Tsunami Advisory
Chapter 12
The moment homeroom dismissed, Danbi snatched up her bag. Playing the dual role of Hae-il’s "human GPS" and "personal secretary" all day had utterly drained her. But before she could even clear the classroom door, Hae-il’s low voice caught up with her.
“Hey, Lee Danbi. Where do you think you’re going?”
Danbi turned around, trying her best to look unbothered as she replied.
“Home…”
“What? You’re dumping me here and leaving on your own? Whose fault is it that my glasses are broken in the first place?”
Hae-il fumbled his way toward her, feeling along the desks and the wall, before grabbing one of her bag straps.
“Take me home. All the way to my house.”
“What? Why should I go to your—”
“You said you’d be my eyes for today. If you’re my eyes, you have to take responsibility until the end. Where do you think you’re sneaking off to? Seriously, where are your manners?”
Hae-il spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. His hand slid from her bag to her shoulder, down her arm, and locked around her wrist. The sheer absurdity of his logic left her speechless, but the large hand engulfing her wrist sapped away any will to resist. In the end, she was back to being his navigator.
As they made their way out of the school, waves of greetings washed over them from kids in the hallways and all across the courtyard. Every time, Hae-il returned them with an uncharacteristically gentle smile. Seeing him order her around—picking the easiest target out of all that lavish attention—made her blood boil. Even if he naturally put everyone beneath him, self-mockery welled up in her throat at the thought that, to him, she was probably the most insignificant of them all.
When they finally struggled their way to the school gate, Danbi asked,
“How do you usually get home? Do you have a chauffeur? Or are your parents picking you up?”
“No. I usually walk.”
“Is it close?”
“About a twenty-minute walk?”
Her expectation of a gleaming imported car waiting for him fell completely flat. So she really had to walk twenty minutes with him? Danbi’s brow furrowed automatically.
“Where do you live?”
The direction he pointed was the exact opposite of Danbi’s house and her cram school. A round trip would easily take an hour.
“Could we maybe take a taxi?”
“Do you have money?”
“Are you telling me to pay right now?”
They say the rich are the stingiest—he really was trying to squeeze blood from a stone. A stunned scoff escaped her lips.
He awkwardly patted down the pockets of his uniform pants.
“I haven’t been carrying a wallet lately. Didn’t really have any reason to use it.”
“Ugh, you had no problem offering me 500,000 won the other day!”
“Then you should’ve taken it back then. Because you turned it down, I realized carrying money around is pointless.”
It was her fault again. Left with no choice, she rummaged through her own wallet. All that remained after buying a workbook yesterday were two crumpled thousand-won bills. A taxi was completely out of the question. Despite his blurry vision, Hae-il somehow spotted the blue banknotes and clicked his tongue.
“No card either?”
“Yeah…”
“You really are… something else.”
“Hey, what! I usually walk too, you know!”
“Then walk. Think of it as exercise. It’s good for you.”
“Sigh. What kind of LD heir walks to school anyway?”
“Is there a law saying someone with rich parents can’t walk?”
“…I guess not.”
“Then stop whining and take my hand already. Hurry.”
He waved his hand in the air, demanding something to hold on to. Danbi shoved her wallet into her pocket and grabbed his wrist. Befitting his large frame, his bones were so thick she couldn’t even wrap her fingers all the way around.
“I’ll hold on. It makes me anxious when you’re the one holding.”
“Huh? Oh, fine.”
She assumed he would grab her wrist this time too, but his fingers wrapped around her hand instead. The unexpected contact made her heart drop straight into her stomach. His grip was larger and firmer than she had imagined, and the sensation of her hand held inside his felt utterly foreign.
Danbi looked up at him in surprise, but his entire focus was fixed solely on the stairs beneath their feet.
“Ah, damn it… I can’t see a thing. Go slow. If I trip, it’s on you.”
Right, it’s just because he can’t see.
She found her explanation, yet she couldn’t stop being conscious of their intertwined hands. Beneath skin that was unexpectedly soft, she could feel the firm structure of his bones. Swallowed whole by his broad warmth, the space between their pressed palms grew slick with heat. Feeling as though it was her own clammy sweat, she tried to pull away slightly, but his grip was unyielding.
