Translator: Nox

Tsunami Advisory

Chapter 15

“The Lee Danbi I know likes me.”

That was right. In the past and in the present, Lee Danbi ought to like Han Hae-il. It had annoyed him enough to see her mingling with that weird loser at the team dinner, but why on earth was she looking at him with such a nonchalant expression? It made his stomach churn with irritation.

Come to think of it, Lee Danbi had always been a variable in his life.

Hae-il’s parents had always made a habit of telling him that a man ought to have big dreams. And like father, like son—Hae-il’s innate ambition pierced the sky, and his possessiveness over anything he wanted was suffocatingly intense.

Going to the United States had been his father’s suggestion, but it was also a path Hae-il had taken without hesitation because he was burning with a thirst to test his own limits on a larger stage. He was the kind of person who had to claim what he wanted by any means necessary to be satisfied.

Once he started something, he clung to it relentlessly until the very end, so Hae-il’s life had, for the most part, progressed smoothly according to the blueprint he had drawn. For the most part, that was.

―They say people live on memories, don’t they? On a day when you suddenly feel weary and drained, a single fragment of memory drifts into your mind. People say that was the moment you were happiest. What memory has just crossed your mind right now, from what time, and with whom?

The catalyst was truly trivial. After selling the company he had painstakingly built for a satisfying price, he had raised toasts late into the night with the partners who had shared his joys and sorrows for so long. Returning home, he had casually turned on the radio, and that question had drifted out.

A sprint toward a goal, and then another sprint. It was a stretch of time spent looking only ahead, running without rest. When sprinting breathlessly like that, there inevitably came a moment when a person felt the urge to look back on the path they had traveled. Seeing the starting line now so far in the distance, one might be soaked in overwhelming accomplishment, or perhaps swept up in an inexplicable emptiness and an indescribable yearning.

Where on earth had been the starting point of his relentless march forward? When he closed his eyes and traced back the river of memory, a girl’s face unfailingly came to mind.

‘You like me, don’t you.’

A scene vivid beyond all others amidst countless fragments of memory. Why had that scene of all things come to mind? Perhaps it was because back then, the face she showed him, that raw ripple of emotion, had been branded indelibly into his life. Looking back, Han Hae-il’s life in those days seemed to have been pretty good.

He also had a faint memory of an endless, thrilling, unpredictable delight whenever he was with her. It was strange. That fleeting, intense sensation she had given him back then felt more vivid and meaningful than all the dazzling successes and achievements he had built up until now.

Was this simply the glorification of memory? Or was it that everything felt new and momentous because those were immature days?

Whatever the reason, he missed that time terribly. Yet the fact that her face and the once-vivid colors of those emotions were now nothing but a foggy blur made him unreasonably angry.

What did she look like again? How did she laugh? How did she blush?

And why was I the one to think of you first? I was the one who received your overflowing love, and you were the one who liked me with such desperation. No matter how much he mulled it over, the math didn’t add up. There was no way he was wrong. He couldn’t stand this unpleasant imbalance.

He had to go and check right away. He had to see in person, once more, that face that flushed whenever she looked at him. He had to engrave onto his retinas those trembling eyelashes and reddened earlobes when she couldn’t even lift her head from shyness, proving beyond a doubt that his memory, this upper hand, hadn’t changed.

And while he was at it, he intended to inflict a bitter regret upon her. He would make her pound the ground and wail, wondering why she hadn’t clung to this man’s pant legs, why she had dared to turn away first. The mere imagination of it made the corners of Hae-il’s mouth twitch into a crooked arc.

A fierce curiosity he hadn’t felt in a long time mixed with the intoxication that rose to the crown of his head, fueling a reckless bravado that made him feel as if he could overturn the world right this second, but reality was cold. Hae-il had no idea where Danbi was. Right after arriving in the United States, he had dialed her number. Only a cold automated voice had replied, saying it was a ‘number not in service.’

In the end, that was all their connection amounted to. A tie easily severed when physical distance grew, one that might have been light and shallow from the very beginning.

Spurred by another surge of indignation, a spiteful urge to drop everything raised its head, but a long-held stubbornness flared vividly, demanding that he see her regretful face no matter what.

How on earth was he supposed to find her? He was her only friend. Even if he dug through the graduation yearbook to ask their classmates, there was no way any of them would know her whereabouts.

From that day on, Hae-il blindly began digging through the most popular social media platform, searching the username ‘Lee Danbi’ and combing through it all.

He checked the endless stream of accounts belonging to people with the same name, one by one, with terrifying persistence. Chewing on a sandwich at lunchtime, sipping a glass of wine after dinner, during short breaks to catch his breath, and even while lying in bed before falling asleep, his fingers never stopped.

