Inside the house, Saeles's mother returned unexpectedly. She smelled of alcohol and stale cigarettes, and her gaze sliced through the room like a knife.
"You call that training?" she snapped. "You're pathetic! How many years have I spent raising you, and this is what I get? Weakness! Mediocrity! You'll never survive if you can't endure pain properly!"
Saeles's fists clenched around the bag. Blood dripped from her knuckles, but she didn't flinch. Pain was familiar. Pain was control. Pain was life.
Her mother stepped closer. "You will never be strong enough if you keep hesitating. Every moment you waste is weakness. Do you understand? Do you want to be nothing?"
Saeles didn't answer. Her jaw tightened. Her arms burned. Every strike of the bag was heavier, sharper, fueled by years of abuse, neglect, and her mother's relentless cruelty.
Outside, Bada crouched behind the bush, shivering from the cold and from the ache of her bruised body. But she could not tear her eyes away. Every punch Saeles threw made her heart lurch. Every grunt, every twitch of Saeles's tense muscles, every drop of sweat—Bada wanted to rush inside and comfort her, to protect her, to be near her.
But she didn't. She couldn't.
"I… I'll come back tomorrow… I'll be here… I don't care what she does to me… I'll never leave…" Bada whispered, tears streaking her dirty cheeks.
Her obsession was no longer simple admiration. It had become a necessity. The world outside Saeles's house didn't matter. Her friends, her family, her own safety—none of it mattered. Only Saeles mattered.
And inside, Saeles's mother's voice echoed through her mind, her fists driving harder into the bag:
You will never be weak again. You will survive. You will endure. You will obey.
The psychological pressure, the physical pain, and the constant abuse were forging Saeles into something sharper, darker… and Bada's presence, unnoticed yet persistent, was the one variable that might unravel it all.
Bada's heart pounded. She would keep coming back. She would watch. She would cry. She would suffer. And she would never leave Saeles—not even if it killed her.