My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 6

How he took my step back, I don’t know, but Jung Pureum stood there without lowering his hand, just looking at me. Unfortunately, because I had turned off the central light, his face was half swallowed by shadow.

“Is your body feeling better now?”

“Yeah. I ate the porridge well. I gave the container to your sister.”

“You could have given it to me later. I was worried, so I came right after school ended.”

“I told you to at least pretend you’re going to the study room.”

“What’s the point of pretending to go to the study room now? Do you think grades will suddenly go up by doing that?”

“Who knows. How can anyone tell if there’s a path in that last-minute CSAT special lecture you skim through? Life is full of unexpected twists.”

Despite being a test-taker with the CSAT ahead, Jung Pureum didn’t seem tense. Well, the ones who are truly tense at this time are the ones putting everything on the regular admission round based on pure pride.

From the start, Jung Pureum could easily get into most universities as a physical education special talent. Though he’s a beta rather than an alpha, he’s been active as an athlete since childhood and his competition records aren’t bad.

I had also gone to watch Jung Pureum’s swimming competitions a couple of times.

They said that Jung Pureum, whose main event was long-distance, had superior endurance and tenacity compared to most alphas. For me, who is practically a layman when it comes to sports overall, the only thing I could tell was that Jung Pureum’s body was incredibly good for a nineteen-year-old.

“Oh, since you’re here, take the Gongjindan with you.”

“You already made it?”

“When I came to my senses, the one for you was already finished. I’m a genius, after all….”

I pressed the nicely wrapped Gongjindan into Jung Pureum’s hands. Jung Pureum obediently accepted it, then bowed his head toward me and smiled brightly.

“Thank you, hyung.”

“Do well on the CSAT. Having lived next door to this great genius Moon Yeonghwa for seven years, you’re bound to succeed at whatever you do.”

“Yeonghwa hyung.”

“Huh?”

“Hyung, I’ll be an adult soon, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Hey, just because you become an adult, don’t go drinking a lot and stuff. That’s all bad for your liver….”

“Stop nagging.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

As if trying to say something, Jung Pureum awkwardly touched his cheek a couple of times. For a kid, his eyes were excessively serious.

What’s going to change just because he becomes an adult? The world doesn’t change dramatically just because you go from nineteen to twenty.

Of course, high school and university are different. Now that he’s an adult, he’ll have to make his own schedule, and as a freshman, he’ll probably get a lot of invites to meetings and departmental gatherings.

“Yeonghwa hyung, I like you.”

I let that remark go in one ear and out the other while tearing open a pack of herbal medicine and tossing it into my mouth.

That’s because the number of times Jung Pureum has said ‘I like you’ to me is, by my memory, roughly 3,891 times. Maybe even more than that.

For about seven years, he’s lived with those words on his lips. It’s possible that Jung Pureum has said ‘I like you’ to me more times than the number of herbal medicine packs I’ve consumed in my entire life.

Well, even I would like a neighbor hyung who buys me beef when the CSAT is just around the corner. And originally, it’s always advantageous to stay on good terms with people in the medical field. Who knows what kind of help you might receive in your old age.

“I like our Pureum a lot too.”

“….”

“Where else in the world would I find a dongsaeng like you. If all the betas in the world were like you, our society wouldn’t be this sick.”

“….”

“Take your Gongjindan and go now. You need to study.”

Jung Pureum wore an expression as sad as someone who had lost the world, not a test-taker with the CSAT just around the corner. Even if he pretends otherwise, the CSAT being so close must really be tormenting him.

So I gave Jung Pureum a whole bunch of other nutritional supplements besides the Gongjindan I made. But at my words telling him to get his energy up with these and bring back a first-grade score, Jung Pureum’s complexion only got worse.

As expected, that kind of development—’when I came to my senses, my report card was filled with first-grade scores’—is only permitted for geniuses like me.

I looked pityingly at my neighbor dongsaeng, who didn’t have much talent in studying outside of sports. Still, even so, did he have to make a face like he’d lost his country? Poor guy.

∞ ∞ ∞

On the day of the CSAT, Jung Pureum collapsed. Not while on his way, but while listening to the English listening comprehension passage during the third period.

During the sacred English listening time, when even planes can’t take off, a large boy fainted right in the exam hall. Good heavens, what a disaster. They’d be lucky if the other test-takers in that hall didn’t file a complaint.

And the reason Jung Pureum collapsed like that was… because that bastard had become an alpha.

It was an unprecedented event not just in Korea but worldwide. Shock itself! Not at fourteen, but at nineteen, undergoing trait manifestation from beta to alpha while taking the CSAT? Truly amazing, shocking, fantastic news.

In the end, Jung Pureum was transferred to a hospital in the middle of the CSAT. Subsequently, after numerous tests and analyses, the reason for his manifestation as an alpha was revealed.

It was because of the Gongjindan I gave him.

…Does that make sense?

I held the diagnostic report the Western doctors had prescribed for Jung Pureum and insisted that all of this was false. I stubbornly argued that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the Gongjindan I had made.

But, in truth, I knew it too. That it had more problems than it could handle.

I had suddenly been reduced to a case similar to that guy who made Viagra while trying to develop heart medication. Having become the person who made Gongjindan (攻進丹) while trying to make Gongjindan (拱辰丹), it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I’d beaten the Viagra developer.

Upon hearing the news, Kim Miyoung immediately prepared to file a patent application for the Gongjindan (攻進丹). This was also the first time I learned that Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approval could come so easily.

