach, who had been about to scold him, closed his mouth instead.

“We’ll stop here for today.”

Jung Pureum took off his swim cap and shook out his wet hair.

The swimmer who’d been told to keep quiet by the coach stared at Jung Pureum with displeasure. Though he should have felt the gaze, Jung Pureum seemed not to care at all.

Jung Pureum was used to receiving envy and jealousy from others. Compared to his sister Saebom, it was less, but Pureum was also naturally gifted. Both his parents were objectively good people, and he had moderate talent and endless support.

It wasn’t that he’d never had a slump, but for a beta, his performance rarely fluctuated much. Thanks to decent physical conditions and natural endurance, his record in distance events was quite impressive.

So it wasn’t surprising that fellow swimmers tried to cut him down in any way they could. Before he became an alpha, there were many who brought up his secondary sex and told him to quit swimming.

“Hey.”

But there was a limit to provocation, and at this point, it was starting to get on his nerves.

Especially lately. His mind was already unsettled thinking about Moon Yeonghwa, and every time this senior in college picked at him, it was irritating.

“You were an alpha from the start, weren’t you?”

“…”

“Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense.”

Oh, a typical discriminatory remark. Jung Pureum naturally brushed past the senior who’d stopped him. The kind of thing Moon Yeonghwa would have said if he’d heard it came to mind naturally.

“They say that alpha Gongjin-dan is a fraud. So then weren’t you just an alpha from the start who pretended to be a beta?”

Even knowing that Jung Pureum was ignoring him, the other persisted.

Pureum, who had been packing his things and patting his wet hair dry with a towel, looked up at the comment that alpha Gongjin-dan was a fraud.

“It’s not a fraud.”

“What?”

“I said it’s not a fraud.”

“…”

“Why, would something change if I’d been an alpha since birth?”

Getting up with a refreshed face, Jung Pureum casually tossed the wet towel at the other. The senior, who unexpectedly caught the towel with his face, raised his voice.

“You little—!”

“Instead of worrying about other people’s secondary sex, why not practice more diligently. And stop relying on drugs.”

“…”

“I saw a pill bottle rolling around in your locker, senior. Didn’t you get suspended from competition last time for high drug levels? Or am I wrong?”

Isn’t that what fraud really is? At the calmly spoken words, the senior clamped his mouth shut.

In fields where self-management is strict, using drugs to maintain weight and build muscle is common. Though they regulate it to avoid detection in doping tests, maintaining an ideal body through pure effort alone is extremely difficult.

Jung Pureum, on the other hand, was the type who did exactly as the coach said without complaint, so he maintained his physique well without drugs. Many swimmers grumbled that he was just born with good physical conditions.

But given the nature of swimming, which burns a lot of calories, maintaining constant weight and muscle mass is impossible. The human body loses muscle and gains fat with even a little less movement.

“I… got a prescription.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Everyone takes it to some degree. You’re the weird one.”

“Okay.”

After half-heartedly responding to the senior who kept yelling in frustration, Jung Pureum turned away.

“Let’s see how long you can keep that up.”

Oh, that’s a third-rate villain line. Jung Pureum once again thought of what Moon Yeonghwa might say and smiled brightly. With luck, he might run into Moon Yeonghwa as he was leaving work. It was better to smile than to frown.

∞ ∞ ∞

The world has truly improved. Even herbal medicine now comes with ingredient labels.

Since it received Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approval, of course it had to have ingredient labels. In a world where even coffee menus show calories, it’s not surprising that herbal medicine has ingredient labels.

But it is a bit surprising that ingredients not listed were detected. I took a sip of Liri-tang. Nam Jungyoon looked at me as if asking why on earth I was drinking that.

“Ugh, it tastes disgusting.”

It felt like drinking poison. Even I, who’d grown up drinking all kinds of herbal medicine, had never tasted anything this horrible.

How did Jung Saebom’s classmates drink this like water? Truly shocking. No matter how much weight it helps you lose, with this level of disgusting taste, you’d think people would moderate their intake.

“How did this actually pass the MFDS?”

