After finishing a full day of filming, Charlize returned home with Kal. Reaching the third floor, she was about to take out her key to open the door, when Kal, standing behind her ready to say goodbye, suddenly tapped his head. "Charlize, shh."
Charlize froze mid-action, and Kal then pointed upstairs and said in a low voice, "Come upstairs with me."
Charlize frowned. "I just want to take a hot shower and go to sleep." Although she said that, she still followed Kal's steps up to the fourth floor. "Is there something else?" Charlize rubbed her tired temples and asked.
But when the fourth-floor door opened, Charlize saw Alex and Joseph sitting in the living room in front of the TV playing the Nintendo Famicom. She froze for a moment. "Why are you both here?"
Looking at the clock on the wall, it was already 12:30 a.m. Charlize clearly didn't understand what was going on. "Can someone explain this to me?"
Alex and Joseph, busy with the game, naturally had no time to answer, so Kal spoke up. "Uma arranged a program for Hugo tonight on the third floor. She asked us to stay out of the way."
"Uma? Hugo?" Charlize froze, then looked back at the front door, took half a step forward, but stopped. After a whole day of work, her brain was a little slow, but she now realized that Uma had prepared a special activity for Hugo, so they were helping out. For friends, this was perfectly normal.
"We're all friends; helping out is no problem," Alex's voice sounded nearby. Charlize lowered her gaze, savoring the words. Her lips curved into a faint, bitter smile, but it quickly disappeared, replaced by a full smile. "Phew, I'm already so tired, and still can't go to my room. Looks like Hugo owes me a lavish dinner."
Then Charlize walked to the center of the hall and sat heavily on the sofa, relaxing her tired limbs. The fourth-floor decor, like the third, was simple but filled with a masculine vibe—for example, the brown sofa Charlize was now lying on. It was an old piece of furniture picked up from the street, but it was surprisingly comfortable, though piled with magazines, clothes, two beer cans, a dumbbell, and a single slipper, making it hard to tolerate.
Charlize groaned in frustration, "You did this on purpose!" Charlize could not tolerate such disorder, which hid even worse chaos. But now she was too exhausted to organize anything.
Hearing this, Kal chuckled. "You're not sleeping here, just resting a bit. Don't bother tidying. I think we can be downstairs in at most half an hour; just make do."
"Dinner? That's too cheap for him." Alex finally found time to respond, referring to Charlize's earlier words. "This time Hugo bought each of us a brick. How's that for a gift?" Alex said excitedly.
"A brick?" Charlize forced her attention away from the sofa and looked in the direction Alex pointed. Sure enough, she saw a brick. "This is… a mobile phone? Much smaller than the last time I saw one." She had seen one at the modeling company before, though the previous one was much larger.
"Yes, it's the latest model. Hugo bought it as a gift for us," Alex said happily. "That one's mine. Yours is in your room, but they're the same model. You can try using it."
"So he planned this all along." Charlize examined the brick in her hand and murmured softly. Joseph seemed to hear and asked, "What?" Charlize quickly shook her head. "Nothing, nothing at all." Then she exhaled deeply, her expression relaxed. "How do I use this?" Though still very tired, the excitement of encountering something new eased her fatigue considerably.
"I have one too?" Kal sat down beside the sofa, surprised, looking at the device in Charlize's hand. Joseph pointed to a large box on the table. "That's yours." Kal immediately picked up the box. "Wow, thank you so much, Hugo. Is it easy to use? How's the call quality?"
"You'll see once you try." Alex paused the game and stood excitedly. "Hugo saved all our numbers in it. Call me, and I'll go to my room to see how it works."
"But, where do we find the phone numbers?" Kal and Charlize exchanged glances. Though the brick didn't have many buttons, figuring out how to use it was still tricky.
Joseph also stood and chuckled. "Hugo figured it all out. He taught me."
The group sat experimenting with the new phone, finding it fascinating. Time passed almost unnoticed. Until the fourth-floor door was opened with a key again. The sound immediately startled the four in the room. They all turned toward the door. It was already past 1 a.m., and the surroundings were completely quiet. Even a passing car engine would echo, so the key turning in the lock sounded particularly jarring, making one shiver.
