Gentle Giant Chapter 6
Dain caught his breath from running since near the station and his eyes turned toward a corner of the restaurant.
There sat a slender woman who, even though her face was barely visible under a cap, had an aura that could capture everyone’s attention at a glance with her atmosphere alone.
The first thing that caught his eye was her hair – the same gray as Dain’s but with a distinctly different bright saturation. Thanks to its bright saturation, her hair was so beautiful that it could be mistaken for silver when sunlight hit it.
That hair cascaded down to her waist like a curtain wrapping around her body, and on her small face were eyes that opened refreshingly to both sides without double eyelids, a high nose bridge, and plump lower lips.
Though she was a woman, she had looks that anyone would call handsome.
“Noona.”
“Oh, Dain came? Sorry for calling you out so suddenly.”
“No, sorry for what. But what’s going on? You’ve been busy all the time lately.”
Seeing her face light up at the sight of his face, Dain smiled along.
The eldest of three siblings and the mental pillar of her two younger brothers. Jung Dahee.
Since childhood, noona couldn’t go anywhere comfortably due to worrying about her younger brothers who couldn’t adapt to school life, so she came up to Seoul together when Dain entered university.
Until then, she had tried to work in Seoul while staying by Dain’s side to take care of him.
However, her friend wouldn’t leave alone this woman with her tall height for a female and cool but attractive face.
Her friend was an employee at a small advertising company who wanted to cast Dahee as a model for a coffee advertisement she was in charge of.
Unlike her appearance, Dahee also had the same timid and gentle personality as the rest of her family. Knowing her personality well, she naturally waved her hands desperately and refused at first.
However, despite several refusals, her friend kept pleading that it would be just once, and Dahee, who was as soft-hearted as she was gentle, eventually gave in and ended up filming the advertisement.
And the advertisement, which only featured her face and full-body shots without a single line of dialogue, became a huge hit.
Even if people didn’t know Dahee’s name, everyone came to know the face of the woman from the coffee advertisement, and thanks to that, the number of companies looking for her increased exponentially.
What was supposed to end with once made it impossible for her to live a normal life. As a result, Dahee ended up signing a formal contract with a fairly large agency and continuing her modeling work.
The fortunate thing was that modeling work suited her aptitude quite well. And the unfortunate thing was that she could no longer take care of Dain like before.
Dain was left all alone in his already unfamiliar university life without a single place to rely on emotionally. Of course, Dahee also continued her unfamiliar life, but with so many people looking for her, she wasn’t lacking in human connections.
Because of that, Dahee always felt sorry toward Dain. She had come along saying she would take care of him, but ended up leaving him alone even more often.
To her, Dain was a fragile and gentle younger brother who, despite his appearance, was always a source of worry.
“I made some time to see your face. I haven’t seen your face even once since vacation started. School will start again soon.”
“Mmm, has it already been that long?”
“This kid!! Even if I’m busy, that’s no excuse. When was vacation, and you haven’t contacted noona even once?”
“Well, I know noona’s obviously busy…”
At Dahee’s not-unpleasant scolding, Dain trailed off with a smile.
Actually, it was more accurate to say that he had a friend who contacted him whenever he had free time, so he hadn’t thought of contacting her at all.
Dain felt sorry by himself and just fidgeted with the cup of cocoa she had ordered in advance.
“Come to think of it, course registration period is coming up soon, right?”
“Ah, that’s right.”
“‘Ah, that’s right’?! I knew this would happen. You almost missed course registration last semester too if I hadn’t told you!”
“Mmm, I’ve lost track of time lately. Since you mentioned it, I should set an alarm. Thanks, noona.”
“What’s there to thank me for. It’s only natural.”
“Natural my foot, who else would take care of me if not noona.”
At Dain’s words, a deep smile appeared on Dahee’s face.
This guy with a mountain-sized build always made people feel good and endeared them with every word he said while keeping that gentle face.
“That’s why I’m worried. You’ve been doing nothing but night-shift part-time work every day just because it’s vacation. I should be taking better care of you.”
“Why is that something to worry about?”
“Why?! Even if it’s vacation, I’m saying this because I know how hard it is to have your day and night reversed from doing night shifts. That’s why you’re doing night shifts! Look how your face has become half its size already.”
Dahee stroked Dain’s cheek with a face full of upset. Her eyebrows formed a frown at the rough-feeling skin.
To such a noona, Dain couldn’t tell her that night shifts were the only places that would hire him, so he swallowed it inwardly.
It wasn’t like Dain wanted to work part-time during hours when the sun had set and others were sleeping either.
However, his fierce impression and social skills that couldn’t be found even if you washed your eyes and searched didn’t leave him any choice but convenience store night shifts.
He had interviewed at over 10 places, but the convenience store was the only place that contacted him. The reason was that he seemed like he would be good at driving away drunk troublemaker customers who came every dawn. Even thinking about it again only brought a bitter smile.
