TW 26

Chapter 26

He led her to the conference room. Danbi was visibly flustered by his sudden actions.

“Team Leader, why are we suddenly going to the conference room…? Ah, if this is work-related, I should at least go get my laptop—”

“No. Just come.”

He cut her off and opened the conference room door. The chill of the empty, lifeless space swept over them.

Hae-il silently pulled out one of the chairs at the table for her. Reluctantly, as though she were being dragged along, Danbi sat down. Only after confirming that she had taken her seat did he sit across from her.

The two of them faced each other across the long table, their hands wrapped around paper cups that were still steaming.

Danbi seemed completely unable to understand the situation. With only her eyes, she was asking, What is going on?

Faced with that direct, transparent gaze, Hae-il unconsciously looked away and stared down at his coffee cup.

Only a few days ago, she had been the one avoiding him.

But on the night of the company dinner, after they had drawn a clear line between themselves as superior and subordinate, she had strangely seemed much more comfortable around him. Especially after the day they cleared up their misunderstanding and she gave him a sandwich, she had stopped avoiding his gaze altogether.

Meanwhile, he had found himself trapped in a completely reversed situation.

Whenever he looked at her, whose presence had once made him feel nothing but comfortable, his heart now dropped without permission. His tension often made him avert his eyes in a way completely unlike himself.

He hated himself for acting this way.

He needed to escape this ridiculous state immediately.

“Um… What was it you wanted to tell me…?”

After being summoned there and left waiting in silence for so long, Danbi prompted him impatiently.

Hae-il gathered his courage and met her eyes.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single trace of the man Han Hae-il in them.

They were filled only with a list of work-related tasks that needed to be dealt with.

Ironically, that impatience cut through the last of his hesitation.

He no longer had the time or energy to continue this exhausting emotional battle.

“Danbi. Are you seeing anyone right now?”

His voice, once spoken, cut through the silence of the conference room with astonishing calmness.

A good start.

Even after asking the question, he didn’t avert his gaze.

This time, he had to memorize every single one of her reactions without missing a thing.

Perhaps the question had been completely unexpected, because clear bewilderment flashed across her face.

The hand holding her coffee cup stopped in midair.

Hae-il swallowed dryly as he waited for her answer.

His heart was thrashing wildly, pounding against his ribs as though it had gone mad.

After a brief silence, Danbi slowly opened her mouth.

“…No. I’m not.”

The moment he heard her answer, the enormous boulder pressing down on Hae-il seemed to crumble into dust.

The breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding escaped in a long sigh of relief.

After observing her ever since their misunderstanding had been cleared up, he had guessed that she wasn’t seeing anyone. But hearing the confirmation directly from her lips made even that tiny bit of anxiety vanish as though it had never existed.

“Good, then.”

At his quiet murmur, Danbi looked even more confused.

“Huh? What’s good…?”

Instead of answering, Hae-il rose from his seat.

He slowly walked toward where she was sitting and stopped right beside her chair.

Placing one hand on the table and looking down at her, he suddenly closed the distance between them.

Danbi’s shoulders drew up slightly.

Her round eyes were filled entirely with his reflection.

Hae-il looked straight down at her and spoke.

“Lee Danbi.”

At the sound of her name, Danbi swallowed hard.

She must have realized it too.

Right now, in this place, there were no Team Leader and team member.

There were only the man, Han Hae-il, and the woman, Lee Danbi.

Seeing that awareness shake her eyes, a strange sense of calm spread through Hae-il’s heart.

She had said no, but he couldn’t help holding on to the groundless hope that she hadn’t completely forgotten her first love after all.

He looked at her, nestled neatly within his shadow.

The desire to make her his immediately and lock her within his arms burned through his mind.

He wanted to burn away this awkward period entirely and take her somewhere where nothing existed except the warmth of their breaths.

He wanted to devour that body with the darkest, most shameless hunger in the world.

He wanted Lee Danbi.

Desperately.

Hae-il took a breath and began confidently.

“Don’t be too surprised. Listen carefully. And take a deep breath, too.”

“…Yes?”

