Meet your new neighbors! They are interesting.
Your peace of mind didn't last long. As soon as the window is clear you're met with yellow.
A lot of yellow.
You almost flinch in surprise, then you realize that it's just a person in a yellow suit, one that you've seen before plenty of times, including on your sister.
"Good morning."
You take another look at them before you put on a smile. "Good morning. Can I help you?"
"I'm here to make sure you received the conduct manual along with all the steps you need to take to do this job properly."
You remember Ben telling you to look into the desk for those, so you pull the drawer open and grab the document. You raise them for the person to see.
In all honesty, you believe that letting personally untrained, foolish people do this job should be a crime. Who cares about safety if all the training they ever receive is from a book?
You decide to keep these thoughts to yourself for now and nod.
"Yeah, I got it. I'll read it as soon as possible."
The person underneath the suit nods, although you can barely tell, and then steps away from the glass. You put them back into the drawer and close it back up.
"Good. A word of advice- make sure to follow the steps and pay attention to details. You don't want to get your neighbors killed by calling us on them, or by letting those monsters in." They spit the word with disgust.
You think back at the list. Every single floor is occupied, including the attic in which you reside, except for the ground floor which consists of the entire lobby, your office, a communal laundry room, and a decently sized storage room.
You don't count the bathroom which can only be accessed through your office or the small closet space which is barely enough to fit in the electric stuff.
As for the boiler room, it doesn't exist. You know from the building plan you were provided with before moving in that the boiler is inside the storage room, probably for the best. You don't want anything wet to reside anywhere near the electric parts.
"Anyway, you will probably have to memorize them and to do that you have to stay alive. That's all I'm going to say. Stay out of trouble, lady."
The D.D.D personnel leaves the front of the window, not waiting for you to say anything back to them and just like that, you're alone once again.
Thinking about what that person said made you want to check out the floor files.
You lean over the desk and take out each folder and spread them on the surface.
"Let's see... First floor."
When you open the file, you're met with 7 different faces, young and old, their ID, apartment phone number, and their occupation. Next to each of their pictures, there's handwritten extra information.
"Long neck... Wears a hat? Small eyes..." Then you realize that what you're reading are the things the previous doormen have noticed about them to be true before they all probably died, except for the one before you. The man probably lasted the longest until today when he took his leave.
"Angus Ciprianni... Sounds Italian to me."
You take a few more looks at the other residents on the 1st floor, then close the file and open the second one.
There are fewer on this one, only 6 people on a single page, and like before, mentioning personal details as well as personal observations made by your predecessors.
"How fun. My neighbors are all good-looking." You muse as your eyes trail over each one of their pictures.
"The Mikaelys family is composed of a student and her mother. A single student in the entire building too. Life must suck for the poor girl. She looks tired as hell."
Just like with the other one, you close it and take the third file to inspect it. 7 people again and only one living in an apartment.
"Francis Mosses..." You mutter the name. The guy has tired eyes, more tired than the female student you've seen prior. He's taken the picture in the job uniform he's wearing as a milkman, you've noticed, much like many other neighbors of yours. He doesn't seem to be liking it so far as he doesn't smile.
You can't help but feel just a little bit bad for him despite not knowing what might be going in his life.
"Whatever he's going through must be taking a toll on him." You deadpan.
Your eyes trail over the apartment number he lives in and you realize you live somewhere above him and the Rudboys family, meeting them in the middle.
You sigh as you close the document and put each of them back. You'd probably have to memorize these sooner than later if you don't want to mess up and kill your neighbors accidentally.
"Ahem! Good morning young lady!"
You cringe at the booming voice coming from beyond the glass. As far as you can tell, it's still very early in the morning.
A tall man in a remotely expensive suit looks down at you, flashing you a pearly white perfect smile.
You remember him.
"My name is Izaack Gauss. I take it that you're the new doorman, or doorwoman, yes?"
His bright blue eyes seem to be peering right into your soul, despite the bad lighting. It's unsettling.
"Uh, yeah, yeah. I am the new doorman, as well as your new neighbor. My name is Y/N L/N, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Oh? Splendid! So you're the one who's taken the attic then! I'm quite jealous of the view you have there."
You raise your eyebrow at him. He's not wrong, but you didn't have the chance to admire it yet.
"Oh, yes. Actually... I had to stay in my previous home for a while longer until the people I hired made some renovations here and there and fixed some stuff for me. I only got here myself yesterday night, after the curfew."
His eyes twinkle with interest. "I see! Then I was not wrong to be under the impression that you weren't here yet. I thought it was strange at the beginning to not catch sight of you at all. The workers refused to tell me anything!" He winks.
A bit noisy... I hope he won't cause me too much trouble.
