Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

(Warning ⚠️: Lowkey and slightly suggestive in the second part if you're down bad but come on now, you're a sanzu simp, I'm not surprised ☠️☠️)

It's not going to be that bad.

That's what you thought after moving into Tokyo. As much as how you love being a country bumpkin, living that peaceful and minimalist life, there will be no choice for you to finally travel away from the countryside.

Loving something so much isn't enough.

Even a bird will finally fly out of its nest. Depends if the mom kicks it out of it and forces it to fly, even if they weren't confident enough in what they're doing.

That's exactly what you're doing now. Probably you can say your old and exhausted mom kicked you out of your home and is always convincing you to study properly and get good grades so that you can finally get out of this 'miserable village'.

But that was never the case.

You love where you're from and you will always say, you're proud, even if people will look down on your roots, deeming that you're from somewhere uneducated or uncivilised. The environment, your childhood friends and all the loving elderly there, home feels like home to you indeed, and you do feel belong.

And still, despite that, your mother does have a point. There's no future for you in your hometown. Cosmetic scientists don't have a place there. It's like the countryside is telling you that you don't belong there anymore.

Like it's shoving you to move to the city. It is all new for you, the city culture, I mean.

Even back when you're still studying, you got to enrol in a uni near your hometown, so it just felt as if you never moved that far and not to forget to mention how you go back home every weekend, so it doesn't feel like campus life that much.

So here you are, in Tokyo.

You still remember the day when you're at the airport, you and all your friends cried like crazy and were causing a commotion. Yeah, you can say you and your friends are drama queens but it's a rare occasion for one of the people in your friend group to be apart. The rest of them got their employment near your hometown but you're just the only one that's misfortunate.

And also, you were wailing like hell when you're about to say goodbye to your mom. She didn't cry though, and kept on with her tough exterior. You know that she acts all cold hearted and strict, but when in reality, she's going to cry herself to sleep, knowing that she doesn't need to cook for two the next morning and also the laundry will be less than it was before, right after that day.

You still cried when you entered the aeroplane. The nervousness was crazy. It's a time where you have to be fully independent and none of your friends or your mom is there to help. You're on your own.

Fully on your own.

It wasn't even starting yet but you already felt the loneliness crept up in you.

To stay safe, to be particular about your budget, to pay rent and taxes, to be disciplined or even giving good quality work, all of that will be fully dependent on what you do. As much as you're already 23 years-old and supposedly you are labelled as an adult since 5 years ago, you certainly feel that you're never ready to enter adulthood or even feel like you are one from the first place.

Your life in your hometown was easy. Everything and everyone has your back and they give a helping hand whenever you're in difficulties. All of them have each other's backs in general. It was full security for you indeed.

But things are different now in Tokyo.

All you have to do is just live when you're in your hometown. But now you're forced to survive.

Survive.

That's the painful reality of the bustling city. Never in your life will you ever try to romanticise the city life, because you know how the label "Paper Town" that describes the city is true. No one is genuine or nice there, in the end most of the people just want to take advantage of each other.

Probably because you never liked a place where there's countless people living in it and for sure, most of them were just going to be strangers to you and you are also like that to them too.

It wasn't like that in the countryside, everyone cared for one another and knew each other's name, it's like living in a place where everyone is just a member of a big family, that's how you always cherish your relationship with them the most. The bonding feels real and genuine.

You can't say that everyone is nice there and there will be times where some of them are crossing the line or overstepping boundaries, bugging the shit out of others, don't even get yourself started with the unnecessary gossiping but still, it's a flaw that you're used to.

Nevertheless, people there cared about you.

But here...no one does. No one knows your name. No one wants to care what you do. No one wants anything to do with you.

That's the reality of it. Living in the city is lonely. Even if there are almost thousands of people walking past you, the loneliness just gets even more intense and how small you will feel by it. And you never experience a life where you truly need to be all alone and rely on yourself fully. Basically, it describes how insignificant your existence is when it comes to the city.

Especially with your life from elementary till college, you're hanging out and befriending the same people and going everywhere with them. Of course, it felt bizarre to not have their presence anymore, especially when you're so used to it.

It felt like a part of you got taken away. That's how painful it was.

So you don't care if people are looking at you confused when your eyes are bloodshot red and your nose is stuffy as hell. There's no damns to give at this point, you really are just so sad and starting to miss everybody that you care about.

The urge to get off the plane and go back to your friends was so strong. Giving up seems so easy and makes you feel better indeed.

It's always like that. When you applied for the job, you didn't think about it so deeply and went on with it, saying that you want to 'challenge' yourself. Working in the city and living alone is difficult. So you wanted to have something difficult in your life and test your capabilities, basically drunk of the desire of wanting to try something new.

You know, it's kind of stupid to be so inspired with the quote, "You never know how strong you are, unless you get yourself out there," Of course that cheesy sentence is from an anime or movie. Like they can say that, because the writer has already determined success and good things for them.

But your story? You have no idea where it's going or how it's going to end. The uncertainties sure were about to drive you mad and make your anxiety reach to a mount everest level.

There's just this one moment, where you got accepted and passed your online interview, that was when reality hit you like a sledgehammer in the head.

Fuck.

You're going to make a living in the city.

Years will pass and you will be assimilated with the city culture and lifestyle and you'll start to forget what it is like to be a humble country bumpkin.

You'll be a city girl. How that word gives you the ick.

Maybe, that's too much of you to say it like that. You will get angry when people insult country people, but yet you're doing the same to city people. Sometimes you just can't control what you feel you know and this biases could be because of your upbringing, but you don't want to use it as an excuse.

You know what people usually say, you can't control what you think and sometimes it's fine to leave it in your head. As long as you don't say it out loud, it will be okay.

And then, there goes you, getting out of the aeroplane and moving your way to ride a taxi. Starting to get yourself to your apartment building , that was named AH Villa.

When you're doing your research and surveying all the apartment buildings near your working place radar, the best choice you have was AH Villa. It was bad luck indeed for you because your working place is in a secluded area and there's lots of roads and obstacles you have to go through.

AH Villa was 20 minutes away from your working place, it was still quite bad if you were being honest, because you never counted the time taken from the traffic jam that'll be happening.

Plus, you wanted to cry over the fact that your rent is 70,000¥ and the food was also expensive. It could be that your salary is too little to compensate for all of your expenses. This doesn't count yet with your transport expenses, food and some sudden necessities that you need in your house. At this point, you have to get yourself a part-time job for you to pay all of those.

Your job is probably not enough to support you. Especially when your only work experience is from your internship, you know for sure that your salary is going to be little, that the company for sure will make you become a free labour if they had the choice to do so.

This was going to drive you mad.

You have no need to worry when you are studying because you got a scholarship and the money sure is enough to cover your expenses. But getting it was not easy indeed, you studied like hell to deserve it and your life sure was easen with it.

But now, working means that it's not just about the fact that you get to do what you love or are passionate about (do you even like what you do anyways? Guess, you're just gaslighting yourself to like it), you're doing it for money to live. Correction, survive.

