Pexels/Reddit

Living with roommates means accepting that you’re going to cross paths in common spaces. But when those paths seem to cross virtually every single time you leave your bedroom, it’s understandable to start wondering what on earth is going on.

One frustrated roommate says she can barely make it to the bathroom, grab something from the fridge or start cooking without hearing her roommate’s bedroom door open moments later. Sometimes the woman apparently doesn’t even have anything to do—she’ll simply linger nearby until OP retreats to her room, then head back to hers.

After noticing the roommate does the same thing to her sibling, OP is convinced this isn’t coincidence. Whether it’s intentional, subconscious or just an extremely irritating quirk, she says she’s officially losing her mind.

roommate constantly follows me whenever i leave my room

yall i am fed the f*** up and i dont know what to do anymore. almost every time i leave my room my roommate also leaves her room. its incessant.

whenever i go to the bathroom i hear her door open and she goes into the kitchen to do something almost like shes waiting for me to leave the bathroom. sometimes she does actually just wait in front of the bathroom as soon as i get in there.

whenever i go into the kitchen she decides that its suddenly time for her to do sh*t in the kitchen.

C’mon now.

i swear to god its like the sound of me doing something outside of my room is some sort of subconscious cue for her to leave her room.

she is the only one in my apartment that does this. she does it to my sibling too. i can rarely leave my room without her following me.

i can never cook without her getting in the way and she even sometimes acts surprised that there is no room for her in the kitchen even though the literal reason she left her room is BECAUSE SHE HEARD ME OUT HERE.

That’s pure insanity.

i can’t even quickly open the fridge to get a snack or glass of water or whatever without hearing her f****ing door open and suddenly she’s hovering over me and whatever im doing.

i will literally be sitting out there doing nothing and she will come out of her room to hover over me doing nothing.

i have to go back into my room to get her to go back to her room.

Wow.

she wont even have anything to do out there i will literally go back to my room and she will have done nothing out here and then gone back to her room because me going back to my room got her to go back to hers.

she will be home all freaking day and in her room all day and not leave her room until she hears me leaving mine.

i am going insane. i dont even know if she’s even aware that she has this habit but my god i am losing my mind.

Commenters could understand why the pattern was driving OP crazy, but many weren’t quite ready to declare the roommate a malicious stalker.

Some readers suggested the roommate might simply be lonely, socially awkward or using the sound of another person moving around as a subconscious cue to leave her own room. If she’s spending most of the day alone behind a closed door, hearing someone in the kitchen could genuinely remind her that she needs water, food or something else.

Others were more sympathetic to OP’s suspicion, particularly because the roommate apparently comes out almost immediately, waits outside the bathroom and sometimes seems to have absolutely no purpose for entering the shared space. Even if she isn’t intentionally “following” OP, commenters agreed that constantly hovering around someone can become incredibly uncomfortable.

Still, readers pointed out that the kitchen, bathroom and other common areas belong to the roommate too. OP can’t reasonably expect her never to come out simply because OP got there first, and without actually talking to her, there’s no way to know what’s motivating the behavior.

The most practical advice was also the most obvious: stop silently testing whether she’ll follow and actually say something. OP doesn’t need to accuse her of stalking—she can simply mention that she’s noticed they constantly end up in the kitchen at the same time and ask for a little space when she’s cooking.

Because intentional or not, hiding in your bedroom just to keep your roommate in hers isn’t exactly a sustainable living arrangement.

This person suggests making a game out of it.

This person says she’s been there before and feels her pain.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a condo owner who replaced a whole a/c unit just to stop the complaints.

And this person says there could be a good reason for this.

The world’s most annoying game of follow-the-leader needs to end.