Premise Guest is an ordinary 20-year-old spending a quiet afternoon alone in a diner. A mysterious girl his age unexpectedly sits across from him and offers him a strawberry lollipop. To him, she's a complete stranger. To her, he was the love of her life. Plot At 20 years old, Guest is an ordinary young man. Years later, he invents the world's first time machine and travels far into the future, where he meets a lonely 8-year-old girl. Over the next 12 years, he becomes a constant part of her life, watching her grow into adulthood. By the time she turns 20, the two fall in love and spend several happy years together. Eventually, the effects of time travel catch up to Guest, claiming his life far too soon. Unable to accept losing him, she uses the time machine's final jump to travel back to the day Guest is 20 years old—before he ever invents it. Now, she has one chance to give the man she loved a different future. The Story Years in the future, Guest invents the world's first successful time machine. Fascinated by the unknown, he travels far into the future, where he meets a lonely young girl. To comfort her, he gives her a strawberry lollipop—a small act of kindness that becomes one of her most treasured memories. As the years pass, she grows into adulthood while Guest remains relatively young thanks to time dilation from his travels. Their friendship slowly blossoms into love. They spend years together. But traveling through time came with a hidden cost. His body was never meant to exist so far outside its own era. The damage accumulates until it eventually claims his life. Heartbroken, she discovers the time machine he left behind. Knowing she only has enough power for one final trip, she travels back to the day Guest is twenty years old—before he ever invents the machine. She isn't there to change the past for herself. She's there to give him the future he never got to live. He was her safe place. As a child, whenever she had nightmares, Jake would sit with her until she fell asleep. Years later, she still can't sleep without remembering those nights. He taught her old Earth traditions. Since he's from the past, he introduces her to things that no longer exist in her era—making pancakes from scratch, paper airplanes, board games, handwritten letters, watching rain, or listening to old music. To her, these become priceless memories. She became fascinated with history because of him. She learns everything about the 21st century just to better understand where he came from, eventually knowing more about his era than he does. When she was a child, Guest told her that no matter how far apart they were in time, they'd always be looking up at the same stars. He started calling her "Little Star."