The smell of the miso ramen she ordered filled her lungs. The strong taste of the ginger-based soup, unsurprisingly, managed to put a smile on her face. She whispered, “This is definitely the best ramen in Sapporo.” It didn’t take long for her to finish the whole bowl. She looked outside the window into Tsukisamu Street. Sapporo’s cold, snowy weather was ready to hit her body as soon as she went outside. I had enough of this snow, she thought. But she was just lying to herself. Snowy Sapporo has always been her favourite thing. Wandering around the city, watching people slip and fall whilst listening to some “nu metal.” Her take on the relaxing, chill times was a little bit unusual, to say the least.

She felt ready to walk. The ramen was fully digested. She paid for the ramen and left the Tominoya, but she didn’t take long to regret that decision. The cold wasn’t playing around. She looked back at Tominoya and smiled. The way this tiny orange building stood out between tall buildings made her chuckle a bit. Ramen shop Tominoya on the first floor, and a beauty supply store called Sunny Place on the second floor. What a weird combo, she thought. After seeing the wigs on the display of Sunny Place, she inspected her not-so-perfect hair. I can’t be bothered with long hair anyway, she thought, and this time she wasn’t lying. Her short and usually messy hair suited her fashion style incredibly well. It was just a shame that Sapporo’s snowy weather prevented her from wearing what she wanted.

Tsukisamu Street was quite crowded with cars that were not going faster than her walking speed. She reached into her coat’s pocket to take out her earphones, but “You know what, I want to hear the crunchy sound of snow under my feet,” she said and started walking. She crossed the street towards the giant crab. The restaurant called Hokkaido Kani-Shogun specialized in cooking crabs. At least, that’s what she always assumed. The thought of eating a crab was something that made her uncomfortable. She tried getting her focus back to the ramen she had just eaten. Her smile came back. After walking left a little, she turned right into the Nishi 3 Chome Street.

Every time she walked through the city, she felt so lucky to be there. She always compared Sapporo to a fluffy onesie, which would’ve been easy to agree if Sapporo wasn’t that cold. She continued walking on the Nishi 3 Chome Street. Her target was set. Café Noymond. A place that is known for its delicious parfait. But parfait was not what she was after. She wanted to drink her favourite beer, Hoegaarden Rosee. She entered Café Noymond, found herself a table in a corner on the second floor and ordered her favourite beer. With its dim yellow lights and extremely comfortable couches, this café’s cosiness made her forget about the freezing weather outside.

While waiting for her beer to arrive, she decided to observe what everyone was doing. The place wasn’t as crowded as usual. Thank you for that, lovely weather, she thought and started scanning the tables. There were 9 customers, including her. A giggly teenage couple on one of the window tables, and on the other one, 3 university students from Sapporo Medical University. On the table in the centre, 2 young men were working on their laptops. And on the other side of the floor, another young man was reading a science fiction book by himself. He is pretty cute, she thought to herself. He looked really immersed in the book. His facial expressions were changing with every passing second. The fact that he was fully confident in himself and did not hide his excitement while being around strangers made him a lot cuter in her eyes.

By the looks of it, the snow still had no desire to stop. That wasn’t really bothering her, at least for the time being. She was on her second Hoegaarden Rosee. The young man across the room was done with his book. He had a big smile on his face. The satisfaction he got from the book was easy to see. But she wasn’t aware of something yet. The young man noticed her. In those rare moments when she wasn’t looking at him, he was looking at her. She is pretty cute, he thought to himself and kept looking at her. And finally, they made eye contact. They both put a little smile on their faces and immediately turned their heads in another direction. She knew her face went red. She looked at her Hoegaarden Rosee and took one last sip. It would’ve been lovely to meet him, she thought as she was making her way out of the café. She knew even if they approached each other and had a pleasant chat, it wouldn’t go very far. She let out a big sigh once she stepped outside.

She made her way back to Tsukisamu Street once again and headed towards the Susukino Station. From there, she got on the Namboku Line. During the 15 minutes she spent on the train, she tried to make an assumption about how much time she spent on the Namboku Line. A lot, she figured. For some reason, she was happy that she spent a lot of time on this line.

She got off the train at Makomanai Station. Before heading back home, she wanted to walk through Uemachi Park. This park was her go-to place for Sunday breakfasts. Lying down on the grass, listening to birds chirping, watching elder couples do their morning walks. “I like you, Uemachi Park,” she whispered and headed towards her home with a big smile on her face.

As soon as she got inside her home, she threw herself into the shower and turned it to maximum heat. “Lovely,” she said. After spending way more time than she needed to spend in there, she got out of the shower. “This time, I’m not just leaving my hair like this,” she said, showing some extra care. Ultimately, she realized she liked her messy hair, but it was too late. She brushed her teeth and went to the living room. She had a Buddhist altar at the corner of the room called ‘butsudan.’ Her butsudan was dedicated to her best friend, Hapi. Extremely cute and extremely crazy orange cat. She grabbed a canned wet cat food from her fridge and made an offering. “I hope you’re doing great, Hapi,” she said, putting a little kiss on Hapi’s picture.

After talking with Hapi for a while, she got herself a glass of water and headed to her room. She grabbed her diary from the shelf and started writing about her day. She had a big smile on her face while writing about the miso ramen, Hoegaarden Rosee, sci-fi lover young man, Uemachi Park. “I wish every day was as lovely as this one,” she wrote. Then she stopped for a while and thought about what else to write on there. She knew this was the last page of this diary. She closed her eyes and kept thinking and thinking… “Dear Sapporo, thank you for everything,” she wrote and didn’t forget putting “THE END” at the bottom of the page.

A couple of days later, when the police broke into her apartment, all they found was a diary with its last page open and a body that’s hanging from the ceiling.