When he had wasted a full month like that, an ominous anxiety crossed his mind that perhaps she was not part of this digital world in the first place. Looking back, Danbi had never enjoyed taking photos, nor was she the type to showcase her trivial daily life to random strangers. Just as a deflated sigh escaped him, wondering if he should give up now—

On an utterly ordinary and dry-looking account whose only post was a single group photo that seemed to have been taken at a workshop, he finally found Danbi. Joy erupted from his fingertips.

No matter where you hide, you’re in the palm of my hand. How could Lee Danbi ever beat Han Hae-il?

The profile bio contained only a short, plain sentence: ‘LD Development Team 1 Lee Danbi.’

LD?

‘Me? Just…… getting into a major corporation?’

A fragment of a conversation, like a faded film strip, suddenly played vividly in his mind. Hae-il let out an involuntary chuckle. In the end, both he and she—though their methods differed—seemed to have lived their lives quite according to plan. That fact somehow stirred a strange feeling.

Hae-il zoomed in on the tiny group photo with his fingers as large as possible. Though the pixels broke into a rough blur, he could recognize her. It was Danbi. Unmistakably, the Danbi in his memory.

Dad’s company, huh. A smirk formed on his lips.

Could it be? No, that couldn’t be. But the thought that followed inflated his sense of superiority to the brim. She had been waiting. Unable to find a way to contact him directly, she must have held onto a sliver of hope that he would find her someday, standing by that post like a lighthouse.

Otherwise, of all the many major corporations, why LD, and why a developer at that? It was an all too obvious answer. No other possibility existed in his mind.

Ah, poor Lee Danbi. She was so pitiful that an involuntary chuckle escaped him. His toe tapped rhythmically. It was a thrilling, twisted sense of superiority—a kind he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Just how desperately had she missed and waited for me all these ten-odd years? It seemed worth showing his face properly at least once. After all, wasn’t a miracle supposed to happen at least once in a person’s life to make living worthwhile?

Hae-il immediately sent a short text message to his father.

I want to parachute in

Drop zone: Development Team 1 Team Leader

It’s urgent

Having sent that, while he was booking a first-class ticket to Korea, the reply he had been waiting for arrived before long. In response to the absurd request of his still-immature son well past thirty, his father’s reply was exceedingly concise and clear.

Crazy bastard

All throughout the flight to Korea, Hae-il’s mind was consumed entirely with thoughts of Danbi. What did she look like now?

Was she still as shy and clumsy as in high school, or had the ten years turned her into a completely different person? Either way, it promised to be fun in its own right.

On his first day at work, Hae-il deliberately dragged his feet a little. He planned to make his entrance like the protagonist of a well-crafted script, just when the tension and curiosity of the team members waiting for their new Team Leader reached their peak.

A perfectly tailored black suit, and hair styled with more care than usual. He was the picture of a successful man by any standard. The sound of his dress shoes came to a halt in front of the meeting room where Development Team 1 had gathered.

Lee Danbi is in here.

Hae-il steadied his chest with a short breath and stepped inside without hesitation, a relaxed smile on his lips.

“I am Han Hae-il, taking charge of Development Team 1 starting today.”

Hae-il calmly took in the gazes focused on him and slowly swept his eyes across the team members. And, at last, his search came to a stop in one place.

A woman frozen upon seeing him. Her aura was far more mature than in their high school days, but she was an undeniably familiar silhouette—the one he had searched for so desperately. It was Danbi.

Hae-il did not take his eyes off Danbi’s face. Despite the passage of time, the youthful shadow of her high school days still lingered on her face. Her skin was still fair and clear, her eyes slightly rounded, her nose straight and defined. And now, an expression of surprise and tension at his unannounced appearance.

A hot wave of satisfaction surged from deep within his chest.

It was the hunter’s sense of achievement at finally capturing his quarry after a long wait and relentless pursuit. At the same time, it was a thrilling euphoria, a sort of conquest born from watching her vivid reaction.

Yes, this was the face. The complex, subtle expression he had wanted so desperately to see again—a mix of fluster, surprise, and perhaps even a tiny bit of delight.

Hae-il walked up to her slowly and extended a hand as if knowing nothing.

“Ah…… I’m Lee Danbi, Development Team 1.”

Hae-il deepened the smile resting on his lips and shook her hand.

“Ah, nice to meet you, Danbi-ssi.”

Clasping her small hand tightly, Hae-il whispered softly to himself:

Rejoice to your heart’s content, Danbi-ya.

Because your first love has returned in such splendid fashion.