Ever since Hoseok had seen his neighbor shamelessly cheating as if she didn't know the guy down the hall knew her girlfriend, he had resolved to limit interaction with her to a minimum.

Whenever he came across Miyoung at work, he couldn't help having a heavy heart. She seemed to be a sweet lady and she didn't deserve this, but he'd never step in the middle of someone's relationship. Specially if they were no more than an acquantaince at best.

Every few weeks, the femme fatale of his floor would bring someone new over and more than once he would accidentally bump into her. Throwing dirty glances her way in a silent request for her to rethink her actions.

All she did was smile deceivingly friendly smiles over the shoulders of her unknowing victims as she brought them close to her. The nerve of that woman. She'd only entertain them for a handful of weeks before she moved on.

She seemed to embody everything Hoseok feared becoming. He didn't want to be that person and for that very reason he became even more self-conscious of his own acts. He didn't mean to give anyone false hopes when he dated, he was careful about it, but what if his neighbors thought ill of him?

Usually, in the past, he had mostly come to his apartment whenever he had company and needed some privacy. The dorms were closer to their workplace and more convenient. That's all everyone saw of him.

What if the media caught him coming back to his place with someone now that they knew he only lived here and then with someone else later on and made up some ridiculous story about him?

Dating came with a lot of risks and it was unnerving, but he had no alternative other than to keep trying until he found a life partner.

That's all he wanted, that stability, that comfort, that reassurance, but as the saying goes, you have to slay a few dragons before you get to the princess. He felt like a little kid thinking in those terms, as childish as that sounded though, it was a reality disguised as fantasy. Not fairytale-like at all.

On one of those nights when he got home late, he was looking in his massive bag* for his keys, rethinking his fashion decisions for the sake of convenience, when he heard a loud thud against the metal doors of the elevator.

Feeling disturbed by the noise, he dropped his bag to the floor and crouched over it, hurriedly pushing apart the contents to find his way into his apartment as soon as possible.

The doors slid open and out tumbled two interlaced bodies, intoxicated for sure, Hobi concluded as their steps back were clumsy and their incessant giggling didn't seem to make sense.

He found himself looking at the woman from a few doors down as she pulled back from a heated kiss and anger rose in him.

His eyebrows were furrowed and his jaw shut tight and, contrary to his expectations of silently shaming her, this only caused her swollen lips to part so she could bite on the bottom side and force them to jut out the opposite side alluringly.

Her fingers played with the long hair as her arms were snugly wrapped around the shoulders of the girl she had most certainly pushed against the doors before they opened. Probably to eat her face the way she just had even when she had noticed they had company.

Eyes back on the bag trying not to mind her business a second longer, Hoseok could hear the clicking of her heels as she lead her date towards her apartment. He tried to ignore the heavy steps that followed her, but failed when the sound he heard next didn't add up.

A gravely voice made his head snap back towards her and realize that, tonight, his seductress of a neighbor had brought home a man. All along he had no reason to believe she was into the opposite sex and he was shocked.

Hoseok looked down with eyes as wide as plates, shaking his head disapprovingly as he fished his keys out at last, grimacing in disgust as he held the straps of his bag and sprang back up to his feet to escape the situation.

He shoved the keys in the lock and promptly made his way inside his apartment without sparing the couple a second glance.

Laying back against the closed door, he shut his eyes and took a deep breath. His heart beat agitated thanks to the scare of the noise, the shock of her provocation and this new discovery. As if bringing all sorts of women back wasn't enough, now men were thrown into the mix.

So she had been flirting with him? She never had before, she had been nice and proper, deceitfully respectful. When he had looked her way it had been more like a 'hey neighbor' smile, not a threatening 'you are next' one.

Hoseok thought he could blame the alcohol for that, but he didn't want to feel any sympathy for her. There was no excuse to what she was doing to someone she supposedly loved, something that was much worse than flirting.

If anything he had seen her true colors for the first time in this inebriated state. All the more reason to limit any sort of exchange with her beyond what was polite and necessary.

He couldn't help but think of the female praying mantis, merely using her mates to copulate to then literally bite their heads off*². Sometimes during the act itself if she couldn't wait. He shuddered at the thought of someone like that. Who felt no guilt or remorse.

Once again he thought about poor Miyoung. He seemed to find himself wanting to warn her way too often when he witnessed these things once in a while, like it was his moral obligation, but he talked himself out of it each time.

Every week she would come visit, he sometimes heard her voice as they walked past his door chatting on their way to the apartment, bumped into them on the pathway up to the building as they arrived on the woman's motorcycle or came across Miyoung on her way up to their floor.

Thankfully, he had never been cheated on, he could only imagine how bad it must feel to learn a person you've trusted with your heart decided to throw everything away and get involved with someone else.

Get involved with someone else, the thought triggered something else in him.

It wasn't the same as his situation had been, however, he sometimes wondered how exactly his girlfriend from long ago had come to the conclusion that she was in love with someone else before she broke up with him.

He chose to deny the possibility that she had done something with the other guy while they were still together. Learning he was easily replaceable when he thought they were doing great had been traumatic enough.

Considering that she could have cheated on him was too much for him to begin to fathom on top of that. In an attempt at self-preservation, he had simply not dug deeper, enough damage had been done without him speculating.

Hoseok couldn't seem to shake off the uncomfortable feeling as he laid in bed an hour later. As ridiculous as it sounded, he even considered moving out. He just wanted to be at peace in his own space after work and all he did was get even more stressed.

It wasn't necessary though, after a week of not seeing her, he casually learned from someone else in the building complex that she was gone.

-

* Hobi and his massive bags, a staple.

* https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/praying-mantis-mating-cannibalism-birds-bite-facts-news