I quickly checked the quest window.
Fortunately, the quest window showed no changes at all. No notification, no clear message, no added conditions — it remained exactly as it was.
It had taken less than a few seconds to confirm that, but in that time the air in the room had shifted completely.
Park Taehan and Seo Yungyeom had both gone rigid at the same time.
Their expressions were ones that could only be described as shock. Neither of them had anticipated that I would resist so violently.
Seo Yungyeom in particular couldn’t move a single step — he was frozen in place. His lips were parted slightly, and his gaze moved back and forth between me and the red stain that had splattered across the bed sheet. It was hard to believe this was the same person who had been pleading just moments ago.
Only then did I let out one long, rough breath. A deep exhale that made my chest heave. Then I raised my head and looked straight at Park Taehan.
“You….”
My voice cracked faintly with anger.
Park Taehan said nothing. His gaze was still fixed on the potion bottle rolling on the floor.
I continued through clenched teeth.
“That was violence.”
I had tried to say it calmly, but the end of the sentence trembled ever so slightly. It was words I had barely managed to get out without having caught my breath properly. As I always had, I pinpointed exactly what Park Taehan had done wrong. I didn’t push with emotion, and I didn’t run. It was the way I had always handled things.
But this time was different.
Park Taehan never raised his head. He just stood there frozen, without saying a word. It was a reaction unlike him — he who had always either pushed back immediately or accepted it outright.
He still said nothing, his gaze still downcast.
I naturally let my own gaze follow. The red potion bottle rolling on the floor came into view. The bottle that had come to rest beside the bed frame, and the stain spread around it.
I bit down hard on my lip.
What Park Taehan had done was undeniably violence. There was no room for excuse. But the choice I had just made was equally an obvious betrayal of the time and effort Seo Yungyeom had poured into this. The fact that I couldn’t deny that was what was suffocating me.
My throat cracked once more. This time it wasn’t anger, and it wasn’t defensiveness. It was simply to get the remaining words out.
“…I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t tell myself exactly who I was saying it to.
That was when it happened. Knock-knock. The sound of knocking rang through the room. Not that a knock would do much good when the door was already open.
“What’s going on in here.”
The person who stepped over the threshold was the last one who had still been in this house.
Yu Segwon. His gaze swept slowly around the room. The bed, the stain on the sheet, the frozen Seo Yungyeom, Park Taehan who couldn’t lift his head, and me.
But no one — myself included — could open their mouth. There were no words to explain, no words to make excuses with, no courage to speak first.
Yu Segwon left that silence alone for a moment. Then he slowly moved. He carefully picked up the potion that had fallen to the floor.
About half the contents still remained inside the bottle. It glistened along the rim of the glass from being spilled, but he didn’t seem to mind even that.
He looked down at the bottle for a moment, then without any hesitation, tilted it. The red liquid flowed into his mouth.
“What are you—.”
Seo Yungyeom’s startled voice burst out, but the rest of the sentence never made it to the end. Because Yu Segwon’s hand had wrapped around the back of my neck.
It wasn’t tight enough to cut off my breath, but it was a precise grip I couldn’t pull free from. His palm pressed flush along the line of my neck, neatly eliminating any room for me to turn my head. His other hand came up beneath my jaw, and my head was forcibly locked in place.
“……!”
There wasn’t even a gap to exhale the startled breath I’d drawn in.
Yu Segwon lowered his head. His breath reached me first. The scent of the red potion, warm body heat, and beneath it an inexplicable energy — all of it rushed in at once. When I instinctively tried to pull back, the hand holding my jaw tightened further.
Our gazes locked. Gleaming golden eyes were right in front of me. Unwavering pupils, a focus that was almost too sharp. Within them there was no hesitation, no reluctance.
His lips met mine. With no room to evade — like a collision.
For an instant, my breath stopped. As if unwilling to miss that opening, Yu Segwon pressed deeper. My lips parted, and warm liquid flowed onto my tongue.
It felt like a command to swallow. I tried to refuse, but my body responded first. My throat moved in something like a spasm, and part of it went down just like that.
“Mm—!”
Before the sound could even fully form, his lips pressed back against mine again. This time for longer. My breath tangled, our breathing mingled, and between it all the potion was transferred little by little into my mouth. It was a motion that suggested the concept of choice had never existed from the start.
Only after I had swallowed every last drop of the red liquid did Yu Segwon finally pull back from me.
As his lips separated, his hands released. Once that brief moment had passed, the air in the room erupted belatedly, as though it had been holding itself together. A shock far greater than before rippled outward in every direction.
