My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 5

The first time we met was when I was twenty years old. At that time, Jung Pureum was only in the fifth grade of elementary school.

Back then, I had just entered university and was going through an even harder time than during my exam preparation days. It was good that I had moved out of my family home, but living alone was not as beautiful as I had imagined.

I never knew that feeding myself would be such a bothersome task. How had my parents managed to feed and put to sleep a young child like me all that time?

Even now I’m terrible at cooking, but back then it was even worse. Regularly burning kitchen utensils was the bare minimum, and there was even a time I ended up being taken away in an ambulance after eating something I made wrong.

I was good at studying but utterly hopeless at housekeeping. I wanted to be someone who was good at everything… but with my character creation cost distribution failure, my housekeeping talent was close to zero.

But I couldn’t just crawl back home saying I couldn’t live alone. I had barely managed to convince my parents, who had opposed me living alone because I was an omega, so if I went back to my family home, it was obvious I’d never be allowed to live independently again.

No matter how much of a trend kangaroo parents are, once you become an adult, you should be able to take care of yourself. Depending on my family again was something my pride wouldn’t allow.

While I was barely surviving my solo life through sheer tenacity, the aunt next door spoke to me. It was the day after I had blown up my kitchen for the seventh time.

A neighbor I had never exchanged more than a single conversation with since moving in, aside from when I delivered rice cakes on the first day, was talking to me.

Naturally, I should have been wary, but I ended up following the aunt into her house. The offer of dinner was just too sweet to refuse. We all have to live. I needed to survive too.

And there was Jung Pureum. Young and adorable, Jung Pureum followed me like a real brother from the very first moment he saw me. To be precise, he quickly got over his shyness and started acting friendly toward me.

While the aunt next door and Jung Saebom were brusque or irritable in personality, Jung Pureum was very well-mannered and adorable. Unbelievably warm for a boy from a sports family, and quick to read the room. Well, with two alpha women with physical prowess in the household, anyone would learn to be deferential.

After being treated to a proper dinner that day, I continued my exchanges with the family next door as if we were actually relatives. It was quite exceptional in modern society, where it’s normal not to know your neighbors’ faces.

From the time I started interacting with the family next door, I was able to live somewhat like a proper human being.

I saw the aunt next door more often than my own mother, and frequently sat at the table with the two siblings. Sometimes, as repayment for the meals, I also looked after young Jung Saebom or Jung Pureum. Thanks to that, I wasn’t lonely even while living alone over the past several years.

Strictly speaking, the aunt next door was practically my benefactor. Though not as sweet-tempered as Jung Pureum, she truly treated me like family.

So Jung Saebom and Jung Pureum were like siblings to me too. Having seen them since they wore school uniforms and went to school, it was hard to think of them as mere acquaintances. Though not blood-related, you could say they were almost family.

[I’ll come right over as soon as training ends.]

Below my meaningless emoticon, Jung Pureum’s reply came.

As you can see from this, Jung Pureum was kind to everyone. Polite to adults, and warm to friends. He’s a rare, upstanding young man these days.

Thanks to him, I was able to safely get through my toughest university years. Whenever I was struggling, Jung Pureum would notice like a ghost and always stay by my side.

Thinking that I couldn’t even properly buy beef for a guy like that made my heart feel empty. As expected, leaving everything else aside, I absolutely had to make him a killer Gongjindan.

∞ ∞ ∞

Do you know when being an omega is truly tough? It’s when your heat cycle breaks out and you’re self-employed.

Kim Miyoung, the only nurse assistant at my Korean medicine clinic, had run the clinic for the past three days in my place. A clinic without its director is like takoyaki without octopus or red bean bread without red bean paste. It was only possible because there were almost no visiting patients.

Usually, it wasn’t new patients coming for consultations, but regular omega patients who specifically sought me out because they couldn’t feel at ease unless the doctor was also an omega—they were my main customer base.

“Nothing unusual happened, right?”

At my question, Kim Miyoung, who had been trimming her nails at the reception desk, slowly raised her head.

Kim Miyoung, hired through my grandfather’s introduction, was a veteran nurse assistant who had handled everything from reception to dispensing at various Korean medicine clinics.

My grandfather had said Yeonghwa had worked at clinics for several years too, so in terms of experience, she was on par with a specialist Korean medicine doctor. She was also over fifty in age, so no matter how much I was her employer, I couldn’t treat her carelessly.

Kim Miyoung stopped trimming her nails and let out a deep sigh. A quiet lament followed—how could anything happen without customers.

“Director, I don’t want to say this when you’re trying so hard, but I’m worried whether you can even pay my salary at this rate.”

“Your salary will never be late. Don’t worry.”

“There are no patients except for a few omegas. At this rate, we’re going to go bankrupt. You know the Wonhee Korean Medicine Clinic nearby? Those young, inexperienced assistants there are apparently betting on when our clinic will go under.”

“Really? What do those guys who just sell diet herbs and barely even do proper consultations know to say such things?”

“Director, don’t say that recklessly. Diet herbs make a killing.”

“….”

That is true.

