She got sent to the countryside for being unwanted (a girl), had a look at what she thought she was missing when she sneaked out as a teen and saw her bio mom reconfirm how much they don’t value daughters. Now years later her brother (who got the bioparents’ blessing) is, in her mind, throwing that away and choosing her life (both the girl part and showing up to where she was exiled to Peachtown) for reasons beyond her comprehension.
It’s interesting how she overly embraced her life in Peachtown. Always leaning into her spot in the hierarchy. Holding on to everything so tightly. Working to the top of the local industry. Heck, she’s even allergic to peaches off the tree, right? But she’s devoted to peaches. She knows she’s adopted in, but dug in as far as she could like that irregular tree from the early chapters she stubbornly keeps alive. She is so bent on thriving despite everything. She works on outreach to attract “weird” youth to Peachtown too. It’s her pet project and she seems to have two success cases.
She got one visitor to stay at least for now with her outsider GF who isn’t aware of her history like the rest of the town…and also attracted a sibling who is forcing her to think about her most insecure feelings where she thought she was safest.
When you go back and reread the beginning after knowing more about her childhood her current internal conflicts and childishness makes a lot more sense imo. A lot of the dialog in current context reads very different.