My Alpha Era Began with Gongjindan Chapter 97

To seize the moment to shake off the coach, Jung Pureum had endured for quite a long time. He had held on from when he first started swimming all the way until now, having won a medal, so others would say he was tenacious.

During that time, he had struggled to become numb to unfair treatment while hearing all sorts of harsh words. When he was younger, he had even tried to understand the coach’s situation. After all, the coach was one of the important adults in Jung Pureum’s life.

“You, do you have any sense or not? You’re still a green kid, what marriage? Absolutely not!”

“….”

“How much do you have to do in the future! You could be making a fortune, and you’re trying to kick that away with your own feet? Are you out of your mind?”

Jung Pureum was now truly accustomed to this kind of outburst.

He had heard the words that there were countless swimmers better than him over a hundred times, and that because he was a beta he had to work dozens of times harder than others over a thousand times.

Perhaps that had really been sincere advice. Some leaders consider this kind of harsh language to be strict guidance.

However, Jung Pureum no longer needed strict guidance. He had sufficiently proven his worth with three gold medals, and had shown the whole world that even without being a born alpha, he possessed outstanding talent.

“You seem to have lost your mind because you won a few gold medals, but do you think it’ll be easy for you to compete in other events without me? Aren’t you going to compete in the Olympics in four years? Are you going to quit being an athlete?”

“….”

“Right now you’re a flash-in-the-pan sports star, but don’t you know that if you step on the wrong line in this field, you’ll become a puppet with its strings cut in an instant?”

“I know.”

At that clear answer, as if his blood pressure had spiked, the coach grabbed the back of his neck. Without even wrinkling his expression, Jung Pureum continued in a calm tone.

“I know that well, so I’m going to change lines now.”

After the Olympics, to compete in other events, it would be much better to use someone provided by the university.

The coach only had connections in the Olympic federation and had no influence in events like the Asian Games. Considering that Jung Pureum hadn’t even made it to the Asian Games finals because he was a beta, the coach’s connections only extended to the Olympics.

From the start, even the Olympic federation couldn’t exclude Jung Pureum from the next Olympics just because the coach had been pushed out. Jung Pureum was now a guaranteed medalist. With proven results.

“…Do you think you can do well without me?”

“Yes.”

“You, you ungrateful bastard…!”

The coach eventually couldn’t control his anger and slapped Jung Pureum’s cheek. He was someone who would say harsh things but never hit his athletes, but it seemed he felt a sense of crisis when Jung Pureum didn’t obediently comply in this situation.

Startled by the violence he himself had wielded, the coach hurriedly withdrew his hand. Jung Pureum awkwardly rubbed his cheek. It didn’t actually hurt much. It wasn’t a full-force hit.

“…I know you’ll think of it as biting the hand that fed you. That after raising me well, I’m abandoning you. You’ll think that way.”

“….”

“Until a few years ago, I had expectations for you, Coach. That as time passed, maybe you would change.”

But the coach was truly consistent. He proved the saying that people don’t change. No matter how many times Jung Pureum tried to persuade him not to act that way, and gave him chances to change his attitude, he never changed.

This was the problem with people intoxicated by their own inferiority complex. They never realize until the end how many opportunities they were given.

“Thank you for guiding me all this time.”

Jung Pureum showed his own form of courtesy toward the coach. The coach’s face was now so red it had turned purple.

“Pureum.”

“….”

“Let’s talk again. You’re not making rational judgments right now.”

Having struck his athlete without thinking, he must have been worried that he might be blackmailed or really get kicked out using that as leverage. The coach persistently followed Jung Pureum as he turned and walked away.

As soon as he stepped out of the locker room, reporters swarmed Jung Pureum like a cloud of locusts. The coach blocked the reporters, worried that Jung Pureum might say something reckless.

It was surprising that he was still concerned about the reporters even in this situation. Jung Pureum looked at one reporter with a smiling face. It was a sports newspaper reporter who had even brought a camera.

“Athlete Jung Pureum! Winning three swimming gold medals is an incredible achievement. Could you say a few words?”

It was a predictable question, but a welcome one for Jung Pureum. It was a critical opportunity to pull off a public proposal before any serious interference could occur.

“Yeonghwa hyung!”

Even if it wasn’t a very romantic proposal, he needed to drive the stake in like this. That way Moon Yeonghwa would be stuck with no way out.

“Please marry me now.”

At the sudden proposal, the noisy reporters fell silent for a moment.

But immediately afterward, camera flashes exploded like crazy. The reporters, even more excited than before, started firing all sorts of questions at Jung Pureum.

Jung Pureum ignored them and looked at the camera with the prettiest expression he could manage. Behind him, the coach was holding his forehead. Because Jung Pureum had carried out his proposal in front of the entire nation as warned.

