GASLIGHTER // BBANGSAZ

10|PTA Meeting🚬

Usually, Hanni enjoyed PTA meetings, as they were occasions where her teachers would commend her to other parents, leaving her own parents satisfied with reports of her excellent grades.

Today, however, she felt like locking the door and throwing away the key, dreading her parents' departure for the meeting.

Her poor test results had been kept hidden in the hope of redeeming them during the next exams, but the PTA meeting came unexpectedly early this term, as if the teachers were eager to critique or praise the students' grades.

She anticipated numerous criticisms aimed at her.

Just when she had thought life was improving—having reconciled with Minji and returning to a semblance of normalcy—everything took a turn for the worse.

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"Minji, I expect to hear praises for your academic achievements during the meeting, not complaints," Mrs. Kim cautioned, her voice flat.

"After making me study without even food, what kind of results do you expect?" Minji retorted sharply, narrowing her eyes at her mother.

She often found satisfaction in speaking up, but it was always short-lived, ending with a harsh slap.

With a swollen cheek, Minji stood alone in the grimy basement where she was usually confined to contemplate her mistakes—of which there were many.

She was typically starved, sustained only by energy drinks and vitamins to keep her alert and "nourished."

Mrs. Kim would occasionally enter with a soft smile, justifying her actions as necessary for Minji's future.

Minji couldn't care less; she would rather have no future than remain imprisoned in this cold, filthy basement.

She knew her mother was not normal.

No sane woman would subject her child to such treatment; she was surrounded by lunatics and had become one herself.

And it was all her parents' fault.

Forcing them to study, starving them, treating them like trash, only to dress them up later to show off in front of their friends, who also included Hanni's parents.

Perhaps that's why they pressured Hanni so intensely.

They wanted Hanni to be just like Minji.

But the price Hanni would have to pay for this "better future" far exceeded not only her financial resources but also her mental endurance.

No rational person could withstand this, and Minji's sister had already broken.

But Minji found a way to cope with all the torment.

She found Hanni.

Minji didn't know what she would have done without Hanni.

So she pushed the poor girl deeper into what she was fleeing from.

Stockholm Syndrome.

Don't misunderstand; Minji cared for Hanni in ways beyond words, but as much as she wanted to stop, she couldn't.

She was doing it for her sanity.