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Tao waited for Kris while he worked for the rest of the day, after a quick tour around the police station with Yongguk and Zelo, Kris was done and he, obviously begrudgingly, called for Tao and told him he would be taking him to the apartment. There was a slight air of discomfort in everything Kris did. Tao didn’t see the point in trying to make any kind of conversation with the man, it was more than obvious he wasn’t interested in anything Tao had to say unless it was an answer to one of his questions and nothing more.

The drive was quick to Kris’s flat so there wasn’t really much room for talking anyway. The older man didn’t take the time to show Tao to the place, he simply instructed 5^th floor, third door on the right, then handed him a small bit of paper with the door lock code on it. Tao knew what politeness was and he certainly wasn’t receiving any from the older man but he wasn’t really sure how to handle the situation so he chose to let it all slide in the hopes the man would ease up to him eventually. It took about ten minutes for Tao to meander up the stairs and down the hall to the apartment he’d be staying in. He stood in front of the door for a while, the single thought in his head was that this was Kris’s apartment. Kris had stayed here before and slept here before. The man that seemed to really hate him for some reason or another was paying for this apartment and had basically just given it away. Seemed odd.

Pressing in the key lock numbers Tao pushed open the door and glanced around. His first look of the place told him that no one lived here. It just looked too clean, too empty. It was a pretty small place, everything basically one room with a balcony style bedroom up a small flight of stairs about midway in the room.  The door had a narrow porch-like square just on the inside, to the left of that door was another that Tao could assume lead to the bathroom, the other side was a large storage cupboard and beside that was a medium sized fridge-freezer. The small apartment lead straight into the kitchen area and Tao quickly counted three cupboards along the bottom of one of the walls and four along the top. Along the counters there was a stove made up of two hobs and a sink, the end of the counters was made up of three draws, there was a washing machine in the corner besides another door that Tao would later find out contained the boiler and gas line. Also in the kitchen area was a small table with two stools sat by it. That part looked almost homey. The two white stools, turned into each other a little at the table. Passed the kitchen area the apartment went into a cute looking half-living room. A purple rug was laid in the center of all the white furniture, a two seated couch sat near the back with a glass coffee table in front of it. There was no TV or radio or any other form of entertainment as far as Tao could see so he looked up to the balcony-like upstairs and carefully walked up, leaning over slightly so he didn’t hit his head on the low ceiling. There was a line of thin storage cupboards that Tao could only assume contained clothes and shoes, then at the end of the small room was a plush looking double bed, it was low to the ground and the white bed covers made it look rather welcoming. Overall the place wasn’t bad. It had enough room for everything it needed and maybe more for someone like Tao, maybe it would be ok living here alone. The only thing that bothered him was he had no way to contact Kris or anyone else for that matter. So his only option was to stay in the apartment until Kris came to pick him up the next day.

Knowing he had a long time to do nothing Tao stepped back downstairs and started looking through the cupboards in the kitchen. The first on the set of bottom cupboards contained nothing but pots, pans and a rice cooker. Useful but not very interesting. The middle cupboard had a few plates, some bowls, glasses, and mugs in as well as a nice looking blue and white polka dotted tea set. A little more interesting bit still nothing Tao was really that interested in. The third cupboard gave Tao more of an insight to the kind of guy Kris was. As Tao opened the door some of the things inside the overstuffed cupboard fell out onto his lap, breaking the silence in the room by filling it with a clatter of plastic and metal hitting the floor. All types of baking equipment and ingredients surrounded Tao before he could stop the avalanche of stuff falling out. There was the normal equipment, a large mixing bowl, measuring scales, wooden spoons, a few whisks, a rolling pin, a piping bag and sets of different shaped nozzles and a few things Tao didn’t recognise. Further towards the back of the cupboard there were all kinds of ingredients, self-raising and plain flour, cater sugar, eggs, brown sugar, baking powder, icing sugar and other types of baking ingredients. Behind those were small boxes filled with food colouring, edible glitters, chocolate chips, fudge chunks and all other types of decorating items. It seemed kind of odd that someone like Kris would have a hobby like baking. Tao want sure why but it just didn’t seem to fit the man’s personality. Taking the time to organise the cupboard properly Tao managed to fit everything back without anything falling out the next time someone opened the door before moving onto the set of three draws. The bottom draw contained a few containers with spices in as well as jars with jam, peanut butter and chocolate spread, the middle draw contained nothing but t-towels and washcloths and the third was fully of utensils. Once again everything contained was there for practicality and nothing more. Moving onto the cupboards at the top, Tao opened the first of the four to find two shelves of breakfast foods, the bread was in this cupboard sat beside a toaster then lines of different cereals filled the rest of the shelves except one corner stacked with boxes or pop tarts. Moving onto the next cupboard Tao found a stack of tins on the lower shelf with everything from fruits and veg to tinned pies and puddings. Nothing that peeked Tao’s interest or gave him any more of an idea about what kind of guy Kris was. The next cupboard along was pretty mundane also, a large bag of rice and a large bag of pasta shells filled the top shelf and the bottom was filled with other boring, healthy foods, crackers, rice cakes, granola bars and the like. The forth draw contained nothing of interest either, just more boring foods along the bottom, then some proper snacks stacked on the top shelf. Some chocolate bars, biscuits and other sweet-type foods. The kitchen wasn’t stocked to the brim but Kris seemed to have everything he needed in here for when he stayed and although it wasn’t the most interesting stuff Tao could understand the practicality of having it all there. The next thing the boy decided to look around in was the wardrobe-looking storage cupboard by the front door, opening it Tao saw nothing but file after file. The files where separated into folders and the folders were broken into different sections then each separate second had each folder alphabetised. Now this, unlike the baking cupboard, was exactly the type of thing Tao expected from Kris. He didn’t want to pry too much so he simply looked at the section labels. Mostly it was work related. Unfinished Work. Take to office. Robot schedules. Nothing worth a second glance. After that it was all bank stuff, payment slips, recites, paperwork for this and that. Again Tao didn’t think it would be the best decision to dig through all the stuff so he closed the cupboard after reading each section label.

Trusting that there would be nothing of interest to him in the fridge-freezer Tao quickly walked over to the living room area and looked around there. The lack of TV meant all the furniture centred round the coffee table. There were two short bookcases by the large window at the back of the room and a homey-looking fireplace in the corner. All in all the downstairs was nice, comfortable, practical and just nice. Tao would definitely be okay living here. He felt a little weird even thinking about sleeping in Kris’s bed, even if it was just a temporary thing for Kris. Checking the time Tao sighed a little and figured he really didn’t have anything else to do but waste time until Kris came and picked him up. It was only half 10 so he had a good seven and a half hours at least before anything interesting happened. Taking another glance around the place Tao walked to the bookshelf and pulled out a copy of I have the right to destroy myself, laid down on the couch and pulled a blanket over himself, after getting comfy he started to read, taking the time to sink in every word of the book, reading the thing cover to cover before falling into an animated sleep.