My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 59

After that, Lee Seolwoo continued to visit our clinic frequently. It seemed our herbal medicine worked quite well for him. Lee Seolwoo had become, in name and reality, our clinic’s VVIP customer.

Even aside from that, I personally liked Lee Seolwoo. Except for the fact that he showed interest in Jung Pureum, he was someone who recognized the true value of my herbal medicine even before I became famous for the tonic.

I didn’t want to fall out with Lee Seolwoo over my personal feelings. After all, he and I were in a doctor-patient relationship.

Jung Pureum occasionally ignored the ban on coming to the clinic, but fortunately, he never ran into Lee Seolwoo there. My planned project of “Should I pursue a meeting at the clinic?” had firmly been confirmed as “No.”

“Did you talk to that PD?”

“Not yet.”

Kim Miyoung suddenly spoke to me.

PD Lee Minsoo of <The Alpha Who Was a Beta Is Too Much!> didn’t answer his phone well. To be precise, it was closer to him not being able to answer rather than not answering.

No matter when I called—morning, afternoon, or evening—it was always busy. I suppose that’s how it is with a PD’s job; he seemed genuinely busy. Or he was deliberately avoiding my calls.

“He’s always busy whenever I call.”

“Is that so? Maybe it’s because the drama airing is coming up soon.”

“Could I possibly borrow your phone, for a moment?”

At my request to borrow her phone, Kim Miyoung willingly handed hers over. I tried calling PD Lee Minsoo from Kim Miyoung’s phone.

After going through this a few times, I’d learned the broadcasting station people’s tactics were predictable. Either they contacted you excessively, or they ignored your contact. Broadly speaking, it was one of the two. But since they couldn’t blatantly ignore contact, it was highly likely they were using some other trick.

―Hello?

See? It was clearly set so that any call from my number would automatically go to “busy.” Otherwise, there was no way the signal would go through properly on Kim Miyoung’s number.

There are all kinds of blocking methods. I was deeply impressed by the diverse ways of blocking.

“Hello? This is our Korean medicine clinic.”

―Ah.

“What a surprise, you’re not busy! This is PD Lee Minsoo, right? I’m contacting you because there’s something to discuss regarding <The Alpha Who Was a Beta Is Too Much!>.”

Most likely, PD Kim had given him my number and done some groundwork with PD Lee Minsoo too. I didn’t know what PD Kim had said about me, but I was sure it wasn’t anything good.

So it wasn’t surprising that PD Lee Minsoo’s attitude wasn’t friendly. He’d probably feel like the neighborhood nuisance had come to his house too—how could he say anything nice?

―Contacting me like this is a bit difficult. If you send an email to the broadcasting station, we’ll arrange a meeting.

“I’ve already sent about three emails, though?”

―….

“If possible, shall we meet in person? Since we’re both busy, let’s coordinate quickly.”

PD Lee Minsoo was easier to deal with than PD Kim. Although he seemed a bit put off by me, at least he didn’t hang up midway. I’d thought he’d shamelessly claim ignorance about the tonic, but instead he just deflected, saying he’d been late in contacting me.

If we hadn’t raised the issue, he probably would never have contacted us first. Because the drama side wasn’t the kind of place that got permission to use source material.

I laughed hollowly and returned the phone to Kim Miyoung.

“Director, your eyes are spinning again.”

“I’m in a very calm and composed state right now.”

Actually, I wasn’t composed at all. Getting entangled with broadcasting stations is the fate of a famous clinic, but where was the free use of source material coming from?

I’d worked so hard to patent the tonic. Just thinking about the past struggles of failing to pass the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety review still made me shed bloody tears. There was no way I’d be pleased about someone else using my hard work for free.

If you’re not going to pay me, at least give me free PPL. At least get me some PPL on public broadcasting.

Like a capitalist-crazed person, I muttered, “Give me money….” Kim Miyoung watched me with pity from the side.

∞ ∞ ∞

PD Lee Minsoo was younger than I’d expected. I’d thought he’d be a greasy middle-aged man like PD Kim, but at first glance he seemed about my age.

How did someone this young become the main PD of a public broadcast drama? Perhaps he, like me, had royal blood flowing through his veins—meaning there was a high chance he was a parachute hire.

“I’m Lee Minsoo.”

“Moon Yeonghwa. I’m the director of our Korean medicine clinic.”

A long and lengthy discussion went back and forth before deciding on a meeting place. Both Lee Minsoo and I had been desperately trying not to give up our home ground.

Originally, to gain the upper hand, you have to win the battle of wills first. During the PD Kim incident, I’d lowered myself and laughed along for the sake of promoting the tonic, but I had no reason to do that with PD Lee Minsoo. Why should I? They were the ones in the wrong.

When I set the meeting place as our clinic, Lee Minsoo naturally showed reluctance. When he said he was too busy and would send another PD instead, I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t speak.

