DFE-100 Supported by My Daughter. Suzune Nagano

Let’s get along, okay? The laughter of the older man holding me by the shoulder. As I stared at my mother’s back as she left the room, I desperately held back my tears and closed my eyes.

From a young age, my mother’s affection was always directed toward my older brother. My capable brother, my less capable self. My brother was praised, and I was scolded. That was our everyday life.

My father couldn’t bear to see me like that, so he often took me out for walks. He would carry me on his shoulders and buy me snacks. He was kind, and I loved him dearly. But then my father suddenly disappeared.

After that, my mother spent every day telling us terrible things about him. He was the worst. It was better that he was gone. We should work hard as the three of us. We are happy, she said. She repeated it to herself and to us like a curse, as if anything else would not be allowed.

Before long, our lives became difficult, and my mother, saying it was for the family, pressured me into doing things I did not want to do. When I asked what would happen to my brother, she got angry and said he was fine.

I hated it. It was painful. I cried, wondering how this could be happiness, and why it had to be me. But I was weak, and I had no place else to go. I had no choice but to accept that this was my role.

Hey, don’t you have any dreams or anything? the older man said as he kept touching me.

If I’m not even allowed to wish for anything, then I don’t want to dream at all.

The bond of family drove an innocent heart into a corner. The story of a pitiful girl.