Gentle Giant Chapter 89
Juho woke up in the afternoon, well over 12 hours after he had collapsed.
“……”
He had furrowed his brows as the memory of the pain that felt like all his internal organs were twisting before he collapsed came back to him, but he let out a short breath at his surprisingly stable physical condition.
The completely white walls without a single pattern that he could see, and the regularly heard mechanical sounds told him that he was currently in a hospital.
Fortunately, it seemed Managing Director Kim had handled things well. Juho was thinking blankly when his eyes suddenly widened.
The last face he had seen of Dain finally came back to him. He had forgotten the most important person.
It was when Juho was putting strength into sitting up. A force that made him lie back down came first.
“You can’t get up like that.”
It was Dain. At Dain’s weak force pressing down on his left shoulder, Juho relaxed his body.
“Hyung…”
“Mm, you finally woke up. Do you know how surprised I was?”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. First, I’ll go outside and let them know you’re awake.”
The voice conveying this to Juho was calm, but his reddened eyes and occasionally trembling corners of his mouth couldn’t be hidden. Juho wanted to check on Dain’s condition first, but Dain quickly went outside.
At Dain’s strangely cold attitude, Juho bit his lips.
Did he find out? If so, how much?
Juho’s mind raced complexly. After mentally preparing himself to some degree, he called for Managing Director Kim. However, he had no idea how much or what kind of content he had told Dain.
He waited anxiously for Dain to return. He wanted to immediately pour out excuses in front of Dain. Every minute and second passed slowly.
When his anxiety reached its peak, a group of people entered with a short knock.
Dain was also among that group. Feeling his tense nerves return to their place, Juho quietly looked at Dain.
“Lee Juho-ssi? How is your pain right now? Are there any particularly uncomfortable areas?”
The doctor who had examined him yesterday looked at Juho from the front of the group.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Juho’s gaze, who answered the doctor’s question halfheartedly, was directed toward Dain the entire time. The doctor also glanced at Dain following Juho’s gaze, then turned forward again.
“Fortunately, the symptoms seem to have calmed down. It would have been better if you had been hospitalized when you came yesterday…”
The doctor who was about to say “You pushed yourself too hard” just cleared his throat at Juho’s fierce energy.
And Dain, who had been listening to that story from the side, hung his head low like he had become a sinner. Because he knew why Juho hadn’t been hospitalized.
The Gangwon-do trip. It was certain that Juho couldn’t even say he was sick because of him looking forward to it and singing for days. Now that he thought about it, everything seemed to be because of him.
Juho glared once at the doctor who was spouting useless words, then looked pitifully at Dain, who only showed the top of his head.
“Also, the patient’s hormone test results came out this morning. You can hear them here or come to the examination room. What would you like to do?”
“I’ll hear them here.”
“Yes, then. I’ll come back in 10 minutes.”
While the doctor and medical staff prepared for the examination, Managing Director Kim dismissed all the bodyguards who had been guarding the hospital room.
“Hyung, come here.”
Juho, who had been watching the people rushing out, tapped the spot next to him and called Dain. Only then did Dain finally raise his head and sit next to Juho hesitantly.
Somewhat relieved by Dain’s appearance of not avoiding him, Juho put on an extremely apologetic expression.
“I didn’t intentionally not tell you. I didn’t know I would be in such severe pain either. I’m sorry.”
“Mm. I know. You wouldn’t have intentionally tried to deceive me, Juho.”
“It’s not that I deceived…!”
At Dain’s words, Juho was about to object. However, thinking from Dain’s perspective, there were probably more than one or two suspicious things about Juho right now.
Both of them couldn’t easily bring up words. Dain, for his part, sometimes wanted to give up thinking about the complexly tangled situation.
Still, Juho’s health came before the matters between the two of them. He didn’t want to hold onto the sick person and argue back and forth right now.
“Juho, let’s talk about this later and first get examined by the doctor. Okay?”
“Alright. Hyung, you’re not going anywhere, right? You’ll stay by my side, right?”
“Yes, I’ll stay by your side.”
“Thank you.”
Juho barely lifted the corners of his mouth to smile. He hadn’t let go of the hand he had been gripping tightly since Dain sat next to him even once.
* * *
The 10 minutes the doctor had mentioned passed. Right on time, the medical staff with various documents and tablets entered Juho’s hospital room.
The doctor sitting at the prepared table looked at Juho, then glanced at Dain sitting in the seat next to him. It meant asking if it was okay to listen together with the person next to him. Juho nodded slightly and then got to the point.
“Please tell me the test results.”