I immediately went next door and knelt before the aunt. I felt threatened for my life. Grabbed by the hands of a former shot-putter, it wouldn’t have been strange if I died for ruining her son’s life.

But the aunt, with an incredibly calm face, just retorted, ‘My son is a physical education special talent anyway.’

That’s true. Even if he messed up the CSAT a bit, there’s no way Jung Pureum, an excellent swimmer, wouldn’t get into university. He’s even become an alpha now! Various universities would welcome him with open arms through special admissions.

However, just because the aunt forgave me didn’t mean I was innocent.

Jung Pureum himself could sue me anytime. Having become an alpha overnight without warning after being a beta, how much of a mental shock must that be?

I immediately went to find Jung Pureum, intending to kneel just as I had done with the aunt. My knees are light anyway. Pride? Is that the issue here? When my Korean medicine license, which I earned by sacrificing four years of main course and two years of pre-med, is about to be revoked?

Moreover, Jung Pureum, upon seeing me rush over in a panic, started crying immediately. At that moment, I had a gut feeling I was done for. He’s not the type to cry over something like this, even if he does cry a lot. How heartbreaking must it have been to become an alpha….

“Hyung….”

“Pureum, I’m really sorry. I’ve committed a sin punishable by death. I must have made a mistake taking Prescription Formulation in the College of Korean Medicine.”

“Hyung has to take responsibility for me….”

I poured out all sorts of sweet talk to soothe the crying kid, but I couldn’t see any way to calm Jung Pureum, who had started whimpering.

In the end, to get out of this whole situation, I had no choice but to say something worthy of a man of honor. Fine, so be it. What could possibly happen if I take responsibility for one neighbor kid who just became an alpha?

“Alright, I’ll take responsibility. Stop crying.”

So that’s what I said. Like an adult telling a crying child they’ll give them candy if they stop.

But seriously, what responsibility am I supposed to take?

My mind became troubled. It was good that Jung Pureum stopped crying for now, but what came next was difficult. What do I have to do to avoid being sued? Since he’s lived as a beta, he probably doesn’t know anything—should I give him sex education like I’m teaching a middle schooler?

Looking at Jung Pureum giggling while hugging me, both my body and mind felt heavy.

“Then, let’s write a contract.”

“Huh?”

“Hyung might just be saying he’ll take responsibility with words, you know.”

“….”

…Has he always been this quick-witted?

Whether it was because of the pheromones or because Jung Pureum had read me too easily, my heart trembled uneasily.

I had planned to soothe the crying kid, brainwash him into not suing people, and send him back, but my long-time neighbor dongsaeng, contrary to my expectations, was absolutely not an easy opponent.

“What kind of contract?”

“I suddenly became an alpha, right? After living nineteen years as a beta….”

“I’ve committed a sin punishable by death.”

“So, I’m saying I don’t know anything. I suddenly manifested as an alpha, and the media and such are asking for interviews, but I have no idea what to do….”

“Th-that’s true.”

“So, hyung teaches me.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You said you’d take responsibility.”

With that, I had nothing more to say. I wanted to just leave it as a verbal promise, but Jung Pureum clung to me insisting we write a contract.

Unable to overcome his persistence, I wrote the contract as Jung Pureum wanted. The content was, well, nothing special. The overall tone of the contract was that since I had made Jung Pureum an alpha, I had to take responsibility for it.

Still, the part about specifically teaching him how to safely get through rut cycles and how to prevent omegas from trying to bond with him was a bit embarrassing.

How am I supposed to teach him that? I can’t just sit my grown neighbor dongsaeng down and give him sex education…. I majored in Korean medicine, not sex and love studies.

But whenever I tried to subtly back out, saying this contract content wasn’t really great, Jung Pureum would make a crying face and firmly say, “Then I’ll sue you, okay?”

Just hearing the word ‘sue’ made my mind go hazy. Absolutely not. Just imagining setting foot in a courthouse drained my energy. I couldn’t just kick away this opportunity that had fallen into my lap just because it seemed a bit difficult.

“But, what’s this dating clause?”

“I don’t know how an alpha is supposed to date an omega.”

“I don’t know either. Even though I’m an omega, I have no idea how an omega is supposed to date an alpha.”

“Then that works out well. We can figure it out together.”

“No, I’m saying I can’t teach you because I don’t know either?”

“You said you’d take responsibility… hyung always lies… at this rate, as expected, su….”

“Fine. Let’s figure it out together, step by step.”

The clause requiring a date at least once a week to learn about dating between alphas and omegas, no matter how many times I thought about it, was not normal.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being taken advantage of, but I couldn’t overcome Jung Pureum, who clung to me with tear-filled eyes saying, “Hyung, you said you’d take responsibility….”

Strictly speaking, I had turned his life upside down in an instant, so although I felt a bit hesitant, I had no reason not to sign the contract. It’s not like Jung Pureum would deceive me, of all people—that would truly be nonsensical.

In the end, I roughly skimmed the contract one more time and scribbled my signature on the signing line.

I had no intention of fulfilling every single clause anyway. This contract was made to avoid being sued by my neighbor dongsaeng, so what harm is there in breaking a few clauses? People need to be flexible.

But at this point, I didn’t know.

That Jung Pureum, unlike me, was sincere about this contract, and that the word ‘flexible’ wasn’t even in his dictionary.