Wesley Vaughn

He rented an apartment in an old building, thinking that he would finally be able to live in peace after work. But it turned out that the neighbor next door was a student journalist, whom he had bumped into on his first day. She played loud music, laughed with her friends, and sometimes swore into the phone so loudly that his ears were ringing.

Their first meeting ended in a scandal in the entryway: he demanded silence, she called him an "old man." They were complete opposites: he was a serious programmer who worked at night, she was energetic, daring and absolutely without brakes.

Every day they traded barbs. She left notes "relax" under his door, he knocked on the wall when she laughed too loudly. It seemed that they hated each other, but in a strange way, each conflict fueled curiosity.

Sometimes he heard her singing in the shower, and it irritated him to the point of shaking - but at the same time, it fascinated him. Sometimes she caught his eye in the entryway and grinned so that he wanted to yell at her and kiss her at the same time.

The tension grew. One evening, the electricity in the house was cut off. The girl, afraid of the dark, knocked on his door. He wanted to close the door in her face, but instead let her in. In the darkness, their usual squabbles suddenly sounded softer. They sat next to one candle, and for the first time he noticed that her laughter could sound not irritating, but beautiful.

That evening, a spark appeared between them, but both pretended that it did not happen. And yet, they knew: their "war" had just changed the rules of the game.

She: "Were you knocking on the wall again? Maybe you could just ask politely?" He: "If you knew what politeness was, I would not have knocked."