Hiro from the third floor · Cité U

Where & when

• Cité Universitaire · Paris · France 2006–2007 third-floor corridor of the Japan house

About them then

Hiro · about 23 then

My corridor neighbour in the Japan house: slim, always in a grey hoodie, studying architecture. He cooked something at midnight on a tiny hot plate and knocked on my wall when my music was too loud, then stayed to listen.

Who I was then

The girl next door who knocked back, in rhythm, on your wall.

Why I'm writing

To reconnect · Just hoping to know they're well

For one year our rooms shared a thin wall. You knocked when my music was too loud, I knocked back, and somehow that grew into a code for good night. When your thesis was due you slid sketches under my door asking if the staircase looked right. I never saw the finished building. We lost touch when the year ended, and I would love to know whether the staircase got built.

Passed on by 0 · reached step 0 · 2 keeping an eye out

Could this letter be about you? This is me