I'm Twenty
“I’m twenty.”
“Cough—wh-what? T-twenty?”
Jeong Cheol, mid-sip of his tea, choked hard on Do-heon’s bombshell. He coughed until his face turned beet-red, the shock hitting him that violently.
Ho-yeon was no less stunned. The mere fact that he had a woman at all was surprising enough; hearing her age left her face blank with pure disbelief.
“Yes.”
Do-heon’s expression stayed perfectly calm.
“How on earth did you even meet a twenty-year-old?”
Ho-yeon could not wrap her head around it. Looking at a child that young as a woman was bad enough—marrying her? It was a decision so unlike Do-heon that it left her bitterly disappointed.
Now she finally understood why he had flatly refused to meet the prosecutor general’s daughter again.
All because of some twenty-year-old girl.
The fight drained out of her at once. There was still the matchmaking meeting with the media heiress left on the calendar, but that, too, already felt like a lost cause.
So-hyun had been the one to blurt out the existence of a woman, yet Do-heon had clearly already made up his mind to marry. That was why he had declared it without a single second of hesitation.
You bastard. Ho-yeon felt betrayed by the stepson she had trusted.
After everything she had done for him.
She had hunted down famous matchmakers and distant relatives of every powerful family that could give him real backing, arranging meetings one after another—only for it all to go up in smoke.
“If she’s twenty, is she still a student?”
Unlike Ho-yeon, who was trembling with the sense of betrayal, Jeong Cheol looked nothing but delighted by the news of Do-heon’s marriage. He even asked the question with a spark of anticipation in his eyes.
“Yes. Freshman at Korea University. She’s on leave right now.”
“So… a twelve-year gap?”
“Yes.”
“Well, well. Haha.”
Jeong Cheol kept letting out little sounds of wonder. The idea that the woman Do-heon was seeing was even younger than So-hyun was hard to picture.
Every man liked younger women, sure, but twenty felt almost too young—and the thought made him laugh out loud for a second.
“Where did you meet her?”
“At a club.”
Do-heon lied without so much as a flicker of change on his face. If he was going to lie, he might as well do it properly.
He had decided to marry Hye-won.
He was only marrying because he had to. To a man who had never attached any real meaning to marriage, it did not matter who the partner was.
If he had to marry anyway, better someone in the same situation—someone whose desires were clear, someone for whom marriage itself was the goal.
Someone who neither needed nor wanted any special feelings beyond that.
In that sense, Hye-won was not a bad match at all.
“Liar. Oppa went to a club? And he’s marrying some girl he met there? Even a dog walking by would laugh.”
So-hyun, who had been snappish and on edge the whole time, now laughed as if the whole thing were ridiculous and kept going.
“A guy who only ever goes between the company and home suddenly went to a club? Oppa, you hate crowded, noisy places. And you’ve only been back in Korea a few days—how do you already have a woman? Does that even make sense? You’re just mad at me right now, aren’t you? You’re pissed because I misunderstood and got suspicious, so you’re saying this crap. I was wrong. I won’t do it again. So stop with the nonsense already.”
So-hyun was convinced he was only lying out of spite. Or rather, she wanted to believe that. The idea that he actually had a woman was something she would rather die than hear.
“I slept with her. And I wanted to take responsibility.”
Do-heon looked straight into So-hyun’s eyes as he said it.
Hoping he would never have to see those eyes that made people sick of him ever again.
“Wh-what?”
Another delayed shock hit Ho-yeon; she could barely form words.
“I’m getting married. As soon as possible.”
Do-heon’s heavy blow made So-hyun’s pupils flare with the same shock.
“As soon as possible? Marriage isn’t some kids’ game of house. Don’t tell me… is she pregnant?”
Ho-yeon, who had only been able to open and close her mouth without sound, suddenly narrowed her eyes. She could not shake the feeling that he was pushing this through far too hastily.
“She’s young, so I’m being as careful as possible. She has to go back to school next year, too.”
Do-heon’s unhesitating answer made Ho-yeon’s face burn. How could he take a twenty-year-old to bed like that? She nearly swore out loud.
“What kind of family is she from? Anyone we know?”
Ho-yeon forced herself to pull it together and pressed him hard.
“Nothing worth boasting about. I’m marrying her because I want to, so I’d like your blessing.”
It was more of a notice than a request. He was saying he would do it even if they opposed him. Seeing the unyielding light in his eyes, Ho-yeon realized this was a will that could not be broken—and she felt ready to go out of her mind.
“She said she didn’t like the age gap, but I chased after her anyway.”
