Anhedonia ; kyuhak

♤ I'm always here ♤

~♤~

The man sighed when the taxi stopped before the old house.

Walking out of the vehicle, his feet made contact with a concrete sidewalk covered in trash, his body shivered in cold. He paid the bill to the taxi driver and the car drove away with a loud screech of tires leaving the man alone in the middle of the shady neighborhood.

Haknyeon looked around. It was silent. Too silent. Some homeless man was sleeping on the bench nearby clenching his fist on the small backpack that was probably all he had, the buildings around were decorated with graffiti and shabby walls did not encourage to enter at all. On the contrary, the old buildings looked like they would collapse under the slightest touch. He stopped his eyes at the apartment block in front of which he was standing and sighed while looking at the broken walls and overgrown fence. But Haknyeon didn't have much of a choice. He was twenty five, last year he graduated college but for the past year his life was monotonous and he decided to change it. 

The decision of moving out was easy.

He was struggling in a big city so he found a job in that small town, a few hours away from his home. This apartment block was old but it was the cheapest there and he wasn't picky so he decided to settle down here. And there he was.

He adjusted the bag on his shoulder and slowly made his way inside the building. The massive wooden door opened with a loud creek that echoed through the empty hallway. The sound made him shudder and made the old building seem even more terrifying than it already was. But despite all of this the man boldly took a few steps forward not minding the eerie atmosphere of the place.

The door closed after him and he was left standing in the middle of the hallway. And the interior left much to be desired. In one word - it was just obscure. There were some weird writings Haknyeon couldn't decipher on the walls, plaster and paint came off in a lot of places. It was ancient, it must have been beautiful in its glory years but now it frightened people with its terrible appearance. The wooden floor creaked under his feet and the old lamp above his head shone so faintly that he could barely see anything. 

Then a faint voice echoed through the corridor.

"Oh, you must be Mr. Ju, I believe. I'm so glad you arrived." 

Haknyeon turned around, coming face to face with an elderly woman. Her wrinkled face showed that the years didn't go easy on her and her gentle black eyes were locked with his. She probably was stunning in the past, breaking hearts left and right but now she was stuck there, in an old building in a small town renting apartments. Haknyeon wondered if she'd chosen that lifestyle herself or if it chose her.

She sent a smile his way that he reciprocated.

"Yes, that's me. You must be Ms. Kang. We talked on the phone the other day. Nice to meet you." He answered, as politely as ever and Ms. Kang seemed pleased with his manners because her smile widened, eyes changing into two crescent moons. 

"The pleasure is all mine. Now let's go see the apartment." She ordered and the man nodded in return. 

They headed towards the staircase. The building had an elevator but, as everything in there, it was old and broken, all rusted. The stars were wooden, just as the floor they were creaking under their steps breaking the peaceful silence in the building. The apartment he rented was located on the fourth floor so they had a quite long way ahead but Ms. Kang, even though old and visibly tired, didn't lose her energy. She was happily talking about the building, its history and people that lived in it and Haknyeon listened to every word with curiosity. 

"It's an old building. I started renting apartments here thirty years ago with my now deceased husband." She started and her face adorned a sad smile. "It was easy at first, this building was just breathtaking and we had lots of inhabitants. But when he passed away and I grew older it became harder and harder to maintain." She sighed and stopped at the first floor to take a breath. Haknyeon let her.