ATGRA 37

Next year is the Olympics.

As a Korean medicine doctor, it doesn’t matter to me whether the Olympics are held or not, but it’s a different story for Jung Pureum, a swimmer. If he wins a gold medal at the Olympics, he gets a military exemption.

The pension is said to be a pittance, but military exemption is an important issue.

I, as a recessive omega, don’t have to go to the military in the first place. But Jung Pureum, a dominant alpha, is confirmed for enlistment if he doesn’t win a medal. There is a reason why all sorts of betas and alphas on online communities are disgustingly protesting that omegas should also be sent to the military.

Unless your teeth all fall out or your arm doesn’t rotate 180 degrees, military exemption is impossible. This is the harsh reality of a divided nation. If you feel it’s unfair, become an omega.

Of course, nothing is wrong with going to the military, but wouldn’t it be best not to go if possible? This was especially true for professions with short active periods, like athletes.

His athletic career is already short, so does he really have to go to the military? I don’t think so. A fine young man like Jung Pureum should be exempted for the future of the Republic of Korea. They can send someone else instead, right? There are so many young men living unhealthy lives in the world.

However, since not everyone thinks like me, he needs to win a gold medal at the age of twenty-one to avoid future trouble. Unfortunately, in the sports world, the younger you are, the higher your value. Being an alpha is important, but being young is the best.

Until a few years ago, Jung Pureum was a beta, so he didn’t have a chance to be selected for the national team. Didn’t he fail to advance to the finals in the Asian Games? My heart breaks even now when I think of the past when he was looked down upon for being a beta.

Those damn discriminators would always bring up his trait if he fell behind in skill. Even if Jung Pureum had a better record than other alphas, the reality was that he was pushed out of the selection because he was a beta.

So, he needs to make good use of this period of being an alpha. Jung Pureum is a swimmer who specializes in long-distance, but he said his short-distance record isn’t bad either. He had to compete in all events to increase the possibility of winning a gold medal even a little.

The problem is that getting a ticket to the Olympics is harder than plucking a star from the sky. From what I’ve heard, being good doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a national team member.

I heard that the war of nerves between the various associations, federations, and universities is no joke. The mister next door said she also had a hard time because of this during the Asian Games. Even if both parents are former athletes, he can’t get priority because of the interests of the group, or something like that.

The sports world was a more complicated place than I thought. It looked like nothing from a distance, but seeing it from next door, it was unbelievably complicated.

In particular, it was even trickier for cases like Jung Pureum, who had been on an elite course to become an athlete since elementary school. It’s not enough to be good at sports; you have to be good at politics too.

It’s true that you have to be good at politics wherever people live, but it was a real headache to have to worry about such things when you’re busy enough with training. They could just send the one who’s good at it.

When Jung Pureum was a beta, I went to watch him train a few times. How my heart burned watching Jung Pureum, who was still in middle school, rolling this way and that. In many ways, Jung Pureum was an exceptional guy. He always maintained excellent grades even when he was a beta.

Well, I can’t even go watch now.

After Jung Pureum moved to an alpha-only swimming pool, I can’t watch him train no matter how curious I am. As a recessive omega, I’m not allowed to even go near it.

Come to think of it, I’m getting pissed off.

Why do they make things like alpha-only swimming pools? It’s really absurd. They’re just having a party among themselves.

Anyway, putting all my complaints aside and looking at it objectively, this is the most important time for Jung Pureum. This is the time when he should be striving to win a gold medal, not going on dates with me.

But, if I’m next to Jung Pureum, what kind of rumors will spread?

When he was a beta, the fact that I was an omega wasn’t a big deal. Whether I had a heat cycle or not, it had no effect on Jung Pureum.

However, now Jung Pureum was an alpha. And a dominant alpha at that. The possibility of him being influenced by me, an omega, has increased tremendously.

If he doesn’t win a gold medal at twenty-one, the next Olympics will be when he’s twenty-five. As an athlete, he can postpone his enlistment, but isn’t it true that the chances of winning a medal are higher at twenty-one than at twenty-five?

For athletes, being young is the best. This is a fact that even the mister next door acknowledges. As you get older, your skills will improve, but there must be a reason why athletes usually retire before forty.

So, for Jung Pureum’s future, it was right for me to keep my distance from him.

If I were a dominant omega like Lee Seolwoo, it might be a different story, but I’m a recessive. There’s a high probability that I won’t be able to maintain my reason for long in front of Jung Pureum.

As I’ve said before, there is a hierarchy in human secondary genders, separate from biology. Anyway, humanity definitely evolved wrong.

“……Ha, my head hurts.”

“Sunbae, are you really planning to move?”

Nam Jungyoon, who had been cooped up in the vice director’s office for a long time, came out and spoke from behind me. I was startled because I didn’t feel his presence.

I just tilted my head back and looked at Nam Jungyoon.

“Did Ms. Kim Miyoung already tell you?”

“That’s part of it, but you’ve been looking at real estate all day. It’s impossible not to know.”

