Gentle Giant Chapter 17
“Hyung, look at me.”
“Mmm, I am looking.”
“Liar.”
From the moment he came out of the bathroom, Dain absolutely couldn’t face Juho directly.
No, just how much more embarrassing behavior did he have to show Juho? He had only met Juho this morning…! In that short time, he felt like he’d accumulated a lifetime’s worth of dark history.
Juho also felt stubborn because Dain kept strangely shifting his focus downward from his face.
He wanted to forcibly turn that small face to look at him, but he was worried that might cause injuries to his face. In the end, Juho had no choice but to lower his head and approach Dain himself.
Juho bent his long torso in front of Dain, who was still looking down, and only lifted his head up. Having finally made eye contact with Dain this way, Juho gave an eye smile.
“Hyung, are you embarrassed?”
“…!!”
“What’s there to be embarrassed about? We’re both the same beast-men and both men.”
“Being embarrassed is…”
As Juho coaxed him gently, Dain finally made eye contact with Juho on his own and fidgeted with his fingers. Even that small action was so endearing that Juho quickly patted Dain’s head and continued speaking.
“Why would you be embarrassed? Just because you showed your underwear once, you won’t even make eye contact. It’s fine, I told you. I showed you my whole body earlier too.”
“Th-that’s…!”
You only showed half! When did you show your whole body! Just as Dain was about to retort like that, he blushed thinking of Juho’s sexy upper body.
Getting flustered like this at any random moment, Juho would have every right to call him a pervert. So he asked just in case.
“Normally when people are close, do they comfortably look at each other’s bodies like this…?”
“Huh?”
“No, I don’t have close friends or other beast-men, so I’m not sure, but hearing what you’re saying, I wondered if seeing each other’s naked bodies isn’t em-embarrassing…”
“…Aha.”
Watching Dain stumble through his words, Juho wondered what this was about. For a 22-year-old’s question while blushing, it was remarkably innocent.
Well, that’s true. It’s not embarrassing to see close friends’ underwear and bodies. Fuck, it would be disgusting.
However, contrary to what he was thinking inside, Juho gently patted Dain’s head again and smiled.
“Of course. Hyung, when you’re close, that kind of thing isn’t embarrassing at all. You didn’t know?”
“Mmm. Sorry, I was embarrassed. I guess that’s not how it is…? I overreacted.”
“No. Hyung, I understand everything. Since I’m your first friend, you could react like that. It’s okay.”
“Yeah. I won’t do that from now on. You must have been surprised when I yelled.”
Watching Juho shake his head and smile warmly at his apology, Dain also followed with an awkward smile. Even though he made mistakes, learning like this one by one, he felt like he could become a cool friend to Juho like normal people.
As expected, Juho is kind—he doesn’t get angry and kindly teaches me, Dain thought to himself as he hurriedly started blow-drying his hair.
Each strand of Dain’s hair flew up following the direction of the blow dryer wind. Since his natural hair was semi-curly, it often became messy when fully dried, so he was pressing it down with his hands while drying.
“Hyung. Can you give me the blow dryer for a moment?”
“Huh? Why?”
“Here, you can’t see the back, so I’ll dry it for you.”
Looking at the back where damp hair still remained, unlike the front and sides that were drying quickly, Juho took the blow dryer from Dain and personally dried his hair.
Those big hands that didn’t look like they would be moved so gently and carefully… At that ticklish feeling, Dain almost unconsciously made purring sounds.
He had only heard that cat beast-men make such sounds when they feel good… He never thought the day would come when he’d make such sounds!
While Dain found the unfamiliar sensation fascinating, he felt so good that he could handle receiving such touch all day long.
At this rate, he really might start purring like a real cat and beg Juho to do more.
If someone as huge as a mountain begged like that, Juho, who was just drying his hair as a small kindness, might be horrified. Dain couldn’t show Juho such an unseemly side of himself again.
Feeling dizzy just from imagining it, Dain quickly made Juho stop his touch.
“Juho, that’s enough now. I’ll do the rest myself. Thank you.”
“Hm? It’s not completely dry yet…”
“It’s fine. It’s summer so it’ll dry quickly.”
“Really? Alright.”
Taking back the blow dryer, Dain roughly combed his hair with a comb and asked Juho.
“Juho, I have to go to my part-time job now. Are you okay sleeping alone?”
“Me?”
“Yeah. I was worried you might be uncomfortable being alone.”
“Ah, I naturally thought I’d be going with you to your part-time job…”
“What??”
Dain was startled and shook his head.
“No way! What would you do coming with me to my part-time job! You’re tired, so rest at home!”
“No. I slept enough, so I’m fine.”
“Still… it’s an overnight job, and there’s no proper place to rest inside the convenience store.”
“How can I send hyung alone and sleep here by myself? I’d be worried and wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink anyway, right?”
Juho’s face looking at Dain was already full of worry.
“B-but. Staying up all night isn’t easy…”
“I’m still adjusting to the time difference, so it’s fine. Then let me try going just today. If it seems really hard, I can rest at home starting tomorrow. Isn’t that okay?”
“Mmm…”
Even with Juho’s persuasion, Dain pondered for a long time before finally nodding.
Juho was like that now because he wasn’t adjusted to the time difference, but once he actually stayed up all night, he’d want to rest at home starting tomorrow, just like he said.
