Gentle Giant Chapter 21
On a morning where the sun beating down on the asphalt pavement was already hot, the two safely finished their part-time job and walked home.
There had been a brief commotion at dawn, but other than that, it was a peaceful part-time job. Fortunately, Juho didn’t show any signs of being bored or tired during the work.
Dain walked while thinking of ingredients one by one, planning to make kimchi stew for breakfast.
After all, the kimchi stew for Juho should… have meat in it, right?
Glancing at Juho, Dain thought he should put in meat instead of the tuna he had at home.
“Hyung? Where are you going? Don’t we need to go left to get home?”
“Ah. Let’s go buy some meat to put in the kimchi stew. Come here, Juho.”
Dain grabbed the arm of Juho, who had turned toward the left alley where his studio apartment was. Then he hurried his steps in the opposite direction of the apartment alley.
This might be the first time Juho, living in America, would see something like this. He’d be really surprised when he sees it, right?
Dain’s shoulders were already bouncing with excitement at the thought of surprising Juho as he giggled to himself.
A smile also appeared on Juho’s face as he watched Dain lead the way with a rarely excited expression.
He was clearly a cat beast-man, but just looking at his current behavior, he was cute enough that you’d believe he was a dog beast-man. What was making him so excited? He wondered if buying meat was really such a wonderful thing.
It was when Juho was having the silly thought of ‘should I take him to a butcher shop sometime and buy various types of meat?’
“Ta-da!”
Dain stopped in front of a large vending machine and spread both arms wide. He had a majestic expression like a magician who had just performed an amazing magic trick.
Barely suppressing the urge to take a photo of that adorable sight to preserve for generations, Juho looked at the vending machine Dain was pointing to. Inside the plain black exterior vending machine were beef, pork, and chicken, neatly trimmed by cut and refrigerated in packages.
It was a 24-hour unmanned meat vending machine.
This was what Dain had wanted to show Juho.
Juho actually didn’t care at all whether people bought meat from vending machines, stores, or even hunted it themselves, but seeing Dain’s sparkling eyes, he felt he should give at least a small reaction.
“Wow. What’s this? You can actually buy meat from a vending machine?”
“Yeah! You can buy meat from vending machines too! But you can only see this in our neighborhood! Amazing, right? Right?”
“Yes. It’s amazing.”
‘It’s amazing.’
At those words from Juho, Dain’s mouth opened even wider.
As expected, Juho also finds this vending machine amazing. It wasn’t just me!
Actually, when Dain discovered this unmanned meat vending machine, he was so fascinated by himself that he really wanted to show it to someone he knew.
However, until now he had no one to tell about it except his family, so he only came occasionally to buy pork belly for himself to eat alone, but today he could finally show this vending machine to another person. And he was so happy that the first friend he shared this fact with was Juho.
“Hyung, do you buy meat here often?”
“Mmm. It’s simpler and better than going to a butcher shop to buy it. When I get my part-time pay, I sometimes buy beef too.”
“I see. But, talking about meat in front of meat with hyung is making me gradually hungry.”
Juho rubbed his stomach while looking at the meat. Since it was a thin summer shirt, Juho’s abs slightly showed through the white clothes. Seeing those tantalizingly visible abs, Dain automatically recalled Juho’s bare upper body that had looked like a finely carved sculpture.
“…”
Dain’s mouth slightly opened. Juho’s upper body replaying in his head and Juho’s firm abs visible now tangled together and floated in front of his eyes. Dain, who had momentarily spaced out, finally came to his senses at Juho’s “Hyung?”
Look at me. Staring intently at Juho’s stomach in front of meat. I acted like a pervert again from the morning.
Embarrassed by his reddening face, Dain lowered his head and stood in front of the vending machine. Then he quickly paid for two packs of pork that caught his eye and took them out from the vending machine opening.
Now it was time to stop having inappropriate fantasies and make kimchi stew for Juho.
* * *
“Juho. Do you eat spicy food well?”
“Mm. I do like spicy food, but I can’t really handle very spicy things.”
“Really? Then I should put in mild red pepper powder.”
Dain was standing in front of the small gas range, meticulously preparing various ingredients. Behind him, Juho was sticking close and staring intently at what Dain was doing—so close that every time Dain moved, the back of his knees brushed against Juho’s legs.
At first, Dain thought it was just because he found cooking fascinating, but as the brushing happened more frequently, Dain eventually had no choice but to look at Juho with a troubled expression.
“Juho, aren’t you uncomfortable? It’s cramped here, so go lie down comfortably on the bed over there.”
“I’m not uncomfortable at all… Hyung, am I getting in the way of your cooking?”
“Huh?? No, I’m fine too. I just feel like I keep bumping into you…”
Dain shook his head as he answered. It did bother him that the range of contact seemed to keep getting wider.
At Dain’s words, Juho rested his chin on Dain’s shoulder and said:
“I find it fascinating to watch other people cook. When I was in America, I mostly prepared and ate meals alone.”
“What? Then what about your family??”
“I told you, didn’t I? My family members are all busy. We’re used to taking care of our own meals, so we rarely ate together.”
