Tsunami Advisory
Chapter 6
That night, a company dinner was held to mark the official kickoff of the project. Naturally, Hae-il was attending as well. Fortunately, he would be sitting with the other Team Leaders rather than with them.
Though it was expensive beef paid for on the company dime, the faces around the table were universally grim. It was the aftermath of the afternoon meeting, compounded by anxiety over an uncertain future.
Even so, turnout was quite high. The prevailing mindset was simple: eat while it was being offered.
Since it was a fairly large gathering, people naturally grouped off in clusters—by team or by familiar faces. When the Planning Team’s table filled up, the Development Team called over the stranded Suhyeon, and he blended right in without a hint of awkwardness. His easygoing personality always shone in settings like this.
“Suhyeon-ssi, thank you so much for the drink earlier.”
Danbi started it off, and the other team members chimed in to express their gratitude for the energy drinks.
“You really have great sense…”
“It was such a lifesaver.”
As praises poured in, Suhyeon scratched his head, looking sheepish.
“Oh, come on, it was nothing special.”
“Always such a genuinely good guy.”
“Suhyeon-ssi’s girlfriend must be so lucky~”
“I guess you have to be this sweet to stay in a long-term relationship.”
He was well-known even across other teams for being a devoted romantic. Whenever they collaborated, the chatrooms showed a clear divide—the developers often had anime profile pictures, while the planners favored snapshots of their daily lives. Among them, Suhyeon’s profile had always been a photo taken with his girlfriend.
“Ah… Well, we actually broke up last year. Haha…”
He offered an awkward smile. Because they only collaborated occasionally, news traveled slowly. A conversation that started as compliments had unintentionally struck a sore spot. Sensing the sudden chill in the air, Suhyeon smoothly handled it.
“Oh, it’s fine. It was quite a while ago, and we didn’t end on bad terms. It was just… well, distance was an issue, and we both had big ambitions for our careers…”
It seemed to have ended over practical adult complications. Yunseok, who had gone through something similar, chimed in with playful advice.
“Date someone in the company. In-house romance is the way to go. You’re close, they understand how busy work gets—what’s not to like?”
He was living proof, having successfully married someone he met within the company. In a massive corporation with constant cross-team collaboration, it wasn’t uncommon for colleagues to become couples through projects. Just then, Suhyeon and Danbi’s eyes met briefly across the table. When Danbi didn’t look away, Suhyeon cleared his throat and turned his head first.
As chatter flowed back and forth, vibrant cuts of bright red beef sizzled over the scorching grill. The moment the youngest member picked up the tongs, Suhyeon naturally took them over and began grilling the meat.
“Grilling meat just happens to be my specialty. Everyone’s fine with a little pink in the middle, right?”
He displayed an exaggerated sense of pride so the youngest wouldn’t feel guilty. Even in the smallest gestures, his ingrained thoughtfulness shone through. He was the kind of person who naturally lifted the mood just by being around.
After a few bites of beef, people began calling for alcohol.
“Danbi-ssi, have a glass. You worked so hard today.”
Suhyeon offered Danbi a drink. Danbi tapped the bicycle helmet she pulled from her bag and smiled.
“Sorry, I have to ride my bike home later. Definitely no drinking and riding.”
“Ah, you use the public bikes? Why not just take a cab?”
“My place is close by, so taking a cab is an awkward distance. I just ride for some exercise.”
“You mentioned you live alone near the office, right?”
“Yes.”
Suhyeon didn’t push the drink any further. Instead, he placed a perfectly grilled piece of meat onto Danbi’s plate. As his arm reached close, a faint scent of soap brushed against her nose. A scent that felt both familiar and strange. Once, long ago, that boy in school uniform had smelled like this, too.
“Is that so? I live around here too. Whereabouts?”
Just as Suhyeon was about to continue, Danbi felt a sharp, persistent gaze pierce into the side of her face. Turning her head, she saw Hae-il at the neighboring table a short distance away, staring intently at her. She tried to tell herself she was imagining things, but without a doubt, his eyes were locked squarely on her.
‘What on earth is his problem…?’
Danbi let out a deep sigh inwardly.
“Danbi-ssi?”
“Ah, I’m out of it. What were we talking about?”
“You must be really exhausted. You’re eating meat with your chin.”
Suhyeon poked his own chin playfully. She had been so preoccupied with Hae-il that she hadn’t even noticed where the meat was going. Every time she locked eyes with him, it felt like an error occurred in her brain.
