Gentle Giant Chapter 44
Dain tilted his head while looking at himself in the mirror.
Since he was going to Dahee’s filming location today, he wore a linen shirt instead of a t-shirt, but he didn’t think it looked good on him and it seemed a bit awkward.
When he saw Juho wearing similar clothes before, it only looked cool. Fashion really is completed by the face, after all.
Dain fondled his sullen face. He thought about changing into comfortable clothes, but if he changed clothes two or three more times like this, he’d be late, so he quickly grabbed his bag and left his studio apartment.
Juho had gone to work early in the morning at the company where he was doing his internship, and he had classes starting at 10 o’clock, so he was leaving with some time to spare.
The lecture hall located on the 3rd floor of the humanities building was filled only with business administration students since it was a major elective course. However, even among these students, there was no one worth greeting, so Dain turned toward a suitable corner in the middle.
“Oh? Dain sunbae-nim!”
As soon as Dain sat down, someone tapped his shoulder and called his name. A high voice and lively tone. It was Han Jiyoon, a first-year junior with cute bob hair and small white hands.
Dain’s mouth opened by itself when he met an unexpected familiar face.
“Uh…? J-Jiyoon hoobae-nim?”
“Sunbae-nim! Are you going back to formal speech now that you’ve sobered up? We promised to speak casually at the chicken restaurant!”
Jiyoon giggled and sat next to Dain. It wasn’t that he had forgotten the promise made at the chicken restaurant, but speaking casually after only meeting twice was too difficult. Dain smiled awkwardly and mumbled his words.
“Ah, ahh. That’s right-io…”
Strange words that were neither casual nor formal speech came out. Whether his clumsy reaction was funny, Jiyoon, who had been laughing loudly, suddenly stopped laughing and looked around both sides of Dain.
Surprised by Jiyoon suddenly stopping her laughter, Dain also looked around himself just like Jiyoon. Wh-what…?
Seeing the questioning expression on Dain’s face, Jiyoon asked carefully.
“Sunbae-nim, hasn’t your boyfriend arrived yet?”
“Huh? Juho? He’s not coming to school today.”
Dain, who had naturally hunched his shoulders following Jiyoon speaking in a voice as small as a mosquito’s, answered.
At Dain’s answer, Jiyoon, who seemed relieved and let out a small breath, began talking with Dain loudly again.
“Sunbae-nim! I told you to speak casually. Don’t be too nervous! We have a deep friendship bound by chicken wings, don’t we?”
“Ah, ahaha. R-right. Chicken wings…”
“Anyway, I mistakenly signed up for this lecture so I didn’t have any friends to take it with and was bored, but I’m so glad to meet sunbae!”
The break time before the lecture passed frantically with Jiyoon’s chatter and laughter that was no less than Dohyeon’s. Although Dain found Jiyoon’s considerably high tension a bit burdensome, he was secretly pleased that he didn’t have to take the class alone.
Soon the professor came in and the lecture began. It seemed like the faculty had changed a lot from this semester, and this lecture was also conducted in a completely different way from last semester.
When the professor said to prepare group presentations by topic, confusion and bewilderment appeared on all the students’ faces.
Dain and Jiyoon, sitting side by side, were equally flustered. The first reason was that they both only knew each other among the people there, and the second reason was that the professor was cutting up the seating arrangement without considering the students to form groups.
Watching the professor form groups by cutting four people from the front row, Dain hurriedly looked around. Fortunately, there were 8 people in the same row and he was sitting at the end with Jiyoon, so they probably wouldn’t be separated.
Since he usually had no interest at all in who sat next to him, he tried to find out quickly even now. However, despite his efforts, he had no idea who the two people sitting next to Jiyoon were.
Unlike Dain, Jiyoon quickly looked around, then after seeing the people sitting next to her, clenched her small fist and shouted ‘Nice!’
At that reaction, Dain became curious, but the professor was already dividing Dain’s row, so he focused on the professor’s words.
“Ah, that row has exactly 8 people. From the student by the window to the black-haired male student in the middle, that’s four people. Make it Group 6. Come out later and write your names under Group 6.”
“Yes.”
After all four answered, they made eye contact with each other to familiarize themselves with faces.
Jiyoon was fine since they knew each other, and the two men next to Jiyoon were unfamiliar faces. It seemed like Jiyoon had been happy seeing these two earlier, but why was that?
It was when Dain was pondering alone in his head about Jiyoon’s behavior that he couldn’t understand no matter how much he thought about it.
Whether all the groups had been decided, students began buzzing and checking their group members. Jiyoon also quickly got up, led Dain, and stood in front of the male students.
“Hello! I’m freshman Han Jiyoon!”
Jiyoon greeted the male students with her characteristic lively voice. The male students who had been sitting heard Jiyoon’s greeting, stood up, and exchanged greetings together.
“Hello. I’m sophomore Lee Minjun.”
The man sitting right next to Jiyoon greeted. He had light brown hair and wore glasses, giving him a gentle impression.
“Hello. I’m sophomore Kim Sujeong.”
As soon as the man who introduced himself as Minjun finished speaking, the black-haired man continued. He had a pretty name compared to his black hair, blunt expression, and large build like Dain’s.
Hearing the male students’ greetings, Dain nodded slightly. These students were sophomores. Everyone except seniors was gathered. The combination seemed like it might be surprisingly good.
