I mean, I’ve known Kaoru wasn’t stable since the beginning. And for all we know Kaoru could be misremembering things. From what we initially thought her mother didn’t seem to care whatsoever and wasn’t normal from Kaoru’s young age. But now we can see that Kaoru has a very intense attachment, more so than we initially thought to her mom.
Enough to over inflate emergencies which caused the mom stress and messed with her work performance and lose jobs.
That face she made at the end of the chapter indicates she is NOT fond of anyone else possibly being close to her mom.
It seems to me her mom, might be dead in present or something. And I don’t think she ever thought that guy would do what he’s done. That’s how predators operate. They insert themselves into families or communities to assert trust and make others believe they wouldn’t be capable of such atrocities.
As a single mother with a very needy child and struggling with work, he seemed like a perfect helping hand. At the very least, she had no idea of what that man was forcing Kaoru to do.
I don’t know where or what the mom is doing or even if she is still alive. But since Kaoru and Hasumi are not the most stable of people, their ‘happy ending’ will be messy