The Textbook of a Lover - Chapter 67

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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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67.
Cha Kyung had never turned such a cold edge toward her before.
He was distant and aloof with others, which worried people, yet with his family he had always been gentle, with a softness around the edges.
Faced with this grandson she barely recognized, Gyuseon felt a chill bloom inside her chest.
“I don’t believe in superstition. So I could dismiss all of it as coincidence. But.”
Cha Kyung looked directly at Gyuseon as he spoke.
“But when I think that Seong Do-ah came to my side in the first place for that reason, I cannot accept it — even if everything was coincidence.”
“Cha Kyung…”
Hye-jung’s mouth opened and closed. Any words she might speak would sound like an excuse.
“This isn’t your fault.”
Cha Kyung’s eyes dropped to the floor. For the first time, his voice wavered.
“I chose to go along with it. Even though I don’t believe in superstition, it was easier when the accidents stopped, and I liked having Seong Do-ah beside me, so I just… accepted it. The responsibility lies with me.”
The room fell silent. Neither Gyuseon nor Hye-jung could speak.
“So I’ll end this myself.”
Cha Kyung lifted his head. His eyes were red, dry.
“I’m going to break up with Seong Do-ah.”
Hye-jung bolted from her seat. Gyuseon’s weathered hands gripped the tablecloth on the table.
“Cha Kyung, does it have to be this way? It’s not just you who will be hurt…”
Gyuseon pressed her trembling hand to her chest as she spoke.
“Do-ah will be deeply wounded too.”
The muscle along Cha Kyung’s jaw hardened like stone. He looked like a dam on the verge of breaking.
“There’s no helping it. It’s better than… than dying.”
Cha Kyung turned without hesitation and left. His footsteps across the wooden floor toward the entrance rang out sharp and resolute as a blade.
Hye-jung moved to follow, but Gyuseon gripped her arm.
“Mother, Cha Kyung…”
“Let him go.”
Gyuseon’s voice was hoarse.
The dull sound of the front door closing echoed through the entire house.
Gyuseon settled back into her chair. The tea in her cup had grown cold, releasing no steam. She stared at it for a long moment, then closed her eyes.
* * *
Through the gap in the curtains, autumn sunlight slanted in and crossed the bed at an angle.
Only the steady beeping of the Heart Monitor proved that Seong Do-ah was alive.
Cha Kyung sat in the chair beside the bed, looking down at Seong Do-ah. Her cheeks were even more gaunt than they had been five days ago.
Seong Do-ah’s voice came back to him—it must have been the day she ate noodles for a celebration at home.
She had wept at the sight of her own name engraved on the spoon, eaten the noodles, then wept again, over and over.
He remembered what she had said to him that day in the car as he drove her home.
“I didn’t know what a family was. When I was at the orphanage, I hated festivals most of all. But after I met your family, I understood for the first time. So this is what a family is. I can have something like this too.”
Cha Kyung’s hand slowly grazed Seong Do-ah’s cheek. It was lukewarm—the borderline temperature between life and death, precarious and thin.
“Who asked you to throw yourself in my place?”
Only his voice scattered hollowly through the silent room.
“Why do you only do such foolish things? You’ll drive me mad.”
Cha Kyung carefully brushed back Seong Do-ah’s hair, avoiding the gauze taped to her forehead.
Each second felt like a grain of sand slipping through an hourglass.
Soon there would be little time left to see this face so close to his own.
“Live selfishly from now on. That’s what I’m telling you. Live only for yourself.”
He carefully tucked her hand under the blanket.
Even after he had pulled the quilt up to her chin, he lingered in that spot like a ghost for a long time.
As he stepped out of the hospital room, Hye-jung was standing at the far end of the hospital corridor. She must have rushed from the main house.
The moment Hye-jung spotted Cha Kyung, she stepped toward him.
“Cha Kyung…”
“Mother. You must be tired from the holiday—why did you come all this way?”
“Cha Kyung… Even if you break up with Do-ah, I will keep coming to see this child. I won’t let you run into each other, so don’t try to stop me from coming.”
