Gentle Giant 1

Gentle Giant Chapter 1

Prologue

Dain was depressed. Jung Dain was depressed again today.

2 AM. A small convenience store located at the end of an alley where only streetlights were on. This was already the third time a customer entering the convenience store had flinched upon seeing Dain.

Dain mentally drew the third stroke of the character “正” and thought that he’d surely fill up five marks again today.

Still, the reaction of the customer who just entered was relatively mild. Due to the nature of working dawn shifts, quite a lot of drunk customers came in, and more than half of them would pick fights with Dain after seeing his face.

Starting with comments about his annoying gaze, all the way to crude remarks asking what kind of thug bastard was hanging around a neighborhood convenience store.

After being initially startled by Dain’s build at first glance, then realizing moments later that he was just an ordinary convenience store part-timer, they would all boldly shout with the help of alcohol.

This happened almost daily while working night shifts at the convenience store, but each time, Dain was hurt, and those wounds accumulated one by one in his heart.

The customer walked toward the ramen section while still glancing at Dain. It was a look as if confirming whether he was really a predatory feline beast-man or not.

To the anxious-looking customer, Dain raised the corners of his lips as much as possible, making a kind-looking smile while making eye contact.

I won’t hurt you.

Whether Dain’s effort worked, or whether the customer realized upon closer inspection that he was just a large cat beast-man, the customer approached the register with a more comfortable expression than before, carrying ramen and a few other items.

Beep beep beep.

“That’ll be 5,800 won. Card accepted. Do you have any discount cards or coupons? Bags are 20 won, would you like one?”

“Ah, no. Just give it to me like this.”

“Yes, transaction completed. Have a safe trip!!”

Dain, who quickly finished the transaction, gave a hearty greeting. The customer, who flinched again at Dain’s greeting that filled the convenience store just like when he first entered, gave an awkward reply of “Yes, yes…” and opened the convenience store door to leave.

It’s dawn but I greeted too loudly. Next time I should greet more quietly than now.

Dain scratched his cheek in embarrassment and mentally checked what he needed to improve. Then he lowered his gaze to his phone that had been sparkling since earlier.

[Juho: Hyung, it’s my lunch break now. Are you busy? | 2:13 AM]

[Juho: Hyung, can I call you?? | 2:34 AM]

[Juho: You must be busy ㅠㅠㅠ Please call me when you’re free! | 2:58 AM]

There were several messages from Juho. Even without a reply, the sentences sent in multiple parts without any sign of being upset seemed to contain consideration for him.

A small smile appeared on Dain’s lips as he read the messages repeatedly with his eyes. His briefly upset feelings seemed to melt away gently.

Then Dain, who checked the time on his phone, was surprised and quickly sent a reply.

[3:07 AM | I was organizing inventory for a bit and had a customer so I’m just seeing the messages now ㅠㅠ Can we talk now?]

As soon as he sent the message, Dain’s phone began vibrating with a “buzz.” It was a call from Juho. How urgent.

However, it wasn’t only Juho who was urgent. Dain was also pressing the call button with his finger before the vibration even rang twice.

“Oh, Juho.”

-Hyung, were you very busy?

“No, I was just busy for a moment. How about you? Did you eat lunch?”

-Yes. I ate something simple and I’m on my way back from exercising a bit. Today my afternoon lecture got moved up so it starts right after in 5 minutes… I need to go in now.

“I see. Sorry for checking the messages late.”

-Not at all! I just have to attend a two-hour lecture, so I’ll call you again later around your quitting time, hyung. Hang in there just a little longer!

“Mm! You listen well in class too.”

They finished the short call where they just exchanged voices without any important business. Even so, feeling the affectionate voice directed at him, Dain’s mood became soft.

Dain headed to the storage room again to organize inventory. Having been filled with motivation from the brief call with Juho, it seemed like he could finish organizing the remaining inventory faster.

Come to think of it, it had already been several months since he started contacting Juho like this every dawn. At first, he never thought he could become this close with him, but fate was truly mysterious.

Chapter 1

Dain met Juho through a chat app that was said to be frequently used by beast-men.

Having a somewhat (?) large build for a cat beast-man, Dain had often been mistaken for a wildcat beast-man.

No, to say “often” was putting it lightly—nine out of ten people mistook him for a wildcat beast-man when they first saw him.

Even among the same feline beast-men, wildcat beast-men received different treatment in Korea where there were almost no predatory feline beast-men. Generally, wildcat beast-men were avoided by many people due to their violent nature and large build. As a result, there was a strong perception that they only did rough work that involved overpowering others with force, making them targets of people’s avoidance.

The reason Dain was mistaken for a wildcat beast-man, whom people avoided, was due to his family lineage.

