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Chapter 2

Khaiser's motorbike moves at a constant speed, not too fast and not too slow. Behind his helmet's visor, his sight is fixated on the road in front of him and its surrounding. The curtain of the night has rolled down, yet it is lively and busy on the road. It is not something uncommon and strange since it is an outskirts area of a city. Plus with the holiday just around the corner, surely everyone has set their plans.

The busyness not only can be seen on the road, but also in most of the buildings. From afar, Khaiser can see a few cars lining up to either enter the flat complex or move out of it. He switches on the signal light to the left and slows down, stopping behind a silver car. He takes the opportunity to straighten up his body to relieve his tiredness. He can see that there are three cars in front of him as he stretches, including the silver one. Noticing that the car at the very front of the line is ready to move and enter the flat complex, he quickly finishes what he was doing and fixes his posture.

Khaiser's motorbike moves slowly and follows the silver car before it gradually gains its speed. Another car just arrived and follows him, but he chooses to not pay attention to it. One by one, the cars pass through the gate until it is his turn.

As soon as he passes through the gate, Khaiser drives straight to the parking lot area. Just as he thought, it is quite busy as well though it is still under control. There is still plenty of available parking slot. However, the parking area for cars is not his concern.

Khaiser continues driving to the parking area for motorbikes. A few parking spots are already being occupied, but it is still not an issue for him as there are plenty of empty spots left. He chooses the spot that is a bit separated from other motorbikes as it is much easier for him to move freely. After carefully parking his motorbike, he turns off the engine and gets off of it before pulling out the key. He stands next to his vehicle for a while. The area around his parking slot is scanned briefly. Confident that there is nothing suspicious around him, he leaves his transport and walks away to his house. He taps the pockets on his jacket and trousers a few times before taking off his helmet as his legs are bringing him to his destination.

The whole flat complex is filled with various kinds of sounds. On the ground floor alone, Khaiser has to endure the deafening ambience that smashes his eardrums as he walks. There are a few people in the hallway, more than he has ever met before. It slows down his steps as he has to slip in between them, prolonging his agony. Even though he has been exposed to the same atmosphere a few times before as he started living in the flat, his heart still cannot tolerate the chaos.

Khaiser keeps walking, making his way in between the strangers until he arrives in front of a door. He pushes the door open. A series of a staircase is revealed in front of his eyes. Without delay, he steps on them and climbs, one step at a time. The slamming sound of the heavy door that he opened earlier closing on its own does not bother him at all. There are a few well-functioning lifts at the flat, but he prefers to use the stair since he is not the kind of person who likes to go to the gym to work out. So far in his life, he had been to the gym only three times and all of those times were because his housemate asked for his company. Plus, his house is just on the third floor. Now that there are more people at the flat, he is pretty sure using the lift will be slower compared to using the stair.

Khaiser comes across a few other people as he climbs the stair, though it is still fairly empty compared to the hallway. Some of them are his neighbours and others are total strangers. Nonetheless, he greets all of them with a friendly smile.

Khaiser climbs the last step of the stair and reaches for the door. He pulls the door open and steps out as he reaches the third floor. A sense of exhaustion creeps into his whole body as soon as he is able to walk normally again. However, he refuses to stop walking. He breathes deeply to control his breath's tempo as his legs lead him to reach his house. The hallway on the third floor is not so much different than the ground floor, a bit more crowded than usual and noisier.