Kim Miyoung and Nam Jungyoon were also furious at the stubborn behavior of the broadcasting station PD. To be precise, Kim Miyoung had an “I knew it” attitude, and only Nam Jungyoon was angry. It was a rare display of his Taeyang-in temperament.

During the prolonged back-and-forth, I briefly considered just going to the broadcasting station, but seeing Nam Jungyoon doing Lamaze breathing to control his anger made me feel like I couldn’t lose this battle of wills.

So I insisted stubbornly and dragged PD Lee Minsoo to our clinic.

After all, in Korea, the loudest voice wins. I roasted Lee Minsoo, who kept repeating how difficult, tiring, and troublesome it would be, like a bean on a griddle.

The threat of filing a civil lawsuit if he didn’t come in person seemed to work best. Then again, hadn’t I desperately clung to Jung Pureum because I was afraid of going to court?

<The Alpha Who Was a Beta Is Too Much!> had received quite good investment from distributors. Considering PD Lee Minsoo’s previous career wasn’t particularly impressive, he was definitely a parachute. Or perhaps he’d benefited from the writer. The writer was indeed famous.

Writer Seo Eunyoung often got caught up in plagiarism disputes, but she was known for reliable home-viewing ratings. The reason PD Lee Minsoo had no choice but to bow to the word “lawsuit” was largely due to this writer. Even if she avoided legal punishment, she couldn’t avoid controversy because of her track record.

She’d been embroiled in a plagiarism lawsuit in her previous work too, so it wouldn’t be good for similar issues to arise. I hadn’t actually watched that drama myself, but since my mom was an avid viewer, I could easily access the news. What was it? She’d cobbled together scripts from a junior writer and passed them off as her own.

Of course, the plagiarism dispute ended with no charges. It was unfortunate for the unknown junior writer, but Writer Seo Eunyoung coolly, funly, and sexily succeeded in airing her drama.

Although some online communities dragged Seo Eunyoung as a plagiarist, people who were going to watch the drama watched it regardless.

“Let me say first—we’re well aware of what you’re concerned about, Director.”

Aware?

You probably don’t. I nodded as if listening attentively. If I hadn’t contacted them first, they’d have gotten away with it, yet they spoke so smoothly.

“We know you even patented the alpha-making tonic. However, the drug that the main character takes to become an alpha is not herbal medicine but Western medicine.”

“….”

“Besides, as you can see from the synopsis, the setting is a hospital. It’s a medical romance where the hospital director’s son gets involved with a doctor…”

“…Out!”

When I cut him off mid-sentence and exploded with anger, PD Lee Minsoo was startled. I’m also startled every time my grandfather yells out “Out!” when someone uses a trick during a game of Go.

But besides this “out” reaction, there was really nothing else I could say. Just change the herbal medicine to Western medicine and it’s done? Done, my foot. That logic just throws away all conscience.

And on top of that, it was a damn medical romance. That cursed medical romance! My teeth chattered involuntarily. Why do Korean people want to date in hospitals so much!

“Fine. I completely understand your position too. You can’t scrap a drama that’s already been scheduled to air.”

“Yes. And besides, at best, the alpha-making tonic is just a reference—it’s hard to call it plagiarism…”

“But looking at the synopsis, the character who’s the hospital director’s son and becomes an alpha is exactly nineteen at the start of the drama—is that a coincidence too?”

“That’s…”

“The male lead who was a beta but becomes an alpha because of a drug the female doctor, who’s known him since elementary school, accidentally brought out? That sounds exactly like the situation of Mr. J who did an interview after becoming an alpha from the tonic.”

Lee Minsoo fell silent.

He probably had nothing to say either. After all, not just me but many people who saw the synopsis before airing easily thought of the alpha-making tonic.

The drama characters also clearly seemed to have cobbled together Jung Pureum’s anonymous interview. What kind of logic was it that adapting that situation without any agreement with the original party was supposedly no problem?

The fact that it was developed by accident hadn’t been exposed to the media, yet that detail was also the same—it pricked my conscience. It seemed that as they plagarized in various ways, they eventually evolved to Gong Ye levels.

“I know you probably can’t revise the script now anyway. You’ve already done some filming, I imagine. However, as you know, PD, I have trauma from appearing on broadcasts because of the tonic.”

“Ah, yes…”

“If you, PD, had contacted us first! We wouldn’t have gone this far either! But in the end, I had to contact you first, and now that I’ve met you, it’s still bothering me…”

“….”

“If you’re amenable, I think it would be good to reach a compromise in some other way.”

Seeing the bewildered face of PD Lee Minsoo brought a smile to my face. Seeing that he couldn’t respond properly confirmed he really was a parachute. For me, that was a complete blessing.

“PPL for our clinic.”

“Excuse me?”

“And payment of a modest material usage fee.”

“…Ex-cuse me?”

“That much, I think we can accept.”

“Didn’t you just say you have trauma from appearing on broadcasts because of the tonic?”

“It seems I can overcome that trauma through free indirect advertising.”

Lee Minsoo looked at me with a dumbfounded expression. What, never seen a businessman before?