My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 33

At the same time, the PD was on the verge of demotion.

“PD Kim, are you out of your mind?”

“No, well, that’s…”

“A reversal? A retraction? Are you crazy? You’re trying to throw the public credibility of the broadcast program to the ground. Do you want to retire that badly?”

“….”

“Even if you’re going to quit, you shouldn’t cause trouble for the broadcast. What kind of nonsense is this! It’s not like you’re doing a one-day, two-day gig as a PD.”

He had known it would come to this from the moment he was called into the president’s office.

He had rolled and scrambled from the bottom to barely make it to the main PD position. Unlike the entertainment divisions, in the educational broadcasting station where promotions were hard to come by because there was nothing that could make a big splash, how fiercely had he endured?

To steadily maintain his industry reputation, which could change overnight like flipping one’s palm, PD Kim had lived a truly hardworking life. He grabbed onto every topic that could become an issue, and though he felt sorry for his staff, he also graciously accepted forced overtime and extra work.

Thanks to that, he had reaped quite a harvest recently. Both Gongjindan and Liri-tang, being products with demand, had generated quite a stir online.

Up until then, the president had been kind to PD Kim. “Our educational broadcasting station’s only hope is PD Kim!” It was only a few months ago that he had heard such words.

But now, PD Kim was nothing more or less than a bastard worthy of being torn to pieces by the broadcasting station president.

However, PD Kim had no choice either. Who would have thought that problems would arise because of Baek Wonhee, who was much more approachable than the oriental medicine doctor who had supposedly made Gongjindan and had freely leaked industry information?

PD Kim had more or less suspected that there was something wrong with Liri-tang. A diet herbal medicine with such good effects—no matter how great herbal medicine was, there had to be something fishy about it.

But the advertising fee was too much to refuse… Baek Wonhee had claimed that his Liri-tang was safe. Though suspicious, it had received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and had completed clinical trials, so his words sounded like the truth.

And then, narcotics were detected in that supposedly safe Liri-tang. It was enough to make him go mad and jump out of his skin. In effect, PD Kim had promoted an herbal medicine laced with drugs on public broadcasting.

He could have just insisted loudly that he didn’t know and washed his hands of it. Not just the educational broadcasting station, but other broadcasters too, when problems arose, often played innocent, saying “we didn’t know either.”

But now, even that was a little difficult. PD Kim let out a deep sigh. He didn’t know what would happen to him if he tried to cut off the tail.

PD Kim recalled the past when he had been drunk at a company dinner and said all sorts of things he shouldn’t have. Not only had he spilled personal stories in detail, but in his drunken state, he had also freely spewed insults and harassment toward Moon Yeonghwa.

Baek Wonhee had shamefully recorded everything PD Kim had drunkenly uttered. Though recording without the involved party’s consent was illegal, the recorded voice of PD Kim was atrocious enough to slightly overlook the law.

—That person, is he really an omega? There wasn’t a single cute thing about him. When I tried to get closer, he blocked me on messenger.

—That’s right. He’s a latent heat type, so he looks like a beta.

—Ha… what a shame. I should have gently seduced him back then and had a taste.

—….

—You know what? They say people who are that prickly are killers in bed.

The fact that those remarks, which were at the more tolerable end of the spectrum, were of that level said it all. PD Kim mentally beat up his past self severely. He had made a mistake because he had let his guard down, thinking things were going well.

Even if you’re thinking those things, you shouldn’t say them out loud to others. But once words are spoken, they can’t be taken back. Even more so if they’ve been recorded.

When the truth about Liri-tang was exposed through Kim Minah’s report, Baek Wonhee used the recording file as leverage to coax PD Kim. Since things had come this far, he asked PD Kim to promote Liri-tang again once some time had passed.

PD Kim agonized over it. The recording file Baek Wonhee held threatened PD Kim’s social standing.

But he couldn’t very well air Liri-tang, which had already been sued once for drug issues, on public broadcasting again. Sexual harassment comments could be smoothed over with time, but drug issues meant jail time.

In the end, PD Kim attempted to cut off the tail. Up to that point, it was a wise decision.

But the problem came after that. He had planned a broadcast targeting Baek Wonhee, but that didn’t mean Baek Wonhee was going to jail immediately.

While anxiously worrying about when and how his social standing might plummet to rock bottom, a tip came in for the program he was in charge of, <I Want to Know Everything>.

An anonymous tipster testified in a fresh tone that someone he knew was using fentanyl patches. Since he had to air the planned broadcast, PD Kim took a few staff members and went to meet the anonymous tipster.

And there, he saw a familiar face. He didn’t recognize him right away at first, but his sturdy build and the gaze that had stared intently at him from beside Moon Yeonghwa made him remember.

The man who had appeared next to Moon Yeonghwa, calling himself a younger acquaintance, when Moon was trying to avoid the company dinner. The anonymous tipster was Jung Pureum.

Next to Jung Pureum sat another man with a pale, sickly complexion. He was the one who claimed to use fentanyl patches for rehabilitation purposes.

Jung Pureum called him “senior,” and whenever Jung Pureum spoke to him, the man’s complexion worsened as if he had been caught by some weakness.

He should have run away back then if he was going to.

PD Kim recalled Jung Pureum, who had smiled and shoved the recording file at him. His attitude was friendly, and his tone was polite.

‘PD, I heard your vulgar remarks very clearly.’

‘Ah, no, how on earth did you…’

‘I’ll take responsibility and submit your interesting opinion that our hyung would be killer in bed to the police.’

As Jung Pureum continued speaking, PD Kim’s complexion also worsened, just like his senior’s.

