The Textbook of a Lover - Chapter 76

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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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76.
Afternoon sunlight slanted across the long table, tilted and golden.
Cha Kyung closed the door and turned, but could not bring himself to approach Seong Do-ah. He stood frozen.
His shoulders, which always radiated confidence and composure, trembled almost imperceptibly.
“Tell me. What does Luck Recipient mean?”
Seong Do-ah’s dry voice cut through the silence. Cha Kyung’s lips moved soundlessly several times before he finally forced himself to speak.
“…Since I was young, I’ve brushed against death more than once. My grandmother wanted to prevent it, even through shamanic ritual.”
“…”
“A mudang pointed to you. My grandmother insisted on having surgery only if you were by my side. So… I proposed the contract relationship.”
“Ah, so…”
Seong Do-ah swallowed a hollow laugh.
“So you kept me beside you not as a person, but as a talisman.”
Seong Do-ah’s voice carried a fury edged with tears.
Cha Kyung’s jaw muscles tightened painfully. Like a guilty man, he lowered his head and spoke in a muted voice.
“I’ve never believed in superstition. I only wanted my grandmother’s surgery to go safely, and I swear I never intended to use you as a talisman or anything of the sort.”
“So once her surgery was done, you didn’t need me anymore, so you broke up with me?”
“No!”
Cha Kyung moved forward urgently, then stopped. His feet trembled pitifully, unable to cross the line.
“My grandmother’s surgery ended long ago. That’s not why I wanted to break up.”
“Then why did you? Did you get tired of me once we started dating?”
His complexion drained to ashen. The face that had seemed like a perfect sculpture cracked with terrible devastation.
His voice crumbled as he spoke the truth.
“Because you were hit by a car instead of me.”
“…I’m sorry?”
“I dismissed it as superstition, but then—absurdly—you had an accident in my place. I couldn’t bear the guilt of using you simply by having you at my side. That’s why I did it.”
“What—that’s insane.”
“I know. I know how mad I sound. But that’s the real reason. The terror that you might die because of me—it drove me insane.”
Seong Do-ah’s eyes burned red at the rims.
For nothing but that. He never asked for my input, and this was the only conclusion he reached on his own.
“You never told me anything from start to finish. You could have told me later that my grandmother blackmailed you with her surgery, that the mudang singled me out. But you stayed silent to the very end.”
Cha Kyung’s pupils wavered, lost.
Seong Do-ah’s resentful gaze pierced his heart like an awl.
“And when you broke up, it was the same. You thought it through, made the decision, and gave me a unilateral ultimatum. I suffered so deeply I wanted to die—and you call that doing it for me?”
Thick tears streamed down Seong Do-ah’s cheeks.
“If not for today, you’d have never told me. You would have decided alone, broken up alone, carried all the pain alone like some martyr—while I was drowning in hell and you didn’t even know it!”
Seong Do-ah’s face twisted. Words that had festered and built up inside burst out without restraint.
“Did you ever once ask me? Ask if I was okay being your Luck Recipient? I’d have rather taken that than losing you!”
Seong Do-ah’s piercing cry cut through the empty conference room.
What emerged from beneath layers of accumulated misunderstanding was raw truth.
A truth so genuine, so unbrave in its refusal to hide—knowing it would wound him.
Cha Kyung could bear it no longer. In an instant he closed the distance and pulled Seong Do-ah into his arms.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Do-ah.”
Cha Kyung’s voice trembled, wet with emotion.
He held her as if handling fragile glass, breathing hard against her.
“It’s all my fault.”
“I can’t believe a word you say.”
“I’ll never leave you again. Never, not once more.”
Cha Kyung’s arms tightened around her.
“So don’t say that word. Don’t call yourself a Luck Recipient. I won’t allow it—not ever.”
Cha Kyung pressed his forehead to her crown. His warm breath seeped through her hair.
“Whatever happens, I’ll protect you with my life.”
Outside the window, the blazing sunset stretched their shadows long and thin.
At last the knot of bitter misunderstanding came undone—and announced the beginning of an even more bitter bond.
After a long moment, Cha Kyung’s arms loosened.
Yet even so, his large hands lingered reluctantly on her back, unwilling to let go completely.
As he drew them slowly down her rounded shoulders, still holding her close, he spoke.
“…I’ll take you to the Company.”
His voice came low and tight.
After pouring out such turbulent emotion, the texture of his voice had grown subtly rough, though what shone through was unmistakable tenderness.
“No. I’ll go alone.”
Seong Do-ah stepped back from his embrace.
The warmth from where her cheek had pressed against his suit jacket vanished suddenly, and the air felt cool.
No matter that it was only the conference room—the fact that she’d wept and raged at the Company only moments before suddenly felt mortifying.
“No.”
Cha Kyung’s voice fell low and absolute. His gaze held hers relentlessly, refusing to let her take even one step further back.
His face was expressionless as always, but in the depths of his eyes the tremors from just moments before had not yet subsided—they rippled on.
“I said it. Whatever happens, I won’t let you come to harm.”
“Fine. When you coldly broke up with me, where was that?”
Seong Do-ah’s voice rose to a sharp point.
His pupils wavered for a moment, but he continued speaking calmly.
“I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
Clinging like a leech and refusing to let go—is that what he calls compensation?
He stayed close to her side as they walked down the corridor. Even after riding the elevator down to the Lobby, he made no move to part from her.
Employees in the Lobby turned to watch Cha Kyung and Seong Do-ah with startled eyes.
Her Company colleagues too stood gaping at the pair.
“I’m going.”
The moment Seong Do-ah tried to push him away.
Cha Kyung’s hand gently hooked her elbow and turned her toward him.
“What are you—!”
As Seong Do-ah began to protest, Cha Kyung bent down first, bringing his eyes to her level.
His lips touched her forehead briefly, but with the finality of a brand.
Seong Do-ah’s spine went rigid. It felt as though everything around them had frozen at once.
Coming to her senses, she hastily pushed him away and turned toward the revolving doors. The tips of her ears burned hot.
Cha Kyung did not reach for her. Instead, standing in place, he only watched her receding figure with his eyes.
“What was that, Do-ah?”
“I thought you’d broken up, but you’re back together?”
“That was smooth as a knife through water. You two had a lover’s quarrel? Did you see the honey dripping from Director Yun’s eyes?”
Her colleagues swarmed around her, making a fuss. Instead of answering, she only nodded once.
Her face felt like it might burst. She didn’t dare turn around, but she felt his gaze fixed on her back.
Buzz.
Just then her Mobile Phone vibrated in her bag. Seong Do-ah pulled it out and checked the screen.
[Director Cha Kyung: I love you.]
‘What… what is this, really.’
Seong Do-ah’s lips quirked up briefly before pressing shut again.
Her face was burning red, but her heart had not softened along with it.
‘Does he think this is enough to make it all go away? I suffered so much, cried so much. I still don’t trust you. You’re someone I need to keep my guard against.’
Seong Do-ah gripped her Mobile Phone, screen-down, and made a silent vow to herself.

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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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