The Aide Next Door

The first time you meet your next-door neighbor is the first day you’re moving into your new house. Building the mattress frame took you well into the afternoon, and after taking a short break, you go back outside to retrieve some other things before catching sight of her.

She can’t be real.

That’s your first impression of her.

Is this a heavily photoshopped picture, projected in 3D and walking about before you?

But that impression morphs into something else: a homely feeling. A warmth, a comfort, like she’s beckoning you home. This woman, allegedly your next-door neighbor, gives off that aura about her: her beauty, while striking, is soft. Underspoken. You know that tendency that people have, of assuming people they are attracted to are nicer, kinder, and likes them more than not? This woman seems to embody that. Except this time, you just know. It can’t be any other way. At a cursory glance, you can immediately tell: this woman is probably one of the kindest souls on the planet. It’s such an absurd conclusion to reach, but the connection forms in your head before you can really resist it.

“Oh, hello there.”

The woman, watering the quaint, expansive garden surrounding her house, waves at you with a friendly smile on her face. “Hi! So you’re my new neighbor, huh?” You quickly tell her your name and your situation, that you’re here for your new job, to which she responds with, “You look so young, but have such a high-paying job already?”

You shrug. “My dad paid the house off, but yeah, my job’s pay is good enough that I could’ve afforded the mortgage. So I’m just paying off my dad for the house, except without interest rates.”

“Oh, smart boy.”

You laugh a little at that. “Not sure about ‘smart’, more like ‘lucky’ that I have such a rich dad that can do that for me.”

The woman smiles back. She’s fairly attractive as it is—scratch that, she’s extremely attractive as it is—but you find that her smile makes your heart skip a beat or three. She called you ‘young’, didn’t she? But she doesn’t look much older than you. In fact, if you have to guess, you would say that she’s younger than you. “Well, you have to take advantage of your circumstances whenever you can, right?”

“That’s right.”

“I’m Taeyeon, by the way. I’ll let you get back to moving in. Nice meeting you!”

You thank her and get back to it. A few hours later, while you’re building your desk, you hear a knock at the door, and by opening it, are greeted with a warmly smiling Taeyeon, this time up close and personal, holding a tray of what appear to be freshly-made, piping-hot brownies. “Hi again! Thought you might need a break, so I brought over a snack.”

This is the moment you fell in love with her.

Ok, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration.

Maybe it’s when she offers to help while you two are enjoying her absolutely scrumptious brownies, or maybe it’s the following day when she invites you over for dinner and treats you to some amazing Seolleongtang, an ox bone soup bursting with its signature savory flavor and creamy texture. Or maybe it’s in the little things: how she would sometimes see you leaving for work in the morning and wave to you, or how she would drop off some strawberries or peaches that she ‘accidentally bought too much of’, or how she would be so ecstatic but also demurring in taking some carefully-sliced cubed watermelon you’d return the favor with. Or maybe it’s the in-between: how you’d catch each other lounging outside, reading or gardening or whatever either of you were doing, and talk about how your week was; how she initially suggested that you let her drop off the defective stool at the post office because the manufacturer offered to trade it for a functional one since she needs to go there anyway to drop off her own packages for her work, which involves shipping various self-made hair products to various customers around the globe, and how that evolved to you dropping off her packages at the post office on your way to work; or how the two of you caught each other walking around the neighborhood so often that you decided to just take walks together.

It’s simply inevitable. Taeyeon, ever the chipper, friendly ball of positivity and joy, never looking less than an eleven out of ten, the warm way she talks with you and sometimes just, enjoys your company as you with her. Her very presence is simultaneously nerve-wracking and soothing: your heart starts beating faster and faster every time she smiles at you, but seeing it rids your mind of any anxieties about work or other living-by-yourself troubles; your body jumps a little bit more every time she accidentally grazes your hand while handing off her packages to you, but knowing that she depends on you, and even insisted on paying you an albeit small portion of her earnings to you makes your chest swell with pride; your heart melts a little bit more every time you catch her smile warmly, in an almost maternal manner, at you every time you’re enjoying one of her meals, but being in her homely abode and just eating dinner with her makes you feel like you’re finally home.

