Webcomic / The Guy Upstairs

The Guy Upstairs is a webtoon created by Hanza, the same author of My Deepest Secret.

Rozy, a young college student, finds the man who lives directly above her in her apartment to be a little suspicious. She's barely seen him for one, but she also hears strange noises from his room. Of course, strange noises aren't unusual...but then one day, she accidentally finds herself in his apartment, and witnesses something that confirms her suspicions. But is everything as it seems?

The Guy Upstairs can be found here.

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The Guy Upstairs contains examples of:

• Amateur Sleuth: Rozy has become this and additionally a Stalker without a Crush to try and find out evidence on Adam's wrongdoings and activities. It's Justified since she was told by Alex that Adam has a clean record and Rozy's rapport with the police is less than stellar considering the circumstances she was in when she started to accuse Adam. Upon checking on his apartment neither the police nor Rozy find any accusing evidence. The police itself are also corrupt and/or incompetent which also doesn't help matters. Alex was the one who encouraged Rozy (though requesting she try and not be physically involved for her own safety) to pursue considering her circumstances and the belief Rozy being dead will cause Alex more problems than what it's worth.
• Animals Hate Him: In episode 15, Adam’s cat Milo walks up to him and he pets her. But then she suddenly hisses and scratches him on the hand.
• Art-Style Dissonance: Like Hanza’s previous series, this story has some very cute artwork and character designs, all while being a thriller with plenty of blood.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: Adam has jet black eyes and is a serial killer. They become more shrunken and scary looking whenever he’s performing his kills.
• Blood Is the New Black: Whenever we see Adam kill someone, he always ends up covered in his victim’s blood.
• Boyish Short Hair: Rozy has noticeably short hair, especially in comparison to her best friend Hawa. Lucky for her, considering Adam's "type" consists of women with long, flowing hair.
• Breather Episode: After a tense arc, we have a nice episode where Rozy goes to karaoke with Hawa and Ravi and a few other classmates, where we also discover she enjoys classic songs.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Rozy is the sole occupant of the apartment (12th) below Adam as it is an old place with not too many tenants. Rozy also doesn't have any family, making her apartment her own home. As Alex mentions, Adam probably took a calculated risk to keep Rozy alive or even not hold her as a hostage despite her being a witness to his crime as it would place him as a prime suspect. Alex notes three women he believes to be Adam's victims are out of town which distances Adam from the victims.
• Chick Magnet: Due to his looks and charms, Adam attracts quite a few women. All of this is very calculated on his end, so he can lure in more victims.
• Conveniently an Orphan: Both Rozy and Adam are this in their backstories. Information about their past have yet to surface. But Roxy's lack of family is on the reasons she is so close to Hawa and also a potential reason why Adam spared her since killing her would've been too suspicious.
• Crush Blush: Hawa begins to blush these quite frequently when around Adam.
• Cunning Linguist: Adam is fluent in both Mandarin, Malay (webtoon set explicitly in Malaysia) and presumably by extension English. He mentions learning Mandarin thanks to his foster parents. He uses his language skills to get closer to Hawa and eventually get her social media.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Rozy has reddish brown hair and eyes, and Adam has black hair and black eyes.
• The Cutie: Hawa, she’s sweet, kind, and rather naive.
• Dark Is Evil: Adam has black hair and tends to wear black or dark clothing. He is also serial killer.
• Dirty Cop: It’s revealed that aside from Alex, most of the police officers take bribes from the rich.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Ravi is very interested in Rozy. She admits that while she'd be willing to be friends with him, she's also concerned he's not the type to understand "no".
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: As attractive as Adam is, one can’t help but feel there’s simply something off about him due to his black hair and eyes.
• Embarrassing First Name: Rozy hates being called Rozana, saying it sounds too old-fashioned.
• Exact Words: Hawa doesn’t exchange phone numbers with Adam, but they do exchange social media and message each other that way.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Adam is a handsome, charming man who has no problems winning people over. He’s also a serial killer who finds women pretty when covered in blood.
