Ensnared by the Trap (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 1
“Are you really going to run away like this?”
At that chillingly cold low voice, Se Hee’s heart sank straight down.
A tall man with broad shoulders that blocked even the midday sun high in the sky.
Kyle Graham Evans.
He was standing right in front of Se Hee.
The deep shadow cast over Kyle’s face darkened his pale-white skin until it resembled the color of his black hair.
His deep-sea blue eyes stared straight at Se Hee without the slightest tremble.
The moment their gazes met, Se Hee’s shocked heart—which had seemed to stop—began pounding wildly again.
“……It’s not running away. I’m just going back. To where I originally belong.”
Trying to hide the tremor in her voice caused by her shaken emotions, Se Hee spoke as calmly as possible.
“Why does it look to me like you’re fleeing?”
His arrogant gaze sweeping over her felt as if it were binding her entire body.
“The trip is over, so naturally it’s time to step away from the deviation.”
“Was it merely a deviation?”
At the word “deviation” that slipped from Se Hee’s lips, Kyle’s thick eyebrows twitched.
His voice, now even lower than before, seemed to drop the surrounding temperature along with it.
“……Yes. A deviation that can easily happen in an unfamiliar travel destination like this. The kind that’s easily forgotten—something completely meaningless.”
Even as she herself called it meaningless, Se Hee’s heart crumbled at her own words.
Every word coming out of her mouth right now was the complete opposite of what her heart was truly saying.
Se Hee bit down hard on her trembling lips.
“Easily forgotten…… something completely meaningless?”
Unpleasant emotions rose in Kyle’s deep blue eyes as he murmured lowly.
Se Hee tried hard not to be deceived by that sight.
It’s all just an act.
Everything is a lie.
If the place we met hadn’t been the Decora Ho cruise ship—if it hadn’t been the maiden voyage.
Complicated feelings tangled inside Se Hee’s heart.
Kyle’s eyes, fixed on her, grew darker than the deep sea—almost black.
Her pale face, desperately suppressing her emotions, was fully reflected in those eyes that seemed capable of seeing straight through a person.
“Are you telling me to believe that? That those are your true feelings?”
Kyle’s repeated question dragged heavily on Se Hee’s heart like iron chains.
Enduring that weight, Se Hee met Kyle’s gaze with difficulty.
You wouldn’t know at all.
Even though I know all of this is a lie,
because of those eyes of yours,
because of that one sentence,
how my heart has no choice but to waver like this.
You could never understand.
That from the very first moment I saw you, I might have already fallen.
Because to you, my feelings mean nothing.
To calm her raging emotions, Se Hee let out a long breath.
And she made up her mind.
That she wasn’t being toyed with by his false deception—she was simply escaping a deviation she had brought upon herself.
Her long hair, fluttering in the sea breeze of the Venice port, settled calmly, just like her now-organized heart.
One wound was enough.
She didn’t want to create another.
“……It’s the truth.”
Se Hee, having hardened her resolve, spat out coldly.
“In the end…… you’re going to end it?”
As if unable to accept her decision, Kyle did not back down.
Instead, he closed the distance toward Se Hee.
As he came close enough that they might touch, his rich scent invaded Se Hee’s lungs until she couldn’t breathe.
“……But I, Lee Se Hee, have absolutely no intention of letting you go.”
Kyle’s intense gaze toward Se Hee bound her, leaving her no freedom.
Completely captured by that gaze, Se Hee could not push him away.
As though he had known she couldn’t refuse, Kyle’s strong arms naturally wrapped around Se Hee’s slender waist.
The dizzying kiss that followed, as if he had been waiting for it, etched itself deeply into Se Hee’s heart, sending powerful shivers through her.
* * *
“It’s the 4th of next month.”
Hyun Joon casually lifted his rimless glasses perched on his sharp nose with arrogant fingertips as he spoke indifferently.
9 a.m.—the office had just begun work and was quiet.
