Gentle Giant Chapter 34
“Juho…?”
Dain’s gaze turned toward the parking lot in front of the villa. In front of the car body that gleamed smoothly like its owner, Juho was standing there like a painting.
They had definitely promised to meet tomorrow when he left, so why was he here? Dain’s face filled with questions. Even when they contacted each other earlier, they had talked about seeing each other tomorrow.
“Hyung, I couldn’t wait until tomorrow so I came.”
“Huh? Why couldn’t you wait? Did something happen?”
Dain approached Juho in one step. His face somehow looked more haggard than yesterday… Dain’s face instantly filled with worry instead of questions.
“Juho, let’s go up first. It’s hot, so you should have waited inside. Why did you wait here? The sun hasn’t even set yet so it must have been scorching.”
“Hyung.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s hurry up. Then you came straight here without eating dinner, right?”
“Yes. We promised to meet tomorrow, but I’m sorry for coming on my own like this.”
“What’s there to be sorry about? It’s fine.”
Dain grabbed Juho’s wrist and went up the stairs. His skin that touched Dain’s palm was hot from however long he had been standing outside. Feeling sorry for no reason, Dain hurriedly opened the door and led Juho inside.
“Phew, the last job I was assigned was too difficult. Because of that work, I think I’ll have to skip school next week too.”
“Really? What kind of work makes you skip school? Isn’t the company giving an intern too difficult work? That company is too much!”
“Haha, I’m getting paid so I have to do what they tell me to. Still, I can’t help feeling drained… Since I came to Korea, you’re the only person I can talk to about this, hyung.”
Juho said with a slight sigh.
Imagining Juho with his mountain-like build unable to say a single word of complaint and doing everything people told him to do made Dain feel frustrated. How will he survive this harsh world being so soft…! Dain’s eyes filled with determination.
“Juho! You have to say you can’t do things that are too difficult! People these days are so mean! If you stay quiet, you’ll become a pushover!”
“Ah, really…?”
“Of course! They might look down on you more because you came from America! So you have to properly say whether you like or dislike things. Got it?”
“I understand. I’ll speak up properly from now on.”
“Good, good. You thought well. First go wash up, I’ll make a delicious dinner! Let’s eat dinner and go out to buy ice cream to cheer up!”
Dain said while patting Juho’s shoulder. In Dain’s opinion, the best way to lift a dampened mood was to eat something delicious.
Watching Dain struggle to cheer him up with such simple methods, Juho pressed his lips tightly to hold back his laughter.
Right, not being able to see this side of him for two whole days doesn’t make sense. Juho inwardly listed rational reasons for his slight(?) lie.
“Then I’ll wash up first and come out. Hyung, should we just order chicken tonight? You had lectures until late today too.”
“Huh? No way! Let’s eat chicken on the weekend and have rice today. There’s plenty to eat in the refrigerator.”
“Okay. I understand. Thank you, hyung.”
Before entering the bathroom, Juho showed Dain a smile filled with gratitude.
* * *
“Ah… so this is what happened…”
Right now Dain was rambling with an extremely flustered expression.
He had no idea when time had passed like this. While Juho was washing, he had just briefly checked the community posts and then… Being so focused that he didn’t even notice Juho coming out of the bathroom was the problem.
Although the numbers had decreased compared to yesterday, reporting each post that mentioned Juho one by one and writing reasons took longer than expected. And Juho caught him red-handed in that scene.
Juho had even been watching everything Dain was doing from behind him for quite a while.
When he finished the last report and looked up with a satisfied expression, Dain thought he was going to have a heart attack from shock when he met Juho’s golden eyes.
Juho stared intently at Dain with a rare expressionless face. It was a face that needed an explanation about what he had been doing.
Dain was filled with dismay at the thought that he had been so easily caught doing something he wanted to keep secret from Juho. His head spun in confusion thinking about what to say to make Juho just let it go.
“So. What exactly is that?”
Juho also had no intention of just letting it slide since he had directly witnessed Dain’s mischief scene.
How frustrating it had been for the past few days when he just said ‘no, you don’t know’ without giving even the tiniest hint. Today he couldn’t get away with such clumsy words.
Dain tried to avoid his gaze, but Juho wouldn’t let him. He grabbed Dain’s wrist and gently shook it, eventually making him look.
“It, it’s nothing… Uh… Juho, should we eat now…?”
“Hyung. It’s not nothing.”
Dain desperately tried to change the subject. However, making that effort meaningless, a firm answer came back from Juho.
At that firmness that couldn’t usually be seen, Dain’s shoulders flinched. As expected, Juho had noticed that something was strange.
“Hyung, you said earlier. That no matter what, you have to clearly say whether you like or dislike something. So I don’t like this situation right now. The fact that hyung has something you’re keeping secret from me. No matter how much you don’t trust me…”
“No!!”
“…Hyung?”
At Dain’s desperate denial, Juho stopped what he was going to say and looked at Dain. Before he knew it, those small eyes had filled with moisture and become teary.
There was only one reason Dain wanted to keep this from Juho. He was afraid that Juho would become tired of him for becoming the subject of such rumors because of him. Afraid that he would get angry and never meet him again.
He was scared. That’s why he wanted to somehow solve it secretly without Juho knowing.
Of course, he hadn’t solved everything yet, but still, he was seeing results little by little. Just a little more and it would be done, but then… it was all discovered in an instant.
“Juho… huuh…”
Finally, tears began dropping from Dain’s eyes.
Now that all his efforts to hide it and all his private worrying had come to nothing, only fear remained.