“You—! You—!”
Park Taehan’s face flushed red. His expression a mix of rage and bewilderment, he jabbed a finger toward Yu Segwon. But his words couldn’t make it to the end and caught in his throat several times over.
I stared at the scene blankly.
My mind couldn’t immediately catch up to what had just happened. My breath was still coming, but my thoughts felt like they were running a beat behind. A strange aftertaste still lingered in my mouth, and the inside of my throat constricted oddly.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
Park Taehan’s shout cleaved through the room.
Only then did Yu Segwon slowly turn his head. He dragged his thumb once across his glistening lips. A gesture like tidying up something that had spilled — as if it meant nothing at all.
And with an unbothered expression, he answered.
“Violence.”
A clean, single word.
His gaze came down to me. As if confirming, or as if seeking agreement. Eyes that were returning the exact words I had said moments ago. As if asking — wasn’t that right?
“Haha….”
A meaningless laugh slipped out. My throat stung, but even that pain felt distant and unreal. The warmth of lips, the tangle of breath, the sensation of liquid forced down my throat. None of it felt important to me right now. There was only one thing that mattered.
Ding.
The moment the notification tone sounded, I lifted my gaze almost reflexively.
Service Quest (3) — Consume an S-Rank Potion
Service Quest (3) has been cleared!
The clear text floated up in the air.
I couldn’t yet tell what change had occurred in my body. My breathing hadn’t eased, and I didn’t feel any sudden opening in my chest. But the system had already made its judgment. Results always came faster than sensation.
At that moment, a low, composed voice cut through the room.
“Even if Sensei refuses treatment.”
It was Yu Segwon. The fact that his gaze was fixed on me was so palpable I could feel it on my skin.
“We… no.”
A brief pause — the sound of someone steadying their breath. Even that short gap felt calculated.
“At least I will — force you to get better if I have to.”
It was a composed declaration. He wasn’t presenting options. The tone was closer to a notification.
I said nothing. Because I knew that no matter what I said, I couldn’t undo that sentence.
“Even if.”
Yu Segwon’s gaze dropped fractionally. Within those eyes, in place of wavering, was a cold certainty.
“That makes it violence.”
Those words settled down heavily.
“Everyone get out.”
Only much later did those short words fall from my mouth. Honestly, in that moment, it was the only thing I was capable of saying.
This time, none of the three offered any resistance. Without excuses, without attempts to persuade, without leaving so much as a single glance behind, they quietly left the room.
Click.
The sound of the door closing rang with unusual clarity. And with that sound, perfect silence descended on the room.
Steam still rose faintly from the abalone porridge sitting on the table. But as if knowing no one would touch it, that warmth slowly faded. The smell that had been warm grew thinner by degrees.
I let out a breath like a sigh and dragged both hands down my face. Even the body heat left on my palms felt unfamiliar. Then I slowly raised my head and fixed my gaze on the quest window floating in the air.
Ding.
The familiar notification tone scratched past my eardrums.
Service Quest (4) — Maintain a Stable Condition for One Hundred Hours
A new sentence rose up, unhurried.
I read those words in silence.
One hundred hours. The calculation ran through my head naturally. Four days and four hours. Too ambiguous to call short, too peculiar to call long.
It was then that I made up my mind.
Let’s run.
There was no need to think any deeper. At the very least, I had to get out of here. Being dragged here in something close to kidnapping was already abnormal enough — but the fact that three quests had been cleared in a single day went far beyond that abnormality. If I stayed here like this… I had a feeling I really might end up tethered to this world for good.
The problem, however, was that the three people outside the door were all S-rank. The moment I stepped one foot out of this room, they would notice immediately. They would sense my mana and come to restrain me — that much was certain.
“…….”
Honestly, I still couldn’t quite make sense of the situation.
The three of them had reacted to my impending death with far more intensity than I’d expected. I had thought they would grieve. I had considered that much to be natural. But I hadn’t anticipated that they would stop at nothing — mixing violence and coercion — in their determination to keep me alive.
I absently brought my fingers to my lips. Whether it was because of the sensation still lingering there, or because of an afterimage that wouldn’t fade, I couldn’t say. I had the vague feeling they were slightly swollen.
I wasn’t the type to attach any particular significance to something like a kiss. Which was why, rather than the thought that I’d been kissed, what came to mind first was the word Yu Segwon had used — violence.
“Why on earth….”
Had I been that important a person to them. I still couldn’t understand it.
