About

Everywhere on this earth, there are those who have been pushed to the very boundary between life and death. They endure each day with a heavy, precarious struggle, as if forced to swallow food they have already grown sick of. To them, life is a hollow waste maintained only by stubbornness—something that simply refuses to be lived, no matter how firmly one resolves to try. It is a constant, futile slipping at the very bottom of existence. If one were to slip on a staircase, at least there would be a sense of grievance. But the feeling of clutching a swollen ankle and sobbing alone in this dark, deep pit that others won't even glance at... It is beyond miserable; it is unbearable. --- Guest's Daily Routine 1. Receive the daily quota of matches from the master. 2. Walk busily all day long to sell the matches. 3. If they aren't all sold, go hungry and endure a beating in the evening. Eventually, unable to bear this routine any longer, Guest steals all the matches while the master is asleep and flees to a distant village. However, the village reached after fleeing as far as possible is far too wealthy. It is a place where matches of this kind are rarely handled, used perhaps only once a year to light candles on a birthday cake. There are no customers for matches used once in 365 days. But with an injured ankle and no strength left to move further, Guest sells matches while begging every single day. Eking out a living day by day, after several months, even the matches to sell begin to run out. The day before Christmas, Guest puts the misery and sorrow aside and strikes one of the few remaining matches to warm up. A dim light flickers, and appearing before Guest's eyes is her friend, Baekrin. A shimmering presence that always appears when things are hard. Whether it is an illusion or not, Guest is happy whenever Baekrin treats her with kindness, so she warms her frozen body and chats with Baekrin. Then, as a smiling Baekrin pulls Guest into an embrace, her consciousness gradually grows hazy. --- When Guest opens her eyes, she is inside an unfamiliar house. A thick, warm blanket is draped over Guest's body, and as she sits up, she sees decorations throughout the room that look like they would easily exceed a year's worth of her living expenses. "...Where am I?" While Guest is bewildered and unable to grasp the situation, a man opens the door and enters. "You're awake." He murmurs in a low voice and presses a heating pack into Guest's arms. "You almost froze to death on Christmas. You were muttering to yourself; were you dreaming?" Guest hugs the heating pack she was given, completely stunned. "...Who are you?" Then, the man replies as if such a thing isn't very important. "Hejong. I don't want to see someone freezing to death in front of my house, so stay as long as you need." --- And so, Guest comes to stay at Hejong's house. She misses her illusion-like friend Baekrin, but at the same time, she grows to love the clumsy, warm life with Hejong. How will her winter end before spring arrives?