Gentle Giant Chapter 13
Meanwhile, Dain’s fingers twitched every time Juho, who was driving with a protagonist-like profile from a drama, briefly glanced his way. No matter how many times he looked, it was an amazing and handsome face.
“Then I’ll only trust you, hyung, until I find a place.”
“Mmhm! Got it!”
Juho briefly showed a deep smile again at Dain’s words, then quickly erased his expression as he concentrated on driving.
Watching that profile, Dain secretly wiped the sweat building up in his palms on his pants.
Because Juho showed him so many smiling faces directed at him, he hadn’t really noticed, but when expressionless, he was indeed a feline beast-man—and not just any, but a tiger beast-man of the highest rank that you might see once in a lifetime. His tightly closed mouth and masculine, sharp angular jawline definitely looked strong enough to make it difficult to approach him casually.
Glancing at Juho’s face, Dain once again thought about beast-men’s growth. To think that pretty face had changed like this in just a few years. It was both a mystery of nature and truly a dramatic transformation.
While secretly stealing glances at Juho’s face, this time Dain wondered what it would feel like if Juho appeared in his beast-man form.
It wouldn’t be triangular ears like his own, surely. Since he’s a tiger, maybe round ears on top of bright blonde hair, or a long tail coming out from between his buttocks might be somewhat cute…? Or since he’s a tiger, maybe the atmosphere would be even more threatening than now.
Looking at those golden eyes that shone brilliantly whenever sunlight hit them, Dain continued all sorts of thoughts in his mind.
“Hyung. Is this the right place?”
While Dain was spreading his wings of imagination thinking about Juho, Juho had arrived in front of Dain’s house at some point and asked after smoothly stopping the car.
The face asking Dain was filled with a completely different gentleness from when he was driving just moments ago. Somehow feeling relieved by that sight, Dain quickly nodded.
“Yeah. It’s this villa here. You can park in that empty spot over there.”
“Yes. Just a moment.”
Juho’s gaze turned to both sides and the rear as if to reverse.
Dain, who didn’t know much about driving, was looking at the parking lines appearing on the screen. Even though the steering wheel wasn’t being turned much, it was fascinating how it slipped right into the narrow parking space.
When Dain was concentrating while marveling at the parking screen, Juho’s long arm came around Dain’s head. To be precise, it wrapped around the passenger seat headrest, not Dain’s head, but to Dain it felt as if he was snugly embraced by Juho’s long, firm arm.
On top of that, when he felt the shadow falling over his face and looked up, Juho’s profile was attractive enough to make him gasp inwardly.
Surprised by the handsome appearance he couldn’t get used to no matter how many times he saw it, Dain moved his shoulders very slightly. Juho, who noticed that momentary movement like a ghost, turned his gaze from the back toward Dain.
“Hyung? What’s wrong? Ah, my arm must have touched you. Did I bump into you somewhere? I have a habit of doing this when parking. I’m sorry.”
“Huh? No, no!”
“Really? But why are you so surprised then.”
“Ah, ahaha…”
Dain was too embarrassed to say he was surprised because Juho was too handsome, so he brushed it off with an awkward laugh.
However, Juho, who wouldn’t just let that laugh pass, finished parking and turned his upper body completely toward Dain.
“It really wasn’t uncomfortable?”
“Yeah, it wasn’t, just…”
“Just?”
Dain agonized over it more than ten times. Whether to say this or not.
But he had no idea how to get past this situation with any other words. So he had no choice but to say exactly what he was thinking.
Well, if he thought of it as a compliment to Juho, it wasn’t something he couldn’t do.
“Why, why, I think I understand why girls get heart flutters when they watch guys reverse… or something like that…?”
“…?”
Juho’s eyebrows rose slightly. That meant what are you talking about. He thought Juho would understand if he only said this much, but it seemed the meaning wasn’t properly conveyed.
Dain eventually rubbed his ears hard while adding an explanation to his words.
“That, that the profile while reverse parking was so hand-, handsome that it made my heart pound…! That’s what I meant!”
The tips of both of Dain’s ears turned red after he once again let the words that Juho was handsome escape his mouth.
From when he first received Juho’s photo, it seemed like he was praising his face whenever there was a chance. Even though he definitely wasn’t someone who was shallow about looks, he didn’t know why whenever their conversation got a bit long, it always flowed this way.
Seeing both of Dain’s ears turn red, Juho finally couldn’t hold back and laughed while lightly touching the red ear tips with his hand.
“Hyung, my profile is handsome too? Earlier at the airport you said my face was too handsome so you couldn’t recognize me. At this rate, you’ll say even the back of my head is handsome.”
“Ugh…”
“Don’t tell me… Hyung, did you already know that the back of my head is handsome too?”
“Ju, Juhooo…”
Finally realizing that Juho was teasing him, Dain made a groaning sound while turning his head toward the window. At that head movement, Juho’s laughter grew louder.
In the short time since they’d met, Dain, who had already accumulated several embarrassing moments, resolved that from now on, no matter how cool Juho was, he shouldn’t stare at him in a daze.
