A loud crash caused Taehyung to snap his eyes open. He threw his arm up lazily to cover his eyes as the sun blinded him momentarily. What the hell was that? He wanted one day to sleep in. Just one ing day and he couldn’t even get that without being interrupted.

He perched himself up on his elbows and listened keenly, waiting for any sign of trouble. His apartment complex was generally a peaceful place although a few fights tended to break out, usually between drunken men. An elderly woman and her two-year-old daughter lived in the room down the hall and a quiet man in his late thirties lived in the apartment across from his own. One of the es from a sleazy bar in the heart of downtown Seoul lived next to the quiet man but other than those three tenants, no one else lived on his floor.

Right? Was he missing anyone else?

Ah.

That girl. His new next-door-neighbor.

He pushed the thoughts of the naïve girl out of his head and attempted to head back to sleep when the sound of shattering glass echoed through the halls once more. He bolted up from his bed, his eyebrows furrowed in anger and annoyance.

“God damn it,” he hissed under his breath, pulling an oversized t-shirt over his head and throwing his door open.

Taehyung was positive the noise came from his new neighbor’s house and he knocked on her door with rapid, impatient taps. No answer came and he grit his teeth, knocking a little harder. Anyone else would have answered the door out of pure annoyance but this girl was either very good at ignoring people or she was deaf.

He knocked one last time with all the power he had and the door swung open at the sheer force of his knock. Taehyung blamed the cheap wood they used for the door and stepped into her apartment without her permission. The girl was nowhere in sight but he could see small shards of glass scattered all over the floor of her new apartment.

Stepping carefully over the shards, he took a good look around the apartment, taking in the setting. It was a very modest room and it didn’t seem like she was done moving all her belongings, as there were a few stray cardboard boxes in the corner of her room. He glanced at her bed, unmade and unkempt, before following the trail of glass into the kitchen.

The light bulb in the kitchen flickered several times before flickering out, leaving him in complete darkness. He was careful to move slowly so the shards didn’t prick him.

Where the hell is she, he thought crankily. After ruining a perfectly good morning for him, he needed an outlet for his anger.

The light flickered on and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. He blinked rapidly and when he could finally see properly again the sight in front of him shocked him. His outer appearance remained indifferent but inside, he was in turmoil. The scene was too familiar to him and it made him want to puke.

Jisoo snapped her neck up to look at Taehyung with wide, fearful eyes. She sat on the floor of the kitchen, surrounded by a pool of glass shards. Her feet and hands were bleeding slightly and she looked completely out of it. Her hair was messy and tangled and her body shook like a leaf.

She was a complete stranger to Taehyung but in that moment, he didn’t see the face of his next-door neighbor. He saw her face and it made him feel like suffocating. He had to get out of there. The scene was like complete déjà vu and it disgusted him.

“I’m okay. Please leave,” Jisoo murmured softly.

Taehyung didn’t need another invitation to leave as he the balls of his feet and stomped out of her apar