My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 57

I tried to sort things out rationally, but a beeping notification sound came from the heat pad. It was time to go remove the needles from Lee Seolwoo’s wrist.

I crumpled the contract back into the drawer and got up from my seat.

Maybe I was being overly sensitive. Jung Pureum had always said he liked me ever since he was young. Thanks to that, Jung Pureum’s admiration, affection, and longing toward me had been reduced to something completely natural.

Could those feelings suddenly transform into romantic interest? I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t a side effect of his secondary sex trait transformation.

If he’d liked me from the past, that itself was a huge problem. That would mean an elementary school student liked a college student. An elementary school student liking a college student hyung, not someone his own age? That was a bit much.

My own feelings of attraction toward Jung Pureum were also an error for similar reasons. Because I’d graduated from a long-program Korean medicine college, I was already in university when Jung Pureum entered high school.

But aside from that, liking a kid who was probably playing freeze tag on the playground while I was drinking at freshman welcome parties was something that would earn condemnation from ethics committees worldwide.

A four-year age gap might be one thing, but an eight-year gap—why would anyone say compatibility readings don’t matter? Even if I went to a fortune teller, they’d definitely say, “Your fortune shows a lack of conscience.”

“Director?”

I mindlessly removed Lee Seolwoo’s needles. My soullessness must have shown, because Lee Seolwoo called out to me in a worried tone.

“Are you okay? You’ve been looking pale since earlier.”

My attempt to separate personal and professional had completely failed….

With my small business owner’s smile in place, I shook my head saying I was fine. To be visibly distracted in front of a patient… this was truly unlike me.

“I have naturally low blood pressure. I may not look it, but I’m perfectly healthy, fine, and refreshed right now.”

“…Come to think of it, your pheromones aren’t exactly stable either, Director. You need to take care of yourself.”

Lee Seolwoo looked at me with a worried expression. It felt strange to be receiving health concerns from a clinic patient in reverse.

I’m not that large-built either, but compared to Lee Seolwoo, I was fairly sturdy. I was about five centimeters taller than him. So Lee Seolwoo worrying about me was like a Chihuahua worrying about a Poodle.

“I, um, I’m asking just in case.”

“Yes.”

“Do you still like Pureum?”

At my question, Lee Seolwoo paused while packing his things and just blinked. Every time his long eyelashes fluttered, the idiom “nation-toppling beauty” came to mind.

If a dominant omega like this showed interest, what alpha wouldn’t be swayed? If I were an alpha, I would have just confessed to Lee Seolwoo right then. I’d have been spouting nonsense like “Would you like to run a Korean medicine clinic with me?”

“I do like him. Alphas like that are rare these days.”

“….”

“Kind, polite… and even when you bother him a bit, he doesn’t say harsh things. He probably would have been popular even if he weren’t an alpha? I was actually going to make an active move, but since it seemed like there was something going on between you two, I pretended not to notice.”

His words really flowed like a clear stream. I nodded at each of Jung Pureum’s good qualities that Lee Seolwoo listed.

Come to think of it, Jung Pureum was what you’d call a “unicorn.” Even Kim Minah had regretted not asking Jung Saebom to introduce her to him after seeing how well he handled household chores. It was just that he wasn’t interested in dating, but if he wanted to, he could live like a king of hearts.

“Well, it’s gotten harder to approach since he turned me down so decisively. So I was wondering—does Jung Pureum still come here often?”

“…No? He doesn’t come anymore.”

“Hmm, I see.”

A lie slipped out before I knew it.

Jung Pureum still showed his face at our clinic every single day. I should tell him not to come today.

“I thought it was one-sided, but I guess it’s mutual….”

Lee Seolwoo mumbled something incomprehensible. Before I could even ask what he meant, he paid and left the clinic.

It felt like a massive storm had passed. If I had to feel this flustered every time a regular came back, maybe I shouldn’t send those web-based promotional messages after all.

[Pureum]

[Don’t come to the clinic for a while.]

Worried that Lee Seolwoo and Jung Pureum might run into each other at our clinic, I left Jung Pureum a message.

At my words telling him not to come without any explanation, Jung Pureum sent a series of crying puppy emojis. I had no way to answer his question of why he couldn’t come.

[You have a competition coming up soon.]

[Don’t even show your face until you become a national representative.]

After much deliberation, that was all the message I left.

I had no choice. Lee Seolwoo had become a regular at our clinic again, and I couldn’t honestly tell him not to come because I’d feel uncomfortable if they ran into each other. That would look too petty.

At first I’d been desperate to connect the two, but somehow things had turned out like this. Even I thought it was a strange change in attitude. Jung Pureum must be confused by my back-and-forth behavior too.

I shook my head. Romantic feelings, my foot. If I just stopped watching romance dramas for a few days, these thoughts would naturally disappear.

∞ ∞ ∞

Disappear, my foot!

