So, is bickering a bad thing or a good thing?

I looked up the definition on google and it’s more of an annoyance so it’s a bad thing, right?

Hi, I’m Bae Yerim. An amazing 15^th year old of Bae Irene. Welcome to my life.

My mom is pretty. It’s an obvious statement like how the sky is blue or how Bae Yerim deserves bigger allowance.

 We are used to seeing a rando ask for her number, use a cringe pick up line, tell her she’s beautiful or all three. If mom and I had a nickel for every attempt, we would be billionaires.

My mother always turns them down. She’s not interested, not looking and focusing on raising me. If I got a nickel every time, she said that as her rejection line – I would be a billionaire and not need an allowance.

Trust me, I asked if she’s ever going to date. But she uses “I gave birth to you” claim so much that I stopped asking. What’s the big deal? Is childbirth that bad?

Back to my original question, my mom has this strange beef with our new next-door neighbor. Son Seungwan.

A boyish name for this equally tomboy person…but she can bake a mean muffin and has skin that you can only be envious of. She introduced herself in the hall during her move-in day, Wendy is her preferred nickname. But my mom always uses Seungwan instead. I guess my mom prefers formal names?

I think that’s what started this funny feud.

The next strike is when Wendy knocked on our doorstep. Turned out the pizza guy was too stoned and gave the pizza to her unit instead of ours. We live across each other so the guy must have some quality buzz to mess that up.

So, after some small talk – Wendy was an old classmate of mom! Cool story as in I legit wanted to know the younger days of Bae Irene.

I guess my mom didn’t remember till Wendy mentioned it. Fair enough, my mom forgets and panic searches for the keys…. while the keys are in her hand.

It was a mistake to ask for stories because Wendy had tons. I was dying from cackling so hard. I got abs for 3 days from how hard I laughed.

My mother was red as the pepperoni on the pizza. Her right eyebrow was twitching so it definitely wasn’t out of bashfulness. I usually try to run away when her eyebrow does that. It usually means I’m in trouble.

Then, I guess this is when their bickering started. I lost track of time but I gave up watching them have an animated endless conv on the past and present so I went to the kitchen to nom on the Italian masterpiece.

I think they went at it for a few hours but who cares since pizza was here.

It is funny to watch though. I don’t need to watch my dramas when I can watch my mom and my neighbor go at it.

After that moment, it became a back and forth battle where they were ALWAYS trying to get the last word. Like some of us (me) has lives to suffer through.

A remark here. A sniping statement there. And always palpable tension while engaging in these weird “small talk” convs but they sounded like passive aggressive compliments.

Anyway, my mom has been moody since Seungwan hasn’t been engaging in those usual fighting sessions with her. Maybe Seungwan is even avoiding my mom? Granted, my mom is quite scary looking as she is pretty.

One time, a poor cashier was absolutely quaking from the “glare”. The “glare” usually means she didn’t get enough sleep that day.

I thought my mother didn’t like Seungwan so why is she being cranky?

Wendy does have pretty friends who visits her. There’s this tall one that comes by a lot. She looks like a model and can be frankly described as “legs”.

 My 5 feet 3 inches could never. It must be nice to reach the top grocery shelf without a step stool.

My mom must think she’s as bad as Wendy from how she glares at her. Doesn’t help that Ms. Legs give this eating smirk at my mom. Let me in on the secret, ma’am.

Currently, my mom saw our elusive neighbor after days of not seeing her. Then she ran out (like sprinted) and told me she’ll be back? It’s been 2 hours and I can still hear their bickering from the inside our apartment. Man, those two can get loud. It’s like they never heard of volume control.

I guess I prefer their bickering over the weird awkward silences recently. I wonder what’s going on between those two where they have to bicker 24/7. 

Adults are strange. Thank god I’m not one yet.