“What I’m about to say might be a little shocking. You probably won’t believe it. I don’t believe it myself.”

“What? What is it…?”

He could see the puzzlement on her face gradually turning into anxiety.

Hae-il even enjoyed that expression as he finally got to the point.

“I think I like you.”

He confessed his feelings in a matter-of-fact tone, but embarrassment immediately washed over him, making him lower his head.

He had merely said I like you, so why did his entire body suddenly feel so itchy and awkward?

But she must feel the same way.

No matter how long ago those feelings had been, she was being confessed to by her first love—Han Hae-il, who had become practically perfect.

After clearing his throat for no reason, he continued.

“So, I was wondering if you’d like to go out wi—”

It was when he raised his head to deliver the final point of the day.

What entered his field of vision was Danbi’s face, drained completely of color.

She was staring at him with trembling eyes as though she had seen a ghost.

It wasn’t excitement or surprise at his confession.

It was unmistakably fear.

Hae-il stopped breathing at her incomprehensible reaction.

Then Danbi suddenly sprang up from her chair.

And immediately knelt down in front of him.

“Team Leader, I’m really sorry…”

“…Huh?”

“I-I haven’t even prepared for my own retirement yet, let alone my parents’ retirement. We have debts at home, too, and the job market is so difficult these days, and I have next month’s credit card bill coming up right away…”

She rattled off her miserable circumstances one after another, then looked up at Hae-il with her eyebrows drooping pitifully.

She clasped both hands together as though begging for her life and continued.

“I just want to keep working at this company like I am now. Please, let me do that, Team Leader. I’ll work really hard! I’ll even work twice as much overtime to make sure I get the best results! I mean it!”

She was begging him as though he were some merciless superior who was about to fire her.

Hae-il was so dumbfounded by Danbi’s reaction that he froze completely.

He had entered the input confession, yet somehow the output had been demand for survival.

None of it made sense.

Just as he finally tried to part his lips, Danbi interrupted him in horror.

“I-I think I understand why you’re doing this, too! You must be lonely and having a hard time because you’re living in Korea again after being away for so long! I’m the only one who ate meals with you, I’m a familiar face so I’m an easy person to approach, and we’re coworkers, too…! I think it’s just a combination of all those feelings, but does it really have to be me?”

“…What?”

“There are so many women your age in this company, and anyone can eat a meal with you! Is Lee Danbi even remotely good enough for you, Team Leader? Oh, no! Absolutely not! You should meet someone much better!”

Danbi poured out those words as though she were trying to pass a bomb off to another woman.

Then she looked up at him with teary eyes, like an animal rolling onto its back and begging to be spared.

As though his confession were some unexpected misfortune or disaster that had befallen her.

Hae-il was too shocked to say anything.

At that, Danbi’s face suddenly brightened.

Apparently, she had interpreted his silence as agreement.

Carefully, she began to rise in the silence.

“Then I’ll take it that way and forget everything I heard here today.”

Forget?

The first confession of my entire life…?

“What? No, wait…”

Hae-il reached out to stop her as she tried to walk past him.

Danbi recoiled as though she had been burned by something hot and slapped his hand away.

“Eek!”

“Ow…”

“Ah, I’m sorry! I was startled…”

“Lee Danbi. No, Danbi. Wait a second… I…”

“Um… Team Leader. I think I understand that you’ve been exhausted because of all the overtime lately, so you might naturally develop feelings like this! I, Lee Danbi, will become a truly hardworking subordinate! I swear, I’ll work so hard I’m willing to shit my pants! LD, heading toward the world! Development Team 1, fighting!”

She suddenly burst into a passionate display of company loyalty, bent at the waist at a perfect ninety-degree angle, and then fled the conference room.

Hae-il was left standing alone in the empty conference room.

Overwhelmed by shock and absurdity, he couldn’t move for a long while.

Everything in Han Hae-il’s life had always moved according to plan and under his control.

But what had just happened before his eyes could not be interpreted according to any logic in the world he knew.

Han Hae-il’s world had come to a complete stop.

What the hell… was this situation…?