My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 9

Still, compared to the beginning, he seemed to be controlling them better, but being close by, unavoidably, every time I breathed in, I could feel Jung Pureum’s pheromones.

Honestly, it does feel good. This must be why alphas and omegas can’t get enough of each other when their cycles hit. It’s like meeting a human air freshener in a sewer—how could you not be drawn to it?

So I deliberately walked a step behind, but Jung Pureum, thinking he was walking too fast, slowed his pace. Then he had the nerve to ask if he could hold my hand.

If two grown adult men strutted down the street holding hands, it would be like advertising to everyone that we’re an alpha and omega on a date.

“I don’t like it because you run hot.”

“Hyung, you have cold hands and feet, and you used to say my hands were warm and nice.”

“That was when you were in middle school.”

“Now that I’m a university student, you don’t like it?”

“Stop clinging to me. I’m already dizzy from your pheromones.”

“So you don’t care for my hands, but you like my pheromones.”

This kid has a comeback for everything. I reached out and lightly slapped Jung Pureum’s mouth.

Jung Pureum, struck without warning, widened his eyes and drooped his eyebrows as if asking what he did wrong.

Feeling like a dog owner who scolded an innocent puppy, I withdrew my hand. Right. How would he know what he’s saying, or why he’s plastering his pheromones all over me? I shouldn’t hold my standards against a kid who just became an alpha and knows nothing.

“Next time, bring a notebook and pen. I need to properly educate you.”

“Educate?”

“Yeah. You need to learn how to control your pheromones first. There’s definitely a problem. Anyone other than an omega like me, who’s been taking herbal medicine, would have passed out from your pheromones by now.”

“….”

“You’re only fine because it’s me. What are you going to do if you go to university and make some innocent omega faint? If you want a long athletic career, you can’t have scandals like that.”

Jung Pureum grumbled with a dissatisfied face that he wouldn’t do that. That’s ridiculous. How can someone who can’t control himself manage his own pheromones?

I kept my distance again and patted Jung Pureum’s back a few times. No matter when I pat that broad back, it always feels satisfying.

In the end, my hand was caught and our fingers interlaced, but thinking of it as me getting caught after hitting him a few times made holding hands with him bearable.

The date was nothing special.

When I did preliminary research online, the process and procedures seemed complicated, but it was actually more manageable than I thought.

It was like those surprise pop quizzes a professor would walk into the lecture hall smiling and suddenly hand out. The difficulty level varied entirely depending on who was taking it.

If my first date partner had been any random alpha instead of Jung Pureum, I would have received a call saying ‘there’s an emergency patient?’ and bolted in the middle. Even though I run a clinic, not an emergency room.

Walking down the street holding hands with someone I could no longer call a kid was a bit embarrassing, but following the standard date course—eating together and watching a movie—was actually quite enjoyable.

Having known each other for so long, we knew each other’s tastes very well. There weren’t many things we needed to newly coordinate.

For example, Jung Pureum knew very well that I have a small appetite. How could he not, after all the chicken we’d ordered and eaten next door?

Not only that, he knew everything from the fact that I don’t like my secondary sex to the fact that I absolutely cannot watch horror movies.

Likewise, I was an expert on Jung Pureum. Having known him since elementary school, it was hard not to know.

Unlike me, he can eat almost anything, and being in sports, he’s very active. On top of that, he watches horror movies that I absolutely cannot stand, laughing through them.

The reason we, so different from each other, could get along without any friction all this time was because Jung Pureum accommodated me in almost every way. No matter how much I’m the hyung, Jung Pureum had been used to yielding in various ways since childhood.

“Should we watch this? You liked this director’s previous work.”

“You remember me mentioning something from three years ago?”

“Because hyung watched it three times, which is rare for you.”

“Only because it happened to air on TV three times. And besides, you don’t like melodramas.”

“I do like them.”

“Liar.”

“I’m serious.”

He’s so kind that I wonder how he’ll ever manage to look after himself out in the world. I’m also worried he might be seen as a pushover by his coaches or senior teammates in university.

“If you keep accommodating others like this, you’ll lose out.”

“I don’t accommodate everyone.”

“You accommodate me all the time. And I’m also ‘others.'”

“….”

“We can watch a different movie. I looked it up—the genre is horror, but they say there aren’t many scary parts.”

“You can’t even handle jump scares properly.”

“Hey, it’s not that I can’t watch them because I’m scared—it’s that I refuse to fall for the director’s tricks of making easy money by startling people like that….”