“I see. Then it would be fascinating. Though it’s embarrassing to even call this cooking since it’s nothing special.”
“Nothing special? This is the first meal hyung is making for me.”
Juho answered with a low chuckle. Maybe because Juho’s chin was right above his shoulder—every time he spoke, the breath from his mouth tickled Dain’s ear. At that ticklish feeling, Dain’s shoulder twitched.
The whole time Juho’s breath touched him, his ear was so ticklish. He wanted to scratch it vigorously with his fingernails, but his hands were covered with kimchi juice, so he couldn’t touch his ear.
And Juho, who didn’t budge at all even though he must clearly feel Dain flinching, was a little annoying.
“Ju, Juho. Move back a little…”
“Huh?”
“Your breath is touching me and making my ear ticklish. But… I have kimchi juice on my hands so I can’t scratch my ear. So, could you move back a little and talk?”
Juho had deliberately tried to create some atmosphere by speaking into his ear, but instead of understanding Juho’s intention, Dain straightforwardly said his ear was itchy and turned his head away. No, he didn’t just turn away. He turned away while lifting his kimchi juice-covered hand toward Juho’s face.
After Dain’s words, silence fell for a moment, and through that silence, only the sound of bright red kimchi juice dripping could be heard.
“Ahem.”
Eventually, laughter disguised as a cough burst from Juho’s mouth.
For this utterly clueless Jung Dain, any kind of romantic atmosphere was clearly non-existent no matter how hard one tried. However, thinking that this also meant he was untouched by anyone else’s hands made it not so bad. Actually, it was quite good.
“Hyung, if it’s very ticklish, should I scratch it for you instead?”
“Huh?? No. It’s fine. If you just move back a little…”
“I want to watch hyung cook from here. So I’ll scratch it for you.”
“Uh, um. Oh… thank you.”
In the end, he was going to do what he wanted anyway, so Dain wondered if it was really something to be thankful for, but he thanked Juho. At least it would solve the problem of his itchy ear.
However, as soon as Juho’s long fingers touched his ear, Dain regretted his choice.
He had clearly said his ear was itchy so Juho said he’d scratch it, but now Juho’s fingers weren’t scratching Dain’s ear at all—instead, they were stimulating his ear more with feather-light, soft movements.
Even when he tried to concentrate on preparing kimchi stew ingredients to not pay attention to his ear, both ears were so ticklish that now not only his shoulders but even his butt was starting to twitch.
“Eek, Juho!”
Unable to bear the ticklishness, Dain moved far away from Juho. Juho, who had been holding his hand fixed at Dain’s ear level, stopped in that position and only raised his eyebrows. It was an innocent face that seemed to have no intention whatsoever.
“Huh? Why, hyung?”
“Ah, no. I’m grateful for the scratching but… uh, it’s not refreshing… I think it would be better if I quickly wash my hands and scratch it myself…”
Dain’s ears turned red. Even as he spoke, he couldn’t organize what he was saying. He wondered if he really had to go this far over just scratching an ear, but if he left Juho alone, he felt like he might unconsciously make embarrassing sounds.
Dain quickly sliced the remaining kimchi, put it in the pot, and turned on the water. Watching that rapid action, another suppressed laugh flowed from Juho’s mouth.
He had been trying to see how long Dain would endure, but he wasn’t as dense as expected—after wriggling his butt a few times, he ran away to escape.
Like yesterday, he had felt that his soft earlobes had such a nice texture that he could touch them all day. Juho felt regretful thinking he wanted to touch them just a little more, but as long as he still held the title of good younger brother, this was as far as it went.
“Ah, wasn’t my scratching refreshing? I didn’t know how much pressure to apply. Sorry, I just got in the way.”
Juho said while watching Dain’s reaction. At that dejected-looking appearance, Dain, whose nose tingled, quickly scratched his ears roughly and soothed Juho.
“Getting in the way! No way! I, I’m just awkward with other people touching me! Juho, you didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Really…? Still. When hyung is cooking for me and I can’t even help…”
“Ah, that’s not it! Just eating my cooking is so grateful! I actually really hate eating alone, you know?? So thinking about eating with you makes me, like, super excited!”
“Really?”
“Of course! So don’t feel sorry like that. Okay?”
Dain patted Juho’s arm, trying to cheer him up. Even with the awkward gesture that was confusing whether it was aegyo or not, Juho smiled with crinkled eyes.
“Then can I keep watching hyung cook from beside you?”
“Yeah. Of course.”
“Then hyung, come here.”
“Huh?”
Juho spread his arms in a gesture as if telling him to come into his embrace. Seeing that scene, Dain’s head tilted to the side.
“Hyung, the kitchen is too narrow, so wouldn’t it be better if I stayed behind like before? Hyung, come in front of me. Quickly.”
“Oh oh. Should I…?”
With a puzzled face, Dain stood in front of Juho again. Juho, taking a pose that was almost like hugging Dain from behind, brought Dain in front of the gas range just like that. Feeling bewildered by Juho’s strength that moved his body so easily again this time, Dain concentrated on cooking.
Fortunately, this time Juho also didn’t stick close to talk by Dain’s ear, so he could finish cooking faster than when he was preparing ingredients.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
