ATGRA 40

The reason why the coach was suddenly concerned about Jung Pureum’s omega connections was obvious. Someone had finally told him about Moon Yeonghwa.

It seemed like this problem would arise from the moment Moon Yeonghwa came to the university. Because Jung Pureum, despite his friendly personality, had many enemies.

Was it called Nangjungjichu? The awl in the pocket will eventually poke out.

Jung Pureum was a person who perfectly fit that proverb. A white egret among crows, a handmade chocolate croffle among factory-made croissants…… anyway, Jung Pureum had a talent for making the people around him feel shabby.

His physique was already good for an East Asian, and on top of that, the long-distance swimmer was as fast as a short-distance swimmer. His rivals’ blood was running dry, knowing that he, who might take their main event at any moment, was even training hard.

The more someone breaks the best record, the fiercer the competition becomes, and the narrower the door to pass through. This trend was even more severe in Korea, where you couldn’t get a military exemption unless you were in first place. As a result, Jung Pureum had no choice but to live amidst numerous checks and balances.

He understood to some extent the jealousy that others showed him. Because it was somewhat true that he was “luckily” born with a good physique and “luckily” became an alpha.

“You can go now.”

The coach returned Jung Pureum’s phone after a week. Pureum bowed his head very politely.

Finally, escape.

The past week had been a real ordeal. It was a training camp with other athletes, but several additional training sessions were attached only to Pureum.

A few athletes, wanting to follow his example, voluntarily stayed behind for additional training, but they all dropped out in less than three days.

It was not a normal amount of training, so in a way, it was natural. Pureum turned on his phone in a state of exhaustion.

As soon as he turned it on, countless messages poured in. The majority of the messenger notifications were from Moon Yeonghwa. He usually didn’t even check his messages, but it seemed he was worried after not hearing from him for about a week.

Jung Pureum checked the messages sent by Moon Yeonghwa one by one with a refreshing feeling.

[A barbecue restaurant opened in the basement of the commercial building?]

[I came here to eat with Jung Saebom]

[It’s so awkward eating with Jung Saebom instead of you]

[She keeps telling me to just eat]

A photo of a barbecue grill was uploaded with the recent message. You’re supposed to take a picture of the meat, what’s the point of just taking a picture of the grill? Pureum laughed out loud.

[Jung Saebom eats a lot.]

[My back is breaking from feeding you guys…….]

[But]

The last message was from a few hours ago. Is he still at the barbecue restaurant? It was already 1 a.m. A sigh escaped him automatically.

If he hadn’t been held captive until this time, he would have joined them and been acting cute to Moon Yeonghwa. He was so jealous of Jung Saebom that he could die.

[Why did you]

[Try to keep it a secret from me?]

[I heard you were dragged to training because of me]

“Ah.”

A small exclamation escaped.

It seemed Jung Saebom had spilled everything to Moon Yeonghwa without any loyalty. Pureum slapped his forehead. He shouldn’t have trusted Jung Saebom. His only noona sold the truth for meat?

However, he couldn’t blame the sibling relationship that was worse than that of strangers. Jung Pureum would have also spilled everything without adding or subtracting if Moon Yeonghwa had asked him something about Jung Saebom.

It seemed he should send a reply, but he had nothing to say. He couldn’t very well say that he kept it a secret because he thought hyung would come running and fight the coach, could he?

“Does he still think we’re nothing special……”

He had a bitter taste in his mouth. He was trying his best to make a move, but Moon Yeonghwa was by no means an easy opponent. If he left him alone, he didn’t know where he would run off to.

It was clear that if he let his guard down even a little, he would quickly run away, saying something like, “I don’t think I’m helpful to your athletic career after all.”

This training incident was the same. If Moon Yeonghwa found out that the coach had been grilling Jung Pureum because of him, it was obvious that Moon Yeonghwa would fly into a rage on the one hand, and on the other hand, he would be the first to back out.

They had known each other for 8 years, so it was hard not to know his patterns. It was clear that his reaction would be something like, “But, we’re not even dating, so why do you have to be scolded for fooling around with an omega? This is unfair.”

[It’s not because of you, hyung, that I was dragged here]

[I came for training because of the national team issue]

[I’ll go to the Korean medicine clinic tomorrow]

Because of the late hour, the read confirmation did not disappear. Jung Pureum thought of Moon Yeonghwa, who would be sleeping soundly without a care in the world.

Hmm, hyung is really cute, as expected…….

It was a thought that, had Jung Saebom known, she would have told them both to just go die.

*

I glared at the messenger notification that appeared and disappeared on the screen. Ahem, Jung Pureum. So he’s contacting me at this hour. That means his training ended at 1 a.m.

That bastard coach, is he crazy?

The anger inside me was on the verge of going wild. No matter how much of an athlete he was, this was going too far. I’m not Jung Pureum’s family, but I wanted to set a date and protest to the coach sometime.

However, even if I were to pull out all the coach’s hair in my head, I couldn’t actually confront him. What can I do when even the mister next door is staying quiet? What if I act out and block Jung Pureum’s future?

