A Twenty-Year-Old Baby

When Hye-won sat on the bed with her legs stretched out straight, Do-heon began applying ointment to her feet.

"Ouch."

Every touch of the cotton swab brought a ticklish sting, and Hye-won clenched her toes with all her might.

"Such a fuss."

Finding it adorable the way she bit down hard on her lip and repeatedly curled and uncurled her toes—clearly unable to bear the ticklishness—Do-heon let out a soft chuckle.

"Teacher, you're going home today, right?"

Worried about the man who hadn't set foot in his own house for a full week, Hye-won asked carefully.

From the day he had brought her down from the mountain, Do-heon had stayed here without missing a single day. He had even handled company work from this place while looking after her. She had already said her goodbyes, not wanting to impose on him any longer, yet here she was, once again relying on him.

"Why? Worried you'll get kicked out?"

"Yes."

"If I get kicked out, Miss Han Hye-won will just have to take me in. This is all your fault, after all."

"……"

Even knowing it was a joke, Hye-won's heart plummeted. Her heart had raced whenever she saw him back in their school days, but this felt different somehow.

Can you have sex with me?

It had been ever since she heard those words. Every time their eyes met, a strange feeling washed over her. The words kept surfacing—words so utterly unsuited to the upright, ascetic image of the man who had once been her teacher.

"What, not confident?"

"……"

"You seduced me into marriage after meeting for the first time in three years, and now you're backing out? What a little fox."

"No, that's not—"

Just as she tried to offer some excuse, he suddenly tilted his head closer. Startled by the abruptly narrowed distance, Hye-won squeezed her eyes shut tight. His heavy scent hit her all at once, making her heart pound so hard she forgot how to breathe.

"Does it hurt?"

He carefully examined the wound on Hye-won's forehead. When he gently brushed away the strands of hair stuck to it with his thumb, she flinched in surprise. The doctor had said it was only a long scratch, not a tear, but the possibility of a scar still bothered him.

"……"

Every bit of her attention fixed on the breath that brushed her face and then vanished, Hye-won couldn't hear a word he said. The scent of him with every movement made her vision swim.

"T-Teacher, please go home now."

"Why are you closing your eyes?"

Seeing her tightly shut eyes trembling, Do-heon chuckled. Even the small fists resting on her thighs were clenched tight.

"Scared it'll hurt?"

"…Yes."

Hye-won nodded first, not even remembering what he had asked.

"Such a baby."

"What?"

"A twenty-year-old baby."

Do-heon ruffled the hair of Hye-won, who had opened her eyes wide like a startled rabbit, then rose to his feet.

"Can you stay alone, baby Han Hye-won?"

He lowered his head until he was right in front of her nose, meeting her gaze as he asked.

"Why am I a baby?"

Hye-won bristled at the way he still treated her like a child, but Do-heon only laughed.

"I'll come tomorrow. Don't forget to put on the ointment."

Picking up his jacket and car keys, Do-heon pointed to the phone on the nightstand and continued.

"I saved my number on your phone, so call if you need anything."

"Yes."

"And don't leave any food. I hate skinny women."

He stopped mid-step toward the door and added the warning.

"What?"

Hye-won stared in bewilderment, not understanding what he meant, but he showed no intention of explaining kindly.

So-hyun had been playing the piano for thirty minutes straight. She slammed the keys with such furious force it seemed the instrument might shatter.

"Did something happen outside? What's wrong?"

Ho-yeon noticed the piano sounded different from usual and asked, but received no answer. Three hours earlier, So-hyun had suddenly said she had somewhere to go and left, even though they had planned to get massages together. Ho-yeon had assumed she was meeting a friend, but the moment So-hyun came home she had started screaming and crying.

"So-hyun, look at Mom. You have to talk to me so I can understand. When you just cry like this, Mom gets so worried."

Ho-yeon kept speaking to her, but So-hyun's sobs showed no sign of stopping. Just as the confusion over why her daughter was acting this way began to tighten her chest, Do-heon's voice floated in.

"I'm home."

"So-hyun, Do-heon's back."

Knowing how completely So-hyun adored Do-heon, Ho-yeon stood up expecting her mood would soon lift. Sure enough, So-hyun—who hadn't moved an inch—shot to her feet.

"Oppa, I need to talk to you."

She grabbed the arm of Do-heon as he headed for the second floor.

"I'm tired."