Hyun Joon had deliberately chosen this time.
To silently pressure everyone to keep their mouths shut.
At Hyun Joon’s shameless behavior, the blood drained from Se Hee’s tightly clenched fists.
Three years.
The precious time she had wasted thinking this trash was her boyfriend.
The golden words gleaming on the desk stabbed at Se Hee’s heart.
An invitation.
How could a person be this shameless?
Even if they worked in the same department, how many crazy people would boldly shove a wedding invitation at their ex-girlfriend?
Se Hee’s face turned pale with anger as she gritted her teeth.
Since the relationship was already over, her mind was sending strong rational signals to act calmly, but the rising fury had already pierced her heart.
Originally, the person whose name was supposed to appear alongside that trash Cha Hyun Joon on this invitation was Se Hee.
At least until three months ago.
Three months ago, at the first formal greeting with Hyun Joon’s parents, Se Hee had been soundly rejected.
At the time, she thought it was because of the fierce opposition from Hyun Joon’s mother, who humiliated her by saying she couldn’t have been properly raised without parents.
From the moment they started dating, Se Hee had openly told Hyun Joon that she was from an orphanage.
Since it was the day to formally greet his parents, she assumed they already knew.
But his mother acted as if it were the first time she’d heard it, exploding in rage and insulting not only Se Hee but even her unknown parents without hesitation.
In that shocking situation, Hyun Joon—the one person Se Hee believed would shield her—simply stood by like he was watching someone else’s business.
Se Hee was deeply disappointed in him, and the two ended up fighting.
After that day, Hyun Joon’s attitude visibly changed.
Yet because Hyun Joon was the first person who had given her the hope and excitement of finally having a real family, Se Hee blamed herself for everything and did her best for him even as they grew apart.
Then one day, to surprise Hyun Joon—who had grumpily told her not to contact him because he was working late—Se Hee brought a carefully prepared lunch box to the company.
Wanting to surprise him, she quietly approached his desk, only to find the monitor on and Hyun Joon nowhere in sight.
And then the faint, suggestive sounds of a man and woman.
An inexplicable anxiety washed over her, but Se Hee denied it and cautiously headed toward the source of the sound.
In the darkened employee lounge, Se Hee witnessed a shocking scene she never should have seen.
The owner of those embarrassing moans was the new employee Yoon Ye Ri, who had parachuted in proudly bearing the title of daughter of a current executive at SY Hotel where Se Hee worked.
And the man engaging in all-too-natural physical intimacy with her, as if it wasn’t their first time, was none other than Hyun Joon.
‘Oh my God.’
Even seeing it with her own eyes, Se Hee couldn’t believe it.
Something that belonged in a trashy drama was actually happening in her real life.
Her breath caught and her legs gave out.
Only then did Se Hee understand Hyun Joon and his parents’ behavior.
It had all been Hyun Joon’s pathetic plan to create a situation where breaking up with her would be easy.
Because Se Hee had trusted Hyun Joon completely, she never suspected him.
Not until the very moment she witnessed this enormous incident.
Only then did Se Hee finally realize what Cha Hyun Joon had chosen.
And exactly what kind of trash he was.
She felt so pitiful and sorry for herself—who had devotedly sacrificed everything to Hyun Joon just for the hope of having a family, not knowing he was this kind of guy.
So she didn’t cling to him.
But it hurt terribly.
Her body and heart both hurt terribly.
After suffering for a long time and finally getting back on her feet, watching the rising sun, she swore.
That she would never live like a fool again.
Remembering that nightmarish time, Se Hee opened her eyes wide.
Three months had passed, but the wounds from back then were still bleeding fresh red blood, as if they had just been inflicted.
The hurt was deeper and greater than she had expected, exactly proportional to how much she had trusted Hyun Joon.
The invitation Hyun Joon handed her became a sharpened blade, stabbing once more into a wound that hadn’t fully healed.
