The freezing temperature in the middle of February covered Toronto with a thick white snow blanket. It was only 4 in the afternoon but soon the draughty road was left with almost nothing but a few crunching sounds of snow under hasty feet. At the aged building near the far corner of the street stood a woman on the doorstep in front of an upstairs apartment. After a brief moment of hesitation, Bae Joohyun, her birth name, pressed her finger on the golden button.

   The faint doorbell ringing inside the house touched Joohyun’s ears. The pale woman shivered with cold in her thick feather coat. She swayed side to side to keep herself warm and patiently waited for the door to open while taking a quick glance at the house number plaque again.

   Queen St W, 77th.

   This has to be the place where she lives.

   The person Joohyun loves. The one she desires to see.

   Seungwan.

   It has been five years.

   For half a decade Joohyun lived in regret and oblivion. She didn’t realise her feelings for Seungwan were reciprocated. Until the next week after her wedding, Joohyun came to her house for their routine cupcake-Sunday only to find out that she had left, leaving nothing behind.

   Days after, even with the help of her husband, Joohyun tried in vain to find Seungwan. She thought she had gone insane; It was like Seungwan had completely disappeared. Like she never existed.

   She vanished.

   “I wish you happiness. I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

   She could still vividly hear her childhood sweetheart's melodic voice in those neat handwriting - the letter she later found at Seungwan’s house.

   After a solid minute, Joohyun started to feel a surge of anxiety since there seemed to be no sign of movement inside. Is the owner not at home right now?

   Maybe she didn’t hear the bell. Maybe she is sleeping. Or maybe she is just busy baking like she always did at this hour, just like back then. Joohyun reassured herself, even though she bet her wallet on the first outcome.

   Still, she retried ringing the doorbell.

   “And don’t find me.”

   Now that she found her whereabouts, even if there was a high chance that Joohyun would catch a bad cold next day, she can wait. And she will wait, until she finally met h-

   “Miss… Can I help you?”

   A soft yet stern voice from behind startled Joohyun. She turned around and spotted a small figure, a woman, standing at the landing of the stairway, her gaze fixed upon her. As the said one lowered her head to avoid snowflakes and took a step upwards without waiting for a response, Joohyun instinctively moved a tad bit backwards.

   “Um, yes, I’m looking for a person. Her name is Shon Seungwan.” Joohyun spoke in perfect English, raised her volume on purpose but just a little for, she presumed, the incoming owner of the apartment to catch her words under the seemingly heavier snowstorm. It took less than a tick of the clock to prove that her decision was right. The young lady in bumblebee wool anorak stopped on the spot, her gaze reverted to Joohyun.

   Perhaps it was the freezing cold that made Joohyun’s normally sensitive senses become numb enough to not notice a tiny flicker in the eyes of the woman in front of her. Nevertheless, she gained her exposure back in a second and quickly answered.

   “I’m sorry Miss, but I don’t know any Shon Seungwan.”

   Well, that caught Joohyun off guard. She could not hide her surprised face. Having been so sure that this was the place, she tried her best to sound calm, while leaning forward to check the house number one more time. “R-Really? But they gave me this address and told me she lives here.”

   “I think you must have made a mistake.” - The other woman retorted. Her distant attitude started making its own appearance as she continued. “This is my house, and my name is Katy Kim, not Seungwan… something.”

   That was definitely not the answer Joohyun had expected, not to mention the uneasy reactions from the former. However, something in her mind clicked.

   Katy Kim.

   Joohyun knew this name, she heard it before. Somewhere along those never ending chit-chat between Seulgi and her pretty girlfriend Joy at the coffee shop, Joohyun was shown a post on an SNS account that went by the nickname of ‘Katy K”. There the barista found the woman she’d longed for, Seungwan, smiling brightly while wrapping an arm around another girl’s shoulder. That ‘another girl’ was later introduced as her best friend’s closest blood relative: Kim Yerim.

   This must be Sooyoung’s little sister, or so she believed. The woman hesitated for a split second before mouthing what she later wished for a thousand times that she could take them back.

    “You are Yerim, right?”

   This time, Joohyun did make a mistake. A huge one.

   Katy’s expression darkened, her face was grim and the tension radiated all over her body. She clenched her fists behind her back and hissed. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? My name is Katy Kim. This is my own house. If there’s any Shon Seungwan you need to find, then I repeat: I have no idea who she is.”

   Joohyun flinched, taken aback by the sudden outburst. She quickly bowed and stuttered. “I-I’m sorry..”

   Had she kept her cool as she had always been before, she would have seen the strange look with an unreadable expression on the other woman’s face. Maybe Katy didn’t intend to be so mean to a stranger like that after all. However, when Joohyun hesitantly lifted her head to sneak a peek at how Katy would react, the younger immediately dodged the eyes contact with a flick of her hand. “Forget it.”

   Katy turned to the door, ignoring the fidgety woman behind. But anyone knew Joohyun could have known how stubborn she can become. She is not a type of person who would give up that easily. At least she had to give it one last try. And speaking of nickname...

   “But... maybe she has an alias.” - The older furrowed her eyebrows, tried to recall how the account owner addressed Seungwan in the caption. Panic started to invade her voice the moment she noticed a pair of irritated eyes, somehow almost like a glare, towards her. “What is it... W..Wen...”

   “Look, I don’t want to sound rude...” - Katy raised her left hand, cutting Joohyun off, “...but since this conversation will go nowhere and you are not likely to spare my life, I will say it one last time: I have no god damn idea what you are talking about. You and your nonsense are pissing me off.” The harshness in her tone, without any questions, clearly stated that she had had enough of these crabs.

   Joohyun stood stock-still, completely speechless. It was not like the woman didn’t figure out the attempted deception. What she couldn’t understand was why Katy kept hiding the truth. But after this unpleasant encounter, one thing she knew for sure was the fact that she’d better not get on her nerves.