ATGRA 52

I let my mom’s words, as she went on like a dreamer about the charms of a chaebol alpha male lead, go in one ear and out the other.

My mom had always been like this. She got excited about a prince on a white horse and was enthusiastic about Cinderella stories. The fact that I have the kind of sensibility to cry my eyes out watching traditional Korean melodramas is about 80 percent my mom’s fault.

Among the reasons why my grandfather and my parents can’t live together, there must surely be the issue of personal taste.

Justice and chivalry! It’s sometimes unbelievable that my grandfather, who pursues only the righteous faction even among martial arts novels, and my mom, who is all about romance no matter what! and insists there must be a love affair between a man and a woman even when reading a martial arts novel, are parent and child.

What do they mean, blood is thicker than water? A romance fanatic was born from a martial arts novel lover. Genetics can’t always be the right answer.

“Mom.”

“Yes?”

“What if I said I was going to marry a beta instead of an alpha? Would you not like that?”

“Hmm…”

To be honest, I was already married to the clinic, so I didn’t care if it was a beta or an alpha, but I changed the subject to make the talk of the arranged date go away.

My mom began to deeply contemplate the question I had thrown her way. To me, it didn’t seem like a question worth contemplating, but thanks to my mom falling silent, I was finally able to watch the drama.

Just then in the drama, the female lead was reciting the line, “We live in different worlds! We can’t be together!” to the male lead. I couldn’t understand why they always said they lived in different worlds when they both lived on Earth.

“Yeonghwa, by any chance, did you get a beta boyfriend?”

So that was the conclusion she came to after such deep contemplation… I chewed on the squarely cut watermelon combatively and shook my head.

“I don’t think an omega and a beta are a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“I think the beta would suffer too much emotionally. They can’t even imprint on each other, so how insecure would they be for their whole lives? Pheromones aren’t something people can control at will, you know.”

That was true. Pheromones were always a variable.

Because getting caught in a heat cycle at the wrong time could lead to a forced affair, it was common for betas to date other betas, and for omegas to imprint on and then marry alphas.

The reason I had even joked to Jung Pureum in a message, “[should we just get married?],” was thanks to him becoming an alpha. Usually, betas are reluctant to be with those with a secondary gender, so if Jung Pureum had remained a beta, I wouldn’t have been able to make a joke like that.

In the first place, if I hadn’t been subjected to mental attacks like “marriage,” “arranged dates,” and “are you seeing anyone nice?” at my family home, I wouldn’t have made such a joke at all…

“Still, I think it would be okay for a beta to become an alpha due to some special circumstances.”

“Pardon?”

“That’s romantic. They love the omega so much that they overcome their secondary gender and manifest late in life.”

“…”

“I heard a drama like that is coming out on KBC next, on Wednesdays and Thursdays. What was the title… Was it <You’re Too Much, My Alpha Who Used to Be a Beta!>?”

What’s this, just from the title it sounds like the drama plagiarized my Gongjindan That Turns You Into an Alpha?

It didn’t seem like Mom was saying it with my Gongjindan That Turns You Into an Alpha in mind, either. That it would be okay for a beta to become an alpha due to some special circumstances. No matter how I thought about it, it sounded more like she was talking about the upcoming drama, not my marriage problems.

“No, Mom. Not the drama.”

“Come on, if it’s someone you like, then Mom is okay with anything.”

“Even if he’s not a chaebol?”

“Of course.”

“Even if he’s not a doctor? Even if you can’t have your medical romance?”

“Yeonghwa, I’m telling you, as long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters.”

Her attitude changed so quickly.

I shot up from my seat and stared at my mom suspiciously. My mom, however, didn’t seem to care, her eyes fixed on the television.

“Just a moment ago, you said you wanted a doctor for a son-in-law.”

“What, wasn’t this you trying to subtly sound me out because you have a beta boyfriend?”

“That’s not it…”

Jung Pureum did come to mind for a moment. It just so happened that the drama premise my mom mentioned was similar to what Jung Pureum had gone through…

But he and I are neighbors, not a couple. It’s true we did that sort of thing, but I was told that kids these days don’t think it’s a big deal just because they’ve slept together a few times. The expression ‘friends with benefits’ exists for a reason, right?

After I repeated several more times that I didn’t have a hidden lover, my mom made a visibly disappointed face. Since I kept refusing the arranged date as well, she followed up by saying that there was no point in raising a son.

While listening to all sorts of nagging, I was thinking about <You’re Too Much, My Alpha Who Used to Be a Beta!>. No matter how much I thought about it, the drama’s premise overlapped too much with Jung Pureum.

For a moment, the contact information of the broadcast station PD, which I had blocked with all my might, came to mind.

Just thinking about how they aired that hit piece on the gongjindan still leaves me dumbfounded and speechless, but other than him, I couldn’t think of anyone suitable to ask about the drama.

On the fourth day of my return to the family home, Ms. Kim Miyoung, after I had called her three times right at the clinic’s opening time, finally blocked me.

My mom, who had won at rock-paper-scissors for two consecutive days and was staying with me, clicked her tongue behind my back.

“Son, the clinic will run even without you. Just relax. Are people going to die because you don’t work for a few days?”

