Chapter 2

That day, I was about to take a shower. I’d just stepped into the bathroom and hadn’t locked the door yet.

I heard the faintest sound of a door creaking open, and my heart instantly seized with alarm.

Then, a soft rustling of footsteps.

Someone was approaching the bathroom!

My nerves went taut. On instinct, I lunged for the door and instantly locked it from the inside.

Under the cover of the running water, I faintly heard a man’s heavy breathing from outside the door.

My previous roommate was a girl, so I never had this kind of worry. I was used to being careless.

I’d been too careless, I’d completely forgotten a man lived here now.

If I had been a second slower to lock the door, I didn't know if he would have burst in.

“Dustin, is that you out there? What do you want?”

I called my new roommate’s name, my voice icy, hoping to scare him away.

I was terrified he would just rush in.

After all, this thin plastic door wouldn’t stand a chance against an adult’s kick.

But there was no answer from outside the door, only more faint footsteps.

He was moving away.

After a hurried shower, I wrapped myself up tightly, pulling a large towel over my nightgown before I dared to step out of the bathroom.

On the couch, my new roommate sat with his back to me.

Hearing the sound, he immediately turned around, a perfectly calm smile on his face.

“I just needed to use the restroom. I was half-asleep and didn’t realize anyone was in there. My bad.”

His expression looked utterly innocent.

“Oh… right, no problem.”

After a brief exchange, I retreated to my room, and he entered the bathroom.

By the time I’d dried my hair and put on a face mask, emerging from my room, he was no longer in the living room.

His bedroom door remained tightly shut.

It was as if I was the only one who was tense from start to finish. He always seemed so calm.

I forced myself to calm down, repeatedly telling myself I was overthinking things.

Was I too quick to judge based on appearances?

Mulling this over, I entered the bathroom, intending to wash the undergarments I’d just changed out of.

I used to just hang my freshly changed intimates directly on the wall hooks, out of habit.

But now, I noticed something odd.

Did I really hang them like this?

The way they were hanging just felt different from my memory.

Still, I’d just casually hung them up, and my memory was hazy, so I couldn’t be sure.

“Overthinking it, overthinking it,” I muttered to myself.

After washing my intimates, I took them out to dry on the communal balcony.

The balcony faced my new roommate’s bedroom door.

Everything was perfectly still.

But just as I finished hanging the clothes and turned around, I suddenly saw…

His door, at some point, had opened a crack, and through the gap, his glasses glinted faintly.

This time, I was certain: he was peeking at me.