The Textbook of a Lover - Chapter 50

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

50.
“Listen, even if it doesn’t look like much, I’m still the one who saved your life.”
Gyeong-jun’s voice rose.
“When you were about to tumble off that cliff, I risked my own life to pull you back! Without me, you wouldn’t be standing here at all.”
So what. What was she supposed to do about it.
She’d done more than enough for him, hadn’t she.
She’d poured everything into repaying that debt, and he’d tossed her aside like a worn-out rag.
She twisted her wrist hard, but Gyeong-jun’s grip didn’t budge.
“Let go!”
Do-ah was trying to wrench free with a kick when a voice cut through.
“Bragging about saving someone’s life—how shameless can you be.”
The low, cold voice dropped like a stone onto the Mountain Trail.
Both Do-ah and Gyeong-jun’s heads snapped toward the sound.
Beneath the dense shade of the trees, Cha-gyeong stood looking down at them, his eyes glinting with a cold, lethal light.
Heavy, measured footsteps thundered across the ground as he approached.
“W-why are you—aaaagh!”
Gyeong-jun’s question dissolved into a scream.
Cha-gyeong had seized his wrist and twisted it sharply to the left with terrible force.
The sickening crack of joints dislocating shattered the silence.
“Aagh! Did you break it? Seriously!”
Gyeong-jun clutched his wrist, shrieking in panic.
“You think this is fine?! I’m done holding back!”
A man whose highest life principle was Strong-Weak-Weak-Strong and Self-Preservation launched himself at Cha-gyeong with sudden, blazing fury.
Do-ah tried to step in front of Cha-gyeong to shield him. But that was a grave miscalculation.
Crash!
Gyeong-jun, charging at Cha-gyeong, tripped over his own feet and slammed flat onto the ground.
“I’ve seen plenty of worthless people in my time.”
Cha-gyeong’s shoe lightly tapped the flailing figure on the ground.
“But you’re the first trash I’ve ever come across that isn’t even worth recycling.”
“I—what—what are you talking about! What’s brazen about me, what makes me trash!”
Gyeong-jun, caked in mud from rolling in a puddle, shrieked his protest.
Cha-gyeong laughed quietly. The sound carried a chilling contempt.
“I was going to keep silent—not for your sake, but to protect the people you’d hurt. But you just won’t leave it alone.”
“What are you even saying! Speak clearly!”
“How long are you planning to milk a life you never even saved? Seven years of using her—isn’t that enough?”
“What are you talking about?”
Do-ah’s mind halted.
A life he never saved? Wasn’t that her story?
When she looked at Cha-gyeong with confusion filling her eyes, he answered in a flat tone.
“I heard him talking in the Parking Lot Smoking Room before. That bastard wasn’t trying to save you that day—he was trying to push you off the cliff. So stop being dragged around by a fake benefactor.”
“No, that’s ridiculous! What would you know about it? Were you even there!”
“I was careful not to slip up. Made a recording, in fact. Want me to play it here? Or better yet, I could hand it over to Do-ah as evidence of Extortion Fraud Crime.”
“You—you bastard! Damn it! Why does a guy like you have to ruin my life like this!”
Shaking with rage, Gyeong-jun let out a shout and bolted down the mountain.
Watching his retreating back, the ground beneath her feet seemed to crumble away.
Seven years.
All those years, the precious time of my life held hostage—it was all a con man’s script?
As Do-ah’s legs gave out and she started to sink to the ground, Cha-gyeong’s strong arm caught her waist.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“Because I knew this would happen. If I hadn’t seen him trying to pull off a scam that was never going to work, I’d have taken it to my grave.”
“You should have told me anyway! You let me be the fool the whole time!”
“That doesn’t make you a fool. The con man is the one at fault.”
“I’m a fool. Seven years living like an idiot over a fake debt, playing out this Contract Relationship with you as some kind of revenge! My life is nothing but contracts and con games!”
“So now you’re comparing our Contract Relationship to what Gyeong-jun pulled?”
At that moment, a silent gasp escaped from behind the trees.
‘Contract Relationship?’
Na-hui pressed her lips together and held her breath. The shock was so complete that her breath caught in her throat, nearly triggering a cough.
Na-hui’s reason for being here was simple. She’d come for Mountain Hiking as Cha-gyeong’s partner, even shelling out a Coffee Gift Card to the organizer Seong-cheol.
For her, a hike alone with Cha-gyeong was the perfect opportunity to fully capture him.
But he’d simply disappeared, saying he had something to attend to.
Determined to track him down, Na-hui had searched the trails until she found the three of them together.
And now she’d learned an astonishing truth.
‘I knew it…… there’s no way the Hyunsin Group heir would actually date someone like Do-ah.’
How they’d agreed to it didn’t matter. What mattered was that their relationship was fake.
‘Everything the executive did for Do-ah, all the tenderness—it was just part of the contract, nothing more. But me…?’
She’d never made any contract with Cha-gyeong.
So the Brooch he’d given her, the dinner invitations he’d extended—those had to be genuine feelings.
‘Maybe he was hesitant to approach me actively because I had Gyeong-jun.’
If she told him she had a boyfriend, even a man like that wouldn’t push forward so readily.
‘Gyeong-jun.’
She’d kept him around as emergency rations in case things with Cha-gyeong didn’t work out,
but he’d already been marked down by Cha-gyeong, and his work performance was so mediocre that she’d judged him worthless anyway.
What she had to do now was clear.
Drop Gyeong-jun. Go all in on Cha-gyeong.
Na-hui pushed off from the tree and turned away. Her footsteps back were noticeably lighter.
* * *
Gyeong-jun sat on a bench far removed from the trail. His pride was wounded beyond bearing.
‘What’s so great about that guy! He just happened to be born to the right parents!’
Inferiority mixed with fear of losing his job at the company gnawed at his insides.
‘Where did it all go wrong.’
Ever since he’d gotten hired at Hyunsin Group, he’d felt like he controlled everything.
Could Do-ah have been the one bringing him luck?
Gyeong-jun shook his head sharply. He couldn’t understand why he felt such regret and longing toward Do-ah, now that she felt like a burden.
Following behind her today was all because of that inexplicable feeling.
“Gyeong-jun.”
At that moment, Na-hui’s voice reached his ears along with the cool sound of her footsteps crunching leaves.
“What are you doing here, looking so pitiful?”
Na-hui had maintained a perfect, polished hairstyle despite the hike.
With her excellent figure and feminine charm, she was incomparably better than someone like Do-ah—or so he thought in that instant.
But then a thunderbolt fell from her lips.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. Let’s break up.”
“…What?”
“I’m serious. Let’s end it. It’s not just for me—it’s for you too.”
“That doesn’t even make sense!”
“Honestly, you always seemed happier and more comfortable with Do-ah than with me.”
“Now you say this!”
“And there’s no other woman who’s devoted to you like she was.”
Fire blazed through Gyeong-jun’s chest. And he’d lost Do-ah because of who! All of this was because of him! And now—
“So you want me to break up with you now and get back together with Do-ah? As if I don’t know she’s dating Executive Cha right now!”
At that, Na-hui countered as if she’d been waiting for it.
“Is their relationship really what it seems?”

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