A cramped living room dimly illuminated by the smallest hue of light passing through the windows welcomed Yunho’s vision, causing him to freeze upon his first step inside the area. As if his apartment room was already not a mayhem firmly squeezed within the tight space, a new kind of added mess managed to turn the entire place into a shipwreck. The wooden coffee table appeared to be shoved from its usual position, changing from the centre of the room to being hurled upside down against the corner. Papers of past bills, receipts and crumpled documents were littered on the one and only sofa Yunho had in his apartment, perhaps the aftermath of someone rummaging through the nearby cupboard of the adjoined minimal kitchen space. The empty dustbin was tossed over, rolled to the other corner of the room.

This must be it; an intruder had entered the apartment room.

Yunho immediately reached for the wall as he flicked the nearby switch, turning on the lights in the living room. He welcomed the brightened sight of his apartment to his view, wasting zero seconds as he proceeded to detect signs of unwanted guest in the room. Yet after a minute of scanning the entire living room, Yunho failed to notice signs of a possible intruder.

Rushing to the adjoined kitchen, Yunho’s first instinct was to check upon the fridge and his guts helped him right as some of the food he stored within had seemingly been consumed or taken out. The connected kitchen counters were layered with few crumbs of some leftover crackers, a half-eaten apple and an empty glass rolled over close to the edge of the sink. It appeared that the thief had the damn audacity to take some of Yunho’s stock of food for the month.

Now that he was in the kitchen, Yunho finally had access to some ‘weapon-able’ tools he could temporarily use to defend himself. And his optimum choice of a weapon was the knife he picked up from the countertop closest to him. He tightened his grip upon the tilt of the knife as he attempted to calm down his breathing. Getting panicked over a possible intruder would not do him any good. He needed to act smart. His other free hand was still holding his phone and this time he was about to dial in some of the tenants he met earlier. Those men outside could be his reinforcement if needed.

“Show yourself!” Yunho exclaimed in a commanding tone. His voice reverberated throughout the entire room yet regardless of how loud his voice was, his request was replied by none.

He hissed softly to himself. Perhaps shouting like that wasn’t the best idea for now. Assuming a negative outcome, the intruder might possibly be alerted by his voice and proceed to escape through one of the windows available. You can do better than this, Yunho.

Assuming that he probably would not receive a response the longer he waited, Yunho continued checking the rest of the rooms in his tiny living space.

There were only two rooms left to be checked out. Yunho’s priority was to head over to his bedroom with the quietest steps he could manoeuvre. He meandered his path from the short corridor before halting his pace and proceeded to gently lean his side over his bedroom door. With the knife equipped on his front, Yunho attempted to eavesdrop upon the vaguest hint of noises inside the bedroom. Yet upon listening to zero ruckus, he still decided to give the door a push, slowly carving his entrance with knife prepared to strike a stab to whoever or whatever would appear right in front of him as soon as he stepped in.

And…. None.

Zero sign of life was detected inside his bedroom. Yunho’s tensed shoulders loosened for a bit. He reached for the switch on the wall, blinking on the flickering light of the lamp before adjusting his vision to the newly brightened view of his bedroom. And to Yunho’s absolute surprise, the only view to greet him was not of an expected chaos, but a somewhat different anti-climactic scene.

Somehow, unlike the previous living room where it looked like the aftermath of an earthquake, Yunho’s bedroom was relatively… left untouched. It wasn’t tidy of course, but it didn’t have any signs of a stranger entering the room rummaging through several drawers of the dresser. Some ready-made mess was already there, like piles of clothes thrown into a hill on the floor waiting for laundry, socks sprawling on the bed as well as the wires of the laptop charger coiling and dangling on the edge of the desk like a snake. Yunho was a totally tidy and neat person, yet his recent changes in work schedules fed him up, messing with not just his life but his capability to clean up his apartment. Yet, regardless of the visible mess in the bedroom, again, there was zero indication of an intruder. Perhaps, it seemed like whoever entered his apartment had decided to leave the bedroom out, or maybe, they managed to clean off their evidence quite expertly. Yet, that didn’t simply mean Yunho didn’t need to be extra careful, though.

For what felt like 15 or 20 minutes passing by Yunho busied himself by checking the closet and drawers in his bedroom, making sure that his personal belongings were still in the positions in which he placed them to be. He ensured that he managed to locate his birth certificate, some old photo albums that he held dear, as well as some souvenirs and gifts he received from friends. Yunho didn’t forget to examine his bed to the extent of bending down and peeking beneath the bed as well, wondering if someone could be hiding underneath. Yunho even decided to head to the window before opening it, leaning out a bit just to confirm there was no hint of someone escaping through here. Once he believed he had done a perfect check-up of his bedroom, Yunho concluded that the possibly intruder had already left the premise. He needed to do another check up on the living room later just in case some items were missing. Then he surely needed to inform the rest of the tenants regarding this incident and see if anyone had similar experiences. Sigh. It would be a long hell of a night.

But then, there was a noise.

“The bathroom,” an alerted whisper of a gasp came out of his mouth as Yunho immediately bolted out of his bedroom, making a hurried dash to the source of the noise.

