White snow poured down incessantly.

Whenever the wind blew fiercely, snow piled on the branches fell in heaps, and only the cold wind brushed long over the pure white mountain path where not a single footprint remained.

I was running through such a mountain, lost in desperation.

Soldiers were chasing me from behind. The sound of clashing swords and rough shouts could be heard faintly through the blizzard. The soldiers' footprints were messily stamped into the snow that reached my ankles.

I kept running.

Before his barrier collapsed, before they entered deep into the mountain, I had to get far away from where Baek On was. The sounds of pursuit from behind grew closer, and I was breathless.

But before long, my steps stopped.

It was a cliff.

A pure white precipice stretched endlessly beneath my feet. I slowly looked back. Soldiers were appearing in the distance. There was nowhere left to run.

I closed my eyes for a moment. If it were Baek On, he would surely come looking for me. And the moment he realized I had been caught, he would surely run here without thinking of anything else.

That must not happen.

Standing alone at the edge of the cliff, I looked down. I couldn't see the bottom. Just one more step and it would be over. Strangely, I wasn't afraid. Rather, my mind was at peace. If I did this, Baek On would be safe.

I hated the thought of him getting hurt. I also hated the thought of the mountain being defiled because of me. So this was the last thing I could do.

"...I'm sorry."

I muttered softly, not even knowing who I was speaking to. A small laugh escaped me. I wanted to say it at least once. Thank you. I was happy.

And then, I slowly took a step. My toes stepped into the void. Just a little further forward. Just a little more. This was the end of everything. My body tilted slowly. The moment the cold wind wrapped around my whole body and pulled me down.

"Guest!!"

A familiar voice tore through the blizzard, and my body, which had already begun to fall down the cliff, was caught by someone's hand. My eyes flew open.

Baek On. It was a hand I knew so well. He was so desperate that each finger seemed to dig into my flesh.

Unable to even catch his breath properly, he gripped the edge of the cliff with one hand, while his fingertips turned white as he struggled not to lose his hold on my wrist with the other.

"...Caught you..."

A cracked voice barely leaked out. The emotion contained in those few words was so vivid that I couldn't bring myself to say anything.

A distance he wouldn't have reached if he had been just a moment later. A distance where we would have fallen together if his strength had faltered even slightly. Nevertheless, he did not let go of my hand in the end.

"Baek On..."

When I called his name, his eyes wavered. He wasn't calm like usual. He wasn't angry either. It was simply the face of someone terrified of losing something.

"Don't let go. Never."

It was a low, trembling voice, to the point where I didn't know if he was saying it to me or to himself.

Soon, he pulled me into his arms and hauled us up onto the cliff. Even the moment we collapsed together onto the snow, Baek On's arms did not loosen in the slightest. Like a person who would never again let go of something lost long ago. For a long time, there was no word. Only the sound of ragged breathing spread gently across the snowy mountain.

"Why... why did you do that?"

The voice that finally spoke after a long while was low and trembling. As soon as those words ended, strength surged into Baek On's arms. To the point of pain. To the point of suffocation. He held me even deeper.

"I told you not to go. Don't ever do that again."

After that day, no one dared to trespass into the White Tiger's territory. And I came to know.

That there is only one place in the world for me to return to. That no matter how fiercely the blizzard blows, as long as I don't let go of that hand, I will not lose my way.

That no matter how cold the winter is, I am okay as long as Baek On is by my side. I couldn't know how long we had been together, or how much longer we would be together in the future.

But one thing was certain. Today, Baek On did not let go of my hand. And once this winter passes, spring will come to this mountain again. Perhaps it is the spring we have been waiting for since a very long time ago.

---

And after a very long time had passed.

People would later pass down this story.

That two winters came to the mountain ruled by the White Tiger.

One was the frozen winter of losing a precious one. And the other was the final winter until he finally caught them and welcomed spring once more.

No one knew how long the first winter lasted. However, it is said that at the end of the second winter, red plum blossoms, which had not bloomed for a long time, finally did.

On the mountain slopes where the pure white snow had melted. Like a season that had stopped for too long while waiting for someone.

Very slowly. Spring had returned.