Gentle Giant Chapter 62
This time, Juho bent his knee and brought his neck close to Dain’s nose. Seeing Juho’s neck suddenly thrust right in front of his eyes, Dain hesitated and stepped back.
Even though he had hugged and kissed Juho, rubbing his hair against his neck or touching it with his hands, he had never seen it this close before, so it felt endlessly unfamiliar.
The neck in front of Dain’s eyes was clearly that of a male whose growth was nearly complete—one that anyone would have to acknowledge.
The thick neck with its prominent muscles and regularly pulsing blood vessels. It looked vividly real, as if zoomed in close-up.
There was quite a gap between the ‘kind and handsome boyfriend Lee Juho’ that Dain thought of and the ‘top-tier male beast-man Lee Juho’ in front of his eyes.
Juho quietly stared at Dain, who had stepped back to avoid him, then carefully took Dain’s wrist and returned him to his original position. Even if he was startled, Juho didn’t like the behavior that seemed like avoiding him.
“Hyung, hurry up. You said the scent is strongest here.”
Juho urged him once more so that Dain couldn’t think of other things. At those words, Dain finally nodded and awkwardly brought his nose to the thick neck.
“How is it?”
Feeling Dain’s faint breath, Juho slightly raised the corners of his mouth. It was such a Dain-like ticklish feeling. Whether here or there, there was no way Dain could smell his scent, but Juho asked Dain with an expression full of anticipation.
Seeing that expression, Dain’s eyebrows drooped downward.
Was he somehow a deficient beast-man? That’s why he couldn’t properly smell Juho’s scent either.
Dain let out a soft sigh. He still didn’t seem to have become a perfect adult beast-man yet.
“I can’t smell it here either.”
“Hmm, I see.”
“Juho, I’m older than you though…”
At the voice that sounded like it would grab a shovel and start digging into the ground right away, Juho’s eyebrows slightly furrowed then relaxed.
Dain had been saying “hyung” whenever he got the chance, but in reality, if you calculated by birth dates, there wasn’t even a year’s difference between the two. He vividly remembered how happy Dain was when they first met in chat, saying they were born in the same winter.
Anyway, since hyung was hyung, Dain seemed to have hurt pride. Noticing this, Juho began to coax Dain.
“Hyung? This has nothing to do with age. And hyung will become a more wonderful beast-man than other cat beast-men soon too.”
“Really? Could that happen?”
“Of course. Maybe you’ll even be bigger than me.”
“Ah, that’s too big.”
“Huh? You don’t like being bigger than me?”
“Of course there would be good things about being bigger than you! But, but still, I’m a cat beast-man. I’m already way off from the average.”
Dain said while shrinking his broad shoulders, trying to make them smaller.
Even now, he received many misunderstandings because of his tall height and large build. Lately, thanks to going around with Juho and looking relatively smaller, he was receiving fewer misunderstandings than before. But getting even bigger than Juho would be a bit…
Dain, who had briefly imagined himself bigger than Juho, made a genuinely uncomfortable expression.
Juho felt the same way as Dain, even though he had said that. If he got bigger than this, that wouldn’t be bad either, but this size was just right. The size, the volume, the cuteness too.
Anyway, Jung Dain was on the late side for secondary sexual characteristics, and that was infinitely good for him, so it seemed better to end the conversation around here.
“You’re right. Hyung seems just right as you are now. I guess I spoke too carelessly. Sorry, hyung.”
“Sorry for what. I was just being gloomy by myself. You did nothing wrong!”
“Whether hyung is big or small, you’re always cute, so don’t be gloomy. Okay?”
“Cu… cute…”
At the word “cute” that he heard after a long time, Dain’s eyelashes trembled. Even when there was no one else around to hear, Dain became embarrassed when Juho called him cute.
“Ahem.”
Juho made a cough mixed with laughter while watching Dain squirm from embarrassment.
It was always such a cute reaction. That’s why he kept wanting to tease him.
Juho said to Dain while still keeping the corners of his mouth raised.
“Hyung, now that we’ve roughly sorted things out, shall we go shopping? I looked it up last time. There’s a furniture store just a short drive away.”
“Furniture? Are you talking about IKEA?”
“Yes, there. Have you heard of it too, hyung? We have all the electronics here, but we haven’t prepared furniture yet. Let’s go look together.”
“Mmm, shall we do that?”
Dain’s lips twitched with anticipation. It was a famous furniture store that came from overseas, so he really wanted to go, and he could visit this quickly!
Dain looked around the house with Juho, thinking about what furniture they might need and writing down a checklist in his phone’s memo app.
Even though it was called a furniture store, most things had to be assembled directly, so it seemed like they’d have to move around diligently.
