The Textbook of a Lover - Chapter 8

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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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8.
The words hung in the air, and silence descended.
Then someone spoke in a low voice.
“That’s enough, Kim. Look—Na Hui is clearly the one getting married, and Do Ah isn’t. One of them chased the other one-sidedly, it’s obvious. I didn’t think Do Ah was like that though…… it’s a bit frightening.”
“Right. I got chills just now.”
“Still, I wouldn’t have pegged Do Ah as that type of person.”
Sensing the mood shifting in her favor, Na Hui played her trump card.
“She seems fine at work, of course. Sometimes I even think she’s gotten over it, that she’s moved on. But when the three of us are together…… she claimed that the dowry we’d prepared ourselves was something she’d arranged.”
“No way…….”
“Come on, that’s too far, Na Hui.”
“Why would Na Hui make something like that up?”
“You could just ask Do Ah directly.”
“How could I ask her something like that outright?”
Na Hui silently celebrated her victory.
Even if someone actually went and asked Do Ah, her answer was predictable.
She would say she’d dated Gyeong Jun, and that she really had prepared the dowry herself.
Because it was the truth.
But would people who’d already heard that everything was a lie believe Do Ah’s account outright?
She’d prepared a dowry at her boyfriend’s place with a marriage promise, and then supposedly ran off with it and had an affair with her best friend.
It made no sense. That’s what they’d think.
‘The Anchoring Effect—that’s what it was called.’
A term from a liberal arts class in university. People used the first piece of information they heard as their standard, and no matter what came after, their fixed belief rarely changed.
As the situation unfolded favorably for her, Na Hui’s lips curved into a smile that others could barely perceive.
* * *
Something felt off from the moment Do Ah arrived. Her coworkers’ greetings were dry, their laughter foreign to her ears. Could it be because of this nonsense?
In her confusion, Do Ah could only blink, when a new message came in from Kim Hye Jeong.
[Kim Hye Jeong: Na Hui said you’ve been stalking Gyeong Jun like some obsessed person. If that’s not true, you should probably clear it up.]
It was a short message, but Do Ah felt her blood rush backward. Her fingertips trembled so badly she couldn’t even press the keyboard properly.
Who was chasing whom? Who was stalking whom?
It was the ultimate twist of the knife.
Do Ah looked toward Na Hui’s direction.
She sat unbothered, sipping her coffee while staring at her monitor.
With shaking fingers, Do Ah typed out a message to Na Hui.
[Come see me at lunch.]
The reply came immediately.
[Dowry-Thief-Cheater-Accomplice: Okay. Come out to the Terrace.]
There were about two hours until lunch.
Do Ah’s fingers moved busily, but she couldn’t focus on what she was actually doing.
Still, time passed, and the moment the clock struck noon, Do Ah pushed through the glass doors at the entrance and stepped onto the Terrace.
The Terrace was empty and quiet, everyone having left to eat.
Breaking that silence, Na Hui walked in with her back straight and chin raised, brimming with confidence.
“What is it?”
She certainly knew why Do Ah had called her.
Do Ah clenched her teeth and spoke.
“When did I ever stalk Gyeong Jun? That’s defamation. Don’t you know that?”
She’d lost her boyfriend to the friend she’d trusted most, and lost her dowry to them both.
Even so, Do Ah hadn’t told the company any of it.
She hadn’t wanted to air her private shame, and more than anything, she’d believed the one she needed to take revenge on was Gyeong Jun, not Na Hui.
But she couldn’t hold back this time.
Na Hui let out a small laugh, arms crossed in front of Do Ah.
“Defamation? Then what do you call what you’ve been doing? Texts, calls, showing up at the office. That’s stalking, isn’t it?”
“I’m doing it because I like him? If you’d just return the dowry money, I wouldn’t even follow him if you begged me to!”
“Dowry? That again? Do Ah, you never even got married—what dowry are you talking about? That’s a delusion of persecution. You should see a doctor.”
