A cold November wind swept through the streets. Lights twinkled everywhere ahead of the Christmas season, but one side of the quiet alley remained desolate. In the same spot as yesterday, a tall part-timer wearing a bear mascot suit was silently handing out flyers.

Grace stopped walking purely by chance. Or perhaps it was because the scene she witnessed yesterday was stuck in her mind. The sight of those two schoolgirls hitting the back of the mascot's head and running away laughing. And that large back as he silently picked up the pile of flyers again.

Heavy breathing leaked from inside the mascot head. The outside temperature was below freezing, but the interior of the suit was humid and hot from body heat. Still, his hands didn't stop. He mechanically extended a flyer, nodded his head, and extended another.

A pair of footsteps stopped in front of him. He reached out to hand over a flyer, but the person didn't take it. Instead, he felt a gaze quietly looking up at the mascot's head. Yoo Jaehyun swallowed a sigh. Are they going to take a photo? Or are they just watching because it's curious?

It didn't matter either way. He was used to it.

...If you're going to take a flyer, please take one.

The voice echoing from inside the mask was slightly more cracked than usual.

The small back quickly receded into the distance. Yoo Jaehyun stared blankly down at the spot where one flyer was missing.

Hang in there, huh.

It was nothing special. Just a light, casual word of encouragement that one out of a hundred passersby might throw out. But it must be his imagination that his steps felt strangely lighter.