Please Love Me
"I shouldn't have given birth to trash like you."
Seo Chaerim remembered the words her mother had spat at her, back when she was still called Baek Seung-ah.
A look like she was staring at filth. A voice stripped of any affection. It wasn't the kind of thing a parent should ever direct at their child.
She didn't know why. Too young to grasp it, Baek Seung-ah simply couldn't understand why she was hated.
She'd been born into an ordinary family. Living with mom and dad—no siblings, just a standard three-person household.
Her father was a hopeless drunk, quick to swing his fists whenever the booze hit. Her mother, fed up with him, spent her nights chasing other men—a wretched soul.
Baek Seung-ah's father knew about his wife's affairs but never intervened. Before long, her parents stopped talking to each other altogether. They showed no interest in their only child, either.
The rare moments they paid her any attention? Slaps across the face or streams of curses.
No matter how young she was, Baek Seung-ah couldn't bring herself to love parents like that. She wished they'd just divorce and ship her off to an orphanage.
It was a dismal family situation—hardly "normal," but common enough if you looked around. Still, no matter how widespread the misfortune, to the one living it, misery was misery.
The kids at school knew about her home life. Parents didn't want their children hanging around her. Naturally, Baek Seung-ah ended up isolated from the group.
"Heard her mom's a whore."
"Eww, so she'll grow up to be one too, right?"
Feisty from a young age, Baek Seung-ah fought back against the bullying, scrapping with the other kids even as it pushed her further into isolation.
Bad family, bad temper, and—worst of all—a pretty face. The girls envied her looks and kept their distance.
Baek Seung-ah was alone.
She told herself it didn't matter, toughing it out and going to school anyway. Ignored at home and at school, she pretended the world was every man for himself, putting on a brave front. Deep down, though, she craved love.
Personality has innate roots, sure—but childhood shapes a huge part of it. In her case, it twisted her into something a little broken.
Baek Seung-ah was like a wounded cat. Hissing and clawing at anyone who approached, yet secretly yearning for attention and affection.
Then one day, dreading home as usual, she wandered the park late into the night to kill time. On her way back, she crossed paths with a monster.
Their eyes met, terror flooded her, her legs locked up. She was sure she'd die right there.
But for some reason, the monster showed zero interest—just passed her by.
Only after it vanished, long minutes later, could she gasp for air and unclench.
Terrifying at first, but curiosity bubbled up. Why had it ignored her? TV and books painted monsters as man-eating terrors.
Maybe some monsters are good guys if you get to know them.
The next day at school, she spilled the story of her encounter, insisting the monster she'd met was a nice one that didn't eat people.
Not close with the other kids, but hoping for friends deep down, she figured this might draw some attention.
All she got were cold dismissals: liar.
"If that's true, maybe it's 'cause you're the monster, huh? Heh."
She snapped, slapping the boy who said it.
She was still alone.
Monsters were supposed to be evil, man-killers—but in her world, the real harm came from people.
Parents beating her at home. Kids teasing and shunning her at school.
Nowhere felt like it belonged to her. It choked her.
Then one day, without warning, an endless horde of monsters attacked her city.
It was the dead of night, everyone asleep—evacuations lagged, casualties exploded.
The city crumbled in moments. The heroes guarding it fell to the monsters. So many dead, counting became pointless.
Her parents died too, torn apart by monsters.
People who'd never given her love or even notice—but watching those barely-parents die before her eyes filled Baek Seung-ah with an indescribable, searing grief.
She realized she'd craved affection even from them, who'd failed utterly as parents.
The monsters ignored her again this time. No clue why. It was like she was invisible to them.
Relief at surviving mixed with the dull ache of rejection—even from monsters.
After hiding in the house forever, she ventured out. Outside was hell.
No intact buildings in sight. Screams and sobs everywhere. Mangled corpses littered the ground.
Apocalypse scenery.
Baek Seung-ah trudged on, seeking other survivors. Always alone before, but even she feared being the last one standing now.
Eventually, she reached a shelter for disaster survivors.
A few classmates dotted the crowd, but most kids from school were absent. Even she could grasp what that meant—they were gone.
Not friends, really—more like tormentors—but they'd been familiar faces. Their deaths deepened her sorrow.
The shelter reeked of gloom and despair. No hope, no will to live. Just rotting alive.
But the tragedy wasn't over. Monsters hit the shelter too, slaughtering people.
Chaos erupted. Blood stench so thick it hurt to breathe.
Yet Baek Seung-ah survived. Just huddled and shaking—but ignored again.
After the horde swept through, desperate survivors emerged one by one.
For some reason, rage burned in their eyes.
"It's her! That kid—she summoned the monsters, no doubt!"
A man pointed at Baek Seung-ah, screaming in fury.
"Calm down. What kind of talk is that to a little girl?"
"Don't play dumb! We all saw it—monsters killing everyone, but skipping her!"
Another man tried reining him in, but the others glared at her with terrifying expressions, nodding along.
"I... I don't know anything..."
"Liar! Then why'd they ignore just you!?"
"Th-that's..."
She truly had no answer. If anything, she wondered the same.
"Everyone, cool it. Infighting won't solve shit. Surviving comes first, right?"
In the powder-keg tension, ready to explode toward her, one sane man desperately calmed the crowd.
But then—
"I know her! She said at school last time she's friends with monsters!"
"What? When did I—"
"See?! That witch gathered them here!"
A girl from her class lit the fuse. Baek Seung-ah had mused about nice monsters maybe existing—but it'd twisted into "friends with monsters."
Grieving, enraged survivors lunged at her.
The rational man blocked them, but to them, she was the catastrophe's witch, and he her accomplice.
"Run! Hurry!"
At his shout, she forced her trembling legs into flight, fleeing the mob.
Glancing back mid-escape, she saw him trampled, dying under their feet.
Desperate flight, thoughts racing: Why.
What did I do wrong?
Am I really a witch?
No answers, no matter how she turned it over. Just run to live—that was all.
The killers pursued.
Caught by that fury, she'd be torn apart horrifically. She poured every ounce of strength into her sprint.
But a little girl's legs couldn't outpace adults. The gap closed fast.
Just before they seized her, rounding a corner—she spotted a monster sprawled lazily on the ruined road, like sunbathing.
To survive, she bolted straight to it.
The survivors halted short, unwilling to approach. They cursed her as the culprit and slunk away.
Exhausted to her core, Baek Seung-ah collapsed into the monster's bulk and slept.
When she woke, it was still there, unmoved.
"Did you... protect me?"
No reaction to her question. Like it couldn't sense her.
"Why won't you attack me?"
Even yelling got nothing.
"Look at me! See me!"
What was happening? Who—what—was she? Chaos and loneliness crashed over her.
All she'd wanted was a normal life.
Just some attention, some love—like everyone else.
What had she done wrong? What was so wrong with her that neither people nor monsters would even look her way?
"Look at me."
"Pay attention to me."
"You can eat me if you want."
"Please..."
"...love me."