The Trap of the Forced Pair and a Distorted Heart

I took a sip of the tea to avoid Yoo Se-rim’s persistent, piercing gaze. The liquid hitting my tongue was cloyingly sweet… but something felt off.

Just as a chill ran down my spine and I prepared to spit it out, Yoo Se-rim called my name.

“Han Sol.”

“……Yes.”

Thinking I had to answer, I forgot the strange sensation, swallowed the tea, and replied. Strangely, the nerves that had been frayed until a moment ago began to settle and soften.

Only then did Yoo Se-rim set down his own tea—of which he hadn’t taken a single sip—and stared at me intently.

‘Damn it.’

Meeting his gaze, I realized something was horribly wrong. He had done something to the tea.

The moment the realization hit, the strength drained from my limbs. The teacup slipped from my numb fingers.

Clatter—roll, roll…….

The cup fell, spilling the contents and making a mess of the floor, but neither Yoo Se-rim nor I paid it any mind.

“…….”

I stared at him blankly. He watched me for a moment, then leaned over to the incense that had been burning by the bed and blew it out with a soft whoosh.

It wasn’t just the tea. He had rigged the incense too, just in case I didn’t drink.

“Did you sleep with Baek Hee-do?”

Yoo Se-rim returned to me and asked a loathsome question. I didn’t want to open my mouth, but my lips parted of their own accord, spilling a truthful answer.

“No.”

“Do you like Baek Hee-do?”

“……Yes.”

“Then, what do you think of me?”

I tried to scowl and shut my mouth, but my lips trembled under an irresistible force. Every time Yoo Se-rim tapped his finger on the table, a bizarre, intrusive thought that I must answer quickly began to colonize my mind.

It was clear that even if I spoke, I shouldn’t be honest. I clenched my molars, desperate to stay silent, but tears began to stream down my face uncontrollably.

Watching me, Yoo Se-rim spoke a horrific truth in a soft, gentle voice.

“Don’t resist. What you drank was a truth serum.”

“Agh……”

“If you keep trying to hold back, your head will hurt quite a bit.”

“…….”

“Why you avoid me, and yet the way you treat me at times with such strange familiarity…… those things bother me, Han Sol.”

“……Haa.”

“So, I became curious about what’s inside your head. Answer me. What do you think of me?”

“I…… you……”

I tried to fight the question circling my mind like a hypnotic trance, but when he firmly grabbed my trembling hand, my resistance finally crumbled.

I lifted my head, and through my tears, I told him.

“I loved you……”

Desperately, I bit my tongue to prevent myself from adding that I now hated him.

However, that single sentence seemed to strike Yoo Se-rim with significant impact. His eyes widened, and he asked again.

“Since when?”

“……Since the first time…… I saw…… you……”

“…….”

Yoo Se-rim appeared to fall into deep thought. He scanned my expression repeatedly as if he couldn’t believe it, then murmured an excuse as if to himself.

“I am not good at reading the emotions of others.”

“…….”

“I can only detect hostility. So I thought you hated me, but……”

If Yoo Se-rim had asked a few more questions then, I might have blurted out everything—including the fact that I had returned from the past.

To prevent that at all costs, I swallowed the screaming headache and rambled an answer to satisfy him.

“I was…… sad because you had…… no interest in me.”

Since this was how I felt in the past, it wasn’t a lie.

“I spent every day…… thinking about the gap between us…… and feeling despair……”

“…….”

“And at some point, I hated your indifference so much…… I wanted…… to…… kill……”

I bit my tongue again. Seeing my face flush a deep crimson, Yoo Se-rim gave a command as if granting me air to breathe.

“I understand. You don’t have to say any more.”

“Haa, haa, haa……”

Only then did the crushing pain in my head vanish. I collapsed onto the floor, wet with spilled tea.

Yoo Se-rim lifted me effortlessly with one arm. As he pulled me close, his hand caught on the belt Baek Hee-do had given me. He undid the clasp and threw it onto the floor as if it were a piece of trash.

“Han Sol.”

“…….”

