Chapter 1: Just marry a Rich Alpha!

No matter how cold-blooded and heartless someone might be, they would find it hard to listen indifferently to the story of Yooha’s day-to-day struggle.

That alone speaks to how Jin Yooha has fought his way through years of misfortune and a harsh reality with relentless effort.

Today dawned like any other ordinary day.

From early morning, he marched from home to the bus stop, from bus to subway, and then back onto another bus in an exhausting relay.

His body, already overtaken by fatigue, sagged heavily, yawns spilling out one after another.

It was around the time he got off at Hankuk University Station and waited for the bus to head into campus that Yooha finally checked a text message that had arrived about thirty minutes earlier.

[Dear Jin Yooha
Your regular checkup has been scheduled for Saturday, March 7, at 10:00 a.m.
Please contact us if there are any changes.
– National Institute for Trait Research and Management –]

Time really does fly.

It feels like I was just there, and yet three months have already passed….with dull, tired eyes, Yooha mechanically scanned the text before being all but pushed onto the bus.

Only after being shoved around and finally securing a handhold hanging from the bus ceiling did Yooha breathe out in relief and slip his phone back into his pocket.

The bus lurched once, then gradually stabilized. As the scenery outside the window blurred into his half-vacant gaze, a thought drifted vaguely through his mind.

When will my life finally get a little easier?

Yooha knew full well that this wasn’t exactly the sort of thought someone should be having just because the subway was delayed on the first day of the semester.

That was why he had made a habit of leaving home early, always allowing extra time for emergencies. Thanks to that, he had often managed to escape disaster.

It seemed he would avoid being late today as well, but sprinting through the notoriously long transfer corridors and spending the entire subway ride anxiously worrying about tardiness had already drained him completely.

His whole body felt limp, as if it might collapse at any moment.

If he let his guard down even slightly, he felt like he might fall asleep standing up.

“Hello— huff…, hello….”

“Oh, Yooha, you’re here?
It’s been a while.
Did you have a good break?”

Thankfully managing not to fall asleep, Yooha got off at the Humanities Building stop and dashed like a madman toward the Central Library.

He bowed his head in greeting while trying to catch his breath, and the librarian welcomed him warmly. She was someone who had shown him a great deal of consideration when he first started working as a student assistant last semester, and Yooha was always grateful to her.

“Yooha, some new books came into the office. Could you move the ones with labels onto the cart?”

“Ah… yes.”

“Minjeong is upstairs teaching the new assistant right now. Once she comes down, you can organize them together. You’ve worked with her before, right?”

“Yes.”

It didn’t seem like today would be one of those days she could go easy on him.

After piling work onto his shoulders from the very first morning of the new semester, she hurried off again, clearly busy, and Yooha headed into the storage room behind the circulation desk.

Several large boxes stacked in the corner spoke volumes about the workload awaiting him.

Even on days busy enough to draw unconscious sighs from his lips, there were few part-time jobs better than this.

It was quiet and comfortable, there were rarely any troublesome patrons, and he could steal moments to study in between.

Opening the boxes, Yooha loaded the books onto the cart and let out a long breath, as if soothing himself.

‘I wonder if I’ll be able to eat lunch.’
After finishing his four-hour shift from nine in the morning to one in the afternoon, he had two three-hour lectures back-to-back.

It wasn’t as if Yooha had wanted to create a schedule straight out of hell, but in trying to minimize wasted time around work hours, things had inevitably become cramped.

Still, since it was the first week of classes and mostly just orientations, the lectures would probably end early.

He should have a bit of breathing room after the first one.

Even so, Yooha was already cramming study plans into that brief window of free time, mapping out his schedule in his head.

Now that he was in his second year, his classes had shifted from general electives to major courses, and he knew it would be far more demanding than last year.

At a top-tier university that gathered the brightest minds from across the country, earning good grades meant studying stubbornly, even if his nose bled dozens of times.

In fact, during the previous semester’s finals, Yooha had once ended up with a nosebleed right in the middle of an exam after focusing solely on studying without regard for his health.

“Yooha! Sorry, but could you help move this too?”

If he’d known he’d be doing this much heavy lifting from the morning, he would’ve eaten at least one more bite before leaving home.
Swallowing his pointless regret, Yooha hurried over to where the librarian called him.

Being this overwhelmed on the very first day of the semester didn’t bode well—this term didn’t seem like it would be smooth sailing either.

Just like Jin Yooha’s life had never been.

Yooha’s earliest memories were fragmented scenes from the day red stickers were slapped all over their sparse household belongings.
He wasn’t sure of his exact age, but he must have been around four or five.

The clearest memory was of clinging to his father’s arms while sobbing beside his mother, who had collapsed to the floor in tears.

From that day on, rough-looking men with tattooed arms came every day, threatening his parents and demanding money.