* * *
As Juho said, after driving for about 40 minutes, a large furniture store appeared. The two people, who had spent quite a while looking around and shopping mainly for things they could take today, headed to the checkout counter.
“Juho, I’ll buy the furniture!”
“What?”
“Actually, there were many things I wanted to buy until now, but I couldn’t because the place I was living in was too small. Since I came to such a big house thanks to you, Juho, I’ll buy the furniture.”
“Hyung, you don’t need to push yourself like that. I didn’t get the house for that reason, and I didn’t come to the furniture store to make hyung pay.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know you didn’t come for that. But still, I’m going to be the one buying. Juho, you just stay still here, got it?”
Before Juho could say anything more, Dain sprinted at full speed to the checkout counter and began calculating. He was incredibly quick and accurate. When Juho tried to reach out his hand, Dain didn’t hesitate to push him away with the cart.
“Ha.”
After finishing the payment and looking at the cart full of products, Juho let out a short sigh.
Whether he had an obsession that if he received one thing he absolutely had to give one back, Dain seemed to feel particularly burdened about receiving things. While he didn’t care at all about giving several things to others.
Noticing that Juho’s mood wasn’t good, Dain quietly approached Juho and grabbed his arm. He was concerned that he hadn’t said anything from when they left the checkout counter until now when they arrived at the parking lot.
As Juho said, it wasn’t that he was pushing himself—this much was within the range he could afford. Fortunately, he still had money left in his bank account from his part-time job. He had bought furniture mainly filled with his own taste rather than Juho’s, so naturally he should have paid for it.
“Juho, are you perhaps angry?”
“Not perhaps angry, but really angry.”
At Dain’s question, Juho bluntly spat out his answer. That appearance was like looking at a sulking child, which was cute, but he had no intention of saying that and making Juho even angrier.
Had Juho felt this way earlier when watching him grumble? That might be why he said he was cute.
Feeling like he understood one reason why Juho found him adorable made Dain’s chest area tickle.
Anyway, now was the time to soothe Juho. After silently chanting ‘Juho is cute’ ten times to himself, Dain began to earnestly coax Juho.
“What’s there to be angry about. Someone who can afford to buy inexpensive furniture should buy it.”
“I could have bought it too.”
“I know. Juho, I know you have a lot of allowance. But I have a lot of money in my bank account too, really. If you can’t believe it, should hyung show you his bank account?”
“What?”
“Wait a moment.”
Dain took out the phone he had put in his pocket. Then, despite his blunt, thick fingers compared to the small screen, he managed to press it skillfully.
When he accurately entered the bank app’s password, a screen appeared with quite several account numbers listed.
“Look at this!”
Dain thrust his chest forward and showed Juho the screen. Even though it was living expenses for one semester, it was quite a lot of money for a college student to have.
Seeing Dain’s unexpectedly solid financial situation, Juho’s head nodded automatically.
Even so, was it okay to show even something like this to others, no matter how much they were dating?
At Dain’s behavior that had absolutely no sense of caution, Juho almost forgot that he had been angry.
“Hyung, you’re right. You really do have more money than I thought.”
“Right? I earned all of this from part-time jobs. It’s not money I received from my parents.”
“Really? As expected, our Dain hyung is amazing. Ah, but hyung, you can’t carelessly show things like this to others. What if I had bad intentions?”
“You? Hey, I’m showing it because I know you absolutely wouldn’t!”
“You trust me that much?”
“Mmm! Yeah, and rather than trusting, I think it’s natural. Juho, you’re not that kind of person.”
Dain’s bronze eyes looked toward Juho without a hint of doubt. At that straightforward gaze, Juho, who was hiding quite a lot, felt his conscience being pricked, but regardless of his inner feelings, he smiled harmlessly on the outside. As long as he didn’t get caught, it was fine.
“It’s embarrassing to say this with my own mouth, but you’re right. How could I have bad intentions toward hyung?”
“See? How could Juho do such a thing? I know how kind you are.”
Dain smiled brightly and leaned his head against Juho’s shoulder. It was an action done knowing that Juho particularly liked his hair.
How sly and cat-like to unconsciously do such things. Unable to resist the temptation of the hair swaying softly near his shoulder, Juho finally buried his nose in Dain’s hair and rubbed it vigorously.
“Hyung, really. Ha, I’m letting it slide because you’re cute.”
“Mmm. Then you know, you know.”
“Really, from next time, hyung won’t be buying anything.”
“Yeah, yeah! Let’s buy together next time!”
“No, I want to buy it.”
“That’s…”
“I’ll get angry again.”
“Ah! No way! Got it, next time Juho will buy it!”
Dain shouted urgently. Even so, his face was full of smiles. Juho, who was complaining to him to his heart’s content today, was so cute.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