Eventually, Dain got out of his seat first, leaving Juho behind, and closed the door as gently as possible. Juho, who quickly followed and got out, took the suitcase from the trunk and stood next to Dain.
While Dain looked around wondering if any pebbles had hit this expensive car, Juho, who had actually rented the car, seemed to have no particular interest in the car.
“Hyung, what’s the apartment number?”
“Yeah. It’s 203. Ah! Should I carry the suitcase? It’ll be inconvenient since there are stairs here.”
“No, that’s why I should carry it. Let’s go in quickly. It’s hot.”
“Right. Let’s go in quickly.”
Following behind Juho, Dain turned his head to look at the car standing in the parking lot in front of the building. Thinking about it again, it was a luxury car that felt out of place in this modest one-room villa complex.
* * *
Beep beep, six short sounds continued and soon the sound of the lock being released was heard. Dain looked at Juho standing behind him and said.
“The password is 027982. This one. Can you remember it?”
Juho had already memorized the number by watching the movement of Dain’s fingers pressing the number pad, but he looked at Dain and answered with a face as if he didn’t know at all.
“Ah, yes. I can remember it. But is it okay to tell me your home password so carelessly?”
“Huh?? But you’ll be staying at my house for a while. You need to know the password to come and go comfortably.”
“That’s true, but… Hyung, you seem to trust people too easily.”
“Me?? No way! I don’t go around telling just anyone my password!”
“Ah, then I’m not just anyone to you, hyung. Right?”
Seeing Juho’s face grinning as he spoke, Dain pondered for a moment then nodded slightly.
Although they had met each other’s real faces for the first time today, it was natural that Lee Juho wasn’t just anyone to him.
At that small nod, Juho finally laughed out loud and touched Dain’s red ear tips again.
It was the first time someone else had touched his ears so frequently, so Dain’s shoulders shook with a shiver as he hurriedly opened the door and went in. However, the two words “disaster” immediately floated above Dain’s head.
As soon as he opened the front door, several t-shirts that he hadn’t managed to organize were scattered on the visible bed, and on the floor, socks of various colors were mixed and piled up with shorts and t-shirts he had worn as pajamas.
Not only that, but drawers placed throughout the room were wide open, showing their contents as they were.
To make matters worse, there were hangers hanging on the bathroom door handle visible to the side, and even a comb rolling around on top of the sink.
Dain’s one-room wasn’t just messy—the positions where things were placed had become completely chaotic.
“Eek! Juho!!”
He hurriedly turned around to try to block Juho’s view, but his reaction speed and physique couldn’t match Juho’s, so the embarrassing scene was completely exposed.
Usually he didn’t make this kind of mess and only took out clothes he had decided on in his head beforehand, but yesterday was different. Excited about seeing Juho, he had decided on clothes until the very last minute and took a shower, so there wasn’t enough time to clean up.
And he had forgotten this fact and brought Juho to his house.
Though it was quite late, Dain desperately stretched out his hand to cover Juho’s face. Even that was half-hearted, with the entire view of the one-room coming through between his fingers, but Dain didn’t have the mental capacity to check such things.
“Hyung? What’s wrong?”
Juho, who had more than enough reason to guess why, deliberately pulled down Dain’s hand and pretended to look around the one-room with a curious face. And he easily found traces of Dain’s deliberation about what to wear here and there throughout the house.
Even without seeing it directly, it was clear how much he must have worried. At that cute effort, a chuckle was about to escape from Juho’s mouth, but he tried not to show it outwardly.
Instead of laughing out loud, Juho chose to gently soothe the flustered Dain.
“Ah, hyung didn’t clean up. Hey, so what. It’s fine. All guys’ rooms are like that.”
“No, no! I don’t usually make this kind of mess…!”
“Usually? Then why is it messy today?”
“Uh…?”
Dain’s deep bronze eyes shook left and right. Juho, who was watching those eyes intently, smiled slightly and passed by Dain to examine the t-shirts on the bed one by one.
“Hmm, this one has too low of a neckline. This one is a color I don’t really like. And this one looks too hot… No matter how I look at it, that knit hyung wore today is the prettiest. Wait, then hyung, did you lay these out like this while choosing clothes to wear when meeting me?”
“Ah…? Uh, yeah… That’s what happened, but…”
“Wow, I’m so happy.”
Juho’s mouth spread wide. Along with that, his two eyes curved and his bright golden eyes were hidden inside his eyelids as a deep eye-smile appeared on his face.
At that dramatic change, Dain’s eyes moved left and right once again.
Could this be what the term “male god” floating around the internet meant? Dain thought that if he were a more expressive person, he could even bow down in front of that reverent and beautiful expression.
Moreover, seeing him compliment that the clothes he was wearing today were the prettiest, he could tell that their taste in clothing was the same.
As expected, Juho and I are soulmates… Thinking it might be something like that, Dain was once again moved to emotion.
If he had known what kind of thoughts Juho was having within that beautiful expression, such thoughts would have completely disappeared.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
