It was because the 'size' was different.
Dohee and Doyoung each searched their closets and brought the largest clothes they could find, but compared to Jinha's build, they looked hopelessly small. It seemed like if they forced him to wear them, he would look ridiculous, like he was squeezed into children's clothing.
"You don't have anything bigger?"
Doyoung asked, blinking, and Dohee replied, "If it's bigger than this, isn't it at the point where you might as well just wrap a sheet of cloth around yourself?" Doyoung nodded in agreement. And really, the bigger problem wasn't the top, but the pants. The waist size seemed like it would be completely different.
They couldn't just go begging for clothes somewhere. If he'd known, he should have used the excuse of going to buy clothes instead of porridge. He was in the middle of worrying if it would be okay to go buy some now, as it would take a long time.
Dohee exclaimed, "Ah!" and clapped her hands. But for someone who'd had a realization, she looked a little uncertain.
"What is it?"
"Well, there are clothes I bought that I couldn't wear because they were too big, but…."
Doyoung's eyelids twitched in bewilderment at the clothes Dohee brought out.
"Uh, um…."
"Is it a bit much?"
"Isn't it a lot much?"
"What are you two doing?"
Jinha, having quickly washed up, asked the two, who were sitting huddled together with their heads touching like little acorns, looking serious.
At that, the two, with awkward expressions, slowly turned to look at Jinha.
A bundle of green fabric, held by both Doyoung and Dohee, was lifted swoosh in front of the bewildered Jinha.
"Can you... wear this?"
Jinha's brow twitched.
This time, Doyoung and Jinha were in Doyoung's room together.
Behind Jinha, who was staring down at the green dinosaur pajamas with a complex expression, Doyoung nervously tapped his small feet.
"It really is too much, isn't it? Should I go out now? It'll take some time, but if you wait…"
As he was speaking, Jinha turned around, looked at Doyoung, and shook his head.
"I'm already indebted to you as it is. I can't trouble you any further."
"But…" Doyoung, crestfallen, glanced up at Jinha and then apologized.
"I'm sorry. You must want to show her your cool side."
At that, Jinha gazed steadily at Doyoung. Doyoung continued gloomily toward Jinha.
"Why do things keep turning out like this? It's upsetting."
The Jinha he saw in the webtoon always appeared ta-da! in difficult situations, showing only his relaxed and cool side. But from the moment he intervened, it felt like he had ruined everything, and Doyoung's heart sank.
A male lead in dinosaur pajamas. He had no idea what Lee Jinha's image was becoming to Cha Dohee. This wasn't the "grand romance operation" he had imagined. Doyoung's shoulders slumped.
Jinha, who had been quietly watching Doyoung busy with his thoughts, followed up with a "Hm," and a forceful exhale. It seemed like he was making a decision. And Jinha's following words woke Doyoung from his private despair.
"You think I'll look funny if I wear this?"
"Huh?"
"I'm asking if you think I'll look funny. Are you going to laugh?"
"Uh… n-no! Funny? I won't laugh! You'll look totally cute! The original completion of fashion is the face…"
Doyoung, who had blurted that out, suddenly snapped his mouth shut.
'Though that face is currently torn up and a mess.'
Still, I know his original form, even if only from the drawings, and his original form is handsome, so won't it be fine? Doyoung thought to himself. In that time, Jinha nodded.
"Then it's fine."
"Huh?"
"You said I'd look cute. Then it's fine."
While Doyoung was going "Huh? Huh?" Jinha shrugged off his uniform. Doyoung alone was startled by his boldness and quickly said, "Aigoo," covering his eyes and turning around. He stood facing the quietly closed door, but the room was silent except for the swish-swish sound of clothes, which made him feel unnecessarily tense, and the back of his neck seemed to stiffen.
'Aigoo, what's wrong with me? Is my body really weak these days? My heart is pounding in strange places.'
They say global warming is serious, and it's already getting hot. Doyoung's palms flapped uselessly near his face. Then, feeling it was too strange, he thought it might be better to leave.
"Should I step out for a bit…"
He was about to grab the doorknob. But just then...
"No."
Jinha's answer came immediately. And from very close.
Startled, Doyoung tried to turn, but his back and head bumped into Jinha's chest, as if being embraced. He was so close that Doyoung sucked in a breath.
Their gazes locked at close range.
Jinha, looking down at the flustered Doyoung whose long eyelashes were trembling, finally opened his mouth and muttered quietly, "I'm dressed now."