If Jung Pureum had been a recessive alpha like Nam Jungyoon, I wouldn’t have worried this much. After all, if they’re both recessive, they wouldn’t act like beasts even if their cycles overlap.

“After checking the housing prices, I’m too scared to move.”

“Don’t go. Why would you leave that nice house?”

“Ha, it’s just……”

After confirming that Ms. Kim Miyoung was not around, I called Nam Jungyoon closer. Nam Jungyoon looked at my attitude suspiciously, but he couldn’t resist the director’s call and came to my side.

“I think I need to keep my distance from Jung Pureum.”

“What?”

“Since I can’t stop him from coming to the Korean medicine clinic, wouldn’t it be right for me to move out?”

“Excuse me?”

Nam Jungyoon will be on my side, right? Ms. Kim Miyoung is on Jung Pureum’s side, but since Nam Jungyoon and I went to the same university, there should be a sense of loyalty as alumni.

With trust, I confessed my reason for moving to Nam Jungyoon. Nam Jungyoon looked at me with a face of disbelief.

“Is that the only reason you decided to move out of that nice house?”

“Only? I’m serious.”

“You’re crazy, really.”

“I’m telling you, I’m serious.”

Even when I said I was serious, Nam Jungyoon just repeated, “You’re crazy, really.” Geez, what’s so crazy. People can decide to move for unavoidable reasons in life.

Nam Jungyoon muttered, “This is why the golden spoons are no good……” and then sat next to me and spoke seriously.

“Sunbae.”

“Yeah.”

“If you post your current worries on a real estate cafe, you’ll get stabbed.”

“……”

“For real.”

“……Is it that bad?”

My hand instinctively went to my chest. I felt like a regular member of a real estate cafe whose face I didn’t even know had just stabbed me in the chest. Oh, it’s possible.

Advice followed, telling me never to post such worries on the internet. I wasn’t planning on seeking advice on the internet in the first place, but thanks to Nam Jungyoon, I was determined to stay away from the internet.

Nam Jungyoon repeated more than ten times that I should think about it again. Whether it was because I was brainwashed by him, I also started to feel that moving was a stupid thing to do. As Ms. Kim Miyoung said, the house probably won’t sell even if I put it on the market.

The problem with my house is that the kitchen frequently explodes, so it only has its form and doesn’t function properly.

It’s not that it’s expensive. I have to tear down the entire kitchen before I can move. I have to repair the sink before I can sell the house. No matter how much of a fortune I’ve made with Gongjindan, this was a real waste of money.

Nam Jungyoon’s advice to invest in real estate with the money for moving echoed in my ears. ……You know what? Maybe it’s better to buy a commercial building with the money for moving?

In the end, the worry about moving was not easily resolved even after several days. When I thought of Jung Pureum, it was right to keep my distance, but when I thought of investment, moving now was a crazy thing to do. They said buying a building at its peak is a foolish thing.

Besides, what would I tell my grandfather?

The kid next door became a dominant alpha, so I’m moving because I think it’s better to keep my distance? If I said that, my grandfather would surely come up to Seoul himself to take me back to the main house.

That can’t happen. Because I can’t win against my grandfather. If my grandfather, who raised me, his only grandson, like a precious gem, shows tears and asks me to go back, I won’t be able to go against my Confucian duties.

While I was weighing the pros and cons, Jung Pureum, oblivious to my inner turmoil, frequented the Korean medicine clinic. Even when I told him to just train hard, the number of his visits did not decrease.

As I went to all sorts of places with him like that, I also gradually got used to going around with Jung Pureum. To be honest, it was also a little fun.

I had been living so hectically that I rarely went out, let alone went on dates with anyone. In college, I was busy studying, and after graduation, I didn’t have time to go around because I was busy setting up the Korean medicine clinic.

However, even when I was having fun, my mind would snap back to reality whenever I thought of the Olympics. Gold medal! Military exemption! How important are those things? Where is the time to play with me now!

“Pureum-ah.”

On the way home after having fun, I finally decided to take a drastic measure.

Time is of the essence. In this society of infinite competition, it’s a loss for Jung Pureum to be playing with me instead of swimming. It didn’t seem like he would fall behind just because he took a little break, but you never know.

“Let’s have our next date at the swimming pool.”

“The swimming pool?”

“Yes.”

If I can’t move and I can’t distance myself, I have to at least drag Jung Pureum to the swimming pool.

I used to make Jung Pureum study like this sometimes when he was in high school. I would sit Jung Pureum down when he came to my house to play, order pizza, and then make him solve math problems.

Even back then, Jung Pureum seemed to be in agony, shedding tears of blood. Did he say he didn’t come to study with me? But, I shoved pizza into his mouth and made him do differentiation and integration. Kids these days don’t do geometry and vectors? No way…….

“Teach me how to swim.”

Now that it’s come to this, what wouldn’t I do for his military exemption? If moving is not an option, let’s at least train.