Then Jiyoon lightly touched the arm of Dain, who was standing there blankly. It meant he should greet them. Dain was startled and quickly gave his greeting.
“Ah, hello. I’m junior Jung Dain. Please take care of me.”
“You’re a junior sunbae! Please lead us well!”
Minjun said warmly with a smile. Even at those brief words, Dain felt burdened and just nodded with an awkward face.
I-is this telling me to be the group leader…? Dain wasn’t good at understanding the true intentions in what other people said. At most, recently he was learning how society worked by reading articles or comments on the internet.
When Dain was worrying so hard about Minjun’s words that steam seemed to come from his head, a low voice was heard.
“If it’s okay, I’d like to be the group leader. What do you think?”
The black-haired man. It was Sujeong. Dain looked at his face with eyes like he was seeing a savior at the welcome sound. Looking closely, his black hair that shone particularly glossily and his brown eyes that projected light like glass had the unique atmosphere of a beast-man.
“We’re totally fine with that! Ah, but Kim Sujeong sunbae, will that be okay? You’re already the sophomore class president. Won’t you be too busy…?”
Jiyoon brightened up then asked carefully. Dain was surprised once by Jiyoon’s information network, and surprised again that the beast-man named Sujeong was even a class president.
Dain’s school had such a high threshold that it was among the top in Seoul, so the students’ pride was also quite high. Being a class president at such a school meant being outstanding enough to be recognized among them.
Dain let out an exclamation of admiration with a ‘hooh’ inside. He thought that maybe the reason Jiyoon had been happy earlier was because the sophomore class president became part of the same group.
“That’s fine. Taking on one group leader role won’t greatly interfere with class president activities or studies, and conversely, I won’t fail to properly fulfill the group leader role because of being class president.”
“That’s right. This guy Sujeong is a bit intense. If you let him do it, he’s the type who would stay up several nights to do it perfectly, so don’t worry about that! But, how about you, sunbae? Would it be okay if Sujeong becomes the group leader?”
“M-me?”
Dain was startled by the arrow that suddenly turned to him.
Looking at his pupils that were as wide as his small eyes could get, the other three people tilted their heads. They thought about whether some very surprising conversation had taken place, but it was a conversation that normally happened when assigned group projects. There was nothing particularly different.
Seeing the three people’s reactions, Dain quickly lowered his eyes. It seemed the atmosphere had become a bit strange because he was too surprised.
“I’m fine with it. Uh… if Kim Sujeong hoobae-nim takes on being group leader, I’d be th-thankful.”
Dain quickly continued speaking. At his more deflated voice than before, Jiyoon quickly chimed in following Dain.
“Right! As long as sunbae isn’t burdened, we’ll ask you to be group leader! Dain sunbae probably hasn’t done group leader much!”
“Yes. Then I’ll be the group leader, and let me submit the roster first. Please write your student IDs and names here.”
Sujeong said while holding out his notebook.
The three people took turns writing down their student IDs and names. Dain also wrote his name and they exchanged contact information with each other.
Until now, even when there were group projects, rather than exchanging contact information, they only communicated by email, so it was fascinating how easily people’s names increased in his contacts like this.
Dain called out the new names once each in his mind. ‘Lee Minjun’, ‘Kim Sujeong’. It was ambiguous to call them friends, but he still felt good.
The four people decided to first match their schedules next time to decide on topics and roles.
When they finished talking, the two people who greeted Jiyoon and Dain joined other groups of friends who had been in the same row. It seemed those people were probably the friends of the two who had been assigned to Group 7.
Dain also moved seats with Jiyoon. It turned out their Friday schedules were similar, so they could spend time together during free periods too.
“That Kim Sujeong sunbae, you know. The sophomore class president. That sunbae is pretty famous too. He studies well, has good relationships, and he’s also a beast-man.”
“Ah, so he really is a beast-man?”
“Yes yes! I heard from friends who sometimes have overlapping lectures with that sunbae! They said he was some kind of dog breed…?”
“Dog…?”
No matter how I look at him, his build is too big to be called a dog… Huk, wait, I’m also quite big for a cat…! You can’t judge people just by their appearance! Dain shook his head vigorously.
Jiyoon continued to inform Dain about Sujeong.
“Anyway, that sunbae is top of his year. Dain sunbae-nim! Don’t you think we don’t need to worry about the group project?”
“Oh, I see. If he’s top of his year, he really studies incredibly well!”
Dain praised sincerely. But I’m also top of my year… Feeling like he had praised himself too much, his ears turned slightly red.
Jiyoon was saying this not knowing Dain’s grades, but Dain felt embarrassed for no reason.
“Right! Geez, I worked so damn hard to get into this school, you know? But after getting in, I’m working even harder and still just serving as a cushion at the bottom. This school is too hard!”
“R-right. This school is too hard. Uh uh, cheer up, Jiyoon. L-let’s study hard together when we’re together on Fridays…!”
“Haha! Study hard, sunbae!”
Jiyoon, who had been clinging to Dain’s arm and whining beside him, giggled at the word ‘study hard’ that came from Dain’s mouth. She never imagined she’d hear words she only heard during her senior year of high school when she was in maximum study hard mode, now as a college student, and at the beginning of the semester when it wasn’t even exam period.
Not knowing when ‘study hard’ had become a funny word, Dain laughed along with Jiyoon while tilting his head.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
