it didn't start out as a song. it was more of a wail at first. it woke sunggyu up. and after he had woken up, he couldn't go back to sleep because the wailing kept going for 3 minutes. he laid in bed, in fear, eyes wide staring into the darkness and pulling the blanket higher over his face with every passing minute. the wailing eventually stopped - sunggyu held his breath - and a television was switched on. sunggyu could hear laughter from a sitcom. channels kept flipping, then silence again. his heart thundered in his ears. and then there was a hollow tapping sound, like a finger against a microphone. there was coughing, a short wail, then a tragic ballad started playing, followed by off-key singing.

at this point, sunggyu's terror turned into slight annoyance. his neighbour was obviously having a hard time and needed to drown his sorrows in a whiny ballad, sunggyu could understand that, which was the only reason he held back from marching right across the hallway and sceaming at his neighbour. it was fine, sunggyu would be the good neighbour in this situation and empathise with the poor man. he reached into his bedside drawer for his earphones, and plugged it into his phone.

the ballad ended and queued into a rock song. sunggyu's neighbour had mistaken the rock song for a screamo. he was butchering one of sunggyu's favourite songs. but sunggyu was going to let that pass too. because he was snug as a bug in his sheets and wouldn't move even for a threat from an earthquake. he flipped over on his side to push the earbud deeper into his ear, focussing on the soft instrumental music instead.

the next song was also a rock song, and sunggyu's neighbour still hadn't figured out rock and screamo are different genres. and that was the last straw for sunggyu.

it took sunggyu 5 seconds flat to get out of his apartment and over to the next door. he banged the door repeatedly, making the 'nam woo hyun lives here' sign hanging on it to jump a rhythm against the door. sunggyu would yell some profanities but he didn't think woohyun would hear him over the terrible karaoke.

the instrumental didn't stop, but the singing did. the door opened and the rude words on the tip of sunggyu's tongue quickly dissipated into the air. nam woohyun had a blotchy face, tears creating streaks against the present streaks on his cheeks, eyes red and puffy, nose messy and lips bitten. he was sniffing and hicupping at the same time, and tried to hide behind the door. he looked miserable as hell... but not a bit remorseful for singing terrible karaoke at 2am on a weekday.

sunggyu was still pissed because 2am on a weekday. but he reeled it in and muttered, "please keep the noise down."

"oh, i'm sorry!" woohyun instantly apologised, belatedly embarrassed. "i forgot."

forgot what? that i'm your neighbour? sunggyu took a deep breath, and forced a forgiving smile. "you should go to sleep."

woohyun half-laughed half-sobbed. snot leaked from his nose, it was gross. "i'd love to sleep." sunggyu nodded and turned to leave but woohyun continued, "i'd sleep if i could. but i keep seeing his face."

sunggyu steeled himself for a painful conversation. "i'm sorry for your loss."

"what? no, nobody died." woohyun said. and sunggyu didn't really care to know what woohyun was depressed about but before he could excuse himself, woohyun carried on. "my boyfriend broke up with me. i'm heartbroken."

what the ? "sleep will do you good." sunggyu was trying his best not to break woohyun's teeth.

"do you want to sing with me?"

to woohyun, someone shaking their head meant 'oh yes definitely' because he was dragging sunggyu into his apartment, insisting sunggyu stayed as if sunggyu was embarrased about imposing. sunggyu was shouting "it's ok, i really want to go to bed!" which fell on to dead ears. woohyun forced sunggyu to sit down on the sofa. sunggyu got up, and woohyun forced him down again. he stopped trying only when woohyun sat on him. sunggyu had never met someone as rude or strange as nam woohyun.

the next song played and a microphone was pushed into his hands. and woohyun was staring at him, face litted only by the blue glare of the television screen. he was expectant and kept looking from the microphone to sunggyu's face. their faces were too close, sunggyu could see the purplish veins of woohyun's bloodshot eyes. it was gross to be this close up, so he directed his attention to the screen, reciting the lyrics instead of singing it.

woohyun was satisfied with sunggyu's monotone though, and seemed to think his high-pitched screaming complemented it.

regretting all his life decisions, sunggyu vowed to be the best neighbour from then on and stay in bed if anyone started singing karaoke at 2am.