Kang Seulgi was filled with joy the moment she stepped into her new apartment. Sure, it wasn’t the most extravagant apartment. It had shaggy carpet, some stains on the walls, and smelled slightly of dust, but it had hot water, a running dishwasher, and was bigger than the size of a four by five bathroom compared to her old apartment.

It was her own, and it would have been perfect.

Except for one thing.

Her loud neighbor.

She had been in the apartment for a week, and for the first day or two had enjoyed the blissful quiet. She had taken the time to dust and mop the floors, to spray lemon scented Lysol around the rooms, and even had been able to clean the countertops and the gas grill.

It was on the third day, after scouting the local tourist attractions, after taking some pictures of the local monuments that the town had, after heating up a chicken and mashed potato instant meal in the microwave and after just settling down to bed when it started. The noise.

Seulgi had seen her new neighbor once or twice, as his room was right next to the elevator that she needed to take to get downstairs. He seemed like a pretty normal guy that looked to be around her age. But holy hell he was loud.

And he wouldn’t let her sleep.

Seulgi glanced at the clock beside her bedside table and groaned at the time. 1:30, the red numbers glared back at her, and this guy was still making noise.

She understood that of course she was in an older apartment and that the walls were thin and that maybe the next-door neighbor wasn’t used to having a neighbor next to him because her room, she had heard from the landlord, had been vacant for several months.

But I mean, he knew she lived here. He had seen her making her way from the elevator to her room as he was exiting his room to make his way to the elevator. And they had made eye contact. He should, without a doubt, know that she was living in the room next to his.

But he continued to play his instruments.

She couldn’t exactly make out what he was playing, but could hear the loud noise. It sounded like an electric piano. He was also rapping. Very loudly.

Seulgi thought of herself as a kind person. And, under normal circumstances, she would be okay with the neighbor being loud next door.

But she was a freelance photographer.

She loved being a photographer, and prided herself on the photos that she took. She was used to living in small towns, handing out her fliers with examples of her photographs, and being commissioned a couple of jobs here and there as some side money while she usually found work at a coffee shop or local library where she would make the majority of her money. When she got tired of living in a place, she quit her job, packed up her things, and found a new apartment to live in.

This new town had been no exception. Before moving into her new apartment, she had found a job at a local coffee shop, called Frappe, and on the first and second day of living at her new apartment had walked around town passing out fliers.

She had been excited when on the third day of living in her new town, she had gotten a call from a local florist shop who wanted her to take pictures of the new flowers that they had just gotten shipped in to put on their website.

Only, the photographer had wanted her to come in the morning, before the shop opened, to take the pictures.

Which meant she was waking up extra early in the morning to take pictures before her shift at Frappe.

Which was why, on the seventh day of living in her new apartment, she literally wanted to kill her neighbor. Because she usually was a cheerful person if she had enough sleep.

But thanks to her neighbor, the guy who was around her age who had glanced at her once in the hallway, she hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep for the last couple of days. Five days to be exact.

She was exhausted and crabby.

She pulled her covers more tightly around her closed her eyes and had her eyes closed exactly two minutes before the music and the rapping started again.  

She was out of bed and out of her apartment before she even had time to think and then she was pacing outside his apartment door.

She didn’t like confrontation. Her brother said that she at times could be the least confrontational person he ever met. She hated people being upset by her or by her actions.

She was thinking that maybe she could just knock on his door and nicely explain to him that she could hear his music and rapping through he walls….and what was she thinking?

This was definitely going to lead to a confrontation for sure and really this dude, who she had seen only once, kind of deserved it for being so obnoxiously loud at 1:30 at the morning, she thought to herself.

And then, with a firm resolution, she knocked on his apartment door three times, a loud knock, knock, knock.

And then she played the awful waiting game where she couldn’t decide if she should stand her ground or turn around and run back into her apartment as fast as she could.

Her hands were shaking.

She counted numbers in her head, 1, 2, 3….10, before the door opened with a loud creak and he came out into the hallway.

Seulgi looked up and was shocked.

Her neighbor was actually really attractive. He had warm brown eyes, a high-bridged nose, and messy brown hair that was just messy enough to be attractive in Seulgi’s eyes.

Seulgi suddenly felt ridiculous, standing out in the hallway in front of his door at almost two in the morning, in her shorts and slippers. And he was staring at her like she was completely crazy.

Oh right, she should probably say something.

“Um hi….” Seulgi said, waving at him like he was a person across the street and not right in front of her face. She gestured towards his apartment and then waited for him to say hi back.

He was completely silent and continued to stare at her.

“So, umm I heard something, like music coming from your apartment, and uh its almost 2 in the morning and…” she trailed off as he continued staring at her, his eyes staring at her shorts with butterflies on them before trailing up to look at her messy hair, looking unimpressed.

“And?” he said, his voice deep and rough with sleep. Or probably lack of sleep seeing as it was almost two in the morning.

Wait, this wasn’t supposed to happen. He was supposed to apologize for the noise and she was supposed to go back into her apartment and into blissful sleep. “Um, I can hear you rapping in your room too and it’s getting really—" 

“Do you always eavesdrop on your neighbors?” he said, cutting her off.

“What-“she spluttered, “No---I wasn’t---no----the walls are super thin!”

His eyebrow raised as he looked at her. “That seems like an issue for the landlord” Then, he turned around, walked back into his apartment, and closed the door with a loud bang.

“You-you-you” Seulgi sputtered and for a second she saw red. “You , maybe you should think about someone other than yourself and realize it is two in the morning and-and some people are trying to freaking sleep!” she shouted towards his door.

With that, she stomped back into the apartment and slammed her door, as loud as she could. She huffed and puffed for a minute and then wanted to smack herself as she realized what she had just done. Why had she done that?

And why did that guy think it was okay to act so superior and be such a ?

Seulgi grumbled to herself as she grabbed her comforter and her pillows off her bed and brought them into the living room.

She plopped down on the couch, threw her comforter over her, and closed her eyes. No way was she going back into her bedroom and listening to him for the rest of the night. Prick.

Authors Note: Thank you for taking the time to read my first chapter! Comments and critiques are always welcomed!

Next chapter we will find out what will happen next after their first encounter.