Gentle Giant Chapter 19
Buzz, buzz.
The phone in Juho’s pocket started vibrating. He looked at the brightly lit screen and put the phone back in his pocket.
The vibration that had been ringing for a while stopped briefly, then started vibrating again, getting on his nerves.
In the meantime, Dain had brought a mop and instantly cleaned the entire floor. He wiped the floor again with a dry cloth, finishing up the cleaning neatly. Then he returned to the counter and was now organizing the display shelves one by one without rest.
Watching those naturally flowing movements, Juho let out a small sigh. Anyone would think he’s the owner of this convenience store. No, even the owner wouldn’t put in this much care.
“Hyung, you should rest while doing it too. There aren’t even any customers, but you haven’t sat down once.”
“No. It’s harder for me to just sit still. It’s not difficult work anyway. Huh? But Juho, you seem to be getting a call. I can hear your phone vibrating.”
“Ah…”
At Dain’s words, Juho reluctantly took out the phone he had been deliberately ignoring.
After looking at the screen, seeing Juho about to put the phone away again, Dain asked with curiosity.
“Who is it? At this dawn… Is it a spam call by any chance?”
“It’s not that…”
“It’s not? Mm? Then what?”
Ah, I should have said it was spam. While Juho hesitated for a moment, the vibration rang once more. Hearing that sound again, an even deeper question mark appeared on Dain’s face.
Eventually, Juho asked Dain for understanding and left his spot.
“It’s a call from my mother. Hyung, let me go out and answer the phone for a moment.”
“Ah, oh! Yeah! Go answer it quickly! The alley here is dark and dangerous, so don’t go too far.”
“Yes. I understand.”
Juho answered Dain’s concern with a smiling face, but as soon as he left the convenience store, he immediately hardened his expression.
He was utterly sick of unnecessary and unwanted attention. However, if his mother didn’t get an answer, she would obviously keep calling until he did, and since Dain had already caught him receiving a call once, it would be natural for Dain to find it strange if he avoided the call.
Even while moving to the alley next to the convenience store, the continuous vibration made Juho press the call button with a disgusted expression.
“Yes.”
-Why aren’t you answering your phone?
“Mother. It’s 4 AM in Korea right now.”
-Oh my? Is that so? But Mr. Kim answered the phone right away just now.
“That’s his situation.”
Even knowing that a managing director at the Asia branch couldn’t not answer a call from the chairman at the overseas headquarters just because it was dawn, Lina brushed it off with a nonchalant tone.
This is why people in high positions… Even though she was his mother, what he disliked was what he disliked, so Juho’s mouth twisted.
-Anyway. Where are you right now? I just asked Mr. Kim and you haven’t gone to the house we arranged separately.
“I’m doing well. Don’t worry and forget about me for a while.”
-How can I do that? When my child left home like that!
“We weren’t living seeing each other’s faces properly anyway. What’s the point now… And I know why you’re worried enough to call, so let’s stop with the insincere words.”
Juho answered with a voice overflowing with cold energy. At that response, Lina, who had been silent for a moment, decided to get straight to the point since it had come to this.
-Right. Well, neither you nor I are the type to have long insincere conversations. Since you’ve arrived in Korea, I thought you should visit the company first. Remember what we promised last time?
“I understand. I’ll visit soon.”
-When exactly? You know Mr. Kim’s contact information, right?
“Yes. I know. I’ll handle it myself, so don’t worry about it.”
After expressing ‘I got it. Mind your own business’ in the nicest way possible, Juho hung up without any lingering attachment.
A few years ago, when his dramatic growth began, his mother’s way of looking at him changed. Since then, Juho had become reluctant to have conversations with her.
When he was young, she at least looked at him with a mother’s eyes… Now it was just a gaze that seemed to be measuring how far she could make use of the object called ‘Lee Juho.’
It wasn’t that he had such a weak mentality to be hurt by that fact, and he was also considering how far he could use this family, but the fact that it felt dirty was unavoidable.
His mood, which had been pleasant watching Dain bustling around inside the tiny convenience store, instantly plummeted to rock bottom. He needed to look at Dain again to soothe his mood.
It was when Juho opened the convenience store door, wondering what he should do with Dain to spend time until Dain’s shift ended in just a few hours.
“Fuck!! Can’t you do it properly?!!”
A large, heavily drunk man was pointing his finger at Dain and yelling. Despite the man’s obviously unreasonable harsh words and finger-pointing, Dain was just bowing his head saying he was sorry.