As they reached the bottom of the stairs, the whispers and curious stares of students heading home converged on their clasped hands. In particular, the blatant glares from a group of girls from their class made Danbi flinch and attempt to wrench her hand free, prompting an irritable snap from him.
“Hey! Were you just trying to ditch me and run? Can’t you do this right?”
To him, she was nothing more than a guide. Danbi didn’t want to invite this kind of misunderstanding, but he seemed like the type who couldn’t care less about what others thought. When embarrassment quickened her pace, he caught on with terrifying precision and grumbled,
“Hey, slow down, will you!”
“Come on, walk faster! Why are you so slow when your legs are this long?”
“Because I can’t see, idiot, because I can’t see…!”
“Oh? A cat.”
“Where? In front of my feet? Are you telling me to watch out?”
“No, it’s cute.”
“Are you crazy… Lee Danbi! What are you doing looking away from me right now!”
“Wow, there are two kittens.”
“Hey! Pay attention to me, me!”
At his complaining voice, she turned her eyes back to him. Had she already gotten used to it? Strangely enough, the warmth flowing from their clasped hands felt comforting. What had felt unfamiliar had shifted into a bizarre sense of security. Perhaps the fact that she was helping him had, for a fleeting moment, placed her on equal footing with him. The illusion that they might actually be friends tickled a quiet corner of her chest.
After a long walk, they arrived at Hae-il’s house, which was just as picturesque a mansion as the rumors suggested. She meant to leave once she brought him to the front gate, but he threw such a fit that she ended up guiding him all the way to the entryway.
Watching him take off his shoes and step inside, Danbi asked cautiously,
“We’re good now, right? I’m really leaving.”
“Wait. Just a second.”
“Ugh, what now!”
“Just wait.”
That short, firm word shut Danbi’s mouth. Even as he felt along the wall to head inside, he didn’t forget to add,
“I clearly told you to wait.”
He was treating her practically like his pet dog. Danbi grumbled silently under her breath, yet remained rooted to the spot. Before long, he came striding back, now wearing his glasses. In his hand, he carried a wallet instead of a bag. Slipping his feet back into the shoes he had neatly left behind, he spoke.
“Let’s go. I’m buying you dinner.”
✶ ✶ ✶
Standing in front of the high-end restaurant, Danbi’s footsteps faltered involuntarily. Lighting that went beyond subtle into dimness, an impeccably suffocating table setting. Unfamiliar classical music and murmuring patrons. The entire atmosphere overwhelmed her.
Like an uninvited stranger thrust onto a theater stage, her body stiffened, and a suffocating tightness gripped her chest. This place clearly belonged to a different world from hers.
As if reading her frozen expression, Hae-il glanced at her over his glasses and asked,
“What is it? You don’t like Western food?”
“Um…”
Unable to bring herself to say yes or no, Danbi looked around anxiously instead. In this space where everyone seemed so comfortable and natural, she couldn’t even begin to guess which fork or knife from the orderly rows on the table she was supposed to pick up first. Any table manners she might have briefly learned at some point had long since evaporated into thin air.
Gleaming silver cutlery, formally dressed people. Classical pieces whose names she would never know. It felt as though everyone was staring at her, the one person who didn’t belong. Under the weight of intangible pressure, Danbi could only gnaw on her lower lip.
Summoning her courage at last, Danbi confessed in a tiny voice,
“I… don’t really know which one to use first.”
The moment she let those words out, the invisible wall hidden beneath the fragile bond they had built today felt glaringly distinct. Did they really live in different worlds after all? A cold chill settled heavy in her heart.
Just then, Hae-il spoke in an indifferent tone.
“You don’t need to know. As long as you enjoy the food, that’s all that matters.”
Leaving only the largest fork and knife, he gathered all the other miscellaneous utensils and handed them to a passing waiter. He did the exact same for his own setting. Then, he added that they would eat the entire meal using only those utensils.
The waiter blinked in momentary surprise, but soon bowed with practiced grace and respectfully cleared away the rest of the cutlery. Having watched the exchange, Hae-il turned back to Danbi and gave a smirk.
“There. Easy now, right?”
At his smile, a small crack seemed to run through Danbi’s world.
