My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 37

The Olympics are next year.

For me, an oriental medicine doctor, it doesn’t matter when the Olympics are held, but for Jung Pureum, a swimmer, it’s a different story. If he wins a gold medal at the Olympics, he gets exempted from military service.

They only give a pittance for a pension, but military exemption is an important issue.

In the first place, I’m a latent heat omega, so I don’t need to go to the military. But Jung Pureum, a dominant alpha, is confirmed for enlistment if he doesn’t win a medal. There’s a reason why all sorts of betas and alphas on online communities are disgusting enough to protest that omegas should also be sent to the military.

Because unless his teeth all fall out or his arms stop rotating 180 degrees, military exemption is impossible. That’s the harsh reality of a divided nation. If you don’t like it, become an omega.

Of course, going to the military isn’t the end of the world, but if possible, not going is best. Especially for professions with short active periods, like athletes.

His athletic career is already short enough—does he really have to go to the military? I don’t think so. A solid young man like Jung Pureum should be exempted for the sake of Korea’s future. They can send someone else instead. How many unhealthy young people are there in the world?

But since not everyone thinks like me, he needs to win a gold medal at twenty-one to avoid future trouble. Unfortunately, in the sports world, the younger you are, the higher your value. Being an alpha is important, but being young is still the best.

Until a few years ago, Jung Pureum was a beta, so he never had a chance to be selected for the national team. He didn’t even make it past the preliminaries at the Asian Games, did he? Thinking back to the days when he was discriminated against for being a beta still breaks my heart.

Those damn discriminators would immediately latch onto his traits whenever he fell short in skill. Even if Jung Pureum posted better records than other alphas, the reality was that he got pushed out of selection because he was a beta.

So he needs to make good use of this time now that he’s an alpha. Jung Pureum specializes in long-distance events, but he said his short-distance records weren’t bad either. He should enter every event possible to raise even a sliver of a chance for a gold medal.

The problem is that earning an Olympic berth is harder than catching a star from the sky. From what I’ve heard, not everyone with skill can become a national team member either.

I heard the power struggles between associations, federations, and universities are no joke. The neighbor lady also said she had a hard time with this during the Asian Games. Even if both parents were athletes, apparently you can’t get priority because of group interests.

The sports world is more complicated than I thought. From afar it didn’t seem like much, but seeing it up close from next door, it’s incredibly complex.

Especially for someone like Jung Pureum, who has been on the elite track since elementary school to become an athlete, it’s even trickier. It’s not just about being good at sports—you also need to be good at politics.

Of course, wherever people live, you need to be good at politics, but it’s a headache to have to deal with all that when you’re already busy dying from training. They should just send the best one.

When Jung Pureum was a beta, I went to watch him train a few times. Watching Jung Pureum, who was still in middle school, roll around here and there made me so anxious. In many ways, Jung Pureum was a tough guy. Even when he was a beta, he always maintained excellent results.

Well, I can’t even go watch now.

After Jung Pureum moved to the alpha-only swimming pool, no matter how curious I am about his training, I can’t spectate. As a latent heat omega, I’m not even allowed to go near it.

Come to think of it, that’s infuriating, isn’t it?

Why do they even make alpha-only swimming pools? It’s truly absurd. They’re just doing everything among themselves.

Anyway, putting aside my grievances and looking at it objectively, this is the most important time for Jung Pureum. He shouldn’t be dating me right now—he should be putting all his energy into winning a gold medal.

But what kind of rumors would spread if I’m by Jung Pureum’s side?

When he was a beta, it wasn’t a big deal that I was an omega. Whether my heat cycle came or not, it had no effect on Jung Pureum whatsoever.

But now Jung Pureum is an alpha. A dominant alpha, at that. The possibility of him being affected by me, an omega, has increased enormously.

If he doesn’t win a gold medal at twenty-one, the next Olympics is when he’s twenty-five. As an athlete, he could postpone his enlistment, but the likelihood of placing is higher at twenty-one than twenty-five, isn’t it?

For athletes, being young is everything. Even the neighbor lady acknowledges that. As you get older, your skill level may increase, but there’s a reason most athletes retire before forty.

So for Jung Pureum’s future, the right thing to do is to keep my distance from him.

If I were a dominant omega like Lee Seolwoo, it might be different, but I’m a latent heat type. The chances of me maintaining my reason for long in front of Jung Pureum are low.

As I’ve said before, human secondary gender has a hierarchy separate from biology. Anyway, it’s clear that humanity evolved incorrectly.

“…Ha, my head hurts.”

“Senior, are you really going to move?”

Nam Jungyoon, who had been holed up in the vice director’s office for a long time, spoke to me from behind. I was startled because I hadn’t sensed his presence.

I just tilted my head back to look at Nam Jungyoon.

“Did Kim Miyoung already tell you?”

