Mr. Jung Private Eye

Mr. Jung, the Odd Neighbor, and His Offer

Ever since you were young, you had dreamed of living in a safe, quiet, and peaceful neighborhood. One without guns shots at three in the morning or hustles on the streets. After several years of hard work, you might have found it. You dragged yourself through almost a decade of higher education and took year-long expeditions so that you could end up right where you were; in a beautiful home with a lovely little garden in an agreeable culdesac named Cristal View Valley. It was such a wonderfully serene area that if you listened closely you might have been able to hear a chipper birdsong––a grand contrast to the auditory violence you had been accustomed to. As it was, you could barely hear anything above the incessant knocking at your front door.

That nick in the perfect scenario that had become your life, was exasperated by your proximity to that persistent annoyance. To elaborate: Your head was an inch below the peephole. You presumed that if you just stayed in that position long enough––out of the peephole's view–– the knocking would cease and you could go back to your previously enjoyable afternoon.

That was what you believed ten minutes ago when the hammering had begun. It was what you had assumed when it had, incredibly, become faster and louder. Now that it continued, you held fast to that hapless hope until graciously, it halted. It was broken instead, by a cheerful voice on the other side of the door.

"Are you home?"There was a pause of stillness in which you scarcely allowed yourself to breathe, "Ah, I suppose not." Finally, a relieving breath. "I'll just have to come tomorrow, then," Tightened lips barely withheld your internal screaming.

After you heard a few steps retreating from the door, you hastened to squint through the hole. The man, stretched extra tall and lean by the warped peephole, strolled carelessly from your door. You watched avidly until he disappeared into the house right next to yours.

Jung Hoseok. He had moved in next to you almost two years ago and had almost instantly become the bane of your existence. His appearance came only a few months into your residence at Cristal View Valley. If only you knew then how precious those months had been! It had been serene, subdued, and blissfully boring. If only then you had known the terror that was Jung Hoseok. In all honesty, you might not have believed it if someone had told you.

Peeling yourself away from the door, you shuffled to the kitchen to brew some much-needed tea. Thoughts about your neighbor, and your gradual distaste for him, followed with you. Your ire had sprouted from a seed of mild bewilderment. The first oddity you had noticed was his increasingly ridiculous outfits. When you had first met and he had formally introduced himself, he had been wearing something only slightly unusual; an oversized and slightly fuzzy brown trench coat, rose-colored glasses, and a chocolate kiss shaped beanie that covered his long hair. In the crook of his elbow, he held a tiny dog in a bright fuschia pet carrier. That is what you would later call, Mild Jung.

Medium Jung appeared to you several days later. It was a glowing, sunshiny day and you were pruning your hydrangea. Then suddenly, like a madman, your neighbor had noisily whipped down the street in his vintage car. He popped out in what had been, at the time, the oddest outfit you had ever witnessed It was a matching set, from the cropped jacket to the extremely form-fitting pants. The entire ensemble was blazingly bright pink with the sides accented in an ornate golden pattern. The jacket had wide pauldrons that curved outwards on his shoulders and tassels hung on the lapels. The pants, like tights, extended past his ankles and covered his feet. His shoes were the most ordinary article of clothing on him and they were black ballet flats with pink hearts on the side.

That day, you had watched owl-eyed as he hurriedly rushed into his home and came back out only a few seconds later with a large red cloak and a blue parakeet. The parakeet was accessorized with a red top hat.