>>5893065>"Hi! I realized we never talked much before, so do you want to hang out? I have the day off work today."She stares at you some more, then her eyes go left, then right, then back to you. This continues for what feels like eons as she performs some kind of inner monologue your power can only get bits and pieces of.
Eventually, she breaks the silence.
"Hang out...where?"
You shrug. "Wherever is fine, do you have any place in mind?"
"Inside is...wait, no, uhm, outside. I have to get something at a place. We can talk while I'm getting it."
You nod, and she slams the door in your face. You hear more things get knocked over, more cursing, this time accompanied by a strange whirring sound. Now you're really curious as to what the hell is going on inside.
She gets out with an oversized hoodie, an interesting choice considering it's the middle of the summer.
She doesn't actually lock the door behind her but instead taps a few things on her phone, and a big THUNK is heard behind the door.
She gives you a thumbs up, and you lead the way out of the apartment complex.
Her eyes go back and forth between you and the ground, she's obviously not going to start the conversation herself.
"I just thought that spending a day alone would've been kind of boring, and since we never got to talk much, I thought that was a good opportunity to get to know my neighbor."
As usual, she stares at you for a few seconds before answering. "I'm sure you had many days off before. Why talk to me now?"
"I like to spend most of my free days alone, but I wanted to spend that time with someone for once." It's not a lie, but getting to know her is one of those things you thought of doing a million times but never went through with. If it wasn't for the curse, you might have never tried.
She plays with the drawstring of her hoodie, mumbling something under her breath. "So it's not something you usually..."
As you leave the apartment complex, you notice that her body language implies she really wants to ask something, but she's afraid of how you might react. You try to steer the conversation into different subjects to see if you can get her to open up a little bit more, and when you mention the low rent price of your apartment, her eyes light up.
"Y-yeah! Don't you think that's weird? It's in the middle of the city, cheap, but there's about half of it is not used! A-and, it's- did you even see any of the other residents?"
You're a little taken aback by how talkative she's suddenly being, but it certainly make things easier for you. "I think I saw some of them but..."
"R-right? It's b-because they almost never leave their room. Everyone in this place, they could disappear and no one would notice! But then, some of them started acting weird. Doing stuff they normally wouldn't, like that one girl apparently robbed a bank even though she was pretty well off, and then she-" She stops to take a deep breath.
