I caught up with Henry at the door of the building, where he introduced me to the security guy and told him something in Korean. I don’t know, I was getting too tired to concentrate, and the world was starting to sway a bit. Pathetically, I pulled at Henry’s sleeve. “Henry, I’m tired,” I whimpered. “I need to sleep soon…”

He jerked his arm out of my grasp and said something to me in Korean that sounded rather mean. At least, I think it was Korean. My mind was a bit fuzzy from lack of sleep.

“Huh?”

He sighed, turning away from the security guy and towards me. “Just go down that hall, get in the elevator, and go up to the 11^thfloor,” he told me. “I’ll be up in a second. Oh, and take this.” He handed me a small stick with a magnet-looking thing on the end. “Press the magnet part against the thing above the keypad and type in xxx-xxx. That’ll open the door.” Then he turned back around, resuming his conversation with the security guy.

I have just been shunned. Leaving Henry behind with my 2 bags, I slowly walked down the hall, magnet-stick and ramen in hand, my backpack carelessly slung over one shoulder. Turning a corner, I saw the elevator on my right and stairs behind a door right in front of me. Hmmm, 11^thfloor, huh?I thought, casting my gaze in between the two conflicting doors. Come on, Taryn, you’re not that tired…

Eh, who am I kidding? I’m about to pass out from exhaustion. There’s no way I can climb eleven flights of stairs in this condition. Sighing, I pressed the up button on the elevator, berating myself the whole time. It dinged and opened, and I stepped in, pressing the little ‘11’ on its black button. Then I pressed my back against the wall and slid down into a sitting position, laying my head on my knees. Gosh, I felt like I was going to pass out at any minute.

I barely noticed when the elevator stopped moving up. Only that happy little ping roused me enough to stumble out of the elevator. Dragging my feet, I made my way to the door right in front of me, set the ramen down, and pressed the little magnet-thing on the circular sensor above the keypad, clicking in the numbers Henry had given me. The door made an unlocking sound, and I pressed it open.

Immediately, even through my sleep-deprived and foggy brain, I noticed a few weird things. First of all, there were countless pairs of shoes lined up on either side of a narrow entryway, leading to a sort of stair and a higher level that the rest of the apartment was on. Canadian houses aren’t like that. Second, it was really, really quiet. Didn’t Henry say he was living with thirteen other people? It’s abnormal, how freaking quiet it was!

Not giving the rows of shoes another thought, I stepped over them and onto the higher level of the apartment, walking into the living room. It was a living room, right? I mean, there wasn’t a sofa or anything, just a TV, some chairs, and a loveseat surrounding a rug. Plus, there was some sort of card table in the corner with a laptop set up on it. Weird.

I spied an open kitchen on my right and headed towards it. Then I did a double take. Was that thing on the ground on that rug supposed to be a table? Like, for food consumption? What the heck? It looked like an oversized coffee table! I shook my head and, leaning down a bit, set the two bowls of ramen and the magnet stick on it, figuring that that was as good a place as any to put the strange items. Korea’s really weird. There’s no doubt about it. Then of course I spied a refrigerator tucked into a corner amidst the counter in the cooking section of the kitchen. Groaning, I picked up the two bowls and bumped the fridge open with one hip. For a second I just stared at the hollow thing that was the fridge. Again, aren’t there supposed to be fourteen people living here? Why the heck is this so empty? Shaking my head, I placed the bowls inside and shut the door again.

Not bothering to look at the rest of the apartment, I made my way back into the ‘living room’ and collapsed on the loveseat, shoes, jacket and backpack still on my body, and was out cold before my head even hit the arm of the seat.

~~~~~~

Hey guys. I hope this isn't too bad, it's rather short. Sorry :( Anyway, I'm on a major caffeine high and trying to finish four pages of my school's yearbook at once right now since it's being printed in a few days, so this is a bit rushed. And I hope I'll be able to update tomorrow, but I haven't yet typed up the next few chapters so we'll have to see. Hopefully I got my info right, there was a lot more of it crammed in this chapter. Anyway, please comment, only three of my subscribers have bothered to comment and I really value anything written below :)