Do-heon moved in to lock it down. Knowing Ho-yeon would never willingly approve a marriage to Hye-won, he kept hammering without pause to show her exactly how firm his resolve was.
“What are you lacking that you’d do something like this?”
“What am I supposed to do when I’m the one burning up over her?”
Ho-yeon felt her insides about to explode. She had wanted a family from the prosecution or the media, but plenty of families were already eyeing Do-heon. So-hyun’s own friends were proof enough.
From Yeri, the finance minister’s daughter, to Mihyun of the Sewon Group, all the way to Jinju, the youngest daughter of the country’s top law firm—those girls had worn down the threshold coming in and out of the house just to see Do-heon, and marriage talks had even come from their families. Turning down daughters from houses that impressive only to end up marrying a twenty-year-old college student?
“Do-heon.”
Ho-yeon could not hide how hollow she felt.
“It’s the first time a woman has ever made my heart race.”
“And for that you’d get married? That feeling doesn’t last. You’ve just never met many women.”
“I’m so worried some other guy will snatch her away that I can’t even work.”
Do-heon’s answers only grew more outrageous; Ho-yeon found her mouth sealed shut before she could even properly argue.
“Haha, so his heart raced. Then it’s already settled. What else matters? I fully support this marriage!”
Jeong Cheol, who knew better than anyone that people only want a marriage more when someone opposes it, happily took Do-heon’s side while savoring the old romantic feelings from his own courtship more than thirty years ago.
“Honey!”
Ho-yeon, furious that Jeong Cheol was shouting his approval without a care for the fire in her own gut, raised her voice in a sharp yell.
“When are you bringing her over? You said you can’t work because you’re so anxious—hurry up, then.”
“I’ll bring her soon.”
The moment Do-heon finished speaking and stood, So-hyun’s gaze followed him up; she was biting her lip hard enough to draw blood.
Hye-won stared at her reflection in the mirror for a long time.
The short bob she had just gotten—her first since her freshman year of high school—still felt completely foreign.
Cleaning up the hair that bastard had butchered had meant cutting away all the long length that once fell past her shoulders. She turned her head side to side, feeling the bare emptiness of her neck.
“Do you not like it?”
The hair designer, brushing the cut strands from Hye-won’s shoulders, asked with an anxious look.
She seemed worried that Hye-won was unhappy with the style.
Even after more than ten years as a hair designer, this was the first time she had ever been summoned to a hotel to do someone’s hair.
And the hotel owner himself had called her in—so the pressure was enormous.
Just how important was this person that she needed a cut done in her room?
She had been so tense the whole time she worked that cold sweat had run down her back for fear of making a single mistake.
“I like it. Thank you.”
When Hye-won gave her a soft smile, the stiff light in the designer’s eyes finally began to ease.
“It’s just been so long since I had short hair that it feels strange. I’ll get used to it soon.”
Reading the designer’s discomfort, Hye-won deliberately raised her voice a notch and started helping tidy up the area around them.
“I can handle this. Please just leave it.”
“Come on, let’s do it together.”
Despite the designer’s protests, Hye-won gathered the fallen hair from the floor into a plastic bag.
After sending the designer off—who had even offered to wash her hair before leaving—Hye-won dropped heavily onto the bed.
It felt like she had lived through a day that lasted ten years. When she left this place that morning, she had never imagined she would be coming back.
“Haa…”
She let out a small sigh and picked up the phone lying beside her.
It was the new one Do-heon had gotten activated for her before he left.
I wonder if he got home safely. She hesitated over whether to send a message, then opened the camera instead.
She turned her still-unfamiliar short hair this way and that, taking pictures.
What would he say if he saw it? Suddenly she was curious about his reaction.
Hye-won opened the message window and attached a photo.
She also sent the words: “I cut my hair.”
Ten minutes passed, then twenty, but no reply came from him.
Well, it was only a haircut—nothing special. She hadn’t really expected him to answer, yet a strange sense of disappointment settled over her anyway.
He’s not even my boyfriend, just my teacher. What am I even thinking right now?
The sight of herself waiting for a reply and feeling hurt over it was so ridiculous that a dry laugh slipped out.
Ding.
The message tone chimed.
Her heart dropped with a sudden jolt before she even realized it; Hye-won hurriedly checked the message.
The instant she saw Do-heon’s name, her heart started pounding. It was a dry message with no compliment, not even a single emoji—yet the corners of her mouth still twitched upward.
“Yes~!”
Hye-won shouted as if she were answering him right there.