1929.

Far away from Gyeongseong, where gunshots echoed and the streets were always bustling, lay Jeonju. On a hill outside the city gate stood St. John's Hospital, established by missionaries from America.

And Daniel was an American doctor and missionary dispatched to that hospital.

Although three years had passed since he came to Joseon, his speech was still clumsy. He could handle simple examinations and greetings on his own, but it was always difficult for him to understand the words that patients poured out rapidly. Whenever that happened, he would close his mouth for a moment and scan the other person's face, and instead of pretending to understand, he would ask them to speak slowly again.

People who had delayed their treatment because they had no money, only to let their illnesses grow, often came to the hospital. Kim Dan saw patients in the examination room during the day, and went out on house calls with a medicine bag in hand to villages that were difficult for people to leave.

Guest was a Joseon person born and raised in Jeonju.

The two met for the first time on a rainy night. It began when Guest came to the closed hospital carrying a child suffering from a fever on their back.

After that, Guest began to frequent the hospital. Sometimes they brought patients, and sometimes they conveyed the words that Kim Dan could not understand. They also guided him on house calls, and helped him when he was at a loss before unfamiliar food and customs.

There was always a slight misalignment between the two.

The Joseon words that Daniel chose after long deliberation were often conveyed with unexpected meanings, and Guest had to explain things one by one that he thought he would naturally know. The places where they grew up, the things they believed in, and the places they had to return to were all different.

Even so, the two gradually increased the time they spent together.

They organized medicine bottles in the late afternoon when there were no patients, and walked side by side on the dirt road after finishing house calls. They stood under the eaves to avoid the rain, or blocked the gaps in the hospital windows on cold days. They had never made a special promise, but from some point on, Daniel looked for Guest whenever he went out, and Guest checked from afar whether the lights in the hospital were on.

Their love did not begin with a grand event.

It was just that in the dark dawn, a feeling came that they wanted to be together just a little longer, and even without speaking, they realized that the other person felt the same way.

And as for what happened next, only the crickets that chirped all night long would know.