Hi there. So im revising a vampire romance and the main trope is enemies to lovers. For context, MMC is vampire, FMC is a hunter (her kind hunts immortal creatures like vampires). However the FMC doesn’t know shes a hunter right away. I want her to hate the MMC for a good reason so much she wants to hurt him, yet he eventually proves hes not the bad guy.
He is an upstairs neighbor so i was going to use the “upstairs neighbor thumps around at 2am” cliche. But is that even enough for readers to be like “thats valid to want to hurt him”?
I want him to be hated and for readers to understand why, but also not enough to where he cant be redeemed, since this is an enemies to lovers.
Maybe he’s just a bad neighbor all around…? Steals her newspaper every morning, tries to poison her cat, rings her bell to get into the building whenever he forgets his key, parks in her space, leaves his TV blasting whenever he goes out, stuff like that. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
oh! what about he buzzed someone in/let someone into the apartment that he didn’t know (sometimes people will just assume that the person walking behind them is also a tenant) and that person ended up robbing some apartments, including the FMC’s and something she found very valuable/was sentimental about was stolen. so we know that’s not a terrible person but he is the cause of something terrible so the FMC has the right to want to hurt him but if he turns out to be someone you can fall in love with, the reader isn’t shocked.
He could flood her apartment since he’s upstairs xD. Maybe be practicing his tap dancing at ungodly hours and jumping off the bed for fun if you want. I’d hate my neighbor and wanna fight, haha.
I agree with Akje here. More ideas include plays music too loud (or simply the walls/floors are thin and just feels too loud), has people over all the time/at an unreasonable hour, is distracted and doesn’t hold the elevator/door, talks loudly on the phone (in apt or in elevator or both)
Also depending on the personality of your MC & FMC, just interactions/observations in the mailroom/laundry room could lead to her misconceptions/dislike of him. For example, if he’s too perky or friendly and she’s more introverted, she could be like “ugh not him again, why is he so annoying”, or if he’s more grumpy/introverted she could think he’s rude/stand-offish
Let’s say your ML catches a grown man in the middle of assaulting someone, someone who is on the registered sex offenders list: which means this person NEVER rehabilitated and the system failed them.
Its a situation where a morally sound vampire would drain them–a Dexter level morality.
The issue is that if its during daylight (or still publicly active nighr like our winters get) when anyone can find them, and letting them go umtil it is safe to drain them means they could reoffend between your stopping the assault and you going back for them.
This means they could intimidate them until they can get back to them: badly beat up someone, break fingers, or they can kill them, there, and forefit the blood.
Me personally, as that character? They are dead: the system has failed, I dont trust them to be scared enough of me. But the ML may feel that they are capapble of perfect intimidation.
So, imagine that both characters have got thw “registered offender card”. The ML is bwating up this guy (his victim had fled, so your MC doesnt see that this is in defense of someone else), and she sees him attacking someone who has served their time and she believes in rehabilitation of human monsters.
Later on, the guy winds uo missing, then is found dead, and she suspects the ML.
Then she finds out about vampires.
Then she finds out the details about how the hunan monster hadnt changed and has her faith shaken in the idea of “monsters can be good”.
Less severe is publicly killing a problem vampire, so she misses the fact that its 2 monsters on their own turf, after having hunted him down because this creature is drawing hunters into their area and innocent vamires will pay the price. Again, a beat down witnessed, again, a later death, again an exposure of what the real moster was, ans again an exposure of the ML and the doubts of how well he can keep himself “good”.
I guess it kind of depends on the genre you’re going for. This sounds a little bit like comic exaggeration to me, I would never actually want to hurt my neighbours just because they’re loud. I’d be hella annoyed, sure, but hurting them? Maybe if he repeatedly does it despite being told to stop, then it turns out he had a legit reason for it?
You could do the classic misunderstanding where he’s blamed for something he didn’t do or was forced to do and is taking the blame to protect something/someone. For example, maybe he aggressively protects her from walking into a dangerous situation by grabbing/shoving her and generally being nasty to her, then eventually she figures out he was doing her a favour.
Or she sees him constantly bring different girls to his apartment every night and one day he (jokingly or not) makes a move on her in the elevator or something and she’s not amused. Or she sees him shoving a kid or and old woman without knowing the kid/old woman is also a vampire.
Thats exactly what i want to go for, thanks for the ideas.
I’d love this so much if it was that kind of apartment. I suppose i should have explained that the apartments they live in dont have a lobby or any of that. Its just a parking lot and then a building of 4 apartments stacked side by side and on top of each other like a house, all having their own front and back door from the outside.
I based it off the apartment i live in. But i have an upstairs neighbor i cant stand, so im trying to find more valid reasons for her to hate him too.
This is interesting. I have had the upstairs apartment leak into ky bathroom so… But im also thinking maybe smell? Hes a vampire so like, rotting corpses and dead people and stuff. Our last neighbors were potheads so the smell would ALWAYS linger in our apartment too.
This is a complex and not a building so unfortunately this wouldnt work. The mailboxes are all outside at the corner and each unit has its own laundry room. However I can totally use the introvert and friendly angle. He definitely is more introverted and grumpy, so it would work.
Okay so…this is actually a REALLY good idea. Based on his past with his mother and how she was murdered, this would 100% work as valid. And i probably will use it.
If only there was an elevator at this apartment. but yes, ill definitely use your other suggestions!
She definitely would since she doesnt have lots of money. Shes not poor poor but she still doesnt have lots of disposable income so i know if it were me and someone popped my tire, I’d probably cry. Then i’d kill someone. not literally but just about.
Its a really good way to mak the stakes high because we’re all on that moral divide of some people of specific evil bents aren’t worthy of saving and the moral highground of I’m not the judge. Most everyone can get cuaght up in that and feel it.
I’d hate my neighbor and wanna fight, haha.
ugh not him again, why is he so annoying”, or if he’s more grumpy/introverted she could think he’s rude/stand-offish
I suppose i should have explained that the apartments they live in dont have a lobby or any of that. Its just a parking lot and then a building of 4 apartments stacked side by side and on top of each other like a house, all having their own front and back door from the outside.
But im also thinking maybe smell? Hes a vampire so like, rotting corpses and dead people and stuff. Our last neighbors were potheads so the smell would ALWAYS linger in our apartment too.
but yes, ill definitely use your other suggestions!
not literally but just about.