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

At this point, it’s strange that I’m a Soeumin. There are so many things that make me angry in my environment, yet I’m a Soeumin? This is really absurd. The yin-yang and the five elements must be wrong.

I fumed by myself and glared at the innocent phone. So that’s it, he’s just going to send three messages and be done with it if I don’t read them.

I would rather Jung Pureum whine to me. Then I could use that as a pretext to fight the coach. I would have even approached him in a gangster-like manner, saying, “Are you the one? The one who bullied my brother?”

However, Jung Pureum didn’t say a word to me about the coach and the training. I don’t know his whereabouts, which Jung Saebom knows. It’s natural. Because Jung Pureum kept it a secret from me.

That was so unfair.

What secrets are there between us! I’m a person who knows even Jung Pureum’s past math test scores. I’m a person who can find out Jung Pureum’s bank account password if I want to!

But now, secrets kept popping up. Jung Pureum is not the same as before. It’s partly because he turned from a beta to an alpha, but the biggest reason is probably that he’s an adult.

I knew it in my head, but I couldn’t help but feel upset.

It wasn’t like this before. Jung Pureum said he didn’t want to maintain the same relationship with me as before, but I still missed our past.

Because I wanted to be connected as a person to a person, not as an alpha or an omega. I didn’t want our relationship to change just because his trait changed a little.

Now, he probably won’t show me his weak side like he used to. I tried to recall Jung Pureum’s much younger face.

Even then, Jung Pureum was growing faster than his peers. He had to get a new school uniform twice before graduation because the one he got when he entered middle school didn’t fit.

There was a time when everyone told him, “It’s a shame you’re not an alpha.” At that time, Jung Pureum had no secrets from me.

He told me everything when I asked, even trivial things like what happened at school and who misunderstood him as an alpha again. Looking back, it was closer to him laying the groundwork to ask about my college life.

[I’ll go to the Korean medicine clinic tomorrow]

I checked the last message sent by Jung Pureum again. I didn’t log into the messenger to check, but just glanced at the notification window.

He even set his profile picture to something just like him.

What’s with just a picture of the sky? There’s no status message. I’m not one to talk, since I have our clinic’s sign as my profile picture, but he was also very simple.

I lay in bed and scrolled through Jung Pureum’s messenger for a long time. I checked not only his profile but also his background photos, but there were only a few where Jung Pureum’s face was clearly visible.

“No, wait……”

But, why am I looking for this?

As soon as I realized that, I dropped the phone on my face. The part of my face that was hit by the blunt weapon that was the phone throbbed. Crap, it fell on my nose…….

I was so dumbfounded that I squeezed my eyes shut and fumbled on the bed. The phone that had hit its owner’s face was ungratefully hard to grab. No way, the screen didn’t crack from hitting my face, did it?

When I picked up the phone again, I almost fainted with my eyes open.

—Hyung?

“Crazy.”

—You’re not asleep? It’s past two.

What are the chances of a video call being made by a control error? My lack of grip strength did it.

I shot up from the bed. I was a mess because I had been lying down to sleep. My hair was a mess, and my clothes were shabby.

Jung Pureum on the other side of the screen was also in his pajamas, but he was in a very neat state compared to me. I quickly ended the video call. There’s no way this one-sided maintenance of dignity will be forgiven by the world.

However, even after my swift call-ending skills, the phone rang again. The caller was, of course, Jung Pureum. It was natural for Jung Pureum to be flustered since I had suddenly made a video call and then hung up.

Fortunately, it was a voice call, not a video call. As expected, Jung Pureum knows manners.

—I thought something might be wrong since you called all of a sudden.

“It’s nothing. I just called by mistake.”

—A video call?

“A lot happened.”

It was a call made by my face and the bedsheet by chance. It was a bit embarrassing, so I didn’t bother saying that.

—I thought you were sleeping since you didn’t reply. If I knew you were awake, I would have called first.

“I couldn’t sleep. Maybe I drank too much coffee.”

—It’s a weekday tomorrow. You should sleep early. What if your body gets sick again?

“You sleep early too. You must be tired if your training just ended.”

—I feel like I’m going to die. But it’s okay when I think about finally seeing you tomorrow, hyung.

Listening to Jung Pureum’s voice, a corner of my chest tickled. All the complicated emotions I had felt earlier disappeared like melting snow.

Right, what was I thinking with such a good kid…… what a foolish thing to be upset about. A smile automatically formed on my lips.

“Pureum-ah.”

—Yes.

“Next time, can I come and watch you train?”

I opened my mouth with a light heart.

I had gone to watch a few times before he moved to the alpha-only swimming pool. I didn’t go often, but Jung Pureum was always quite happy whenever I came to the swimming pool.

So this time too, a cheerful “yes” was sure to come out. If I visited as Jung Pureum’s family, I could at least watch from a distance even if it was an alpha-only swimming pool…….

—No.

“Huh?”

—Don’t come. It’s dangerous.

However, what came back to me was a clear refusal. It felt like someone had poked my ticklish chest with a thin needle.