ATGRA 71

<The Beta-Turned-Alpha is Too Much!> achieved a decent result, with the average viewership rating for the back-to-back broadcast of episodes 1 and 2 reaching 4.2 percent.

Ever since public broadcasting station dramas started losing their strength, it was a rare occurrence for a Wednesday-Thursday drama, which isn’t even a daily soap opera, to pull off such numbers. These days, they say even exceeding 5.5 percent viewership is considered a huge success.

In a world dominated by YouTube and OTT services, gaining a viewership of over 4 percent from the very first episode meant that it had generated that much buzz.

“Seriously, these bastards… What kind of product placement is this?”

However, the success or popularity of <The Beta-Turned-Alpha is Too Much!> had nothing to do with me. Whether the drama failed or not, I had already received the usage fee for the material, so all I had to do was keep my mouth shut and pretend I didn’t know anything.

I hadn’t asked them to include the indirect advertisement for actual advertising purposes, so I could understand that our clinic’s logo flashed by in an instant.

Still, isn’t it a bit much for the male lead to be driving an imported car, crying and lamenting his beta secondary gender, and then pulling a multi-balm stick out of his pocket to apply it? At this point, having a traditional medicine clinic’s logo appear a few times in a drama set in a general hospital seemed like no big deal.

“This part was funny, though.”

“Which part, exactly?”

“The part where the female lead suddenly goes to a sandwich shop with her fellow doctors and shows off her wealth by adding two extra slices of ham.”

“That sounds genuinely insane.”

Nam Jungyoon came up behind me, sipping on adlay tea. It seemed he had been so influenced by Ms. Kim Miyoung that he had even picked up her adlay tea habit. I was once again amazed by Ms. Kim Miyoung’s influence.

I was planning to get rid of the adlay tea bags in the break room. But with both Ms. Kim Miyoung and Nam Jungyoon addicted to adlay tea, my plan to eliminate it was thwarted before it even began.

“Hey, what is a Taeyangin like you doing drinking adlay tea?”

“One or two cups a day is fine.”

“Just drink green tea. Adlay tea isn’t good for people with a lot of body heat, I’m telling you.”

Nam Jungyoon let my advice go in one ear and out the other. He used to treat me with respect as a sunbae, but ever since Baek Wonhee retired, he’s been completely looking down on me.

Even now, he wasn’t working and was just standing behind me, watching the drama with me.

“But, Pureum’s interview was really used as-is. Except for the male lead being a chaebol, his situation is exactly the same as Pureum’s.”

“That’s why I collected the usage fee.”

“I think the broadcasting station will really hate our clinic.”

“It’s fine. Our clinic hates the broadcasting station, too.”

Whether we were paying attention or not, the drama was racing toward its climax. The nutritional ampoule created by the female lead had changed the male lead’s secondary gender from beta to alpha.

“…Wow, that’s crazy. So damn unrealistic.”

“How is that any different from our Gongjindan?”

“Completely realistic, then.”

Instead of moving on to the second episode, I turned the drama off. Even though I had squeezed out everything I could, I still felt a bit bad. Jung Pureum probably didn’t even know this drama existed, yet the drama’s avid viewers had now implicitly learned about Jung Pureum’s alpha manifestation.

“Don’t worry about it too much. What’s going to happen? Who even watches public broadcast dramas diligently these days?”

My mom would probably watch it diligently.

I decided to forget about <The Beta-Turned-Alpha is Too Much!>. I concluded, just as Nam Jungyoon said, that nothing would come of it.

A drama that haphazardly crams in product placement like that has no chance of doing well. I decided to trust the viewers’ judgment. For a crappy drama like that to succeed would truly be the collapse of public broadcasting.

---

On Friday evening, Jung Pureum stormed into the clinic just as the nighttime appointments were ending. In his arms, a Go board he’d bought secondhand was cradled preciously.

“Are you really determined to become a master Go king?”

“For the past few days, I’ve been diligently watching Go matches between AI and humans.”

“…But why?”

Jung Pureum is a swimmer. I sometimes get confused too, but he’s talented enough to have gone to the national team qualifiers and won three event tickets. For a guy like that to suddenly dream of being a master Go king…

“Because I want to make a good impression on your grandfather, hyung.”

“…”

“And, you’re good at Go too, hyung. Whenever you go down to your family home, you barely even reply to my messages because you’re always playing a match with your grandfather… I figured if it’s something you’re good at, then I should be good at it too.”

It was commendable, but his motive was too impure. It seemed Jung Pureum really thought of my grandfather wanting to see him as something like a ‘petite’ first meeting of the families.

Who said anything about getting married right away?

Since Jung Pureum hadn’t won a gold medal yet, we weren’t even officially dating yet. Just a relationship that was more special than next-door neighbors, but couldn’t be called lovers.

In reality, my mind was in a very complicated state right now.

It was true that I liked Jung Pureum, but every time I became aware of our age gap, I felt like a crazy person. Jung Pureum, being the younger one, might be fine, but I, the older one, felt my heart pound every single moment. What on earth am I doing with a kid!

In a situation like this, was a ‘petite’ meeting of the families even plausible?

In the first place, my grandfather has such a conservative personality that he would surely freak out if I told him I was dating someone eight years younger. I heard that even my dad got picked on for all sorts of things when he was marrying my mom. Because of that, my dad still found my grandfather difficult to be around.

