Guidance's absence will spark someone's individualism, thus igniting their independence.
We humans think that independence is a natural skill that we all develop as we mature, and by the time we have a stable life, we believe that we finally attained independence. However, independence and being alone are indistinguishable. After all, we're merely minions governed by the upper-crust of society, and it's delusional of us to believe in the concept of individualism when we rely on government's protection—and that's why we pay taxes. To be brutally honest, we can't escape the undeniable fact that human beings are incapable of achieving the ideal freedom known as independence.
~~~~~~~
Authorities arrived at the crime scene, and on the very next day, I was falsely accused.
The blood was fresh and when the police checked the CCTV footage around the area of the incident, I was the only one seen.
They accused me of killing my parents, and eventually, I was put on a trial.
Since I can't afford to get a prosecutor, the government provides me one. Fortunately, he managed to get me out of jail by making my parents' death look like a suicide.
A week has passed since the tragic murder, and the closed case is still an unsolved mystery.
My parents' funeral was taken immediately after they died. No one came to their burial, it seems like they don't have any relatives.
I spent my days and nights crying until my tear glands dried out.
My goal in life was to acquire money as much as I can and feed my parents with luxuries, but now that they're gone, my goals have disintegrated. Going to school was purposeless now, so why bother wasting time on that crap.
I'm just a 17-year-old student; living alone in this cruel world is like fighting a lion bare-handed.
But it's not like it's the first time this kind of scenario happened to me. Actually, I've already been in this exact same position before, and I managed to survive that time, so overcoming this feeling of despair is just another side quest.
Yes, it made me cry. But ultimately, this loss only fortified my mindset.
One day, reality struck me and I just woke up with no more tears leaking from my exhausted eyes.
I began working out daily at my house. I don't need to go to the gym since I mostly focus on calisthenics.
I do elevated push-ups, one arm chin-ups, squats, and lunges which typically don't require extravagant equipment to perform.
Grip strength is also essential, so I often have grippers on my hand. It requires 95 pounds of grip strength to fully squeeze this gripper. I did 3 sets of 100 reps a day which drastically strengthened my brachioradialis and flexor carpi radialis to the point where veins as huge as worms appeared in my forearms.
Frankly speaking , 95 pounds isn't my limit. I can effortlessly squeeze it without struggles, so I supposed my grip strength could reach approximately 120 pounds.
At any rate, body muscles are useless without stamina and endurance. So every morning when I wake up, I ride a bike and travel 20 miles around the city.
I'm not doing this because it relieves my sorrow. Truth be told, this is my regular workout session every weekend since I have to attend school during weekdays. But now that I quit school, I can train my body daily.
I already have a strong physique, so basically, this workout is only to maintain my figure.
Digging deeper to my situation, no parents also means no allowances. No income means no money. Fortunately, all of my parents' property is now legally in my possession. I currently have a ton of cash in my wallet, however, it's limited. It will surely run out in just three months if not spent strategically.
Investing was my initial thought to solve this financial problem, however, investing without proper knowledge on that topic will only lead my remaining money to waste.
Investing is out of the question, so I came up with another. Establishing a business is also a decent way to grow my money, but it's too risky.
As we all know, creating a product or a service to sell requires a time-consuming consideration. And even if I end up establishing one, there's a high possibility that it goes bankrupt. Most businesses are successful because of influence, and since I don't have relatives nor any relations with someone influential, it's best for me to not take this measure.
Running out of options, I have to resort to working at a fast food restaurant. This is an orthodox way of living a life of failure.
But there's one issue with this approach. My name is still listed on the Aspro Academy's students' list. As the entire world knows, Aspro Academy is a prestigious school, and it is stated in their guidelines that students are prohibited from getting a part time job. They're strict with their policies and I might end up in jail if I violate their restrictions.
Not to worry much, I've already conceived a solution with this dilemma.
If I don't attend school in a week, I'll get expelled in no time flat. And from there on out, I could get a job and live a lower-class yet peaceful life.
For now, I'll keep developing my mental repertoire and focus on self-improvement.
~~~~~
A week has passed. It's 4:30am in the morning and I woke up with 7 hours of sleep.
Before getting out of bed, I grabbed my phone on the ledge just right beside me, and began scrolling through Instagram. This became my day-to-day habit, and I can't get out of bed without checking my Insta first.
A common misconception is that using a phone first thing in the morning is a bad habit. Well, it depends. It's actually not bad as long as you don't get lost through the internet and you set limits. As for my case, I only check the internet to get updated over whatever the hell is happening on earth.
Even if I'm alone, I'm not the only person on earth. I can't just hibernate and be an innocent caveman. I at least have to get updated on the news.
Unfortunately, my Instagram feed was filled with Aspro Academy student's selfies. I'm not following their accounts, but they're just too famous, they flooded my Instagram feed. For the most part, they're just showing their high-priced expenses like a brand new automobile, dishes from a five-star restaurant, or their designer items.
