Truth, Dare, and a Heart You Can’t Hear

“Truth or Dare….”

Jeong Iheon read the words appearing on the wall, and his expression hardened.

His voice sank slightly.

After checking the rest of the escape conditions, he relaxed again.

I looked at the conditions written on the wall and noticed something different from what the system had shown me.

‘The system said there were five rooms, but there’s no such information here.’

Without that information, anyone would assume that escaping this one room meant getting out of the rift.

That was probably why Jeong Iheon had relaxed.

One question and one answer each.

An absurdly easy condition.

And yet, I still felt uneasy.

This was a mission that required five rounds of questions in total.

If we both asked only easy questions, we could leave quickly.

But my opponent was Jeong Iheon.

As I eyed him suspiciously, he spoke to me with a noticeably lighter expression.

“The condition’s too easy. Calling this a rift feels like a stretch.”

I nodded vaguely at his words.

The rift didn’t specify who had to ask first.

Just as I was about to tell him to go first, he spoke.

“Doya, you ask first. Pick something easy and let’s get out fast.”

For once, we were on the same page.

It was obvious this event map would throw something weird at us.

The smartest move was to ask questions that were easy to answer and get out as fast as possible.

I nodded and asked first.

“Jeong Iheon, are you really twenty-three? Tell me your real age.”

It was something I was genuinely curious about, but also something he could answer.

Half a joke, half sincere curiosity.

At my question, Jeong Iheon lifted one corner of his mouth with an ambiguous look.

“Truth or Dare?”

“Truth.”

“Then answer already. You said you wanted to finish quickly.”

“Hmm.”

Even after choosing truth, Jeong Iheon deliberately dragged his feet.

He acted as if he’d been asked an incredibly difficult question.

When more than a minute passed, I got annoyed and punched his chest with my right hand.

Even though it wouldn’t hurt him at all, Jeong Iheon exaggerated a reaction.

“That hurts.”

“Just answer already. Stop wasting time.”

“Okay, okay.”

He smiled gently as he said that.

Then, all of a sudden, he tightened the arm holding me and pulled me flush against his chest.

My previously free right arm was trapped between our bodies, unable to move.

Only then did Jeong Iheon finally speak.

“Twenty-seven.”

“You f*cking—I knew it.”

The moment I heard his answer, a raw curse slipped out of my mouth unfiltered.

It was pure reflex.

Jeong Iheon burst out laughing, still holding me tightly.

I wanted to smash his shoulder with my right arm, but he only tightened his grip, keeping me pinned.

Grinding my teeth, I opened my mouth instead and bit down hard on his neck.

“Agh!”

That finally stopped his laughter.

Jeong Iheon froze, then loosened his arms.

Now able to move, I pulled my mouth away from his neck and punched his shoulder hard once.

“…Didn’t expect you to bite.”

He muttered in a slightly dazed tone.

Whether he was stunned or not, I snapped at him irritably.

“Why did you lie and say you were twenty-three in the first place?”

“Ah. I thought it’d be easier to get close that way.”

“Even if you were twenty-three, I wouldn’t get close to you.”

I replied curtly.

[Target ‘Jeong Iheon’ has spoken the truth.]

The system message appeared first, and then the word ‘Complete’ surfaced on the ceiling.

Now it was Jeong Iheon’s turn to ask a question.

I handed him the turn with a dismissive tone.

“Just ask whatever.”

I said it casually, but his reaction was anything but normal.

Jeong Iheon twisted his lips into a crooked, nasty smile.

‘Wait. Why does he look like that.’

Alarm bells went off in my head.

I tried to cover his mouth, but he was faster.

“What’s the biggest secret you’re hiding?”

You son of a—

I ground my teeth and glared up at him.

He looked down at me with that infuriatingly smooth face, smiling.

“Doya. Which will it be?”

He urged me on.

My biggest secret?

Damn it, Jeong Iheon.

I should’ve gone first again.

I should’ve considered that he might pull something like this.

Staring him down, I answered through clenched teeth.

“Dare.”

“Got a big secret, huh?”

“You’ll see.”

“Mm. Alright.”

Jeong Iheon drawled mockingly, as if completely unfazed.

He still hadn’t realized there was another room after this one.

Once we moved on, he’d be dead.