Life is so difficult indeed. You sometimes wish you're in elementary school again and not care about everything in this world. All you'll be doing is stay happy and have fun with friends.

As you reach AH villa and register, you finally get to move your way to the elevator after all that exhaustion to carry your 8 heavy bags to your apartment, which is unfortunately on the 37th floor.

You have no choice but to go back and forth. You might as well just get nauseous from constantly getting onto the elevator many times.

You first pulled your lightest luggage and carried your handbag over your shoulder. You're starting off with the easiest ones first, so you can save up the energy for the heavy ones later.

As you entered the elevator that was vacant, you put your luggage to your right and rested your handbag on top of it, pressing number 37 on the buttons and went on to shut the door.

But suddenly, a hand was stopping it from closing. There you saw slender fingers were gripping the door tightly that it turned white. It was like a scene from a thriller movie, where the psychotic character chased after the victim that ran to the elevator.

That's a worst nightmare that anyone can have indeed. Elevators sure are a way to escape but once you're stuck with the killer in it, you know that it'll turn into a trap instead and end up as the place for the victim to die.

But in this case, you don't feel scared, you were just feeling guilty for being too selfish and quickly thinking that there was no one else that's about to enter.

Guess assumptions are bad all along. No, they always have been from your experience.

Because the consequences will be hurting others.

So quickly without a doubt, you open back the elevator door and the moment the door slowly opens to reveal a certain someone, that's when you realise that it wasn't only the door that stopped.

It was also your breathing.

You know, the term, "breathtaking", like how people would like to exaggerate about a beautiful and splendid scenery, that's exactly what you're experiencing right now. But this time, your view is a human being. A man that somehow God favours so much that He took the time and meticulousness to craft him.

There's no specific attractive trait on him as he is just perfect from head to toe. His blue ocean eyes that asked you to be drowned in them, his bright pink mullet hair as the bangs  were mostly swept to the left, the two black coloured piercings on his helix and the other two on his lobule, his beige coloured sweatshirt that seemed to be oversized that it covers his palms, leaving just little of his fingers sticking out that was holding onto a plastic bag, his skinny ripped jeans that was blue black and his dark brown sneakers that remind of you of the colour of dark chocolate.

This is so humiliating.

How much that this man that was so mesmerising to you seems to not be taking any effort to dress himself up or make himself look good. His style was just effortless, he was just grabbing anything that he can get from the closet and rushed his way to buy food outside of this apartment building.

There's no way you want to admit this to him. This will boost his ego indeed, on how he succeeded in getting your attention without even intentionally trying. That just means that he is just naturally charming and attractive that you (accidentally) drew yourself to him.

Dear God.

There's no way you're attracted to a city boy. No way in hell. The boys that your friends dated in the countryside were mostly horrendous and you absolutely have no clue on how someone can be so horrible without even trying. They're basically red flags that are granted with feet to walk around and trample on others so that they can take advantage of others. They find that shit pleasurable.

And don't get me started with these city boys. If the countryside boys did it, then city boys had done it way worse.

Cheating. Manipulation. Narcissism. Objectification. The Toxic Masculinity.

You can just say one word that's negative about city boys and others will already understand what you're implying about the exact fuckery they will be doing. You will not want to get involved with all of that.

That will just mean you're stepping into a devil's den. Setting yourself up as if you don't know what you have gotten yourself into. And you shouldn't whine or cry about it because you know what the consequences will be.

So as easy as it sounds, you ignored him.

Correction, you tried to ignore him as much as you can. It was so difficult to get your eyes off of him and as much as you tried to resist, you will end up looking at him again.

You just made a few quick glances on him, it's not harmful or obvious. He definitely wouldn't notice it. Some people even boldly will stare at him like he's a damn sculpture, so you will say that you're proud of yourself for having self-control (pretty sure it's not but you do you).

You were at the left side of the elevator, leaning against the mirror with your humongous luggage at your right. The beautiful man was standing at the right side of the elevator.

Basically to say that you two are sandwiching your luggage.

Yeah.

As much as you two are distanced from your own luggage, you do feel as if it was close. Especially when you have to hold on to your luggage handle since the luggage is not stable anymore as one of the tires was quite loose and also your handbag on top of it wasn't making things easier, so you have your hands rest on top of it.

And if you were to look at your hand on the luggage, you will automatically see his left hand that was gripping onto his plastic bag tightly.

Lord.

There's no way you will ever want to admit that you wish he's gripping on your hand instead of that plastic bag. That son of a bitch of a plastic bag sure is lucky. Never in your life have you ever wished to be reincarnated into one.

But seriously, you want to hit your head on the elevator mirror to the point a crack forms on it, you can't believe you are having such embarrassing thoughts of a stranger that was innocently buying stuff from the department store.

Literally, let the guy live on with his life normally, why the hell are you acting as if you've never seen such a beautiful guy before?

It was conflicting indeed.

A part of you was on cloud nine and if you like to exaggerate, you will definitely have saxophone music as your background music and have a flowery background, to emphasise how mad this moment is making you.

Then, there's this part of you that was trying to fight that feeling away. Imagine yourself in full knight armour with a sword and shield, trying to attack back the opponent which is your infatuation, that is now can be labelled as severe.

It's funny how you're panicking inside and fighting every emotion that you're feeling right now while he was just calm beside you and busy scrolling through his phone, definitely not caring about your very existence.

This can't be real.

You have no clue who the hell is this guy, what's his name, his job, his personality, his voice or if he showers with only water and doesn't use soap. Easy to say, you know zero about him but why is your heart calling for him so much and encouraging you to "go for it"?

There's no such thing as it or you want nothing to do with that guy.

Mysterious people scare you the most. Your trust issues should be stronger than your stupidity, if it's not, you will end up doing something that you regret later on.

And thank god, you didn't make a move on him or anything. You let him be. Let him mind his own business, even if you're still looking at him from time to time.

You know it will turn out bad. There's no way love at first sight works or being attracted to a stranger is deemed to be a good thing. That's not love, that's just infatuation and attraction, it'll pass later on.

And you know one worst thing that will turn out in the relationship is liking the idea of someone. You may not have any experience, but you see it from your colleagues, most of them kept on going in and out of relationships.

They just kept on repeating the same cycle over and over again.

They saw someone cute. They ask for their number. They go on to keep in touch for 2 weeks and then they agree to go on their first date. Then the dates turn into multiple ones. Then they kiss. Then they kept on believing that they're the 'one' or their soulmate. And then they move in together.

And everything was all happy and perfect, until they had the first fight and miscommunication. And then their true colours start to appear. Then the relationship starts to get toxic as arguments are way more than expressing romantic sentences to each other. Then probably one of them starts to cheat and gaslighting comes to ruin the day even more. And then they break up.

It's like the same fucking sequence. Over and over again. At this point, relationships these days feel like a document template, everyone is just copying back everything and they just replace their names in it.

