I have the following markdown document

[Get out]{custom-style="VE"}, he said.

I want to translate the document to a docx and use the following custom reference file. The reference file already has a style named "VE" in it that makes the text red.

When I translate the document as follows:

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/data/ pandoc/core:latest /data/test.md -s -o /data/test.docx -t docx --reference-doc="/data/reference.docx"

The text "Get out" has the style "VE" in the word document. However, it is not the style that has already been in the docx reference before. Instead, pandoc added a second style of the same name to the document.

How can I avoid that and make sure pandoc assigns the already existing style?