Gentle Giant Chapter 73
“Hyung, so you’re angry?”
“No. I’m not angry at you!”
“That’s a relief. I was worried that hyung might be angry at me.”
Juho said while gently stroking Dain’s back.
As soon as Dain heard that, he waved his hands dismissively. Juho being popular with people wasn’t something to be angry about. What made him feel bad was the behavior of people who kept approaching him even though he was dating someone.
He had only heard in words that there were people showing interest in the library, but he never thought his boyfriend would be the one receiving that interest…!
“Hyung, don’t worry too much about it. People who secretly leave things when you’re not at your seat are people who don’t even have the courage to step forward and speak. Got it?”
“I know.”
“Mm, hyung, speaking of that. Let’s go look at desks this week right away. I think it might be more comfortable to study at home anyway.”
Juho said with a serious expression.
Dain was no longer in a situation where he could just say no unconditionally. If they could find him even when he was hiding like this, they would definitely continue to disturb Juho’s studying.
“Mm-hmm. Okay. It might be better to study at home anyway. I think I made things troublesome by insisting we study at the library.”
“Hyung, don’t say that. It wasn’t for nothing, you did it thinking of me. The other people are the ones being rude.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course. But since they’re not openly interfering, it’s okay.”
“Right, then I’ll go wash my hands real quick. Go in first and study.”
“Okay.”
Juho, who saw Dain enter the restroom, went into the reading room with a hardened expression.
He looked at the snacks and notes still placed all over the seat and twisted his lips. He picked up the items with both hands full and mercilessly shoved them into the trash can.
Just as he had told Dain, the fact that there were sneaky bastards around who couldn’t say a word in front of him but secretly left things like this made his mood hit rock bottom. Moreover, they obviously knew he was dating someone.
“Fuck, how annoying.”
Juho glared at the trash can once more and quickly opened his book before Dain returned to his seat.
* * *
“Excuse me.”
It was when Dain was taking books out of his library locker. He heard a calling voice along with the feeling of someone poking his back.
Dain turned around with a puzzled expression. Where his gaze landed, there was a pretty female student with long straight hair looking up at Dain.
Since they weren’t at the same eye level, Dain’s head quickly lowered. Seeing Dain’s expression become even stiffer because of that, the female student stepped back slightly, then made an awkward smile as if she realized her mistake.
“Did you call me?”
“Yes. Um, hello.”
When Dain pointed at himself with his finger and asked, the female student gave an affirmative answer and greeted him. Dain also greeted her back but still had a face full of questions.
“Um, what’s this about…”
“Ah! I’m a student from the broadcasting club.”
“Huh?”
“I have something I’d like to ask you about.”
The female student showed Dain her broadcasting club ID card. Dain, who had attended this school for three years but had no idea the broadcasting club even existed, was flustered by this situation.
“Um, the person you go around with, that’s Lee Juho-ssi, right?”
Juho’s name came out of the female student’s mouth. Only then did Dain seem to understand why she had called him over, and he awkwardly affirmed with an “Ah.”
The female student approached Dain with a much brighter expression. Dain stepped back by the same amount, and his back bumped against the locker with a thud.
Not seeming to notice Dain’s bewildered expression, the female student immediately handed a small business card to Dain’s hand.
“You know it’s festival time after midterms, right? We’re trying to shoot promotional materials for the school to use during the festival, and we thought it would be great if Lee Juho-ssi could be a model for us, so we wanted to ask.”
“Uh, but why are you asking me…”
“Actually, we wanted to ask Lee Juho-ssi directly, but we haven’t had the opportunity.”
The female student said with a troubled smile.
Indeed, just yesterday the female student had encountered Lee Juho and spoke to him just like now. However, she was completely ignored.
No matter how many times she called his name and went in front of him waving her hand, it was useless. She was literally treated like an invisible person.
The broadcasting club was busy with midterm preparations and everything else because of the festival. Among them, the seniors who were serious about making promotional materials kept nagging them to recruit Juho no matter what. Because of that, she and her peers had attempted to speak to him more than 10 times. However, the success rate was 0%. It was an incredible wall.
So the new method the broadcasting club students found was Dain.
Lee Juho’s boyfriend who had heated up the community at the beginning of the semester. They thought he might be able to convey some words to Juho.
In the end, the female student Lee Youngju, who got the short straw in a ladder game with her peers, took on the responsibility and made contact with Dain.
“Ah, yes.”
Dain nodded slightly, not knowing what to say in response.
Since it seemed like he was at least listening to her words, Youngju grabbed Dain’s hand that was holding the business card. Dain’s shoulders jumped greatly at the unexpected physical contact.
‘Eek!’
Dain screamed inwardly. Even though he knew he couldn’t retreat any further, he pressed his heels against the locker.