No, calling it the entire nation would be fortunate. Having proposed right after winning three medals at the Olympics, it could be considered a proposal in front of the whole world.

Even as the coach’s face turned white from the fantasy of several major commercials dissolving in midair, Jung Pureum was still smiling brightly.

For Jung Pureum, marriage to Moon Yeonghwa was more important than anything else.

∞ ∞ ∞

[I saw the interview]
[So the Pureum you talked about was that Pureum]
[Marriage is crazy]
[Yeonghwa, think again]
[Don’t you recognize me? Marriage is crazy]

These messages were all sent by Hong Seonghyeon.

Freshly divorced Hong Seonghyeon left me messages at a similar speed to my mother. Judging by the fact that he repeated that marriage is crazy twice, his married life must have been quite something.

“Seonghyeon sunbae says marriage is crazy.”

“What? Don’t listen to him. Marriage isn’t so bad.”

“What are you saying, you’re unmarried.”

“Believe the words of a divorced sunbae, or believe the words of an unmarried junior. What’s your choice?”

“I don’t believe either; I believe Kim Miyoung.”

Kim Miyoung, who had been sweeping raw chocolate from a large department store to give to the deputy director who’d suffered while we were away, looked up at my words.

“Marriage? It is crazy. Looking at my old man, I wonder what sin I committed in my past life.”

“Really?”

“But my old man and Pureum are different species. The director needs to understand that. In this world, there are far more men like my old man than men like Jung Pureum.”

“….”

“Everyone says marriage is crazy because the odds of picking a husband are so shitty. If our director had said he was going to marry an alpha like Deputy Director Nam, I would have stopped him too.”

“Hey, why me? I’m a decent alpha too!”

“It was just an example, an example.”

“That’s mean… Nurse Jo is only cold to me….”

“But right now, our director has hit the jackpot! The best groom has been delivered immediately! In this state, why would marriage be crazy? You should be thinking about how much congratulatory money to collect.”

Kim Miyoung’s words were incredibly logical. I picked up a piece of raw chocolate that Nam Jungyoon had bought separately and was persuaded by her words.

If she had sold medicine instead of being a nurse, Kim Miyoung would have been hugely successful. It was a miracle that she came to our Korean medicine clinic instead of an insurance company. Kim Miyoung is truly precious.

“In my opinion too, if the other party is Jung Pureum, it seems like a pretty good deal. He’s young, has a great body, is a gold medalist…”

“Of course. That fact is the only thing the director didn’t know until now, right? Anyway, Deputy Director Hong is really a problem too. Trying to throw ash on a finished meal…”

“Huh?”

“No, nothing. I was just saying the raw chocolate powder flies around like ash.”

It was true that raw chocolate does send up a lot of powder.

While I was nibbling on the chocolate, Nam Jungyoon and Kim Miyoung huddled together and whispered suspiciously. It seemed they were talking about Hong Seonghyeon, but I couldn’t hear the details.

Surely, those two aren’t trying to bully Hong Seonghyeon, are they?

I briefly doubted the character of our staff. But even if Nam Jungyoon might, Kim Miyoung wouldn’t. Kim Miyoung is the best righteous nurse dispatched by my grandfather, the greatest figure in the world of Korean medicine.

“Anyway, we’ll take our leave now.”

“Give our regards to your Pureum.”

“You can just come along too…”

“…Sigh, sunbae is a third wheel, but we can’t become third wheels too.”

“What?”

“Right. Who wants to get between a couple that just got proposed to?”

Kim Miyoung pushed my back, telling me to go to Jung Pureum quickly. Even when I said I’d stop by the lodging first and prepare before going, both of them warned me not to even think about coming into the lodging today.

Come to think of it, it seems like most people around me are hugely supportive of my relationship with Jung Pureum. It might be my overactive imagination, but sometimes I get that suspicion. Do these people… want to make me married as quickly as possible?

I wanted to at least change into some neat clothes before going. I cradled the half-eaten box of raw chocolate in my arms and set off to meet Jung Pureum.

The hotel where Jung Pureum was staying was in the middle of the city. Thanks to that, it was easy to find, but I was worried that reporters might be lying in wait among the crowds.

Since the worldwide real-time broadcast proposal, Jung Pureum had truly monopolized public attention. Winning three gold medals and then suddenly proposing during an interview? Even if I were an ordinary netizen, I’d find that topic interesting.

Because of that, Jung Pureum couldn’t stay in the athlete’s village and had moved his quarters to a regular hotel. Reporters had even trespassed into his private room in the village.

Thanks to some shameless reporters, only I was benefiting. Because Jung Pureum had been driven out of the village, I was now able to go find him.

I rummaged through my pockets to calm my unwarranted nervousness.

Thanks to Kim Miyoung nagging me for a full hour before I left, asking ‘Did you pack the ring?’, the ring case I’d prepared in advance caught against my fingertips.