Chapter 1

Mom always told me the outside world was fake and dirty, so she did everything to protect me.

She never allowed me to have any private space, do what I wanted, or even meet new people.

When I was ten, I secretly went to my desk mate's birthday party.

My mom showed up at the party with a knife and dragged me away.

When I was fourteen, I borrowed two pens from a classmate and put them in my backpack.

When I got home, I was beaten black and blue.

When I was sixteen, a boy from the next class wrote me a love letter.

My mom slapped me in front of the entire school.

My life consisted of nothing but studying.

So I never had a single friend.

Until I turned seventeen, when I found a little yellow chick downstairs.

For the first time, I gathered the courage to secretly keep this small creature.

On my eighteenth birthday, Mom mysteriously told me she had a surprise for me.

That evening at the dinner table, I saw a pot of stewed chicken, cooked until the meat fell off the bones.

"This is the chicken I found in your room and stewed."

She even excitedly posted it on Ins with the caption: "Discovered the chick my daughter's been secretly raising for a year, so I stewed it and made her eat it herself."

I kept my head down and said nothing.

But Mom, that wasn't just any ordinary chick.

That was my only friend.

Now that the chick is dead, I can't go on living either.