The Textbook of a Lover - Chapter 44

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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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44.
Do-ah turned her head slightly, nodded with an infuriating lack of enthusiasm, and spoke.
“Even if I do work at the Agency, we’re not close enough for you to speak to me that way. Please be more careful going forward.”
She said nothing more and vanished quickly from Gyeong-jun’s sight.
“She wasn’t like this before. When did she become so sharp-tongued?”
A memory from the past flickered through Gyeong-jun’s mind.
The Do-ah he’d known before used to act as though she couldn’t survive without him. Whenever he called, no matter where or what time, she would come running.
“If Do-ah had kept dating me, she’d never have given someone like Cha-gyeong a second look.”
A sudden, inexplicable sense of loss washed over him. Gyeong-jun shook his head hurriedly.
“Whatever. What’s so different about that country girl anyway?”
Yet Do-ah’s impassive face didn’t fade easily from his mind.
* * *
‘Must not be my lucky day.’
After the encounter with Gyeong-jun, Do-ah returned to the office and brushed her sleeves as though she’d picked up bad luck itself.
Woo Gyeong-jun was like a Lego brick she’d stepped on barefoot, stale bread she’d bitten into only to discover past its expiration date, a toothbrush lost in a toilet, a nasty voice-phishing scammer—a blight upon her existence.
Running into him in the hallway alone was enough to ruin the entire day.
“Na-hui, where did you get your hair done? It looks great. I want to try it too.”
“Oh, this? I went to a salon in Cheongdam-dong, but the owner actually tried to talk me out of it at first. She said my head shape wasn’t suited for Western-style volume—it’d look cheap. But then she felt my head and immediately picked up her scissors.”
As Do-ah sat down with a sigh, she heard Na-hui chatting and laughing with the other colleagues—Do-ah’s personal ransomware, spreading its infection.
‘If her head shape is so pretty, why doesn’t she get an MRI scan and wear it as her employee ID around her neck?’
Do-ah silently clicked her tongue and gripped her mouse.
Yes, she must be enjoying herself immensely.
Enjoy it while you can.
Because when you fall, you’ll fall all the deeper for it.
Yet somewhere in her chest, something still pricked.
‘What if—just what if—I lose Cha-gyeong to Na-hui the way I lost Gyeong-jun to her?’
Do-ah shook her head sharply, startling herself.
It couldn’t happen. Unlike Gyeong-jun, who used to light up whenever he saw Na-hui even when they were dating, Cha-gyeong had always been indifferent. That much, at least, Do-ah could trust.
She was certain of it—of that look in his eyes.
She put aside the needless thoughts and was just beginning to organize some documents when—
Her mobile phone vibrated on the desk.
The number wasn’t saved. A client? External company calls often weren’t saved, so Do-ah picked up.
“Hello?”
— Do-ah, it’s me. Cha-gyeong’s grandmother.
The phone nearly slipped from her hand. Do-ah caught it quickly with both hands.
“Grandmother. Hello.”
— I startled you calling out of the blue, didn’t I? Is it a burden that I’m calling like this?
“Not at all. I was just surprised you were calling. It’s wonderful to hear from you, Grandmother.”
— You really do speak so prettily, Do-ah. Anyway, have you been very busy lately?
When the Hyeonsin Department Store campaign was in full swing, she’d been swamped, but recently things had been much lighter.
“Not really, no.”
— I keep telling that fool Cha-gyeong that I want to see our pretty Do-ah, but he’s always making excuses, saying you’re too busy. So I called you directly to check.
Ah, I see.
Yet Cha-gyeong had never once mentioned that his grandmother wanted to see her.
“It’s just that the project revisions kept my schedule quite full. I think the Director has been considerate of my workload.”
— That boy actually thinks about such things? So you’re less busy now?
“Yes, Grandmother.”
— I’ll arrange something through Cha-gyeong soon. And if that stubborn thing refuses, we’ll just meet on our own.
