My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 36

Jung Pureum dragged me around here and there, going everywhere. The department store was our main destination, but we also had a late dinner and took those trendy four-cut photos. Kids these days really play with all sorts of things.

We played around so much that the department store’s closing time approached, and we ended up not even looking at clothes. Time always flew by when I was with Jung Pureum.

“We can come again next week, I guess.”

Jung Pureum, who had been the one insisting we go to the department store for summer clothes, didn’t seem particularly attached to the department store itself.

On the way home, my thoughts became complicated again.

Was it really okay for me, at my age, to be playing around like this with Jung Pureum? Didn’t he have friends his own age? He should be starting to make new friends at university by now.

Then again, I didn’t have any friends either when I was in college. It’s not easy to form deep connections with people you meet after becoming an adult. So maybe Jung Pureum also thought of me, his neighborly older brother, as a playmate….

While I was contemplating Jung Pureum’s social relationships, Jung Pureum walked beside me, matching my stride, and chattered on about all sorts of everyday things.

“Because my competition records are good, I think I’ll be able to compete in the national team selection trials.”

Among the things Jung Pureum said, the topic that stuck in my ear was the national team selection trials. It was something he could never have dreamed of when he was a beta. Hearing this made it sink in once again that Jung Pureum had really become an alpha.

“That’s great. Train hard. Since you’re going, you should become a national team member.”

“My coach said the same thing.”

“Ugh….”

I couldn’t believe that I had made the same remark as that coach. I hastily muttered, “You can still be a great swimmer even if you don’t become a national team member.” I would rather die than share the same opinion as that coach.

Jung Pureum laughed softly at my reaction. Then he added that his condition had been good lately, so his training sessions ended quickly.

“It was only once, but I guess sleeping with hyung helped.”

“….”

I had let my guard down, and suddenly Jung Pureum threw a fastball. I stumbled and nearly slammed my face into the ground. What kind of thing is that to bring up on the way home?

Jung Pureum held me tightly as I swayed. His face, asking if I was okay after dropping that bomb, was detestable. The fact that he looked genuinely worried made it even more absurd.

Of course, since Jung Pureum was also an alpha, the best way to resolve a rut cycle was herbal medicine and sleeping with an omega. Still, I had been trying hard to ignore that, but when those words came out of Jung Pureum’s mouth, I was shocked.

“Did you get sick again? You keep overworking yourself, hyung. Is it because your cycle is approaching?”

Jung Pureum, who had no idea how I was feeling, buried his nose in the back of my neck. Eek, eeeek! An internal scream erupted from me.

He just casually smelled my pheromones and pulled back, but that made it even more baffling. Are you a sniffer dog or what? Seeing him grin and say he didn’t think my cycle was coming yet made me feel like my world was collapsing and society was falling apart.

Jung Pureum seemed fine, so why was I so affected by his every little touch?

It was definitely because I was a more rotten adult than he was. My mind was truly in turmoil. No matter how cute and endearing Jung Pureum was, if I really cared about him, it seemed like I shouldn’t stay as close as before.

Even now, I desperately wanted to grab Jung Pureum and vigorously ruffle his curly hair. And while I was at it, maybe touch that handsome face a little too.

But I couldn’t give in to these instincts.

No matter how much I had degenerated into a beast, my essence was still human. A human being should have reason. If I lost my reason, Kant would come chasing after me from afar shouting “Reason!”

After parting ways with Jung Pureum, I returned home and lay on my bed, reflecting on my condition. It seemed that after getting rid of the nuisance called Baek Wonhee, my mind had become too lax.

How many complicated situations had I been dealing with?

Developing Gongjindan was a positive thing, but all the incidents and accidents I experienced because of it were anything but simple. They all involved the fate of our clinic.

So now that the big problem was resolved, it was only natural that worries would come. Humans tend to have idle thoughts when their body or mind becomes idle.

I tried to work harder to escape these distracting thoughts, but I was already doing so much that even if I tried to do more, it wouldn’t make a dent.

Besides, no matter what I did, nothing as complicated as the Baek Wonhee situation would happen. Nam Jungyoon seemed happier and more satisfied than anyone after Baek Wonhee went to jail, but I was starting to miss Baek Wonhee. He left without even tasting the medicine I had prepared for him. Come back! Come back and eliminate my distracting thoughts!

I eventually sat up abruptly in bed. Missing Baek Wonhee was a sure sign that I wasn’t in my right mind.

Because of my orthostatic hypotension, the world spun around me. I should have been born a healthy sun person. Sighing heavily, I fumbled on the bed for my phone.

Come to think of it, this whole problem was because Jung Pureum was too close. We needed some distance now. But if I said “we need distance,” Jung Pureum would definitely not even listen with his ears, let alone his heart.