I was absolutely going to ask something impossible to answer next.

[Player has chosen ‘Dare’.]

[Generating Dare objective based on affinity.]

[Affinity measurement is currently suspended. Objective will be generated at random.]

[Generating random objective…]

The system’s movements felt ominous.

I bit down on my dry lips, tense.

Less than a minute passed, but it felt like an eternity.

Finally, the system generated the dare.

[Dare Objective: A kiss that induces sexual pleasure in the target.]

…You absolute piece of shit.

As soon as the system announced it, the same words were etched onto the ceiling.

Jeong Iheon stared at them blankly for a moment, then burst into wild laughter.

He laughed so hard his eyes filled with tears.

He looked genuinely insane.

“Haha, Doya. Can you even do that?

Wouldn’t it be better to just tell the truth? You can still change your mind.”

He said it without stopping his laughter.

“Seriously, this is hilarious. Sexual pleasure, huh.”

Watching him laugh with tears in his eyes made my blood boil.

Jeong Iheon clearly believed there was no way I could make him feel anything.

I realized why he was laughing so hard when he muttered again.

“Our Doya probably hasn’t even kissed anyone before.”

Excuse me?

Who said I’d never kissed anyone?

I’ve kissed. I’ve even had s*x.

The confidence in his voice was irritating.

Jeong Iheon finally managed to stop laughing and smiled at me in a low, intimate way.

His eyes curved beautifully.

If not for this blindingly white room, the atmosphere might have felt outright obscene.

“Want me to do it?”

“If you do it, it’s not my dare. I have to.”

“Your first kiss, though. It won’t be easy.”

He was completely underestimating me.

Honestly, it was his fault for looking like that.

A face so clean and harmless made men like Jeong Iheon jump to stupid conclusions.

‘What kind of delusion is he having about a grown woman who’s done it all?’

“It’s not my first kiss.”

I snapped back.

The smile vanished from Jeong Iheon’s face.

His brows crushed together as if he’d just heard something he shouldn’t have.

The speed of his expression change was almost impressive.

From heaven straight into hell.

Jeong Iheon, who could read people terrifyingly well, seemed to immediately realize I wasn’t lying.

He asked, face still twisted,

“Why?”

“Why what? It’s not, so it’s not!”

He looked genuinely unable to process it.

Like he’d run into an unsolvable problem, he asked again in a stiff voice,

“With who.”

“You already used your question. Shut up—

No, wait. You can’t shut your mouth.”

I corrected myself mid-thought.

Right.
You can’t kiss with your mouth shut.

At my calm reaction, Jeong Iheon looked like he’d just heard the most scandalous thing in the world.

Ignoring his explosive reaction, I looped my right arm around his neck and said,

“If you… feel something, don’t drop me.”

As he frowned and opened his mouth to say something, I leaned in and kissed him softly.

A kiss was nothing.

Jeong Iheon was infuriating, but physically flawless.

A good-looking face, a good body, and even up close he always smelled clean and fresh.

It almost felt like being this close to him amplified the system’s influence, though I couldn’t be sure.

Our lips touched.

Even then, Jeong Iheon’s brows were still drawn tight.

He kept his eyes open, silently watching what I was doing.

The way he stared felt like I’d betrayed him.

After blinking a few times under the pressure, I just closed my eyes.

‘Why is he looking at me like that? I’m not his girlfriend or anything.’

The look was too heavy.

But the moment our lips met, I heard his heartbeat spike unnaturally fast.

Still holding me, Jeong Iheon suddenly dropped down to the floor.

Startled by the sudden drop, I pulled my lips away.

He sat there and lowered me from his arms.

Before I could figure out what he was doing, he trapped me between his legs and reached up.

The hard prosthetic hands pressed firmly over my ears.

They looked just like real human hands, which often made me forget what they were.

‘But if he covers my ears like this, the sounds from my own body drown out everything else.’

Hearing the steady rhythm of my own heartbeat, I blinked at Jeong Iheon.

‘Why is he covering my ears?’

Mouthing the question unconsciously, I got no answer.

Jeong Iheon simply covered my ears with a blank expression and leaned down toward me.

Maybe because the kiss had to be initiated by me, he only lowered his head, stopping just short of our lips touching.

He probably didn’t want me to hear his heartbeat.