My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 90

“So that’s why I absolutely have to win a gold medal…”

“So it wasn’t about national prestige after all.”

“Right. The kid’s whole life is riding on that gold medal.”

The athletes who had initially chuckled and thought “Let’s hear what our youngest has to say” saw their expressions change by the minute. When they heard that every time he said he liked him, the response was always “Yeah, hyung likes you too!” everyone lamented.

“Pureum, you’re something else too. It can’t be easy liking someone like that for eight years.”

“It wasn’t that hard, though. My hyung is cute…”

“Oh my, look at this kid.”

“He’s not wearing rose-colored glasses—he’s wearing iron-colored ones or something.”

“Things like that only get fixed after marriage. Once you live together, even the feelings you had fade. You can only love like that when you live apart before marriage.”

“Hey, why are you saying that to a twenty-year-old? You should be planting dreams and hopes about marriage, not this.”

Of everyone, only one athlete—the shooting athlete who resembled Kim Miyoung—sat in front of Jung Pureum and listened seriously from beginning to end. The rest were busy sharing their own love and marriage stories.

“Hmm, if you’re that worried about someone else making a move, you should have imprinted before coming.”

“…I wanted to.”

“But your partner wouldn’t let you? You said he’s eight years older—at least he’s not completely without conscience.”

A twenty-eight-year-old omega imprinting with a twenty-year-old alpha? If Jung Pureum won a gold medal, that would definitely invite criticism. Even if Jung Pureum had pined after Moon Yeonghwa for eight years, with that age gap, Moon Yeonghwa would be painted as the villain.

“From what I’ve heard, your concern is understandable. But I don’t think you need to worry too much?”

“Why not?”

“With that level of obliviousness, even if someone makes a move, he probably won’t even notice, right?”

That was true.

No matter how much Moon Yeonghwa had developed some awareness lately, he was still the eye-needle witch.

Moon Yeonghwa was still the kind of person who, even if someone confessed right in front of him, would respond with “Ah, you’re after my clinic? Trying to assassinate me and take over my Korean medicine clinic!”

His obliviousness had always seemed useless, but it turned out he used it to deflect people who came on to him.

Jung Pureum gave up on escaping the training camp. Instead, he sent three crying puppy emojis in a row to Moon Yeonghwa, who knew nothing.

Hyung really is a fool who doesn’t know my heart… Stop casting spells on just anyone, I’m telling you….

∞ ∞ ∞

When I woke up in the morning, there were three crying puppy emojis from Jung Pureum. Startled, I immediately called Jung Pureum.

But since it was early morning, he was probably training—the phone only rang with no answer. Had something happened? I grew anxious thinking that damn coach might have chewed him out again.

“Senior, please stop shaking your leg.”

“I’m too anxious right now.”

“Why? Did something else happen? Did you run into that YouTuber we got arrested on your way here?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s more serious.”

“What could it be? Did Baek Wonhee get released on bail or something?”

“Where in the world do they release drug offenders on bail? I believe Korea isn’t that far gone.”

“…Then what is it really?”

“Ugh, don’t be shocked, but Jung Pureum sent me three crying puppy emojis in a row last night out of nowhere. While I was sleeping, no less!”

“…”

“He sent them through messenger, not even a video call! Something must have happened to Jung Pureum.”

Nam Jungyoon’s face, which had been looking at me with concern, gradually hardened.

After all the camaraderie and kindness he’d shown Jung Pureum, Nam Jungyoon started tuning out my insistence that something must have happened to him.

“I thought it was something serious. That’s probably nothing, so stop shaking your leg. Why are you making a luckless person lose even more luck?”

What a cold-hearted bastard!

But I stopped shaking my leg following Nam Jungyoon’s advice. Leg shaking isn’t good for the knees anyway. Bad knees are scarier than losing luck.

“Do you know something about what happened to Pureum?”

“Me? How would I know? There’s no reason Pureum would contact me.”

“That’s true. Why would he contact you instead of me?”

“Now that I hear it, that’s a bit ridiculous? I’m close with Pureum too, you know?”

“The one closest to Jung Pureum is me.”

While we were bickering childishly again, Kim Miyoung walked out of the break room gracefully.

“Fighting again? Anyway, youth is a good thing.”

“We’re not fighting. Nam Jungyoon is just acting childish.”

“Ah! Senior is way more childish!”

“Enough, enough. Both of you stop fighting and look at this. I’ve booked the flights and accommodation.”

Kim Miyoung is truly an amazing nurse assistant. Thanks to prolonged exposure to medicinal herbs, there’s nothing she can’t do.

I checked the flight booking details Kim Miyoung handed me. I couldn’t believe she’d gotten flights at this price during the Olympic season.

“There happened to be a special deal, so I put the skills I use to help my daughter with concert ticketing to work.”

“I want to employ you for life, assistant.”

“Me too. I want to follow you forever, assistant.”