“Where do you get off opening your eyes like that so annoyingly, huh?! You’re just like a fucking animal!”
The customer became even more arrogant at Dain’s attitude and now began slamming the counter with his palm, going beyond just pointing.
The moment Juho saw Dain’s fingertips trembling at that man’s threats, sparks flew in Juho’s eyes.
Meanwhile, the man who had been cursing and making a scene toward Dain saw Juho’s face as he entered through the convenience store door and shut his mouth. To be precise, seeing Juho’s fierce blue expression and the murderous aura spreading around him, the man had no choice but to shut his mouth automatically.
“Hmph, ahem! Do well! Huh?! Just doing convenience store work and acting all stiff!!! So annoying, kugh!”
The man who berated Dain until the last moment quickly left the convenience store while staggering to avoid Juho.
Dain, who couldn’t even respond to that man’s words and had only been keeping his head down, finally raised his head after a long while and let out a sigh. And at that pitiful sight, a deep sigh also flowed from Juho’s mouth.
“Hyung.”
The convenience store, swept by the commotion, was excessively quiet, and Dain could immediately hear Juho’s small voice calling him. However, since he didn’t know when Juho had come in, he just looked at Juho with an awkward smile.
“Oh, yeah. Juho, did the phone call go well? Did your father, ah, no. Did your mother say anything? For calling so late… uh… what time is it in America right now?”
Did he even know what he was saying? Dain spoke to Juho while rambling incoherently.
At that sight, Juho slightly frowned and approached Dain, gently taking hold of his still trembling fingers.
“Are you okay?”
At Juho’s gentle and kind question, Dain felt his nose tingle. Feeling like he might start tearing up tactlessly again, he quickly pulled his fingers from Juho’s hand and nodded vigorously.
“I’m, I’m fine, of course! Drunk people at this hour are all like that. This much doesn’t bother me anymore. I’m fine!”
“Sigh, hyung. Want to go inside and rest for a bit?”
“Huh? No, rest! Really don’t worry, Juho. But you’re the one who must have been surprised. This is why I didn’t want to bring you to my part-time job.”
“Surprised? This is exactly why I should have come with you. I’m sorry, because I went to answer the phone. I shouldn’t have left hyung alone… Ah, I’m really sorry…”
Juho apologized with a dejected expression. Hearing that, Dain was genuinely surprised and lightly tapped Juho’s forearm.
“Why is that your fault! That guy was being unreasonable! Don’t say things like that!”
“Still…”
“No, no. Don’t say things like that, Juho. Really. I knew you were kind, but I didn’t know you were this much. If you keep being like this, won’t you get treated badly everywhere instead of being treated like a tiger? Huh? What if people misunderstand that you’re not a tiger but just a big cat?”
Dain teased Juho while laughing. At Dain’s desperate joke to cheer him up, Juho had no choice but to let out a deflated laugh.
Finally relieved by that laughter, Dain made an “oh?” sound and picked up a card still lying on the counter.
“He left in such a rush earlier, looks like he left his card behind. He probably hasn’t gone far yet…”
Dain said while looking at the card. If they kept it here, he might come looking for it when he realized it was missing, but considering how drunk he was, there was a higher possibility that he wouldn’t even properly remember coming to the convenience store at dawn.
A murmur of “what should I do” flowed from Dain’s mouth as he wondered what to do.
It was a very small voice, but Juho, who somehow heard it, took the card from Dain’s hand.
“Hyung, I’ll go and come back.”
“Huh? No. I can just go quickly and come back.”
“Hyung needs to watch the convenience store. I’ll go and come back quickly. Like hyung said, he probably hasn’t gone far. Then I’ll be back.”
Before Dain could say anything, Juho quickly left through the convenience store door. Watching his back, Dain wondered how Juho could be so kind. That customer had been drunk and disorderly, and it was obvious he had a bad personality, yet he was going to deliver his lost card.
While Dain was doing this because he was a convenience store part-timer trying to avoid causing trouble, Juho was probably doing it just because he was worried about that person.
“Gasp.”
Come to think of it, what if that drunk guy treats Juho badly too?!
Just as Dain was about to leave the counter to follow Juho, worried that Juho might get grabbed by the collar by that guy, five or six women entered through the convenience store door. Since that group spent a long time selecting items, Dain couldn’t leave his post and had no choice but to wait anxiously for Juho to return.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
