Translator: Nox

Tsunami Advisory

Chapter 14

“You like me, don’t you?”

Hae-il looked straight into Danbi’s eyes as he spoke. Frankly, it wasn’t something he said with complete certainty.

There had just been a few nagging details. Her hesitation when he told her to throw the ball at Suhyun, the fluttering of her eyelashes whenever he drew close, and the way she suddenly couldn’t meet his eyes at some point.

It was merely a faint suspicion that such signs might point to her having feelings for him. Receiving that kind of attention from girls was an everyday occurrence for him, and he had simply assumed Danbi was just another one of them.

Ah…

Yet before his words could even fade into the air, Danbi’s face flushed a bursting crimson. The moment her wide, trembling eyes turned glistening and moist, reflecting only him, Hae-il was seized by a strange sensation—as if an unexpected wave had swallowed his heart whole.

A raw emotion she couldn’t hide spread across his mind like red ink. Its overwhelming vividness even stirred a flicker of fear. It was an unfamiliar tremor, as though everything he had known was crumbling away.

Her face looked startled, frightened, and perhaps even a little sad. If the abstract emotion known as love could take on a visual form, wouldn’t it wear the exact expression Danbi had right now? Such an absurd thought even crossed his mind.

Faced with such an unadorned, naked outburst of emotion—one he had never witnessed in his life—Hae-il felt his own mind going blank. He could not tear his eyes away from her face. Because it was Danbi, who rarely showed her feelings and sometimes seemed dry and detached to a fault, the shock struck him with even greater force.

So she can make a face like that.

It was a new discovery he had never even imagined before.

“I-I’ll get going first… I’m late for cram school…”

Danbi blurted out in a near-tearful, frantic voice, then hurriedly turned on her heel and ran away. Her long hair fluttered, trailing the sweet scent of shampoo in her wake.

Hae-il stood frozen on the spot, unable to do anything but watch her slender back recede into the distance. Like someone swept away by an unexpected torrential current, he forgot how to move his body for a moment.

It was right then. Cold droplets fell from the sky with soft taps, striking Hae-il’s numbed senses. It was rain. A sudden shower unannounced on the threshold of summer. Coincidentally, just like her name meaning ‘welcome rain,’ the downpour began.

Normally, such a shower would have provoked nothing but irritation. But right now, strangely enough, it wasn’t unpleasant at all. Rather, something heavy and suffocating felt cleanly washed away, opening a breath of fresh air in his chest—a strange sense of liberation.

Hae-il did not even think to dodge the thickening rain, letting it drench him. Amid the students scrambling in a frenzy toward their destinations, he walked very slowly, as if wandering through a dream.

In the empty space she had so hastily fled, Hae-il’s faint humming drifted into the sound of falling rain. It was a melody somehow different from before, a little buoyant, yet an unfamiliar tune whose meaning even he couldn’t grasp.

✶ ✶ ✶

From that day on, Danbi became unmistakably conscious of Hae-il. Whenever their gazes met by chance or their bodies drew close, she would startle, her face instantly reddening like an unripe apple, before hurriedly looking away.

“Hey, Lee Danbi.”

“Huh? Wh-what is it…?”

Her reactions stirred a new kind of amusement in Hae-il. From the moment he became certain she liked him, he began secretly enjoying her naive, clumsy responses.

“Nothing. Just felt like calling your name.”

It was akin to a child playing with a new toy, yet accompanied by the curiosity of a primitive man discovering a tiny spark of fire.

Hae-il would deliberately tap Danbi’s pencil case to catch her eye, or casually fold and unfold the corner of the textbook she was focusing on, gauging her reaction. Each time, Danbi’s shoulders would flinch, and she would steal glances at Hae-il before barely managing to squeeze out a word.

“Hey… stop it…”

Her timid, trailing voice wasn’t the least bit intimidating. That faint murmur tickling his ears only provoked his mischievous urge further. He wanted to tease her a little more. He wanted to watch her flounder frantically in the puddle he had made.

“Don’t wanna. I feel like doing it.”