• Fan Disservice: In episodes 14 and 15, we see Adam both with an unbuttoned shirt and shirtless. However, the appeal is greatly diminished by the fact both scenes take place when he’s killing a victim and later cleaning up the blood.
• Faux Affably Evil: Adam. He's charming, somewhat flirty, and very polite. But he's also a serial killer who uses these charms to lure in women.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Hawa is noted to be a very good chef by Rozy. Rozy herself is not the best cook, as shown with her curry puffs. She’s also much more of a tomboy than Hawa.
• Fiery Redhead: Rozy has reddish brown hair and tends to react harshly, especially when it comes to Hawa’s safety.
• Foil: Adam and Rozy are this to each other which makes sense considering how the story revolves around the two of them and uncovering whether or not Adam is a serial killer. Rozy is a blunt, unfriendly and perpetual frowner yet still manages to have a group of friends, while Adam who is charismatic and charming is not really seen to have any close friends yet. Both are fans of classical music and are orphans. In Rozy's case, she was never fostered in contrast to Adam who was fostered quite young. Both are also suffering from some unspoken trauma in their lives and it implied and noted by many readers they might've known each other before.
• Friendless Background: Due to her introverted and paranoid nature, Rozy never really wanted any friends until Hawa introduced herself to her.
• Friend on the Force: Alex is shaping up to be one to Rozy, being the only officer to believe that Adam is a serial killer, and even advising her on how to potentially get evidence.
• Freudian Excuse: Lightly alluded to in episode 14 regarding Adam; something happened in his past that makes him think that his intended victim giving him her phone number makes it okay for him to murder her. If she doesn’t, he backs off.
• From Bad to Worse: Imagine you are Rozy for a moment, sick from the flu, mistaken as drunk and you accidentally enter the wrong apartment. It's too late to leave as people behind you walk in. You hear a woman vomiting and discussing being pregnant and not knowing what to do with her boyfriend disapproving of it and cheating on her with another woman. The man seems nice, comforting the woman and Rozy hopes she can doze off without them finding her. Then all of a sudden he slashes her throat and unfortunately still is alive as she helplessly tries to cover her pregnant belly. Oh and you know, knock over a mop in your hiding place alerting him to your presence and your only hope of escape is the window (from a thirteen-story building ) as you pray he doesn't look out.
• Genki Girl: Hawa, very much so. She’s pretty, cheerful, sweet, and popular for a good reason.
• Has a Type: Adam seems to target women with long, dark and wavy hair. You can even see this on creators' Instagram for a Halloween special it has him reading a book about hair. see here they had a picture of Though it appears that this is also being Subverted with Adam's growing interest in Rozy who interestingly in the past shares a lot of characteristic with women Adam is interested in .
• Horrible Judge of Character: Hawa very quickly begins to develop a crush on Adam. Probably not the best choice since he has killed a bunch of cats and is a serial killer, specifically of women with long hair like Hawa and she keeps doing specific actions which increases her chances of getting murdered.
• Irony: Incredibly minor but Rozy dislikes having an "old fashioned" name yet likes "old fashioned" music.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: Hawa has long hair and is noticeably more feminine than the short haired Rozy is.
• Manipulative Bastard: Adam is doing an excellent job of making Rozy look unstable, first by taking the police to the apartment she claims she saw him murder someone in, only for it to be completely clean, with him having had no time to clean up beforehand. He also makes sure he’s Hawa’s Greb drive home, causing Rozy to panic all while never intending to hurt her in the first place.
• Meaningful Name: Upon their first meeting, Adam points out the irony in Hawa's name; Hawa means "Eve," thus, "Adam and Eve."
  • Rozy name is too. As Adam mentions in Chapter 7 it means "passionate" but also "graceful rose." He thinks roses suit Rozy quite well. Adam growing interest in Rozy is also important as roses represent romantic love. Though this might turn to be a darker meaning considering the more intense Adam feels towards someone the more he wants to kill them and has been noting the increasing similarities between him and Rozy. The creator even has a picture of Rozy and Adam holding roses. 1 2 and 3
