Hokkaido.

"I guess.. I just wanted to know how you felt."

Feeling stuck and tired in your own hometown was not uncommon for the folks of your community. Days always seemed to bleed into one another, carrying the quiet weight of a corpse at mid-dawn, an eerie reassurance that nothing, not time nor effort, could ever pry you from the town's grip.

Regardless so, you decided to take a risk and enrolled yourself to an exchange student program, not thinking too much of it until the letter of acceptance arrived like a sudden crack in the monotony of your life, the path of the future leading you farther than you had ever imagined; to the farthest north of Japan,

Hokkaido.

When you finally arrived, Hokkaido greeted you with reassurance, even if the air was crisp enough to sting your lungs, where each breath was a reminder that you were far from home.

Snow pressed itself against the earth in soft, endless layers, swallowing color, swallowing the sound of the wind, embracing the cold sun that never seemed to fall behind the pile of snow left behind to mourn.

Despite so, you managed to find the slightest resemblance of warmth in these cold land, warmth that could soothe your loneliness in one moment-and then burn your outstretched hand the next.