TW 12

Chapter 12

The moment homeroom dismissal ended, Danbi snatched up her bag. She was exhausted from spending the entire day acting as Hae-il’s “human navigation system” and “personal secretary.”

However, before she had even made it out of the classroom, Hae-il’s low voice followed her.

“Hey, Lee Danbi. Where are you going?”

Danbi turned around, pretending to be calm.

“I’m going home…….”

“What? You’re going to abandon me and go home alone? Who do you think broke my glasses?”

Hae-il approached while feeling his way along the desks and wall, then grabbed one side of Danbi’s bag.

“Take me home. All the way to my house.”

“What? Why would I go to your house…….”

“I told you that you were my eyes for the day. If you’re my eyes, you have to take responsibility until the very end. Where do you think you’re sneaking off to in the middle? You really have no sense of propriety.”

Hae-il spoke as though his logic were perfectly obvious. His hand moved from Danbi’s bag to her shoulder and arm before finally snatching her wrist.

She was dumbfounded by his absurd reasoning, but the enormous hand completely covering her wrist made even the thought of resisting fade away.

In the end, she was his navigation system once again.

As they left the school, greetings from students throughout the hallways and school grounds came rushing at them like waves.

Each time, Hae-il responded with an unusually gentle smile.

Danbi found it irritating that, among all those people showering him with attention, he had chosen the easiest person to push around.

He’ll probably put everyone beneath his feet anyway.

A bitter, self-deprecating thought rose to her throat.

And in the end, I’ll probably be the most insignificant person to him.

When they finally reached the school gate with considerable difficulty, Danbi asked,

“How are you getting home? Is your driver here? Or are your parents coming to pick you up?”

“No. I normally walk.”

“Is it close?”

“About twenty minutes on foot?”

Her expectation of a gleaming foreign car waiting nearby was thoroughly shattered.

So they really had to walk twenty minutes together?

Danbi’s brows naturally furrowed.

“Where do you live?”

The direction he pointed was exactly opposite from Danbi’s house and academy.

It was easily an hour’s journey there and back.

“Could we maybe take a taxi?”

“Do you have money?”

“You’re asking me to pay right now?”

They said the rich were shameless, but this was really something else.

He’s trying to suck the marrow out of a flea.

Danbi let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.

Hae-il awkwardly felt around the pockets of his school uniform trousers.

“I haven’t been carrying my wallet around lately. I didn’t really have anywhere to use it.”

“Seriously! You were perfectly happy to give me 500,000 won last time!”

“That’s why you should’ve accepted it then. After you refused, I realized there was no point carrying money around if I had nowhere to spend it.”

Once again, it was somehow her fault.

With no other choice, Danbi rummaged through her own wallet.

After buying a workbook yesterday, all she had left was two crumpled 1,000-won bills.

A taxi was completely out of the question.

Despite his blurry vision, Hae-il somehow spotted the blue bills and clicked his tongue.

“You don’t have a card either?”

“No…….”

“You really…… manage to lack everything.”

“Ah, whatever! I normally walk too!”

“Then walk. Think of it as exercise. Good for you.”

“Ugh. Why does the son of some LD CEO walk to school?”

“Is there some law saying people with rich parents aren’t allowed to walk?”

“……There’s no reason you can’t.”

“Then stop whining and grab on. Hurry.”

He waved a hand through the air as though asking her to give him something to hold.

Danbi stuffed her wallet into her pocket and grabbed his wrist.

His bones were thick enough to match his large frame, and she couldn’t even wrap one hand completely around it.

“I’ll hold you. I don’t trust you when you’re holding me.”

“Huh? Oh, okay.”

She had assumed he’d grab her wrist again.

But this time, he took her hand.

At the unexpected contact, her heart seemed to drop straight into her stomach with a heavy thump.

His hand was larger and firmer than she’d expected, and the sensation of her own hand caught inside it felt unfamiliar.

Danbi stared at him in surprise, but Hae-il was concentrating entirely on the stairs beneath his feet.

“Ah, shit…… I can’t see anything. Go slowly. If I fall, it’s your fault.”

So that’s why.

Danbi found the reason, but somehow, she couldn’t stop thinking about their joined hands.

Beneath his surprisingly soft skin, she could feel the straight, solid bones of his hand.

The warmth of his large hand completely enveloped hers, and the palms pressed together gradually became damp and sticky.

It’s probably because my hand is sweating.