“Yes. I’d like that.”
Even after the call ended, Do-ah remained frozen like a statue, phone still in hand.
Why hadn’t he mentioned that his grandmother wanted to see her?
Wasn’t the heart of the contract to play the perfect lover in front of his family? That’s why they’d practiced dating, after all.
‘Could it be that he doesn’t need me to play that role anymore? Or has he lost interest and wants to break the contract? Is he thinking of replacing me with Na-hui…?’
Do-ah clenched both fists. She had to cut off this chain of spiraling imagination.
‘Maybe there are specific times when he needs me to look like his lover. Maybe he just said that because he was busy.’
Do-ah forced herself to think as rationally as possible.
* * *
When quitting time arrived, the office came alive with movement.
Na-hui was the first to bolt from her desk.
She’d apparently prepared everything in advance—the moment the clock struck the hour, she uttered only “I’ll be on my way,” and disappeared.
Do-ah saved the final files and shut down her computer.
Her head throbbed; she wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed.
As she pushed through the revolving door into the evening air, the thick, humid heat rushed at her.
Walking toward the subway station, Do-ah’s eyes instinctively followed the pink jacket bobbing ahead of her.
It was Na-hui.
She’d left first, but apparently hadn’t gone far.
Her bouncy gait made Do-ah wonder if something good had happened.
A black sedan glided smoothly to a stop in the parking area beside the tree-lined street.
The car was familiar to Do-ah.
“Director!”
Na-hui’s high-pitched voice carried clearly to where Do-ah stood.
Without hesitation, Na-hui pulled open the passenger door herself and got in.
Before the door even closed, the black sedan smoothly merged back into traffic.
Watching the red taillights recede, Do-ah stood motionless, as though her heels had been driven into the cement.
“This is what’s supposed to happen. This is what I set in motion.”
Her murmured words trembled at the edges.
Everything was unfolding exactly as she’d wanted, yet her vision flashed crimson.
* * *
In the dark room, streetlight filtered through half-open blinds, casting pale shadows across the bed.
Do-ah lay motionless, eyes closed, staring up at the ceiling.
“Director, I just bought this perfume. How do you like it? Is it your taste?”
Na-hui held her wrist up to Cha-gyeong’s nose.
Cha-gyeong kept his left hand on the steering wheel, turning his head toward Na-hui’s wrist, bringing his nose close to it.
“It’s lovely. A charm as captivating as Na-hui herself. Though of course, nothing compares to Na-hui.”
“Now this is just melodrama.”
Do-ah jerked her head roughly against the pillow, the back of her skull pressing into it.
It was to shake off the vile images playing on loop in her mind.
“Why do I keep imagining such nonsense? That ice-cold man would never say something like that to Na-hui.”
She turned her head to the left.
“No. Even if he did say something like that, what would be wrong with it? Nothing. It’s exactly what I wanted. It’s the picture I orchestrated.”
Then why did her heart feel so unsettled, so restless?
She even felt disappointed in the imagined version of Cha-gyeong for letting Na-hui into the car so easily.
Telling herself to just sleep already, she squeezed her eyes shut.
Buzz—
A vibration sounded from the nightstand.
Do-ah rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and checked the screen.
[XX University Alumni Association President: Alumni Mountain Hiking Club Announcement.]
It was a long message about the final deadline to register for a mountain hike happening two weeks away.
“A mountain hike……”
She had no conflicting schedule, and seeing the faces of classmates and senior and junior alumni wasn’t unpleasant.
The problem was that human Lego brick Woo Gyeong-jun and that human ransomware Na-hui would definitely be there.
Two people who were so obsessed with networking that they’d show up even if they had to paste iron plates on their faces.
Of course, it would depend on Na-hui’s inclination.
In any case, standing out as the pitiful woman who’d lost her man to a friend was exactly what she wanted to avoid.
Buzz. Buzz.
While she was deliberating, a text came from Su-jin, a close friend from her year.

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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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