A Horrible Misunderstanding

"What?" 

An absurd look appeared on my face, as I looked at her, wondering where she got that crazy idea from.

"And why would you think that I found the pain you gave me pleasurable?" I asked, still not understanding what she had just said.

"Because you're a masochist, or whatever they call those people who get off pain. You're one of those perverts!" 

Astrid said as a matter of fact, and scooted even further away from me, as if she were afraid she too would become a pervert like me if she stayed too close to me.

"Masochist? Why would you think I'm a masochist?" I asked, with the pitch of my voice turning higher from the shock of being called an M by an innocent-looking girl like her.

"Didn't you say it yourself." She looked at me and reminded me.

"Didn't you just say earlier that you liked to be beat up by aggressive-looking women, when I asked you why you were smiling the whole time you got it?"

"Is that not enough to assume you're a masochist who likes to get beat up by fierce women?" She asked, as if she were asking the opposition if they pleaded guilty for what they did.

"I didn't really think about it at first. But now that it's been brought up, all of it makes sense now!" Astrid announced.

"...What makes sense?" I strained my words and asked weakly, thinking of how a joke I said would make Astrid think that I'm a M, out of all people.

"Everything! Everything makes sense, now that I know that you're a masochist!" She shouted in an excited manner, as if she had solved a hundred-year-old murder case that had been buried in the past.

"The reason you smiled every time I hit you...It was because you're a pervert who got off the pain inflicted on him by women."

"The reason you got up every time and repeated to get hit when you were in obvious pain...It's because you couldn't let go of the feeling of getting hit, and wanted to feel that pleasurable sensation a bit longer, by getting up and provoking me until I hit you again."

"And the reason you made it seem like that I actually liked you, only to make a joke of me in the end...It was to provoke me to beat you up. Or else, I would have no reason to beat you up to a paste."

"It all makes sense now! It all makes sense, when you're actually a masochist pervert!" 

Astrid gave a laugh, and looked proud of her brilliant deduction skills, while I stared at her with a dumbfounded look on my face, thinking where it all went wrong. 

Seeing me stare at her, she seemed to have thought I was in shock after finding out my secret, which only increased her ego, as she flared her nostrils with pride.

"I was especially confused as to why you made fun of me, by making me believe I liked you, only to ruthlessly say it was all a joke in the end, when you actually seem like a really nice person. 

I mean, in my mind, you were a bit weird and an eccentric individual, with the direct way you talked to me or the way you interacted with the princess. 

But I still thought you were a decent person, which made me really wonder why you tricked me, even though you don't seem to hate me or have any past grudge."

"But if we bring your fetish into the picture, then it's totally understandable as to why you bullied me earlier. It was all to make me angry and provoke me to hit you...You didn't hate me or make fun of me just to see me suffer. But it was actually for you too suffer in pain and feel pleasure from it." She said with a proud smirk on her face. 

I could even feel a sense of relief in her through 'Resonance' which probably came after finding out that I didn't play tricks on her because I didn't like her like she thought I did. 

And it was simply because of my wierd fetish, which was the only good outcome out of this mess, as she seems to care about how I feel about her.

After praising herself for her amazing deduction a few more times, Astrid turned to look at me with a slightly solemn look on her face, and admiration in her eyes, as if she saw some qualities in me that were praiseworthy, and said

"Honestly, I should be berating you now for hurting my feelings and using me for your weird fetish. But at the same time, I can't help but admire the lengths you would go to satisfy your desires. 

If it were me, I would never have the guts to pull off such an elaborate scheme and get punched around like a dummy just to feel a little good."

"So, I really don't know if I should scold you or praise you for what you did. I'm really in between those two, and don't know what I should do." Astrid folded her arms and closed her eyes, pondering what she should do, which only made me feel even more bitter.

"I'd rather you scold me using every curse word that ever existed. Then praise me for being an admirable masochist, who'd do anything to feel a little pleasure." 

I said wryly, unable to handle her calling me an M over and over again.

"Why not? That makes it sound like you're ashamed of being called a masochist, when you were so brazen with your intentions earlier." Astrid asked in doubt.

"I am ashamed of being called a masochist..." I said while gritting my teeth. "... Because I'm not one at all!"

"What?! You're not a masochist?!" 

Astrid exclaimed while covering her mouth in an overexaggerated manner.

"Why are you more surprised when I said that I'm not a masochist, compared to when you assumed I was?...Shouldn't it be the other way around?" 

I asked with a sardonic smile on my face.

"...Because all your actions just make way more sense when I think of you as a masochist in my mind." Astrid said, still taken back, that I wasn't what she thought I was. 

"Wait, are you sure that you're not a masochist? Maybe you feel the urges but are still not confident enough to come out yet." Astrid looked at me with concerned eyes, as if she were treating a patient.

I waved my hands at her, and said with full confidence

"I know for sure that I'm not a masochist who feels pleasure from pain...There has not been a single moment of my life, where I thought the pain I felt from some injury actually felt good, like some people. And know for sure, I'm not one of them."

"Although I have nothing against those people who actually feel pleasure from being thrashed. I simply know that I'm not one of them." I said as if I were reciting a pledge.

"But didn't you yourself, that you liked to be hit by aggressive women and would feel really happy when they did so?" Astrid said, still not believing that I wasn't a masochist.

"When did I ever say that?" I sighed and rubbed my forehead.

"What I said was that I liked a woman who was stronger than me, and looked like she could easily beat me up...I never said that I actually wanted her to beat me up. Sigh...Who would've thought you would completely misunderstand what I said, and take it in such a weird way?"