Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
I’m a 21 year old boy from Rawang who studies in Sunway University. I live in an apartment in the vicinity of campus, and I work part-time for my income to pay rent (which is about RM600 for a 100sqft room in a unit of 5), I just don’t believe in always relying on your parents.
Prior to moving in, I’ve heard a lot of terrible things about the place, and that anyone who moves in, eventually leaves. Everyone I’ve talked to about this seemed to have a problem with management. But around December 2021, I moved in anyway.
It was all peaceful for the first few months until this one new housemate moved in
Let’s call him Jing*. When Jing first moved in, he immediately had all these rules imposed. If there were any slight arrangements that he wasn’t too happy with, he’d report it straight up to management.
I remember there was one morning – I was making eggs and toast for breakfast, and out of nowhere he stormed out of his room all angry and aggressive. He asked if I was allowed to cook, and I obviously said “yes, that’s what the kitchen is for”. That morning ended with him going up to management only for them to take his side for reasons I still don’t understand, and me receiving my first warning.
It didn’t make sense, but that’s okay because I wasn’t going to have any more trouble… Right?
My other roommate, Ahmed* also called me one time around 4 a.m. when I was back home in Rawang. He told me that this new roommate had slammed on everyone’s room door, and when they came out, Jing just pretended that it wasn’t him. That was honestly when it first became really suspicious to me, I said “ok, just stay in your room and try not to make too much about it, it sounds pretty dangerous,”
Once I brought my girlfriend over, we were talking in the common area and he came out of his room just peeking angrily, he was really scaring her.
About a month ago…
It was about 4/5 a.m. and I was up late doing some assignments on Discord with my friends. My room is sort of like a partitioned room, which means it wasn’t entirely soundproof. I felt like I was speaking at a normal level, nowhere near loud. And the next thing I knew, Jing came physically slamming on my door and woke the entire house up. He was yelling what sounded like jibberish and physically pushing me. Instinctively, I took out my phone and started recording, but as soon as I did that, he slammed it down and damaged my phone.
*an actual screenshot from the video i took
The only argument I could see there was that I may have underestimated how loud I was speaking, and if that was the case I take full responsibility. But I still don’t believe that Jing handled it in the best fashion either.
When my housemate assaulted me, I thought about retaliating, but I usually try to refrain from any form of violence, simply because being a POC in this country never really favours you in these kinds of situations.
When the incident simmered, I immediately contacted Ahmed, who was out at the time, and told him everything that just happened. He took a Grab back home immediately after hearing what I had just said. He reported it to the guards and I brought it up to management on WhatsApp.
The first thing they told me was to delete the video off the unit group chat, because it would scare off any new tenants. WTF.
I told my parents about it and they came over the following morning
My parents wanted to see what the situation was, and to potentially meet Jing by chance. But when my dad saw him, he lost it and started being very unreasonable. He even almost grabbed Jing by the shirt. I had to intervene and stop him, who knows what my dad was going to do next??
A week later, I took things into my own hands
I approached Jing to reason with him. I told him I needed compensation for the phone that he damaged. I also made it clear that I understood management was on his side, but as a part of the student association in uni, I had to make sure that he was clear I wasn’t entirely helpless with no contacts.
But that was all it was, me telling him I wanted compensation for my phone. So we shook hands and I even took a video of it.
The next day, the agent WhatsApped me out of nowhere and told me I was being too loud. She also told me to not bring my girlfriend to the unit, which has never been a problem before. I’m pretty sure Jing had something to do with that.
Management then told us both to move out
It was ridiculous. I felt unsafe in the unit I was staying in because of a violent housemate, but I was the one who had to be kicked out as well?
She then asked for any certification I had from uni, results, student card, student LIFE proof, whatever I had. So I sent them all over, I had nothing to hide.
She started lecturing me and telling me things like what a leader should be. The conversation ended with her saying “case closed now”, and she handed me a number for a balai.
I woke up the next day to find my agent and Jing talking in our unit. They called me over and told me to go ahead and report to the police, but reminded me that my dad did almost assault him. They were ganging up on me.
I showed the video of me and Jing shaking hands, but he somehow twisted the story and said it was fake.
The next day, the agent texted me a picture of her and Jing going to the university, as if she was mothering him. You don’t think I’ve tried reporting it to the school myself? The university made it clear to me that they couldn’t do anything about it because it happened outside of campus grounds. So yeah, I’m pretty sure that did nothing.
A few days go by, I came back from work and saw that Jing has fully moved out
Management eventually did tell me that I could continue staying there for a bit longer after the entire incident. She said that when I moved out, it was going to be turned into an all girls unit. Crazy thing was that I saw a new tenant move in recently, and it was a guy.
I also forgot to mention that when I spoke to Jing about compensation for my phone, I sort of peeked at his chat with our agent that he had up on his phone, and I couldn’t help but notice her telling Jing “we will compensate you, and we will move you to a new room”.
Maybe that’s where he is right now, there are a lot of things that still remain unclear and sus to me. But as long as I stop getting my phone smashed every 4 a.m., I have nothing to complain about.
* Names have been changed for anonymity
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