Maybe it’s that. Maybe it’s the lack of a motherly figure in your life that’s drawn you towards Taeyeon: her warmth, her kindness, her caring nature, how she makes you feel so welcome and comfortable. You had your reservations about moving so suddenly, so far from home, but Taeyeon made that transition in your life seamless. Enjoyable, even.

The more time passes, the more you start caring about things you’ve never even thought about: your fashion (because you don’t want to appear sloppy in your choice of clothing, especially since Taeyeon’s outfits, every day, are so perfect), your hair (before, you’ve only went to go get a basic trim whenever your hair gets too long, but now, you’re doing research on how to style your hair and even bought hair products, not from Taeyeon because that would be a bit awkward, so that you can practice styling it every day), even smaller things like washing your car more frequently and touching up the interior of your house so that it looks nice on the infrequent occasion Taeyeon comes in. Every day, it feels like a battle between your previous, lazy self who didn’t care about such trivial, vain matters and your current self, that wants to make Taeyeon like you even 0.1% more.

Work is its own beast. Transitioning from undergraduate college to self-studying for the CPA to a full-time job is jarring, but not too overwhelming. Thankfully, your boss is extremely lenient to not only you, the young, new undergrad just entering the workforce, but to everyone, symbolized best when, one Friday, he randomly tells everyone to head home two hours early. You’re a bit reluctant at first, having been taught by your father to be diligent about your work ethic and fastidious about the work, but when everyone else gets up to leave, you figure you should follow suit.

The good mood that leaving work early for the weekend is instantly quashed when, as you arrive home, notice a man standing on Taeyeon’s balcony, holding the door open and shouting at the woman, who is clearly trying to shrink away but is unable to.

You’re out your car before even bothering to park it correctly, making a beeline for the aggressive man.

“…can you be living so well like this, huh? Just living off my money—”

“Hey!”

“—so casually—” the man turns at the sound of your fierce interjection. “Huh? Who’s this? Your boyfriend? Moved on so quickly, huh, you sl—”

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” In the back of your mind, you think about the fact that this is the first time you used a swear word in Taeyeon’s presence, but at the forefront is your bubbling anger, boiling over into the tightly balled fists at your side, it being all you can do to restrain yourself from clocking him in the face. “I’ll give you five seconds before I call the cops.”

“Beat it, this is none of your business, boy.”

Taeyeon, although clearly frightened, nods at you. For all the times she gave you more warmth and friendliness than you even perhaps deserved, all the times she’s managed to calm you down with just a smile or a wave, this is not one of those. This time, it’s you who needs to be there for her, to be the calming presence that quells her worries. “Taeyeon is my friend. Her business is my business.”

The man looks back at Taeyeon, letting loose a stunned, indignant laugh. “Would you look at this guy? You already found yourself a boy to date, huh? This young, too? Is his cock that good?”

“Shut up!” The shout that erupts from Taeyeon’s throat is the single, loudest sound you’ve ever heard her made. You find yourself jumping a little at it. You, frankly, didn’t know such a small, kindly woman was capable of producing such a sound. “Don’t speak to him like that!”

“I’ll speak to him however I want to, you cowardly, conniving, stealing, rott—” his words are cut off by himself when he flinches at your fist, stopping just short of his face.

You can’t help but break out into a grin. “Who’s the coward now?”

“I’ll charge you with assault!”

“You think you’re going to win? I didn’t even touch you, you fucking idiot.”

“I don’t think you understand who—”

“Five.”

“—you’re talking to, you—”

“Four.”

“—punk—what are you—”

“Three.”

“—are you counting down?”

“Two.”

“Oh no, what’s going to happen when you reach zero?”

“One.”

“Am I going to be in trouble? Are you going to beat me up?”

“Zero.”

“Go ahead, dare to touch me. I’ll—”

You reach into your pocket and dial the police, slotting yourself between the man and Taeyeon while the ringtone goes off.

“Remember, I have a restraining order on you. You better be gone by the time that call goes through.”