Chapter 2

Sebastian led me toward the parking lot.

He didn't say a word the entire way.

The Sebastian who used to remind me to be careful even when walking was gone.

And I was terrifyingly quiet.

I used to have endless things to talk about with Sebastian.

But not anymore.

Because I was sick.

After Sebastian went abroad, Natalie wanted nothing more than for me to die immediately.

That year I was a senior in high school, in the same class as Natalie.

She would bully me with others every day.

One day, she had a group throw me into a sewage ditch in the rain.

She said I was a sewer rat, unworthy of living in her family's home.

Then she brought me to an abandoned factory.

Her three followers stripped off my clothes and pressed cigarette butts hard into my arms.

Hearing my anguished screams excited them.

Those disgusting bodies pressed onto me one after another.

They complained about how dirty and smelly I was from the filthy water while violating me at will.

And Natalie turned on her phone, recording every expression and movement with her camera.

Afterward, they threatened me with the video not to report it to the police, then left.

I dragged my broken body up and called Sebastian.

Crying, I said Natalie and her followers had bullied me.

Sebastian paused.

"Dora, you owe the family a life, but they took you in without holding a grudge. Natalie was very close to her sister. She's just venting. Why are you being so unreasonable? Don't you know how to be grateful?"

In that moment, my heart shattered along with my filthy body.

I gripped the phone and finally told him the truth.

"Sebastian, it wasn't ordinary bullying... Natalie had people sexually assault me in turns. Please come back and take me away from this family, okay?"

But my desperate pleading didn't earn Sebastian's sympathy or trust.

Because Natalie produced a forged gynecological examination report.

In black and white, it was crystal clear.

"No bodily fluids detected, no evidence of sexual assault... old hymenal tear."

When Sebastian received the photo of the diagnosis.

His roar nearly burst my eardrums.

"Dora! You degraded yourself! You already slept around with men and now you're falsely accusing Natalie! You've disappointed me so much!"

Sebastian hung up.

And never contacted me again after that.

That day, I dragged my broken body home.

I scrubbed my skin raw until it bled.

I had thought about ending my life.

But when I thought of Sebastian.

I retreated from the idea.

I couldn't die, because Sebastian only had me as family.

If I died, Sebastian wouldn't be able to go on living.

I hid all my grievances, studied desperately, and tried my hardest to stay alive.

All I thought about was.

After the SATs end, after Sebastian returns home.

My days would get better.

But Natalie didn't give me that chance.

Three days before the SATs.

She tied me up and threw me in a field during a torrential downpour.

I developed a high fever and missed the SATs.

And she sent me to a psychiatric sanatorium.

She told the doctor I frequently self-harmed and then played the victim in front of others.

That day, I was diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome.

A condition where people seek attention and sympathy through lies or self-harm.

All my injuries were classified as self-inflicted, all my protests classified as lies.

I was admitted to that hellish sanatorium.

I stayed there for two years.