Unlike Baek Wonhee, who had used the recording file as leverage but couldn’t wield it as a weapon right away because his own voice was also recorded, Jung Pureum was a completely unburdened third party.

Recalling the events of the past few days, PD Kim wore a stern expression.

“We absolutely have to air the correction broadcast.”

“Oh, my goodness…. Even if you lose your initial passion, there are limits. What will people think of <I Want to Know Everything> if you do that? Whether it was true or a scam, once you framed it as a scam, you should just stubbornly push it as a scam!”

I’d like to do that too….

PD Kim shed tears of blood only inwardly. Why things had turned out this way was truly baffling. How on earth did Baek Wonhee’s recording file end up in Jung Pureum’s hands?

No matter how much he tried to guess, PD Kim couldn’t deduce the relationship between Baek Wonhee and Jung Pureum. He could only sigh and look at the president, who was fuming and telling him to write a statement of explanation.

∞ ∞ ∞

Jung Pureum was, as he appeared, an ordinary physical education college student with talent in swimming. Aside from the fact that he had gone from beta to alpha while taking the college entrance exam, there was nothing particularly unusual about him.

A hidden third-generation conglomerate heir, or the fact that he was actually concealing a secret about his birth… Whether fortunately or unfortunately, he had no such dramatic background.

But even without that kind of background, Jung Pureum’s execution ability was outstandingly good. After Kim Minah’s Liri-tang video was uploaded to her YouTube channel, Jung Pureum also began to move in his own way.

Moon Yeonghwa had said, “As long as Jung Pureum doesn’t take a loss.” So Jung Pureum truly decided to make it so that “only he didn’t take a loss.”

Stage 1 of Jung Pureum’s “Don’t Take a Loss” project was not to say a single word to Moon Yeonghwa. He had to keep everything a secret and move; if he even hinted that he was running around busily to help him, it would cause trouble.

Coincidentally, there were plenty of people around who could afford to take a little loss. From his university senior, who was regularly involved in violent incidents and showed signs of fentanyl patch addiction, to that bastard Baek Wonhee.

Stage 2 of the “Don’t Take a Loss” project. Jung Pureum decided to start by shaking down Baek Wonhee.

Jung Pureum didn’t have any settings like “he’s actually a genius hacker” or “he’s actually a black magician who can control people’s minds,” so he simply walked through the front door of Wonhee Oriental Medicine Clinic and made a consultation appointment.

The staff member sitting at the reception desk was very friendly. Baek Wonhee knew Jung Pureum’s face, but the staff member didn’t know who Jung Pureum was. She just thought he was a good-looking patient.

Thanks to that, Jung Pureum was able to sit face-to-face with Baek Wonhee without much difficulty. It was the same method he had used when trying to get a prescription for Liri-tang.

Baek Wonhee wrinkled his face as soon as he saw Jung Pureum, asking if he was back to do more industrial espionage. But the purpose of Jung Pureum’s visit was not Liri-tang.

Pureum opened his mouth with a kind and polite demeanor.

‘Isn’t it a betrayal of your calling for an oriental medicine doctor to distribute fentanyl?’

Walking in through the front door and saying… what? Baek Wonhee was speechless. Aside from being dumbfounded, he had no idea what Jung Pureum knew to be acting this way.

Betrayal. Wasn’t it true that even Western doctors shouldn’t distribute fentanyl in the first place? There were plenty of counterarguments, but his mind became uneasy, and his mouth wouldn’t open.

Fentanyl, like diethylamine, is a medical narcotic. If you break diethylamine into very fine pieces and take it, it becomes fentanyl. In countries without medical insurance, cases of addiction from abusing fentanyl as a painkiller often occurred.

And for alpha athletes, since regular painkillers often didn’t work well, medical fentanyl was sometimes used for injuries. The problem was its addictiveness. Why else would a drug be a drug? The effect might be amazing, but it’s addictive, and that’s the problem.

Jung Pureum’s university senior was one such example. Contrary to his claim that he only used what was prescribed by a doctor, he bought illegally distributed fentanyl patches with his own money even during the off-season when there were no competitions.

Jung Pureum had only recently become aware of this. Perhaps thinking that others wouldn’t notice, the senior boldly kept patches in a public locker that were clearly obtained through illegal prescriptions.

They say lying requires intelligence too. Jung Pureum hadn’t deliberately opened anyone else’s locker, but sharing a changing room made it difficult not to notice eventually. Not just Jung Pureum, but other athletes too probably noticed the existence of illegal drugs rolling around in the lockers. They just pretended not to see to avoid getting entangled.

Immediately after meeting Kim Minah, Jung Pureum confronted his senior. When Jung Pureum, who was usually docile even when provoked, started badgering him, the senior also became frightened of the situation escalating.

Medications prescribed by a doctor were fine, but the moment it was discovered that he had bought illegal patches with his own money, his athletic career was over.

Ultimately, unable to give up his career, the senior confessed to Pureum in detail why he had started taking fentanyl and where he had obtained it.

As Jung Pureum listened to this confession, he thought: the drug reporting hotline is 1301… Getting the drug seemed relatively easy, but obtaining it in large quantities involved complicated procedures.

Then how on earth did Baek Wonhee manage to get such a large amount of diethylamine to put in Liri-tang?

This—if he poked it right, maybe he could get lucky?

It was a judgment that would have made Moon Yeonghwa gasp and fall backward if he had known. He would have definitely jumped up and asked where he had learned to use such petty tricks. Not knowing that he had learned it all from Moon Yeonghwa himself….