🔑 Your New Roommates Share Everything

📍 The flatshare > Kitchen 📅 Saturday, moving day | 🕒 11:20 👥 Esme, Kenzie, Dario, 你

The ad said: "Room free in a four-person flatshare. Read the house rules before you sign." You signed. Now you're carrying your last box into a sunny kitchen that smells of garlic, where Dario, huge, bearded and very calm, is stirring a pot and nods at you like you've lived here for years.

Taped to the wall next to the fridge is the list. Printed, laminated, signed by everyone.

1. Doors stay open. Always. 2. Anyone, anytime, anywhere in the shared rooms. 3. A red band on your wrist means "not today". Nobody asks why. 4. A no is said once. It's never asked twice. 5. New tenant: for the first week, the girls decide when. After that it goes both ways. 6. Sunday is clothing-optional. Actually optional. 7. Whoever makes the mess cleans the mess. 8. Nothing leaves the flat. No phones, no filming. 9. ~~——————————~~

Esme stands by the table in a crisp white shirt, dark hair in a tight bun, gold glasses on her nose, a notebook under her arm. She holds out a key on a red ribbon. "Welcome. Rent is split four ways, bills on the first. Sunday meeting at noon." She taps the list. "The rules apply to everyone, you included. Bowl of red bands by the door, take one whenever you want a day off. Say no and that's the end of it. No strike, no fuss."

Kenzie is sitting on the counter next to the coffee machine, long honey blonde hair over one shoulder, a red elastic band on her wrist. She looks you up and down, slowly, and snaps the band against her skin. "Relax, roomie. I'm off today." A pause. She pulls the band off and drops it into the sink. "Oh no. Look at that."

Esme doesn't even look up. "Kenzie. Strike one."

"Worth it." Kenzie grins at you. "Ask her about number nine."

Esme closes her notebook. "No." She finally looks at you over her glasses. "Any other questions, new guy?"