NEIGHBOR .ᐟ taesan x GN .ᐟ reader     GENRE .ᐟ fluff, miscommunication    TW .ᐟ none     WORD COUNT .ᐟ 1.5k

Luckily for your neighbor, the apartment didn't care so much for noise complaints. Unluckily for them, though, you cared.

Until two weeks ago, you'd say that you loved your apartment. It was about a 10 minute walk to work. You could cook. You could do laundry. The people were friendly. Most importantly, it was cheap. Especially for an apartment in the city. Though you did have the money for it and more, you've never thought about leaving. Life was perfect. But that was until a week ago. God knows how much could happen in a week. You just never thought it'd all happen because of one person: Han Taesan.

You've never been bothered by your neighbors. Most of them were old and liked to keep to themselves so when the landlady announced that someone new was going to start living there, you were okay with it. Hell, you were almost happy about it! Tenants were expected to gather and welcome the people who'd start living there and when you saw how gorgeous Taesan was, you were almost too quick to introduce yourself and start hoping that you'd see him more often. 6’0” at most and big eyes, pretty eyes; you couldn't say no to a guy with pretty eyes. “Han Taesan,” he'd said, smiling, eyes forming crescents. “It’s nice to meet you all.”

Nice had been what you were expecting Taesan to be. Nice, he'd said it like he meant it, until you realized he'd been holding a guitar in his hand. A week would pass since Taesan’s arrival there and you'd confirm it: being Han Taesan’s neighbor wouldn't be nice. At all.

The worst thing a neighbor has done to you was… nothing. You couldn't remember a single time that your neighbors have done anything to you. Since most of the people there were older, they liked to keep to themselves. You'd say the worst thing they've done was show up at your room to have a cup of coffee with you (where they got the idea to do that, you had no idea) but that was because you weren't good with people and their visits always made you feel more on edge than anything, but Taesan has been worse. Way worse. Two weeks after his arrival, you couldn't sleep. Not when Taesan kept playing his guitar at night.

At first, you thought it was interesting. He was good at it, you hated to admit, but he only played at night and he never seemed to stop, almost like he had no sense of volume. The songs ranged from Green Day, to My Chemical Romance, and to a few more that you couldn't recognize. All at night. All too loud to make you think. You thought a noise complaint would get the whole thing over it in a span of an hour but that was what made you confirm that Taesan wouldn't be nice to you at all. Describing the situation to him, of the noise, of your sleep, of everything, Taesan only had one thing to say.

“So what?”

“So what?” You repeated.

“Yeah, so what.” Taesan yawned. He was leaning against the wall as you talked and the look of the guitar in his hands almost made you want to yell if you weren't so tired. “I’ve talked about this with the landlady already. She told me it was okay. So what if it bothers you?”

“It bothers me because I can't sleep because of it.”

“Too bad.” He moved back to his room, not even bothering to look at you as he spoke. “I’m not stopping.”

That was the last you'd hear from him before he slammed the doors shut.

Ever since then, you couldn't sleep. Even when you could, you'd just wake up to Taesan and his guitar at around midnight, staying awake until the morning would come and you'd have to leave for work as you've always done. People were right about sleep-deprivation; the less sleep you got, the worse your body felt. You felt unproductive. You felt angrier, almost to the point of frustration, and the complaints never seemed to work on your landlady. “Just let him be,” she'd said. “You'll get used to it eventually.” But it's been two weeks and you haven't. You didn't know if you ever will.

Even tonight, he seemed to be playing. You couldn’t sleep, but you were too tired to leave the room and find your landlady to tell her that he's been acting up. Again. Instead, you just placed your fist against the wall, Taesan’s room being on the opposite side, before you knocked. Hard. You could almost feel it against your bones. You didn't expect what would happen when you did it, just that you wished he'd stop, even just once, and you got what you wanted. At least, for a second. You hear his room turn quiet. You could almost feel the sleep rushing in you as it did, already trying to sink back into the comfort of your bed before a knock at your door got you back up on your feet.

“I was recording, you know.”

It was Taesan.

“Look.” He ran a hand through hair. You just realized that his hair hadn't been pure black. The midsection had been highlighted, two-toned. “I know you've been telling the landlady about the noise. She told me about it herself. But guess what? I'm living here to make noise. I'm a musician. I can't not play. When I was looking for a place to stay in, the landlady suggested this one and told me I can play whenever I want, that nobody cared. I mean, besides you, nobody actually did. That's why I keep playing. It's not that big of a problem𑁋 why are you crying?”

Were you crying?

You pressed your hands against your cheeks and you felt them. Tears. You really were crying. You felt pathetic. One second, you were being all brave and complaining about the amount of noise he's been making and the next, you were breaking down in front of the very guy you swore you'd choke the next time you'd see him. The irony in it made you cry harder. But among all the emotions you felt upon seeing him stand outside your apartment door, the strongest one had been tiredness. You just didn't care. Not tonight. Not when you were forgetting what 8 hours of sleep felt like. “Just go back to your room, Taesan,” you spat. “I don't have time to argue with you.”

“Hey, I didn't mean to get it this far. You know, I only kind of thought of you as a killjoy, but it wasn't a personal attack. I really am a musician and I really do need to play, so can you not close the door on me and listen?”

You paused. You really didn't have the patience to deal with him at that moment but Taesan was looking at you with those big eyes of his and you gave in. Taesan took your silence as a sign to continue.

“Before anything else…” Taesan spread his arms wide, well, as wide as he was comfortable with, which was about half a meter wide. When he saw the confusion on your face, he shrugged. “I’m not good at comforting people. Just take it.”

You looked back-and-forth between him and his arms. You don't know why he was expecting you'd just take his effort of comforting without asking. And, come on, you barely knew the guy. He barely knew you, too. How did he think this would work out? But the sleep-deprivation got the better of you because you were no longer thinking straight. Instead of retreating into your room, you stepped forward and; awkwardly, if you might add; placed yourself in between Taesan’s arms, which began to wrap around you.

“See, that wasn't so bad. A friend always told me that you can solve all your problems by just hugging it out.” When you refused to speak, he continued, “I think we started off at the wrong foot. I'm Han Taesan and I've only been here for a few weeks… which you already know, of course. I play in a band and I do most of my solo practices here, which I guess is the biggest problem, not that it matters, but it's nice to meet you.”

“It's not nice to meet you.”

“Figured.” When Taesan pulled away, you kind of wished he didn't. You've never realized how cold the air outside your room was at night. “I’ll stop playing tonight but I can't guarantee that I'll stop playing like… ever. Just knock on my door if it gets too loud, alright? Don't want any hard feelings for the both of us. I'm sorry.”

“It's okay, I'll keep that in mind for next time. Hopefully you won't be as loud as you've been for two weeks now?”

“No promises.” Then, “I promise. I'll see you around, yeah?”

You nodded. There wasn't much left to say. When Taesan left, you went back into your room and heard it: silence. You couldn't describe it, pure silence didn't exist, but you never thought the closest thing to it would be the quiet that was left with Taesan not playing. You could've almost cried, but instead, you sank into your mattress, a ghost of a smile on your lips as you thought of Taesan one last time before you fell asleep.