“So crying at an emotional melodrama isn’t a trick—it’s art?”

“That’s a beautiful story that moistens the dry hearts of modern people. Big companies know very well how to make people cry.”

At my words, Jung Pureum laughed. I’m always serious, but he laughs at whatever I say.

“Fine, whatever. The screening time is almost up, so if you want popcorn, buy it. Let’s go in quickly.”

It had been a really long time since I’d been to a movie theater. I came a few times in university and then never had the occasion again.

Public places used by many people often have restrictions on omegas. It’s been a while since those restrictions were lifted at theaters, but if sensitive alphas complained, I could be enjoying the movie and then get dragged out by staff.

So when OTT services became popular, I inwardly cheered. Finally, I could watch melodramas and cry without having to go to a theater!

I didn’t care about big screens or great sound. The most important thing was not having to set foot in the same space as those troublesome alpha bastards.

Yet now I’m back at a movie theater, of all places, on a date with an alpha I made myself. As expected, live long enough and you’ll see everything.

“What popcorn do you want? I’ll buy it.”

“Caramel popcorn.”

“No. Get original. You’ll get fat.”

“Then why did you ask me what popcorn I want?”

“Just for courtesy. Since I’m paying, I get to decide.”

I decided not to overthink it.

The clinic I’d left entirely in Kim Miyoung’s hands was quite worrying, but after the sudden heat cycle that hit me, I’d had so many incidents that I hadn’t been able to rest properly at all.

So I figured it wouldn’t be bad to enjoy Jung Pureum’s refreshing pheromones and have some relaxation time disguised as a date with him by my side. They say if you live too fast, you’re bound to stumble. This is, strictly speaking, phytoncide therapy.

Thinking that made me feel more at ease. Since to others we’d probably look more like brothers than a couple, my embarrassment was just overactive self-consciousness.

“Would you like the couple discount?”

…Or not?

The tired-looking movie theater part-timer asked again with a service smile whether I wanted the discount.

“If you take the couple discount, your popcorn gets a free size upgrade.”

At that, I just nodded weakly. For a free size upgrade, I’d say we’re a couple even if we aren’t.

Meanwhile, Jung Pureum was delighted as he received the upgraded large popcorn. He didn’t forget to politely thank the part-timer.

I paid, but the part-timer only responded with a human smile to Jung Pureum’s fresh face.

“Looks like we look like a couple.”

“That’s just part of the manual—they ask everyone. It’s the same as ID checks when you buy alcohol.”

“They don’t check ID much for me.”

“Wait, you’ve already bought alcohol?”

“….”

“Tsk… I’ve seen a sly one. Even a quiet hearth sends the cat up first.”

“Doesn’t the saying go ‘a quiet cat climbs the hearth first’?”

“Your build is too big for you to be called a cat.”

Even until the moment we entered the theater, I kept nagging Jung Pureum without stop. When I pressed him about when he drank, I only got vague answers about having had tough times too.

If the exams are hard, you should study—why drink? During the long commercial break before the movie started, Jung Pureum just smiled happily even as I grabbed and shook him.

What a carefree, cheeky guy.

I grabbed a handful of popcorn and stuffed it into my mouth. Since I was definitely going to cry once the movie started, I needed to replenish my salt intake beforehand.

“Hyung.”

“What.”

“There aren’t many people in the theater.”

“Whatever it is, no.”

“Can’t we watch it holding hands… I guess not.”

He should just quietly eat his popcorn instead of asking to hold hands. He acts like he’s still twelve.

The inside of the theater quickly darkened. I fixed my gaze toward the screen. The tickets were so expensive—it would be a waste to neglect the viewing.

But unlike my enthusiastic viewing attitude, Jung Pureum kept glancing at my profile throughout the entire screening.

It had been years since I’d come to a movie theater alone with Jung Pureum. After coming once or twice when he was young, I got busy and couldn’t make separate time.

Even in middle school, Jung Pureum didn’t have great concentration. Unlike me, who wouldn’t notice anything else once I focused, he would often look my way even while doing other things—though when he was in the pool, true to his athlete nature, he was different.

It was the same when watching movies. Even in middle school, he spent the whole movie sneaking glances at my face and couldn’t focus on the film.

The habit of three years old lasts to eighty—and it’s the same now. I could feel his gaze on me so intensely that my cheek felt ticklish.

Once I became conscious of that gaze, I started feeling self-conscious too. Why did he come to a theater to look at me instead of the movie? What a waste of ticket money.