As a malfunctioning Danbi fumbled and wiped the wrong spot, Suhyeon chuckled softly. She looked to Dongjun beside her for help, but he was already thoroughly drunk, with sauce smeared all over his own mouth. Developers often expressed their current status through their faces like this—intuitive and efficient.
“Mmh… wha…?”
“Never mind. Just eat up.”
Watching the glitching humans with mild amusement, Suhyeon asked gently.
“May I wipe it for you?”
“Ah, it’s fine. I can just go to the restroom later and…”
“Hmm, it looks pretty funny, though.”
Suhyeon barely stifled a laugh. Danbi flinched at his words. Normally, she wouldn’t care what was on her face, but right now, she was acutely conscious of Hae-il’s gaze pinned on her. In the end, Danbi leaned her face forward a fraction. Suhyeon pulled a tissue without hesitation and gently wiped away the sauce from her chin. It was right at that moment.
Crash—
Every eye in the restaurant snapped toward the source of the sound. Beneath the table where the Team Leaders and the Director sat, spilled alcohol and shattered glass lay scattered in disarray. Everyone seated at that table wore horrified expressions, yet Hae-il—the very person who had shattered the glass—stared straight at Danbi without flinching in the slightest.
She couldn’t endure that gaze any longer.
“Excuse me, I need to use the restroom…”
Danbi bolted from her seat, practically fleeing.
Only after leaving the restaurant and ducking into a quiet alleyway did she feel like she could breathe again. Though she hadn’t had a drop of alcohol, her face burned like fire, and her mind was a tangled mess. As the chilly night air brushed against her cheeks, she slowly regained her senses.
Just then, a familiar scent of perfume drifted in on the breeze. A scent she had grown all too accustomed to—crisp, yet somehow chilling. A rich, mature fragrance that effortlessly overwhelmed the faint soap scent she had smelled on Suhyeon moments ago. Without realizing it, Danbi turned toward the source.
It was Han Hae-il, as expected. How had he even found her here? Striding over on long legs, he came to stand right beside Danbi as she leaned against the wall. The brief refuge she had fought to find was stolen away once more. In the inevitable silence that fell between them, Danbi spoke first.
“Why did you come out?”
“Just because. I felt suffocated in there.”
His voice was pitched a shade lower than usual. Suffocated? Could it be that sitting with the older Team Leaders and the Director was uncomfortable for him? Or perhaps the work stress had piled up on him as well. Even for someone like Han Hae-il, the burden of leading so many people was bound to be heavy.
“You… worked hard today.”
“Worked hard at what?”
“Um… The hardship of eating next to a nagging Director? Though I doubt he said much to you, Team Leader.”
“So you noticed who I was sitting with.”
Danbi’s heart dropped at his pointed remark. The fact that their eyes had met so often was clear proof that she, too, had been conscious of him.
“And yet you sat someone else there instead of me. Our team members, and you too, Danbi-ssi.”
He was clearly reproaching her for having Suhyeon take the empty seat at their table.
“Ah, we just assumed you’d naturally sit with the other Team Leaders…”
“So you didn’t even consider me.”
To think he would feel slighted over something so trivial. Was he actually feeling isolated at the company? While Danbi was flustered by his unexpected reaction, he clicked his tongue softly and continued.
“Shouldn’t you have seated me by default?”
His low, gravelly voice clung heavily to her ears. Just as she sensed the shift in the air, Hae-il shifted his stance to face Danbi directly. Without asking for permission, his towering presence seized her entire field of vision. With the moonlight behind him, his features were strikingly vivid even in the shadows. His unfathomable eyes gleamed fiercely in the dark. Danbi could neither avoid nor turn away from his gaze.
“Even when I try to understand, I just can’t make sense of this.”
“…What?”
“I mean, think about it. Does it make any sense? I’m right next to you, and you’re distracted by some other bastard…”
She couldn’t quite grasp what he was saying. He clearly seemed displeased, but this was different from his usual rebukes—it held an emotion far deeper, far darker. Had she made another mistake? Though she hadn’t touched a single drop of alcohol, her stomach churned, and a hot sensation surged up her throat.
“The Lee Danbi I know.”
The moment the man in front of her ceased to be ‘Team Leader Han’ and became solely the man ‘Han Hae-il,’ her heart began to hammer wildly.
“Likes me.”
Thump, thump, thump. The sound of her own heart felt loud enough to drown out the entire world. Beyond that noise, his voice from a distant memory overlapped with the present.
‘You like me, don’t you.’
Just like that day when he had uncovered her innermost feelings so casually, with an arrogant, self-assured expression. He could still shake Danbi to her core this easily.
Indeed. Han Hae-il was Lee Danbi’s first love.
