The Neighbor

Lisa woke up at five in the morning and started her daily routine of making her breakfast, diluting her water, and feeding her cat. After she was done eating, she headed outside to get a bit of fresh air. Usually, at this time her neighbor Jennifer will go out for her morning jog.

As expected as Lisa was out getting her fresh morning air, Jennifer appeared and was about to go do her morning jog. As usual, Jennifer came near Lisa and was about to try and start a conversation. Lisa would always answer in a way that the conversation would end in the first exchange.

"Hey neighbor, I saw you bringing a hot guy back to your apartment, are you two really just friends?"

Lisa who was about to respond with her everyday response was stunned into silence. She wasn't expecting such a question to come out of her neighbor's mouth.

"Huh?"

"You know the guy you were with yesterday, Jun." When Lisa heard Jennifer say Jun's name, a memory of yesterday surfaced in her mind. It was a bit blurry but she kinda remembered Jun following her home. He even helped her to bed, when Lisa remembered this she couldn't help herself but feel even more embarrassed, which made her blush an incredible tint of red. Ever since she met Jun she's been embarrassed more than she had been her whole life.

Lisa being uncontrollably embarrassed wanted to run away and hide her face in a hole. On the other hand, Jeniffer was confused as she saw Lisa's tomato-red face.

"Are you alright?"

"..." Lisa didn't respond, seeing her acting like this made Jennifer sigh.

"Hey wanna go grab something to eat? We can talk in a family restaurant." Jennifer started walking and was a bit worried that Lisa wouldn't follow her, but to her surprise, Lisa was obediently following her.

...

The two reached the family restaurant and Jennifer ordered a light meal, while Lisa didn't order anything at all. Jennifer wasn't the type of person that would force someone if they didn't really want to, so she wasn't too bothered by Lisa not ordering anything.

While waiting for the food to arrive, Lisa finally spoke. "What else did you see yesterday? Did Jun tell you something?" Even though Lisa would normally find it difficult to talk to other people, Jennifer was her neighbor, which she usually sees every morning. Also, she has talked to Jennifer a bunch of times before, though they usually end after a brief exchange. Still, that made it less difficult for Lisa to initiate a conversation with Jennifer.

"Nothing much, I just saw Jun supporting you into your apartment. You did seem a bit out of it yesterday like you were drunk. As for him telling me something. He just told me that you and he are office friends. That's it, nothing more."

"..." Hearing what Jennifer said didn't do much since the information that Lisa wanted to know was what Jun did inside her apartment. Of course, the easiest way to get an answer was to ask the person in question, but she couldn't do that at the moment since she still felt embarrassed about what happened yesterday.

While Lisa was entering her own world, Jennifer suddenly spoke. "This is the first time we actually got to talk for so long, but I still don't know your name. I'm Jennifer Baize, it's nice to finally be able to talk to you."

"... I'm Lisa Chu..." Finally hearing the name of her neighbor after all the months they've bumped into each other, made Jennifer feel a sense of accomplishment.

"So, Lisa what's the real relationship between you and Jun? Are you guys really just office friends?"

"Yeah, what else could we be aside from friends?" Jennifer was surprised to hear Lisa's question, she wanted to know more about the two's relationship, but if she pushed some more she might scare Lisa away.

"Noting, I was just wondering... So Lisa, what type of job do you and Jun have? Is it possible for me to apply in your company as well?" Jennifer then shifted the topic to work, since she was currently looking for one so she could become independent from her parents.

"I'm a writer and Jun is my editor. As for the question, if you could apply to work for the publishing company, it's not something I can say. You just need to apply normally I guess." Lisa answered, but was now feeling a bit uncomfortable on how pushy Jennifer was. Lisa wasn't really good at dealing with this kind of person. She wanted this conversation to end faster so she can leave.

"Oh! You're a writer? What kind of novels have you written? I've been really into mystery novels these days." When the topic suddenly shifted to writing, Lisa's gears shifted.

"I use to write mystery novels, but now I'm trying to write a romance novel. Since you like reading mystery novels, you might be familiar with my work. My most famous one was called the maze, and my pen name is Hilda Reed."

When Jennifer heard the name of the novel as well as Lisa's pen name, she couldn' t help but get excited.

"For real! You're the writer of my favorite novel! I'm a real fan of yours! Who knew that my neighbor would be the Hilda Reed. I've read all of you works!"

Now knowing that Jennifer was a fan, Lisa had a new impression of her pushy neighbor.

The two then started to talk about Lisa's mystery novels. As they were talking Jennifer shared with Lisa her reading experience while reading the maze. This gave Lisa a more in-depth understanding of how some of her readers perceived her writing.

"Enough about that, I'm more excited to know about your new work. How's it going?"

"Not really as good as I expected it to be. I'm not really experienced in the matters of love, all the knowledge I have, I got from books and the dramas I watched."

"No problem, I can help you with that. Not to brag but back in my high school and college days, I was called the school's belle. I've been in several relationships, as I try to find my perfect someone. So if it's in the matters of love I can provide you some insight."

"Are you really willing, to help me with this? Aren't you busy finding a job?"

"No problem, I'll help you at night when I have free time. I really like to help you, since I am a fan, not only that aren't we friends now?"

Lisa showed a shocked face when she heard what Jennifer said. They were friends? Just the other day her only friend was Karla, then Jun was added, now even her neighbor became her friend. Lisa then showed a sweet smile as she answered Jennifer.

"Yes."