1.
night

Galaxy Night
Day, evening, night
Okju in Wolgye-dong

2.
Snow Party

Havana Snowman Club
At first sight

3.
High in the sky

Can I hug your dog?
At Christmas

Author's Note

A day of philanthropy where everyone prays for everyone's happiness.
The sincerity we share with each other can only be conveyed briefly at that time

"At Christmas" is a story about producer Jimin, who visited Busan with his colleagues to interview his ex-lover Hyunwoo, who is famous on SNS as the "Gourmet Alphago." It is a warm and refreshing work that shows Jimin's process of reconciling with his past through a day of tumultuous reporting.
When the author was conceiving this work in Busan a few years ago, he decided to write a series of novels featuring these characters, and that decision led to "At First Snow," which features the television writer So Bom as the central character.
This book, which divides the works into three chapters by theme, is born with colorful stories of diverse characters, including “Ok-ju of Wolgye-dong,” which tells the story of Ok-ju’s older sister’s time studying abroad in China, which was the cause of Hyun-woo and Ji-min’s breakup; “Day, Evening, Night,” which depicts the process of So-bom’s younger brother Han Ga-eul’s unrequited love blossoming after its failure, like a movie; “Galaxy’s Night,” which compares Eun-ha, a screenwriter who works with So-bom at a broadcasting station, returning to work after cancer surgery to the life he finds again; “Havana Snowman Club,” which depicts Jin-hee’s Christmas night as she recalls her first love from her childhood before a blind date with Hyun-woo’s friend; and “Can I Hold Your Dog,” which depicts Semi’s struggle to overcome the loss of her companion dog of nearly twenty years.
“A day of philanthropy where everyone wishes everyone happiness” (“On Christmas”), this special winter landscape created by certain feelings that could only be briefly conveyed on Christmas, the last day of the year, also makes it impossible to miss the small pleasure of discovering the relationships between each loosely connected character.


“These stories, which seem like they could be glimpsed even now if you held a microscope up to the surrounding scenery” (Kim Ina’s recommendation), are a series that maintains the concept of ‘Christmas’ in a coherent manner while simultaneously displaying a high degree of perfection in each and every story.
Furthermore, the individuality of the vivid characters portrayed with delicate brushstrokes stands out, and the profound sentences that make you want to keep thinking about them melt into the individual aspects, proving once again that there are stories that only Kim Geum-hee can tell.


A world completed by connecting tiles together like a single piece of paper

Actor Park Jung-min, who recommended this book, added, “Thanks to those who live their lives with a sense of excitement and longing, I feel like I have gained the confidence to survive this winter.”
One person meets another, loves, hates, gets hurt, but in the end, they wish each other health and well-being and share affection.
If we connect each of those feelings like tiles, we might be able to complete a world like a winter landscape where snow falls quietly at night.
And the completed painting will fall like a warm snowflake next to us.
As if following Semi, “white snow like rice flour falls” (“Can I Hold Your Dog”), as if Sobom walks “into the first snow of the night when miraculous breaths covered the world” (“Into the First Snow”).


On a winter night, as we listen to a heartwarming story from author Kim Geum-hee, who knows the heart of love better than anyone else, we will encounter small pieces that can fill our daily lives.
Perhaps the reason we have Christmas is to find that last piece of comfort that can console us from the sadness and loneliness of the past year.


Author's Note

Among the Christmas presents my parents gave me when I was little was a tiny, folded 1,000 won bill with a small note.
The note contained instructions to be a good child or to listen to your parents, things that wouldn't be of much interest to a child, so I don't remember the details of its contents. However, I do clearly remember waking up to a present by my bedside, a joy that elicited a small gasp.
No amount of misfortune I experienced growing up could completely take away the light of that winter.
Because something inside me tried hard to prevent that joy from disappearing, like shielding a candle from the wind with my hand to keep it from going out.

A few years ago, after writing "At Christmas" (We Came from Pepperoni, Changbi, 2021), the starting point of this series, I thought about continuing it with other works, but I never expected to be able to complete it.
However, with the advent of the pandemic, I was able to continue the story of Sobom in “At First Snow” (The Playground is 24 Hours, Giant Books, 2021), and while I gave up on scheduled work due to poor health, I was able to translate the galaxy in “Galaxy Night” into a novel.
The difficulties that came together by chance helped complete the series.
Starting with the serialization in Changbi's 'Switch' and adding each story, I felt like I was simultaneously passing through the deepest shadow and the brightest light in my heart.
As the year approaches its end after a hectic year, the passage of time that will soon disappear and the things we still hold onto become clearer.
Each character still had their own difficulties, fatigue, sadness, and loneliness, but they were saying that nothing was completely lost.
It is said that after walking through a long night, you will finally stop at the port of December, and when you meet the white snow falling high in the sky as if blessing it, it will finally become distant.
When we observe life from afar, we may be able to touch the real life beyond the noisy commotion.
The reason we have winter and Christmas is precisely to think about what, what kind of person, what kind of time is real.

As I continued working, I began going to church and spending Sundays there.
In the neighborhood church, probably the smallest in the city, there were more old people than I had ever seen before.
As I spent the seasons amidst their soft prayers, murmurs, and slow footsteps, I sometimes felt so young, and at times I felt like a blank slate, knowing nothing about life or humanity.
I'm so glad I got to know so many pieces of the world that I need to fill in.
This wouldn't have been possible without these seven short stories.

Every time I publish a novel, it feels like I'm going through a bitter breakup, but that's not the case now, as I write while yearning for a winter that hasn't yet arrived.
Perhaps, not through me, but through those who read the novel, the characters in "Christmas Tiles" will blend into the world more vigorously and wonderfully.
I hope that everyone will find peace in the winter that we welcome, and that the Christmas scenery that each person has completed will be loved and cherished for its own reasons.
We have nothing to lose if we decide not to lose it.

Reflecting on the feelings needed in winter,
Kim Geum-hee