“I’ve tried this truth serum myself. And I kept asking myself questions.”

‘Crazy bastard…….’

I felt a surge of loathing at his sickening voice, but my body wouldn’t obey me. Yoo Se-rim, seemingly blind to my contorted expression, pulled me into a tight embrace and whispered into my ear.

“I think I like you.”

“……!”

“However, I don’t know how to treat you.”

A madman who fed me truth serum just confessed his love.

I stared at him dazed, my tears finally stopping. There were too many things to unravel to figure out where exactly everything had gone wrong.

But Yoo Se-rim spoke firmly.

“You probably don’t know either. You said you loved me, yet you came here wearing some cheap thing Baek Hee-do gave you.”

“…….”

“I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t focus today; I was the same. I decided that maintaining this status quo was no longer an option.”

“…….”

“Fortunately, you love me and I like you, so we’ve avoided the worst-case scenario.”

“…….”

My body froze in shock, and Yoo Se-rim leaned down. The kiss I had to endure without being able to resist was foul and disgusting.

Unlike me, however, Yoo Se-rim’s face grew increasingly flushed.

“This is a first. To do something like this and not feel that the person is filthy……”

“…….”

I turned my face away to avoid his next attempt, but he pursued me doggedly. When I clamped my lips shut, he bit them until they bled and forced his tongue inside. It was an utterly self-centered kiss.

The more we kissed, the colder I became, while Yoo Se-rim grew feral, like a beast.

“……No. Don’t.”

“Aren’t we in a relationship where we like each other now?”

He asked while pulling off my clothes, and I shook with revulsion. He wore a faint smile as his eyes scanned my bare skin.

“There is something I must do with you.”

“…….”

I gave up. In my current state, I couldn’t even escape the grip of his single arm, let alone stop whatever this lunatic was planning.

However……

‘I will kill you. No matter what, I will kill you…….’

I gnashed my teeth, cursing him internally.

Suddenly, Yoo Se-rim forced my body around and bit into my neck. I had a premonition that he was doing something incredibly malicious, and I let out a scream.

“Stop it!”

He paused for a moment, letting go of my neck to reply.

“It isn’t a bad thing. I’m simply forming a ‘Pair’ with you.”

“……!”

“Don’t be nervous. It won’t hurt.”

With those words, I felt a searing heat, as if something were branding the back of my neck. I struggled, but I couldn’t move an inch.

“No! I said no……! No…… mgh!”

I bit down on Yoo Se-rim’s forearm with all my might, but he seemed satisfied, even pleased.

“Yes. That’s how you bite. Well done.”

“…….”

“It’s over.”

I felt like I had fallen into a trap.

A ‘Pair’.

Usually, it refers to a relationship with a binding force stronger than a typical party, formed when Awakened ones fall in love. That was all I knew; I had never actually met a ‘Paired’ couple.

And I had just been ‘Paired’ by Yoo Se-rim. I knew it was theoretically possible, but I never imagined it could actually happen.

“…….”

I leaned my aching head against the wall of the bathtub, staring at the tattoo-like seal left clearly on the back of my neck.

Shhh—

No matter how much I scrubbed, the mark wouldn’t fade. The seal that appeared on his wrist where I had bitten him would likely never disappear either.

I kept washing. I felt as though something filthy and nauseating had filled my body. But no matter how much I scrubbed, the feeling remained.

‘The price of letting my guard down……. Yes, it’s all…… because I was careless.’

Squeak.

I turned off the faucet. After drying my pruney skin with a towel, the sense of futility only deepened.

When I opened the door, a set of clean clothes was neatly prepared for me. This wasn’t Baek Hee-do’s hotel room. I was currently a captive of Yoo Se-rim.

It was humiliating, but I couldn’t go out naked, so I put on the clothes he provided. In the living room, I found him working on a laptop.

Thump, thump.

Unlike before, my heart began to race, and Yoo Se-rim’s features appeared more beautiful. Damn it. It was as if the Pair bond magnified feelings of love, distorting and forcing my emotions the moment I looked at him.