Youngju, completely unaware of Dain’s situation, instinctively realized that if not for this opportunity, she wouldn’t be able to convey the message to Lee Juho in the future. In that desperation, she put more strength into the hand holding Dain’s hand. She had to appeal to the seniors that she had at least put in this much effort.
“So! Please, I’m begging you…! Could you please tell Lee Juho-ssi to contact this number just once, just that one sentence?”
“Um, excuse me. Juho won’t like this kind of thing…”
“We don’t know that for sure yet, so please… okay?”
“Um, my hand…”
When Dain tried to pull out his held hand without giving a proper answer, Youngju momentarily felt annoyed.
Who does he think wants to hold hands with him? He could just say okay, why is he being so difficult? If the seniors hadn’t been nagging, she wouldn’t have had to lower herself this much.
She dropped Dain’s hand with a loud slap and pouted her lips.
“So? You’ll convey the message, right?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t think this is something I should do…”
Dain politely refused once again.
Juho disliked both crowds and taking photos. Even if he spoke to him, it didn’t seem like he would do promotional modeling.
Dain also didn’t want to encourage the already struggling Juho, who was busy with studying and interning, to do something else.
At the stronger refusal than expected, Youngju’s expression hardened.
It wasn’t just his rough appearance, his personality was also lacking. When someone asks this much, he should at least pretend to listen. I heard he’s dating Lee Juho, is that why his nose is in the sky?
Youngju, grumbling inwardly, gathered her last bit of patience and spoke.
“Still, if you get the chance, please do convey the message. Got it? Sorry for bothering you today.”
The female student who had quickly spat out only what she wanted to say turned around and moved away from Dain.
The hand he had extended to return the business card wandered lost in the air.
Dain sighed and looked at the business card.
Along with a clean design featuring the university name, there were three characters that seemed to be the female student’s name and a phone number written on it.
Since it felt awkward to throw it away immediately, Dain put it between his books for now, gathered the rest of his books from the locker, and headed to the reading room.
The reading room was leisurely with not many students. Today was the day Juho went to work, so Dain sat alone occupying an entire wide desk.
If not for the students bothering Juho, it would be the perfect place to study. He felt regretful that he couldn’t study in a place like this.
However, Dain didn’t regret going to buy a desk with Juho tomorrow.
He had a premonition that if he stayed at school for long periods, there would be more incidents like the broadcasting club student approaching him today.
Anyway, since he was seated, he was in the middle of concentrating and organizing the exam scope and memorizing when…
Tap.
A small canned coffee and cookie were placed in front of Dain. Seeing the unfamiliar objects at the edge of his vision, Dain’s head lifted up.
“…?”
“Hyung.”
“Juho!”
At some point, Juho was sitting in the seat across from Dain. Seeing his face, the corners of his mouth naturally lifted up.
When Dain made an expression like he was dying of joy, Juho also smiled warmly in response.
“When did you come? Just now?”
“Yes. I just came. It’s already 8 o’clock, and I thought if hyung was still at the library, you probably hadn’t eaten anything because you were studying. I bought some snacks.”
“Thank you. I didn’t realize it had gotten this late.”
“I figured as much. Hyung, eat this first and let’s go out for a bit to eat.”
At Juho’s words, Dain picked up the cookie. It was his usual favorite chocolate macadamia cookie. He broke the cookie in half and offered one piece to Juho. In response, Juho closed his eyes and opened his mouth. It meant he wanted to be fed directly.
Even though Dain knew there was no one around, he still glanced left and right before carefully putting the cookie into Juho’s mouth.
Slurp.
Juho, who had deliciously sucked not only the cookie but also Dain’s finger, smiled deeply with the corners of his mouth raised.
“Ah, delicious.”
“Ju-Juho! Fingers are dirty!”
“What’s dirty about them? They taste better than the cookie.”
“Ah, ahh!”
Dain’s shoulders twitched at Juho’s cheeky response. Juho sucked on Dain’s finger once more with a slurp and stood up from his seat. Since the cookie had gone in, his stomach would obviously start calling for a proper meal soon.
While preparing to follow Juho out, Dain gathered all the books he had been studying with.
“You’re not coming back in?”
“Mm-hmm, I’m going to stop here for today and go home.”
“Really? Hyung, then give me those books. They’ll be heavy.”
“It’s fine!”
Dain moved the books to the side, avoiding Juho’s hands. At that moment, the two or three books stacked on one arm wobbled and fell to the floor.
Because of the carpet underneath, it didn’t make a loud sound, but the impact of falling to the floor caused the books to open and the handouts tucked inside to spill out.
“Ah!”
Juho and Dain, who had been momentarily dazed, quickly crouched down and began organizing the books. Fortunately, there weren’t many handouts, so they could organize them quickly.
It was when Dain was looking around to see if he had picked up everything that had fallen on the floor.
“Hyung, what’s this?”
Juho asked, holding out a small piece of paper to Dain. In his hand was the business card from the broadcasting club female student he had received during the day.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