Only then did Doyoung snap to his senses as if waking from a dream. "O-oh. Let's see," he said, and as he turned, Jinha took a step back to show himself.
Doyoung's reaction to seeing Jinha's appearance was identical to Dohee's reaction when she saw him in the living room a moment later.
Dohee barely managed to cover her mouth and hold in the "Keuheup" of laughter, because Doyoung beside her was desperately shaking his head, signaling she couldn't laugh since he'd already done it.
It was definitely a huge outfit on Dohee. She had bought it in a large size, saying "Of course dinosaurs should be big," but it ended up looking like the dinosaur was eating her, so she could never wear it. When Jinha wore it, he became a skin-tight, muscular dinosaur.
In the end, after Dohee, who had been holding it in with her eyes squeezed shut, let out a "Heueueung" sound, Doyoung also burst out with a snorting "Keuheong."
'You said you wouldn't laugh.'
Jinha looked at him with an expression of betrayal, which only made Doyoung unable to stop laughing.
It took a very long time to finally sit at the dining table.
Because of the convenience store bag Doyoung lost, today's menu also ended up being meat.
Starting with the beef porridge Doyoung made, there was pork galbi, beef bulgogi, jeyuk bokkeum, samgyeopsal, top blade.... They couldn't even eat it all, but Dohee always greedily put out this much.
Jinha couldn't hide his bewilderment at the extremely one-sided, albeit luxurious, spread. He then remarked, "So when you asked what I was eating earlier, it was a very sincere question," which made Doyoung grit his teeth and whisper, "Be quiet."
Cha Dohee was, once again, sincerely passionate about the meat party.
Dohee, noticing Jinha's surprise, explained why the table was in this state.
"You see that bruise on his face? Can you believe it, he came home with that, claiming he got dizzy and fell. Do you know how scared I was? They say meat is the best for anemia."
Hearing that, a look of immense panic and dismay flickered across Doyoung's face. It was because of the things he had rambled on about to Jinha earlier.
'This is the first time I'm telling anyone this...' 'Getting hit and getting hurt... it really hurts.'
Of course, he hadn't explicitly said the wound was from being hit, but anyone would have understood that nuance, right?
Jinha couldn't have missed it. Doyoung's heart pounded violently, worried Jinha might say something unnecessary to Dohee.
However, contrary to Doyoung's worry, Jinha only glanced back and forth between Dohee and Doyoung once after her words, as if reading the room. After that, he showed no other reaction and just focused on eating.
'Is he being considerate?'
"Eat up, Oppa."
"…Eueung."
Doyoung replied to Dohee, glanced at Jinha, and was just starting to relax.
"You too, seeing your face, you must be all bark and no bite despite your size. Eat lots of meat and build up your strength."
At Dohee's unimaginable words to Jinha, Doyoung choked, "Keok."
At that, Dohee across from him handed him water, and Jinha beside him gently rubbed his back. But as Jinha did so, he muttered "no bite..." to himself, seeming genuinely hurt.
'What on earth is that Cha Dohee saying?'
Unbothered by Doyoung's flustered gaze, Dohee primly used her chopsticks.
'No, based on how he saves you (Dohee) in the original, he's really not that weak.'
Doyoung was genuinely worried that, because of today's humiliation, Jinha might decide to beat up all his bullies and become the jjang (top dog). For some reason, that seemed like it would shake the very foundation of the story, not just cause an error.
The 'imprinting' should have gone according to plan, and they'd had a good laugh over the pajamas, so he thought they'd get along great.
Something was a little strange.
The atmosphere wasn't bad, but there was a strange way Dohee was snapping at him.
Ignoring the bewildered Doyoung, Dohee finally threw the question at Jinha, "So, how did you two become friends?" Doyoung had mumbled and couldn't answer the same question properly.
"You go to different schools. You don't seem to have any connection. And I've never heard of you."
Was that why? It seemed Dohee hadn't completely let her guard down.
'I met him for the first time today, just a little while ago. And I just brought him home.'
If he said that, Dohee would easily nag him for another hour. That's why Doyoung urgently opened his mouth, "Well..."
Jinha answered.
"Doyoung helped me when I was hurt."
"What?"
"Something like that happened?" Dohee said, looking back and forth between Doyoung and Jinha in surprise.
"I was surrounded by nothing but guys who bully me. When that happened, everyone else just ignored me and passed by."
As Jinha's calm monologue continued, the atmosphere between the three of them grew quiet.
"He ran over and helped me. He's a rare... unbelievably kind guy, so I wanted to become friends with him."
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