The Textbook of a Lover - Chapter 40

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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40.
“You could just call management or the police, couldn’t you? Are you really not capable of thinking that far?”
What did I do wrong to be scolded out of the blue like this?
“Why would we call the police over something so trivial? That’s a waste of public authority.”
“Trivial? How is that trivial? I almost got hit.”
“He was just pretending to hit me. I’ve never actually been hit before, and he’s too scared and timid to really lay hands on someone. If anything, I’m the one who does the hitting.”
“Just because something didn’t happen in the past doesn’t mean you can guarantee it won’t happen in the future.”
It felt like she was being interrogated by Cha Kyung himself.
The man who’d never shown interest in others’ affairs, always keeping his distance with cool indifference—his sudden persistence bewildered her.
“Isn’t it perfectly natural logic to assume the future will be the same as the past?”
At that, Cha Kyung’s lips curled upward at an angle. It was unmistakably a sneer.
“Ah yes, thanks to that brilliant logic of yours, you got hit so perfectly from behind and ended up with medical expenses, didn’t you?”
“Why do you keep touching on sore spots? It won’t happen again. And do you think I’d just sit there if he pulled anything? I’d kick him in the shin, that’s all.”
That was when Cha Kyung stepped close to Do A. He closed the distance abruptly, and though Do A stepped back, he was faster.
With his large, solid hand, he wrapped around her wrist and pulled her toward him sharply.
In an instant, the space between them contracted drastically.
“W-what are you doing? Let go of me.”
It didn’t hurt, but no amount of twisting could budge his grip. The overwhelming difference in strength made Do A’s eyes quiver with confusion.
“Men and women have fundamentally different skeletal structures. No matter how pathetic Woo Kyung Jun might seem, a man who decides to use his strength can’t be overpowered.”
“Then why did I get hurt? I’m fine. You seem to be overreacting, Cha Kyung.”
Instead of answering, Cha Kyung looked down at Do A steadily. A fierce heat bloomed in eyes that had been cool moments before.
Raw emotion swirled across the face of a man who was always rational and cold—something she had never seen before.
“Overreacting. Then why do you think I’m overreacting about your affairs?”
If I knew that, I’d be spreading out a mat on Gyeryongsan by now.
She forced down the feelings that had risen to her throat.
As she stood silent, her lips moving pointlessly, Cha Kyung slowly lowered his upper body toward her.
The distance between them narrowed to the point where their breath mingled.
“Answer me. Why do you think I’m doing this?”
“……That’s why I don’t understand why you’re suddenly—”
“Because I like you.”
For a moment, the air around them seemed to freeze.
What did I just hear?
Do A’s mind went completely white. Like someone struck by lightning, she stood rooted to the spot, even forgetting to breathe.
Cha Kyung’s dark gaze gripped her trembling eyes, refusing to let go.
He narrowed the distance further, as if driving a wedge between them.
Suppressed emotion erupted like an active volcano—his voice was hot and thick, overwhelming her.
“Because I like you. Because you matter to me. Because when I saw you almost getting hurt right before my eyes, I felt like I might lose my mind.”
Lightning flashed through her mind. The feeling of liking him blazed clearly across every nerve in her body.
She liked him so much she could hardly breathe, so much that tears threatened to spill.
In that moment, Do A finally understood. Just how much she liked this man.
It felt like she was confronting the emotion for the first time.
“……That can’t be right.”
But despite the turbulence in her heart, the words that fell from Do A’s lips were firm and dry.
“That can’t be right?”
Cha Kyung’s eyes shifted in an instant.
The fierce heat that had burned in his gaze moments before—as if he might devour her whole—went cold and quiet, like it had been buried under ash.
“Yes. I think your emotions just ran high because of Woo Kyung Jun. You got excited and made a mistake.”
“I made a mistake?”
“Think about it again. You must be confused.”
Gathering her courage, Do A slowly met his eyes. With all her strength, she kept her face composed and calm as she spoke.
“I’m not the kind of person you’d be drawn to.”
Cha Kyung let out a dry, mirthless laugh.
“When did Do A become Cha Kyung? You know me that well?”
As Cha Kyung’s voice rose, it happened.
“Woof!”
Do A and Cha Kyung both turned their heads at once.
A Pomeranian appeared from the entrance to the Open Ground, dragging its leash behind it, and charged at them both.
“Whoa, Mungchi! Mungchi! No, don’t go there!”
The urgent voice of the owner, who’d let go of the leash, came from behind.
But the Pomeranian had already buried its nose in Cha Kyung’s expensive suit pants, sniffing away.
“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry! He runs at anyone he sees—are you hurt at all?”
“It’s fine. But could you do something about this puppy—”
The owner pulled the leash to pry the puppy off his pants, and Cha Kyung stepped back. Do A seized the gap and nodded quickly.
“I-I’ll go ahead! Be careful going in, Cha Kyung!”
With a brief greeting, she turned and bolted without looking back.
“Huff, huff……”
Running at full speed like that, she reached home and slammed the front door shut, then breathed heavily.
“Because I like you. Because you matter to me. Because when I saw you almost getting hurt right before my eyes, I felt like I might lose my mind.”
Do A shook her head hard, side to side.
“No, no. I can’t take those words at face value. Does it make any sense, logically, that he’d like me?”
A man who was at the top by every standard—looks, family background, position, wealth—why would he possibly choose me?
He must have been right after his fight with Kyung Jun, worked up and emotional, so the words came out in the heat of the moment.
He might be painfully regretting the confession in the car on the way home.
Do A spent a long time convincing herself of this.
* * *
The next morning at Hyunshin Department Store Headquarters.
Cha Kyung arrived thirty minutes earlier than usual.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t slept. To be precise, he had slept, but the quality was abysmal.
Every time he closed his eyes, Do A’s face—eyes wide open, repeating only “That can’t be right”—played automatically in his mind.
In the elevator, recalling her face once more, a hollow laugh crossed Cha Kyung’s lips.
At thirty-one years old, he’d long since stopped counting how many confessions he’d received.
From elementary school through high school graduation, his desk was never empty.
Letters and gifts were always there, and on event days like Valentine’s Day, chocolate piled up to levels where it was impossible to carry it all away.
It was the same in adulthood. In relationships, Cha Kyung was always the one in the superior position.
With his philosophy of never blocking those who came and never begging those who left, he never clung to relationships.
So in love, he could do nothing but hold the upper hand.
“Ha! How dare she reject my confession like that.”
It rankled him. The rejection itself was galling, but the method was worse.
Not “I like you” or “I don’t like you,” not even “Let me think about it”—but “That can’t be right.”
He’d never heard such a rejection in his life.
Holding onto the response to his confession—clinging to it like a leech—he entered his office.
Scanning the day’s schedule laid out on his desk, it was packed solid.
Just as well. If he stayed busy, maybe he’d think about it less.
Cha Kyung headed to the Large Conference Room for his first meeting of the day—the results review.
Team leaders and above from each division attended the results meeting.
Roughly a dozen people sat around an oval table, and Cha Kyung stared expressionlessly at his tablet from the head of the table.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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