Gentle Giant Chapter 67
“I knew it, I knew it! Every time I saw Dain sunbae, I thought he looked dignified! So Dain sunbae was a Maine Coon!!”
“Huh? You know about Maine Coons too, Jiyoon?”
“Of course! I have photos here too! I look at them every night before going to sleep…!”
Jiyoon showed Dain the photos she had saved. They were pictures of Maine Coons of various colors, each photographed in different poses as if showing off their respective sizes.
Looking at those photos, Dain couldn’t close his mouth. My goodness, there’s someone who’s this serious about Maine Coons…! His nose bridge twitched at this sight he was seeing for the first time in his life.
Jiyoon’s heart also pounded like it would burst, like a fan seeing their idol, upon hearing that Dain was a Maine Coon.
Meanwhile, Kim Sujeong, who Dain had felt kinship with, just stood there awkwardly not knowing what a Maine Coon was, unlike the two people giggling excitedly beside him.
The conversation between the two people who had been chatting for a while only ended when Jiyoon got up saying she had an evening appointment.
Jiyoon checked the time on her phone and stood up with a regretful expression.
“I really have an important appointment. Sorry! I’ll head out first!”
“It’s okay, go safely! Ah, right. Jiyoon, if you don’t have plans for lunch on Friday, want to eat lunch together? I, I’ll treat you.”
“Wow, I’d love that! Let’s definitely eat together that day!!”
“Mm-hmm. Yeah, then I’ll see you Friday.”
“Yes! I’ll see you next time too, Sujeong sunbae-nim!”
After Jiyoon politely greeted even Sujeong and left the cafe, a strange silence settled over the place.
He should have left together when Jiyoon said she was leaving, but having missed the timing, Dain just fidgeted with his fingertips with an anxious face.
Watching such Dain, Sujeong thought he should get up first and was preparing to leave when he saw the bag placed next to Dain and sat back down.
From what he could see, it seemed like Lee Juho, who didn’t like that other people had been coming and going to the studio apartment, was waving around the idea of moving.
He thought he really needed to meddle a bit with that naive sunbae-nim. Of course, if he was going to meddle properly, there was a lot to say besides just the moving talk.
“Jung Dain sunbae-nim?”
“Yes, yes?”
“Juho didn’t tell you that I’m a carrier, did he?”
“…?!”
Dain looked at Sujeong with an expression like he’d seen a ghost. His inner thoughts of ‘How did you know?!’ were completely exposed, so Sujeong felt like he could understand what Dain wanted to say just from his expression without hearing an answer.
“As for how I knew, somehow Juho doesn’t seem like he’d tell sunbae-nim such things.”
It was obvious that Juho would hate both having other people’s names come up from Dain and talking about other people with Dain. There was no way such a guy filled with possessiveness would ramble to Dain about the interesting story of Sujeong being a carrier.
Anyway, this was what he thought, and the accurate details would come from Dain’s mouth.
Sujeong looked at Dain, who still had his eyes wide open, and tilted his chin as if telling him to hurry up and answer.
Dain, truly feeling that there are no eternal secrets, stammers and began telling the story of last weekend evening when he met Sujeong.
Of course, he glossed over what happened in the bathroom, editing it to say he accidentally overheard a man’s phone conversation.
“So that’s how you found out?”
“Yes…”
“My blind date, or should I say matchmaking. Anyway, sunbae’s couple was at that place.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Ha.”
A deflated laugh escaped from Sujeong’s mouth.
Meeting someone through family introduction wasn’t particularly embarrassing. But it was embarrassing that the other person was such a loose-lipped bastard.
Generally, carriers who went into heat mostly met their mates quickly.
It was quite difficult to get by just taking medicine every heat cycle, and they also instinctively wanted to have a stable environment.
Sujeong also belonged to the side that wanted a stable family as a carrier who had gone into heat. If possible, he wanted to meet a mate and get married right upon graduating university.
So he went around meeting people his parents introduced without much complaint, but of all times.
“If, if hoobae-nim doesn’t want… No, I won’t tell anyone about Sujeong hoobae-nim being, being that. I’m really sorry about last time.”
Dain thought Sujeong was upset because he had secretly overheard his story. Even though he hadn’t wanted to hear it, anyway he had made a mistake with Sujeong. Dain’s head bowed endlessly.
Watching Dain, who had hunched his broad shoulders and didn’t know what to do from being sorry, Sujeong clicked his tongue briefly.
It didn’t seem like Dain would particularly spread the word here and there, and honestly, it was true that right now in the administrative department, Dain had no friends he could spread words to. He thought he’d received enough of an apology.
