Gentle Giant 45

Gentle Giant Chapter 45

Uh… could it be…? Watching Jiyoon’s reaction, Dain carefully called out to Jiyoon at a memory that flashed through his mind.

“Um, by any chance…”

“Yes?”

“Is the word ‘yeolgong’ not used these days? I was wondering if I used too old-fashioned a word…”

He remembered being embarrassed when he first talked with Juho because he had asked questions that were behind the times. At Dain’s question, Jiyoon, who had opened her eyes wide, quickly waved her hands.

“No, no! It’s not that…! When I say studying is hard, most people react with things like ‘you should play around in your first year of college,’ ‘you don’t need to study,’ ‘just drink alcohol,’ but sunbae said let’s study hard. That’s something I only said when I was in my senior year of high school. That’s why I reacted that way!”

“Ahh…!”

“I guess I laughed too much! I just thought sunbae was cuter than I expected…”

Jiyoon said with an apologetic face for causing a misunderstanding.

Actually, before meeting Dain directly at the chicken place, she had formed prejudices after seeing stories about Dain circulating in the community. His slightly scary first impression had also contributed to the misunderstanding.

But the more she talked with Dain, the more she realized he had a serious and considerate personality. Except for having not very expressive facial features that made it a bit difficult to read his inner thoughts, he was a flawless sunbae.

And perhaps because he was a cat beast-man, there were strangely cute aspects about him. A kind of cuteness that was hard to pinpoint and explain that someone of his build definitely couldn’t possess. It was clearly a characteristic of cat beast-men.

Hearing Jiyoon’s words, Dain finally breathed a sigh of relief. When Jiyoon was laughing, he thought even the new junior he’d met was treating him like a loser. Even though Juho had brushed it off saying it was fine, trauma about the loser list still remained in Dain’s heart.

“Ah, no, I don’t know the current language well… I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

“Not at all, not at all! Rather, I should be sorry! Dain sunbae! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me anything! I’ll tell you everything!”

“Mmhm! Thanks! And, you don’t need to say sunbae-nim, you can just comfortably call me sunbae… you don’t need to add -nim…”

“Oh my! Should I? I’d love that, sunbae!”

At Jiyoon’s lively reaction, Dain also smiled bashfully with his eyes folded. At that gentle eye smile, Jiyoon unconsciously clutched her chest area and shouted ‘Cute!!!’ inside.

Dain, who spent time with Jiyoon until his afternoon lecture, headed to the library after his afternoon lecture ended. He planned to spend his remaining time before going to noona’s filming location studying at the library. He was bothered that he hadn’t been paying attention to his personal studies lately because he’d been spending time with Juho.

Dain, who packed two books in his bag, sent a message to Juho on his phone.

[4:32 PM │ Juho. I just finished lecture and I’m going to the library to study ^.^ Are you working hard?]

It hadn’t been long since he sent the message when his phone vibrated.

[Juho♡: Yes, hyung ㅠㅠ I don’t want to work today either ㅠㅠㅠ│4:33 PM]

[4:34 PM │ Still, you have to work hard! You’re not just looking at your phone the whole time, right?]

[Juho♡: Of course not ㅋㅋㅋ I was concentrating on work and just looked at my phone for a moment, and that’s exactly when your message came…ㅠㅠ I’m an intern, you know ㅠㅠ I’m working super hard ㅠㅠㅜ│4:36 PM]

At Juho’s message filled with injustice, Dain let out a short laugh and sent an emoticon. It was a picture of a cute character patting shoulders.

[4:37 PM │ (emoticon)]

[4:37 PM │ Our Jjuho, fighting!! -3-]

After sending a message filled with his desperate attempt at aegyo and rubbing his heating cheeks, Dain sent another message to Juho before entering the library reference room.

[4:38 PM │ I’m going to study now! I’ll contact you again later when I go to noona! Don’t reply, work hard! Fighting!!]

[Juho♡: Whose message is it that I shouldn’t reply to! ㅋㅋ You study hard too, hyung, and contact me again later! I’ll wait for your message!│4:40 PM]

“I told you not to send reply messages…”

Even though he said that, it would have definitely been difficult to concentrate fully on studying until Juho’s reply came. Dain read Juho’s message once more and then entered the reference room.

* * *

“I wonder if this will be enough…”

Looking at the desserts from the cafe that he was holding with both hands full, Dain muttered to himself.

From what he’d seen on TV, there seemed to be a lot of people during advertisement shoots, so he had bought plenty, but he wondered if he should have bought something better.

Still, seeing it full of the colorful macarons he liked made him feel good.

Dain, who contacted noona in front of the filming location, waited for Dahee to come out. In less than 5 minutes, Dahee came out with someone who looked like a manager and called Dain.

“Dain!”

“Noona!”

Dain jumped out in front of Dahee in one step, holding the bag full of macarons. Dahee looked curiously at the bag Dain was carrying, then soon started scolding with a stern face.

“Jung Dain! What money does a student have to buy something like this! Huh?”

“Still, this is my first time coming to noona’s workplace, so even if it’s not expensive, I should bring at least this much…”

“Geez, you didn’t need to buy something like this.”

At Dahee’s storm of nagging, Dain, slightly intimidated, quickly turned his head and handed the bag to the man next to Dahee while bowing deeply.

