TW 16

Chapter 16

“Hey. Long time no see, huh?”

Hae-il waited until he had sent all the other team members out under the plausible pretext of a private one-on-one meeting before finally greeting Danbi.

His voice carried far more of the relaxed confidence of someone in a position of authority than the warmth one might expect from an old friend meeting again after a long time.

“Excuse me? What…… do you mean?”

But the response he received was a look of bewilderment, her eyes glistening with moisture—a reaction that completely betrayed Hae-il’s expectations.

Danbi looked at him with wide eyes as though he were a complete stranger.

There was no way she could have failed to recognize him.

Even though more than ten years had passed, there was no way the three syllables of the name Han Hae-il could have faded so easily from her memories.

Then this had to be some clumsy act brought about by extreme embarrassment and shyness.

Hae-il suppressed the laughter threatening to bubble up inside him.

Well, it was understandable.

Her first love from the distant past had suddenly appeared before her after more than a decade, and he had returned looking this dazzlingly successful.

Of course her heart would be trembling as though it might burst.

But to pretend not to recognize him this obviously?

Perhaps today’s perfectly tailored suit had made her excessively nervous.

For a moment, he even wondered whether he should have shown up looking a little more disheveled.

Amused by Danbi’s adorable reaction, Hae-il decided to play along.

Barely suppressing the laughter that was about to escape, he answered shamelessly.

“Ah~ I must have mistaken you for someone else. I’m sorry, Ms. Danbi.”

From that day onward, life with Danbi began once again.

They were confined to the limited space of the office.

Whenever their eyes met, Danbi would lower her head as though they had made some kind of agreement beforehand.

The sight gave Hae-il a peculiar sense of satisfaction.

She still can’t even look me in the eye.

Well, of course.

Her first love had returned as such an impressive adult. It was only natural for her heart to tremble.

Amused by her reactions, Hae-il kept finding excuses to talk to her.

It started with trivial questions related to work, then moved on to the weather outside the window, and even recommendations for snacks.

Every time, Danbi would answer in short, clipped sentences with a stiff expression, or quietly slip away from her seat.

Once, Hae-il spotted Danbi walking toward him from the other end of the hallway and was just about to greet her.

But the moment Danbi noticed him as well, she turned deathly pale as though she had seen a ghost and hurriedly hid herself behind the wall of the nearest conference room.

Hae-il was so dumbfounded that he burst out laughing.

Seriously? She’s that bad?

She’s even worse than when she was young.

Of course, there was plenty of small amusement to be found in her reactions, but Hae-il was beginning to want to have a proper, meaningful conversation with her.

How had she lived during the years he had been absent?

Why had she chosen this company out of all the companies in the world?

Had she really still been waiting for someone who existed only as a memory?

Perhaps they could have a drink together and talk honestly.

A pleasant wine bar?

Or an upscale restaurant?

If I asked her to come to my place, would she just faint on the spot?

Imagining her reaction made him chuckle.

Speak of the devil.

Around quitting time, Danbi came into view while waiting for the elevator with her bag over her shoulder.

Hae-il approached her, deliberately wearing the most casual and natural expression he could manage.

“Ms. Danbi, are you heading home now?”

At the sound of his voice, Danbi jumped and shrank her shoulders.

Afraid she might run away again, Hae-il hurriedly continued.

“Could you talk to me for a moment……”

But before he could finish, Danbi suddenly clutched her abdomen and contorted her face in pain.

“Huh? What’s wrong? Are you feeling sick?”

At Hae-il’s question, she barely managed to answer with a pained expression.

“Ah, my stomach suddenly…… Hng…… ha…… I’m sorry, Team Leader. I, um, really have to go……”

Trailing off, she disappeared into the women’s restroom while clutching her stomach.

Left standing there alone, Hae-il stared toward the restroom for a moment before letting out a hollow laugh.

I didn’t think she’d be this bad.

Apparently, the overly perfect way he had styled himself had caused such extreme tension that it had brought about this situation.

He seriously considered toning down his appearance starting tomorrow.

At this rate, she might have to run to the restroom every time she saw him.

The thirty minutes he spent waiting for her outside the restroom were not boring at all.

If anything, that time was proof of just how conscious Danbi was of him.

He did not bother hiding the smile spreading across his lips.

Ah, this is so much fun.

His time in America suddenly seemed insignificant.

He even thought that coming back to Korea had been absolutely the right decision.

When Danbi finally emerged, Hae-il generously granted her the privilege of choosing.

His magnanimity was almost like that of a benevolent ruler bestowing a favor upon a subject.

“Coffee, dinner, or drinks. Which one do you want? Pick.”

“Coffee…….”

You should obviously choose drinks at a time like this, you idiot.

He had at least expected her to choose a pleasant café somewhere near the office.

But Danbi stubbornly chose the company café.

Hae-il clicked his tongue inwardly.

If she’s still this innocent and inexperienced, what am I supposed to do with her?

For some reason, he felt disappointed.

Disappointed? Me?

Over what?

For the briefest moment, an inexplicable ripple passed across Hae-il’s brow before disappearing.

“Um…… Team Leader. May I ask why you wanted to talk to me?”

Team Leader.

She kept calling him that.

As though she had made up her mind beforehand, Danbi treated Hae-il exactly like a superior she was meeting for the first time.

No—her attitude went beyond mere politeness.