A hollow laugh escaped Se Hee naturally.
While she had been unable to move on because of the pain Hyun Joon caused her, he had apparently been busy preparing for marriage.
She didn’t even need to hear from others that the two of them had openly started dating.
Because they worked in the same hotel business division, she had painfully witnessed the entire process herself.
But she never expected Hyun Joon to get married this quickly.
If he had even a shred of basic courtesy, he wouldn’t pull this kind of prank.
So trash really is just trash, huh?
Fury boiling inside her, Se Hee had no intention of staying quietly silent.
There was no reason to.
From the moment those two openly started dating, Se Hee had already been receiving painful stares from the entire department.
No matter what she did now, things couldn’t get any worse.
If she followed her heart, she wanted to punch that smug face of his.
Cha Hyun Joon, you’re wrong!
“Yeah?”
After taking a deep breath, Se Hee’s voice came out cold.
With an icy expression, she pulled five ten-thousand-won bills from her wallet, stood up,
and coolly scattered them toward Hyun Joon standing in front of her.
“I’m busy, so I probably won’t be able to attend. So eat well and live well.”
Hyun Joon’s eyes widened in shock at Se Hee’s completely unexpected attitude.
“The Lee Se Hee who used to blush in front of you doesn’t exist anymore.”
Se Hee’s gaze as she looked at the dumbfounded, speechless Hyun Joon was colder than frost in June.
“What? Too little? What to do? Even this feels like too much for Cha Hyun Joon. Just like you told me back then—eat it coolly and get lost.”
Se Hee’s clear, ringing voice drew the attention of everyone in the office.
“……Are you crazy?”
Hyun Joon, so shocked he could barely speak, let out a hoarse voice.
“Assistant Manager Cha Hyun Joon. I’m two years your senior, aren’t I? From now on, I’d appreciate it if you showed proper respect.”
Se Hee spoke calmly and firmly in a commanding tone.
As the surroundings began to stir, Hyun Joon—bothered by it—glared fiercely at Se Hee as if to say “just you wait,” then quickly returned to his seat.
Having dealt with Hyun Joon, Se Hee calmly sat down, quickly typed something on her monitor, and printed it immediately.
She scribbled her signature on the printout, placed it in the approval tray, and took it to the department head.
Manager Yang, who had just witnessed the commotion, looked at Se Hee with surprised eyes as he accepted the tray.
“……What is this?”
Worried that Se Hee might be impulsively submitting her resignation, Manager Yang asked cautiously.
“It’s a leave of absence request, sir.”
Contrary to Manager Yang’s expectation, however, Se Hee had submitted a leave of absence form.
“A le—leave of absence?”
He was surprised as well, so Manager Yang repeated the question.
“Yes. Everyone on our team has taken their long vacation, but I’m the only one who hasn’t.”
Ever since the special “one-month vacation” policy was introduced by HR a year ago, department employees had been taking turns using it.
For a while after implementation, the company was noisy with talk of family trips and overseas travel.
But all that time, Se Hee had quietly yielded her turn to others and just watched.
To match her schedule with that trash Hyun Joon.
Of course, Hyun Joon had spent that time with someone else.
Se Hee decided it was time to finally use the vacation she had missed—for herself.
“You want to take it now?”
“Yes. This is the slowest period for the business division right now. Everyone else has already gone, so there’s no overlap, and I’d appreciate it if you could approve it.”
At Se Hee’s words, Manager Yang’s brow furrowed.
HR had instructed them to actively encourage the use of long vacations, but having two people absent at the same time was burdensome for a department head.
“If you don’t have any plans, why not go after Assistant Manager Cha returns from his honeymoon?”
Manager Yang said, carefully gauging Se Hee’s reaction.
Se Hee let out a small, incredulous laugh at that absurd question.
After everything he had just seen, he was telling her to wait for Cha Hyun Joon’s wedding and honeymoon.
But Se Hee had not the slightest intention of yielding her time to that trash Cha Hyun Joon.
