Neighbours (NCT Doyoung)

I: Natasha

Moving to South Korea had been something of a last minute decision.

With my sister in New York and my brother in his final year of university in Scotland, my mother wanted me to stay with her in our hometown, but I always knew I wanted to work abroad after my contract ended. That being said, I had not created anything close to a concrete plan by the time my final day rolled around. Thankfully the LinkedIn interview offers that had spammed my inbox since my final year of university had never ceased, and I had had no less than five interviews lined up the week after I officially left the company. Byul Technologies Ltd. was the first company to offer me a job and I jumped at the opportunity to finally visit the country that was home to my favourite genre of music.

I eyed the rack of cooling brownies on my counter. Baking was the one habit I had picked up during my high school years that had stayed with me all through adulthood. Its precise nature suited me better than other types of cooking, and there was always something comforting about the smell of freshly baked goods, be it bread or cookies, or the fudgiest brownies you had ever tasted.

'Here's hoping my new neighbours like fudgy brownies,' I thought as I packed them into containers for the four units I had seen as I moved in earlier this week. My mother always said you should meet your neighbours as soon as you could after moving someplace new, especially if you had no family or friends close by to help you in times of trouble.

I had offered to bring her with me to South Korea, but she had chosen to remain in our family home for the time being. "I'll be leaving to visit your sister soon," she had said as we hugged goodbye at the airport. "Now that my children are scattered across the globe, I will have to make plans to spend time with each of you every year."

Brownies in hand and thoughts of my family swirling in my head, I did a quick check of my appearance in my hallway mirror before stepping out of the apartment. My unit was at the end of a row of five, and I decided to start with the one furthest to mine and closest to the elevator.

"Hello!" I greeted in Korean as an elderly woman opened the door. She looked at me curiously, then smiled cautiously as I held out the brownies. "My name is Natasha and I just moved into unit 10-5 at the end of the hall. I baked these to share with my new neighbours. Nice to meet you!"

She thanked me and told me her name was Lee Ji Ae. Mrs Lee shared some tips about the neighbourhood wet market and invited me to go on her Sunday morning market run in two days, which I gladly accepted. Getting the know-how on haggling with the market vendors from a regular would help me settle right in.

The next two units were either vacant or their occupants were not home. Knocking on the door of 10-4, I checked my watch. 6:15pm. Maybe there would be time to check out the cafe just down the road that I had read served amazing soup in a bread bowl.

The door flew open.

"Finally! What took you guys so-"

The young man in a face mask who had opened the door stopped short as he caught sight of me.

"Hello!" I greeted, choosing to ignore that he was clearly expecting other people. "I'm Natasha. I just moved in next door and I wanted to introduce myself to my new neighbours with a batch of freshly baked brownies."

"Oh sick!" He took the brownies with a nod. "Thanks! If it was these I could smell baking earlier, they smelled amazing."

"Just wait till you taste them," I grinned, happy to have someone compliment my baking. Or at least the smell of my baking.

"I'm Mark. Welcome to the building!"

"Thanks. Do you know if those two units are occupied? I tried knocking but no one responded."