They know how it's going to end up, but yet they still have hope saying that this time will be different even if their past lovers are basically just a carbon copy of the current one.

Like we always knew, people today are so smart and know how to differentiate what's good or bad easily, but yet they don't listen and continue to be stubborn. And that's what makes them look so dumb.

So of course, no. You are going to just ignore this random beautiful guy that you will probably never see again. This apartment building has 50 floors anyway, there's so many people in this place that you bet you will ever see him again the second time.

After that tortuous journey in the elevator, a 'ding' sound finally came out of the elevator and the number indicator showed the number '37' which is the floor that you will be living in, just as you were about to pull your luggage out of the elevator, and you also hand your handbag onto your right shoulder.

You were about to get yourself out but something had made you frozen in your spot.

The elevator buttons.

None of them are lightened up by the red colour light.

All of them stayed dim with the light grey colour encircling every button.

No.

It can't be that...

Just as you were in pause mode, the beautiful guy rushed his way out of the elevator first.

Oh god.

No.

This might be a good thing for someone that wants to be involved with him but you want nothing to do with that. You expected him to be a random stranger that you will forget about later on, because you know that if he's near your radar, you'll be distracted all the damn time indeed, like you will definitely not stop thinking about him.

But fate is not helping you right now. You just wanted to work in Tokyo peacefully....why does it have to be like this? Why him out of all people? Why can't God make him look unattractive in your eyes? Why just why?

Okay.

You try to get your mind elsewhere. Maybe it's not that bad, he's just on the same floor as you. There'll be multiple rooms on each floor and his apartment room is probably far away from yours.

So the worst thing that can happen is that you two see each other in the elevator, which you highly doubt to happen frequently. It couldn't be that often, it probably happens once in 3 months maybe and you'll just randomly remember how you're infatuated by him and then the same cycle went on again, you forgetting what it felt again because you rarely saw him anyways.

So you convinced yourself to not give up easily and calm down. You shouldn't think of this as a bad thing. It could be he's just there to give a slight motivation for you to keep on living in this damn city. At least, on a day where you feel there's no hope and it's just straight up gloomy, you have him as something good that happened to you here.

You weren't thinking much.

So you went your way to find your apartment number.

330.

The first apartment door on your right was 301 and as you moved your eyes to the left side, then you saw 330.

Oh. So your apartment room is near the elevator. How great. You don't know if this should be a good or a bad thing. Well, as long as people don't make much noise when they're passing by your apartment,that will be just fine.

So you assumed quickly, that the beautiful guy will have his room far away from yours. Which is good. The farther he goes, the better you will feel.

There's no way in hell he's your neighbour, right?

That sounds too good to be true.

God.

Good?

Don't you want him to be far away from you?

Why all of the sudden that you feel sad that this is going to be the last time you're seeing him?

This is way more complicated than your whole degree in cosmetic science. It's like you're pushing and pulling onto him. You're indecisive in which feeling that you truly feel about him.

When he's far away, you might feel sad and not want him to go.

When he's near, you might just feel annoyed and want him to stay away.

What is wrong with this stranger?

He barely notices your existence and yet he's now taking a toll out of you. This is humiliating indeed.

Is it a logical reason to go back to your hometown because you have turned into a down bad person for someone you have zero knowledge about?

Good God. You need help. Maybe it's just that you need to repent to God and apologise to Him,  maybe these undeniably wrongful feelings will go away.

You pulled your luggage, adjusted the handbag on your shoulder and walked yourself to your apartment door. And as you finally stood in front of it, you let go of the handle of your luggage and let it rest by your right side.

You started roaming for your wallet inside your handbag, you have no place safer to put your apartment keys, other than in your wallet.

Your wallet is sacred indeed. If you lose it, you definitely lose almost everything, your debit and credit cards, some cash that you transacted, receipts that you don't know if it's important or not, some cents that you probably need to use in the future and then your apartment keys.

Like I said, it's doomsday if you lose your wallet. You have no idea it's a good idea to put almost all your essentials in one place, but putting them in multiple different places is not helping either and you will misplace it any moment. So you hope this is the right decision to make.

As you finally found your wallet, you took it out of your handbag and as you were about to unzip it, you felt something uneasy that was happening right in front of you.

There's this familiar figure that was standing in the other apartment room.

The colours seem to be in a blur but you know that those colour combinations seem to be familiar to you and remind you of someone.

Wait...

Where did that beautiful man go?

Just as you have that question in your head, you snapped your neck towards that figure's direction. And you can't control yourself from widening your eyes out of shock and thank goodness, you didn't let out a gasp, if not....he will have noticed it.

Oh no.

No. No. No.

Why does your life have to be like this?

Why him...out of all people, dear god...

Why out of all the apartment rooms that he can live in...he chose 329?

Why? Just why?

You wanted to scream out of frustration.

It was funny to see how you're internally panicking and all over him while he was just busy minding his own business.

Your presence is not just unfaltering to him, he doesn't seem to be bothered at all. You were just as invisible as everyone else is around him.

How humiliating.

You are self aware that you're unattractive and will never look as enchanting as he is. You know your damn place and there's no such thing as chances for you to be with him anyways. It's like being straight up delusional, that's how you're defining your actions right now.

You really do desperately want these infatuated feelings to go away but...it would help if he's not near your radar, right?

But it's definitely no use when he's literally switched from a random stranger in the elevator to your fucking neighbour.

Life couldn't get any worse now, is it?

You quickly stopped looking at him and went onto focus on what you're actually supposed to be doing. There's more stuff that you need to carry from the first floor. Basically this is just the first round and you have multiple rounds of going up and down to carry all your stuff.

As you finally found your key in your wallet, you heard the sound of a door closing shut.

Oh. He must have already gone inside his apartment.

Thank goodness.

Guess now you can continue to focus on cleaning your apartment and getting ready to start a living. Tomorrow is a Sunday, so you have at least a day to loosen up and calm your nerves before you will be starting your first day at work.

But you can say, you were less nervous now. You have done your internship anyways and which was way more nerve wracking than this. Surprisingly you have gotten lucky to continue on working at the place you have interned so it wouldn't be much of a problem.

Some of the workers there are people that you have known from your internship and you can say you are very lucky to have nice people around you and they aren't expectedly toxic as most people will say about their internship experience (you were talking about the other interns though and not the seniors).

Well during that internship period, you lived with your aunt that lives nearby the place and for now, you decided to be more independent and not be over reliant with her, even if she has offered for you to stay at her place again, you refused to do so and especially you know damn well that her husband will get uncomfortable at times when you're there.

So now, you really are on your own. It is time for you to do everything by yourself. How long are you going to just keep on depending on others? This is a fresh start and although you sure don't want to get overly enthusiastic out of all this and have high expectations on everything. You know, expect disappointment to not get disappointed, that's how life will always be.

Always expect the worst.

Just exactly how you thought of the guy beside your apartment room, you and him sure will be impossible. The only thing that will happen is just you being deluded.

