Chapter 2

Stuart froze. Looking visibly caught, he started yelling at me.

"So what if I didn't tell Mr. Ferguson about it? I'm spending my own money to help him renovate the place! He'd be thrilled when he sees that his apartment has gotten even bigger!"

I stopped the audio recording on my phone and waved Stuart off, saying, "Go ahead with your renovation work then. It's best if you can give Mr. Ferguson a huge surprise. I have class to attend, so I'm heading out now."

I started leaving the apartment early and coming back late to deliberately avoid running into Stuart. A few days had passed without any incident before I suddenly got a call from Mr. Ferguson.

"You owe me an explanation, Mr. Langley!" Mr. Ferguson snapped at me, his voice furious and frantic. "Why did you damage my property without prior permission? Don't you know that what you did is illegal?"

For a moment, I was utterly confused. When did I damage the apartment? All I did at the apartment was sleep there at night. I didn't even have time to cook.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mr. Ferguson. What did I do to the apartment?"

"Why are you acting like you did nothing when you tore out the insulation at my apartment? I want you to move out today!"

At last, the situation dawned on me. It was pretty hilarious, to be honest. Did Stuart think he could throw me under the bus because he was scared that his actions had blown up in his face?

What made him think I would take the fall for him?

"It seems to me you're questioning the wrong guy, Mr. Ferguson. It was your other tenant who damaged your property. You should be confronting him about it."

"I've already spoken to him. He said that it was you who—"

"I have evidence, Mr. Ferguson. You can listen to the audio recording I'm about to send you to figure out who's truly at fault here. Also, my professors and classmates can act as my witnesses. I've been spending all my time doing experiments on campus. I haven't had time to hire a crew to get any work done at the apartment."

After I sent over the audio recording, I didn't hear back from Mr. Ferguson. He was probably going after Stuart again.

Unsurprisingly, when I got home, Stuart was fuming. The moment he saw me, he stormed up to me and questioned me, "Benson! Just what the hell are you trying to do? Why did you secretly record our conversation? You even sent it to Mr. Ferguson! Do you have any idea how much trouble you've gotten me into?"

His righteous indignation made me snort. My eyes dripped with mockery as I retorted, "What's the matter? You're allowed to frame me, but I'm not allowed to use a recording to clear my name?"

Stuart couldn't respond. His lips parted, but no words came out. In the end, he flopped onto the floor and started bawling his eyes out. "I don't care! You knew it wasn't the right thing to do, so why didn't you warn me sooner? I'm about to get kicked out of the apartment! Don't you feel the slightest bit of remorse for that?"

"Remorse? Why should I feel remorse? Did I tell you to destroy the walls? Didn't I tell you to get Mr. Ferguson's permission first? I'm not your mother, you know. It's not my duty to clean up your messes for you."

Snorting, I went straight to my room without paying him any further attention.

This time around, without a sucker like me who cleaned up after him, Stuart was forced to bend over backward and do everything he could to appease Mr. Ferguson. He also had to pay a large sum in compensation and provide an additional deposit just to avoid getting turned out of the apartment.

I thought this lesson would be enough for him to at least be on his best behavior for a while, but he continued doing whatever he pleased.

…

At night, I was in my room working on a presentation when I heard the washing machine beeping in a way that indicated it was malfunctioning. Since it was a pretty old model that often encountered errors, I didn't give it much thought.

But the beeping persisted, and after some time, an anxious Stuart came knocking on my door.

"Benson, you need to come out and take a look at this! The washing machine keeps beeping like something's wrong. What should we do?"

His interruption made it impossible for me to focus on my work. Frowning, I opened the door in annoyance. "Why are you coming to me for help when there's something wrong with the washing machine? It's not like I know how to fix it. You can either restart it, call Mr. Ferguson about it, or get a repairman to fix it."

Still, I couldn't let the washing machine carry on beeping the entire time, so I pushed Stuart aside to unplug it first.

But as soon as I spotted the state of the washing machine, my eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

"Stuart, are you using the washing machine to do the dishes?"