While flies were buzzing around my clinic, the Wonhee Korean Medicine Clinic on the third floor of the building across the street was swarming with patients. It was so busy that you couldn’t even get a consultation without booking a month in advance.

These days, you can’t say all Korean medicine clinics are the same. Each establishment has its own specialty, and Wonhee Clinic’s specialty was ‘diet.’ The diet herbs they produced had even received Ministry of Food and Drug Safety certification and patents.

Losing weight is fine, but delaying heat cycles isn’t. Once again today, I shuddered at the absurdity of the world.

On top of that, Baek Wonhee, the director of Wonhee Clinic, was my sworn enemy. We were classmates from the same university, but instead of helping each other out, he opened a clinic nearby and spread the rumor around town that the director here is a dominant omega, trying to ruin me.

Without realizing it, I bit my nails as I burned with vengeful determination, and Kim Miyoung patted my back.

“From the start, it’s not easy for an omega to run a business. When that heat cycle or whatever breaks out, you lose several days a month just like that. Director, look—even with your medicine and acupuncture, there’s no helping it.”

“….”

“I have a long career and plenty of places that want me, so even if this place fails, I’ll be fine, but Director, your future is still bright, so it might be better to think it over more. In business, when you feel it’s sinking, cutting your losses early minimizes the damage.”

Kim Miyoung’s words were right a hundred times over. As expected, the practical concerns of middle age cannot be ignored.

But I couldn’t fully agree with her words. Even if my head agreed, my pride strongly rejected it.

Since there are no patients anyway, I might as well spend my time making expensive Gongjindan and selling them.

If there’s a guy making money off diet herbs right in the building across the street, then I’ll sell expensive Gongjindan targeting test-takers with the CSAT just around the corner. While I’m at it, I’ll make some for Jung Pureum too.

Pretending not to feel my burning insides, I holed up in the dispensary. If I just sat in the director’s office, Kim Miyoung would pace around and inevitably irritate me.

Actually, around this time, I was already not in my right mind. It hadn’t been long since my heat cycle ended, and I was being consumed by vengeance and competitiveness.

That’s how I ended up creating it.

That… Gongjindan (攻進丹).

“Keuk, keukeuk, keuhaha!”

Great. That sounded a bit like a dark-sided mad scientist just now.

I put on a straight face as if I hadn’t just laughed like a maniac and wrapped the Gongjindan nicely. This Gongjindan was destined for Jung Pureum, as promised.

Since I made it while slightly out of it, I didn’t remember the exact details of how I made it. So, I couldn’t put it out for sale.

I was sure I had made some mistake in the formulation, yet the Gongjindan turned out properly. As expected, what’s meant to succeed will succeed. I am the great genius Korean medicine doctor sent by heaven.

When I came out of the dispensary, Kim Miyoung was sitting at the reception desk, resting her chin on her hand and dozing off. One patient visited today—an omega who came for acupuncture to delay the heat cycle.

Well, it’s better than no one. If there’s even one patient, treating them with sincerity is the duty of a Korean medicine doctor.

So, I holed up in the dispensary and prayed to the omega god.

Please make that bastard Baek Wonhee’s clinic go completely bankrupt. Oh omega god. Life is truly, really unfair. Please make my clinic ridiculously successful. Please let only me succeed.

Of course, there was no particular response to my prayer. If such a selfish prayer were answered, that wouldn’t be a normal god anyway.

Besides, I’m non-religious, and the omega god doesn’t even exist. Even if it did, it would be a cult. I’d have better luck praying to a major god like Jesus, Buddha, or Allah.

After that, I shook Kim Miyoung awake and sent her home first, then stood alone in the middle of the dark clinic with no one left but me.

After the resentment and anger passed, what filled me was emptiness. A touch of unfairness was a bonus.

Frankly, I still couldn’t understand why I had to fail just because I’m an omega. I was smart, and I had sufficient ability. I received a lot of support, and I had confidence I could do well.

Yet, just because I’m an omega, I have to fail? This is truly nonsensical.

Even though I’m not particularly weak-hearted, for some reason I felt like crying. To be precise, it wasn’t tears from sadness, but tears from sheer anger.

May all you discriminatory bastards go to ruin. May you run to the platform to catch the subway only to have the doors close right in front of you and the train depart. May you line up to buy hotteok only to have the batter run out right before your turn.

“Hyung?”

At that moment, a clear sound came from the wind chime I had hung above the door. While I was cursing the discriminators, Jung Pureum had visited the clinic. If I had been saying something else, it would have been extremely embarrassing.

“Are you crying?”

“No. Do I look like someone who cries to you?”

“For someone who isn’t, your eyes are red.”

“It’s allergies.”

“….”

“You don’t trust hyung? Hyung has had dust allergies that only show up when needed since forever.”

“….”

Jung Pureum just closed his mouth at my excuse. The timing was terrible. Why did he have to open the door and walk in right when I was choked up….

As if reading my mind, Jung Pureum reached out and rubbed my eyes. As his warm hand touched me, I really felt like crying.

Instinctively, I stepped half a step back.