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“What the fuck?” You muttered, placing the binoculars down and looking to the balcony next to yours. It’s been empty for over a year, and you had long grown accustomed to the silence. Your landlord has been trying to rent it out with no luck on account of it being the only apartment in the whole complex without a dishwasher for some reason.

You told the landlord if he added the dishwasher he’d probably get it rented in an instant, and he told you to fuck off.

You frowned to yourself, staring at the unmoving curtains and sitting in the now silent air. You went to pick up your binoculars again when there was a loud thud.

“Oh? Hello!” The voice made you jump a bit, and you placed a hand on your chest to calm down. You put the binoculars down and looked at the once vacant balcony to see two men smiling and staring back at you.

“… h… hi?” It sounded like a question. You were honestly just confused.

“We’re your new neighbors!” The shorter one chirped, slinging his arm over the taller one. “I’m Shotaro, and this is Sungchan.”

Still confused, you stood up now and moved to the railing your two balconies shared and introduced yourself.

“Are you two new to the area?” You added. Both of them had hair grown out just long enough to cover most of their ears, but you did notice one thing- how suspiciously pointy they were.

“Nope, our families both have lived around here,” the one named Sungchan nodded. Then, you heard it.

At the time, you shrugged it off. Shotaro seemed to whistle, and added a few clicks to his speech before Sungchan nodded.

“Um yeah, our families have known each other for so long we’re basically cousins.”

Another whistle.

“Oh cool, it’s always nice not to move alone,” you forced. The pair excused themselves to finish dealing with their boxes, leaving you alone on the balcony.

The second time was when they didn’t realize you were around.

It was a week after your first meeting, and you started on your work on the park across the street. You were commissioned to work on a mural piece to go on the wall outside of the park rangers building, so you had began laying your stencils when you realized you left your duct tape inside the building. The rangers had given you a key as you worked, in case they were off hours and you needed access to the bathroom.

You slipped back inside, grabbing your tape so you could finally start. When you turned back around, you saw through the window a few feet away a pair of backs turned towards you.

The whistling and clicks you briefly heard on the balcony were now much, much louder. The two were also waving their hands at each other, as if they were in an argument.

Curious, you took out your phone from your back pocket. Quickly going onto google translate, you quietly scooted your phone close to the window to let the microphone pick up on their speech.

The one named Sungchan walked off from his cousin, shaking his head as the whistles, clicks, and small phonetics poured out from between his angered lips. All the while, you watched as your phone struggled to even figure out the language.

The one named Sungchan knelt down, and you saw as a group of squirrels had formed around the pair.

“How cute…” you muttered, watching as the squirrels seemed to be listening.

Wait.

There was no way.

You went back onto google, your thumbs typing frantically as you kept one eye on the duo that was still too focused on arguing to see you staring through the window.

What looks mostly human and has pointy ears and can talk to animals??

Your eyes widened as you shouted the results, “ELVES?”

It was this that made Sungchan and Shotaro turn around, and stare at you. You froze in fear.