• Mistaken for Gay: Rozy and Hawa are close enough that rumors of them being an item are common. At one point Ravi coldly shuts them down, although due to Malaysia’s treatment of homosexuality, it’s rather justified.
• Mysterious Past: We know next to nothing about Rozy, only that she has no parents, grew up in an orphanage, and doesn’t remember much of her childhood. She also has a scar on her stomach that Hawa says looks like a stab wound.
• Monster Misogyny: Adam only targets fair skinned women with long, dark, flowing hair for some reason.
• Nightmare Face: Oh man, Adam has so many of these, most notably in episode three before he performs his first on screen murder, and later when he’s in the elevator with Rozy and she sees a missing poster for the woman he killed.
• Odd Couple: Rozy is tomboyish, paranoid, and not known to be friendly. Hawa is very feminine, rather naive, and incredibly popular. They’re best friends.
• Police Are Useless: None of the police that Rozy talks to believe her, in part because of the lack of evidence of Adam’s crimes. It’s also revealed that aside from Alex, most of the police officers are crooked and if not that, just plain incompetent.
• Properly Paranoid: Rozy is noted by many to be very paranoid, especially in regards to Hawa's safety. However, she's completely right about Adam; too bad for her he seems to enjoy messing with her and making her look unreliable.
• Psycho Knife Nut: Adam’s preferred weapon of choice is a knife, which he uses to kill the woman in episode 3 via slashed throat and repeated stabbings.
• Scars Are Forever: Rozy has a scar on her stomach that Hawa notes looks like a stab wound. Rozy can’t remember where she got it, only saying it’s been around forever.
• Serial Killer: In chapter 14, it's revealed that Adam Bahri really is a serial killer.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Played with Rozy. She’s very street smart, but almost too much; it comes across as incessant paranoia instead, especially when everything turns out alright.
• Stalker without a Crush: What Adam seems to be becoming towards both Hawa and Rozy. While Hawa fits the physical description of his victims, he seems to be developing more of an interest in Rozy.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Adam is tall especially in comparison to everyone else and has jet black hair. He's also noted by both Rozy and Hawa to be very charming.
• Theme Serial Killer: Adam’s type when it comes to victims consists of women with fair skin and long, flowing hair.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Adam looks like an ordinary, if very handsome and charming, man. Too bad he’s also a serial killer.
• 13 Is Unlucky: Adam's apartment is on the thirteenth floor. Definitely not a coincidence.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Implied to be the case with Rozy; she admits she doesn’t have many memories of her parents or her childhood, and considering how paranoid she is, well…
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Rozy has short hair and tends to wear practical clothes and pants. She also has a gruff, paranoid personality. Hawa has long, flowing hair and dresses up often. She's also much sweeter and naive than Rozy is.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: The main plot of the story! Rozy lives directly beneath Adam’s room, and he knows this.
• Unreliable Narrator: An ongoing theme in the story which makes the reader and Rozy doubt their own recollections of events. It also doesn't help the author has used this trope before in their other work. When Rozy first sees Adam murder a woman and despite bringing up these allegations to the police. She is dismissed due the medications she was using (suspected to have side effects) and her concussion which she got after trying to escape from Adam. Currently, the narrative is supporting Rozy's belief that Adam is a serial killer and even has an episode dedicated to showing how Adam targeted women before but it is still in the air if this is well and truly the case if Rozy is Properly Paranoid or Improperly Paranoid (The Author's past work really doesn't help in enforcing this ambiguity). Which adds to the tension the story brings.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Adam starts taking one in both Hawa with an ominous photo of a cup of coffee and while it is currently minor also to Rozy due to their similar traits.
• Would Hurt a Child: Adam’s first onscreen victim is a pregnant woman and her unborn child.
• Yandere: A very strange, twisted example with Adam. In episode 14, it’s noted by the narration that the more affection he feels for his targets, the stronger the urge to kill them is.