Chapter 1>

Bae Joohyun has been looking forward to living on her own since coming of age and was lucky to find a cosy apartment in Samcheong-dong, a place filled with outgoing neighbours and the best local cuisine.

But in recent years, her parents have been urging her to find a man to settle down and there would never a day that they would not emphasis on her marital status, not wanting to deal with any of this, Joohyun decided to just moved out.

Besides, she’s twenty-eight now; a time for her to be less dependent on her parents.

It was through an ad in the newspaper she was reading at tea break that caught her attention and even met up with the landlord in less than seventy-two hours, the other party stated that he has been waiting for a tenant for almost three months now but nobody replied to it until now.

Not wanting to waste too much time at hand, she signed the papers, though initially, she was terrified of hearing stories that were told to her about houses being kept empty for a period of time but thankfully, nothing seemed unusual.

Within a blink of an eye, she was now standing at the lobby of the building, the movers were unloading most of her stuffs from the truck, it was mid-afternoon on a Friday with the sun shining brightly above her.

Living with her parents does have its pros and cons but nothing beats the greatness of living alone, a mover probably in his early-forties then broke her thoughts as he stood beside her abruptly “Sorry Ms. Joohyun but which floor should I bring it up to?”

She almost tripped over her footing from the way he crept over “Erm… to the twenty-first floor, the first unit on the left as soon as you walked out of the lift.”

The man scuffed his dirty goatee, nodded briefly before adjusting the box in his arms and made his way inside.

The rest of his workers followed suit and it was then, she heard chatters coming behind her.

“Oh look, we have a new neighbour moving in today.”

“Haven’t heard of anyone moving out recently, could it be Mr. Han’s old unit?”

The high-pitched voice shrilled in excitement “Finally!  And who knows, she could be the one, who could get through to that tenant in apartment 2102?”

“Oh please, we could get along with her too, if she wasn’t playing her cello that wretchedly.” Another voice joined in.

But little did they know; this gossip was enough to bring the cat out of Joohyun’s bag.

It has been days since she moved in, things were slowly settling in well, saved for her folks knocking on her door, almost every single day.

“We should move this tea table of yours; it’s blocking the pathway to your room.” Her dad grumbled as he pushed it with his knees.

“Darling…” Her mum stepped right in while ignoring the grumpiness written all over Joohyun’s face “Are you sure yellow and orange wallpapers are good for your eyes?  Not to mention, the colours barely compromised your other furniture.”

Her dad then added “You should have gotten something smaller in size for your bookshelves; look at how the top were scraping off the paints on your ceiling.”

Okay, her head was staring to hurt with their chatters “Mum, dad, in case you have forgotten, this is my apartment and I deemed fit to where my things should go.”

Assumingly that was a frown on her mum’s face and her father’s grumble under his breath “Fine, your apartment, we couldn’t be bothered much but just to let you know, this has gone out of our plan when we hinted very clearly that you should find a good-looking young man to settle down.”

Not this again, how many times had she reminded them that she wasn’t interested in finding anyone at the current moment? “And so do I, to which I have hinted a million times I’m not interested, so now, coffees, anyone?”

Without waiting for their responses, Joohyun got to her feet but the unsettling music in the distance halted her footsteps “Strange, did somebody in your neighbourhood just passed away?” Her mum asked, eyes wondering.

A few days later on a Sunday afternoon; Joohyun was writing her new book when she caught the same music piece entering her room, abandoning her pen to the side, she moved away from her chair and stood closer to the windows.

From there, she could vaguely hear the sound of cello playing, could it be her mysterious neighbour that everyone was talking about?

Just a couple of days ago, a group of elder women who took the same lift as her had unintentionally brought up the topic.

“I was watering my plants when I looked over that corridor and saw that young lady from apartment 2102 walking out.”

That stole everyone’s attention including hers “Really?  How does she look like?”

“Short dark locks with sharp jaws but she was wearing a cap, I didn’t really saw her entire face, though she does seem pretty, just a little scruffy on the side.”

“Could she be the one playing the cello every day?”

“I wasn’t able to see her calloused fingers but I’m sure she was the one, making those unsettling music.”

“Pity for a young lady like her, if only she doesn’t coop in her apartment the entire day, I would love to introduce her to my nephew but I heard from others, they said the poor child’s living on her own.”

Lost in her thoughts, the music suddenly stopped, the sadness that accompanied it had disappeared, leaving behind the trail of tears to the silence.

Trying her hardest to pick up for any sounds, Joohyun almost lose her footing