What is this? Kanna blinked her eyes in confusion. What am I doing right now? Her mind, blank as a clean sheet of paper, began to spin in slow motion.

Seriously, what am I doing? Why am I flat on the ground, bawling my eyes out with tears and snot running down my face? Why? Why am I clinging to this man’s leg?

“Release me.”

His sharp voice pierced Kanna like a knife. Her eyes shot up to meet his and immediately froze under his icy glare. His blue eyes were as cold as a glacier, and...

Huh...?

He’s beautiful.

She had never met a man who truly suited that word before. His face was somehow both sharp and delicate, as if it had been chiseled out of clear glass, and his hair glistened like spun silver. His beauty shone so brightly that she had to squint to look at him.

A frosty smile formed on his lips. “What a pain you are.”

Kanna was still frozen under his gaze.

“Do you really think this will return me to you? No. It only makes me despise you more.”

She couldn’t speak or move.

“I’ve told you to release me.”

Is he talking to me?

“If you will not let go, I will cut off your wrists, Miss Kanna.”

Huh? Kanna?

His calm words were spoken so courteously that it was hard to believe he meant what he said. But, more importantly, this man had just called her by her name.

There was no denying it: She was the woman hanging onto this blindingly beautiful man. The tension in her muscles gave way, and her arms drooped helplessly to the floor. Only then did the man turn his back on her and walk away.

The door slammed shut behind him.

It took a long time of sitting alone in the room before Kanna could finally open her mouth. “Uh, what the hell? Is this a dream? Huh?” What am I doing in a place like this?

Just moments ago, Kanna had been in Korea. South Korea, that is. It was a world Kanna had never heard of, and she had no idea how or why she’d ended up there. All she knew was that she had woken up one day to find herself living as a Korean girl named Lee Joohwa.

She’d thought she was crazy at first. Wow, Kanna Addis has finally lost her mind. An inevitability after years of living in the lab, completely consumed by the study of alchemy!

The only other answer was a ridiculous nightmare... But she wasn’t crazy, and it wasn’t a dream. Yes, I somehow possessed the body of a girl named Joohwa, and I was living her life. She tried to deny the truth at first but was eventually forced to accept it. Kanna’s soul had entered Joohwa’s body from another world, and she had no idea how to leave. If she didn’t want to just give up and die, her only choice was to live as Joohwa.

So she did.

Apart from the initial shock and subsequent panic, it wasn’t all that difficult, because she had all of Joohwa’s memories and knowledge of the world. And that was how Kanna lived her new life as Lee Joohwa—for twelve whole years, starting when Joohwa was seventeen.

I studied so hard to become a doctor of traditional medicine. I graduated high school early, got into medical school, earned my medical license, and had just begun to build my career as a doctor. I worked like a horse in hopes of opening my own clinic one day. Life was going well for me as Joohwa! So, why now? Why now, after all these years?!

I got home from work and enjoyed some fried chicken with my family. Then I cracked open a beer and took a long shower before heading to bed. I remember looking at the ceiling and smiling, so happy and satisfied with my life as Lee Joohwa. And just as I thought everything was going so well for me...

“Damn it.”

I woke up as Kanna Addis, hanging onto some man’s leg.

Kanna stood up and headed toward the mirror on the wall. Her heart sank when she saw her reflection. “What...?”

Dark hair hung down from her head, messy bangs covering her black eyes. It was the face she thought she’d never see again. The face she tried so hard to forget. The last time she’d seen it, she’d been fourteen years old. She was much older now than she was back then, but...

This is my face. My real face.

“What’s happening?” Kanna stroked her cheek and pressed her eyes shut, realizing she really was back.

Back in her original body, and in her original world.