Cha Kyung stopped. His swollen eyes and cracked lips laid bare her profound sorrow and exhaustion.
He moistened his lips once, then answered flatly.
“Do as you wish.”
Cha Kyung’s shadow stretched long beneath the fluorescent light, then vanished beyond the hospital corridor.
* * *
The first thing Seong Do-ah saw when her eyes opened was the white ceiling.
Soon after, the smell of disinfectant pricked her nose. The sprinkler on the ceiling came into focus, blurred, then clear again.
When she turned to the side, a machine was emitting steady beeping sounds at regular intervals.
‘Where am I…?’
In that moment, memories came rushing back like waves.
The crosswalk, a shoe with its heel caught, headlights bearing down, and Cha Kyung’s broad back.
‘Cha Kyung.’
Her heart lurched and sank.
Her whole body screamed as if crushed beneath a dump truck, though that came later.
As she tried to turn her head, she felt a heavy warmth in her right hand.
It was Hye-jung. She had been dozing while gripping Seong Do-ah’s hand, and she jolted awake at the movement.
“Do-ah! You’re awake, thank goodness!”
Hye-jung’s voice was thick with tears and trembling. Gyuseon, sitting beside her, had reddened eyes as well.
Seong Do-ah tried to answer, opening her mouth, but her throat felt raw as if she had swallowed grains of sand.
Hye-jung quickly inserted a straw into a cup of water and brought it to her lips. As the cool water went down her throat, she finally felt alive.
“Is Cha Kyung all right? Is he okay?”
Hye-jung hesitated for a moment, then smiled gently and patted the back of Seong Do-ah’s hand.
“Yes, dear. Cha Kyung is fine. Don’t worry.”
“Thank goodness. Really…”
The moment she heard those words, strength drained from her entire body.
Like a taut cord suddenly severed, her head sank deep into the pillow once more.
Cha Kyung was safe. That single phrase brought her peace.
* * *
“You don’t have to do this for me every time…”
Seong Do-ah watched Hye-jung arrange seaweed soup and several side dishes on the wheeled bedside table.
A week had passed since she regained consciousness.
In all her time hospitalized, Seong Do-ah had never eaten hospital food.
When she first woke, Hye-jung and Gyuseon brought her rice porridge, and once she could eat regular meals, they brought fresh soup and side dishes for every meal.
Feeling grateful but burdened, Seong Do-ah spoke; Hye-jung smiled warmly as she pulled out the remaining dishes.
“Think of it as being cared for by your mother. You feel like a daughter to me, though maybe I’m still too much of a stranger to you?”
“No, not at all! I’m so comfortable and happy. I can’t tell you how reassuring and joyful it is to have you and Grandmother here.”
She meant every word. Though she felt guilty for burdening them, at the same time she was genuinely happy.
She had never known that having someone by her side who worried about her and cared for her could feel this comforting and safe.
Lying in a hospital bed, her heart was at ease.
Except for one thing.
“Um… Is Cha Kyung very busy these days?”
During the week she had been hospitalized, Cha Kyung had not visited her once.
Seong Do-ah had assumed he would come to her room the moment she regained consciousness.
Yet while her mother and grandmother came and went constantly, even Chairman Yoon Seong-taek had visited with his secretaries, Cha Kyung had not shown his face.
At first she felt hurt, but now worry had set in. She wondered if something had happened.
Sure enough, at Seong Do-ah’s question, Hye-jung’s expression dimmed for a moment before brightening again.
“It seems the year-end planning and overseas buyer meetings have piled up, so he’s been swamped with work. He’s barely been home—staying at the office day and night, they say.”
“Cha Kyung must be very exhausted.”
“Yes, understand him a little, Do-ah. Don’t think about other things—just focus on recovering and getting discharged.”
“Yes, Mother.”
If he had to live at the office, he must be incredibly busy. Seong Do-ah felt sorry for resenting him even briefly for not visiting.
After Hye-jung left, the hospital room fell silent again.

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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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