Milk-Milk-Milk ,Single-channel video, 03:05, 2021
In the third grade of elementary school, my friends and I were required to listen to the 'Milk Song' played by the teacher and drink a small 200ml milk pack within three minutes. Despite knowing that drinking milk caused severe stomachaches, I drank it to avoid standing out from the other kids. The taste was repulsive. I couldn't stand the smell of milk coming from other kids' mouths either. Throughout the following class, I endured excruciating pain while sweating profusely, and as soon as the break came, I rushed secretly to the bathroom.
During my elementary school years, a time filled with curiosity and pranks about poop and farts, I was popular, and I disliked being associated with such keywords. So, I repeated this secretive process daily—I forced myself to drink milk, endured the stomachaches while sweating, and sneaked off to the bathroom. I truly hated drinking milk, but everywhere, at school, with parents, and on TV, there were only positive stories about milk. Consequently, there was even more pressure, especially for growing kids like me, to forcibly drink milk.
Because of this, experiencing daily stomachaches, every morning before going to school, I begged my mom to say, 'Please make my tummy feel better, Mom.' Perhaps it was a kind of superstition, but on days when my mom didn't say those words, I would forcibly take her hand and place it on my stomach, seeking assurance, even if she was busy getting ready for work, before finally heading to school.