For what felt like the hundredth time today, a total stranger cursed right at me.

"Who in the are you?" said the woman who looked just like me - only different - after she had spun around.

I wanted to answer her, but couldn't. Her whole demeanor was so impressively intimidating that I once again found myself completely humbled in the presence of another and unable to say any words appropriate to the situation. All I could do was stare at her, as her face moved between eerie familiarity and unfamiliarity. I also felt a lot smaller than her, until I noticed she was wearing fashionable high-heeled boots.

The young woman who looked like me - only different - took a step forward, during which her expensive looking boots clunked on the tiled floor, and raised her arm in a threatening gesture.

"I said: Who are you? I want you to answer me right now! Where do you come from? Have you been following me?"

Now the young woman's face had become more familiar - I could feel fear flaring up underneath her strong demeanor. Possibly she was just as shocked and scared as I was.

"My name is Kim Jieun," I began, slowly moving towards the stranger, while trying to seem as none-threatening as possible, "I... I just moved into town... I haven't been following you. Really, I haven't. I'm just as surprised as you are."

My nerves had calmed slightly and my mind had started to race. Was I going to have an interesting conversation with my mum? Was this woman my sister? Possibly my twin sister? How come we had been separated? How come my mum had never said anything?

My counterpart was also standing still - staring at me - but obviously lost in thought. She didn't reply to my answer for a full minute.

"May I know who you are?" I asked cautiously.

To my surprise the woman in front of me laughed.

"If I knew who I was, I might tell you!"

Her laugh was extremely irritating. Not because it was unpleasant - she had full fruity laugh - but because it sounded nothing like the nervous giggle I was used to from my throat.

Also what did she mean she didn't know who she was!?

"Well, do you have a name?" I asked.

My counterpart gave me a look, that I didn't knew how to interpret.

"You know," I continued, "Maybe we're twins! It sounds crazy, I know! But... maybe we are long-lost sisters!"

My counterpart shook her head.

"I doubt it," she said, "I think Sun Wu Kong... must be doing all this to confuse me."

Her face grew red with anger, but luckily it no longer seemed to be directed at me, but the unlucky Sun Wu Kong - whoever that was.

The woman who looked like me - but different - stomped the bathroom tiles with her boots several times working herself into rage.

"He probably thinks it's really funny to send me someone looking like me," she spouted aloud, although she no longer seemed to be addressing me, "He's probably somewhere laughing up his monkey- sleeve!"

The situation was getting more and more absurd. My head had seriously started spinning trying to comprehend all that was going on. I needed some clarity and I needed it now!

"I assure you I don't know Sun Wu... Kong or whatever his name is. I came in here, because the barista made me pay for a lunch menu that I didn't order. I think... you might have been the one who ordered it?"

My counterpart returned her attention to me.

"Yes," she said, "I ordered the menu. But I assure you that I have 17 witnesses to my birth and there was no twin sister. Which effectively means... you must be... a demon."

Now it was my turn to laugh. I couldn't help it - I started giggling. My giggle stood small next to the beautiful deep laugh of my doppelgänger, but I didn't care. The situation was beyond ridiculous.

I was about to ask my counterpart whether she was kidding, when a group of women came filing into the ladies' causing me to move aside to avoid collision. The group of women went for the stalls and thus effectively separated me and my doppelgänger for a few seconds: I saw my counterpart give me another irritated look, that reminded me a lot of my own scared face and then she slipped past the women and past me before I could stop her.

When I wanted to follow her another bunch of girls came flooding into the bathroom, which was suddenly full with bodies and voices. I was a little rude trying to push past them to follow my doppelgänger, so they shouted weak insults after me, once I had gotten through.

The coffee shop seemed fuller than ever, but I was sure that I should be able to spot the pink coat somewhere. But I didn't see it again, while pushing through the crowds and I didn't spot it either, when I exited the coffee shop into the shopping mall hallway.

The woman who looked like me - only different - could have either taken a turn left or right or gone up the escalator or down the escalator or run into one of the many shops around. She had effectively outdistanced me.