The door opened, revealing a tall, sturdy man in view. His neatly trimmed beard paired with short hair gave off a rugged aura.
"Oh, it's you. You're back!" Seeing him, Kal let out a sigh of relief. Joseph also raised a hand in greeting.
The man simply nodded, saying nothing. Even after the greeting, he didn't pause, striding toward his room. His high-top black boots hit the concrete floor with a dull thud, ending with the room door's muffled closing. The hall returned to silence.
"Who is that?" Alex asked, and Charlize looked at Kal, curious about Alex's question.
"Our roommate, I think his name is Draupnir, right?" Kal cast a confirming glance at Joseph, who nodded. "A German. Didn't expect him to come back so early today."
"I say, why are you speaking so quietly?" Joseph's words sounded a bit abrupt, making Kal, Charlize, and Alex all turn to look at him. Joseph felt a bit awkward and instinctively lowered his voice. "I mean, we don't need to worry about waking Ernst, so why are we whispering?"
Alex and Kal then realized that they had unconsciously lowered their voices earlier, as if afraid of disturbing someone. Now that Joseph pointed it out, both of them couldn't help but let out light laughs. Charlize didn't speak, but she realized she hadn't noticed anything unusual either. It was as if speaking softly had seemed natural, and only now, thanks to Joseph, did she notice it.
Charlize couldn't help but glance at the tightly closed bedroom door. Although she had briefly met this roommate called Draupnir earlier, his resolute demeanor had left a deep impression, enough to make Alex unconsciously lower his voice.
"Don't worry, he doesn't mind noise. I guess it's because of the drumming…" Kal said very seriously, then pointed to his own ear, as if suggesting his roommate's hearing had been affected by playing drums. The other three simultaneously rolled their eyes. Even if a band drummer's hearing deteriorates over time, the Draupnir they had just seen didn't seem that old.
Kal didn't notice their reactions and returned his attention to Charlize. "Charlize, you and Alex should go downstairs. By now Hugo and Uma have probably finished in the hall. Go freshen up and get some rest. Charlize, you have a scene at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow."
Charlize stood up and stretched. "We've already done our best. If Hugo and Uma still haven't finished, there's nothing we can do, right?" It was past one a.m. now; the romantic part of the night had either happened or cooled down.
Still, as Charlize and Alex went downstairs, they tried to move quietly. Entering the hall, they only saw the faint candlelight in the kitchen. After confirming Hugo and Uma were no longer in the hall, they finally exhaled in relief. Alex whispered to Charlize, "You go wash up first. You need to get up early tomorrow; I don't."
Charlize nodded, tiptoed to her room to get a change of clothes, then again on tiptoe into the bathroom. Even during her shower, she tried to make as little noise as possible—after all, it was close to Hugo's room. As friends, this was all they could do.
Charlize seriously thought about whether she should switch rooms with Hugo. If Uma visited often in the future, having their own separate spaces would certainly be more convenient. But she quickly dismissed the idea. If Uma and Hugo wanted private space, living in a shared house wouldn't provide the ideal solution. Perhaps going to Uma's place would be a better choice.
Lost in thought, Charlize quickly washed up and then gently knocked on Alex's room door, signaling him to go wash up. Alex looked at Charlize tiptoeing, and couldn't help but laugh. Their eyes met, and Alex pointed to Hugo's room, then to the mobile phone in his hand, and shrugged helplessly, as if to say: this phone is expensive; let's just sacrifice a little.
Charlize immediately felt joy and smiled broadly. But after smiling, she deliberately put her feet flat, stepped hard in slippers, and took two steps. Unexpectedly, the sound of the slippers hitting the concrete floor was loud and even echoed through the hall, which scared Charlize stiff. She froze in place, then slowly went back to tiptoeing.
Alex also froze, baring his teeth in a grimace, clearly startled by the sound. Once calm returned, he saw Charlize's stiff, zombie-like posture and nearly burst out laughing. Late at night, especially when a roommate had a special task, holding back laughter was truly exhausting!
....
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