When he didn't even spare her a glance and pushed her arm away, So-hyun's pride was wounded and she clung even tighter.

"Oppa! Where have you been all this time? Who were you with?"

"So-hyun, what's gotten into you?"

Far from calming down at the sight of Do-heon, So-hyun only raised her voice while holding onto him. Finding it strange, Ho-yeon stepped closer and asked.

"Do I have to report that kind of thing to you?"

"Oppa!"

The resentment and hurt that had built up over the past few days—when he had deliberately ignored her calls and never contacted her—exploded in a rush of tears.

"Why are you talking to your little sister like that?"

Startled by the sharp exchange between them, Ho-yeon stepped in with worried eyes to mediate.

"I'm sorry, Mother."

"Our son's just tired, right? He's been so busy he couldn't even come home for days. Go wash up quickly and come down. We'll have dinner together."

"Yes."

The moment Do-heon turned, So-hyun grabbed him again. Her hand clenched his sleeve with desperate strength, as if she wouldn't let go until he answered.

"Who is that woman?"

So-hyun pressed him.

"A woman? Our son has a girlfriend?"

A man's voice suddenly cut in from the side. Jeong Cheol stood there with wide eyes, having just returned from work. His gaze, waiting for Do-heon's answer, was filled with anticipation. He had always felt sorry that Do-heon, buried in work, had never properly dated. To Jeong Cheol, who hoped his handsome son would meet someone good and start a family, this was the best news possible.

Unlike him, the two women looking at Do-heon only felt uneasy. So-hyun was desperate to know if he really had a woman; Ho-yeon was on edge about what kind of woman she might be.

"Do-heon."

When Jeong Cheol urged the silent Do-heon to answer, Do-heon finally broke the quiet.

"I have something to tell you."

"Don't."

Sensing a firm resolve in his calm voice, So-hyun shook her head. An ominous feeling swept over her—that she was about to hear something she didn't want to hear. The moment she met his eerily still eyes, she knew. She had made things worse. They were heading toward a point of no return.

"I'm getting married."

"Oppa!"

So-hyun screamed the instant the words left Do-heon's mouth.

Cigarette smoke hung thick in the bedroom. When Jae-mun stepped down from the bed, threw on a robe, and left, Mi-hee carefully sat up. Glancing at the clock pointing to two in the afternoon, she pulled a tissue from the box on the nightstand. She was wiping away the sticky mess between her legs when a scream rang out from outside. Pausing for a moment, Mi-hee lifted her gaze, then tossed the tissue into the trash with the blank face of someone used to the routine and headed for the bathroom.

"Who put you up to it?"

Jae-mun asked the truck driver kneeling bloodied before him. It was the same driver who had caused the accident on the wedding day. If the cargo bed hadn't opened by accident, Hye-won would never have escaped, and Jae-mun would never have been pointed at by Chairman Kim and Madam Cha.

"I never took any money, I swear. Please believe me."

One eyelid so swollen he could barely see, the truck driver gasped out his answer. With every breath, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth—how badly he was hurt was plain to see.

"Then why did you run?"

Jae-mun dropped the cigarette he'd been smoking, crushed it underfoot, and stood. As he approached with a twisted expression, the terrified driver began to tremble violently. Dragged here an hour ago, he had already been beaten half to death by Jae-mun's men, and just moments earlier Jae-mun himself had savagely clubbed him with a wooden bat. Now even the slightest movement from Jae-mun made him flinch.

"I didn't run—I got f-fired from the company and went to the countryside looking for work."

"Ha! You expect me to believe that? You little shit, you think I'm an idiot?"

There were far too many suspicious points for it to have been a simple accident. The drinks for the reception arriving on the wedding day itself, the cargo bed suddenly opening—and above all, every CCTV camera in the area having been switched off that day was beyond common sense. Someone had deliberately staged the accident. Someone who wanted to buy Hye-won time to escape and turn the wedding into a disaster. The problem was that Jae-mun had no idea who that someone was. He had made so many enemies over the years that he couldn't narrow it down. Even after combing through the truck driver's call records and bank transactions, nothing useful had turned up. So the only option left was to break the driver.

"Tell me who it was, you bastard!"

Jae-mun drove his foot into the man's chest.

"Ugh."

The truck driver coughed up blood and collapsed.

"Ah, fuck. Disgusting."

Seeing the blood spattered on his clothes, Jae-mun grimaced and stripped them off.