Gentle Giant 40

Gentle Giant Chapter 40

Juho was in a bad mood. A very bad mood.

This morning, excluding the class he had with Dain and beautifully dropping that man in the interview had been fine. Seeing the man’s face look like he’d seen a ghost when he saw him in the interview room made him want to take a photo and show it to Dain.

After the in-depth interview ended, Juho called out to the man who was walking away in a daze. And he didn’t forget to give him friendly advice.

‘Oh, and this probably isn’t the time to be preparing for interviews. You’ll be receiving several lawsuits within a few days. If you want to properly graduate from school, wouldn’t it be better to look for a lawyer first?’

‘…What?! You bastard!!’

‘Why am I your bastard? Fuck. Where do you get off making a scene with your trashy family tree.’

‘Huh… This crazy bastard… You’re throwing your weight around like this just because you had a few arguments with your boyfriend?! You think I’ll just sit still?!!’

‘Your boyfriend.’

Hearing those words, Juho’s shoulders flinched. Getting confirmation of their relationship through someone else’s mouth was more thrilling than expected.

Aside from that, he had only returned what he had done to Dain, but seeing his face looking severely wronged was somewhat absurd. Still, thinking that he could now remove this bastard from in front of Dain’s eyes, Juho slightly lifted the corners of his mouth.

‘Yeah. Try more. The more you do, the more fun it’ll be for me to think about what other shit to gift you.’

‘F-fuck…!’

The man glared at Juho with even his eyes turning red. However, that level of glare couldn’t even draw Juho’s slightest interest. When he stared at the man with an expression that seemed bored to death by this conversation, he quickly lowered his head and ran away.

Thinking about how Dain had suffered because of that pathetic bastard made him angry again, but their relationship had also progressed rapidly because of it. Either way, it was too bothersome to care about anyone other than Dain, so he decided to stop there.

That’s why he had processed the pile of documents that came rushing in like a pack of wolves waiting for the interview to end without complaint.

And when spending time with Dain, who gently praised Juho saying they should have a delicious dinner since he had worked hard since Monday, he even let out a relieved laugh.

However, from the moment he heard what Dain said after dinner, Juho’s mood had been plummeting mercilessly.

“So… Juho? Are you listening to me?”

Dain stopped talking excitedly and waved his hand in front of Juho. At that gentle movement, Juho quickly relaxed his expression and smiled slightly.

“Yes, yes. I’m listening, hyung.”

“Yeah yeah! So I’m going to the semester opening party near school with Dohyeon tomorrow, would you like to come too if you’re not tired after work?”

“Semester opening party… is…”

Various scenes automatically came to mind when Juho heard the word ‘party’ from Dain’s mouth.

From parties with people his family knew, to parties his peers had been having. Getting wasted on alcohol and drugs until their eyes glazed over was basic, and waking up tangled with people they didn’t even know was commonplace.

He knew Dain wouldn’t be going to that kind of party, but hearing the word ‘party’ made negative thoughts inevitable.

“Mm-hmm! They said they’re having dinner and drinks at a chicken restaurant next to school. Remember Dohyeon who we saw at the hotel last time? The friend who was with the baby! That friend asked me to come to the semester opening party together.”

“Ah, that rabbit bas…”

Juho, who was about to say ‘bastard’, quickly shut his mouth. Dain smiled pleasantly at Juho’s reaction.

“Yeah. That rabbit sunbae! Juho, you’ve really adapted to Korean university life, haven’t you? Look how you immediately called him sunbae!”

Dain, who had clearly only heard the ‘ㅅ’ sound, patted Juho’s shoulder and didn’t spare his praise.

Juho nodded along with Dain. That damn rabbit. He had enticed Dain, who was just staying put, to go to the semester opening party. While cursing Dohyeon internally, Juho asked Dain.

“So you’re really just eating chicken and drinking? You’re not doing anything else?”

“Uh, anything else…? I’m not sure, but since it’s at a chicken restaurant, wouldn’t we just eat chicken?”

“Hmm…”

Dain wondered if Juho was in a bad mood because the party menu was chicken.

Watching Dain tilt his head, Juho organized his thoughts.

Korean universities had parties when the semester started, and judging by Dain’s words alone, it seemed like the most wholesome party in the world. Since it wasn’t renting a separate room but was at a chicken restaurant, it seemed more like a company dinner concept.

However, people were the type to do anything once alcohol got into them. He couldn’t leave Dain alone in such a vulgar place. Juho forced a bright expression and said,

“Then I’ll go too. I can’t miss it if hyung is going.”

“Ah. Is, is that so…? Hehe…”

Dain’s ears turned red as he twisted his fingers. He was clearly feeling warm and fuzzy from Juho’s words. Finding such a Dain cute, Juho bit Dain’s reddened ear with his lips.

“Eek!”

A short scream burst from Dain’s mouth at Juho’s sudden skinship. At that manly scream, Juho removed his mouth from Dain’s ear and burst out laughing.

Dain just looked at Juho with moistened eyes while covering his ear that seemed about to burst with his hand.

