Teach Me How To Love [mxmxm]

VIII

[Jae Lim]

"What the fuck is this?"

"Language!" Granny came around to whack me with her bag.

"Ow! Goddamn, you old lady! That hurts!" I screeched, jumping away from her. "Didn't anyone teach you that violence isn't the answer to everything?"

She started to yell at me in Mandarin and I grinned, knowing I won this time. I turned back to Guanlin and Jihoon. "No one told me we'd be living in some tiny apartment like this."

"We're at one of the higher floors and the entire floor is our flat. We'll see the layout and decide room arrangements inside." Guanlin ordered around, walking up to the front desk, all of us trailing in our luggage.

Like I expected, when we came to the front desk, the woman began speaking in Korean. Guanlin turned to Jihoon but Jihoon shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I know conversational shit, not fancy stuff like this."

And so, the stares were on me. I rolled my eyes and shoved past them. Putting on a smile, I began to converse with the woman in Korean. "Sorry about that, my companions don't speak Korean well."

She seemed pleasantly surprised when I spoke Korean. "Oh! That's no problem. Could I ask what name is under the apartment?"

"Liu Guanlin."

"Alright, I'll have to discuss the payments, the plans, and of course, the contract for the apartment. This is a pet friendly apartment and as you know, each floor is a separate apartment that comes furnished with whatever you need. Since he is a foreigner, we will be needing his passport and his documents."

I turned back around to Guanlin who now stood beside me. "She needs to talk to you about the contract and all that shit. Said you can have pets here, the place comes furnished and they need your passport and docs."

He grabbed out a handful of documents and his red passport.

She grabbed it and handed us a packet of papers instead. "This is the contract for the apartment. It's in Korean though, so you may want to read it instead and translate it for him. I'll be confirming his documents and making a copy of his passport."

I nodded my head and grabbed the contract instead. "She said that this is the contract, but since you can't read Korean, I'll read it and translate it for you. She also said she's checking all your docs to make sure they're legit and she's going to make a copy of your passport too. Since you're a foreigner."

I steadily read through and translated the entire contract for Guanlin. I had never felt such relief as having him sign that document. My throat was dry from all that reading.

"Sorry for the long wait. Here's the contract." I handed the signed document back over to her and she held out her hand that had three keys.

"These are the keys for your apartment. It's on floor 27. You just need to walk by here on the left side and there will be a pair of elevators. As soon as the elevators let you off, the door to your apartment will be there. Rent is due every month on the twentieth. If you ever get any mail, there's a room for mail for every apartment down the hallway to the right of this desk."

I nodded and thanked her with a smile before leaving with the keys in my hands, leading them past the front desk and towards the elevator.

"Alright, so there are three keys, we can just make a couple more copies if we need to at these key places—I can't remember the English name for it. Pay rent on the 20th of every month and the mail room is in the hallway to the right of the front desk. There's a security guard guy, but they probably won't do much. Our floor is the 27. It's also our apartment number and our mailbox number." I explained as we rode up the elevator to the apartment.