So you went on to unlock your apartment door and start to put your luggage inside.

Things are fine. Your new apartment sure looks comfortable and clean. The furniture will arrive in a few hours and you're excited about that too.

You planned on settling the stuff that is still downstairs first and bringing them up, before you focus on cleaning more sections of the apartment.

When entering it, you felt a surreal feeling inside of you. Like there were butterflies in your stomach. You were nervous honestly speaking.

If you want to explain the reason, you can list out a bunch of things. You were sure that you will be so culture shock with the city people and feel mostly uncomfortable with them.

It's different with your internship, the interns that you work with are nice and they came from different types of backgrounds and most of them are the same as you, not having any idea what you're doing if you were being honest.

But it's heartwarming to know you found people just the same as you are. Not knowing a damn thing and still learning, it doesn't make you feel alone.

But now, you're the only intern that has gotten to continue working there and that means you're mostly surrounded with people that have way more experience than you have. To be honest, you were not that close with the seniors and preferred to mingle with the interns, at least they're on the same par as you.

And there was the time when you decided to go get a drink with some of your seniors. It sure was a traumatising experience for you.

They were just constantly shitting on everyone. Judging how they look, how they walk, how they do their work, their body measurements...it was just so horrible. The fact that they were making fun out of all your intern friends as if they have mastered perfection in life and interns are deemed as losers since they don't know what they're doing.

It's sick.

Especially when one of the disgusting men said that "Countryside bumpkins are my type... because they're definitely 'innocent'. They are wife material too, it would be nice to have someone cook and clean for me everyday."

Oh fucking hell.

What is wrong with these men?

You sure were nauseated when you heard him say that and you just couldn't stand it at that moment. It's disappointing that you couldn't get to stand up for yourself and fought his words back. All you got to do was just run from that situation.

You just made up an excuse to your seniors that you have an emergency back home and your aunt suddenly needs your help. When in reality, it was never the case, nothing was making you rush, you just don't want to breathe the same air as them anymore.

Right after that, as you arrived back home, you just couldn't control yourself anymore and cried in your aunt's arms. Saying how everything was just making you fall apart and you wish that you never agreed to go to that drink with them.

You don't understand why you're getting special treatment from them and it seems like they have no clue where your roots are. You never disclosed to them that you were also from the countryside and his words cut deep into your soul that you bet that you can never be the same anymore.

Like they always, be mindful of what you say, because words are way sharper than swords and for the least, physical wounds have certain medications that can help heal them, but those wounds on the inside? I'm telling you there are people that don't even have time to properly heal over their trauma.

Seriously.

It's so hard to be such an overthinker. Imagine being scared of uncertainties and what-ifs, how many minutes that we have taken for all of that when in reality, we actually have the time to be happy but we just never give space to it.

It's exasperating indeed. If only you never took cosmetic science and maybe just took chemistry or biochemistry, probably you'll just end up as a lecturer in your uni and you don't need to go far to leave your countryside. You can just be born and die there.

Sometimes it's difficult to be out of your comfort zone and doing things that make you uncomfortable, but you know that this is going to be worth it from the get-go. If you can survive in the worst possible type of environment then it means you can be anywhere.

After all that sudden deep thinking you're having, you knocked it off in an instant and reminded yourself that you still have countless of stuff that you need to carry into your apartment room.

Maybe preparing and cleaning your apartment can loosen your overwhelmed thoughts a little bit. At least, it could be just some sort of escapism. Even if you doubt that it will work, you'll just try to distract yourself.

You went on to leave your handbag on top of your luggage and shoved your keys into your pocket.

Letting out a small sigh, already knowing that you'll be having a good night's sleep for tonight,  considering how tiring all of this will be.

You went your way to the door and twisted the doorknob, ready to exit out of your room.

But something has halted you as you open the door.

Not something actually but someone. Well, it's not just someone because there's two unknown people right in front of your door.

"Good evening, miss."

You were in shock. Speechless of the sudden presence of two unfamiliar people in front of your door, who were wearing formal attire and what's more surprising is that the things that they're holding.

You thought you were hallucinating and probably out of your damn mind.

But you see it so clearly.

It can't be accidental or coincidental as the moment seemed to fit perfectly.

Right.

Your stuff.

They were holding your fucking stuff.

How the hell can this even happen?

This is just crazy.

You never asked for anyone or the workers to bring your stuff upstairs for you. You thought you could handle it on your own and manage it yourself.

Of course, you knew there will be an usher service but you know, as someone from the countryside, you think about your expenses all the damn time. And there's no way you want to pay extra for usher service as living here was already costly.

Paying for the apartment was already making you shed tears as you believe that if you want things to settle fast, you should've just sold your organs instead. That's how expensive living in the city is dear God.

And now...there's suddenly ushers helping you carry your stuff and magically they know each of your stuff without mistaking anyone else's. Is this really just coincidental?

And why are they doing this?

Is this their way to leech off money from you?

By forcing service on you?

Wow. That's so unprofessional.

You might as well blow a gasket at any moment now.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't pay for usher service," You said bluntly and ignored the man's greeting just now. Even if you realise that you're rude to not even greet him back, you have no time to think what's courteous or not.

You're infuriated so you can't help but hold an annoyed expression.

The guy only let out a sigh calmly and tried to explain,"Yes, we know miss but—"

"Is this what workers here do? Forcing service on people living here to get—"

"Usher service is free this month, miss." The lady beside him interrupted your words, still they try not to lash out on you and still being understanding with your circumstance.

"What?"

"It's just for this month." She cleared her throat for a moment. "The owner of the Villa's birthday month is July. Which is....now...so... yeah." She said with a chuckle in the end.

It was just so weird. The way she conveyed it so nervously that she was uncertain with her words or as if she was saying something that will bring doomsday for her.

"This better not be a joke," You said with an intimidating tone and you looked at the both of them back and forth.

You still can't trust their words fully.

Business types of places will always pull up tricks like this. Saying things are free and then all of the sudden they asked for money, suddenly saying that it is a "pay later" process and it's not free.

Or even at shopping malls, they always say that there is a mega sale and then suddenly everything is "buy 5 free 1'' when in reality the price never changed and it was just a label. They just want to attract people to buy on purpose. Obviously humans are dumb enough to get tricked by the word 'free' as if it was believable in the first place.

Can't they see that free stuff is just too good to be true?

"No, miss. This is a tradition that we have had here since this Villa was built. I have worked here for 6 years, July is a free usher service month." The woman is trying to claim her words to be truthful and convince you even more.

You made a doubtful expression to her and raised one of your eyebrows, "I'm pretty sure this Villa was built in 2012. How can you work here more than the years it was established?"

The lady suddenly shot a panicked look to you as the bags she was holding dropped to the floor. She fished out her cellphone in the pocket of her black slacks and started to press search in Google.

As she obtained the information she wanted, her jittering behaviour stopped in an instant and she smiled out of relief. She showed you her phone screen and smiled politely at you, "Miss, this is the official website of AH Villa and it is said in the history section that it was built in 2011."

