“Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.”

Although it was a bit late, they separated from Yoojin with a greeting that was only allowed on Christmas. She waved at Yoojin, who disappeared in a taxi, and spat out a breath of white air.

“I heard that snowy days aren’t as cold.”

“It’s snowing because it’s cold.”

“Is that how it works?”

Maru grabbed her hand and started walking.

“You’re done shopping for the day, right?”

“Why do you ask? You want to do some more?”

“Of course not.”

“Oh, I thought you wanted to look around some more.”

She swung her hands back and forth while smiling. The hand he was holding moved back and forth like a swing.

“Are you hungry?”

“I was about to ask that. Now that I think about it, we didn’t even have a proper lunch, did we?”

“All we had was hotteok^[1], I guess.”

They didn’t have lunch properly since they were busy walking around looking through clothes. It was 4 p.m. Although it was still a little early for dinner, Maru’s stomach was rumbling, wanting food.

“Why don’t we go there?”

The place she pointed at was a shabu-shabu^[2] restaurant. A hot soup was perfect on a cold day like this. Thinking that it was a good choice, they entered that rest...