Chapter 2: Ahjussi

Yuna growled under her sheets angrily, covering her ears with her pillow as she tried to block out the irritating sound that was coming from the other house. Her neighbor had been playing his electric guitar for four hours non-stop, and he was disturbing her sleep. She gave up trying to sleep, sitting up on her bed grumpily.

It had only been a week since she moved but she was already having issues with the condition of her living state. She hadn’t bumped into her neighbor ever since that day but he had been creating so much noise almost every day, disturbing her sleep time. She had knocked on his door countless of times, wanting to ask him to stop but he had never once answered the door.

Yuna stomped out of her house for the umpteenth time that week and knocked on her neighbor’s house hard.

“Ahjussi!” she shouted over the sound.

She knew he wasn’t that much older than her, but she was too furious to care. If calling him an Ahjussi would make him stop, she was glad she called him that. Right on, the guitar sound from inside stopped, and she waited for the door to open, surprised that the plan had worked for her. His head popped out, his icy cold stare immediately made her freeze.

“Ahjussi?” he asked coldly.

“Erm,” Yuna cleared , suddenly nervous about talking to him. She had forgotten how intimidating he had looked. “Yeh, Ahjussi. Can you please lower down the volume in there? It’s really killing me to hear your annoying music.”

“Yah!” he raised his voice. “I’m not an Ahjussi! How can you call me that? We’re probably the same age or so! Do I look that old?”

She smirked at his unexpected response. Was that the only thing on his mind? Did he even hear her request?

“Yah, why are you smirking like that?” he got out from his house, closing the door behind him. “Do you think this is funny? Don’t call me an Ahjussi, I’m warning you.”

He pointed his finger directly at her face, right in front of her nose. She stared down at the finger, wondering why he was so affected by it. She decided not to show him defeat and straightened up her chest boldly.

“I’ll call you whatever I want till you stop playing your guitar too loud,” she stared him up.

“Wah jinjja. I thought I told the guard I don’t want any neighbors,” he uttered to himself. He turned to glare at Yuna directly and asked, “Don’t you know what music is?”

“Ahjussi!” she shouted at the top of her lungs, which gave him a shock. “You’ve been playing for the past 4 hours, now can you give me a break?”

He blinked his eyes incessantly at Yuna’s fuming face, unsure how to react to her sudden outburst. He pouted and finally gave in, “Araso. I’ll stop disturbing you.”

He scratched his head and turned towards his room, looking back at Yuna as if she was a crazy woman. He stopped though, and added, “Just don’t call me Ahjussi again.”

“Then what do I call you?”

He stared at her, as if he was deciding whether to tell her or not. “Lee Jonghyun.”

With that, he immediately went back inside his room and shut the door to her face. Yuna stood there for a while, smiling to herself for standing up to him. It didn’t hurt too that she had found out his name in the process. Lee Jonghyun, she uttered to herself. He really was attractive, even more so up close. And he had this manly scent stuck on him that almost distracted her from speaking her mind.

She went back inside and noticed her phone vibrating. She rushed towards it, and quickly answered it.

“Appa!” she exclaimed, relieved he had called. “Appa, kenchana? How’s everything? Are you safe? Did they come after you again?”

“Kenchana,” her dad answered. His voice sounded weak and tired and she couldn’t help feeling even more worried. “I just wanted to check if you are okay.”

“Kenchana,” she answered back.

“Yuna-ah, mianhe,” he apologized. “For bringing all these problems onto you, I’m so sorry. I’m a bad father to you.”

“Appa, don’t say that. I’m not hurt in any way. Everything’s going to be fine,” she assured him, but she noticed her hands were trembling again, like how they always did.