“Next year I’ll be too busy preparing for exams to work part-time properly, so I need to earn money intensively at times like this. Don’t worry. When school starts, I won’t work part-time and will only study.”
Dain replied as if nothing was wrong. When he was young, he would act spoiled, saying he was upset when he grew distant from friends or sad when friends excluded him, but he was too old for that now. Rather, it was time for him to take care of noona.
“Right, and what’s the reason noona is earning money? It’s to give spending money to her younger brother. If you need money while studying, make sure to call me.”
“Got it. Is noona still busy these days?”
“That’s right. Work keeps coming in non-stop, so it’s hectic. But everyone says not to complain when you’re well-fed and to row when the water comes in. So I’m doing everything without grumbling. Oh, that’s right! Dain, do you know what advertisement noona is filming this time?”
“Huh? Is there a new advertisement you’re getting into?”
“Of course there is!”
Dahee’s eyes sparkled. It was the most excited face she’d had since meeting Dain.
Since Dain wasn’t the type to be glued to TV or his phone, he only occasionally saw noona’s advertisements and didn’t know much about them. However, seeing noona’s excited face, his mouth corners naturally lifted and he became curious.
“What is it? What kind of advertisement? Noona’s face looks completely excited.”
“Hehe, you know Scarlett, right?”
“Of course I know! I saw in an article last week that their series was released there.”
Scarlett. It was the common name for a globally famous media conglomerate.
They owned hundreds of channels worldwide alone. On top of that, it was a conglomerate group that ranked among the world’s top with secondary industries like animation, movie, and drama copyrights and theme parks.
Especially lately, they had expanded their business scope to OTT services and were raking in money not by the minute but by the second.
No matter how distant Dain was from TV, Scarlett was famous enough that he had known about it since he was very young.
“When Scarlett Plus service starts, Asia headquarters was decided to be in Korea. So they’re planning to advertise on a large scale, and I became the model there!”
“What?!”
This time he was really surprised. Dain opened his eyes wide and stared at Dahee.
Since Scarlett was a truly world-famous media conglomerate, it was amazing that the Asia headquarters was coming to Korea, and it was even more amazing that noona got to handle that advertisement.
“Hahaha! Jung Dain, look how surprised you are. You just stared blankly no matter what I said. But when I say Scarlett, your reaction is incredible!”
“Wow, woah. No, noona! Noona, this is really amazing! To think that noona is such an incredible person… Who should I really brag to about this?”
Why don’t I have any friends to tell this kind of story to? For a moment Dain had a gloomy expression, but he quickly composed himself and sincerely conveyed his congratulations.
“Thanks! When noona finishes the advertisement safely, I’ll treat you big time. Wait for it?”
“Of course, when are you filming the advertisement?”
“Mmm, probably next month? If it’s fall or winter, my condition will inevitably decline, so it needs to be finished before then.”
“Ah… right.”
Dahee had her first heat cycle a few years ago. It wasn’t true for all beast-people, but surprisingly many beast-people experienced heat cycles.
While ordinary people had secondary sexual characteristics in their mid-teens, beast-people tended to have them a bit later in their late teens or early twenties.
Dahee also first experienced her heat cycle in her early twenties, and since then, from winter to the following spring every year, her heat cycle would come and her condition would worsen significantly.
There were beast-people-specific hormone medications that allowed minimal daily life, but long-term use was absolutely contraindicated due to side effects. Because of that, most beast-people who experienced heat cycles had a few months each year when their condition was particularly poor.
“Anyway. They say there are many beast-people who go through life without ever having heat cycles. Taking medication every time is also troublesome.”
“R-right. Noona will need to manage your health well…”
Dain’s ears turned red as he had no immunity to heat cycles or secondary sexual characteristics yet.
Dahee, who had been carefully observing her younger brother’s clueless appearance, wrinkled her nose. She suddenly thought of her second worry – her youngest brother.
“Come to think of it, how long will Dahoon keep growing? When I called yesterday, he said he went to the health center for a physical examination and his height came out to 193cm, and he was about to cry.”
“He grew even more since the beginning of the semester…? Isn’t he growing too much?”
“That’s right. Whether secondary sexual characteristics come or heat cycles come, his growth should stop. What about you, Dain?”
“Huh?”
“You. Do you keep growing in height??”
At Dahee’s question, Dain’s head tilted in confusion. Actually, he couldn’t remember when he had last measured his height. He hadn’t measured it even once this year.
“It’s been so long since I measured that I don’t really know.”
“Really? Mmm, then you might have your heat cycle soon too, right? Go to a hospital or health center once and find out.”
“…Me?”
“Yeah, you. What, aren’t you a beast-person?”
Looking at noona answering so nonchalantly, Dain sighed inwardly.
A beast-person’s heat cycle meant that the body became capable of having offspring. In other words, being able to become a mother.
No matter how much male beast-people could get pregnant, that probability was about as rare as beans during a drought, and the moment that probability came to him, it would turn into finding a needle in a haystack. So he thought that would never happen.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
