This one is a yuri story. I pretty much never read/write yuri, so here goes this exercise!
Talia has been married for the past six years, but her marriage isn't going particularly well. She got married when she was 18 (straight out of high school), and she regrets it in part because her husband spends most of his time playing video games on virtual reality. She knows she ought to feel sympathetic since he has depression, and it's been very hard for him to find motivation (for anything) ever since he was fired from his last job, but it's very difficult to be supportive for him when he's always... absent... and online.
Their strained relationship aside, Talia spends much of her day working at a convenience store (cash register) and other night job as a hospital janitor (she wipes the floors). The economy is bad and Talia tries to be a positive/cheerful thinker, even though she never went to university (another mistake that she regrets). Her salary from these two jobs is enough... for now... but she feels a little empty.
The story begins with Talia's next door neighbor, who lives in the apartment next door. Her name is Janisa, and she's a 20-year-old university student who lives alone and attends the local university, majoring in computer science. Stereotypes aside, Janisa is very social and constantly has friends over, and Talia can hear them through the thin apartment walls. While not exactly "partiers" (they don't blast music or anything that rude), they often eat dinner together and drink alcohol, just generally having a good time as young university students do. Meanwhile, Talia often gets back ground work at odd hours, tired, and puts out laundry to dry on the balcony in the middle of the night because they can't afford a dryer.
It's here that Talia has 2AM encounters with Janisa across the balcony. The scene goes with Janisa smoking (cigarettes) -- her love life is going terribly even though she frequently has a lot of friends over -- while Talia is doing laundry at odd hours. They have a polite chat (with Janisa largely drunk), as Janisa mentions having an extra computer monitor that she was going to throw away that Talia is happy to take. The conversation is fairly neighborly, but Janisa is loosely lipped and often says way too much about herself, even though Talia is curious and secretly interested in what university life is like because she never went (and in a sense, trying to live it vicariously).
These types of casual neighborly encounters happen a lot, and Janisa becomes a major backdrop in the background of Talia's life.
The second major encounter happens when Janisa is locked out of her apartment. Two of her (shitty) drunk friends lock the apartment door as they have sex with each other while Janisa went out to the convenience store to buy more alcohol (they ran out). Talia invites Janisa over to her apartment as the two of the awkwardly wait as they listen to Janisa's friends have sex through the thin apartment walls. Talia asks why Janisa is friends with them, and Janisa has a hard time answering.
Technically, Talia is 4 years older (and married), so she tries to act mature-like and parent-y even though Talia has no idea what she should be doing. She tries to be hospitable and prepares some cheap instant tea (because that's what Talia thinks is what adults do), and Janisa ends up asking questions about Talia's life -- specifically their financial situation and Talia's husband.
They have a couple mellow moments with each other as they sip tea (noises of sex happening in the background).
Eventually, Talia announces that she doesn't think Janisa will be able to go back to her apartment today, and invites Janisa to sleep over in the living room. Talia looks around her apartment for extra blankets / change of clothes, and helps get Janisa set up for sleeping on the couch. However, before they head off to bed, Janisa (she's still a little drunk) asks if Talia is willing to stay and talk for longer... ...which results in a very strange situation with drunk Janisa getting slightly more forward and Talia being too nice (and possibly slightly curious) to reject her entirely. They end up kissing.
The next couple days are awkward. Janisa acts like that night never happened, and Talia can't erase that moment/memory from her head. Specifically, she finds herself thinking about Janisa all the time, and Talia realizes that she somehow developed feelings for Janisa. This causes Talia to feel even guiltier, because she wonders if that evening counts as cheating on her husband.
As a month or more passes, Talia overcompensates ( / is in denial about her feelings) and ends up acting more rigid while Janisa continues to act friendly and nice. By this point, Talia believes that Janisa has no memory of that night and was just too drunk. Their relationship returns to a typical semi-distant neighborly relationship.
The end of the story occurs with the end of Janisa's semester. Janisa's apartment lease ends, and she's moving out. Talia is surprised by this (she didn't realize that the semester would end so soon), and she visits Janisa's place in order to return several appliances that she borrowed. There is an awkward encounter when the two of them are alone in Janisa's empty apartment.
Janisa turns around with a smile and suddenly confesses her feelings to Talia, and then says goodbye.
Talia is left speechless. Janisa explains that she thought that Talia was married (and not interested in women), and she apologizes for kissing Talia randomly that night. Janisa says that she hopes Talia doesn't think too weirdly of her (and isn't too creeped out), and she says that she's sorry for making things awkward and hopes that Talia can understand her.
Janisa ends up leaving, and Talia is left confused and emotionally paralyzed. A while later, Talia ends up staring at her phone (she wasn't able to formulate a good response at the time), and wonders if she should call Janisa. However, Talia glances at her husband, who is still glued to his virtual reality console, and then closes her eyes and deletes Janisa's cellphone number.
The end.
