exit wounds

August and early September were really fun because I went to Beijing, came back and did minimal work; went to Taiwan, which was amazing, came back, and did some work; then went to China on an all-expenses-paid company retreat, where we soaked in hot springs, played silly games, and found out which senior associates were alcoholics; then went to Macau and watched Cirque du Soleil.

Then I came back, and Film Guy was supposed to leave at around this time. But he left without paying the balance of the rent.

He seemed like a straight shooter, so I wondered why he would skip town without trying to pay me the rent balance. Pillsbury mentioned that he had "tried calling and emailing several times" but I never received any of his emails. (There were a few missed calls from unrecognized numbers that I had not returned, though. Perhaps it is only my own fault.)

I sent Film Guy an email.

Hi Film Guy,

I hope you enjoyed your stay in Hong Kong. I saw Kiwi and Pillsbury last week and they said, you had tried to call me and said you emailed me several times. I actually did not receive any of your emails. I do not know why and I am very very very sorry, and very confused as to why I did not receive your emails. I don't know if it was maybe the address you typed was slightly off, or my email client has not been working properly…I do not know. I apologize very much. I was traveling in Taiwan for a long time so my cell phone was not accessible.

Shortly after coming back from Taiwan on Sep 1st, I went to China for a business trip, and I came back this weekend. Hence, my tardy email to you. I hope your flight to America was okay and you are settled back in New York.

In any case, I hope everything with your stay in HK was comfortable and enjoyable. I hope Sai Wan Ho was a good place for you to stay and you finished what you needed to do.

I was wondering with regard to the balance for your stay in Sai Wan Ho, Warren did not mention anything to me about payment so I assume you did not leave money with him. Would it be possible for us to do balance payment through Bank of America electronic transfer? I have a Bank of America account based in America, and I often use electronic transfer on their website, it is quite convenient.

I think you had given HKD 1,200 (?) If this is not correct please advise. The rent is 2,400 so the balance is 2,400 – 1,200 = 1,200 HKD. If you feel this is not correct please advise.

Thank you
Vivien

He wrote back the next day:

Dear Vivien,

Well, there must be some problem of your email account. More often than not, it happens. In fact, I emailed you once, and called you several times before I left.

By the way, I gave you 1,400 HKD when we met in mid-August, and I did not stay in your room on August 31st, and September 1st since the next tenant came to the place earlier than I expected. Thus, my stay in your room was not 21 days but 19 days.

In addition, I have a question about the rent. I called you several times to make thing clear. My question is that the rent for 21 days (2,400 HKD) is actually higher than your montly rent which is about 2,330 HKD as far as I know. I was a bit confused when Kiwi told me about the rent for a full month. I thought that you had adjusted the amount of money that I need to pay, and were going to let me know before I leave. That is the reason I didn't leave money to Kiwi.

Could you adjust the rent for 19 days and let me know? I'm in Japan right now, and will go back to Korea on September 17th. I will be able to transfer money then.

Best,
Film Guy

Dammit, Kiwi loves to meddle with my business! Kiwi loves to have a finger in everybody's pie. I bet he was just jealous that I would be profiting a little bit off the subletter, so he HAD to go and plant ideas in Film Guy's head.

But I'm so poor right now, I really could have used the extra money...which was definitely not an unreasonable amount to charge a subletter in Hong Kong. Even if he was staying in the boonies. Besides, I already lost a lot of money because of having to front the rent for both apartments, plus pay utilities for July and August for Sai Wan Ho.

But he had caught me, with the Kiwi's fucking meddling help, so I had to put my devious fingers to work to craft another email.

Hi Film Guy,

Thanks for your mail. Again, I apologize for the communication difficulty and I hope all matters otherwise are transpiring smoothly with you.

Thank you for clarifying about the rent. I stated 2400 because the electricity bill was 295 dollars, and the broadband/cable internet was 82 (this is the price per person, not for the entire apartment; the entire apartment’s utilities is 885 and 246 per month for broadband). So, that all added together is 2707. 2707 / 30 = 90.23 per day.

My impression was that you would stay until the first week of September, or for 27 days. That would have been 2400. I have another friend who stayed in Hong Kong around the same time period as you and his departure date was after yours, so I must have confused your itineraries in my mind. I also thought you were staying through the first week of September, I’m not sure why, maybe it was something in our conversation, I thought you said, and I was surprised myself when I came back from Taiwan and Kiwi/Pillsbury said you left already. I also did not expect the new tenant to move in so early, so I apologize for that.

If the amount of 90.23 / day is agreeable with you, then 90.23 x 19 = 1714.37;

So the balance 1714.37 – 1300 = 414.37 HKD

If in USD, 414.37 HKD / 7.7 = 53.81 USD

Please let me know if this is agreeable to you, and I will let you know my bank information.
Thanks,
Vivien

Film Guy agreed and let me know that he would pay the balance.

Still...I was unhappy that Kiwi could still affect my life, even though I had moved out weeks ago.

Leo would never have done this to me.