It was almost entirely businesslike.

As that excessive formality continued, Hae-il slowly began to grow tired of it.

“What about you?”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t you have something you want to say to me?”

He knew perfectly well that she was nervous.

That was enough.

Now he wanted her to take off that mask and call his name like she used to.

He wanted her to show even the slightest curiosity about how he had changed during their years apart, why he had returned to Korea, or whether he was still single.

Even something that trivial would have been enough.

“Uh…… I don’t think I do.”

“I think you do.”

You’re an adult now, too. Surely you can muster that much courage.

“……I don’t.”

Why was she choosing to take the difficult route when the easy one was right there?

If Han Hae-il himself had graciously descended all the way here, shouldn’t she have been overcome with emotion and cried, “Hae-il! Finally!”, after which everything else would have proceeded smoothly?

The seventeen-year-old boy from her memories had appeared right before her eyes as a dazzling adult—and, on top of that, as her superior at the same company.

Surely…… she doesn’t really not recognize me.

Just as that chilling anxiety began sprouting like poisonous weeds, Danbi subtly shifted her bag to the side as though preparing to stand.

“Team Leader, if you don’t have anything else to say…… I think I’ll be going now……”

How long have we even been sitting here?

Hae-il suddenly became desperate.

He frantically rummaged through his mind and grabbed onto the first thing that came to him.

The most reliable excuse a superior had for keeping an employee around was work.

“About that B Project.”

Hae-il deliberately rambled on at length about the progress and problems of the B Project, which he did not particularly care about.

Danbi looked bewildered, as though she had no idea what was going on, repeatedly lowering her head and saying,

“I’m sorry.”

Hae-il’s patience was beginning to run out in the face of Danbi’s constant insistence on defining him as nothing more than Team Leader.

Was it really possible that she didn’t recognize me?

No.

There was no way.

It was true that he had become several times more impressive than he had been in the past, but he had not changed so much that his very identity had been replaced.

The name Han Hae-il should have been engraved deep within her heart.

Just as his confidence, bordering on arrogance, suppressed the anxiety beginning to rise inside him, Danbi suddenly asked a question from an entirely different dimension.

“Are you…… lonely?”

It was such an out-of-place question that it was almost bizarre.

Lonely? Me?

Han Hae-il had never once in his life been acquainted with the feeling of loneliness.

He had always been surrounded by people, and given his independent nature, he was more likely to enjoy solitude than feel lonely.

So why was she asking him about loneliness?

Tens of thousands of possibilities flashed through Hae-il’s mind like lightning.

Surely, when she says “lonely,” she means…… between a man and a woman?

At that moment, he felt a heavy thud somewhere in his lower abdomen, as though something hot had suddenly dropped into place.

Wow…… Lee Danbi.

She’s coming straight at me this boldly?

The fastball had come from a completely unexpected angle, and Hae-il needed a moment to catch his breath.

His heart began beating rapidly of its own accord.

Yes.

While he had grown into a proper man, Danbi had also grown into a mature woman.

Sometimes adult conversations really could move at astonishing speed.

Hae-il desperately maintained his composure as he asked,

“Uh…… hmm…… Which kind of loneliness do you mean?”

At the exact moment Danbi simply looked at him and blinked her pretty eyes instead of answering, an emergency-issue notification appeared on her phone.

The subtle atmosphere lingering between the two of them scattered pointlessly.

But her meaningful question followed Hae-il all the way to his bedroom that night, scratching incessantly at his nerves.

Why had she asked that?

If it hadn’t been for that damn notification, what would Danbi have said next?

If I had honestly admitted that I was lonely, how would she have intended to fill that emptiness?

The red lips he had seen that afternoon kept appearing before his eyes.

The faint, sweet scent of fruit that drifted around her whenever he passed by.

The feminine curves of her body that were usually concealed beneath loose-fitting T-shirts and sweaters but occasionally revealed themselves in fleeting glimpses.

While he had grown into a man, Danbi had also become a woman.

Whether it was because of the cheap company coffee he had drunk that evening or for some other reason, sleep refused to come.

This is all Danbi’s fault for suggesting coffee.

Perhaps because he had finally fallen asleep after silently blaming her, she appeared in his dream that night.

Danbi was naked, straddling him and moving her hips seductively, her breathing ragged.

“Ah…… Hae-il…… Mmm, it’s so big…… I like it……”

Her cheeks were flushed bright red, and her deep eyes were moist with desire.

Just as she had been when he first caught her feelings for him.

No—this time, she was even more blatant, whispering through her expression and movements that she wanted him.

Her smoothly moving hips wrapped tightly around him.

His reason collapsed helplessly beneath the waves of pleasure she created.

When the final wave overwhelmed him and everything spilled out, he was pulled up from beneath the surface of the dream and back into reality.

The moment he opened his eyes, he felt the damp sensation.

He checked his lower body and let out a hollow, disbelieving laugh.

A wet dream.

Damn Lee Danbi.

He felt as though his body had regressed all the way back to that of a seventeen-year-old boy.

Even so, the sensation of having completely possessed her in the dream, followed by the release that came afterward, had not been unpleasant at all.

Hae-il lingered for a long time in the darkness, savoring the lingering traces of that intense sensation.

Then, thinking that there was no harm in being prepared ahead of time, he ordered condoms from an overseas shopping site.