Gentle Giant Chapter 66
“Stop it, Juho! Saying th-that stuff from the morning!”
“What did I do? How lewd and attractive hyung was… mmph!”
“What do you mean I was!”
“Mmph mmph!”
Juho pointed at Dain’s hand covering his mouth, meaning for him to let go, but Dain shook his head. If he let go here, it was obvious he’d get more excited and talk even more.
After struggling for a while, the two reached their end when Juho raised both hands in surrender.
Dain became triumphant, thinking he had won against Juho. He didn’t forget to advise Juho with an attitude of ‘This is hyung’s dignity!’
“You can’t tease hyung like that!”
“I understand. I was wrong.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Really.”
Juho looked at Dain with a dejected face then hung his head. Seeing his face suddenly wilted, Dain felt unnecessarily sorry.
Juho was just joking, but wondering if he had been too stern while scolding him, he gradually started watching Juho’s mood. He also wondered if he had made a fuss alone about things that could be said between people who were dating.
Dain didn’t know what to say right away, so he just cleared his throat while gently rubbing Juho’s forearm with his fingers.
Looking down at his forearm tickled by Dain’s gesture, Juho put strength in his jaw. If he raised the corners of his mouth here, it would be back to square one.
Juho desperately lowered the corners of his mouth and told Dain in an endlessly pitiful voice that he was sorry and wouldn’t do it again. Then he secretly counted to exactly 10. And then.
“Juho, look at me. Hm?”
Right as he finished counting to 10, Dain’s voice came, not knowing what to do.
“…”
“Mm? Juho, what did I say that upset you?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing my ass, then why won’t you even make eye contact with me, Juho?”
Dain turned his upper body following Juho, who had turned his head to the opposite side. Juho turned his head even more, worried that the smile hanging on his lips might be caught by Dain.
Shocked by that cold behavior, Dain poked Juho’s shoulder with a face full of bewilderment. The strength gradually left his crisp voice.
“Ju, Juho! Sorry, I was too harsh with my words!”
“No, I went too far. I’m sorry.”
“No, no! Juho, you did nothing wrong. I was wrong!”
“Hyung did nothing wrong. I was just a little surprised.”
“Sur-surprised?”
“Yes. When hyung spoke so sternly, it was scary. I also thought ‘as expected, hyung is hyung.’ A little…”
Juho looked at Dain while desperately keeping the corners of his mouth down. While even praising him as hyung, Dain was embarrassed thinking he had really acted petty.
Before Juho could turn his head again, Dain quickly grabbed Juho’s cheek and made him look at him.
“I wasn’t really angry. Hm? Really. Were you very scared?”
“Yes. So hyung, won’t you comfort me?”
“…Hm?”
“I was really scared and sad earlier, but I think it would all be resolved if hyung comforted me.”
“Yeah, I’ll do it! How should I do it?”
“Just, I think a kiss would be enough.”
Kiss. As if it was nothing special, at the word that came lightly from Juho’s mouth, Dain nodded greatly.
Ki-if a kiss would comfort him, he should do it a hundred, a thousand times!
Dain powerfully head-butted with his lips. Not just once, but several times. *Smooch.* Deep enough to make a sound.
Juho happily opened his mouth and licked and sucked Dain’s lips.
Without knowing that they were having the same deep kiss as before, Dain earnestly tried to comfort Juho.
* * *
“Dain sunbae!”
When Dain was carefully scooping up vanilla latte cream with a straw, Jiyoon’s voice was heard. A small smile crossed Dain’s lips as he turned his head toward where her voice came from.
Jiyoon and Sujeong were coming to the table where Dain was sitting, each holding a drink in one hand. As soon as Jiyoon sat in front of Dain, she chattered about meeting Kim Sujeong on the way while gulping down her coffee.
Sujeong sat next to Jiyoon and nodded his head to Dain. Dain also returned the greeting with an awkward nod.
“Hello Jiyoon, hello Sujeong hoobae-nim too.”
“Yes! Thank you so much for today! I really did work hard to make it, but…”
Jiyoon took out her laptop from her bag with a tearful expression.
Even Jiyoon herself thought the PPT format was incredibly pretty. But she had absolutely no idea how to arrange what from the materials Dain and Sujeong had sent her. It wasn’t that the materials were wrong, but because this was almost her first proper major assignment, she lacked knowledge about administration.
Eventually, Jiyoon had sent a tearful SOS to her seniors, and today was the meeting to get help from Dain and Sujeong.
The PPT Jiyoon showed was really clean and pretty. It seemed like what he said last time about her making things amazingly well wasn’t empty words. Dain’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Jiyoon’s PPT.
“You really made this well! Incredibly stylish!”
“Really? Do you like it, sunbae?”
“Mm! I like it, we just need to fill in the content well here!”