You looked at her phone screen and looked back at her. Your suspicious expression turned into an amused one instead. "I'm messing around," You chuckled and continued, "Hell if I care when this Villa is built."

Her polite smile died down quickly, obviously not having it with your playful attitude but still she managed to nod even if she was so unamused that she's about to curse at you like you're an old friend that was messing around with her.

"Thank you for carrying my stuff. Is it fine if you can help bring it inside?" You pointed inside your apartment.

Both of them nodded and smiled at you.

You walked to the door and opened it for them from the inside. You instructed them to put your other bags beside your luggage that was situated in the middle of the apartment room.

As they finally finished arranging your bags, the man that was crouching to put your stuff, stood up from his position and wiped off his hands at the sides of his slacks. He then faced you and said, "You can just wait here, miss. Your other bags will be carried by our other ushers."

You looked at your  bags and started to count them one by one. Making sure that you didn't miss a single one. "There's just another 4 bags left, right?"

"Yes, miss."

"Alright, thank you." You said to both of them and gazed at the girl beside him, "Sorry if my joke was too much."

Her unamused expression turned into a shocked one as she tried so hard to deny it, "No, no, no. Miss, I'm totally fine. No hard feelings."

Both of the ushers bowed to you and went their way out of your apartment room.

All you did was leave wondering if this service is truly free or not. You really don't trust anything that's free, especially in the city. They always find a sly way to pickpocket someone's money without even doing the act.

Examples are bringing confusion or vague explanations to customers about their product or service.

You remembered going to a shopping mall with your mother and you encountered a health screening and medical check up free service at the centre court of the shopping mall.

So you planned on doing one with your mom, especially when there are different types of checkup you can do there, such as checking blood pressure and body mass index, checking blood glucose level and fat body analysis, of course you were amused and curious about yours.

And then it fucking turns out that the only free checkup is the BP and BMI one while the others need to pay 769¥ each.

Like I said, you made a fool out of yourselves indeed. Believing the banner that wrote the word 'free service' and never even mentioned anything about paying 769¥ for the other checkups.

It's bullshit indeed. But I guess it's just how they play their game or do their work. They just need to be fooling people in the process so they can get money out from people. Maybe that's why you're not someone that's living in the business world so fair enough.

So literally, you hope that you're not getting fooled this time about this free usher service. You're praying to every God that you believe in that this is legit.

If it turns out to be a fraud, you will not hesitate to sue this Villa. Or just sue the owner of the Villa...whoever it is, you make sure to give them a good beating.

It's not like you bother to know who the owner is. You don't even give a damn when this Villa is established, you just want to live your life here.

Minding your own business.

If you can.

That's what you thought though.

So right after that, days started to pass by. It always turned out as the same thing in this whole week you lived in AH Villa.

Just as you went out from your apartment room that Sunday to go buy breakfast, all of the sudden the land telephone in your room started to ring and as you answered it, you received a shocking call from them.

Free food.

What?

Ain't no fucking way.

So yesterday, they said this month is free usher service and now this time, the worker said that the Villa gives free food for a whole week for a new resident.

This can't be right.

There's no way a place can be this generous.

How rich can this owner be to just give off everything free?

I mean, this Villa is fancy and classy and all, it doesn't look cheap and you are sure that it was built magnificently and what else that was magnificent is the amount of money that the landlord had invested, you know that.

But what if there's 10 new residents that week? Wouldn't they be having a heavy loss from all those free services that they're doing?

It just seems so illogical and too good to be true. Not to forget to mention how fancy and delicious the food that they have been serving you. You felt like you were royalty indeed. So that's how it felt to be treated like one, no wonder rich kids turn into spoiled brats because they don't need to lift a finger to do anything and keep on being laidback most of the time.

And on the days that you were on your way to work, it may just be a coincidence but you will always be bumping into that beautiful neighbour of yours.

Again with that awkward silence between the two of you in the elevator.

But it's not like you two are in and out of the elevator at the same time.

There will be time you were about to move your way out of your apartment room while he was going to enter his. It was basically not coincidental but you bump into him often.

It's hard honestly. This is not a miracle at all. This is one of your misfortunes in life that you never wished for.

You're embarrassed of the fact yet again that you can't stop staring at him like the down bad person you are.

You saw him in every different type of form. There'll be times that he was just wearing his pyjamas to buy food downstairs, then when you were about to go to work, he was either wearing a dress shirt (you were astonished when you see him in a black one) or a suit (out of all the suits, you liked seeing him in the purple one), then there will be times he just freshly gotten out of the shower and his hair was still wet but he decided to went outside (you will never know what's the reason), there'll be times he was just wearing a casual T-shirt and shorts and the most shocking encounter you had with him is when you suddenly saw him in a swimsuit and he was wet from head to toe, with a towel wrapped around his neck, indicating that he just went on to take a swim at the Villa's swimming pool (you can mark that time as the longest time you stared at him because your soul basically just left your body).

All the encounters with him, in any different type of shape or form he was in, he was just attractive in all of them to you. Be it in his pyjamas or his suit, he is still beautiful and breathtaking to look at. It drives you mad indeed and you have no idea how many times you doze off at work and fantasising of how immaculately gorgeous that neighbour of yours is.

It was embarrassing that you wanted to slap yourself real hard. Your mother doesn't raise you to be so pitiful over a man that you don't have any idea about. She might just beat you with one of her favourite hangers (we all know it's the red and flexible one where she can use it as a Lastic with).

I mean, you deserve a beating indeed like why are you so down bad horrendously? Why are you being so weak? Why are your knees desperately wanting to kiss the floor for him? Why is it as if he had made you not stand properly anymore like you always do? Why are you acting like your self respect is now non-existent when it comes to him?

You were screaming to yourself many times to stand up and stop being weak in the knees. It's like you're acting as if you have never seen someone handsome in your whole life.

I mean, you've witnessed handsome people in your highschool and even more in university, you never had this type of reaction towards them. It was confusing you indeed.

This was not just mere infatuation anymore. This was on another level of obsession that you're scared of yourself of. You just can't imagine how uncomfortable you will be if someone has the same obsessed thoughts about you, like you're doing to him right now.

You will definitely avoid them for sure.

To make things worse is that you don't even know his name, not knowing what he does for a living or even his voice, you never heard him talk. It's just like a hallway crush but now it's on another level because this is not school, this is where you live, somewhere you call home and this so-called hallway crush is your damn neighbour that lives at your left.

Everyday you were thanking god for not granting mind reading powers to human beings and let thoughts be secret and private. Goodness. It will be humiliating if he knows how you were thinking about how beautiful he is 24/7.

It was neve perverted thoughts, though. It was just because you're a whole sucker for shoujo anime and romantic k-dramas so you start creating scenarios of you and him in those scenes you have seen from those shows. Especially the wholesome ones where they start holding hands.

This is on another level of delusion. As much as you thought it was harmless to do so and it is not affecting him, eventually you'll be the one that's hurt and it's going to consume you whole.

