I Only Got 180 Minutes of My Parents’ Love a Month のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 1 - チャプター 10

The ink on my early-admission nomination form was barely dry when my phone buzzed.Dad’s assistant had sent me my monthly family-time statement.'You have 176 minutes remaining from your three-hour family-time allowance this month. Please plan accordingly.'I stared at the message for a moment.Then, out of nowhere, I asked,“Can I cash out the unused time?”There was a long silence on the other end.So I sent another message.“You used to deduct money from my next month’s allowance whenever I went even one minute over.“If extra time can be converted into money, why can’t unused time be refunded to me?”When I was twelve and had appendicitis, I used forty extra minutes of Mom’s time.The next month, my entire allowance was withheld.That was when I realized that “time is money” had never been a joke.For the rest of that month, I drank nothing but water at lunch every day.One afternoon, the girl sitting next to me unwrapped a hot breakfast sandwich.The smell of sausag

By the time I got to school, my right cheek was still burning.I handed over my early-admission paperwork.My advisor had just picked up her pen to sign off on the paperwork when raised voices came from outside the office.“We need an appointment to see our own daughter now?”My hand froze around my pen.My advisor stepped outside.A few seconds later, she came back with Mom, Dad, and Nina behind her.She hesitated.“Lena, these are...?”Dad’s face darkened instantly.“I’m her father.”Several teachers in the office looked up at the same time.My advisor had worked with me for three years.And she had never met my parents.Dad slapped my paperwork onto the desk.“She pays strangers to attend parent-teacher conferences pretending to be her parents, and now she’s secretly applying for early admission to a school out of state.“And this is the model student your school is so proud of?”It didn’t take long for students to start gathering in the hallway.“No wonder she’s a

By the time my flight landed, dawn was just breaking.The moment I turned on my phone, dozens of messages came flooding in.Dad wanted to know where I had gone.Mom wrote,“Enough of this. Come home. No one’s actually angry with you.”The last message had been sent at two in the morning.‘We’re getting rid of the three-hour rule.’I stared at those words for a long time.If I had seen them when I was twelve, I probably would have hugged my phone and cried from happiness.Now, I simply muted all their messages.A university staff member was waiting at arrivals with my name on a sign.She took one of my suitcases and looked at me.“This is all you brought?”“Yeah.”I didn’t tell her that I had sold everything else.The gifts my parents had given me had become my tuition, my plane ticket, and my housing for the first semester.My dorm room was small.Outside the window was a street I had never seen before.I placed Grandma’s photograph on my desk.Then I set the broken

On the third day, my advisor sent Dad a post from the school forum.'Ungrateful Student Loses College Recommendation. Serves Her Right.'There were hundreds of comments underneath.Some called me heartless.Others said I was only pretending to be a victim.Someone even posted screenshots of the payments I had made to hire people for parent-teacher conferences.'She has money to hire strangers to play her parents, but no heart for her real ones.'Dad read every single comment.His finger stayed frozen over the screen for a long time.Then, for the first time, he issued a statement through the company’s official social media account.'It is true that our daughter hired people to attend parent-teacher conferences on our behalf.The reason was that we limited her to three hours of family time each month and deducted any overtime from her allowance.She did not deceive her school. We failed her as parents.'Less than ten minutes after the statement went up, Dad’s phone started

Three months later, Dad finally spotted my name in an article about an academic competition.I was standing in the back row of the photo.My hair was shorter.I was holding a certificate.The article listed the name of my university.The next morning, Mom and Dad booked the earliest flight they could.After more than ten hours in the air and two more transfers, they finally found my school.But when Mom stood outside my dorm, she suddenly lost the nerve to go inside.She looked at Dad.“What time is it?”Dad froze.Mom glanced down at her bare wrist.“Back then, would she have checked how many minutes she had left first?”No one answered.They waited outside until it was dark.When I came back from the library, I saw them immediately.I stopped in my tracks.Mom’s eyes turned red.“Sweetheart.”My fingers tightened around the strap of my backpack.It had been a long time since anyone had called me that.The last time had been Grandma’s broken voice on the damaged t