Gentle Giant Chapter 29
The school they returned to after more than two months of vacation held both unfamiliarity and familiarity.
The lecture hall that remained unchanged was familiar, while Juho’s presence beside him was unfamiliar. Added to that, the reactions of their classmates looking at Juho was strangeness beyond unfamiliarity.
“Wow, this is my first time seeing a tiger beast-man.”
“Me too, me too! He’s fucking handsome!”
“I heard most tiger beast-men are from wealthy families… Is that person also from a wealthy family…?”
“Wow, look at that build. Amazing… Just looking at him, he’s definitely over 190cm, right?”
“I made eye contact with him once, and it was intense. Damn…”
“The teaching assistant noona said earlier that he came from America? So he’s a foreigner?”
“He’s obviously not a foreigner just by looking, open your eyes properly and look. Idiot.”
“Fuck, he’s too scary for me to look at properly. Look at the fucking size of his hands.”
Even though they were each lowering their voices to speak, it was loud enough to hear if you listened just a little. Of course, Dain was hearing every single word without missing any.
Since it was normally a department with strong individualistic tendencies, and a department with more ordinary humans than beast-men, Dain had never seen people talk so openly about others like this, so he was internally surprised.
Of course, most of it was surprise and interest about Juho’s presence. In addition, the few beast-men in the lecture hall were openly sending looks of admiration toward Juho.
After looking around several times, Dain felt uncomfortable even though he wasn’t the subject of the conversation.
If even he felt this way when he wasn’t the person involved, how uncomfortable and unpleasant must Juho feel? With that thought, he carefully observed the face of Juho sitting next to him.
“…?”
However, contrary to Dain’s expectations, Juho had a completely unbothered expression. Rather, as if he couldn’t hear the chattering students’ voices, he was looking through the handouts for the lecture with a very peaceful face.
Surprised by that calm expression instead, Dain lightly tapped Juho’s hand. At that gesture, Juho turned his head and smiled gently when he saw Dain’s face.
“Hyung, what is it?”
“Oh, I was wondering how you find this lecture hall… Isn’t it a bit cramped?”
“Ah, the lecture hall? Hmm. Actually, there’s nothing really different about it. Just that the words I hear around me are in Korean, I guess?”
Juho’s expression crinkled playfully. Seeing that nonchalant face, Dain let out a sigh of relief and smiled back at Juho.
“That’s a relief. The lecture hasn’t started yet, but I was worried there might be something uncomfortable.”
“What would be uncomfortable? I just need to listen to the lecture well and leave.”
At Juho’s words, Dain nodded vigorously. He was right. There was nothing to be uncomfortable about. They just needed to listen to the lecture earnestly, study, and that would be it.
Hearing Juho’s words, Dain also closed his ears to the surrounding noise. There wouldn’t be any students who would speak badly about Juho, who was so handsome and kind. He might be reacting sensitively for no reason because of what happened before summer vacation.
Completely unaware that the students were now turning their attention not only to Juho but also to himself sitting next to him, Dain lost track of time talking about the lecture with Juho.
“Wait, that person. The person next to the tiger beast-man. He looks close to the tiger beast-man…?”
“Huh? What, he just talked to him!!”
“Amazing. Isn’t that person that wildcat…?”
“Hey. No, what wildcat. I heard he’s just a big cat? A friend who takes general education classes with that person told me.”
“Ah… But how do they know each other?”
“Know what. You can obviously see that guy is hitting on him.”
“Right? That guy was originally a famous loner. But he chatters so much to the tiger. Fuck. His intentions are so obvious.”
At the whispering that was gradually becoming more malicious, veins bulged on Juho’s forehead.
He didn’t show Dain that he was listening to the conversation, but with his better hearing than ordinary people, there was no way he couldn’t hear what the students were saying.
When they were talking about him, it was fine. From the time he started forming relationships with other people, he had grown up hearing thousands and tens of thousands of words about himself. He wouldn’t even twitch an eyebrow at most stories. The words from the students in the same lecture hall were the same.
However, as soon as Jung Dain became the subject of that conversation, it became something Juho couldn’t just let slide. Moreover, hadn’t Dain been deeply hurt by people’s talk once before?
Juho’s fingers drummed on the desk in a steady rhythm. Just sitting and watching like this didn’t suit his temperament.
Today he was staying still because of Dain, but he was thinking that he would have to make them shut up somehow soon.
Just as the students’ murmuring was getting louder, the professor entered and the lecture began.
“Nice to meet you. I’ll be teaching Financial Administration from this semester. Since it’s quite a difficult subject, I want to first notify you that missing even one lecture will result in penalties, and then I’ll inform you of the lecture plan.”
At the monotonous tone and harsh content from the young professor who was newly assigned to teach from this semester, the students’ faces turned pale. Everyone looked at the professor with expressions of dismay.
However, unlike the other students, Dain’s eyes began to sparkle even more. He concentrated on every word the young professor said and continued taking notes quickly.