“Eek, sorry! I’m still an administration ignoramus. The materials from you sunbae-nims were so good, but…”
Jiyoon’s shoulders, which had risen briefly at Dain’s praise, drooped. Seeing such Jiyoon, Dain waved his hands and began to soothe her.
“No, no. Jiyoon! It’s all difficult at first! I also struggled a lot in my freshman year. And while teaching you, I can study again too, so how great is that!”
“Dain sunbae!”
Jiyoon clasped both hands to her chest and looked at Dain. It was as if she was looking at an angel who had descended to earth.
Dain scratched his head while receiving Jiyoon’s gaze, and Sujeong was silently waiting for when their comedy routine would end.
Fortunately, Jiyoon, who noticed Sujeong’s bored expression before Dain did, quickly took out the materials.
Since both Kim Sujeong and Dain were people who wouldn’t fall behind anyone when it came to studying, the content organization was finished in an instant.
The parts each had prepared were perfect enough that they could recite them fluently even if asked to present immediately, so Jiyoon couldn’t close her gaping mouth while looking at the two seniors.
“Sunbae-nims, you’re really the best…!”
Dain was shy at Jiyoon’s reaction, and Sujeong just sipped his coffee with an indifferent expression.
Having somewhat resolved the assignment, Jiyoon, who was observing Dain with a light heart, saw several large bags.
From what was written on the outside of the bags, it seemed like things bought from a general store. What could it be? Jiyoon tilted her head and asked Dain.
“Dain sunbae! What’s that? Did you buy something?”
“Ah, ah! This. Um, I moved recently so I bought some necessary things.”
“Now? During the semester?”
“Mm. It ended up like that.”
“I see…! Then what about sunbae’s housewarming?”
Jiyoon’s eyes shone with anticipation. With an apologetic expression for not being able to respond to her reaction, Dain shook his head.
“Uh, the house I moved to now is Juho’s house. A housewarming would be difficult for me to do as I please. Sorry.”
“Gasp. Su-sunbae, it’s your boyfriend’s house?”
“Y-yes!”
Jiyoon’s face turned white after hearing Dain’s story. If she had nagged about having a housewarming without knowing… Just imagining what Juho’s expression would be like made her legs go weak.
Jiyoon felt wronged. How did such a kind and gentle Dain sunbae end up caught by such a fierce tiger…!
While sniffling internally and putting materials in her bag, Jiyoon took out snacks that were deep in her bag and had been forgotten, handing them to Dain.
“Sunbae! Were those snacks delicious last time? This is salmon flavor, and they say this is also one of the best sellers!”
“Huh? Huh? Yeah, they were delicious! No, no, you don’t need to give me any.”
Dain was flustered looking at the snack bag Jiyoon held out. He didn’t expect her to give him more, not just that one time. He was already wondering how to repay for the snack cost, and it was becoming increasingly burdensome.
Regardless of Dain’s reaction, Jiyoon smiled brightly while pressing the snacks into Dain’s arms. Then, as if she just realized, she quickly offered snacks to Sujeong too.
“Would you like some too, sunbae-nim?”
“I’m fine.”
“Ah, right, this is for cat beast-men so it might not suit sunbae-nim’s taste. You said you were a dog beast-man, Sujeong sunbae-nim?”
“Dog…”
Sujeong’s eyes slightly furrowed at Jiyoon’s words. To be called by the cute and young word ‘dog,’ he had already grown too big.
To make matters worse, even Dain was looking at him with eyes as if looking at a cute puppy. Sujeong definitely saw it. When Jiyoon said dog beast-man, Dain’s fingers twitched.
These people, really. Sujeong let out a sigh full of frustration and said.
“Labrador retriever. Not a dog.”
“Oh oh! Labrador retriever!”
Sujeong had said this hoping that hearing his breed, both wouldn’t think of a puppy, but it had the opposite effect. Rather, the two people looked at him even more warmly with expressions of ‘Big dogs are the best!!’
Moreover, Dain seemed to be fixated on something again, opening and closing his lips while reading the mood. Sujeong called Dain, thinking there might be a problem with him not being able to just ignore that sight.
“Jung Dain sunbae-nim?”
“Yes, yes??”
“Do you have something you want to say?”
“Um. Well, you see.”
“Yes.”
Dain hemmed and hawed, then said slyly while turning his ears red.
“I, I’m also a Maine Coon breed, so I’m on the big side for a cat beast-man, so I thought I was similar to Sujeong hoobae-nim… Hoobae-nim is also on the big side for a dog, right? So maybe that’s why, I feel a sense of kinship.”
It was a shy confession. It was the first time Dain had introduced himself as a Maine Coon to another person. Everyone just questioned whether he was a cat beast-man or not, but no one asked why he was so big.
Knowing that Sujeong also had a reason for being big for a dog beast-man like himself, Dain felt much closer to him.
However, the intense reaction to that confession came not from Sujeong, but from Jiyoon.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