“Good, keep flattering me. Hearing flattery from handsome young men puts me in the mood to work.”

While Nam Jungyoon and I were shaking our tail feathers adorably beside Kim Miyoung, the bell on the entrance door jingled physically.

“…What are you all doing?”

If another patient had seen this, it would have been a bit embarrassing. But fortunately, today’s first patient was Lee Seolwoo.

Lee Seolwoo blinked his already large eyes and stared at the three of us. His face practically said, “These people get weirder every time I see them.”

“…Ahem, it’s nothing. You’re here for your medicine today, right? Did you finish the one from a month ago?”

I pushed Nam Jungyoon into the vice-director’s office. Unlike Jung Pureum, Nam Jungyoon, who looked decently handsome, still hadn’t won any particular favor from Lee Seolwoo.

Lee Seolwoo still seemed uncomfortable with moderately good-looking alphas. I was starting to get confused about whether he was picky about alphas or picky about faces.

How handsome must his recent alpha boyfriend be? I suddenly became curious about someone else’s partner. Nam Jungyoon was decent-looking enough.

I also feel somewhat uncomfortable around alphas who aren’t Jung Pureum, but Nam Jungyoon is fine. Aside from being a university junior, he’s not particularly threatening. Even as a dominant alpha, his personality is pretty laid-back.

“Today I came for acupuncture rather than medicine.”

“Where are you feeling unwell?”

“I’ve had indigestion for days.”

Kim Miyoung naturally guided Lee Seolwoo to the director’s office. I followed behind. True to his words about indigestion, Lee Seolwoo seemed to have lost some weight since I last saw him.

Judging by the ring on his left ring finger, it seemed he was still doing well with his partner. Had something been troubling him lately?

I took Lee Seolwoo’s hand to check his pulse. His hand was so cold that even I, who suffers from cold hands and feet, was startled.

“Your hands are cold. Your pulse is weak too.”

“…”

“Since you have indigestion, you probably haven’t been eating well. How’s your sleep?”

“I’ve been having trouble sleeping too.”

“…Hmm, your qi seems deficient. How’s your heat cycle? The herbal medicine might make it irregular, but does it come regularly?”

“Well…”

Lee Seolwoo suddenly started shedding tears. I was so flustered that I hurriedly let go of his hand.

“Why, why are you suddenly crying?”

“Director…”

I instinctively handed him the tissue box on the desk, but I had no idea how to handle a patient who cries while having their pulse taken. There’s no manual for this kind of thing.

As a business owner, dealing with all sorts of difficult customers is inevitable. There are people who bring back half-drunk herbal medicine and demand refunds, and people who lie on the floor demanding money because they “caught bad energy” from the clinic.

On top of that, our clinic had been exposed in various media, so the number of such difficult customers was double that of other clinics. YouTubers were always lurking around our clinic when they had nothing better to do.

But a patient crying during a pulse check—Lee Seolwoo was the first. That old man who lay on the floor demanding money, saying he wouldn’t leave even if beaten to death, was less flustering than this.

I hadn’t done anything wrong, so why was he crying? Anyone watching would think I made Lee Seolwoo cry. What did I do wrong to make him cry like this?

“What is love, really?”

“Excuse me?”

“My heart is truly breaking…”

I regretted the time I’d asked Nam Jungyoon and Kim Miyoung what love was.

Is this karma? Lee Seolwoo was serving as an excellent lesson by example. They must have been pretty flustered when I asked those questions too…

After sniffling for a while, Lee Seolwoo finally calmed down and launched into a lengthy account of his love life that no one had asked for.

Turns out Lee Seolwoo’s new alpha boyfriend was a team doctor affiliated with a physical education college. No wonder he’d been casually leaking athlete injury information—though leaking information to a partner wasn’t exactly commendable either.

Anyway, it seemed a problem had arisen while they were dating with sparks flying everywhere. Lee Seolwoo wanted to date seriously with marriage in mind, but the team doctor said he wasn’t ready.

“He said since he’s a dominant alpha, he can’t date someone like me, a dominant omega, anymore.”

“Ah, I see…”

“I’ve been faithfully taking the herbal medicine because of him, and I’ve been brushing off all the advances from other alphas…”

“Yes, I see…”

“How can love change?”

Why are you asking that kind of question at a Korean medicine clinic…

But I couldn’t just kick out a regular patient who consistently boosted our revenue. I rummaged through my desk drawer and held out a candy that I’d pop whenever my blood sugar dropped.

“Here, have this and calm down.”

“Hic… I don’t like strawberry flavor. Give me grape.”

“Alright. Stop crying, and stop!”

Once he put the grape-flavored candy in his mouth, Lee Seolwoo quickly calmed down.

I immediately sent Lee Seolwoo to the treatment room. I just needed to do the acupuncture quickly and send him off. Listening to other people’s love stories was draining my energy.