My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 63

Because I don’t act my age, playing around with Jung Pureum was always enjoyable.

Occasionally, I’d get startled by Jung Pureum swooping in without signaling, but he was the person who made me feel more at ease than anyone else.

He knows my tastes well, does things he likes in moderation, and acts in a way that doesn’t make me uncomfortable.

Jung Pureum always seemed skilled at this sort of thing. As far as I know, he’s never even dated anyone, but he’s naturally considerate of others, so it seems he’s good at this too.

I don’t know who’ll end up with him, but whoever marries him will be truly blessed. He’s good at housework, has a kind personality, has a great body, is a national athlete….

Thinking that far made my heart ache.

What a waste! No matter what Omega comes along, Jung Pureum would seem like a loss. Even Lee Seolwoo, a dominant Omega I used to think well of, now didn’t sit right with me.

“Pureum.”

“Yes.”

“Are you close with Lee Seolwoo?”

“Hyung, why are you asking that while eating two-thousand-won ice cream?”

Then when am I supposed to ask?

I scooped up the ice cream in my cup and sighed heavily.

Even though Jung Pureum had described Lee Seolwoo as a ‘weird person,’ my mind was troubled. In romance dramas, you always fall in love with the person you initially judged harshly.

This is absolutely not jealousy; I’m just worried about Jung Pureum. He’s already the type who’d topple over without a second thought if I poked him a few times. What if the prettier Lee Seolwoo made up his mind and seduced him?

Jung Pureum didn’t even notice his cone ice cream melting and just stared at me. His face looked just as troubled as mine.

I was horrified to see the ice cream dripping down Jung Pureum’s hand.

“Hey, if you’re not going to eat it, give it to me.”

“I’m going to eat it.”

“It’s melting. Come here.”

I hurriedly grabbed Jung Pureum’s hand and pulled it toward me. When I took a big bite of the slowly melting cone ice cream, Jung Pureum’s eyes twitched. Surely, he’s not upset that the hyung who even buys him beef ate a little of this, is he?

I scooped up some of my cup ice cream and shoved it into Jung Pureum’s mouth.

“Hyung….”

“If it’s not enough, I’ll buy you more, so don’t look at me like that.”

“That’s not it….”

What do you mean that’s not it. I saw that disappointed expression clearly. Everyone says I have no awareness, but I think I’m actually pretty perceptive. I can read people’s faces quite well.

But Jung Pureum kept denying it. He maintained a steadfast attitude that he wasn’t upset about the ice cream, which was baffling.

“Then eat it before it melts.”

Jung Pureum, who had been hesitating, took a big bite out of the opposite side of the cone ice cream I had bitten. But the white ice cream flowing down his large hand… looked rather suggestive.

I immediately slapped my own forehead. Jung Pureum flinched in surprise and looked back at me. Don’t be startled—your hyung has been possessed by a lewd demon. That strike just now was an exorcism.

Honestly, I’m still not keen on going to meet another Alpha. As I’ve said before, I can’t trust strange Alpha guys. Even if they seem nice on the outside, most of them are rotten inside with a sense of superiority.

Having a sense of superiority just because you maintain your core muscles well. It may sound absurd, but the world is overflowing with idiots who believe they’re superior for the pettiest reasons.

However, my current state of constantly craving Jung Pureum is something I absolutely need to fix. And to stop that craving, I need to be certain that I’m not attracted to Jung Pureum himself, but to the Jung Pureum who went from Beta to Alpha.

Only then can I come to my senses and behave properly, right? Once I’m convinced that my attraction to him is because of his trait, I’ll snap out of it quickly. Because I can’t afford to sink to the same level as the people I’ve always criticized.

“As I’ve said before, I’m not interested in anyone other than you, hyung.”

“…Anyone listening would think that’s a confession.”

“It is a confession.”

Jung Pureum had swooped in without signaling again. The fact that I hadn’t noticed his feelings all this time, when he says things like that, was surprising.

Suddenly, my faith in my own perceptiveness wavered. Maybe I’m actually not that perceptive? But I also feel a bit wronged. Jung Pureum had been saying things like that since he was very young.

Didn’t he sing songs in elementary school about marrying his hyung? Hearing him constantly say he likes me for eight years straight, like a round-robin song, how was I supposed to realize it?

“You’re one to talk, bringing this up while eating ice cream? Fine, even if you flatter me, I’m not buying you more.”

At my retort, Jung Pureum laughed, haha. Even when I blatantly pretended not to notice, Jung Pureum seemed perfectly fine. As if this kind of thing was entirely natural.

“…Why do you like me so much?”

Suddenly, I became curious as to why Jung Pureum liked me so much.

It’s only natural to like the hyung who buys you good beef. But Jung Pureum showed me affection beyond that of a neighbor’s hyung who buys him meals. I had never done anything more for Jung Pureum than that.

