The Textbook of a Lover - Chapter 79

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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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79.
Cha Kyung rose from his seat, and Na Hee followed suit.
“Wait, please, sir. I really wanted you to know the truth.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want you to suspect me.”
Her voice trembled with emotion.
“I’ve liked you ever since I first met you, sir.”
Cha Kyung’s gaze turned toward Na Hee.
“That’s why I wanted to tell you my feelings directly…….”
A quavering voice, glistening eyes—the kind of confession that would shake any man. Yet Cha Kyung’s expression did not change in the slightest.
“Is that all you wanted to say?”
“Yes? Because I like you, sir…….”
“Then that’s the end of it. You can go now.”
“Sir, I really…….”
“I said go. How many more times must I tell you that the Audit Team will determine whether Na Hee is involved or not? Do I look so idle that I have time to hear explanations from a contractor’s employee? Just leave.”
Na Hee’s last glimmer of hope crumbled pitifully beneath Cha Kyung’s cold, indifferent gaze.
* * *
[Bullet Cash: Kyung-jun. If you don’t pay by today, we’ll have to collect from your body.]
Kyung-jun’s phone rang again. It was a call from a usurer.
The man he’d thought was a third-tier financial lender was actually a loan shark connected to organized crime.
Kyung-jun received extortion calls from him every day and suffered nightmares of being kidnapped every night.
— You dragged me into this mess! The Audit Team called! What are we going to do? I told them with my own mouth I’d never be involved. What? Money? You’re talking about money to me now?
He couldn’t even turn to Na Hee for help. When he called, she poured out recriminations in a voice close to a scream.
Looking at how things were unfolding, it seemed neither he nor Na Hee could escape being implicated in the embezzlement case.
“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! How does everything go wrong like this!”
There was no one to help Kyung-jun. Even his own parents said they’d be prepared to disown him if he kept asking to borrow money.
Kyung-jun’s misfortune did not end there.
— Is this Kyung-jun? This is the Seoul Central District Court Enforcement Office. We’re calling regarding the civil case brought by Seong Do-ah to notify you of the property seizure proceedings.
The world before his eyes went white. It was the dowry lawsuit Do-ah had filed.
He’d already been fired from the company, and the loan shark was threatening his body in exchange for money.
And now, to make matters worse, he was being sued over those damned dowry items.
“You know exactly what state I’m in!”
Kyung-jun’s fury instantly fixed itself on Do-ah.
While he and Na Hee were now living every day like walking on thorns before the audit, Do-ah was the only one happily dating a chaebol heir with a sweet romance.
Do-ah bore responsibility for his present condition.
If she had only kept him in check from the start, his life would never have twisted this way.
Like any other new hire at a major corporation, he would have been building a solid foundation and living well.
So Seong Do-ah had to take responsibility for him.
Such absurd delusion took hold of Kyung-jun’s mind.
* * *
Shortly after lunch hour, Kyung-jun stood outside Do-ah’s company building.
A black cap pulled low, his back pressed against the building wall to avoid the loan sharks’ eyes.
“Do-ah.”
Do-ah’s footsteps halted as she came through the revolving door. She looked at Kyung-jun, startled, then her face twisted with displeasure.
“What is it? I’m busy, so make it quick.”
“Why are you being so cold? We were going to get married not so long ago.”
A bitter smile played at the corners of Do-ah’s mouth.
“Right, and you know exactly whose fault it is that we couldn’t.”
“I regret it. I don’t know what happened to me. I couldn’t see what a good person you were.”
That much, at least, was sincere.
“Oh, really? I’m the opposite. Honestly, I’m grateful to you now. I almost married you without realizing what garbage you are.”
“Isn’t that too harsh? When did you ever love me like that!”
“No? Say it straight. The only feeling I had for you was a sense of debt. A misunderstanding that you’d saved my life. But you destroyed even that.”
Do-ah stared directly at Kyung-jun as she spoke.
“Thank you for letting me escape from trash like you. That’s the only grace you’ve ever shown me.”
Kyung-jun’s face contorted. Each word from Do-ah was shattering the last fragments of his pride one by one.
“You bitch……!”
Kyung-jun’s hand flew up in an instant.
But before it could reach Do-ah’s cheek, it was caught mid-air and pinned against the wall.
“Kyung-jun.”
When he turned around, Cha Kyung was glaring at him with a sharp, piercing gaze.
“Lawsuits are about to pour in. Are you that free to be doing this?”
“Who made me not free? It’s because of you two!”
Cha Kyung let out a low laugh and spoke.
“What did Do-ah and I do? You’re the one who abandoned your longtime girlfriend and cheated, stole the dowry items, and embezzled.”
“You two drove me to this!”
The corners of Cha Kyung’s mouth twisted ever so slightly—not with contempt, not with anger, but with the cold, detached gaze of someone looking down at an insect.
That expression alone turned Kyung-jun’s stomach.
“That’s why you’ve ended up like this. I hope you do well with your penance in prison and come out as a new person. Though it looks like even a year might not be enough.”
Cha Kyung wrapped his arm around Do-ah’s shoulders and turned away.
Kyung-jun collapsed to the ground, clutching his wrist.
The trembling was not from pain. The heat boiling up from his core rose to his fingertips, making his entire body shake violently.
‘Be a new person? After you’ve made my life into this, you want me to do penance in prison?’
Kyung-jun’s eyes turned bloodshot. The receding figures of the two of them blurred before him.
‘I can’t go down alone. I can’t bear to watch you two trampling on me and laughing from above. If I go to hell, you’re coming too.’
He clenched his fist until blood beaded on his knuckles. The pain of his nails digging into his flesh went unfelt.
* * *
The phone rang from early morning. Do-ah stepped back to a corner of the Conference Room and answered the call.
— Seong Do-ah, the final judgment has come down. The dowry items left in Kyung-jun’s studio will be returned in full.
“……So it came to that in the end.”
— Additionally, the court has ruled for thirteen million won in compensation for damaged goods and consolation money, and Na Hee has also been judged as a co-conspirator with two million won in damages. The court judgment copies will be delivered to the Abe legal team this morning.
“Thank you, attorney.”
Do-ah returned to her seat. She thought she should be overjoyed, but strangely, she wasn’t.
Across from her, Na Hee was typing at her keyboard. Her gaze fixed on the screen, but her fingertips moving across the keys trembled almost imperceptibly.
About an hour passed. The office door opened and two members of the Audit Team walked toward Na Hee’s desk.
“Na Hee. We need you to accompany us to the Conference Room for a moment. We need to confirm some matters regarding the court judgment that just arrived.”
“M-me?”
“Cease work duties. Your account has just been suspended through IT.”
“What are you talking about? What? Why won’t it log in?”
Na Hee shook the mouse frantically, but the monitor only displayed a popup reading “You do not have login authorization.”
“Lock your drawers and return your employee ID. Your personal effects will be collected separately under supervision from HR.”
Na Hee’s face flushed crimson with shame. The whispered gossip around her struck like daggers.
“I-I’m really unfairly treated! I only did what I was told to do!”
“You can explain that in the Conference Room.”
“But I’m the victim! Why are you suspending my account!”
“Na Hee was judged to be a co-conspirator in the embezzlement, so your account was suspended. If you keep resisting, there won’t be time for explanations, so just cooperate.”

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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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