Especially when you face reality, you will taste the bitter truth that you will never be with him and everything that you thought was possible about him is just going to be in your fantasies.

He is such a beautiful man, of course, he probably has many women lining up on him and all he has left to do is choose one that suits his taste or type. You were sure that you're going to be the last choice as you know for sure you may not be attractive to him or even have the charisma to charm him.

I mean, by the looks of it, your statement would have been true. He never even tried to initiate a conversation with you or even notice your existence, so it's obvious there is no need for him to give a damn about you.

He might as well already have a girlfriend (which is not shocking), maybe that's why he's limiting himself to talk to other girls or be associated with them. He's just being a loyal and loving man that sets boundaries and only cares for his lover.

How amazing of him if that's true. That girl sure is a lucky one indeed, might as well say that she had won the lottery.

That girl will never be you.

These feelings.

It was just bad in general.

This was limerence. Some type of unhealthy obsession that you never plan to happen or even thought it was possible that you have it in you.

You don't know where it all started and now you don't know how to stop it.

So this very day, you decided to go your way to the department store and you were craving for something sweet. Lucky for you that there's a bakery too beside it and it seems that it sells such amazing looking cupcakes and buns.

As you finally reached the bakery, you pushed the glass door while humming to yourself happily. The smell of dough and baked delicacies were storming into your nostrils in an instant.

Your growling and empty stomach long ago was satisfied just by the smell. You can already tell how delicious it will be, especially when it's a bakery in a fancy apartment building, they must need to reach the standards of the owner, if they don't, they wouldn't be here in the first place.

As your eyes roam around the see-through looking cabinets where the cakes and cupcakes are situated and presented, you look at each of them in awe. How the topping and icing art were so detailed and precise that you don't feel like buying it but instead you prefer to use them as decorations, that's how beautiful they are.

Then suddenly as you were looking around in it, you saw a set of 9 cupcakes which had icing that was in the shape of sakura flowers.

That pink colour.

God.

Even on a fucking cupcake.

You reminded yourself of him.

Well, it can't be denied that the cupcake looks delicious and the art looks spectacular. But the reason that you're attracted to it was none other because the colour reminded you of his beautiful pink hair.

Okay, fine.

Maybe you can try to check on the other ones. You moved your eyes to the left side of the cupcakes that attracted you just now.

Vanilla cupcakes. How delicious. Even the icing on top of it was shaped into snowflakes and clouds with little raindrops on top of it.

The navy blue used on the cupcakes suits it perfectly. It reminded you of the colour of the ocean.

Wait.

Blue like the ocean?

Oh not again.

Why is it so hard to not think about him?

Why can't you just be amnesiac right now?

Because even on a cupcake, you unwillingly and automatically thought of the colour of his eyes which are the ones that have attracted you the most.

The ones that you can't take your eyes off and entice you so madly that you can be dropped dead by now if they were deadly.

They were just so mysterious and alluring, you couldn't help yourself from getting captivated by them.

But at this point, you do need help. You need some sort of cure for this sickness that you're having. You knew that your state is not going to get any better.

It was not a subtle infatuation that can pass any moment. It was a limerence that you were experiencing. How there was actually a part of you that wanted him desperately to think of you just how you do for him.

It was like an obsession and you couldn't even imagine if you were to see him with someone else. You sure you wouldn't be sane anymore.

I mean, technically, you aren't. You're in a fucking bakery and you subconsciously had reminded yourself of the amazing details and features that are on him. Every damn thing that is in different types of shades, your mind chooses to remind you of him instead.

God loves him. That's all you're going to say. He's such a tremendously gorgeous man that his beauty is equivalent to the angels above. That's how badly you try to exaggerate it.

You just never witnessed someone so beautiful before, maybe that's why you were in this state where you were constantly remembering him and thinking of him like a broken record. But honestly, you believe that even girls out there are crazy over him and if there's a million people in a crowd, he still stood out the most to you.

Well, that's the end of your delusions. Can't believe your journey to go buy something sweet in the bakery can lead to something this complicated.

So in the end, you didn't buy anything. You just couldn't, after constantly getting yourself haunted by him. You will definitely feel nauseated of yourself, if you were to buy them, because the purpose of you buying those cupcakes will not be because you were hungry or they look delicious, it will be because the colour represents him.

You were awfully obsessed from the very start, if you decide to do that, it might just get even worse.

So you went your way out of the bakery and headed to the department store instead. Again, with your habit of buying beers that you drink almost every night.

Working is starting to get stressful, especially when you're assigned with a perfectionist boss, it seems that your journey to learn things and grow will stop here. You hate when they're like this, it's like you're not allowed to make a mistake and learn from it. She expected new employees like you to be perfect from the start and make not even one single mistake.

You know it's fine if she wants to give you a scolding like you know it's your fault that you accidentally put the wrong conditioning agents in the facial cleanser formulation, as you forgot chamomile extract is the one you should be putting but still, was it necessary to lash out at you and swear at you like she's getting angry to a wall?

Yeah, maybe you're just emotional. People will say that it's a normal occurrence to have that toxic environment in the working force. There's going to be tons of people with questionable personalities so you shouldn't be surprised by this. Might as well someone had it way worse than you or even encountered a more shitty ass of a boss than you did.

But whatever. You still have feelings and you have the right to be petty about it.

After buying 4 bottles of beer, you decided to walk your way back to the elevator and get yourself back to your apartment. You were just thinking of drinking beer while watching a horror movie tonight.

You'll say that you'll be slacking off, when usually every night you will be studying back your lecture notes during your degree and the ones you jotted down during your internship and constantly memorising the formulation of all the products that's created in your company.

Chemistry is the most difficult thing in this world. And you have no idea why you even decide to take this pathway. You can't say you're good at this as your exam results were just average and you're not even passionate about it in general. You just continued to study this as you got the offer for the course and the university is close to your home so now it has led you this damn company far away from your home and suddenly you have an infatuation over a stranger that lives beside your apartment.

Just how great life can be.

You were sure nothing in this world can ever make you genuinely happy in the end.

As you were about to step in the elevator, you saw a woman that was roughly your age barging in too and she flashed a smile at you.

It seems like she just got back from work. She was wearing a blazer and a pencil skirt, with a suitcase in her right hand. Her blonde hair was also styled in a bun, making her look neat and sophisticated. She looks very professional and charming just by standing.

"I've never seen you before. You're new here?" She asked you all of the sudden and as you two finally entered the elevator, she pressed the button '35' and closed the elevator door.

You also then pushed your apartment floor button, '37'.

"Yeah. I just moved in 5 days ago." You answered casually and honestly you are startled to know that there is someone still friendly here. You thought most people mind their own business and live their own lives. So you are genuinely happy with her sudden approach to you.

"Ah. You are not even here for a week." She chuckled after finishing her sentence.

You let out an awkward laugh while massaging your nape gently and replied,"Still trying to adjust myself here,"

"I see. So you moved in here for work?"