“Hyung.”

“Huh?”

“I know now, what it is I like.”

“….”

“There are a ton of reasons I like you. Can I say them all?”

My words caught in my throat.

Now that I’d acknowledged Jung Pureum’s feelings, I kept feeling like I was being swept up by him. I could no longer casually brush it off with an absent-minded, ‘Yeah, hyung likes you too, kid.’

I just kept my mouth shut. Anything I said would sound like an excuse.

My heart pounded for fear that if I let my guard down just a little, I might blurt out, ‘But I think I like you too.’ If I misstepped here, I’d definitely lose my mind and end up stroking Jung Pureum’s arm.

My social dignity screamed, ‘No way!’ My last remaining conscience held up a sign behind my social dignity that read, ‘Do you even have a conscience, buddy?’

“Well, where else would you find a hyung like me?”

I abruptly stood up and tossed my empty ice cream cup into the trash can. As expected, this won’t do. I need to go on that blind date and get my head straightened out.

∞ ∞ ∞

The day before the blind date, Nam Jungyoon carefully infiltrated the director’s office. It was literally an ‘infiltration.’ He came in without knocking.

“What’s up?”

“I heard you’re going on a blind date, senior.”

Kim Miyoung, you….

I decided that this time, for real, I would eliminate the job’s tears tea bags from the break room. She said she’d keep it a secret because it was the director’s business, but she’d already spilled everything to Nam Jungyoon.

“Don’t worry, Pureum doesn’t know yet.”

There’s no way I wouldn’t worry. Who knows when and how Kim Miyoung will tell Jung Pureum.

Even if Jung Pureum finds out about my blind date, nothing really changes. Jung Pureum’s heart, which likes me, will just break.

But it’s precisely because I don’t want that, that I haven’t said a word to Jung Pureum. It’s better to go quietly than to stir up trouble needlessly.

Without realizing it, I lightly bit my lower lip. If Jung Pureum came clinging to me with a tearful face, begging me not to go on the blind date, I’d have no choice but to say, ‘Okay.’

“This is my private life. Everyone’s way too interested.”

So I ended up speaking more sharply than intended to the completely innocent Nam Jungyoon.

In response to my reaction, Nam Jungyoon also slightly furrowed his brow.

“When I can clearly see you two digging holes for yourselves, how am I supposed to just stay still?”

“I haven’t been digging any holes. I get military exemption, you know.”

“Tsk, lucky you.”

“Then you become an Omega too.”

“Ah, senior! That defensive attitude you always take when things get unfavorable! That’s one of your hundred flaws.”

“Why do I have a hundred flaws?”

“Actually, there are more than that! I purposely shortened it.”

“Hey! I’m better than you!”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

We exchanged bickering at almost an elementary school lower-grade level. Nam Jungyoon and I faced each other, huffing and puffing.

I’m human, so of course I have many flaws. But surely not a hundred? When I clenched my fist and slammed it down on the director’s office desk, Nam Jungyoon flew into a rage, insisting that desk was solid wood.

Is the solid wood more important than me right now? I yelled at my one and only vice-director, asking what he knew, like a teenage boy in high school.

“Do you think I don’t know you, senior?”

“We weren’t even that close in college!”

“That’s because you were a loner, senior!”

His refusal to lose even a single word was so irritating. When I slammed the solid wood desk again, Nam Jungyoon threw a fit, saying I’d hurt my hand.

“No, I’m the one who’s dumbfounded here. Everyone, even the ants passing by, knows you have no awareness, but you decide to go on a blind date? This level of extremism is a sickness!”

“That’s unfair! Why do I have no awareness! I was so mindful of the professors!”

“What do you mean mindful! Senior, your nickname in college was ‘Nunmasae’!”

“What?”

“Bastard who ground up his awareness and drank it!”

…I had a nickname like that?

After spilling out a nickname I didn’t even know I had, Nam Jungyoon pressed his forehead as if he himself had taken a bigger hit. Considering I had many enemies in college, it wasn’t even that bad of a nickname—he was being quite dramatic.

“Do you know that Pureum likes you, senior?”

In the end, an explosive Nam Jungyoon attempted to reveal the truth. He must have been incredibly frustrated too. I looked at Nam Jungyoon, who was gasping as if he’d just confessed some earth-shattering secret.

“Hey, do you think I wouldn’t even know that?”

Up until a few days ago, I didn’t.

“I’m a person with at least a minimum level of awareness.”

If it weren’t for Lee Seolwoo and my mom, I almost wouldn’t have even noticed that minimum level.

But I know now, so isn’t that enough?

I mulled over my nickname, ‘Nunmasae.’ It doesn’t seem like I’m quite that bad. Anyway, since I realized it myself before Nam Jungyoon could confess the truth to me, there’s room for improvement.