Upon standing in front of the bathroom, Yunho noticed that the door was close as it usually was, yet there was light coming underneath the door. Gritting his teeth while swallowing his concern, Yunho heaved a breath as he mustered the pieces of courage he had left within him. His sweaty yet firm grip upon the knife handle never let loose as he prepared himself for an anticipated combat.

Leaning his side against the bathroom door, Yunho made extra effort in being as silent as he could upon assuming that there would be a large chance of someone inside the bathroom due to the light was on. His attempt on eavesdropping resulted in a minimal success with a vague sound of rushing water was the answer.

“The shower?” Yunho breathed a guess to himself. Could the intruder really be that brave and obnoxious at the same time? As if eating some leftovers from the fridge and trashing the living room were not enough to be offensive, now the thief was showering perhaps? That stranger must have the courage of steel or something.

Which was contradictory to Yunho who had been gulping ever since his instinct told him someone was definitely inside the bathroom. He still had the chance to consider over his alternatives on how to deal with the situation. For starter, Yunho could block the bathroom door with the sofa and indirectly lock the stranger inside. Then he could make a run to the group of tenants downstairs and ask for immediate help. He should probably try to do that. But again, he couldn’t risk the possibility of his plan failing as it would backfire him. The risk of failing his strategy was greater than the rate of him succeeding. There were several things to be considered as well. If he did fail his plan of asking for assistance, the intruder had at least two choices to do; either to leave the premise and escape or enter into another tenant’s room and possibly harming whoever inside. No, Yunho had to handle this on his own first. Perhaps if he was injured later on he could use the remaining strength in him to dial for help. Yes, that would work.

“Who is there?!” an assertive question was shouted out of his mouth as soon as Yunho kicked the bathroom door open, wincing slightly in expectant of a foe pouncing on him.

Yet again, there was no one in the bathroom.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” mumbling to himself, Yunho was left puzzled and almost speechless upon seeing zero indication of an intruder inside the bathroom. The light was indeed switched on but as similar as the bedroom previously, there was no sign of mess inside the bathroom at all. And the source of the ‘noise’ was the shower somehow got by some unseen factor. Well, at least Yunho got his guess right.

Sighing softly, Yunho carefully stepped upon the slightly damp floor of the bathroom as he approached the shower and began turning it off. It was strange, an entirely peculiar occurrence. Did he leave the bathroom light on before he went to work? That was unlikely. Yunho was quite tight in money, and he really didn’t need a useless reason to increase the bills. Moreover, he believed he was a man who took almost everything into calculations, or in simpler words, Yunho rarely did mistakes. He had few of them, but he often tried to lessen the chances of failures. He had enough case of being a failure as an artist himself, he didn’t need more of it. So no, he most likely didn’t leave the bathroom light on all this time.

Also, what the hell happened with the shower? Yunho stood there wordlessly staring down on the floor as he watched the remaining beads of water racing and merging into a puddle. It was bizarre. His gaze observed the shower as his eyes looked for perhaps issues needed to be repaired with the shower itself, yet he saw none. The shower couldn’t possibly be activated on its own, it wasn’t even automated. Perhaps a lizard or insect somehow made a movement and flick the switch on? It was rare, but it did happen with lizards and rats doing funny business with the electric wires or fuses. But it never happened with the shower.

“You decide to malfunction tonight, huh?” Yunho spoke to the shower as he tried to set aside the uneasy feelings accumulating within his chest.

His shoulders were still tensed but he could relax quite a bit upon concluding that despite it was strange there was absolutely no one in his apartment room other than himself. Perhaps there was an intruder, but they most likely had already left. Eventually placing the knife on the edge of the sink, Yunho reached out for his phone and began typing in some words to the tenants’ group chat. A group he rarely interacted with, but a group he appreciated to have specifically for its function of notifying events as well as the lively members. Regardless of what had happened to his room tonight, Yunho felt it was his responsibility to notify his fellow tenants of the incident because he was certain someone did enter his room unnoticed.

“The living room…” Yunho eventually groaned in complete frustration knowing that he probably would have less hours of sleep thanks to the chaotic mess made in his room. He couldn’t just rest easy after knowing his room had just received a visit from a potential robber who somehow didn’t steal anything other than some leftovers from the fridge.

“For ’s sake, why it has to be me?” asking a rather rhetorical question to himself, Yunho kept on typing some sentences in his phone as he made a turn, about to leave the tiny bathroom when,

“Hey,”

“Hey- Uh, who the hell-”

When a man’s voice breached his hearing, Yunho quickly removed his focus from his phone as he immediately noticed someone was here with him. Someone. Was. In. The. Bathroom.

“ARRGHH!” a deafening shriek filled the atmosphere in a speed, followed by Yunho’s natural reflex of jumping backward, trying to avoid the ‘person’ he just spoke to.

Yunho’s vision greeted him to a sight of a random man leaning by the bathroom doorframe, basically blocking Yunho from having access to the entrance. This man appeared to have an almost similar height to Yunho himself, perhaps a bit shorte