It would be better to persuade him well before experiencing it so he wouldn’t want to leave the house, but no matter how much he wracked his brain, he couldn’t think of a good way to persuade Juho.
Then it seemed better to take him to the convenience store first, and if he seemed tired, send him home to rest then.
“Then I’ll get ready quickly too. It’s not time yet, right?”
“Mmm. Take your time.”
“Yes. Please wait just a little.”
After eating a simple dinner and finishing preparations for the part-time job, Juho and Dain left the house after 10 PM, when everyone was preparing to sleep. Since it was summer, humid and hot air heavily enveloped and settled around them.
Having left the quiet villa complex with its small interconnected alleys and reached the main road, Juho looked around and expressed mild dissatisfaction.
“See, hyung. I told you we should take the car.”
“No, Juho. Why would we take a car to go somewhere that’s a 15-minute walk…? And what am I supposed to see?”
Unable to understand what Juho was grumbling about, Dain carefully examined his left and right sides, front and back, but couldn’t find anything unusual.
A family taking a walk with mini fans, occasional drunk people, a man and woman stuck close together on a date. It was the same scenery as any summer day.
“Hyung, can’t you see?”
“Mmm? What?”
“Everyone’s staring at hyung! Ha, I knew this would happen! I told you on the phone before. Hyung is so cute that I was worried you might even get kidnapped!”
“…??”
Question marks appeared on Dain’s face as he couldn’t understand what Juho was saying at all. At that clueless reaction, Juho pounded his own chest.
“That man in the red t-shirt over there. The woman in white pants in front. The woman in the black t-shirt in front of her. And the woman in the dress behind. The man in the blue t-shirt across the street. That group inside that store. You know they were all staring at hyung, right?”
“What??”
“Ha, now again. Those families that just passed by us were also staring at hyung. Do I look like I shouldn’t worry??”
Juho’s face, pointing out in detail even people who had briefly passed by, didn’t contain even a speck of playfulness.
“Juho…? No, those people weren’t looking at me…”
“Then who were they looking at? They all directed their gazes toward us.”
When Dain shook his head and spoke, Juho’s eyebrows twitched. He seemed to have seriously misunderstood something.
Dain grabbed and pulled the arm of Juho, who was now openly looking around with eyes full of wariness.
“Those people aren’t looking at me, they’re looking at you!”
“Huh…?”
“You, they’re looking at you, Juho.”
At Dain’s words, Juho tilted his head and pointed at himself with his finger. Seeing that gesture, Dain nodded vigorously in affirmation and quickly continued.
“Yes, because you’re not the type people can see commonly. Everyone’s staring because you’re fascinating and cool.”
“No way.”
“No, it’s true. All those people are looking at you, not me. You stand out so much.”
“Ha, don’t lie. Hyung is cute, wah…”
As soon as Juho’s words were about to end, Dain reached out and covered Juho’s mouth. Hearing it directly in front of him was even more unbearable.
On the other hand, Juho, whose mouth was suddenly blocked by Dain’s hand, looked down at Dain with an even more displeased expression than before.
Feeling Juho’s expression getting worse and worse, Dain slowly lowered his hand. And simultaneously, unrestrained words poured out from Juho.
“I was saying hyung is cute for the first time just now, but you immediately blocked my mouth like that. Hyung, that’s too much. Actually, I’ve been wanting to say it since the airport, holding back and holding back, and now I’m finally saying it. Do you know how much I looked forward to meeting you because I wanted to look at hyung’s face and tell you directly?”
“Huh?”
“It’s true…”
Had Juho always been this talkative? Did he just say all that without taking a single breath?
Thinking about how wronged Juho must have felt to speak in such rapid-fire like that, Dain quickly made excuses to Juho.
“I know! No, I know too, but still, all those people are looking at you…”
“No. They’re looking at hyung, not me. And if they were looking at me, it would be because they’re envious of me being next to someone as cute as hyung.”
“Haah… haha, hahaha…”
It was too late. It was already too late to correct the wrong information carved into Juho’s mind.
It had been wrong from the moment he laughed it off because he was happy about the first compliment directed at him. It was none other than himself who had made Juho like this.
However, doesn’t everything have a correction period? Dain thought he should let Juho know the proper facts from now on. Conveniently, there was an appropriate example on a poster attached to a store window.
Dain grabbed the arm of Juho, who was still being wary of the surroundings, and pointed at the poster.
“Juho. Look at that poster over there.”
“Poster?”
“Yeah, that poster attached to that store.”
The poster Dain pointed to was a magazine advertisement featuring a photo of a cute squirrel beast-man and rabbit beast-man with their ears showing.
Since animal ears don’t normally show, the ears were probably composited, but the round, sparkling eyes, pink cheeks, and cute lips, along with the adorable ears perched on shining hair, matched perfectly like rice cake.
“What about it?”
At Juho’s indifferent reaction, Dain pointed at the poster again with a flustered face.
Didn’t Juho have any thoughts looking at that…?
“Isn’t it cute?”
“What is?”
“Th-those squirrel and rabbit beast-men over there. They’re small and delicate and cute.”
“…Hyung finds that cute?”
As soon as the word ‘cute’ came out of Dain’s mouth, Juho’s expression hardened. How could he say other beast-men were cute with him right in front of him? Juho’s eyes became as venomous as looking at a lover whose gaze had turned elsewhere.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
