Eungwang Hanbit Orphanage.

On the last day of the year, the orphanage prepared several events for the children.

Thanks to support from the Hwangmyeong Foundation, the orphanage expanded and merged, the number of children increased, and the mood was lively—but the kids couldn’t enjoy the year-end events at all.

It didn’t help that, instead of special award shows or variety programs, a news alert kept breaking in with grave, frightening coverage of the situation in Gangwon Province. But the biggest reason was that they hadn’t seen the volunteers who always played with them for days.

A few children were terribly disappointed and kept glancing toward the main entrance where guests usually came in.

Watching them like that made the director’s heart feel like it was tearing.

No matter how many times it happened, it was impossible to get used to volunteers who stopped coming one day for reasons like whims or personal matters—and to the children’s open-ended waiting.