My current boyfriend related this tale to me, however true or false it may be, you can be the judge of it. So here goes.

In high education institutes, there are always On/Off Campus hostels provided for students who resides out of state, and this particular institute located in Kuala Lumpur is no exception.

Students enroll into the institute and non-locals normally rent the hostels provided for them. Before Orientation Week, (the week before the commencement of their new Uni life) Tom (not his real name) was assigned to his room. It was known that students are to share their room with another mate and again, this was no exception.

Orientation Week is always busy, where students will be running around the campus joining societies and befriending one another.

Tom would always return to his room feeling exasperated and exhausted from his hourly runabouts. He heads for the showers and instantaneously hit the sack without a second thought but not before bidding his room mate goodnight which the room mate would politely smile back.

Morning came and Tom would awake to find his room mate’s bed unoccupied. Instead, he’d find him standing by the closed window staring into the morning sky. Tom continued with his quick routine of the week (shower) and they both bid goodbye, then he’d off to tend to his activities.

Late evening, after dinner, he returned to his dorm to find his room mate idling on the bed seemingly in deep thoughts. Never gave it a second thought, Tom quickly rushed into the showers, preparing to retire for the night after another long day.

The next day he awoke around the same time and this time he found his room mate sitting in the same position as he had last night.

Once again, being consumed with the hectic schedule during Orientation Week, he jumped out of bed and headed for the showers and quickly dashed out of the room, both bidding one another their goodbyes.

This went on for the whole week, with the same old greeting before heading out and same old bidding before he sleeps.

Then Orientation Week ended. Tom was relieved and rejoiced a little as he waited for his parents to arrive to visit him on the first weekend.

When they arrived, he was excited as he wanted to give his parents a little tour of his small but cozy crib and also to introduce his room mate to them.

As they entered his room, he was bewildered as he found that his room was unoccupied. His room mate wasn’t there. This was the first time he hadn’t seen him there.

After a small tour, Tom approached the wing’s wardens and asked if they had seen his room mate. (Students who go in and out would have to pass by the wardens’ sight)

Questions as to who his room mate was were asked (e.g. his name, his race… their dorm number).

Upon asking their dorm number and going through the campus’ database, the wardens’ expressions changed. They looked at Tom with a grim, questioning expression and blatantly told him that other than Tom himself, there were no other occupancy in this particular dorm.

Baffled, Tom argued that they were crazy as he had clearly seen his room mate occupying the room everyday for the past week, but the wardens were adamant that he has been the only occupant in that room.

Thinking back, Tom had his doubts now as he vaguely remembers his room mate of one week. He remembers greeting him in the morning before leaving and returning to the room. He had seen him wandering around the room. He even bid him goodnight even though the room mate was an exceptionally quiet person. They never really sat down to get to know each other.

When he thought back, suspicions roused in his mind. He returned to his room only to find that the supposedly belongings of his room mate were all gone. Perhaps… they were never there to begin with.

Within the same hour, Tom requested an abrupt change of room, and this time around, he made sure his new room mate was registered and accounted for.