At those words, Do Ah’s breath caught. Na Hui had been right there beside her, watching as she picked every appliance one by one with her own sweat and effort.
And now she just denies it all like that?
“Do Ah, come to your senses. Gyeong Jun and I are getting married. Obsessing over him like this only hurts you. I really wish you’d go to a hospital and get some counseling. I’m saying this for your sake.”
“You and him should be the ones getting counseling! Spewing lies so shamelessly—how is that not an illness?”
Na Hui shook her head.
“I’m really worried about you.”
Do Ah let out a hollow laugh.
Na Hui had lied so much that she seemed to believe her own words were truth.
Seeing that Do Ah had nothing left to say, only stared at her in shock, Na Hui turned away dismissively and left the Terrace.
As Do Ah moved to follow, a sound came from the corner.
She turned to see an Employee holding a watering can, looking at her with panic in his eyes.
“Ah, Do—Do Ah. Sorry. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop. I was just watering the plants when you and Na Hui suddenly came in…….”
With a brief explanation, the Employee quickly left the Terrace.
That day’s encounter came back to haunt Do Ah with devastating consequences.
* * *
The next day, the air in the Office was far colder than before.
Conversations stopped the moment Do Ah passed, and colleagues she encountered in the hallway deliberately took different routes.
Still, whispers reached her ears in fragments.
“The stalking thing—it’s true.”
“She’s even talking about the dowry, so her delusions must be pretty serious.”
Unable to bear the unfairness, Do Ah offered to show everyone her purchase receipts for the dowry, but the situation only grew worse.
To make matters worse, Gyeong Jun submitted an official complaint through A.V.E about Do Ah kicking him, raising the issue formally.
Because the incident had been caught on CCTV, A.V.E had to bow apologetically to Hyusin and contain the scandal.
In just one day, Do Ah’s reputation crumbled irreversibly.
After work, Do Ah sat alone in a corner of a bar.
‘Of course they’d want to avoid me. Anyone would keep their distance from someone who stalked a friend’s boyfriend and went delusional demanding a dowry she never gave.’
Do Ah pressed her head against the wall with a soft thud.
‘But the truth is the complete opposite! I’m the victim! Na Hui and Gyeong Jun are the ones who should be shunned, not me!’
Gripping her glass, Do Ah was consumed by rage and injustice, and with each shot of soju, she pressed her head against the wall again.
She noticed people around her giving her strange looks, but she didn’t care.
This bar wasn’t even near her office anyway.
Fired up with resentment, she’d even come all the way to the front of the Hyusin Department Store headquarters, but in the end hadn’t gone inside, ending up at this nearby bar instead.
“Stupid. Idiot. Pathetic…… How much longer will I just take this? I have to get revenge somehow. Even if it takes ten years, a hundred years, even after I’m dead, I’ll do it.”
Two empty soju bottles already sat in front of Do Ah, for whom one beer was usually the limit.
Her body felt light and her head spun, but she didn’t stop, her voice wavering as she called out.
“One more bottle of soju, please!”
“Um, ma’am…… we only take orders through the Kiosk here. More than that, you seem pretty drunk—maybe you should stop…….”
At the Employee’s words, Do Ah stared hard at the rectangular table order screen on the table, then pressed her face right up to it.
Her warm breath fogged the screen like steam.
Then she bowed respectfully toward the screen and spoke.
“I’d…… like to order one bottle of soju. Yes?”
At that ridiculous sight, the tables nearby erupted in laughter.
Even the Employee standing next to her trembled, fighting not to laugh.
“Ma’am, the Kiosk doesn’t use voice recognition—you have to tap the screen…….”
Hearing that, Do Ah jabbed the center of the screen with her finger.
“One bottle of soju, please!”
Laughter rippled through the bar again.
Just then, a tall man appeared from nowhere and took a place beside Do Ah.
He calmly addressed her, still tapping the screen.
“Shall I order for you? One bottle of soju, is it?”

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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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