Since Financial Administration involved a lot of numbers, it was a subject Dain, who was weak with numbers, had to pay more attention to.
Moreover, since he would be preparing for civil service exams from next year, he had to take as many subjects as possible in this semester, his last as a third-year. If he wanted to maintain his GPA consistently, he couldn’t listen carelessly even to the first lecture, which was just an orientation.
And Juho’s eyes also sparkled as he watched such a Dain. How could the sight of writing with a pen look so sexy?
Looking at the veins that bulged in Dain’s forearm as he gripped the pen tightly, Juho swallowed his saliva. He wanted to suck on those veins.
Having no idea what Juho was thinking, Dain turned to look at Juho and moved his lips silently.
Since he had lived in America, there would probably be many things he didn’t know when listening to a lecture with many Chinese characters, but Dain felt like he had been too focused on taking notes without being considerate of Juho.
-Juho, is it difficult?
Speaking only with lip movements without making a sound, that movement was so cute that Juho slightly lifted the corners of his mouth. And he shook his head gently.
“It’s fine. I understand everything.”
Juho spoke in a whisper. At his answer, Dain tilted his head for a moment, then smiled softly and stroked Juho’s hand. With an expression like looking at a son who got 100 points on dictation.
Although the content itself was harsh, it ended in less than an hour, befitting a first lecture.
Since Wednesday had a schedule with two-hour lectures back-to-back in the afternoon, there was an awkward free period left. Leaving the chaotic atmosphere of the lecture hall, the two decided to look around the campus.
Since the sun hadn’t set yet and the weather was hot, they moved toward the Humanities building, which had a lot of shade. It was connected to the new building where the Financial Administration lecture was held by a skybridge, so they didn’t have to go up and down.
“Most of our department’s lecture halls are gathered on the 4th floor of this Humanities building. Only today’s lecture and a few others are held in the new building we were just in.”
“Ah, really?”
“Yeah. And the department room is… Oh, Juho. Come here.”
Dain approached the window and called Juho. Seeing the waving gesture, Juho approached next to him.
“Do you see that low building over there? The department room is in there, but, hmm. I’ve never been there, so I can’t tell you about it in detail.”
“Department room? What’s that?”
“Huh? That, it’s like a lounge that people from the same department use. Most people seem to use it to gather during free periods or when they have assignments.”
“Ah. Like a lounge… Hyung, you haven’t been there yet either?”
“Mm-hmm. L-let’s go together next time.”
“Sounds good. Let’s go together during the next free period.”
Juho said with a bright smile.
Until now, Dain had never been to the department room because even if he went, he would obviously be alone and would probably just come out after being conscious of others. However, he had decided to show Juho a fulfilling college life, and also, with him, Dain felt like he would gain courage he never had before.
Dain went down the stairs while internally memorizing additional content for his ‘checklist of things to do together while taking care of Juho’.
Click.
At that moment, a short mechanical sound pierced Dain’s ears. It was buried in people’s voices, but it was definitely a camera shutter sound. The camera sound seemed particularly loud today.
Dain tilted his head with a strange sense of uneasiness. But then, thinking “surely not,” he shook his head.
“Juho, how is it? Our school has quite a large campus.”
“Mm, that’s right.”
“Right? Ah, here. This is the Humanities building library!”
“Ah, so this library is where hyung comes to study every day?”
“Huh? Y-yeah! It’s always open here. So usually, if nothing special happens, I study until I get sleepy and then go home.”
“Wow, hyung is amazing…! You study until you get sleepy?”
Juho looked at Dain with genuinely surprised eyes. Dain was embarrassed that he was caught being a boring person who only studies, but he nodded.
He enjoyed studying. He liked that results came out honestly in proportion to the time he invested. Even when taking exams, when he input the letter ‘a’, it was accepted as ‘a’ without getting twisted in the middle, so his confidence gradually grew.
And what he liked most was that he could do well enough on his own.
“I-I like studying… and my parents and noona said that the best thing for a student is to study…”
Dain said while blushing.
Jung Dain was probably the only person in the world who would believe so firmly in the words “the best thing for a student is to study,” which all adults say without much meaning.
And it was because it was innocent Jung Dain who believed it so straightforwardly that he was this cute and endearing.
Juho stroked Dain’s head. He loved Dain, who had grown up so straight and upright. It was an action filled with praise for doing well all this time.
Dain could also understand the meaning contained in that action even though Juho didn’t say it in words. Although he hadn’t done it to receive praise from anyone, it was an undeniable truth that having someone acknowledge you was such a happy thing.
Click.
Once again, a camera shutter sound reached Dain’s ears. He quickly looked around, but there were only people busy with their own business.
Well, why would anyone openly take photos of other people?
Dain, who controlled his nerves that were trying to become sensitive for no reason, closed his eyes while rubbing his hair against Juho’s touch.
Click.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