I raised my middle finger at myself from a few days ago. As time passed, my agitation didn’t decrease—it only increased.

No matter how I thought about it, Jung Pureum seemed to like me. It appeared that after his secondary sex trait changed, he’d started seeing me, the closest omega to him, in a romantic light.

This was all because there were only alphas around Jung Pureum. If he’d had many omega friends since childhood instead of just me, he probably wouldn’t have developed feelings for me specifically.

Did Adam and Eve date because they were each other’s type? They just fell for each other because there was no one else in the world.

To be coldly honest, I’m not exactly a great person. My Korean medicine skills and my character are separate things. To this day, there’s been a truckload of people who’ve hated me.

But Jung Pureum, as Lee Seolwoo said, had excellent character. Even though he occasionally picked up strange habits from me, overall he was kind to everyone. Worlds apart from me, who’s picky about people.

So it makes sense that I’d feel attracted to Jung Pureum. He’s that kind of person. But Jung Pureum feeling attracted to me is a bit of a problem. There are so many better people on the streets—why me of all people?

It couldn’t be more lamentable. He doesn’t even know how much demand there is for an alpha like him. He’s only twenty, so he’s probably just drawn to the nearest omega. When you’re young, rational judgment isn’t exactly reliable, is it?

My cunning and selfish heart whispered, “Just go with it and stick close to Jung Pureum, pretending not to know.” If my last shred of conscience hadn’t freaked out with “Are you trying to ruin this kid’s future?” I might have just let it slide.

[Hyung]

[Did I really do something wrong?]

[You won’t even let me come to the clinic]

[And you changed the door password]

[ㅠㅠ]

Now that I’d become aware of these feelings, the best course of action was avoidance. …Right, from now on, I’m the avoidant type!

I’m the aggressive type of Korean medicine doctor who fights against injustice, but right now avoidance is the answer. I couldn’t stab Jung Pureum with a big needle. If I were to stab anything, it should be my own head for wavering just because the kid acts cute.

[I won’t wear cologne anymore]

[If you tell me what I did wrong]

[I’ll fix everything]

Jung Pureum hadn’t done anything wrong. Seeing Jung Pureum say he’d fix things when he’d done nothing wrong made my heart crumble.

This is exactly why my weak heart is the problem. What are you going to fix! The problem isn’t you—it’s the entire world, including me.

[Come after the qualifiers.]

[More than anything else, I think]

[You becoming a national representative is the most important thing.]

Jung Pureum started sending [ㅠ] and crying puppy emojis in succession.

Still, it was a relief that the national team qualifiers were right around the corner. He’d think I was avoiding him because of the qualifiers.

Once he becomes a national representative, Jung Pureum will naturally get busy, and I can take my time to get my head straight in the meantime.

I’ll stay away from romance dramas and avoid hearing about marriage and blind dates from family. I’ll devote my life solely to clinic work. Then the fleeting attraction I felt toward Jung Pureum would surely settle down.

I needed to get a grip on myself too. Jung Pureum, with his weak heart and kind nature, would clearly fall for me without even understanding his own feelings.

For my own sake, I couldn’t give a traumatic romantic experience to a twenty-year-old kid.

[National representative]

[You absolutely must become a national representative.]

I sent a few more messages bordering on brainwashing. A quick reply came back from Jung Pureum, but I didn’t check it and put my phone down.

It had already been three weeks since I’d started skipping dates with Jung Pureum using the national team as an excuse. If Jung Pureum even hinted at the ‘c’ in contract, I immediately brought out the ‘n’ in national representative.

I’m probably more extreme than the aunt next door or his coach. Right now, I was acting like a pushy parent who’d die if their child didn’t get first place in school.

But even with keeping Jung Pureum at this much distance, the feelings I’d once recognized didn’t disappear like smoke. Rather, I kept thinking about him.

If only I could turn back time to the past when I was stupidly oblivious.

People say realizing you like someone makes your heart flutter with joy, but my hands were trembling and all kinds of worries came first. Is it a magnesium deficiency?… This kid really has no idea how scary the world is! What if I’d pounced with my sinister intentions?

On top of that, I was also the problem for accepting him without a second thought all this time. Why did I only now recognize Jung Pureum’s attitude of chirping “I like you” like a chick next to me?

Without Lee Seolwoo, I probably wouldn’t have thought to look at the contract again. If my mom hadn’t been so extreme, I wouldn’t have even agonized over it in the first place.

My agitation remained unchanged, but my phone started vibrating, oblivious to my feelings. Thinking it was Jung Pureum, I deliberately didn’t answer, but instead of stopping, the vibration only continued.

I eventually flipped my phone back over. On the screen, the two characters for “Mom” appeared.

This was also a problem. I needed to fix the habit of automatically assuming it was Jung Pureum whenever the phone rang.

“Hello.”

I answered the phone in a dying voice.