4 years ago…

Arin and Minghao held hands when they entered the concert hall, like couples do. They were finally together.

Both of their hearts were beating fast. They were together, and they were going to see Chilli. It was wonderful and exciting and made their heart race.

Finally. When the concert began, it felt like magic.

It was like Arin was being lifted into a supernatural realm. The magic coursed through her body, and it was transforming her, elevating her, kneading her body and soul into one. Arin would sing and yell the fanchant at the top of her lungs. “Choi Seungcheul. Jeon Wonwoo. Kim Mingyu. Choi Hansol.”

She could see them up close with her binoculars. How they danced and how they moved. How the sweat formed on their bows. How their outfits accentuated their perfect features. How they smiled when they heard their names.

She loved screaming out their names.

She started to cry when it came time for S.Coups solo part, so much so that the tears blurred her binoculars. She just loved him so much. She wanted to scream his name and make him feel that love. She wiped her eyes and used her hands to project her voice so that he could feel that love.

“Choi Seungcheol!”

Within seconds, the curse took its first victim.

-

Arin was rushing down the stairs to clean the lobby when she heard Chilli music coming from the apartment on the eighth floor. She stopped and listened, a little surprised to know that the tenant listened to Chilli. He seemed like the kind of person that hated idol groups and only listened to obscure indie music or something.

Like any fangirl, she was happy to hear her favorite group being appreciated by others. It made her happy. She put down her cleaning equipment and just stood there, listening.

Unfortunately for her, that was exactly when the tenant decided to open the door.

Arin froze when she saw him.

It looked like he expected her.

“It’s you,” the tenant said, crossing his arms and leaning casually against the door frame. “The clumsy hostage named Arin that freaks out every time she sees me. Are you going to run away again?”

“I…” Arin didn’t know what to say, so she just began picking at the skin around her nails again.

“That’s a bad habit,” he said, pointing with his chin at her hands. “Find a new coping mechanism that doesn’t hurt your body.”

Arin felt self-conscious and dropped her hands to the side. Her eyes were glued to the floor.

“Well… what are you waiting for? Run away. Won’t your big bad rude boss yell at you if he sees you?”

Arin hesitated and then quickly bent to pick up her bucket of cleaning equipment to flee. Her nerves made her drop the bucket, and the supplies in it scattered.

She immediately began collecting them again, not daring to look up and see him laugh at her, but instead he knelt down and helped her put the things back in her bucket.

“Thank you,” she managed to tell him, bowing slightly, eyes still glued to the floor.

“Why do you let people control you?” he suddenly asked before she had the chance to turn and continue down the stairs. “Your boss is an absolute , and your long-haired roommate with a knife is acting like some over-protective mom with trust issues. Even Meemo seems to have a way of manipulating you, and she’s a cat for crying out loud! You’re too easy.”

What resonated the most with Arin from what the guy was saying is how he said “Meemo.” The fact he remembered her cat’s name after she just said it in front of him once just made him seem so… friendly. And it wasn’t just his use of her cat’s name, but her own name as well. Something about saying names made people so much more approachable.

She shook herself out of her thoughts and decided it was time to run away. She already had positive feelings for this person. If she learned his name, it’s probably over for him.

“I’m manipulating you too, you know,” the guy continued before she could. “I’m keeping you here. I used Chilli music to lure you. I knew you liked them from the posters on your wall, and so played their music so you could hear it from outside. I like Chilli too, by the way. I listen to them all the time. Too bad what happened to the leader, though. That was like a national tragedy back then: leader of popular idol group chokes on stage before thousands of fans. I can’t imagine how the fans that were actually there watching the concert felt. Must be terrible to see someone you love so much suffer and die like that before your very eyes…”

The more he spoke the more crushed Arin felt. As he spoke, she stopped listening and turned her back toward him, rushing down the stairs to escape him until he was out of sight. It was like he was taking a cold, sharp knife and piercing it through her heart. The flashbacks that replayed in her head made her whole body tremble, and at one point as she trudged down the stairs, she could no longer move. In the middle of her course, her legs gave out, and she collapsed on the stairs.

It was the sound of the cleaning supplies crashing loudly on the stairs that the eighth floor tenant probably heard, for before long, he had rushed down to where she was and witnessed her reaction. Her body was shaking, and she sat on a stair, face buried in her knees, trying to calm down.

“You were there, weren’t you?” the guy said softly, standing on the stair below where she was sitting.

Arin wished he would just disappear. She now associated his voice with the unspeakable, morbid thing that he recalled so carelessly.

As if God had heard her wish, Jeonghan appeared.

“What’s going on here?” Jeonghan yelled from above them.

“I’m pestering Arin,” the guy said. “I’ll leave now… bye Arin”

Arin heard his footsteps go up again, which was such a relief, because even Jeonghan’s raging, contemptuous yells were more welcome than any recollection of what happened that night at the concert.

“Hey Missy,” Jeonghan hissed at her loudly, going down to her. “Get up and get to work! What’s wrong with you? Why are you shaking like that?”

It took Arin many seconds to get herself together and face her boss. She was still shaken, but she was able to block the distressing memory enough to function again.

“What did the guy do to you?” Jeonghan asked, a frown appearing on his face.

“I’m okay,” Arin managed to say. Jeonghan did not look convinced. He crossed his arms and looked downward. Arin followed his line of vision and saw blood forming around the fingernails of moth her thumbs. She was picking at her nails so hard, and she didn’t even notice it.

“Go clean and bandage your fingers. I don’t want your nasty blood all over the place,” he waved his hand to dismiss her. “Do your chores later this afternoon. And if the guy bothers you again, report it to me.”

With that, he went began picking up the scattered cleaning supplies. Arin stood up to take it from him, but he frowned.

“What did I tell you? Go clean your nasty fingers!” he hissed.

Arin nodded and went up to her home in the roof, still shaken and a little confused.

Jeonghan was acting strange, she thought. She could almost swear that she heard concern for her in his voice, not just the usual disdain and insults. And the fact he was blaming the tenant for what had happened and not her like she expected.

Whatever it was, Arin was glad for it. It gave her something to think about besides that unspeakable event.

When she was home, ~ helped her bandage her fingers and scolded her for not paying attention to the harm she was inflicting on her own body on account of her anxiety.

“You need to learn to control it, Ar,” ~ told her as she helped clean the blood. “And when you see this tenant, don’t let him keep talking to you. I know his type, okay? He’s a flirt who thinks he can control the help and get them to bend at his well. He’s manipulative and doesn’t give up no matter how clear you made it that you don’t want to talk to him. The worst type of man.”

Arin nodded. She never thought she would miss the old, smelly tenant, but she did. At least the smelly guy had boundaries and never pushed them. At least he left her alone.

This guy, however, would not leave her alone. Even after everything that happened, and after Arin was determined to stop thinking and worrying about him, he was back within the hour. This time, he reappeared in a letter that he slid under her door.

Hey Arin,

Gosh, I really hope that your pesky roommate/friend/mom/whatever-her-name-is doesn’t see this letter before you do because to be honest, I kind of fear for my life from her!

Anyways, I’m writing to apologize to you. What I said was really insensitive and I can see that I hurt you, and that was never my intention. Look, I’m not a bad guy. Honest. But if you don’t want me to talk to you, just say the word and I won’t. Just text me on the number [######] and let me know. I promise to respect your wishes.

Anyways, I’m sorry again. I truly am.

Your neighbor,
Woozi

A/N: stream Love Me ;)