I spent another few minutes turning in circles in the centre of the hallway in hope of catching a glimpse of soft pink somewhere, but nothing caught my eye, so I eventually gave up. I stopped to catch my breath and thought hard.

For one thing my life was no longer uneventful: I had almost broken a nose today, angered all of the local coffee shop employees and met someone who looked exactly like me - only different. It was not what I had expected from Seoul, but I was willing to take reality head-on as I always did. I had to find out who my doppelgänger was. The first thing I was going to do was to go home and probably have a very enlightening conversation with my mother. If that wouldn't reveal the truth to me then I would continue to write down everything I knew about my counterpart. Then I would research the name Sun Wu Kong. Maybe I could at least localize this frenemy of my doppelgänger.

I turned around to look at the coffee shop again, just as someone exited it and we almost collided.

"Sorry," I said, my mind elsewhere.

"That's quite alright," said the young man I had almost bumped into. "The unexpected free lunch during my shift today puts me in a forgiving mood."

Embarrassed I recognized Oh Sehun, the barista. I expected him to move on, but to my surprise he stayed and actually smiled.

"That whole lunch menu thing was pretty odd, wasn't it?" he said in a surprisingly friendly tone.

I nodded: "I honestly did not know the other girl... the one in the pink coat. I have never met her before... it was the shock of a lifetime to meet her today."

Sehun's smile faded slightly: "Are you still trying to play me?"

I shook my head vehemently: "No! I'm telling you I don't know her!"

A group of customers approached and we both moved away from the coffee shop entrance. Sehun furrowed his brow.

"You know, she has been coming here regularly. Always alone. I thought maybe..." He had turned red in the face.

I simply stared.

"...maybe she likes you and we were trying to get your attention?" I finally asked to break the silence.

"That? Oh no! That'd be ridiculous... I mean... I thought you knew who she was," he said, his face now quite a violent red.

My encounter with my doppelgänger made me more curious about her identity than anything else... yet it slightly nagged me that a girl that looked almost exactly like me after all would have caught the attention of an ulzzang, while I - standing right in front of him - was of little interest.

"But you must be twins," he continued, "Don't tell me you were separated at birth or something like that?"

I shrugged.

"I have no idea what's going on. We must be twins... but my mother never told me anything about a twin. It doesn't make any sense..."

Sehun and I went silent again and stared each other, both wondering whether the other was hiding information.

"Do you really not know who she is?" he asked again.

"No!" I almost shouted. Passersby turned their heads, but I didn't care. "I have no idea who she is! I saw her for the first time today and it freaks me out how much she looks like me! Do you have any idea how scary it is to meet some who looks like your clone? Yet has an entirely different demeanor? It's like meeting the Übermensch version of yourself! Your cleverer, prettier and possibly evil twin! For a moment I thought I'd gone insane or something!"

I had worked myself into quite a rage, but I needed Sehun to believe me. He was the only person after all who remembered seeing us both - me and... her. He knew there were 'two of me'! He was my living proof that I wasn't crazy! Yet I could understand very well, if he didn't believe me, that I didn't know who she was. I don't think I would have believed myself had I been him.

"Well, ehm, what's your name?" he finally said.

"I'm Kim Jieun," I answered, noticing how something bubbling somewhere beneath my conscious was flattered he at least cared a little bit about who I was.

"I'm Oh Sehun," he said, "I'm thinking... I'm thinking that I should just skip any additional dramatic schemes you two have planned for me and give you my number. You'll give it to her will you?"

Whatever had been bubbling somewhere near my lower rib subsided in a heartbeat. I was pissed, although I could understand that most people would have had trouble buying my story. I mean, what were the odds of meeting your long lost twin - especially in a place like Seoul? I tried to keep my calm and figure out how to turn the situation to my advantage. Then I had a crazy idea and simply went with it.

"Okay, okay! I admit we were pranking you!" I said, giving him a few curtsy little bows as apology.

Instead of getting mad, Sehun laughed.

