The Leash of the Soul and the Public Declaration

“Stop it right here… please.”

I pleaded with Yoo Se-rim, feeling as though I might vomit.

The repulsion I felt toward my own body—the way it betrayed my will to respond to his touch—must have been etched clearly on my face. It was a sickening dissonance. But Yoo Se-rim didn’t seem to understand. Or perhaps, he simply had no intention of trying.

He eventually pushed up my shirt and touched my bare skin. I squeezed my eyes shut. Yet, the rage boiling beneath the layer of forced arousal forced my mouth open once more.

“I don’t want to do this with you.”

“Your body… doesn’t seem to agree.”

Shame flooded me at his dry observation. In a fit of desperate defiance, I screamed.

“I want to do it with Baek Hee-do!”

“…….”

“I want to be Paired with Baek Hee-do!”

I was willing to use Baek Hee-do’s name as a shield, anything to stop Yoo Se-rim’s filthy advances. My outburst seemed to work; the hands that had been roaming over me with entitlement suddenly froze.

But unlike the explosion of anger I expected, Yoo Se-rim let out a soft, satisfied smile.

“I thought as much.”

“……What?”

“That makes me even happier. Knowing that you are my Pair.”

“You…!”

From that point on, Yoo Se-rim didn’t stop, no matter what I said, where I struck him, or how much I struggled. Every time I mentioned Baek Hee-do’s name, he only pushed harder, driving me further into a corner.

“Stop! I said stop!”

I bit into the pillow to stifle my moans, but I couldn’t stop them. I tried to pinch and puncture my own skin to break the trance, but once Yoo Se-rim caught my hands, there was no escaping his grip.

Then, he leaned over my tear-stained face and whispered.

“Kiss me properly, and I’ll let you go.”

“……What?”

“With sincerity and effort. Otherwise, we continue like this.”

I thought he was insane, but when his hand brushed against my waist and his fingers began to slip beneath my waistband, I had no choice.

I reached out and initiated the kiss. It felt horrifyingly good and utterly loathsome at the same time. The whiplash of conflicting emotions left me drained and exhausted.

“Let me go, now!”

“Use your tongue properly. Haven’t I been teaching you all this time?”

“…….”

Ultimately, while cursing him a thousand times in my head, I had to initiate the kiss again. Yoo Se-rim critiqued my clumsy efforts, forcing us to restart more than five times before he finally released me.

“Haa, haa…….”

“From now on, whether on ‘this side’ or ‘the other,’ you must stay with me. You are my Pair.”

“…….”

I wanted to tell him to go to hell, but the aftereffects of the kiss left me barely able to breathe, let alone speak.

Yoo Se-rim watched me with a faint smile. But when he spoke next, his expression vanished as if it had never been there.

“Also, you are forbidden from seeing Baek Hee-do. I am a stronger R-rank than he is, and both he and I know that.”

“…….”

“If you want him dead, just call for me.”

I knew he wasn’t bluffing. But hearing him talk so arrogantly about killing or sparing Baek Hee-do made my blood boil.

“If you lay a hand on Baek Hee-do, I won’t just sit still.”

At that, Yoo Se-rim said something only a madman would say.

“I could cut off his limbs and continue what we were doing just now right in front of him.”

“……!”

“You know by now that your will is far weaker than the compulsion of the Pair. You claim to hate me, yet you were aroused, weren’t you?”

“Shut up!”

“I am merely stating facts.”

With that spiteful remark, he drove the final nail in as a warning.

“Don’t obsess over Baek Hee-do. As long as you are Paired with me, even if you were to sleep with him, you wouldn’t feel a thing.”

“…….”

After saying that, Yoo Se-rim gathered his clothes and dressed.

I remained collapsed on the bed like a crumpled towel, glaring at him. He brushed my damp bangs aside with a tenderness that made my skin crawl, left a final kiss on my forehead, and departed.

In the wake of his sudden obsession and madness, I tried to figure out what he actually wanted from me. My love? No…….

‘If he wanted to be loved, he wouldn’t act like this.’

Yoo Se-rim had brooded over his own clumsy emotions—even taking truth serum to question himself—and reached a conclusion: he viewed me as his accessory.

‘Lunatic…….’

The problem was that this Pair mark had seized control of my physical responses. My mind loathed him with every fiber, yet my body rejoiced. It made every protest feel like mere “playing hard to get,” and a sudden wave of fatigue washed over me.

‘Should I just die……?’

But if I died now, I couldn’t be sure of the regression point. In the worst-case scenario, I might return to the past already Paired with him. My physical abilities had carried over the first time, after all.

‘Or, if I die, will the Pair be broken?’

The risk was too high to gamble. The pendant had made it clear: this was my last chance.

‘Don’t worry. There will be another way. I’ll find it for you.’ ‘I could cut off his limbs and continue what we were doing right in front of him.’

The mere thought of Baek Hee-do dying or being severely injured made my heart drop. Yoo Se-rim was a calm, calculating psycho; he would have no qualms about hurting Hee-do.

‘If Baek Hee-do dies, I…….’

I gnashed my teeth.

Two weeks later.

“The name of today’s dungeon is ‘Ramon’s Purgatory’.”

I was with the party, wearing a hood pulled low to hide the Pair mark on my neck. Fortunately, the mark on Yoo Se-rim’s forearm was also hidden by his sleeves, but I could feel his gaze on me—it was far more sensitive and possessive than before, and it made my stomach turn.

However, Yoo Se-rim finished the briefing as if nothing were wrong.

“In Ramon’s Purgatory, there are monsters called Judges who carry large scythes. You must be careful; they are immune to physical attacks and can only be damaged by skills.”

As he spoke, he specifically called out to me, even though I was pointedly looking away.

“Han Sol.”

“……What is it.”

“I’d like you to stay behind me and coordinate your support.”

“…….”

I didn’t answer. Pyo Yoo-jung glared at me with murderous intent, but no one voiced an objection.

I felt nauseous, but I didn’t do anything as foolish as arguing. I had tried everything over the past two weeks, but I couldn’t escape him. Since he broke down my door, he had effectively kidnapped me to his house, keeping me in a state of near-confinement.

During that time, Yoo Se-rim learned exactly what I hated. Eventually, I stopped resisting; he didn’t bother me as long as I stayed quiet.

‘Finally, we’ve stabilized.’

He had rationalized my resignation with that nonsense. It was a wretched feeling, but because I hated him touching me even more, I had half-given up and started following his lead.

“Um…… are you okay, Han Sol? You look a bit pale…….”

Seong Kyu-rim asked, but I couldn’t answer immediately. Yoo Se-rim was staring at me. The problem was that, upon hearing her, Yoo Se-rim began walking toward me.

I frowned. But no matter how much I scowled, my body remained frozen, and his warm hand eventually touched my forehead.

“Oh my…….”

Seong Kyu-rim gasped, stepping back.

“You don’t have a fever……. Didn’t you sleep well last night?”

“…….”

You crazy bastard.

I felt the atmosphere of the party turn ice-cold at his words. I gnashed my teeth. Pyo Yoo-jung looked like she might faint, glancing between me and Yoo Se-rim before asking in a trembling voice.

“W-were you…… together last night? You two?”

“Yes. We’ve decided to live together from now on.”

Thud—! Even Kim Jae-ho dropped his axe in shock, staring at us. Only the young Ahn Hwa-young looked on with confusion, popping her gum.

[Why are you living together-yoi?]

“We’ve formed a Pair. Han Sol and I.”