“Assistant Manager Cha Hyun Joon’s wedding and honeymoon are only one week long. Even if the periods overlap, I don’t think it will cause any major issues with work.”
Thrown off by Se Hee’s unusually combative attitude today, Manager Yang reluctantly nodded.
Se Hee confidently turned and walked away after receiving the approval.
‘From now on, everything will be different.’
When male lead is the homewrecker
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
I’ve read the novel below twice already. Girls, I’m highly recommending it to you!
The female lead? Not a good person.
The second male lead? Not a good person.
The male lead? Willingly plays the third party, breaking up the female and second male lead’s relationship despite all the warnings from his friends—so yeah, he’s definitely not a good person either.
Basically, nobody in this novel is simple-minded or without scheming.
The female lead starts off as the male lead’s secretary, but don’t worry—later on, she takes over the company while the male lead steps back to support her. He won’t steal her spotlight, overshadow her, or dull her shine.
I love novels where men are out here snatching wigs, tearing each other down, and going to war just to win the female lead’s affection. And this is exactly that kind of novel. Most of Hai Dai Ran’s works have this dynamic. You’ll see the male characters’ emotions being pushed to the absolute extreme.
There’s even a scene where the second male lead exposes the male lead online for being a homewrecker. The brotherhood immediately gangs up on him, dragging him through the mud. I find it compelling —it completely flips reality on its head, where usually, women are the ones fighting over a man and getting torn apart by the sisterhood.
For me, female leads in the novels I read should only struggle in their careers, not in love. But if the brainless romantics in the story are all men? I have zero complaints.
I’ve pretty much read all of Hai Dai Ran’s novels and even translated all of them—her works are just my thing. I’ll slowly upload everything here. One day, when my website is official, I hope I can invite her to join as one of the star authors.
Here’s the story synopsis:
One-line summary: She is his lifelong obsession, to the point where he was willing to be a third wheel, scorned by society, just to wedge his way into her relationship with her fiancé.
Cold-hearted and indifferent female lead + Scheming and subservient CEO male lead
Intro 1:
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
With blood trickling from his clenched fist, Rong Xiu gazed at the woman before him, his eyes clouded with anguish. Hidden in the wardrobe, he had witnessed Fan Xia – the woman he desperately loved – in an intimate embrace with her fiancé. Yet his heart still yearned for her, defying all reason.
Fan Xia, the elegant and composed assistant, carried something mysterious in her eyes whenever she looked at her fiancé, Wen Lan Sheng. Strange occurrences began to surface – secret meetings with the young Gu Jin Yi, an unexplained withdrawal of 5,000 yuan… Then suddenly, her fiancé’s sister, Wen Jing, violently attacked her.
In this matriarchal society, Rong Xiu had risen to become the chairman of a powerful healthcare conglomerate, breaking through gender prejudices. But for the first time, he willingly stepped into the shadows as the other man, disregarding his friends’ warnings to become her secret lover.
Because he had discovered the truth – Fan Xia wasn’t the pure angel everyone believed her to be. And perhaps, he was the only one capable of helping her execute her mysterious plan…
Intro 2:
Rong Xiu’s biggest regret in life was missing out on Fan Xia.
He secretly loved Fan Xia for 7 years.
Watched her go public with her boyfriend.
Watched her kiss her boyfriend at their wedding.
Until that man blissfully nestled in Fan Xia’s arms, obtaining everything he could only dream of.
The crazy jealousy stripped away his hidden secret love, layer by layer, burning like wildfire.
Fan Xia, how can I have you!
【Reading and Trigger Warning Guide】
1. Female dominant, male submissive, male pregnancy
2. Male lead schemes his way to the top, male competition
_____
Please help me, I want to bring you the best possible things.
If you find any chapter or novel with poor translation and editing quality, let me know by commenting directly under that novel or chapter. I will retranslate it as soon as possible.
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