My pasta looks delicious!

With a deep happy sigh I take a seat outside. The view from my balcony is great. Lots of trees in front of a clear blue sky, greens glowing in the sunlight. There's a mild breeze in the air.

I take a bite of pasta and enjoy my lunch.

None of the neighbours of my new living space are smokers, at least I noticed no one. In my old apartment I could never eat outside or even keep my windows open for longer because there were several neighbours who would smoke all day.

But that's all in the past. I don't have to worry about that anymore.

Now, I worry about something else - the amount of instant ramen my new neighbor next door eats. There used to be a huge pile of empty plastic cups on the window shelf of his balcony.

They were gone a few days ago, he must have put them away, but he started a new pile. It's the cheapest kind, the one that has lots of artificial flavoring and such.

Well, he's a grown-up like me and he can eat what he wants and I shouldn't put my nose into his business.

But for real, this is not really healthy!

I'm done with my meal and just stay outside to relax a bit when I hear the soft opening noise of a balcony door next to me.

Oh... it's THAT neighbour.

His sigh is by far not as positive as mine was before. It sounds rather exhausted and that's exactly how he looks like with the messy hair that he might not have combed for days and the dark circles under his eyes like he also didn't sleep well for weeks.

Whatever is going on in his life - I wouldn't want to change places with him.

In his hands is another cup of ramen. At first he's quickly taking a few huge bites then looks into the cup as if it was his personal doom. Then he proceeds to slurp the rest with one gulp. He places the empty cup down into the other one and the chopsticks into the waistband of his sweatpants.

He steps up to the railing, softly places his hands on it and takes out another sigh, barely audible this time. He looks into the distance for exactly two seconds, then turns around and flinches when he notices me looking in his direction.

"Uhm, hi", I say and he politely bows before shyly rushing back into his apartement.

When we're running into each other in the house by chance, which barely ever happens, he's also very shy and quiet. At least his hair is tidy and the shirt clean when he leaves his flat.

Maybe he has a lot on his mind. Maybe he doesn't have the time nor the nerve to cook something for himself. It's like he's eating nothing other than instant noodles.

I wonder what he's struggling with. What he worries about. None of my business, I know. It's just...

Is he the kind of guy who's asking others for help when he needs it or does he try to deal with anything on his own?

Mom always used to say that I should take care of myself too and not only think about others. But if it doesn't cost me anything to do something nice for someone then why shouldn't I do it?

I wanted to make stew tomorrow anyway. There'll be lots of left-overs that I could share with someone...

With a certain neighbour that I think about a lot lately.