She wanted to pull away slightly, but he was holding on tightly, leaving her no choice.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the whispers and curious gazes of students heading home focused on their clasped hands.

Especially when Danbi noticed the blatant stares from a group of girls in their class, she startled and tried to pull her hand away.

Hae-il immediately snapped at her.

“Hey! You were trying to run off and leave me just now, weren’t you? Can’t you do your job properly?”

He only needed a guide.

Danbi had no desire whatsoever to invite this kind of misunderstanding, but Hae-il seemed to belong to the sort of people who didn’t care even a speck about what others thought.

Embarrassed, Danbi quickened her pace.

He noticed immediately and became irritated.

“Hey, I told you to slow down!”

“No, you walk faster! Your legs are long, so why are you so slow?”

“I can’t see, that’s why! I can’t see……!”

“Huh? A cat.”

“Where? In front of my feet? Should I be careful?”

“No. It’s cute.”

“This crazy…… Lee Danbi! What are you doing instead of watching me!”

“Wow, there are two kittens.”

“Hey! Pay attention to me! Me!”

At his whining voice, Danbi turned her attention back to him.

Maybe I’ve gotten used to this.

Strangely, the warmth transmitted through their joined hands felt comforting.

The unfamiliar sensation had transformed into a peculiar sense of security.

Perhaps the fact that she was helping him, even if only for a moment, made her feel as though she stood on equal footing with him.

The illusion that they were friends gently tickled one corner of her heart.

After walking for quite some time, they finally arrived at Hae-il’s house.

Just as she’d heard, it was a mansion straight out of a picture.

Danbi escorted him all the way to the front gate and was about to turn around when Hae-il threw a fit, eventually forcing her to escort him all the way to the shoe cabinet.

After confirming that he had taken off his shoes and gone inside, Danbi cautiously asked,

“I’m done now, right? I’m really going home, okay?”

“Wait. Just a minute.”

“Ah, why again!”

“Just wait.”

That short, firm command silenced Danbi.

Even as he felt his way along the wall and went farther inside, he didn’t forget to remind her.

“I told you to wait. I definitely did.”

He treated her like a dog he had raised himself.

Danbi silently grumbled, but she remained rooted to the spot.

Not long afterward, Hae-il came striding back toward her wearing his glasses.

Instead of his schoolbag, he was carrying a wallet.

He slipped his feet back into the neatly removed shoes and said,

“Let’s go. I’ll buy you dinner.”

✶ ✶ ✶

The moment they stood in front of the upscale restaurant, Danbi’s steps automatically faltered.

The lighting was darker than merely subdued, and the table settings were arranged with suffocating precision.

Unfamiliar classical music.

People speaking in hushed voices.

Everything about the atmosphere overwhelmed Danbi.

Like a stranger suddenly thrown onto the stage of a play she had never been invited to, her body stiffened, and a tightness settled in her chest.

This place was clearly from a completely different world than hers.

Perhaps he had noticed her frozen expression.

Hae-il glanced at her over his glasses and asked,

“What? You don’t like Western food?”

“Um…….”

Instead of answering yes or no, Danbi anxiously looked around.

In this space where everyone seemed so familiar and comfortable, she couldn’t even figure out which of the forks and knives lined up in perfect rows and columns on the table she was supposed to pick up first.

Whatever table manners she might have once learned in passing had long since evaporated from her mind.

Shining silverware.

Formally dressed people.

Classical music whose name she didn’t know.

It felt as though everyone was staring at her because she didn’t belong among any of it.

Under that invisible pressure, Danbi nervously chewed on her lower lip.

In the end, she mustered up her courage and confessed in a small voice.

“I…… don’t really know which one I’m supposed to use first.”

Once the words left her mouth, the invisible wall hidden beneath the precarious bond they’d built throughout the day suddenly became painfully clear.

Maybe we really do live in completely different worlds.

Her heart sank coldly.

Then Hae-il spoke in an indifferent tone.

“You don’t have to know. Just eat and enjoy it.”

He left only the largest fork and knife on the table, gathered the smaller pieces together, and handed them to a passing waiter.

He did the same with his own place setting.

Then he added that they could eat every course using only those utensils.

The waiter blinked for a moment, seemingly caught off guard, but soon bowed skillfully and politely cleared away the remaining silverware.

Watching him, Hae-il turned back to Danbi and flashed her a grin.

“There. Easy now, right?”

At his smile, a small crack seemed to appear in Danbi’s world.