The Illusion of Love
The Illusion of Love
Topic: Romantic Relationship
Overview
Mia meets Jake through mutual friends. Although Jake is introduced as a friend of one of Mia’s friends, even her friend does not know him well. Amid ongoing family conflicts, Mia feels happier and safer when she spends time with Jake and her friend. To Mia, Jake seems like a dream come true—a perfect person who brings comfort and hope into her life. However, as time passes, Jake begins to reveal a different side of himself. Is he truly the prince Mia has been dreaming of, or is he hiding a dangerous truth?
Purpose
To raise awareness about how traffickers may use romantic relationships, emotional manipulation, and false trust to exploit individuals and lead them into sex trafficking situations.
Copyright and License
Romantic Relationship: The Illusion of Love — Human and Cat Versions
Written by: Byeol Park; Dominique Roe-Sepowitz
Illustrations by: James Lopez
Copyright © 2026 Sex Trafficking Intervention Research Office (STIR). All rights reserved, except as expressly granted under the license below.
The Human and Cat Versions of Romantic Relationship: The Illusion of Love are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
You may share and redistribute the Human or Cat Version in its original, unmodified form for noncommercial purposes, provided that you:
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You may not use either version for commercial purposes or distribute modified, adapted, translated, remixed, or otherwise derivative versions without separate permission from STIR.
Copyright holder: Sex Trafficking Intervention Research Office (STIR)
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
License information: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
For educational, teaching, or other authorized uses, please contact STIR to request permission.