But that was the very fact I couldn’t stand…

Why was the clinic running well when I, the director, wasn’t there? This was wrong, seriously wrong. Of course, I had come down here trusting my staff, but Ms. Kim Miyoung and Nam Jungyoon hadn’t sent any SOS signals for four days.

Two of those days were the weekend, so let’s say that was understandable. But it was shocking that nothing had happened during the weekdays. There was no red bean paste in the fish-shaped pastry, so why wasn’t anyone raising an issue?

Besides, my heat cycle wasn’t here, but resting for this long was making me so antsy I thought I would die. I want to go back to the clinic! I was even starting to get a headache from clinic withdrawal symptoms. My regulars might be desperately looking for me!

As I started to feel sick, my mom clicked her tongue, saying I took after my grandfather in that respect. She said my extreme and intense nature was exactly the same. I felt a little wronged. I’m a bit cooler than my grandfather.

“Instead of doing that, just tell Mom.”

“Tell you what?”

“You didn’t come down here to recuperate. My son would never take care of his own body. Don’t you remember? When your college entrance exams were just around the corner, you put acupuncture needles on your own body. Grandfather nearly fainted, saying his grandson had become a hedgehog.”

“…”

“And how about when you were in college? I told you to take it easy, but you insisted on studying while having nosebleeds and coughing up blood, didn’t you?”

“…”

“But you, recuperating for a whole week? Mom didn’t believe you from the very beginning.”

Has she been watching crime dramas lately? My mom grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me back and forth, demanding I confess the real reason I came down to my family home.

“Could it be… cancer?”

When I kept my mouth tightly shut, my mom started using her imagination. She added that my refusing the arranged date and saying I wouldn’t get married was suspicious from the start, shaking me even more roughly.

I was caught by my mom, being shaken helplessly.

What crime dramas? She’s definitely been watching medical dramas.

“It’s not like that.”

“Then?”

“It’s just, do you remember the neighbors I sometimes talked about?”

“Of course. What do you mean, sometimes? You talked about them so often. You said you didn’t starve to death thanks to the lady next door. She’s a truly grateful person. I should prepare some herbal medicine and send it to her for the holidays.”

When I didn’t immediately continue, my mom started questioning me again, asking if I was being bullied by my neighbors. My truly lovely mother with such a strong grip… You’re going to kill your son at this rate.

I had talked about my neighbors often, but I had been careful not to mention Jung Pureum. If they found out that I was living next door to the person I had turned into an alpha, my mom might be one thing, but my grandfather would have a fit.

After I repeatedly told her that what I was about to say was a secret from my grandfather, my mom’s eyes sparkled. She’s my mom, but I really can’t handle her at times like this.

“You know the gongjindan I made? The son next door took it and went from a beta to an alpha.”

“Oh, my.”

“Before, it wasn’t a problem for us to be close since he was a beta and I’m an omega, but because he became an alpha, we started affecting each other a little… Ah, what’s with that expression?”

“Are you two dating?”

I really can’t say anything to my mom. I coolly shook my head. Despite my denial, my mom, with an excited face, urged me to tell her more.

“Ah, really! Mom! He’s twenty years old! If I date him, I’ll be a cradle robber, you know?”

“They don’t even check the compatibility of an eight-year age gap.”

What more could I say to someone blinded by romance? Because of the fact that Jung Pureum’s pheromones had become unstable, my mom seemed to be mistaking Jung Pureum and me for lovers.

Sighing heavily, I repeatedly told my mom that she had to keep this to herself. Although she said she would definitely keep the secret, I couldn’t really trust my mom.

While my mom and I were in the middle of arguing about the eight-year age gap and compatibility, my phone began to vibrate violently.

Is it finally a call from the clinic?

I grabbed my phone with the speed of a lightning bolt.

—Hello, hyung?

However, the person who called me was not Ms. Kim Miyoung or Nam Jungyoon, but Jung Pureum.

I immediately checked my mom’s reaction. The timing was bad. The moment she found out this was Jung Pureum’s call, my mom would burst out laughing and pounce on me. It was impossible to win against a romance fanatic with logic.

“My goodness. You’re saying there’s an emergency?”

—Pardon?

“Another emergency patient like that at the clinic! Please wait a moment. I’ll move to another room right away.”

As if something had happened, I urgently went into the master bedroom and locked the door. My mom looked at me suspiciously, but I had to endure this much of a lie to talk comfortably with Jung Pureum.

“Hey, Pureum.”

—Hyung, what was that just now?

“I was with my mom. I made a bit of a fuss to move to another room.”

I could hear Jung Pureum laughing over the receiver. After seeing each other every day, being apart for four days made me miss him for no reason.

“Are you doing well? How’s training? The coach? The national team tryouts?”

—I’m not doing well.

“Why? Is that coach bastard bothering you again?”

—How can I be doing well when you’re not here, hyung?

Anyway, Jung Pureum really knows how to say things in a cute and lovely way. I became pleased and repeatedly emphasized that even if he wasn’t doing well, he absolutely had to participate in the national team tryouts.

—Ah, about the tryouts.

“Yeah.”

—My participation ban has been lifted.

“Really?”

No way! I thought it wouldn’t happen even after a week, but I couldn’t believe that his ban from the tryouts had been lifted in just four days.