"You're a pretty good actress then. Wouldn't surprise me if I saw you in a drama one day! Well then, can you tell me your sister's name or give me her number?"

His smiling face looked so full of hope I almost pitied him. There was never going to be a date between my doppelgänger and Oh Sehun, because the next time she would come here, I would be doing a thorough interrogation - alone with her!

"It's not that easy," I said, avoiding Sehun's gaze to not reveal that I was lying.

"No?" He said disappointed.

"No! My sister you see - she's a special flower."

When he looked at me in shock I added, "No, no! She's quite mentally healthy! She just has her own idea of courting! She won't be swayed by a simple exchange of phone numbers. There'd have to be a grander gesture... like if you'd go putting up wanted posters all over town."

"You're bullting me again, aren't you?" Sehun said.

"I'm not! She - she is obsessed with the movie 'Amélie', you see?"

"'Amélie'?" he asked perplexed.

I sighed: "The kinda really famous French movie? I mean it's a romcom, but... oh never mind! Go watch the movie and do what the male protagonist does! Your arrows will be hitting my sister right in the heart!" I finished by winking at Oh Sehun, quite satisfied with my deceit skills.

He opened his mouth to say something, closed it again and then got out his phone.

"Just in case," he said, "Give her my phone number, if all else fails? Okay, please?"

I saved his phone number in my cell and gave him the most benevolent matchmaker smile I could muster.

"The things people do for love, eh?" I said and Sehun gave me an odd, yet sweet smile, that I wished had been meant for me and not for my doppelgänger who was surely on his mind.

The rain finally thinned and stopped when I made my way home. I almost went past the Park residence since the big ugly block looked almost identical to the neighboring ones and I was lost in thought. I only recognized the house because Park Chanyeol's red hair jumped out at me between the weak greens, grays and whites.

"There you are!" he said, "Parents were getting worried. I was just about to go searching for you!"

Judging by the fact that he was still wearing his house shoes and by the prematurely grinded cigarette on the stone porch I assumed I hadn't really been the reasons for Chanyeol leaving the house, but what did it matter. I needed to talk to my mum.

"Just went exploring for a bit," I said trying to file past Chanyeol, but he stopped me.

"Nahah, where is my umbrella?" he asked with a menacing tone in his voice.

"Oh, dang!" I had forgotten the umbrella. "I forgot it at the coffee shop in the shopping mall. I'm sorry."

Chanyeol gave me an angry look.

"Which shopping mall?" he asked.

"The big shopping complex on the right side of the street. If... if you keep walking down this road," I answered, but Chanyeol had already went passed me and started heading down the street.

"Must be one special umbrella," I wondered out loud, then my thoughts returned to the problem at hand and I quickly stepped through the unlocked entrance door and into the house.

While getting out of my coat and boots I wondered how to start the conversation with my mum.

"So, mum, I met this girl at the local shopping mall, who looked exactly like me. Care to explain?"

"Mum, is there something you want to tell me about my birth? Like I think I might have a sibling or such..."

"Hey mum, I met my twin today. It would have been nice if you would have told me about her earlier."

I couldn't come up with a good way to start off - nothing felt right. Maybe my mum had had twins and one had been... stolen... and my mum had been informed that my sister had died... and my mum had never talked about it, because it had left her traumatized. Actually that seemed like the only realistic option. And also - wouldn't my mum be overjoyed to hear that her other daughter was still alive?

What had my twin said - something about a lot of people witnessing her birth? For all I knew my mum had brought me into the world in a small hospital in Busan, with my grandmother, a doctor and a nurse present. That didn't seem like a lot of people. But then again the other me had refused to believe that I was her sister - maybe she had been snatched away and raised by some crazy cult!? That would explain a lot.

Nevertheless if my mum was traumatized by the past event, then I needed to approach the topic carefully and at best not in the presence of Young Hwan.

I stepped from the entrance hall into the hallway and a shiver ran through my body.

It could very well turn out to be quite exciting to have a sister.

Maybe my twin could show me around town.

Maybe we'd become friends.

Maybe I'd stop feeling the desire to run away.