Chapter 1

The voices from the other side of the door continued.

"Anyway, the contract for this quarter is expiring in three days. We don't need to continue the lease with her."

"Serves her right. That's what she gets for bossing us around all the time. She makes it seem as if she owns the place."

"And she even said it was her relative's apartment, that it was rented to us cheaply, so we should be grateful. Who the hell would believe that?"

"I already contacted the landlord. He said he'd still rent it to us next quarter at the same price."

The three of them quickly made their decision.

But they seemed to have forgotten something.

When we had just graduated from university, they had no money to rent a place close to our workplace, so they had crammed themselves into a remote suburb.

Every morning, they had to get up at four o'clock, transferring between buses and the subway, with a three-hour commute.

I couldn't bear to watch them suffer anymore, so I lied and said one of my relatives had a cheap apartment and invited them to move in and share the rent with me.

In truth, this apartment had been a graduation gift from my parents.

It was right next to where we worked, only a five-minute walk away, in a prime location, with four bedrooms and two living rooms, and there was never any worry about renting it out.

My parents had taught me from a young age not to flaunt wealth, so I hadn't revealed that I was the landlord.

I had only charged each of them 200 dollars in rent, with utilities and property fees all included.

Now, all my goodwill had been treated like shit.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open and went in.

The laughter inside the room stopped abruptly, and the air froze in an instant.

Sharon Lister was the first to react, forcing a smile onto her face.

"Jessica, you got off work so early today. Have you eaten yet? We've made pizza. Come have some with us."

As she spoke, she pulled me to sit down at the dining table.

She cleared her throat and said, "Jessica, the landlord called and asked whether we were going to renew the lease."

I lowered my head and ate the pizza without saying a word.

She secretly watched my expression and continued, "We've decided not to renew the contract."

My hand paused, and I looked up, confusion showing on my face.

"We found a cheaper place," she said, her eyes flickering. "Didn't you ask us to share the apartment before because the rent was too much for you to handle alone? Now that we're not renting this place anymore, you should be moving out too, right?"

My voice remained calm. "It's fine. If you decide not to continue renting this place, I can rent the whole place myself. I just finished a project recently and should be getting a pretty good bonus."

Sharon's expression changed slightly. "Don't you think it's a little bit of a waste for you to rent such a big place alone? Listen to me, you should rent a smaller studio. You could save quite a bit of money."

If I hadn't heard their scheming with my own ears, I might really have believed she was saying that for my own good.

"I'm used to living here, and I can't be bothered to move."

"Jessica!" Helen Jones, who hadn't said a word until now, finally snapped. She slammed her cutlery down hard on the table. "We wanted to leave you some dignity, but I didn't expect you to be so stubborn! I'll make things clear then. We don't want to live with you anymore, and we hope you'll take the initiative to move out. We don't want to fall out with you!"

I looked at her coldly. "I found this apartment, and I was the one who signed the contract. On what grounds do you get to say you don't want to rent this place anymore and expect me to move out?"

Wendy Shaw, who had been silent all along, finally said, "Jessica, living with you really makes us uncomfortable. If this goes on, we might not even be able to be friends anymore."

Wendy was my best friend.

She was from a poor family. Her mother had run away after giving birth to her, and her father was addicted to gambling and would beat her whenever he got drunk.

She had fought desperately to get into university, but her father had wanted to sell her to an old bachelor in exchange for some money.

I helped her escape that house overnight and helped her apply for student loans. During university, I shared half of my living expenses with her. Only then was she able to finish her university course and graduate.

After we graduated, I didn't want to see her squeezing onto buses every day, so I suggested that we rent a place together.

I only invited Sharon and Helen because I didn't want her to feel bad.

Wendy bit her lip and looked at me timidly. "You always used to think of me first. Please, can you just agree to move out? We'll still be good friends."

I looked at her indifferently, then suddenly smiled. "Alright, I'll move out."

Their eyes lit up immediately.

They kept saying that even if I moved out, we would still be good friends in the future.

I didn't want to listen to them anymore and turned around to go back to my room.

After closing the door, I took out my phone and called Mr. Lawson, who was managing my apartment.

"Increase the rent to 2,400 dollars."