The Textbook of a Lover - Chapter 68

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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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68.
The hospital room where she now stayed was not merely perfect—it was lavish.
From the window, the city sprawled below in a single glance, and the room held elegant furnishings, a laptop, even books.
Because Cha Kyung and his mother had insisted on keeping her in a private room despite her protests, Seong Do-ah wanted for nothing.
Yet why did emptiness and loneliness keep creeping in?
Just then, her phone chimed.
She snatched it up with surprising speed—hardly the movement of a patient.
[Su-jin: Do-ah, I’m planning to come by this weekend too. Let me know if you need anything.]
The message was from Su-jin.
Seong Do-ah’s eyes fell away from the screen, and she swallowed her disappointment.
[But it’s the weekend. Don’t you need to rest? I’m fine.]
[Su-jin: Okay, I’m taking that as a yes! Text me later if you need anything.]
Do-ah sent back an acknowledgment and set the phone down. A moment later, a message arrived from Hye-jung at Abe.
It was just a check-in to see how she was doing.
Seong Do-ah pulled up the messages Cha Kyung had sent.
They were still unread.
Both the one he’d sent four days ago and the one from just yesterday.
“He said he’s busy. I can wait a little, even if I miss him.”
Do-ah pushed her phone under the bed. If it stayed within arm’s reach, she’d be checking it every five minutes.
* * *
The moment Cha Kyung looked away from the tablet screen, a dull ache bloomed at the base of his neck.
The numbers in the Excel files reflected on his monitor appeared to triple before his eyes.
Yesterday he’d stayed until three in the morning. The day before, four o’clock.
After consecutive nights stretching into dawn, ordering clothes to the office and sleeping there, his body had accumulated exhaustion beyond its limit.
[Mother: Kyung, you’re coming home to sleep tonight, aren’t you? Mom is waiting.]
Cha Kyung saw the message from Jung-hye and flipped his phone face-down on the desk.
Just above it lay the most recent message from Do-ah.
Year-end season planning had always been hectic.
On top of that, with new brands entering from overseas this year, the endless cycle of meetings and conferences left him perpetually pressed for time.
Yet despite all this, Cha Kyung drove forward without any margin for rest, without pause.
The moment he stopped working, he felt he’d bolt straight to the hospital where Do-ah lay.
It was less than ten minutes by car; he’d memorized the building location and room number.
Every time he’d wanted to see her, the address had seared itself deeper into his mind through repetition.
So he worked. Reading documents, revising presentations, taking calls, reading more documents.
He filled every gap with work to keep his thoughts from drifting toward her.
But the result was that not just he, but the entire department, had begun staying late.
No matter how he told them to leave early, there was no way they’d feel comfortable clocking out while their boss worked until dawn.
Glancing at the clock, he saw it was already approaching six in the evening.
“For today… let’s wrap this up and head out. Everyone, start getting ready to leave. I don’t want anyone staying in the office. I’m heading out now myself.”
Though the employees acknowledged him, their glances darted with hesitation, so he left the office at once.
He stood in the hallway until the final elevator doors shut, confirming that the lights went out.
When he entered the house, Jung-hye and Gyu-sun were having tea in the living room. Both turned their heads in unison at the sound of the front door.
“Oh my, Kyung. You’re home early today.”
Jung-hye rose with delight, but the moment she saw his face, her hand stilled.
“What’s wrong with your face? You did eat, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
It was a lie. He’d had no appetite, skipping lunch and dinner alike. He’d lost all sense of hunger.
“Are you still having trouble walking? We should go back to the hospital. Let’s get you an IV while we’re at it.”
“I’m fine.”
“Fine? How is it fine? You didn’t even get a proper check-up after the accident.”
Instead of answering, Cha Kyung gave a brief bow to Gyu-sun and headed up to the second floor.
Jung-hye said something more from behind, but her words were buried beneath the sound of his climbing footsteps.
He sat on the bed without turning on the light.
Images flickered through his mind: Do-ah laughing beside him, and then Do-ah bleeding and crumpling after being struck by the car.
He’d thought he could dismiss such superstitions.
But the instant he’d faced her lying there bloodied and fallen, Cha Kyung became a coward who could deny nothing.
* * *
‘Damn it, will they ever stop calling?’
Kyung-jun’s phone rang again. The number on the screen wasn’t saved, but he’d memorized it.
It was the contact for his loan officer at the second-tier finance company.
Beep-beep—
[Chong-alam Cash: Deputy Manager Woo Kyung-jun, I hope you had a pleasant lunch. The payment date you promised has long since passed. As uncomfortable as it makes me, I’m reluctant to visit your family and office colleagues again. I’d appreciate a favorable transfer.]
‘Damn it, I don’t have any money! If I did, do you think I wouldn’t pay?’
The threatening message sent shivers down Kyung-jun’s arms.
As he was wracking his brain for a solution, the pendant campaign running as part of the VVIP Promotion for this year-end suddenly came to mind.
Everything from extracting the list to placing the order for million-won-unit pendants passed through his hands.
‘Could I skim a little from here?’
Conveniently, his desk held a Dormant Customer List compiled for re-engaging lapsed customers.
If he fed a few hundred dead accounts into the VVIP distribution list and reduced the actual production order, the shortfall wouldn’t be noticed.
The only problem was that transactions above a certain amount required agency authorization signatures.
That’s when Na-hee’s words came back to him—something she’d said every time the credit card bill was due.
“This month’s salary is all going to debt again… oh wait, I meant my savings account! I’ve opened so many savings plans that I’m running out of spending money.”
At the time, he’d let it pass, but now it seemed possible that Na-hee was also strapped for cash.
‘There’s a saying about mutual aid. If I make up the shortfall with my own bonus later, no one will know.’
The plan crystallized quickly in Kyung-jun’s mind.
* * *
Seong Do-ah woke at four in the morning.
Cha Kyung had appeared in her dream. The content was unremarkable.
She and he walked somewhere side by side, speaking of things she couldn’t quite recall, but his hand held hers.
His hand was warm. That alone remained vivid.
“It was only a dream.”
Do-ah reached down under the bed for her phone, disappointed. She turned on the screen and tapped his name in her message history.
Still, the conversation window held only her own messages stacked alone, all unread.
She set the phone face-down weakly. The light bleeding through the darkness faded quickly.
“Did you pack everything? Nothing forgotten?”
Jung-hye asked Do-ah as if she were her mother.
“Yes. I have everything.”
There wasn’t much to pack in the first place.
Everything Do-ah had used at the hospital had been brought by Jung-hye or Gyu-sun, and their vendor had already loaded it into the car long ago.
Do-ah tied her sneaker laces. The shoes felt unfamiliar after so long.
As she bent to knot them, the residual bruising along her ribs pulled with a sharp twinge.
“Mm.”
“Do-ah, what’s wrong? It doesn’t hurt, does it?”
“No. It’s just been a while since I wore sneakers, so it feels a little awkward.”
“Is that so? Should I tie them for you?”
“No, I’m fine.”
She smiled at Jung-hye’s fussing, speaking with a light tone.
“That boy—Kyung—I tied his shoelaces for him until he was in elementary school. Good at everything else, but hopeless with those… oh, never mind.”
Jung-hye closed her mouth as if she’d misspoken.
“Not being able to tie shoelaces until elementary school—what’s the matter with that? I’m still clumsy with buttons.”
“Is that right? I see. So even someone as capable as Do-ah has things she can’t do.”
A smile returned to Jung-hye’s flustered face. The stiffness in the air dissolved.

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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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