Gentle Giant Chapter 60
“Then isn’t it fine?”
“Ah, yeah. But for me to share the monthly rent burden when living with you, Juho…… of course I could get a part-time job!”
“What? Monthly rent?”
“Yeah, isn’t the room you found monthly rent?”
“Ah…… no, it’s not!”
It probably isn’t, right? Juho didn’t know whether that house was for sale, jeonse, or monthly rent, but he was certain there was no need to worry about paying money while living there. So he just shook his head. Even if money had to be paid, he had no intention of taking it from Dain.
“Oh, really? Then jeonse?”
“Well, anyway, hyung doesn’t have to pay anything. You didn’t take money from me either.”
“Of course! Why would I take money from you!”
Dain’s cheeks puffed up. Big brother mode activated. For a hyung to take money from his younger brother. That was something that could never happen.
Juho quickly praised Dain.
“That’s right. It’s the same for me. How much do I depend on hyung? Hyung just needs to be by my side. I think I won’t be scared at all if hyung is there.”
“Re-really?”
“Of course! Hyung, I was scared sleeping here all this time.”
“I see……! Now I know everything too, so don’t worry, Juho.”
“Yes. I feel more at ease after telling hyung everything like this.”
Juho rubbed his hair against Dain’s nape, acting cute. Dain was busy patting Juho’s broad shoulders and comforting him about how scared he must have been.
“Then hyung, do you want to go see the new house tomorrow? It’s the house hyung will be living in from now on, so you should see it yourself.”
“Sh-should we……?”
Juho pushed forward, saying they should see the house first before Dain could think rationally. Pushed by that momentum, positive words flowed from Dain’s mouth as if enchanted.
At the satisfactory answer, when Juho looked up at Dain with curved eyes, his yellow pupils reflecting the fluorescent light shone brilliantly. Seeing that gaze, it was an obvious sequence for Dain to urgently press his lips against Juho’s.
* * *
The next day, as if proving his words weren’t just said casually, Juho took Dain to the new house. Thanks to this, Dain had to leave the house holding Juho’s hand with only water barely splashed on his face as soon as he woke up in the morning.
Where Juho took Dain was a newly built mixed-use residential-commercial officetel just 5 minutes from school.
“Oh, this place is……”
“Do you know this officetel, hyung? I signed a contract because they said it was newly built and had good security. Is it not good?”
At Dain’s reaction, Juho stopped pressing the common entrance code and looked at Dain. When he came to look around by himself yesterday, it seemed fine, but if Dain didn’t like it, he was ready to look for another place immediately.
Dain was just surprised because he never thought it would be this kind of officetel, aside from whether he liked it or not.
Dain had also seen this officetel listed as real estate property two years ago. Of course, it was a new officetel, but at a much more expensive price than expected, so he had just passed by it.
No matter how close to school, there probably weren’t many students living in this officetel. Dain was just amazed by the fact that Juho was among those uncommon people.
“Your family must really be rich, Juho.”
Even if his parents helped him…… Dain’s mouth opened in a circle. Finding that expression too cute to resist pinching his cheeks, Juho held back and spoke to Dain with an innocent face that knew nothing.
“My parents said it’s okay because in Korea you get all the deposit back when the contract ends. Since it comes back to the bank account anyway. Isn’t that right?”
“Huh? Oh, that’s right. Yeah yeah, that’s correct.”
If it was jeonse, it was an amount that could be returned later. Dain nodded in agreement.
They must have said it’s okay because this much is fine, right? Feeling embarrassed for only talking about money since yesterday, Dain thought he shouldn’t bring up this topic anymore. He felt that as long as it was a comfortable place for Juho to stay, what did it matter?
Just to take the elevator, they had to pass through two doors. Among them, the door right in front of the elevator even had a manager who always had to check residents before they could pass. At Juho’s words that the same applied when coming up from the underground parking garage, Dain agreed that security must really be thorough.
Even when viewed from outside, it was a building he thought was quite tall, but seeing that the elevator’s top floor was the 32nd floor, it was really tremendously high.
Since Dain’s Seoul studio was on the 2nd floor and his countryside home was also single-story, he focused on the button Juho pressed with anticipation that it might be a high floor.
’32’ Juho pressed exactly the highest floor button.
“Wow!!”
Dain pointed to the 32nd floor just like Juho. Really the 32nd floor! The highest floor!
Dain’s face, who confirmed the floor once again, flushed red with anticipation. Although he liked high places, he had never properly lived on a high floor, so his expectations for the house he would live in from now on grew bigger and bigger.
Juho also quietly smiled watching Dain stare intently at the rising numbers.
Separate from being afraid of airplanes, Juho had long known that Dain liked high places. During walks, when passing tall apartments, Dain would sparkle his eyes while looking at the tops. When they went to hotels for meals, after being somewhat full, he would spend a long time looking outside.
