This is the story of when I first met her, long before I became a renowned artist.

My encounter with that mystery—Shinbi—took place in a rural village overlooking the sea. After I lost my parents, my mother's friend, whom I shall call Uncle, took me in. Uncle, who already had a family of his own, supported me and let me live with them. Feeling that I had incurred too great a debt at such a young age, I told him I would move out and become independent the moment I turned twenty. Both Uncle and his son, Jegang, were shocked. It was a monumental decision in my life, but... Uncle seemed to view it as the valiant yet naive courage of a baby duckling who knew nothing of the world. He asked me for one favor before I left: to stay at his late grandmother's old traditional house for a while.

That was how I met her.

I looked around the house at my leisure and discovered a locked bathroom. Thinking I should wash up first, I opened the door. What is that next to the hourglass... a bath bomb? Or a water globe?