edit:we're rebugging this because octobers bills and rent really hit us hard after all of this and we're struggling to afford groceries, sorry, we really don't like having to ask for help like this
we ended up having a second issue plumbing issue with the toilet because as we've learned all the pipes in this apartment suck. we've also still been dealing with the initial issue in with our kitchen sink. it ended up being caused by the previous tenet putting a bunch of food down the drain which caused a massive clog when we tried to use it (and eventually the pipes bursting). because we stopped using the sink after draining the pipes, and a colony of flies moved in to eat the food that was causing the clog (tldr: we got rid of the clog and the pipes got fixed, but we now have a fly problem)