“It’s fine. I know Dain sunbae-nim didn’t do it on purpose, and wasn’t trying to make things difficult for me.”
“Of course! I really wasn’t trying to make things difficult.”
Rather, it was just that the result was quite disastrous for something he had tried to be as considerate as possible about.
“Then stop being sorry. I’m getting tired of saying I’m okay too.”
“Oh, yes. I understand.”
“And.”
Feeling like he was being scolded by a teacher, Dain’s eyebrows gradually became more drooped.
Since he’d been only conversing with Juho, who lately kept repeating ‘yes yes, oh goo goo, our hyung did well, did well!’, he became seriously dejected even at this level of atmosphere.
Dain looked at Sujeong’s face, nervous about what else he might say.
“Anyway, as long as I’m a carrier, I’ll continue going to meet male beast-men.”
“Ah.”
“I’m eager to meet a mate as soon as possible.”
“I, I see.”
Dain didn’t really know what to respond with, so he made an ambiguous interjection that was neither here nor there.
He had heard that many beast-men wanted to quickly meet a mate and have a family.
However, both Dohyeon who was already married and Sujeong who said he was going on blind dates to find a mate were still university students in their early twenties. By his standards, it seemed fast.
Especially Sujeong – what an amazing person he was just by himself! It seemed like he could make good connections without having to go around meeting people… but such thoughts just circled in Dain’s mouth without being able to come out as words.
“Isn’t it the same for Dain sunbae-nim?”
“Me?”
“Yes. Wouldn’t it be better for Dain sunbae-nim to meet a mate quickly too?”
“I have a boyfriend right now though?”
“Ah, Juho.”
“Yes, yes…!”
Just hearing Juho’s name made Dain excited and his cheeks turned red.
At that rapid change, Sujeong’s lips twisted. What’s so good about such an inconsistent guy? However, he naturally composed his expression and said.
“Since you’re both males anyway, isn’t it hopeless?”
At the words that came from Sujeong’s mouth, Dain tilted his head as if he didn’t understand. He couldn’t understand what was hopeless about both him and Juho being males.
“Juho is obviously a male. Ah, sunbae-nim doesn’t seem to have gone through secondary gender characteristics yet, but it doesn’t seem like sunbae-nim will manifest as a carrier either, so you know that the two of you can absolutely never become mates, right?”
“Ah!”
“If that happens, anyway…”
He thought Jung Dain would understand even without saying ‘you’ll break up.’
Sujeong wondered why he was saying such things to Dain, but in his impatience for Jung Dain to have a more normal relationship, he was uncharacteristically saying formulaic things. Just like what my parents had told me since I was young.
“Um, Kim Sujeong hoobae-nim…!”
“Yes.”
Dain thought carefully about what Sujeong had said.
It was definitely correct. In the beast-men’s world, Sujeong’s story was generally accepted as common sense.
However, right now Kim Sujeong had crossed the line.
Could the actions he had taken toward him, thinking they were perfectly natural by Dain’s common sense, have been such an annoyance? If so, Dain could feel painfully now how wrong he had been.
“What hoobae-nim said is right. I don’t know how things will turn out, but for now I’m not a carrier. Uh, it’s true that beast-men meet good mates with each other, and it’s true that males can’t become mates with each other. But still, I’m dating Juho well, and even if we don’t become mates, I’ll treat him preciously…”
“Until when? You have no confidence at all that you can date this well until when.”
“Th, that! That’s for me and Juho to decide! Right now, even if I wanted to marry Juho by myself, I can’t just get married, and Sujeong hoobae-nim, just because hoobae-nim says it’s hopeless doesn’t make everything so!”
“Ah.”
“So, so anyway, I’ll continue to get along well with Juho from now on. When I get a job later, I’m thinking of taking legal responsibility for Juho too…!”
Dain’s face turned bright red as if it would explode.
As he spoke, he ended up saying specifically that he would take responsibility for Juho, but Dain was confident he could keep that promise.
So what if they couldn’t become mates? These days, society recognized even same-sex couples as legal cohabitants. If they just had the desire to be together, they could somehow find a way even if they weren’t mates.
And he had faith that Juho would willingly find that way together with him.
Although it was a relationship that started haphazardly due to his own mistake, as time passed, he had come to like Juho more and more, and he was confident that Juho was also increasingly liking him more.
Especially lately, Juho would groan wanting to touch and feel him whenever Dain was just beside him. Watching him like that, even the most obtuse person couldn’t help but know the magnitude of that affection.
Dain was uncharacteristically full of confidence, at least in that aspect.
Seeing Dain, whose face had turned not just red but dark crimson, wondering what on earth he was thinking, Sujeong finally surrendered.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