"Yes. I work at SK-II. Cosmetic Scientist," You explained. It feels weird to introduce yourself sometimes. Like you don't know what info you should disclose or not, like is it too much or too little, this is literally just a universal struggle.

But considering she looks like she's a corporate woman, you definitely can trust her, especially to know that she's educated and professional.

"SK-II?! That's one of my favourite brands! I have used the cleanser for 8 months now. Since I was having a huge breakout on my face 2 years ago and couldn't find the right product. So the dermatologist suggested SK-II to me and I love it so much! My skin feels so clean and hydrated!" She said excitedly while she put both of her hands on her cheeks while massaging them, indicating how healthy her skin had turned out.

"I'm glad that the product made your skin turn out better. I believe it's the Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate that helps cleanse your skin the most, it removes the dirt and bacteria in your pores smoothly," You explained in your 'cosmetic scientist' terms to her. You unintentionally had said that, it sounded as if you wanted to show off your career to her or something, when in reality, it's just your nature.

When your friends or mom talk about skincare products or makeup, you see it in a chemistry perspective instead. Like most people focus on the effectiveness or how makeup can enhance your skin but you were thinking about the ingredients, the amount, the colour that will appear when two chemicals are mixed together, the type of skin that needs to use these chemicals while the other types of skin don't. Yeah, just a scientist with an ingrained chemistry brain so you couldn't help it.

"Oh! Well then I shall thank Sodium Laurel... whatever the hell the chemical you said just now, for curing my acne!" She said jokingly as you two burst out laughing from her failed attempt to pronounce the chemical name you stated just now.

"So is it like...you guys use that same chemical on and on to make cleansers?" She asked further, intrigue to increase more of her skincare knowledge.

"Ah, no. We try to improvise from time to time. Like we receive feedback from customers and let them evaluate the product. Unfortunately there will be people that tested our product and say that it isn't suitable for their skin or their skin got worse after using our product.  Because technically the targeted market for the amino acid cleanser is for the ones that have sensitive skin. The other types of skins like oily and dry are not encouraged to use it. Now, at the moment, we're still researching salicylic acid, that can exfoliate skin, shed dead cells and decreases inflammation,"

"Ah...that's interesting," She replied shortly. It's obvious that she's probably having a so-called brain aneurysm from your words that were just complex and out of her range of field. You know, like what communication students will say, that it's semantic noise, it's when people don't understand the terms that you used and communication barriers happen.

So as the silence was slowly trying to fill up the both of you, you tried to divert your conversation with her to somewhere else. The conversation you two had was only about you, so it's time for you to talk about her next, "So... what about you?"

"Oh, me? I work as a PR here."

You couldn't help but have an astonished expression on your face as your assumption at first that she was maybe a lawyer or a secretary of a big company was wrong, but she was a PR of this Villa instead.

So this place really has high standards. The workers do wear so professionally and chic and you thought that you, a mere country bumpkin living in here might as well just be considered lucky and probably not up to their level of others living here.

But speaking of her working here, that means you hit the jackpot. Maybe it's time for you to truly question her about the free services here and especially when she's a PR here, she already knows every little thing about this Villa, even the cracks and holes in this building, you bet she remembers all of it.

"That's nice to know! How long have you been working here?" You give her another question first before you proceed to ask the most important one.

"Hmm. Let's see," She rubbed her chin and thought deeply, "About 3 years, if I'm not mistaken." She then shrugged her shoulders, "I don't even know. Everything feels like a fever dream you know. It's all going so fast,"

"Wow, that's a pretty long time,"

"Yeah. But I like working here. Compared to my old company, which is..."  She leaned into you a little closer and whispered, "A bank," she rolled her eyes in annoyance, "I believe working here in a Villa is way more laidback,"

You chuckled at her shenanigans and said, "Good for you," There was a tinge of jealousy in your words, subtle one, fortunately and you don't make it obvious. You only started working for 5 days and you feel like the hell you're living is endless.

Can you even imagine yourself in 3 years?

You'll probably be a walking zombie at that time or maybe a walking burnt corpse that just went out from hell.

That's how you imagine it. Your life is going to get way worse than it will ever be.

As you were deep in your thoughts, you then reminded yourself of the question that you were about to ask her.

"By the way...I have a few questions about this place. You know...I'm still new...so I don't know much about stuff around here..."

"Ah...okay, go on," She encouraged you to proceed with your question.

"Is it really like a tradition? No, what's the word for it? I don't know a service here? For new residents getting free usher service and free food for a week? You know...I've been wondering about it actually. It's like something too good to be tr—"

"What on earth are you talking about?"

Huh?

"No, I was saying that—

"There's no such thing as free service here. This is business, employees need to get paid for their work. So I actually have no clue what you're talking about," Her furrowed eyebrows loosened a bit as she said, "Sorry if I come out rude...but I'm genuinely surprised by what you've just said."

You can't help but show a shocked expression to her.

It was as if your heart just stopped beating, your blood stopped circulating through your body, your soul literally left your body of how in disbelief you are. You can't see anything in front of you, even if your eyes are widened.

You just can't....fathom everything that you're feeling right now, it was all jumbled up emotions.

Fear. Shocked. Disbelief.

What...are you supposed to do now?

How are you going to handle this situation?

So was it true all along?

That you just got yourself scammed.

Fuck.

How much money do you have to compensate for all of this?

Your first salary is so out of reach even. You haven't even started half a month. You can't just shamelessly ask for money in advance.

Do you have to work more part time jobs for this?

Fuck, what if they suddenly ask for money after this?

Right after the moment you step out of this elevator...

Wait...what if she's also part of the scheme of trying to deceive you?

She is one of the employees here anyways.

Dear god.

Dear god.

What the fuck are you supposed to do in this type of situation?

Just as you were in such a long trance, a 'ding' sound rang into your ears. You moved your eyes at the floor indicator above the door and the number '35' was shown.

"Oh, this is me. See you later,"

She went out of the elevator as if nothing happened, like she didn't even leave you speechless with her words. It was as if you're at fault in this situation. It's either you're naive to fall for their trick or you're the one that's speaking nonsense to excuse yourself for not paying service here.

But you wanted to pay. They're the ones that convinced you not to do so and kept on saying it's free service because you're a new resident here.

Oh fuck.

You're going to lose your mind at this point. Just how much debt that will be carried onto your shoulders. What if you are given a certain amount of time to pay off the debt but you aren't capable of it?

Will they kick you out? And do you need to live on the streets instead?

Oh, fucking hell.

You have never felt the urge to kill yourself this much before, not until you have encountered this dead-end moment. It's like the damage has been done. There's no way for you to turn back and you have gotten yourself being fooled.

You wanted to cry so badly, not because you were just sad though, it's also because you were angry like crazy.

You only saw her figure get out of the elevator and stared at her walking to her apartment room. Eventually, the door closed and you lost sight of her.

What should you do now?

Hide in your room forever?

Find a way to escape from the window?(you live on the 37th floor, are you crazy?)