* * *

Dain was just staring at the sign in front of the chicken restaurant. Today, he and Dohyeon finished at different times, so they agreed to meet at the chicken restaurant, but now that he thought he had come to the semester opening party, he couldn’t muster the courage to open the door. He was worried that the atmosphere would become strange as soon as he entered.

Just as he took another deep breath and was about to grab the door handle, a hand suddenly popped out from behind and opened the door for Dain.

“Uh…”

“Weren’t you going in?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

Dain looked at the man behind him and bowed his head to thank him. The man had a similar height and build to Dain. His hair was black and his eyes were dark brown, but you could tell at a glance that he was a beast-man.

The man who nodded back in response to Dain’s greeting went inside first. Seeing him head toward a group gathered in one corner, that man seemed to be a student from the same department too.

A freshman? A bit of curiosity arose and disappeared in Dain’s eyes. He had attended school for three years and didn’t even know people from his own year well, so there was no point in being curious.

“Dain! Over here!”

At the sound of his name being called, Dain’s head turned to the right. Dohyeon was sitting with several students with unfamiliar faces.

Seeing the only familiar face among the strange faces, Dain quickly moved his steps in that direction. The other students weren’t paying attention to Dain’s movement and were too busy chattering among themselves.

“Oh, Dohyeon.”

“The chicken here is really delicious! Eat quickly, okay? Ugh, I thought I’d die of boredom waiting for you. If I knew this would happen, I should have called and come together!”

“R-right.”

Dain smiled awkwardly while gripping his phone tightly. He had finally succeeded in getting Dohyeon’s phone number in the lecture hall last time. Now Dain’s phone friend list had a real friend’s number. He had already created a ‘♥’ list and moved Juho’s number there.

Dohyeon introduced the students who were sitting with him. He said they were freshmen he had started hanging out with since returning to school. There was one male student with a gentle impression and a female student with cute short bob hair. They all smiled warmly and greeted Dain.

“Hello, I’m freshman Shin Myeongnam.”

“Hello! I’m also freshman Han Jiyoon!”

Dain also quickly bowed his head and returned the greeting.

“Ah, hello. I’m junior Jung Dain.”

At Dain’s shy but polite greeting, the three people sitting at the table burst into giggles. It was exactly the same laughter as Dohyeon’s usual laugh. They were like triplets.

Dain spent a better time than expected with the three people. So that Dain, who was coming to a place like this for almost the first time, wouldn’t feel awkward, the three people including Dohyeon took care of this and that and kept the atmosphere lively by talking constantly.

Dain was so absorbed in the joy he was feeling for the first time in his life that he didn’t even notice time passing. That’s why he hadn’t seen his phone screen, which had been vibrating to notify him of incoming messages.

Dain was happily listening to Dohyeon and his friends’ stories and laughing. When stories about professors they met during freshman liberal arts classes came up, he would chime in. It was when he was enjoying eating plenty of his favorite wings thanks to them sensibly ordering combo meals.

“Hyung.”

A low, smooth voice was heard. At the same time, he felt a heavy weight on his right shoulder.

Dain turned his head in surprise. At the end of that gaze was Juho looking at Dain with a hardened face.

“J-Juho? When did you get here??”

“Just now. Hyung, why didn’t you check your messages?”

Juho let out a short sigh and sat in the seat next to Dain. He was still in neat attire as if he had come straight from work.

At Juho’s words, Dain quickly took his phone out of his pocket and turned on the screen. Quite a lot of messages and missed calls were displayed. They were all from Juho.

Dain made a “huk” sound and looked at Juho. Normally he would have smiled slyly, but having worried a lot while unable to contact him, Juho’s face showed no signs of relaxing.

“S-sorry! I should have taken my phone out… I put it in my pocket and forgot!”

“Hyung, I was worried because I couldn’t contact you.”

“I’m really sorry, Juho! I’ll never do that again!”

Dain grabbed Juho’s hand and squeezed it while apologizing. At that timid action, Juho’s face immediately crumbled.

No matter how much he thought about it, Juho felt he was too weak when it came to Jung Dain. Until just before entering the chicken restaurant, he had felt like turning everything upside down, but just because Dain held his hand once, the anger that had built up disappeared like air from a balloon.

“Hyung, don’t do that next time. Okay?”

“Yeah yeah! Of course! Really, really won’t do it again! Were you very worried? I really did wrong, stop being angry. Okay?”

“I’m not angry. I was just worried and couldn’t contact you… I thought something might have happened. Since nothing happened, it’s okay.”

“Mm-hmm. I was having a good time!”

Only then did Dain look around at the friends who were at the same table. The students including Dohyeon, who had been sitting quietly and watching what the two were doing, were busy scratching off the goosebumps rising all over their bodies.

Dain looked at the three people’s behavior with questioning eyes for a moment, then soon introduced Juho.

“Uh, uh. Say hello. You know Dohyeon here since you saw him before, right? And freshman Shin Myeongnam, freshman Han Jiyoon. Um, this is Lee Juho.”

“Hello.”

The three people excluding Dain nodded and greeted each other.

Now the boisterous voices of people gathered at the chicken restaurant were starting to create a heated atmosphere.