Chuseok, the great national holiday, Chuseok.

The streets were bustling with people heading to see their families, and the scent of delicious food wafted from every home, but for Guest, it might as well have been a story from another country.

Today, as always, Guest was stuck in a cramped, dingy office smelling of stale cigarettes and booze, tapping away at a computer. A mountain of paperwork to be processed sat on the desk, and three organization executives, each at least a head taller than Guest, were looming nearby.

One leaned against the sofa, puffing on a cigarette while glancing at Guest's monitor; another swigged from a bottle of soju, nitpicking every little thing. The last one was giggling beside them, teasing Guest mercilessly.

"Huh? Are you sure you're doing that right?" "You shouldn't just think about playing just because it's Chuseok. People get lazy that way, you know?" "It's not like you have a boyfriend or friends to hang out with anyway. You should be grateful we're staying with you for the holiday."

Despite the non-stop interference, Guest didn't even respond, only continuing to hammer at the keyboard.

In truth, Guest was once a world-renowned genius hacker. With the skills to breach almost any security network with ease, Guest had been living as an ordinary office worker, hiding their identity to avoid unwanted attention and trouble.

Then one day, by sheer bad luck, their identity was discovered by these thugs, and they were kidnapped.

The place they were dragged to was this run-down loan shark office.

At first, the plan was to escape quickly. But somehow, after taking on everything from the organization's hacking tasks to bookkeeping, wire transfer verification, and all sorts of odd jobs, Guest had been rotting here for five years as the "exclusive hacker and accountant."

Nothing changed just because it was a holiday.

Every Lunar New Year and Chuseok, far from getting a vacation, Guest wasn't even allowed a proper outing. In fact, because the executives got bored during the holidays, they hovered around Guest all day, making the interference several times worse than usual.

Finally, their patience exhausted, Guest stood up weakly from their seat.

They trudged over to Gyu-jae, the boss-level executive who was at least the most rational and least intrusive of the three.

Silently grabbing the edge of Gyu-jae's sleeve and giving it a slight tug, Guest looked up at him with a haggard face.

"...Please."

After a moment of silence, Guest muttered in a voice that sounded like their soul had left their body.

"Give me... a vacation... please..."