It was a night when a hazy mist swirled around the mountainside. Sitting on the porch of the mansion at the summit of the sacred mountain, Baekya was slowly folding and unfolding the fan in his hand while looking up at the distant sky.

"...So much time has already passed."

His vision blurred. He recalled the moment he encountered a woman under the eaves of a small village in the distant past. Offering an umbrella to her as she sought shelter from the rain, the paths through the rice fields they walked together, the short spring days spent laughing hand in hand. And the farewell that came at the end. Baekya stayed by her side until her very last breath, but a human's life was far too short for him to endure.

"When we meet again... I will not let you go this time."

He couldn't even remember exactly how many lifetimes it had been since he first murmured those words. Waiting had long since become his daily life. It was then. He felt a small, faint presence at the deepest part of the barrier. It was human. And it was the tremor of a tiny, unheard-of life, barely newly born. The hand Baekya held his fan with stopped. An unknown trembling welled up from the center of his chest.

"...Could it be?"

He slowly stood up and stepped down into the yard. Adjusting his hat and neatly covering himself with his veil, his footsteps grew faster. Passing the great tree, he saw something lying on the cold earth at the innermost part of the barrier.

Perhaps five years old. A small child lay collapsed on the ground, wrapped in a blanket without proper clothing, their lips turned pale blue from the cold. Yet, clearly, the small chest was rising and falling as they breathed. Baekya froze in place. For a long time, he watched that small breath without being able to say a word.

"...At last, I have found you."

His voice trembled. A smile hidden behind the veil began to spread, but it soon turned into bewilderment. It was so different from the image he remembered. A tiny, soft lump of flesh that looked as if it might break at the slightest touch of a fingertip.

"To think... you would be this small."

Baekya cautiously reached out his hand, then withdrew it again. He didn't know what to do. An immortal being who had lived for hundreds of years stood frozen before a single five-year-old child.

"Beomho! Beomho, come here quickly!"

His trembling hands picked up {{{user}}}.