“Ah, hello! I’m Jung Dain, Dahee noona’s younger brother! Please take good care of noona!”

The man who was watching Dain greet with a very nervous face looked back and forth between the Jung siblings’ faces, then nodded in greeting with a face full of smiles.

“Yes, nice to meet you. Seeing you like this, you look exactly like Dahee! Especially your eyes are incredibly similar!”

“Right? Everyone doesn’t believe me when I say our Dain resembles me more than our youngest! Especially this Jung Dain here insists it’s not true, right?”

Dahee glared at Dain with her glamorously made-up face. Dain flinched at that look and just stared elsewhere.

No matter how much he thought about it, Dahee and he didn’t resemble each other at all, but only noona insisted they looked alike.

As for the eyes, all feline beast-men would be similar… Dain just smiled awkwardly while thinking thoughts that would make Dahee very disappointed if she heard them.

“Looking at your faces, except for different genders, you two are completely identical! Haha! Well, let’s go in first. We’re still preparing, so there should be time to talk with Dahee for a bit.”

At the man’s considerate suggestion, Dain bowed again and followed him inside.

Since the preparation area wasn’t the aquarium, Dain, who hadn’t started sightseeing yet, sat awkwardly among people busy with their respective tasks.

Dahee, who had briefly touched up her makeup and returned, sat next to him and asked.

“Come to think of it, where’s your friend? Didn’t you say you were coming together today?”

“Ah, today is his work day. He said he’d come later… can he enter through where I came in earlier?”

“Yeah. It should be fine. But he needs to lock the door properly when he comes in. Got it?”

“Yeah yeah!”

Relieved by Dahee’s words, Dain quickly contacted Juho. He said he’d come out to meet him if he could come later.

Dahee, who was carefully watching Dain touch his phone with a face flushed red with excitement, sneakily looked at his phone screen.

“…!!!”

With a surprised face, Dahee started looking back and forth between Dain’s face and the phone screen, gradually furrowing her eyebrows.

Dain, who was pondering what emoticon to send in the message, accidentally sent a crying emoticon when noona’s hand urgently hit his shoulder, making him slip.

“Huk. Ah, noona…! You hit my shoulder so I sent the wrong emoticon…!”

“Jung Dain, Jung Dain! The emoticon isn’t what’s important right now!”

“Huh?”

Dain, who quickly sent a laughing emoticon again, finally turned to look at Dahee. Under the bright fluorescent lights, Dahee was very pretty. She was making a bewildered expression, but even that was pretty. Dain poured out compliments while looking at noona’s pretty face.

“By the way noona, you’re really pretty today! You’re pretty normally but today you’re 10 times prettier! What is it? Ah, that’s right! It’s like, like there’s a halo coming out! Can I take a picture of noona and send it to mom? To our youngest too!”

Dain asked while holding his phone camera up to Dahee. Dahee reflexively smiled brightly and responded to the photo shoot, but as soon as Dain lowered his phone, she hit Dain’s forearm with a smacking sound.

It didn’t hurt, but at the crisp sound of hitting his forearm, Dain quickly dodged his shoulders and puffed his cheeks.

“Ow! Why?”

“Why? You, what is that!”

“Huh? What?”

Dain, who was sending the photo capturing Dahee’s pretty appearance to his family, asked Dahee back.

“That heart!! That heart next to the name!!”

Dahee’s fingernail, sparkling with densely embedded cubic zirconia, pointed to one chat room.

It was a chat room labeled ‘Juho♡’.

“Huk…!”

Dain quickly covered the screen, but Dahee’s hand was faster.

Dahee, who quickly grabbed Dain’s hand, stared intently at the chat room. Then she spoke in an ominous voice, chewing each letter one by one.

“You said he was a friend.”

“Yeah. He w, was a friend… uh, um… now he’s my boyfriend…”

After saying boyfriend, Dain let out a short ‘hehe’ laugh as if embarrassed.

At that naive laugh, Dahee felt like her common sense had run away from home. What…? Boyfriend?!

“Hey!! You!!”

Dahee started hitting Dain’s back while shouting loudly. Even with Dahee’s back-smashing attack, Dain, whose facial muscles had gone soft, just had a clear face.

After huffing and puffing for a while, Dahee calmed down and held out her hand to Dain. When Dain tilted his head looking at the extended palm, Dahee urged him.

“Photo. Do you have one? I need to check what this guy looks like.”

“Uh…”

“Do you have one or not.”

As Dahee’s hand gradually approached his face, Dain, who was backing away, made an expression of having no choice. Then he fidgeted with his large hands and took out a sticker photo he had kept between his phone and case.

“H, here. He’s really handsome! Really really! He’s totally kind, studies hard too…”

“Shh. Let me see this guy’s face first and then we’ll talk.”

“U, uh.”

Dain, who had been rambling about Juho’s merits, quickly shut his mouth at Dahee’s “shh.”

Even though noona had such a stern face now, she would be able to tell just by looking at the photo. How kind and handsome Juho was.

Dain held his pounding heart wondering how much Dahee would praise Juho and looked at her face.

“…”

However, Dahee’s face just kept turning whiter and whiter, and even after a long time, no words came from her mouth.