Leaving

Doorstep

 This might be the worst thing that has ever happened to me. Waking up to the sound of Baby Shark at four-thirty in the morning. I'm a heavy sleeper but my neighbors are always loud enough to wake me up or give me a headache. We live in a high-class apartment, each floor has four apartments and two elevators, one for my apartment and the annoying neighbours and one for the other apartments. I was lucky enough to live right across from Minhyuk and his family, share an elevator with them, see or just fucking hear them every single day.

It's been like this for four years, ever since they moved in. I've barely ever gotten a moment of peace since then. At first, their newborn was crying every single second. The first time I knocked on their door to ask them to do something about the noise, the neighbour, Minhyuk, was very nice. He introduced himself politely and promised to keep it down. I was happy about the interaction, I even thought the guy was cute, but the next day, the kid was crying even louder.

Minhyuk and I had hundreds and hundreds of interactions. I knocked on his door so many times, begging him to keep down, telling him I needed sleep, that I had work, but it was pointless. He always apologized, invited me for a drink or managed to make me stand by his door and chat with him. Sometimes he even sent me gifts with notes apologizing but they were never quiet. I even tried using noise-cancelling headphones but the kid cried so loudly and for so long, they were pointless.

I wanted to move out but I couldn't. My parents had given me that apartment as a graduation gift, so moving out was out of the question. I thought of making a complaint and even filing a lawsuit but I felt sorry for them. They had a kid and Minhyuk worked all the time, he worked so hard. I always met him in the elevator and he was always on his way to work, even on weekends, and sometimes he looked so tired but always gave me a bright smile, asked how I was going and tried to make conversation. He was sweet, nice, polite, kind but that didn't erase the fact that him and his family were so loud.

Two years after, it all got worse. The kid cried even louder. So loud it made me wonder if their parents were hurting them, that's when I knocked once again on their door to ask if the kid was okay. Minhyuk apologized for the noise as he did every single time I knocked on the door, but this time, he explained that his child was very sick so I didn't bother them for a while and endured the noise in silence.

I tried to dislike him, I tried to hate him, I wanted to hate him so hard. But then he smiled at me, said something funny or asked me to come over and have dinner with him, that his wife wasn't home much, or just looked at me, it was hard to hate it but I tried.

Sometimes I felt like I hadn't slept in years, I slept at my office then and again to avoid the noise. The situation made me constantly stressed. For a while, I had a boyfriend so I spent most of my time in his apartment but then we broke up and I went back home.

The kid quieted down after some time, which worried me. I knocked on the door once again to ask about the kid and Minhyuk gave me a smile and told me the kid was still sick. I pretended not to be worried about the kid.

After a while, the noises were worse than the years before. The kid never cried anymore, instead, there were either insanely loud children's songs on or the couple was arguing, yelling at each other so loud I felt like I was in the room with them.

I don't know how I survived the past four years. I tried sleeping pills but they made it worse, I could never wake up in time for work. I tried those headphones. I tried telling my parents I might have moved but got called ungrateful.

I don't know how I haven't gotten used to this. But things aren't as bad lately, the couple hasn't been arguing as much, the kid hasn't cried in a while, at least not when I was around. Maybe it's because I recently acquired my own law firm, so I wasn't home as much to listen to their noise.