Most cat beast-men living in Korea had characteristics that anyone could recognize as cat beast-men: average height between 170-175cm, slightly upturned eye corners, flexible bodies, and aloof, proud personalities.

However, his family somehow had strong characteristics of cats called Maine Coons.

Befitting their reputation as the world’s largest cats, Maine Coon cat beast-men had heights that easily exceeded 180cm on average, broad shoulders, and angular jaws.

Even his smallest noona at home was 182cm tall. His younger brother, who was about to become a high school senior, was already over 190cm—a giant.

To put it nicely, they were handsome; to put it badly, they looked rough—that was Dain’s family.

Adding to this, the even more unfortunate fact was that everyone in the family, including Dain, was timid.

If they had bold personalities to match their large builds, they would easily get along with people or take the lead in groups, but sadly, their family consisted of thorough introverts and timid citizens masquerading as pacifists.

The large builds passed down through generations, and timid personalities in contrast—Dain’s parents recognized each other as soulmates at first sight and had relatively smooth dating and marriage.

The tragedy began when they had three children and those three children started attending daycare and school.

As the three siblings grew up, they had to interact with people more and more.

Dain’s parents were inevitably forced to participate in various parent meetings. At the same time, the number of times they failed to get along with people also increased. This made Dain’s parents even more timid.

Later, even their three children’s school life became a source of stress for them.

After years of secret heartache, the two people finally decided to avoid the people around them and move to the countryside to farm.

Thus, five people—his parents, noona, younger brother, and Dain himself—came to live in the countryside, and Dain grew up as a somewhat timid but studious, gentle student.

However, the ordinary daily life he had while growing up in the countryside became problematic after Dain entered university and became separated from his family. And this problem grew to an irreversible extent when his noona, who had been living with him for a while, started living separately.

He was lonely.

He hadn’t had many friends even in the countryside, but most contact was cut off when he came up to Seoul.

It wasn’t as if he made new friends in Seoul either.

Still, at the countryside home, there had been his siblings who were noisy among themselves from when he opened his eyes in the morning until he fell asleep at night, but when even that was gone, Dain became a complete loner.

The rough appearance and timid personality he inherited from his parents were sufficient conditions to become an outcast in university, and since there were no group projects due to the nature of his major, he gradually retreated into corners.

Not having the thick-skinned personality to take the initiative in greeting others, now three years after entering university, Dain was still often mistaken for a wildcat and attending university in profound loneliness.

Then one day, when Dain was watching a video as usual, forcing his large frame into a corner before lectures started.

Dain’s eyes lit up when he saw a short advertisement inserted in the middle of the video.

This is it!

Dain, who shouted internally, ended the video he was watching without regret. Then he immediately entered the app store and searched for the name of the app introduced in the advertisement.

[AniTalk]

The advertisement’s content was this: A friend-making app of beast-men, by beast-men, for beast-men!

Yes, this seemed like something he could do. It wasn’t face-to-face contact, and through online conversations without prejudice, couldn’t he meet like-minded friends?

Dain’s face filled with anticipation. Moreover, looking at the reviews, the star rating was quite high.

For some reason, many reviews ended with requests for hearts, but he figured it was terminology used in the app and passed over it casually.

Dain returned to his studio apartment faster than ever after class. He downloaded the app he had searched for earlier, filled in simple information to register as a member, then pressed the “Find Friends” button with a trembling heart.

After a brief waiting period, matching with other people finally began.

[Me: Hello?]

[Other person: Girl? Boy?]

[Me: Boy.]

[The other person has left the chat room.]

The type who asks about gender then just leaves.

[Me: Hello?]

[Other person: Hi. Where do you live?]

[Me: Seoul.]

[Other person: Want to meet?]

[Me: What??]

The type who suggests meeting in real life right off the bat.

[Me: Hello.]

[Other person: hi]

[Me: Yes. Nice to meet you!]

[Other person: Are you good at it? Can you do both?]

[Me: What???]

[Other person: I can do both, call?]

The type with many possibilities.

At first, he didn’t know what the problem with this app was. He just thought conversations didn’t go as well as expected.

Then through several friend matches, he was able to gain enlightenment.

The friends(?) he met on the app all uniformly wanted physical conversations. And quite actively at that.

And he learned belatedly that the hearts written in the reviews were items for finding romantic partners. People had written fake reviews to get those hearts.

In the end, making friends failed both offline and online.

Dain’s face became dejected. He thought it would be fine if he didn’t see faces, but perhaps because he couldn’t see faces, people’s standards were even more chaotic.

Thinking he had been deceived by the advertisement, he was about to delete the app with a sullen expression.

[You have been matched with HO1130! Start an enjoyable conversation with your friend!]