“Ah, yes. As I told you yesterday, there are no significant abnormalities in the blood test and CT scan. The test results also don’t show severe imbalance between hormones. When I saw yesterday’s symptoms, I expected there would be severe hormonal imbalance, but the levels are more evenly well-developed than expected.”
“I see.”
At the doctor’s words, Dain let out a sigh of relief. He continued his explanation for a while, pointing to unfamiliar terms while displaying graphs on the tablet he had brought himself.
Dain, who hadn’t even gone through his secondary sexual characteristics, could understand only a very small portion of the content. However, Dain demonstrated tremendous concentration, trying not to miss a single syllable.
In contrast, Juho was just looking at the doctor with an indifferent expression, as if it was content he already knew everything about. That was understandable, since these were things he had been hearing day and night from the family doctor since his secondary sexual characteristics began. There was nothing new about it.
However, it was unsettling that the symptoms were twice as severe as they had been in America.
“So, does that mean I need to undergo drug treatment now?”
Juho asked, appropriately cutting off the doctor’s enthusiastic explanation.
The most important thing was that such symptoms wouldn’t appear again. There shouldn’t be a situation where he had to return to America earlier than planned because of hormones, and above all, Dain shouldn’t be anxious.
The doctor, who had been giving overly detailed explanations while getting absorbed in Dain’s sparkling eyes before he knew it, coughed briefly at Juho’s cold question.
“Yes. It would be good to do drug treatment for the time being. Even considering that patient Lee Juho is a top-tier beast-man, his hormone levels are much higher than average. The severely manifesting symptoms are probably due to that.”
The doctor said while waving Juho’s test results. The levels that greatly exceeded the average indicated that he was stronger than other individuals, but it also meant that it was that much harder for his body to adapt.
Dain, who had been quietly listening to the story, carefully raised his hand and asked a question.
“Doctor, I heard hormone medications are quite harsh, so even if it’s just for a while, wouldn’t it strain the body?”
“Hormone medications are generally on the harsh side. But right now, it’s best to suppress them as much as possible with medication. Otherwise, incidents like what happened at dawn could occur frequently while the body adapts again.”
“I, I see. While the body is adapting, it’s absolutely…”
“Ah, of course it’s not absolute.”
“What?”
At the doctor’s answer, both Juho and Dain focused their attention on him.
There was a way that didn’t require suppressing with hormone medication.
The moist bronze-colored eyes that had been looking at him continuously were one thing, but when even the bright yellow golden eyes that hadn’t given him a single glance were now watching him, the doctor felt cold sweat run down his spine. Those eyes meant that if he didn’t quickly provide an answer, they would pick him to the bone.
“Hmm, there’s a natural way to stabilize hormones.”
“Naturally? How…”
“Sexual intercourse.”
At the doctor’s nonchalant answer, Dain’s mouth fell wide open. At the unexpected answer, Juho’s eyes also shook momentarily.
“Everyone thinks male beast-men don’t have heat cycles, but that’s a wrong common knowledge. Because beast-men can have sexual intercourse without specifically setting periods, they often pass through heat cycle periods without knowing it.”
Looking at Dain who was making a blank expression unlike before, the doctor continued his explanation.
“Female beast-men are sensitive to hormones, so they can keenly sense heat cycles. In comparison, male beast-men are much less sensitive than female beast-men. So they pass through it that much more lightly or asymptomatically. So right now, patient Lee Juho is…”
“Are you saying that I’m in heat right now? Ha.”
Juho let out a laugh of disbelief. Dain, who had been listening to the explanation from the side, was also surprised by the unexpected words and his eyes widened.
Finally, Juho, who had an expression as if he would devour the doctor, clenched his fists.
The doctor glanced at Juho’s fist with protruding veins and quickly corrected his words.
“No! I’m not saying that’s the case right now! I’m saying that patient Lee Juho’s hormone levels have risen as high as if severe heat had come. And if this is his normal level, it will take quite some time for his body to adapt. What you can do naturally at that time is sexual intercourse, which is why I mentioned it. Of course, as long as the levels are accurately shown, it can be sufficiently controlled with medication as well.”
The doctor now turned his body completely toward Dain, gave him several instructions, and then said he would prescribe medication starting from the next meal.
“Then can I be discharged right away?”
“Let’s observe until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow before discharging. We need to check if the medication suits your body well and if it’s being controlled properly.”
“Yes, understood. Thank you.”
“Yes, then.”
Dain bowed deeply to the doctor. Then he moved his steps toward Juho, whose lips were protruding.
Juho still had his brows furrowed, as if his mood had become uncomfortable from the doctor’s words.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
