Story time! 🫢 How i caught my neighbour sniffing my shoes (Patreon)

It started as something so small I almost ignored it. A faint sound in the hallway… late at night.

Soft. Careful. Almost deliberate.

The first time, I told myself it was just the building settling, or someone coming home too late and trying not to wake anyone. I rolled over and went back to sleep without thinking much of it.

But then it happened again.

A few nights later, the same sound. A quiet shuffle just outside my door. Not loud enough to be obvious… but just enough to pull me out of that half-dream state where everything feels a bit too real.

This time, I stayed still. Listening.

There was a pause… then the slightest movement again. Like someone lingering. Waiting.

I didn’t open the door. I didn’t call out.

I just lay there, wide awake now, my mind quietly racing.

By the third night, I knew it wasn’t nothing. The same time. The same soft presence outside.

Only now, I felt it before I even heard it — that strange awareness that someone was there.

Slowly, carefully, I got out of bed and crept towards the door.

My heart was beating a little faster than I wanted to admit.

I leaned in and looked through the viewer.

And that’s when I saw him.

My neighbour from next door💁🏼‍♀️

Standing just outside my door… holding a pair of my shoes in his hands.

For a second, I genuinely thought I must be imagining it.

But no — there he was, glancing nervously down the hallway before quietly slipping back into his own flat… with them.

I didn’t move for a long moment.

It was strange. I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t even shocked, really.

Just… aware.

The next morning, the shoes were back. Placed neatly where they always were, as if nothing had happened.

And that’s when I realised something else.

This hadn’t just happened once.

⸻

I didn’t confront him.

I didn’t say a word.

Instead… I did something else.🤭🤭

That evening, before going to bed, I made a small change.

I left my shoes out, just like before — but this time, I tucked a pair of my extreme worn socks inside them. Smelly, slightly warm and sweaty from the day… the kind you don’t really think about twice.

Then I went to bed.

And waited.

Sure enough, sometime in the night… I heard it again.

That quiet presence. That careful movement outside my door.

I smiled to myself in the dark, saying nothing, doing nothing… just listening.

From that night on, it became our little secret.

He never knew that I knew.

And I never let on that I had seen everything.

But every evening, without fail, I would leave something behind for him.

A pair of worn gym socks (dollychloe style as you know them)

Sometimes my nylons.

Always tucked neatly into my shoes… exactly where I knew he would find them.

And every morning… they would be returned.

Just as carefully. Just as quietly.

Like nothing had ever happened. I just love teasing people🙈🙈💁🏼‍♀️