Call the cops?

Call the employees that fucking deceive you?

Storm into the CEO office and strangle them?

This is so frustrating that you feel as if your whole body is on fire.

Just as the elevator reaches your apartment floor, you storm your way out of the elevator and are not even bothered by the presence around you.

You just want to escape.

Run away from everything.

If only life could just be this easy. Running away and never returning back and no one will even attempt to trace you.

But there's no use for that. All your private information is in this Villa and they can just pull you back into this place even if you attempt to run away in every corner of this world.

They can find you.

That's what scares you the most.

You barged into your apartment door after unlocking it and slammed the door.

Your handbag that was slung on your shoulder suddenly drops onto the floor as your body and breath trembles in fear. You leave it be, not bothering or focusing on what's happening surrounding you as your heavy breath is the only thing that is dominating you.

The beer that was in the plastic bag is still in your right hand, your grip was weak and loose but it was barely holding in because you couldn't control your trembling in your whole body. The sound of beer bottle clicking was the only thing that was reverberating in your silent apartment.

I'm doomed. I'm dead. Just kill me already

You look around you, trying to find a way to get yourself out of this situation.

You're definitely trapped and you don't know how to get the keys to escape yourself from all of this. You didn't even start to try to find a way and you were already at the verge of giving up.

There's no use.

You can't hope that everything is going to be alright.

It's your fault for falling for those employees deceitful wiles. And now, all that's left from them is to blame you, because you were the one that's not smart enough to figure it out and stop yourself from getting deeper into this problem.

But the problem is you were already suspicious with all of this. And still, you let them slide, believing in this free service that they were doing when in reality you always knew that this was too good to be true and they're trying to deceive you all along.

Stupid.

You're so stupid and naive that you want to hit your head on your apartment floor.

The only thing that caught your eye is the landline phone that was on the counter and you waited for no time to walk to it. The number list which is filled with the services number such as the F&B and such was situated beside it. As you saw it, you crumpled it and threw it to the floor.

You then grab for the landline phone.

You can't think straight anymore.

You just reach for it with no motive or purpose.

You were just scared.

You just wanted to go home.

Go back to where you came from and live a peaceful life. You can't believe your life will be in such a disaster just because of your naivety.

You just stare at the landline phone in your shivering hand and put the plastic bag that is filled with beer bottles onto the table. You have no idea what to do now.

You can't believe that this anxiety in you will be so intense to the point that seeing the sight of the landline phone just scares you so much. No, even a ring from it can haunt you to death.

Of course it's scaring you. That's how the Villa employees contact you, inform you that your food will be ready in another 10 minutes and shit. It was all just too good to be true in a way. Like they know when or not you're at the Villa and when they should strike you with a call.

It was just crazy.

You felt like you were being watched.

Then, you moved your neck to gaze on the door.

The door is also one of the scariest things to you now.

I mean...the sound of the employees knocking on your door is also echoing in your head. Because it has one specific pattern that they always do.

They knock three times, slowly and politely. It's like a fixed rhythm in a way. Maybe it was a way for them to indicate that it will be one of the employees that's going to enter your room.

But fuck, thinking of it just scares you to death.

As you try to regain your breath properly and settle yourself onto the couch, a knock suddenly comes onto the door.

It startled you that you couldn't help but gasp out of fear.

You were relieved somehow. The knock is not the familiar one that you have always heard all this time. It was in a disorganised rhythm. Like the person behind the door was unfortunately not trying to be polite as the employees were, it sounded like they wanted you to hurry up and open up the door.

The person knocked again.

The rhythm got faster. Showing to you how they were impatient and you should just open the door already.

If it weren't the employees, then who else could it be?

You don't have friends in this place and no one is going to visit your apartment obviously. You don't know anyone here.

Everyone is just a stranger.

So who was it?

Who is knocking on your door?

It's like at this moment, you realise whether it's an employee or not, the circumstance will just be the same. It's scaring you. What if it's a serial killer behind that door?

Or a creep that has been following you around all this time without even you knowing about it?

For fucks sake.

There's no way serial killers will knock but it could be they just want to outsmart you. You don't know what's making sense anymore. You were busy panicking about yourself getting scammed and now you have to worry about who is this person behind your door that had kept on knocking after you ignored the second time.

You just couldn't catch a break, did you?

So you decided to put the landline phone back in its place and took your handbag  that was on the floor, placed it onto the couch and unzipped it. Roaming your hands into it and trying to find your self-defence keychain.

You then slowly tiptoed yourself to the door and had one of your hands that was holding the keychain, you hide it behind your back, making sure to reveal it when it's the right time to attack.

And as you finally unlocked the door with your passcode and twisted the doorknob, you opened the door and as your hand that you hid was ready to strike, it halted all of the sudden.

Because of the person that you saw right in front of you.

It was...so unexpected.

This couldn't be real.

There's no way you're not dreaming right now.

Did you actually have gone to bed without you even realising? Maybe because of the exhaustion from work, you tend to fall asleep in any place in your apartment. Be it in your bathtub or even at your dining table.

Yes.

You're not joking around about how much of a mess you are but that has always been the case, you feel like your life has become even more disorganised than it usually was.

So right now.

This person...right in front of you....

No.

This must be a dream.

There's no way this is happening.

Even if he lives the closest to you, you will think him to be the last person that will ever knock on your door.

Hell, you will think it is impossible.

Because all this time, he seems to be unbothered by your presence and you're the only one that's embarrassingly infatuated by the sight of him.

And now.

He's here.

In front of your door.

With a medium-sized box in his hands.

And his expression remain neutral that it terrifies you, because you couldn't read him one bit. It's like you have no clue what's going on in his head.

How funny of you to be so mesmerised by this man but yet you don't even know his name.

All your head was calling him is "beautiful neighbour".

And that's it. Even when he's just standing or walking like any other person, your mind will capture every moment to make sure it stays permanent in your head and you keep rewinding it on and on like a broken CD player.

Because you just couldn't fight or stand up for yourself from being this weak.

That man's beauty is out of this world.

But still, you remain composed.

There's no way you want to act all giddy or fangirling out of nowhere. You remained calm and neutral. Just like he is right now.

When in reality you were panicking inside and wanted him to go away so fast.

"Can... I ...help you?" You said with hesitance and your eyes just wandered around elsewhere.

You don't want to make eye contact with him.

No, you just can't.

There's no way you can look into his eyes that were looking back at you. You will actually faint if that were to happen.

They were so beautiful to look at that even the breathtaking aurora in the night sky will be incomparable to that.

"Welcome...neighbour,"

A/N: Sorry babes, I'll post the second part tomorrow because I'm sleepy af that I can sleep while standing ☠️☠️. And did I mention that this is probably going to be three parts? so I'm sorry for overwriting 😭😭. Like the first and second was already 26K words and I didn't write the third part yet skskksks. So I'm sorry that you have to be patient with my ass and regardless you guys still support me. Thank you so much for the loves.