▪ My parents got divorced when I was a kid, and the divorce wore out the whole family, my mom
and my dad both. Even my grandparents weren't exactly on the best terms because of it.
When my mom and dad told me they were getting divorced, I didn't feel anything, even though I was
only a 13-year-old girl. My whole life has gone like that ever since, no emotions and no friends. Now
I'm a 21-year-old grown woman who has no friends, no husband, nothing. The only thing I own is the
apartment my parents bought me. But then everything changed one day.
So that's how we got to today, the day everything changed.
I was getting ready at home like I always do when I heard movement coming from the apartment next
door. I figured it must be a new tenant. The previous one was an old lady who'd died not too long ago.
When I was done getting ready, I figured I'd head to work, so I opened the door, and just as it swung
open, a guy about 6 feet tall walked past in front of my apartment, blond hair, blue eyes, young.
Like I said, I'd never felt anything in my whole life, but still, when I saw him walking by, my heart
skipped a beat.
But then it got worse, because this blond, blue-eyed guy said hi to me.
• "Hey, I'm..."
He didn't even get the chance to finish what he wanted to say, because I slammed the door shut right
that second.
Then a feeling I'd never felt before completely took over me.
What is this? What's happening to me? I thought to myself.
Okay, deep breath, calm down.
After that I opened the door again. The young guy was still standing there. I tried to look him over
from bottom to top. He was standing right across from me, and when I looked up at him, I saw his
face was practically perfect, his eyes were bright. I was completely dazed by him. Then he spoke
again.
• "Hey, I'm Nicko..."
And then I slammed the door in his face again before he could even finish his sentence.
Then I ran into my room and threw myself onto the bed.
Why did I do that again? What the hell is going on here? I thought to myself.
As I lay there in bed, I had to make a decision: either I go to work and see this guy again, or I call in
sick.
Alright, I'll be brave! That's what I decided.
So I called my boss and told him I was sick.
After that, I spent almost the whole day in bed.
Until at some point I heard a knock.
I was scared it might be that same good-looking guy again and that I'd embarrass myself all over
again, so I gathered up my courage and went to the door, and checked the peephole to see who it
was.
But there was no one there. So I got brave enough to open the door.
I threw the door open all of a sudden, but there was no one there.
There was a plate of freshly made mochi sitting there, with a card on top.
I picked up the food, brought it into the dining room, sat down, and started reading the card, which
said:
"Sorry for scaring you."
After I read the card I felt bad, because it wasn't his fault that I got scared.
So after that I put on the slippers my mom had given me and went over to stand in front of the
neighbor's door.
I knocked, and after knocking I could already hear someone approaching the door. But then it hit me,
what if I ended up doing the same thing as this morning. So when I heard the door opening, I
immediately closed my eyes.
Then, when I heard that the door was completely open, I spoke up with my eyes shut, almost
shouting:
"Hi, don't apologize for something that wasn't your fault. And it wasn't you who scared me, I scared myself. So don't apologize for something you didn't do!"
I was so proud of myself for saying everything I wanted to say.
So in my pride I opened my eyes, and saw standing in front of me a paunchy old man in a t-shirt and
shorts, with barely any hair on his head.
Then I heard his voice from the side.
• "Hi again, I'm the other neighbor."
I looked to the side and there he was, standing with a grocery bag in his hand.
I didn't want to believe this was actually happening. So I figured it'd be better to hurry back to my
apartment as fast as possible, but he spoke up and I stopped.
• "You're not gonna slam the door on me again, are you?"
The time had finally come for me to answer this man who'd brought out this feeling in me.
"No, I won't. Also, I'm sorry for being rude this morning, or if I seemed that way."
• "Okay, let's start over, my name is Nicolas, I just moved here to America from Japan," Nicolas said.
"Japan?" I asked him. So that's why the mochi, I thought.
• "Yeah, my parents aren't together anymore, so I decided to stand on my own two feet," Nicolas said.
Then he asked, "aren't you hungry? Or did you already eat all the mochi?"
"I'm not," I answered, and right at that moment my stomach started growling.
Damn it, I hadn't eaten anything, I thought, and I'll eat the mochi once I've apologized.
Fine, I'll go eat with him.
• "Ohh, sounds like your stomach's not lying. Alright, come with me," Nicolas said, smiling.
When we got to his apartment, it dawned on me that I hadn't even introduced myself to him.
So I had to.
"I'm Emily ," I said quietly, and he asked back:
• "Sorry, what was that?"
"My name is Emily."
• "Alright, Emily, nice to meet you. Come on in," Nicolas said.
When I stepped inside I could tell right away that the apartment was clean and organized, even
though he'd only moved in that day.
As I stepped further in, I also saw a PlayStation console sitting on the floor in the living room, and with
that I got in my first question.
"You play Call of Duty too?"
Then afterward I thought, damn, any other girl would've said Sims or some dress-up game, not this.
• "Ohh... not many people I know like this game besides me,"
"Alright, let's eat first, and after that you can show me what you've got in this game," Nicolas said.
After Nicolas made some ramen, which we finished, we sat down to play and talked a ton while we
did.
He told me one of his parents is Japanese and the other American, which is also why he got a name
like this. Also that he has a younger little sister who lives in Japan with their mom.
While we talked and played I got sleepier and sleepier, so I decided I had to head home.
Nicolas started walking me out to the door when suddenly I tripped and fell to my knees.
Nicolas rushed over to me right away and held out his hand.
• "You okay, Emily?" he asked, worried, while holding out his hand.
That's when I put my hand on his, without even thinking about it until I'd already done it.
After he helped me up, we kept holding each other's hands for a brief second, and then we both
looked away and quickly pulled our hands back.
After that I went home to the apartment one door down.
I lay down on the bed and fell asleep. It was the first time in my life that I felt something as I drifted off
to sleep. ▪