Good grief. These posts are useless.
After scrolling down for more, I stumbled across a billion memes, but none of them made me laugh. One more useless post and I'll be convinced that social media is just a tool for human leisure. But then, after one more scroll, I found an interesting post from Jacob's account—it was a photo of him and Selene eating together in a fancy coffee shop.
Gazing at the post, it seems that they were having a date. Selene was wearing her jovial smile as always.
It was posted 8 minutes ago, and yet it already accumulated hundreds of thousands of likes and reactions. At any rate, it's not surprising how shocked the internet was considering Jacob's popularity. The netizens were just hysterical to see Jacob—the heir of the Espiritu family, whose father was this city's governor—is dating such a goddess.
Am I getting cheated on? Because hypothetically, Selene and I are still in a relationship. Though it may sound complicated, we never had closure and I never broke up with Selene. It's just the memories that tore us apart. Although, I suppose we're over.
After contemplating in the air, self-reflecting over world domination, I finally made up my mind and crawled out of bed.
I prepared my bike to go for a ride.
This so-called home has been awfully quiet these days. The house has been messy and ghost-silent ever since my parents passed away. Everytime I walked around my house, I tried my best to avoid a specific door that had a giant cross mark painted on it. The room connected to that door was my parents bedroom, and behind that door is where semi-horrifying memories lingers.
Technically, no matter how careful I am at avoiding that room, I still have to interact with it since it's a part of my home. It's not a big hindrance to me, though, because at the end of the day, I will abandon this house and settle into a much smaller apartment.
After getting leg stretches and setting my bike in a good condition, I pushed it, bringing my bike outside.
As I was rolling my bike down the foyer on my way out, I noticed an envelope lying flat right by the doormat behind the closed front door.
My house has a doorbell and a mail slot, so I suppose the courier just slipped the letter in and left.
I bent down and picked up the envelope.
After tearing off the envelope seal, I took out the letter, and as I expected, it's from the academy.
The letter was a warning for my week straight absence. It indicates that I'd get expelled if I didn't show up anytime soon.
I crumpled the paper and threw it in the bin before heading out.
I embarked my bicycle and glided through the whole city while the road was still empty and locals were sound asleep. The sun was still hiding from the horizon, which I can't particularly see due to the enormous buildings that surround me everywhere I look. The sunlight failing to reach the bottom part of the city caused the road to flood with thin fog and raised the temperature colder. But despite the foggy ambience blocking my vision and this freezing temperature that made me a bit weak, I kept pedalling through the misty-quiet roadway without a break until the sun finally emerged and I returned back home.
After travelling 20 miles around town, I hopped out of my bike and stood still to catch up my breath as excessive steam came out of my body.
~It's scientifically possible for a human body to emit steam, so I swear I'm not a Titan.
I then head inside my house and take my breakfast.
My meal is just a demi baguette stuffed with overflowing lettuce. It's just a bland sandwich which is cheap and healthy. Eating this cheap meal everyday would allow me to survive and preserve some of my money to last longer.
After having my breakfast, I continued my day reading a book until night came; then I slept.
This routine went on and after three days, I received another letter from the school.
It was lying on the doormat just like the first one and I found it there when I woke up.
The letter was quite similar to the one before. It's telling me to return to school, which I'm not planning to.
I threw the paper away and proceeded to my normal day.
Then after another three days, I received another letter. It's from the academy again.
Just like always, I just saw it on my doormat.
Then, the pattern continues.
Every three days, I receive similar letters that are persuading me to return. All of the letters were delivered at dawn.
It's been two weeks and they still kept delivering that letter. I'm just amazed at how persuasive they are.
I mean, I'm just a student. I'm not an important person either, and it's not like the academy would collapse if they lose a nobody-student like me.
I kept ignoring it just like always as I know for myself that they will eventually stop and just expell me.
However, as I was having a peaceful night and was sleeping like a rock on my bed, the doorbell suddenly rang in the middle of the night.
It didn't wake me at the first ring, but someone never stopped hitting the doorbell button until I woke up.
I opened my eyes, confused by the loud doorbell noises ringing repeatedly.
Despite the bewilderment in my head, I promptly got out of bed and trudged towards the door. I turned the lights on, illuminating my way to the front door.
On my way there, I spotted a paper on the doormat.
It was exactly similar to the previous letters I've been receiving.
However, it's like 12 midnight and who the hell would relentlessly hit the doorbell at this time. My neighbours were asleep, and I should be too.
The ringing doorbell has stopped though, so I suppose the courier has left.
I was planning to get back to bed and ignore the letter since I'm pretty sure it'd be the same letter like the previous ones, but then, I realized that I'm already here so why not just check it.
And so, I sleepily walked over to the doormat, yawning.
I kneeled down, reaching for the letter.
When suddenly, the door spontaneously swung open, and a sinister man in a hoodie deliberately stepped in, pointing a pistol at my head.