mcyt oneshots

people-watcher [ wilbursoot ]

[ request: no ]

[ tw: heavily implied mentions of sewerslide, slight mention of food deprivation ]

related to 'your city gave me asthma'
is very ~angst~

2108 words
_

It wasn't creepy. Not if you didn't follow the person everywhere they went. And it wasn't like she did it in a creepy way anyway, she just.. Watched. Everyday YN sat on her balcony and watched the people walk by.

It wasn't stalking. The definition of stalking was, "to pursue or approach stealthily." which she wasn't doing. She didn't even plan to watch him, at first he was just the random guy who walked past her flat every day. Then he became the always happy guy who walked past her flat everyday. Then he became the person she looked out for everyday, because as long as he was happy, so was she.

She didn't just watch him anyway (she wasn't sure if that made it better or worse). She watched everyone who walked by, wondering what their life story is. Like the occasional guy in a suit, who always seemed to be on the phone. Or the woman pushing a pram, was she a single mother? Was she even the mother at all? This continued for a while, before eventually she sits up to actually do some work.

YN never spoke to the happy guy, she didn't know his name, what he did, or anything about him. In fact he didn't even know she existed. He was just a naive man who walked to who-knows-where every single day with a smile on his face.

This routine went on for weeks, everyday at 8am he walked past with a huge grin down the road towards the local tube station. And everyday at 8am YN sat on her balcony, legs swinging in between the bars, waiting for him to walk by.

It was September 15th, on a Wednesday, that it started. That day YN sat where she always did, oblivious to the fact this day would be any different. But that day was the day he stopped smiling, when he walked past it wasnt with a pep in his step, or a grin on his face, he just looked like everyone else, sad.

And therefore so was YN. The man who seemed to always be happy was having a bad day, and YN couldn't be happy on a day like that. So she had a bad day too. And then another one, and then another one.

And then a whole week had gone by and mystery guy hadn't smiled once. YN almost felt tempted to ask him, question him on why he was no longer smiling, but that would lead on to many questions that she couldn't think of an answer to.

She could, however, talk to him as if she hadn't been watching him for the past few months. She could go up and ask him out for coffee sometime, ask him how his life is going, maybe finally learn his name. But that would involve human interaction, and YN didn't think she could do that to herself.

However as another week went by of no more smiles she started to get more and more tempted. Until eventually on October 29th, YN felt enough was enough, and followed the man. And as she followed him as he walked down the same path she had watched him walk down so many times, she finally felt like a stalker, like maybe watching a random stranger wasn't the best thing she could have done, but she pushed the feeling down and continued following the man in the least inconspicuous way possible.

Eventually they reached the tube station, and the man blurred into a large group of people as he rushed down the stairs. YN took a deep breath as she watched him go, before instantly rushing down after him.

Now was her chance, after stalling all the way down the street she plucked up the courage and chased after him as his long legs strode through the crowd of people. YN was constantly apologizing as she stepped on many toes rushing past everyone in hopes to keep him in her view.