Each time, Yooha was led by his mother’s hand into a large wardrobe, where he curled up and hid for hours.
When the chaos finally subsided, his mother would always apologize and press a piece of candy into his hand.

A few years later, just when things seemed to stabilize a little, his parents died in a traffic accident.
Yooha was only ten at the time.

His aunt and uncle took him in and raised him, though they were hardly well-off themselves.
Still, one small mercy was that, unlike in old folktales about karmic justice, Yooha wasn’t mistreated or discriminated against in their home.

“Hyung! Yooha-hyung!”

Instead, the hardest thing Yooha had to endure was his cousin Woote, who stuck to him like glue.
Woote was overwhelmingly energetic and talkative, often leaving Yooha utterly drained.

“Let’s eat ramyeon. I bought some.”

“We had it yesterday too. Again?”

“That’s why I bought a different kind!”

“If you eat ramyeon every day, what are you going to do if you stop growing….”

“Aww, it’s fine. I’m already taller than you, hyung.”

Studying at the low table, Yooha set his pen down between the pages of his book.

Woote had announced his arrival at full volume and plopped down right next to him, putting on an ill-suited display of aegyo.

Now a second-year high school student, Woote had grown remarkably well—he was a full ten centimeters taller than Yooha and, despite being a beta, was often mistaken for an alpha due to his build.

“I’ll cook it, so come out later!”

Brushing aside Yooha’s opinion without hesitation, Woote shouted cheerfully as he darted out of the room.

As soon as the door closed, the room fell silent, like waves receding after a storm.
Only then did Yooha pick up the phone he had left on the floor and check the time.

It had only been thirty minutes since he got home around six-thirty, opened his book, and started studying.

Between the nonstop rush at the library and everything else, today probably just wasn’t meant for studying.

Letting out a small sigh, Yooha closed his book, stretched, and left the room.

In the kitchen, he found Woote humming to himself as he cooked the ramyeon.

Yooha placed a trivet in the center of the table, then set out utensils, bowls, and even some kimchi from the fridge.

After confirming the water was boiling and adding the noodles and seasoning, Woote asked while holding an egg.

“Hyung, the egg?”

“Didn’t you take it out to put it in?”

“Yeah.”

Rubbing his thumb and middle finger together with a snapping sound, Woote giggled and refocused on cooking.

Seeing his playful grin, Yooha chuckled softly and took a seat at the table.

Not long after, Woote brought over the finished ramyeon and sat down across from Yooha, unable to hide his excitement.

Yooha lightly scolded him out of concern—Woote liked ramyeon far more than rice—but when it came to ramyeon, Woote truly cooked it perfectly.

Today would be no exception.

“Eat a lot, hyung.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Coming from someone who had piled his own bowl sky-high, that didn’t sound very convincing….
Yooha blinked silently at the pot, already half-empty of noodles, before picking up his chopsticks.
He transferred a reasonable portion into his bowl and ladled in some broth.

The noodles were perfectly springy, and the egg hadn’t overcooked.
The broth was just the right consistency and seasoning.
As expected, the taste didn’t disappoint.

Woote, apparently starving, quickly finished his portion and drained the broth as well.
Yooha, who wasn’t very hungry after a late lunch, sipped only a mouthful of water.
As Woote scooped more broth into his bowl, he glanced sideways at Yooha’s expression.

“Hyung, are you starting tutoring again on the weekends?”

“Yeah. Ah, right….”

Answering casually, Yooha suddenly recalled the message he’d half-consciously checked that morning.

Setting his chopsticks down, he went back to his room to grab his phone and checked it again.

This Saturday at ten in the morning—his regular checkup. But Saturdays were also days he had tutoring from two in the afternoon.

“Would I make it there in time after the appointment?”
Worry crept in immediately.

Seeing Yooha stare intently at his phone with a serious expression, Woote finished his bowl cleanly and spoke up.

“Mom said you’ve lost a lot of weight, hyung. Can’t you stop tutoring, at least? How do you not have a single day off?”

Only then did Yooha lift his head to look at him.

Woote’s drooping mouth made him look genuinely concerned.

After studying him for a moment, Yooha put on a faint smile and deliberately joked instead. He didn’t want to make Woote worry more.

“Then I’d have to cut your allowance….”

“What? Ah— no, not that!”

For a moment, Yooha thought Woote might finally be growing up, but judging by how he wailed at the mention of losing his allowance, it was probably just empty concern after all.

Chuckling helplessly at Woote’s pout, Yooha sent a message to his tutoring student’s mother.
He apologized sincerely and asked whether it might be possible to delay the lesson by about an hour just for this week.

“Hyung.”

As Yooha set his phone down and picked up his chopsticks again, Woote suddenly called out to him with an unusually serious expression.

Yooha nodded slightly, as if prompting him to speak, while transferring the remaining noodles into his bowl. The softened noodles slid into his mouth with a quiet slurp.

“I told you to just seduce a rich alpha and marry him?”