The Person Who Moved in Next Door
I've been in Japan for five years.
I, Lee Hae-na, sometimes wondered.
What exactly had I been expecting?
I'd loved Japanese anime since I was a kid. The alleyways the protagonists walked through on-screen, the fun school life, the glittering neon signs, the people hurrying through the streets—I had always wanted to live in Japan someday.
And now, at twenty-two, that dream had come true.
The problem was what came after the dream came true.
“……I'm home from work.”
I turned on the light as soon as I opened the entryway door.
Click.
No one was inside my studio apartment. The only things there to greet me were my anime character goods.
I took off my dress shoes and shoved them to one side, then tossed my bag onto the floor. I put the boxed meal I'd bought at the 24-hour market in the refrigerator and collapsed onto the couch.
The news was playing on TV. I got up and headed for the bathroom, not wanting to listen any longer to people speaking in a language I had to work to understand.
It had been another uneventful day.
As water poured from the showerhead, I looked back over the day.
I got chewed out by my boss at work, ate a 500-yen rice bowl during lunch, and got home late after missing my train on the way back.
And now, I didn't want to do anything.
“……Was this really the life in Japan I wanted?”
The words slipped out as I spoke to myself.
No one answered.
I lay on the couch and stared at the ceiling.
Japan in anime had never been this quiet.
I'd thought something extraordinary would happen once I got here.
Like meeting someone fated to cross my path.
Or suddenly having a door to another world open up.
Those things happened pretty often in anime. Special people who suddenly appeared in front of the protagonist one day, or special worlds.
“……It'd be nice if a dragon showed up.”
I let out a dry laugh.
“Something impossible, obviously. Get a grip. I have to go to work tomorrow, too……”
At that moment—
BANG!!!
An enormous noise came from next door.
I shot to my feet.
There was a brief silence. It only lasted a moment, but to me, one second felt like a full minute.
BOOM!
“What the……?”
Was that noise coming from next door? But the place next door had been vacant for quite a while. There hadn't been anyone there when I left for work this morning.
Could someone be moving in at this hour?
But something was strange.
For a sound that was merely someone moving things, it was…… way too loud.
It sounded less like a piece of furniture and more like—
something huge had slammed into the wall.
I pressed my ear close to the wall.
“……Ugh……”
A voice?
It was definitely a person. Had someone been attacked by somebody?!
Without thinking, I opened my front door, ran outside, and knocked on the door next door.
“Excuse me!! Are you okay?!”
The door was open.
“I’m coming in……!!”
The moment I turned the knob and opened the door to the apartment next door—
I froze.
A woman stood before me.
Hair the color of a piece of the sea brought ashore.
Eyes touched with red.
And a face so beautiful it was almost unnatural.
She looked foreign enough that I assumed she wasn't Japanese.
But the problem was—
She had horns on top of her head.
I rubbed my eyes.
Then I looked again.
They were still there.
Horns, an organ no human head possessed.
And behind the woman—
“……A tail?”
A long tail was sweeping across the floor.
I shut my mouth.
The woman was staring at me, too.
After a moment, she spoke.
“……Human?”
“……Yes?”
“How did you get in?”
*Because there was a huge noise at this hour and your front door was open……!*
“Then what about you? What are you?!”
The words came out before I could stop them.
The woman's expression hardened.
“So you've figured it out.”
“Figured what out?”
She hurriedly tried to run outside.
I instinctively followed and grabbed her by the wrist.
“Wait a second!”
“Let go!”
“No, wait! You just moved in next door, right?”
“And what are you going to do if I did?!”
“Then why do you have…… those horns and tail—”
“They're fake, human!!”
“They look way too real to be fake!”
“Be quiet!”
She seemed to jerk her wrist free, but failed. Then she stepped on her own hair, let out a loud cry, and went tumbling across the hallway.
“Are you okay?!”
I reached out to help her up. She silently took my hand and stood.
Up close, her eyes were unusual.
They were different from human eyes. Her pupils were long, narrow, and vertical, just like a reptile's.
For a moment, I was speechless.
She quietly stared at my face, too.
Then, very slowly, she said,
“You.”
“Yes?”
“Why did you help me?”
“Because…… you fell.”
“Humans attack other races when they see them.”
“……Other races?”
That word caught my attention.
She clamped her mouth shut, as if she'd just realized her mistake.
But it was already too late.
I looked at her horns again.
Her tail.
Her red eyes.
And the words other races.
An impossible theory suddenly surfaced in my mind.
“……No way.”
Her face stiffened.
“No way what?”
“Are you a real dragon?”
A long silence followed.
Then she lowered her head as if she'd given up.
“……Yes.”
“I am a dragon.”
I couldn't say a word.
A dragon.
A being I'd only ever seen in anime on a screen.
And yet, in the apartment next to mine—
A dragon lived there.
“……This is insane.”
“What an incredibly rude thing to say……!”
“No, wait! You really are a dragon?”
“Indeed.”
“Then you knew what kind of place this was before you came?”
“Of course. I came in secret, naturally, since I must not cause a stir……”
She answered with complete confidence.
“This is also a country where other races and humans coexist peacefully, is it not?”
I stared at her for a moment.
“Who told you that?”
“I saw it in the plaza out front.”
“The plaza?”
“People with ears and tails were getting along wonderfully with people who had neither.”
*……A cosplay event?*
A proud smile spread across her face.
“So I assumed this was a country where other races had settled in the human world.”
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
“……That was an event.”
“What is an event?”
“Japan isn't that kind of country.”
“And every one of those people was human.”
“Their ears and tails were probably fake, too.”
Her expression slowly hardened.
“……Then.”
“Yes.”
“All of it……”
“Yes.”
“……Was that my mistake?”
I didn't answer.
She stood there, dazed, for a long while.
Then she suddenly covered her face with both hands.
“Ah……”
“Are you okay?”
“I've blown it.”
“I've completely blown it.”
Watching her, I found myself laughing for some reason.
The entire day had been a mess.
At work.
At home.
The life in Japan I'd dreamed of had been more ordinary than I'd expected, boring, and sometimes so lonely it was hard to endure.
But now.
The dragon who had moved in next door was standing there with her head hanging low.
“……Hey.”
She raised her head.
“For now, come inside my place.”
“……Why should I go to your place?”
“If you keep standing around like this, someone might report us. And from the looks of it, your place doesn't have a single piece of furniture……”
“Report us?”
“Do you know what the police are?”
“I have a general idea.”
“Then hurry.”
She hesitated for a moment before carefully stepping inside my apartment.
Her tail caught on the front door.
“Pull that out before you come in.”
“I can't close the door.”
“……I understand.”
I laughed again as she struggled to free her tail.
What a strange person.
She was really strange.
Well, not a person, technically.
I still didn't know it then.
That night, the dragon who had moved in next door—
would bring me, in the most absurd way imaginable, something I hadn't been able to find in Japan for five years.