“Partly that, but you’ve been staring at real estate listings all day. I couldn’t not notice.”

If Jung Pureum were a latent heat alpha like Nam Jungyoon, I probably wouldn’t be worrying this much. After all, if both are latent heat types, even if their cycles overlap, they wouldn’t act like beasts.

“After checking housing prices, I’m too scared to move.”

“Don’t move. Why would you leave that nice place?”

“Ha, well…”

After confirming that Kim Miyoung was away, I called Nam Jungyoon closer. He looked at me suspiciously but couldn’t resist the director’s summons and came over.

“I think I need to keep my distance from Jung Pureum.”

“Pardon?”

“I can’t stop him from coming to the clinic, so wouldn’t it be right for me to move?”

“Excuse me?”

Nam Jungyoon would surely be on my side. Kim Miyoung was on Jung Pureum’s side, but since Nam Jungyoon and I went to the same university, he’d have loyalty as an alumnus.

With that faith, I confided my moving purpose to Nam Jungyoon. He stared at me with an incredulous face.

“The reason you’re deciding to abandon that nice house is just that?”

“Just that? I’m serious.”

“You’re crazy, really.”

“I told you I’m serious?”

Despite my insistence, Nam Jungyoon just repeated, “Crazy, really.” Honestly, what’s so crazy about it? When you live your life, there are times when you have to decide to move due to unavoidable circumstances.

Nam Jungyoon muttered, “This is why silver spoon kids are hopeless…” and sat down next to me, opening his mouth seriously.

“Senior.”

“Yeah.”

“If you post your current worries on a real estate cafe, you’ll get stabbed.”

“….”

“Really.”

“…That much?”

My hand instinctively went to my chest. I felt like an anonymous real estate cafe member had just stabbed me in the heart. Oh, that’s possible.

He advised me never to post such worries on the internet. I hadn’t been planning to seek advice online anyway, but thanks to Nam Jungyoon, I resolved to stay away from the internet.

Nam Jungyoon repeated the advice to think again more than ten times. Whether I was brainwashed by him or not, moving started to feel like a stupid idea. As Kim Miyoung said, even if I put the place on the market, it probably wouldn’t sell anyway.

The problem with my house is that the kitchen frequently explodes—it has form but doesn’t function properly.

The price isn’t the issue. If I’m going to move, I’d have to completely gut and renovate the kitchen first. I need to fix the sink before I can sell the house. No matter how much money I’ve made from Gongjindan, this would be a real waste of money.

Nam Jungyoon’s advice to use the moving money for real estate investment instead echoed in my ears. …He’s right? Maybe it’d be better to buy a commercial building with the moving money?

In the end, the moving dilemma wasn’t easily resolved even after several days. When I think of Jung Pureum, keeping my distance is the right call, but when I think about investments, moving right now is insane. They say buying a building at peak prices is foolish.

Besides, what would I even say to my grandfather?

I’m moving because the neighbor’s kid became a dominant alpha and I think it’s better to keep some distance? If I said that, my grandfather would definitely come up to Seoul himself to take me back to the family home.

That’s not an option. I can’t win against my grandfather. If my only grandson, whom he raised like a precious jewel, shed tears and told me to just come back home, I wouldn’t be able to defy Confucian filial piety.

While I was weighing all these factors, Jung Pureum, oblivious to my inner turmoil, kept popping in and out of the clinic. Even when I told him to focus on training, his visits didn’t decrease.

As I went around various places with him, I gradually grew accustomed to hanging out with Jung Pureum. To be honest, I was actually having some fun.

I had been so busy that I hadn’t gone out much, let alone dated anyone. In college, I was busy studying, and after graduation, I had no time to go anywhere because I was setting up the clinic.

But even while having a good time, the thought of the Olympics snapped me back to reality. Gold medal! Military exemption! How important is that? He doesn’t have time to be playing around with me right now!

“Pureum.”

On the way home after a good time, I finally decided on a drastic measure.

Time was of the essence. In this hyper-competitive society, Jung Pureum hanging out with me instead of swimming was a loss. It’s not like taking it a little easy would cause him to fall behind, but you never know.

“For our next date, let’s do it at the pool.”

“The pool?”

“Yeah.”

If I can’t move and I can’t create distance, then I’ll just have to drag Jung Pureum to the pool.

Even when Jung Pureum was in high school, I sometimes made him study this way. I’d sit Jung Pureum down when he came over to play, order pizza, and make him solve math problems.

Even back then, Jung Pureum seemed to shed tears of blood from the agony. He said he didn’t come over to study with me, didn’t he? But I shoved pizza into his mouth and made him do calculus. Kids these days don’t do geometry and vectors? Nonsense….

“Teach me how to swim.”

Since it’s come to this, what wouldn’t I do for his military exemption? If moving is out of the question, then let’s at least train.