“Can’t you teach me, hyung? If I learn from you, I think I can become at least a mediocre Go vassal, even if not a master Go king.”

Unaware of what I was thinking, Jung Pureum, with that large frame of his, pretended to be weak and clung to me.

“Don’t you go subtly setting up the Go board. Hyung is about to leave work.”

“Let’s just play one game.”

“Even if I give you a few stones handicap, you still won’t be able to beat me.”

Even my grandfather can’t beat me most of the time. Because if I think I’m going to lose, I sneak away Go stones. How could a beginner like Jung Pureum possibly understand this vast and cruel world of Go?

“I’m not playing to win, so it’s okay.”

That was a truly ambitionless thing to say.

At his words, I pushed the black stones toward Jung Pureum. Because I couldn’t let the weaker player take the white stones.

“What do you mean you’re not playing to win? If you’ve started a game of Go, you must win… A mediocre vassal, you say? That is an unacceptable notion in my dictionary. You must become a king.”

I sat Jung Pureum down and started to play Go.

Jung Pureum played better than I expected. It seemed his passionate viewing of matches between AI and humans to become a master Go king had paid off.

At first, I had definitely intended to play only one game, but when I came to my senses, it was our third consecutive game. At this point, he could have humbled himself and asked for a one-stone handicap, but Jung Pureum, despite losing in a row, had a constant smile on his face, looking ever so thrilled.

“It will be my first time meeting him in person. Should I call him Grandfather-in-law?”

“What do you mean, Grandfather-in-law? Just call him Grandfather.”

“Still, he’s coming to see me, isn’t he?”

“That’s just an expression. If my grandfather says anything to you, I’ll stop him. We’re not even really dating.”

A white stone that had been moving freely across the board spun at the words, ‘We’re not even really dating,’ and fell to the floor with a clatter.

As if he had never been beaming, Jung Pureum looked at me with a face of utter shock.

“Hyung…”

“If you make that face, I’m the only one who ends up being the bad guy… You haven’t won a gold medal yet.”

“After taking my body and my heart, you’re saying we’re nothing to each other? You cruel person…”

Jung Pureum put on a hurt expression. Wiping at the corners of his eyes without shedding a single tear was a bonus.

“And, I won this round.”

While I was fidgeting, wondering if the kid was really crying, Jung Pureum picked up the white stone that had fallen to the floor and placed it on the board.

Looking closely, I was really in a tight spot. It was a defeat that came out of nowhere, but it was a bit surprising. I could lose at other things, but for me to lose at Go… And against a novice like Jung Pureum, no less…

“Even if you say you only like my body, hyung, I’m okay with that.”

“Why do you always think that I only like your body?”

“So you like everything? Besides my body too?”

“…”

“You’re not denying it.”

The white and black stones were mixed complicatedly on the Go board. So many moves had been placed that it would be difficult to organize them again.

I slowly lowered my gaze to the board.

Once I acknowledged that I liked Jung Pureum, I couldn’t stand how embarrassing this situation was. Could this be what people call the ‘some’ phase?

This is driving me crazy. How do other people manage to go through the ‘some’ phase and date so normally? From my mouth, instead of kind words or pretty words, only this kind of commanding tone comes out.

“…Just hurry up and win a gold medal.”

“…”

“Then, we’ll go on dates without needing to write a contract or anything.”

Jung Pureum reached his hand out to me. The hand that cupped my cheek was warm. Because Jung Pureum’s body leaned over the Go board, the neatly placed stones rolled away in a mess.

It was my definitive defeat.

“This house is small.”

That was the first thing my grandfather said upon entering my home. If Nam Jungyoon had heard that, he probably would have said, ‘The members of the real estate forum will assassinate you, sunbae.’

“Well, I live alone.”

“Right. It’s quite small for two people to live in. If a child comes along…”

The family next door has four people living together, though…

My grandfather began a long speech about how small the land in Seoul is. He went on to say that because the population density on this small piece of land is too high, the harmony of yin and yang energy is disrupted, causing people to fall ill.

The nagging finally ended only after I heard about how the principles of baesanimsu affect a person’s fate, and how a south-facing house holds yang energy and is good for omegas.

I felt a bit wronged. Eight years ago, you said this house had the perfect feng shui to meet a benefactor…

“Your mother told me everything. You actually had a lover?”

“Ah, it’s not like that.”

“What do you mean, it’s not like that!”

“Whoa, you scared me.”

“To follow someone all the way to a blind date, that means you’re dating! This old man is disappointed in you. Even if you kept it a secret from everyone else, you should have told me.”

“…”

“How much time do you think it takes to prepare for a wedding, and you keep something like this a secret… Tsk, tsk.”

Even if Jung Pureum and I really were dating, I would have kept it from my grandfather until the very end.

“That kid, let me have a look at his face. This old man will see for himself and judge just what an amazing alpha he is.”

“I told you we’re not dating.”

“Hmph! I came here already knowing everything!”

I listlessly escorted my grandfather, with whom I couldn’t communicate, to the living room. Now that my grandfather was in Seoul, there was only one way to escape this situation. To offer up Jung Pureum.

“Really, you can’t say anything harsh to the kid.”

“Tsk. Trying to protect him already, you’re just like your mother. I don’t like it one bit!”

“…”

“How dare he seduce my innocent grandson!”

In the end, I called Jung Pureum, who had been looking forward to meeting my grandfather since last night, over to my house. Save me, Pureum…