February

Seung

 

Man, oh man I love this house so much!!

When I think how I almost lost out on living in this magnificent place I feel like a total idiot.

The day I went to meet Desiree’s roommate turned into a nightmare.

I had no idea that India was her best friend and roommate.

The world is so small and crazy, and you just do not know what will happen.

“You are the biggest idiot Seung! I can’t believe you got hooked up with Caesar!”

“Caesar of all people!” Desiree scoffs.

“What happened?” I ask.

“Well his uncle Kang recruited Indy right out of business school and Caesar was her immediate supervisor.”

“He was married at the time and she was close to his ex -wife Barbie.”

“She would hang out with them on weekends and she considered them to be friends.”

As I am hearing the story unfold my skin begins to crawl.

“She came to the house one weekend thinking that they were having a cookout and Caesar was there alone and very drunk.”

“To make a long story short she felt uncomfortable being there with him like that and when she tried to leave, he forced himself on her.”

“What?” I scream my blood beginning to boil.

“Nothing happened because she was able to fight him off but as she was running out of the house his wife pulled up.”

“Oh boy.”

“Yeah oh boy is right, India was crying hysterically, her shirt was ripped and she had a bruise on her face where he slapped her so his wife knew instinctively she wasn’t lying about him trying to her.”

“How is he still working there and why isn’t he in jail?” I ask getting angry.

“Well at first because of her friendship with his wife she decided not to press any charges and his uncle promised to send him to another branch and that she’d never have to see him again.”

“Well obviously that didn’t happen.” I add.

“Well no at first it did happen he was gone from the branch for 3 years and when Kang had a he miraculously came back to this branch and they moved her to a different department thinking that would appease her.” She didn’t go quietly at all and because the company didn’t keep up its end of the bargain she went ahead and filed the ual harassment case against him.”

“She has every piece of evidence, every recording and everything he’s ever done or said written down and her lawyer has it.”

“And apparently there have been a total of ten cases filed since then.”

“His wife has divorced him and since there was no prenup she got everything.”

“Sole custody of their children, the houses, the cars, the money everything.”

“Caesar is living in Kang’s pool house and to be honest he might be going to jail really soon.”

“Jeeze, no wonder she hates my guts.” I sigh.

“Yeah well you deserve it you have been a total jackass.”

“Man, this is bad, and I have no idea how to fix it.”

“Can you please speak to her for me.”

“I don’t know man you have pretty much burned your bridges with her I think you should just take the money and find another situation.”

“But I already told my landlord that I would vacate the unit by the first of January, he has it rented out already.”

“Wow I don’t know what to tell you dude you’re screwed.”

I sit down on the couch and sigh dramatically.

“Do you think if I apologize to her sincerely, she’d give me a chance?”

“She is not an unreasonable person just be real with her and see what happens.”

“I hope you can get this resolved before I head to Seoul, so I don’t have to worry about you.”

“Yeah me to because this whole thing sounds like a plot to k drama gone bad.”

“You got that right.”

 

That was six weeks ago.

Desiree was able to talk her into meeting with me.

At first, I thought she was going to tell me to kick rocks.

But her son made her change her mind.

When I got to the house, he answered the door.

“Hey, my name is Dylan and yours?” He asked holding out his hand for me to shake.

“Seung pleased to meet you.”

“No problem so is you the one who wants to be our new roommate?”

“Well I’m hoping so but that is up to your mom.” I say sheepishly.

“Well I don’t know you have already gotten on her bad side.”

“Dude what did you do?” He asks.

I chuckle in response not sure how to respond.

“Well” …

“You know what never mind it aint my business that’s grown folks’ stuff I am cool on it.” He says.

I burst out laughing at that.

“Do you wanna play video games with me?” He asks.

“Sure, what systems do you have?”

“I have Sega Genesis, Play station 4, Xbox, Nintendo WII, Nintendo Switch, and Classic Nintendo.”

“Whoa no way you have a Sega?”

“Yes, my mom found all the classic consoles and games for me.”

“She got them for my 10th birthday last year.”

“That is so awesome which one is your favorite?”

He leads me downstairs to his playroom and I am floored.

This is a gamer dream room.

A huge television screen, arcade games lined up against the wall, pinball machine and a huge computer with headphones and speaker towers on both sides.

My mouth falls open in shock at the sheer abundance of things in this room.

“Oh, I am sorry do you want a tour?”

“Yes.”

He takes me around and shows me the area downstairs.

There was a full kitchenette, 3 full bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, a theater room with a projection screen! A projection screen!! Whoa!

I cannot even believe what I am seeing.

This whole area is incredible no wonder she is willing to pay a full thousand dollars more on the rent to have these amenities.

“You wanna see my bedroom?”

“Sure.”

He leads me into a huge room that is a boy’s room with sports paraphernalia.

There is a king-sized bed, basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, and hockey this kid loves it all.

I look to the left and there are the trophies.

Shelves of them.

“Wow are these all you?” I ask walking over to them.

“Yeah, they are mostly for basketball and baseball though I have a few for tennis and music.”

“But that is nothing you should see the ones mom has.”
“She was a beast in basketball before she had me.”

“My great grandmother has a whole wall of shelves of her trophies.

“Oh?” I ask intrigued.

“Yeah.” He says leading me back to the game room.

“She had me when she was really young and had to give up her basketball hopes but she still plays on a league.”

“She is the oldest on the team but the best she be smoking them young girls all the time.”

I listen completely intrigued I had no idea all this happened to her.

But to be honest I do not know anything about her outside of work, and I feel so small thinking how I misjudged her so badly.

We end up playing games from every console and the hours fly by.

We are having so much fun I did not even hear India come in.

“Oh man you are dead meat.” I say and I hear her clear .

I jump up quickly, “Oh I am so sorry.” I say looking around nervously.

“Oh, hey mommy when did you get back?”

“Oh, I have been back for a while now, I had no idea you would be here.”

She says looking at me and then at Dylan.

“Umm yeah Desi told me to meet her here I got here a while ago