To think this man should just say hi

[MysticFlyTrap]

I have a neighbour and we don't talk to one another as we live in a neighbourhood that keeps themselves to themselves. But lately he keeps coughing on purpose if I'm close proximity to him. His children attend the same school and I see him on every school run but we pass each other without saying hi.
But every time I have passed him in the last couple of weeks he keeps deliberately making a loud fake coughing sound when he passes me. I don't give eye contact as it makes me feel anxious but just wondering why people, particularly men fake cough. Is it to get attention, should I cough back or say hi. Aibu to be annoyed at this and should I just start a conversation with him or do you think he is coughing at me just to bully me in some way or a way of getting attention.

Get some lozenges and offer him one

Is this really a common thing?

gosh how weird. my area is exactly the same no one talks to anyone.

the man is weird not the area.

Weird. Ignore.

Is there some bizarre reason why you can't say "hello" to him first?

i would ignore tbough as i think he sounds rude. why cant he say hello instead of coughing!

Just don't know whether to say hello first as wondering why after all these years is he trying to get attention from me. It's so weird

I think it sounds a bit weird to walk past someone and not at least smile or say 'morning' or something. It seems so odd to studiously ignore each other!

Oh he’s weird. I’ve made some lovely friends at the school but if I get a bad feeling about someone I keep my distance.

Yep true maybe he thinks I'm the ignorant one hence the cough

nah sounds passive aggressive, i would ignore. he thinks your rude by not saying hello but doesnt say hello himself? yeh makes perfect sense.

Id just leave it.

Smile and say hi next time, he's going to end up with a sore throat coughing

Just say hello then it won't be weird anymore.

Just say hello before he gets the cough in. Probably trying to get your attention

Maybe he thinks you're rude/blanking him? You walk past him every day but never once say hello?

Don't get why he would be wanting to get my attention but I agree saying hi will make it less awkward than it currently is

You have a neighbour whose kids go to your school and you see him every day and you don't even say a cursory polite hello?? Sorry but that is odd.

But he doesn't say hi to me either so I assumed he didn't want to make pleasantries with me. Some neighbours are like that

If you start saying hi and he still does it then agree with above, he's weird, give him a wide berth!

he doesnt say hello either! and now has started being passive agressive. my area is the same, upstairs neighbours kids go same school as mine but we do not speak. none of the neighbours do.

When I lived in the north it wasn't the done thing to pass someone regularly without saying "hi", used to have full scale conversations with the woman at the bus stop. Even random strangers you would pass and smile at or pass the obligatory "morning". Now though, 250 miles further south and 10 years later, I don't talk to most of my neighbours, its not the done thing. Nobody seems to. I talk to the older couple on the right, but the young couple on the left we don't speak to at all (there was an incident with a fence and they got labelled by MN as CFs). Most the neighbours won't talk to any of the other neighbours though, but I am a stubborn northerner who still insists on smiling at people, it is met with suspicion at first.

I sometimes wonder if its distance or time that has changed this...

Reminds me of Dolores Umbridge...I wouldn't say hi to either of them.

Maybe he is coughing with the aim of getting eye contact so that he can the say hello? Next time just cough back. It can be like your secret handshake.