Assuming her family still lives in Gwangju, thats kinda far away from Seoul. Seoul pretty far north, while gwangju is abt as south as you can go before reaching jeju island (if im not mistaken). That would make it inconvenient for her to visit home, but certainly not so bad that she couldnt return for 2-3 yrs. as much as i hate to say this, i think she faces some problems back home that she'd rather not let the public know, which rly breaks my heart to see her like that