You shake your head in approval. "No, you're right. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it happen sooner."
He rubs his chin in thought. "Mhm, it is understandable. After all, I presume it was quite a big move, for one person nonetheless. Either way, it's my pleasure to have finally met you, mysterious new neighbor! I certainly look forward to get to know you."
Completely oblivious to his flirtatious comment, you nod and give him a smile of your own.
Izaack lifts his wrist, causing the sleeves of his suit to roll up a little bit up his arm and reveal a watch. It looks expensive, and expensive does seem like it suits him, you note. He freezes for a moment as a gasp escapes him.
"I must apologize for the sudden leave, but I'm afraid I must be going to work now. I only wanted to make sure that I still am on the list as I previously mentioned yesterday, but didn't realize the gentleman before you left the post. I just had to have a nice chat with you before I leave." He confesses.
You almost shrug. "Oh, that's fine. You're probably not going to be the only one who's going to want to have a chat with me today anyway."
He laughs. "That's for sure! Very well, Miss! I will be going now."
"Mhm, alright. Have a good day, neighbor."
Izaack nods one time in courtesy and then hurries off to the exit. You wanted to ask why he was up so early for work, but then you remembered that he's a reporter and he might need to be somewhere early.
You haven't watched the news in a good while and the last time you did he wasn't there, but you guess he must have been hired while you were in training for the field researching agent position, or in simpler terms called 'spy'.
You lean over the desk and rest your chin in the palm of your head lazily. With the folders studied a little bit, you have some sort of idea of what to expect and who to keep a good eye on.
I have to pay attention to the twins when I see them and learn which is which. And the freckled ones as well. What a pain.
You groan, exasperated. Freckled people are going to be the hardest since it's going to be difficult trying to keep track of so many.
Luckily, your agency taught you a small trick to deal with it.
If you could choose certain freckles and imagine them as 'constellation' points, you wouldn't have to keep an eye on the rest of them. Instead, you could just focus on recognizing the 'constellations' and make sure they are still in the same positions. If there's any chance the doppelganger will be a perfect copy, then you'll only have to rely on other things.
"Hoo-hoo! Slow day, young Miss?"
You look up from your desk and you're met with the kind-looking face of your elderly neighbor.
"Good morning, Mister Cappuccin." You smile. You definitely remember this face on the paper. The older gentleman seems flattered that you know his name and he laughs again in delight.
"I see you're already getting yourself familiar with our files?"
You nod. "Indeed. I am Y/N L/N, your new neighbor and the new doorman."
"I have heard, yes, I did! My darling wife has told me she has seen the movers hanging around here."
As he's talking, your ears pick up on another pair of shoes walking past your door, then the metal door opening. Soon, you are met with another older neighbor, although not as old as Alf Cappuccin.
The darker skin color and thick curly hair tells you that this can only be the one and only Arnold Schmicht.
"Well, look at you. Good morning Alf, good morning young lady." He nods in your direction.
You can tell immediately by his demeanor that this neighbor of yours is more laid back, while Alf seems to be the smart kinder one.
"Ooh-hooo~ Arnold, it's good to see you again. Ready for work? I was just talking about this to the young girl over here. She's the new doorman."
Then, both men look at you. Arnold looks a bit surprised.
"I see. Then I must say I feel safer with you here, Miss. You young people do pay a lot more attention to your surroundings and details."
You hum. So far both men seem to have some sort of friendly relationship with each other.
They seem rather close.
"What can I say? We do have a lot more patience too."
Arnold laughs. "I wouldn't say that, but you're not wrong either." Alf joins him in his giggles.
"Say, Mr. Alf, Mr. Arnold, for how long have you been friends?"
Surprised by the question, Arnold blinks but recovers fairly quickly before taking a sneak peek at the clock.
"Well, Miss, we went to the same high school, and despite the rough times back then, we had each other. Now he's a lawyer and I am a writer, each with beautiful wives and living in the same apartment building. I'd say we're good friends."
Mister Alf's cheeks are flushed a light pink as he seems to be reminiscing about the past Arnold has told you about. The look on his face says so.
"Oh~! How I miss going to school with you, friend!"
The younger gentleman laughs. "Yeah, yeah. Keep it in for now and let's go to work. No need to keep the new doorman busy. "
You shake your head. "No, no! It's fine. I enjoyed listening to you."
Maybe.
"Tsk, little lady. You have a job to do as well, but before we leave, I know you're new but I have more faith in you than the previous, so please make sure I and Alf are still on that list, alright? We don't want another 'not on the list' accident."
You nod and bid them goodbye as they retreat beyond the doors of the building. You're not sure what's this accident he is talking about. Maybe you can request an incident report on it.