Then shouldn’t I be the one to move? They say if you don’t like the temple, the monk should leave. I couldn’t move the clinic that I’d even expanded, but moving my residence was possible.

If I kept living next door, I really didn’t know what kind of trouble might happen.

I imagined a scenario where I lost my reason, groped Jung Pureum, and got caught by the neighbor lady. Jung Pureum would say it was fine, but how absurd would the neighbor lady find it?

Returning a favor with enmity has its limits. She might throw me out of the apartment building for devouring her well-raised son. Jung Saebom wasn’t scary, but the neighbor lady truly was.

I installed a real estate app on my phone. If I searched around, I could probably find a studio near the clinic.

This apartment my grandfather had gotten for me was a bit too spacious for one person. I had lived without any life skills for eight years, so I hadn’t felt any major inconvenience, but now the time had come to leave.

I gazed seriously at the real estate app. I’d made quite a bit of money—surely I could afford to buy at least one house?

Up until this point, I was feeling rather triumphant. I was thinking, “It’d be nice to have a house in my own name!” That was truly a vain thought.

∞ ∞ ∞

No matter how I thought about it, Seoul housing prices were insane.

That was the conclusion I reached after checking real estate prices all night long. There were so many buildings crammed into this tiny patch of land, yet there was nowhere to move. Did that make any sense? There were empty houses everywhere, but none of them were mine.

Even when I was looking for a clinic location, I thought the prices were unconscionable, saying places hadn’t been leased out yet, but trying to find a residence was beyond imagination.

Even the apartment I currently lived in—seeing how much its price had risen in eight years, I nearly fainted.

It didn’t seem easy to move with my own money. If I were willing to pay monthly rent and live in a chicken-coop studio, it was possible, but having lived alone for eight years in a unit large enough for a family of four, I didn’t have the courage to move into a chicken coop.

If I received help from my grandfather, moving would be easy. When I got the place at twenty, I hadn’t had to worry about real estate. But I didn’t want to ask for help again, having decided to move for personal reasons at this age.

A clash between pride and housing prices began. As I racked my brain and let out groans, Kim Miyoung approached me worriedly, asking if I was sick.

“It’s not that I’m sick… it’s housing prices.”

“Housing prices? Director, you live in an apartment. A really nice place, right?”

“Ah, I was thinking of moving.”

“Why?”

Because of Jung Pureum….

If I answered honestly, Kim Miyoung would immediately tattle to Jung Pureum about my moving plans.

I now knew for sure whose side Kim Miyoung was on. If the heavens split open and Western medicine surpassed Oriental medicine, and because of that Jung Pureum and I got into a fight, Kim Miyoung would take Jung Pureum’s side.

In that case, it was better to just say nothing. When I clamped my mouth shut, Kim Miyoung’s eyes narrowed. Was it such a suspicious thing to say I wanted to move?

“I have a hunch. A hunch that the director is about to do something stupid again.”

“No, isn’t that a bit harsh? Stupid things. I’m a person who only does fairly decent things.”

“No. In my opinion, whenever the director feels like something is going wrong, you’re the type of person who would abandon a perfectly good home and decide to move to some strange place without a second thought.”

“….”

“You have a bit of an extreme streak.”

…If you’re exposed to herbal ingredients for a long time, do you get possessed by spirits or something?

Since our clinic couldn’t operate normally without Kim Miyoung, I had to do my utmost to prevent her from returning to her shamanistic career.

“Anyway, reconsider the move. Housing prices are insane right now; the timing is terrible, isn’t it?”

“…That’s true.”

“And the apartment you live in is so expensive that even if you put it on the market, it probably won’t sell easily.”

That was correct.

I slumped back against the chair in defeat. There was nothing wrong with the house, and it was strange to be worrying about moving during the most expensive housing period just because of a neighbor’s younger brother.

No matter how much I thought of Jung Pureum as precious… precious? As a younger brother, still. I felt like I was making too big a deal out of one time sleeping together. I should follow the example of Jung Pureum, a young person of today’s generation, and act casual about it too.

I looked at the four-cut photo I had tucked into my desk as a bookmark instead of a proper bookmark. Unlike me, who looked awkward, Jung Pureum in the photo looked purely happy.

“Because my competition records are good, I think I’ll be able to compete in the national team selection trials.”

Jung Pureum’s words about competing in the national team trials also kept circling in my head. I knew it was needless worry, but I kept getting scared that I might hold him back now that he was an alpha.

It was all because of those gossip articles about sports stars that pop up periodically. I had been brainwashed by the stories of omegas ruining the smooth-sailing lives of alpha sports stars.