Cha Sunghyun and Gwon Jaekyung, the miracle of South Korea’s swimming world and a swimmer often hailed as a legend of the twenty-first century, were photographed by a paparazzo last Christmas season. They had been spotted shopping together, alone, in Australia. It had been all over the headlines. Cha Sunghyun stated that the rumors were unfounded, and that he had been in Australia for a photo shoot, during which a mutual friend had introduced him to Jaekyung. But no one believed him. It didn’t seem likely that someone would go Christmas shopping together with someone he’d only just met, and to make matters worse, Sunghyun looked too much like the last person Jaekyung had been rumored to date.
“Jaekyung’s type never changes, huh?” the man said. This piqued Jiheon’s curiosity.
“What do you mean?”
“You didn’t know? There was that athlete—or whatever he was—rumored to be dating Jaekyung before Sunghyun. He looked just like that. Tall, well-built, and handsome. And he was a beta male, too.”
As far as Jiheon knew, last year had been the first time he was ever involved in rumors like that. Last summer, not long after the Asian Games in Taiwan, he had been photographed leaving a hotel with a Taiwanese water polo player.
His name was Lin Han, and he’d been widely talked about even in Korea during the Asian Games for his striking looks. Photos of the Beautiful Four of the Asian Games, as the press dubbed them, including Jaekyung, Lin Han, and two other athletes, had circulated all over the internet. There had even been articles on the topic. Jiheon had seen some of them. Lin Han had certainly been a neat, good-looking. It wasn’t a stretch to say he resembled Sunghyun.
“I think anyone would be attracted to someone with looks like that, regardless of preference,” Jiheon said.
The man cocked his head, as if trying to decide whether Jiheon had a point. Seeing this, Jiheon noted the reaction and added.
“You might say he appeals to pretty much everyone’s taste. And as for him only dating betas... I think it’s probably just a matter of statistics. Eighty percent of the population is beta. Unless you’re specifically looking for alphas or omegas, eight out of ten men you meet will be betas.”
Besides, no one could say for sure if the actor really was a beta. Information about the traits of celebrities, sports stars, and other well-known public figures was easy to find online, but most of it was just speculation based on looks or a few visible behaviors. It was like guessing someone’s blood type from their personality[1]—completely inaccurate, but people never got tired of it.
“Well, I don’t know about that. He could date anybody he wanted, be it an alpha or an omega. Besides, I was told alphas are instinctively drawn to omegas more. In that regard, it seems more unlikely for him to continue dating betas only.”
The man had a point. Even with chips and drugs to suppress the pheromones, a sensitive alpha was said to still be able to detect an omega. It was like how someone allergic to dust might still sneeze at the faintest layer on a picture frame in an otherwise spotless room.
“The suppressant chips these days are really strong. They say alphas can’t even tell if someone next to them is an omega. Jaekyung would be especially insensitive to that kind of thing,” Jiheon said.
“What? Is there something wrong with him?” the man asked, his eyes wide.
“No, that’s not what I mean. Most athletes take medication to reduce their sensitivity to pheromones.”
“Oh, right. There are a few alphas in my dance company, and they take pills just in case—especially on performance days. There are more alphas and omegas in our field than in most others, so you never know when something might happen.”
The man seemed quick to understand, perhaps because he was in the field of performing arts. He kept talking.
“But don’t those drugs only last twenty-four hours or something? If they skip a day, they’ll go right back to being sensitive.”
“Yes. That’s why the athletes take them every day,” Jiheon said with a laugh.
“In timed sports, it’s basically a given that more training leads to better results. They say even one extra day of training can shave off 0.001 seconds. A single exposure to pheromones, and that day’s training is ruined. It can take at least two days for their bodies to reset. So it’s safe to assume that swimmers are on drugs season in and season out.”
It wasn’t just limited to timed sports. Highly paid league athletes in ball sports were often required to sign contracts agreeing to cooperate with management in preventing any pheromone-related incidents, especially if they were alphas. Many top-tier athletes—regardless of the sport—were alphas. If they were all exposed to pheromones on the day of a major event, the consequences could be disastrous. Unless they had married early and bonded exclusively with their partners’ pheromones, most of them took medication or received injections to suppress their sensitivity.
When those injections were first commercialized, a strange rumor had it that one of the side effects was erectile dysfunction. Sports forums were full of posts with titles like: Choose one—Become a major league athlete earning 100 billion won a year, or lose the ability to get it up.
“I guess it’s tough for both alphas and omegas,” the man said, sighing as he leaned back on the sofa. Highlights from a drama starring Sunghyun began to play on the screen. That seemed to jog the man’s memory.
“Oh, there’s something else that’s been on my mind. You said people go for tall, handsome, muscular guys—but there are plenty who are into short, slim ones instead. It’s pretty obvious they’re only dating men because they can’t find women who match their preferences.”
“Oh yeah...?” Jiheon asked.
It was about a hundred years ago when humans were first discovered to have secondary genders, or character traits, as they’re sometimes called. Gender imbalance had already reached extreme levels back in the early nineteenth century. Same-sex marriages had started outnumbering heterosexual ones long before that. Jiheon couldn’t believe there were still people who thought like that.