“…”

Watching her small hand anxiously grip and release the pencil, Hae-il smirked inwardly. Her awkward silence and unsteady breathing felt like a secret melody only he was allowed to appreciate.

“Just kidding.”

He lightly tapped the back of her hand with his pinky. It was a signal to relax, but she only froze harder, unable even to breathe. Pitying her, he averted his gaze, and only then did he hear her exhale. A quiet chuckle slipped past his lips.

Giving such clear reactions every single time, how could his wicked fascination ever fade?

“Um… Han Hae-il.”

Turning his head at the familiar voice behind him, he saw Danbi walking up with a sheet of paper in her hand.

“The teacher asked me to give this to you… Said your parents’ signature is missing…”

“Hae-il.”

Cutting her off, Hae-il snatched the paper from Danbi’s hand. He felt the faint trace of her warmth lingering on the edge of the sheet.

“…Huh?”

“Not ‘Han Hae-il.’ It’s ‘Hae-il.’”

At his low yet firm voice, Danbi’s shoulders gave a small shiver. There was a time when she used to call him “Hae-il-ah” without reservation. Hae-il had already noticed that she had begun deliberately keeping her distance at some point.

Seeing right through the clumsy defense mechanism to her true feelings made the situation all the more intriguing to him.

“How cold. What’s with ‘Han Hae-il’?”

“No, I just…”

Just then, Lee Suhyun came into view, walking down the far end of the hallway with his friends. Hae-il locked eyes with him intentionally and draped an arm over the shoulders of Danbi standing beside him, making a show of it.

Danbi flinched instantly, but didn’t dare shake off his arm. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say she was so frozen she couldn’t even fathom pushing him away.

Suhyun stared blankly at the scene, then disappeared into the pack of his friends, unable to hide his bitter expression. There was an unspoken rule in the world of males. Just as his friends hadn’t dared eye Danbi when Suhyun showed interest in her, now that Hae-il had overpowered him, no one would dare touch her.

Hae-il felt a thrilling sense of victory surge from deep within his chest. Truly, the taste of triumph was sweet and addictive every single time.

“Um… Hae-il-ah, this is a bit…”

Perhaps he had pulled too hard, but Danbi ended up buried almost completely against his chest. Her shallow breath tickled the nape of his neck. In an instant, an unexpected softness and plush warmth pressed against his solar plexus.

Ah, he realized with a short internal gasp, but he didn’t loosen his arm. On the contrary, the more she squirmed faintly to escape his embrace, the more subtle pressure he applied, pulling her flush against him.

Soon, as if giving up all resistance, Danbi limply tilted her head and looked up at him. Her small, pale face with only her cheeks flushed rosy looked like a ripe peach. Her teary, wide eyes like a frightened baby rabbit, her neatly perched nose, and those red, moist-looking lips…

He had never paid close attention before, but looking at her this closely and in detail, her features seemed quite delicate and pretty. And her figure, too…

Now he understood why Suhyun had clung to Danbi so persistently. Contrary to her quiet, calm exterior, she occasionally surprised people with unexpected quirks, and she was a girl who diligently did her part. Above all, the way she walked on eggshells and flustered around him felt quite endearing. This small warmth resting helplessly in his arms without offering any resistance—strangely, he didn’t mind it at all.

She really likes me.

That realization breathed a pleasant arrogance into Hae-il anew.

Well, it figures. Any girl would have no choice but to fall for a guy like me.

“Hae-il-ah…”

Danbi grew flustered at his warmth and breath radiating from their pressed bodies and struggled desperately to look away, but Hae-il, seeing right through her intentions, pulled her even closer and relentlessly locked his gaze onto hers. As if relishing the final flutterings of a butterfly caught in a spiderweb, he savored her bewilderment for a long while.

And finally, as if nothing had happened, he smirked and let her go.

“Why are you so tense? I was just teasing.”

He turned around and walked leisurely down the hallway. He could feel her gaze full of confusion piercing his back, but he couldn’t care less.

Hae-il hummed softly without hiding the smile on his lips. It was the leisurely stride of someone holding all the cards.