Paramjeet Singh and Sandeep Walia had to be separated by friends after a wild argument about who would have to share a room with their new housemate.
The men both came to Australia from India in 2014 to study and work and were living at a home in Maidstone, in Melbourne's west, with two other friends.
On September 6, 2019, Walia brought home another man to move into the four bedroom home.
Mr Singh didn't want to share his room and the pair threw punches, but after a short while things calmed down.
But as Walia walked away, his back turned, Mr Singh struck him across the back of the head.
Walia launched back at his friend, put Mr Singh up against a wall, pulled out a knife and stabbed his 25-year-old housemate three times in the neck and chest.
Mr Singh collapsed. Earlier in the day he passed an exam to allow him to remain in Australia.
"Say it was an accident," Walia told another housemate when he said they needed to call for help.
He suggested they claim Mr Singh had stabbed himself in the neck while cutting vegetables.
Walia took the knife into the bathroom and cleaned it. He told another housemate to clean it too, but the man refused.
Paramedics and police spent 20 minutes trying to revive Mr Singh, but he died at the scene.
Walia later confessed. He was initially charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Victoria's Supreme Court on Monday.
"I understand my action in the past have not been easy for you to accept and I can only imagine the pain that I've caused and for that I'm honestly truly very sorry," Walia wrote in a letter to Mr Singh's family.
"He was a brother to me. We ate, lived, shared and laughed together. That day still haunts me to this very day and if I could change the past I would, but I cannot."
He said his family once had great expectations for him. His parents in India, siblings in Canada and wife in the US have disowned the now 28-year-old.
Walia told the court he understood why and had tried to accept it. He was using his time in custody to improve and rehabilitate himself, he said.
Prosecutor Neill Hutton said there had been an initial concerted effort to cover up what happened, potentially out of panic.
But he said there was some coldness to the fact Walia had suggested telling the police he wasn't there and that it was an accident.
"That doesn't do him any credit at all," Justice Phillip Priest said.
He said Walia seemed a man of good character and his inevitable deportation would be beyond anything the court could impose.
"He was endeavouring to make a life for himself in this country," he said.
"That's now lost to him."
Justice Priest will sentence Walia later on Monday.
