The Roommate Agreement

Chapter 1

"So are you going to see him again?" You ask down the phone to your friend as you make your way up to your apartment, fishing your keys out from your bag.

"I don't know, it wasn't the worst date I've been on but it wasn't the best if you get what I mean." She sighs in response. You could hear her quick typing as she had you on call and you chuckled knowing what she was up to.

"You're already back on the dating sites aren't you?"

"Hey I have to keep my options open." You both laugh at each other and the laughter makes it difficult for you to steadily get the key in the lock, but upon opening the door your laughter soon dies off.

"I gotta go, I'll drop you a text later." You say, joy leaving your tone before you hung up and slowly leaned down to pick up a red envelope you found on the floor. Turning the envelope over in your hands your eyes are met with big bold black letters reading 'EVICTION NOTICE'.

Your heart sank and panic started to set in. You shut the door quietly behind you before sitting on the couch, not daring to open the envelope...but you had to. You tear the top of the envelope off with shaky hands and pull out the letter. You see clearly printed on the letter your name and address, so it clearly wasn't put through your door by mistake, the rest read;

According to the lease agreement that was agreed to and signed before moving into the property you are required to

1) Pay the monthly rent of 300,000 Won.

2) Adhere to the rule stated in the lease agreement.

3) Failure to do so will result in eviction due to non-compliance.

You are hereby notified to vacate the premises in the address stated above within 14 days of the date of the delivery of the notice to you.

Your rent is past overdue and you are required to pay 693,500 Won, this includes late fees. If this amount is paid in full before the eviction date, we will not proceed with the eviction.

And signed at the bottom was the signature of your landlady Mrs Kim. You couldn't argue that your rent was overdue, you knew this and you'd apologised profusely to Mrs Kim, telling her that you promise to get the money to her as soon as you could but seeing how much you owed now it seemed impossible to do. Work had been messing you around lately, cutting your hours whenever they felt like it and your student loan wasn't coming in until next month, not enough time for you to be able to use that for you rent.You'd been living off the cheapest instant ramen you could find for the last 2 months and you only used your heating for 3 hours as day at most to try and save as much money as you could to scrape together to make rent, but to no avail. You were well and truly screwed.

You needed to find a new place to stay but as it was your current apartment was one of the cheapest on the market and you couldn't even pay for it, so how were you going to pay for a new one? In a state of panic you pick up the phone and call Mrs Kim to see if there was anything you could do to be able to stay.

"Hi Mrs Kim," You started, trying to control the shakiness of your voice. "I just had this eviction letter through my door, is there anything I can do to persuade you to change your mind?"

"I'm sorry dear but my hands are tied, you've been a lovely tenant you really have but my husband is starting to get really irritated by the lack of rent pay we've had off you." She was so sweet in how she spoke to you, she was your typical old lady, the type of woman you'd see in a grocery store and would compliment you or shower you with thanks if you helped her reach something, she was a real sweetheart.

"My student loan is coming in next month, I'll be able to pay you then. Is there any way I can get you to reconsider?" You were grasping at straws now.

"I'm sorry dear, my name might be on the door but it's my husband that deals with the finances so if it's his decision to evict you then I'm sorry love I can't do anything to help." She sounded genuinely sorry about the situation so you felt no need to get fired up and argue with her, it wasn't her fault really.