“It probably passed through methods that would hurt if you knew.”

“If this passed fair and square, that’s also a problem.”

“Oh come on, the MFDS approval isn’t what matters. Director, you tend to obsess over the MFDS too much.”

“I have a lot of pent-up resentment toward them.”

They approved this, so why did they reject my herbal medicine that suppresses heat cycles! I felt wronged again.

It’s true that everyone becomes lenient when the word “diet” is involved. It also becomes hard to tell whether it’s a pharmaceutical or a health supplement.

But still, seeing an official certification mark on something containing ingredients not listed on the label made my heart sink.

“This is how you lose 15 kilograms in a week.”

If you overdose on arsenic, humans die within minutes. Similarly, overdosing on abnormal drugs neatly destroys human metabolic function.

No, “neatly destroys” might be a misstatement. Let’s say it destroys them in a disgustingly messy way.

“What the, psychotropic drugs in a diet herbal medicine…”

“Borrowing Western medicine’s power for herbal medicine.”

This is apostasy. At my muttering, Nam Jungyoon stopped mid-sentence and looked at me as if he’d seen every kind of lunatic.

“Diet pills usually contain a lot of diethylpropion, but…”

“Is that allowed?”

“I suppose appetite suppression is important for weight loss. To make you not want to eat, there’s no other choice.”

Kim Miyoung looked at Liri-tang with a worried face. Even so, she said she’d never seen this much in her long career as an assistant.

I’m not a psychiatrist, so I don’t know if diethylpropion is actually effective for appetite suppression. I think I learned a bit in college, but since I didn’t pay much attention to Western medicine, I forgot about half of it after the exams.

“But doesn’t this cause addiction?”

“Really?”

“It probably does. Since it contains narcotic ingredients.”

“Wow, shit. Why are you telling me this now.”

“You didn’t drink much, did you?”

“Yeah. No wonder it tasted disgusting.”

Kim Miyoung handed me some job’s tears tea as if to cleanse my palate. Honestly, where does that job’s tears tea keep coming from every time.

We were currently gathered at my house, not the clinic. Because the clinic was temporarily closed.

When I said I’d analyze the Liri-tang I’d gotten through Jung Saebom, Kim Miyoung and Nam Jungyoon insisted on coming to my place. It wasn’t exactly a happy reason to be taking time off, but even though it was a rare break, the two chose work over rest.

Though they did buy some fried chicken from the electric chicken truck in front of the apartment complex. It seemed they’d bought this job’s tears tea bag along the way too.

I took a sip of job’s tears tea to forget the disgustingly terrible Liri-tang. After the Liri-tang, the job’s tears tea tasted like heaven. Hmm, as expected, job’s tears tea is an essential presence in the break room.

“We should report this, right?”

“Of course.”

“How do we report it?”

What’s the drug reporting number again?

I sipped the remaining job’s tears tea, feeling troubled. What if Baek Wonhee, that crazy bastard, ruins the perception of herbal medicine? It’s just one guy acting like this, but what if everyone gets lumped together and condemned?

“Can’t we do some media play too?”

“We don’t know any broadcast PDs now.”

“Not a broadcaster. YouTube, something like that.”

“We don’t know any influencers either.”

The number for reporting drug smuggling is 125, and the drug reporting number is 1301. I was about to report Liri-tang to 1301 when the doorbell rang.

Checking the intercom, it was the aunt next door.

My heart dropped straight to the floor. The aunt visiting my house at this hour. It seemed she’d finally decided to kill me.

I subtly changed the reporting number to 119. Because I might die. Reporting Liri-tang can wait—I have to survive first.

“Who is it?”

“The aunt next door.”

When I started trembling, Nam Jungyoon opened the front door in my place.

Hearing only “the aunt next door” and opening the door, he innocently blinked at the robust middle-aged woman standing before him.

“Alpha?”

Spotting Nam Jungyoon, the aunt next door spoke in a chilling tone.

I dashed to the entrance and pushed Nam Jungyoon aside.

“What brings you here?”

“Came to check if you’re okay.”