“Hyung?! Why, why are you crying!”
Juho was surprised to see Dain suddenly start crying loudly and began comforting him.
Wondering what was so heartbreaking, Dain hiccupped loudly and didn’t stop the large teardrops. Even during this, his mouth kept repeating apologies without pause.
There had been times when he thought he’d like to see Dain cry, but not like this. Not in such a pitiful way.
Juho was angry at himself for cornering Dain like this. It was just like throwing a tantrum because he wanted Dain to lean on him a little. How had that stimulated Dain in some way?
Juho knelt down. He gently rubbed and wiped the eyes that were already starting to swell red. If he had known that seeing Dain cry would hurt his heart this much, he wouldn’t have even imagined it.
How much time passed? Whether it was because Juho had silently comforted him for a long time, Dain seemed to have found some stability while making sniffling sounds.
That change was both cute and touching, so Juho briefly lifted and lowered the corners of his mouth.
“Are you feeling a bit better now?”
“Yeah, sniff. I’m, I’m… fine. I’m sorry for sniff, suddenly crying.”
“No. I spoke too meanly. I’m sorrier.”
At Juho’s apology, tears began to well up in Dain’s eyes once again.
Juho quickly comforted Dain. He had just stopped crying, so he couldn’t make him cry again. He brought cold water from the refrigerator for him to drink and just patted his shoulder.
After some time passed like that, Dain carefully told Juho about everything that had happened.
“…So, because of me… you’re also misunderstood, Juho, and people are saying bad things about you everywhere… and taking photos randomly… that happened… I’m sorry…”
Dain couldn’t look at Juho’s face properly. Before the semester started, he was worried about harm coming to himself, but once school actually started, being misunderstood himself wasn’t even a problem. Juho was suffering several times more damage.
How angry must he be? After bragging loudly that he should come and he’d take good care of him, he was actually causing the biggest trouble right next to him. If there was a mouse hole, he wanted to hide in it.
“Hyung, so…?”
“Yeah…? Ah, yeah! I’ll, I’ll take responsibility and fix everything. Everyone will know that you’re absolutely not that kind of person. And with that male student who wrote those comments…”
“You’ll take responsibility?”
“Y, yeah! I reported all the posts, and with that male student… anyway, if nothing else works, I’ll prepare gang money too!”
At Dain’s words pouring out like a waterfall, Juho quickly followed the flow of those words. However, the word that came out at the end was something very unfamiliar that Juho didn’t know well.
Gang money? What’s that? Juho’s eyebrows slightly went up. Well, he’d figure that out later…
Anyway, the word ‘responsibility’ had come out of Dain’s mouth.
It might be wrong for Dain who was feeling very sorry to him right now, but Juho had no intention of carelessly passing up this golden opportunity that had come.
“Hyung. Will you really take full responsibility?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry, Juho. I’ll really take full responsibility so you never get harmed again!”
Dain clenched his fist tightly. His red, swollen eye area didn’t look very trustworthy though.
“Okay, hyung. Hyung should take responsibility for me.”
“…Huh?”
“I think hyung should take responsibility for all of me now. Right?”
Dain’s head tilted to the side, not understanding Juho’s words. Then he nodded very slightly.
R, right? He should take responsibility. It’s because of him that Juho got such rumors.
“Take responsibility, I should take responsibility…?”
“Wow, hyung. Now everything’s resolved.”
“Huh?”
“Since hyung said you’d take responsibility for me, now there won’t be false rumors about me going around meeting girls, and people will know that neither you nor I live promiscuously. Great!”
A long passage flowed smoothly from Juho’s mouth, so prepared it seemed like he had rehearsed it.
With several statements connected in succession, Dain had difficulty understanding properly all at once. As Dain was pondering the meaning inwardly, as soon as he understood those words, he jumped up.
“What?!”
As if he didn’t understand Dain’s reaction, confusion appeared on Juho’s face instead.
“Why? Isn’t this the most accurate solution? I thought hyung said that with that intention.”
“N, no, Juho! When I said I’d take responsibility…!”
“Yes. When hyung said you’d take responsibility…?”
“Uh…?”
Come to think of it, he was right that he was taking responsibility for Juho. He had to take responsibility and restore his campus life. So I really have to take responsibility for Juho…?
Dain’s eyes spun around and around. His head started tingling as his brain became overloaded.
“Huk…!”
Dain drew in a short breath. The embarrassing situation combined with all the crying he had done earlier must have definitely approached him as more stress than usual.
Dain quickly raised both hands to cover his head. This was the one thing that couldn’t be discovered! Not by anyone else, but by Juho…!
Dain fidgeted restlessly, shifting his bottom. He had to escape from Juho’s gaze.
Juho was startled by Dain’s sudden action of covering his head in the middle of their important conversation. Thinking he might be hurt somewhere and trying to check on Dain, he saw something other than hair poking out between Dain’s fingers.
“…?”
Juho grabbed the wrist of Dain who was trying to leave and prevented him from moving, then slowly observed Dain. More precisely, the place that Dain’s hands were covering.
Dain’s face, who couldn’t escape in time, turned bright red.
“Ju, Juho. Let go of my hand…!”
“…”
“Juhooo…!”
Even though Dain called Juho’s name several times, as if he couldn’t hear those words, Juho didn’t budge. Even when he tried to twist his wrist free, he was so strong that Dain’s movements couldn’t budge even one of Juho’s fingers.
Dain’s face was now about to turn from red to black. Then, from Juho’s mouth, who had been frozen like a statue for a while, one word burst out.
“Crazy…”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