He was satisfied that telling Managing Director Kim to find the highest floor possible seemed to be effective.
The two people who got off the elevator that arrived quickly despite the high floor number stood in front of the door visible right ahead. Juho naturally entered numbers on the keypad and guided Dain inside.
“Hyung. The password here is exactly the same as your house.”
“Huh? Really……? Is that okay though?”
“Of course. If we make a different number for no reason, it’ll just be confusing. I think it’s better to use the number hyung made as is.”
“Yeah. Then I won’t need to memorize it again.”
Dain laughed “hehe.” Our house password must have been a lucky number.
Before meeting Juho through chat, he had changed the house password from 4 digits to 6 digits due to his noona’s nagging. After changing it like that, he seemed to have met Juho and started getting along well with people at school too.
Indeed, the power of 7982……! Dain gave a proud smile recalling the password he had agonized over alone.
“Hyung, take a look around. This is also a studio, so compared to the house you’re living in now, only the size got a bit bigger, there’s not much different.”
“This was also a studio! Yeah, got it!”
Juho spoke casually while opening the inner door at the entrance. At his words, Dain also stepped through the open inner door with a light heart. However.
“Huh huh huh……???”
A loud sound burst from Dain’s mouth.
No matter how much he looked around, he couldn’t see from end to end of the house at a glance. The space was far too wide to be explained as just “a bit bigger in size.” Even if Dain’s current house was expanded by several square meters, it would probably still be smaller than this house.
Moreover, this wide space was empty. Literally empty.
Except for the inner door and one door at the right end, there wasn’t a single wall built. It was like moving a wide playground indoors. At least there were a kitchen and balcony, so you could tell it was a house.
Dain looked around frantically. He looked up, looked at the floor, looked at the left end, then the right end.
There was nothing to examine. All Dain found was a single super-single bed in the middle.
“Ju-Juho?”
“Yes? What’s wrong, hyung, don’t you like it? Should we look for somewhere else?”
“No, it’s not that I don’t like it. Isn’t it too wide……?”
“Haha, I told you, hyung. The size is bigger than the current house.”
“But it’s too wide……”
When Dain repeated that it was wide, Juho denied it. It was a studio so it looked wide, but it wasn’t actually that wide, and living there wouldn’t be much different.
Even Dain, who tended to trust others well, found it hard to agree with Juho’s opinion this time. Frankly speaking, it seemed like there would be space left even if 100 Jung Dains came and lay down.
Avoiding Dain’s eyes full of distrust, Juho quickly took Dain to the bathroom. There was a bathtub where you could fill it with bubbles, and through a long horizontal window on the wall, you could look down at Seoul’s panoramic view.
“Hyung! You said you wanted to take a bubble bath last time! This bathroom has a bathtub so hyung can take bubble baths as much as you want!”
“Wow, really!”
“How is it? It’s good, right? Right next to here is a dressing room, so it’s good for washing and changing clothes.”
“Really……?”
“Also, look here, there are lots of drawers that hyung likes.”
“Drawers!”
Dain really loved drawers. He especially liked putting his hands in those small spaces and rummaging around looking for things. That’s why even in his current house, he had placed drawers in every small space including the bathroom and stuffed them full of all kinds of things.
But a dressing room as big as his current house with drawers filling the entire wall. Just thinking about filling all of this made his nose bridge scrunch up with excitement.
“These drawers…… can I fill them all?”
“Of course. You can fill them with towels and pajamas that hyung likes.”
“Oh……!”
Dain’s eyes sparkled. To think such a treasure-like place was hidden in a house that looked too empty earlier……! Dain’s heart swelled more and more.
Juho had already prepared everything Dain would like. Whether it was a cat characteristic or Dain’s characteristic, he couldn’t tell, but focusing on things Dain was particularly obsessed with, the bathroom ended up being the place he put the most effort into.
After looking around the bathroom that he liked too much, the two came back out to the living room-bedroom-kitchen-study.
Except for the bathroom, all spaces were combined into one, so there wasn’t a single space to hide even a strand of hair.
Dain tilted his head looking at the strangely wide house.
“But really, is this all there is here? There’s not a single room? It’s this wide……?”
“I wonder……? Why, hyung? Do you not like it because of that?”
“N-no, it’s not that I don’t like it.”
Isn’t this too much of a waste of space? Dain swallowed the latter words that might hurt Juho, but his tilted head didn’t return to its original position.
Juho knew Dain found it strange but didn’t say anything particular. No, rather, this wide space with no rooms existing was one of the conditions he had specially requested from Managing Director Kim.
Juho had absolutely no intention of creating a place for Dain to hide. How satisfied he had been when he saw this house yesterday. No matter where Dain was, he couldn’t escape from Juho’s sight. That’s why he had chosen this house.
A space where Dain had nowhere to hide. That alone satisfied more than half of what Juho wanted.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
