He could barely keep his eyes open; his eyelids were heavy, every cell in his body ached, and he was totally worn out.
His voice was rough and low as he uttered, "Hmm, so bright."
The light shining through the large window on one side of the room was so bright that it blinded him.
"This isn't my room. Where am I?" Lucien looked about, perplexed, but he soon realized where he was when he noticed the white ceiling, the beeping sound coming from the heart monitor next to him, and the antiseptic fragrance.
"But why am I suddenly here? Wasn't I on my way home?" he wondered.
Groan!
He tried to sit up, but the piercing pain intensified and rushed through his whole body, so he fell back on the bed. Though it was still tolerable, he was sweating, and the medicine he was probably given for the pain was gradually wearing off.
But it was only bearable since it wasn't the first time that Lucien felt this much pain; over the years, he had built up quite the resistance against it, but that didn't mean that he enjoyed being in pain.
Gradually his memories became clearer, and he started to recall how he had ended up here. Subsequently, he felt a little embarrassed.
To understand what he meant by that, we would need to look at what happened the days before.
…
It was late at night, and Lucien was currently at the club where he worked part-time. He was on his way to a regular guest with a tray full of drinks when a guy tripped him. Lucien poured drinks on a famous young master who was also a regular at the club; everyone was shocked, Lucien included. Numerous others hurried to assist him, shoving Lucien aside as they did so.
Lucien could see that the young master was visibly irritated but tried to keep his composure and not lash out at him. The eye of the young master was even twitching slightly.
In the end, it came to be such a big deal that even the manager got wind of what happened and rushed over when he saw what happened. He yelled at Lucien to pack his bags and never return since he was dismissed, and he swiftly started to berate him.
Although Lucien was a little disappointed, he had kind of expected such a result. Finally, before leaving, he apologized to the young master. During this entire period, a large number of people surrounded the young master and inquired about his well-being. Some even attempted to dry him out, which only served to aggravate him further.
He swiftly began to blame Lucien for what had happened, as he felt so humiliated that of all the people, it had happened to him. Once the situation started to calm down a little, the young master called a bodyguard—who appeared to be a hooligan—over and whispered something in his ear.
Slowly after, the bodyguard left with some of his men.
At the same time, Lucien went outside. Actually, his manager was not a nasty guy, but since a very powerful person was involved, he had to worry about his company. Lucien knew that, yet despite the owner's apology, Lucien didn't really care and just continued walking out.
It was already too late; he would need to search for a new part-time job since he wouldn't have enough money otherwise.
He was quite affected by what happened since it wasn't even his fault, but he had learned the hard way that they didn't care and that the best way would be to just accept whatever came his way. If he fought back, then everything would only be much worse. He was quite happy since it seemed like the young master was quite generous; Lucien had expected much worse.
Soon after, Lucien would come to regret his thoughts. Then, just as he came out of the club and was walking a short distance away from it, he was stopped by some burly man. He recognized some of them since they were the young master's bodyguards, and he had seen them several times in the club before.
Lucien tried to take a step back but was quickly encircled by them.
"Why are you doing this?" He pleaded with them to simply let him go, saying, "Please, it was not even my fault."
"Isn't it pretty obvious why we are doing this? You shouldn't have angered our young master; now you need to live with the consequences." They attacked him and beat him up as soon as he said that.
Fortunately, they avoided breaking any of his bones or causing too much damage, but he was still in excruciating pain and was likely suffering from some more serious wounds that would take a long time to heal.
When it was all over, Lucien hobbled back to his apartment. Many cast worried and pitying glances at him, but no one spoke up, so Lucien chose to ignore them as usual.
Given the severity of his injuries, he should probably go to the hospital, but he could not afford to do so; he did not have the money for the necessary treatments, and he did not have insurance, so he quickly dismissed the idea.
After bandaging his wound with some first aid supplies he had on hand, he went to sleep. Finding a comfortable sleeping position was difficult for him since his whole body hurt, so it took him quite a while to fall asleep.
Normally it was semester break and many students would sleep in, but Lucien didn't have that kind of luxury; he had several part-time jobs that he had to work at.
In order to lessen his financial burden when his final semester started, he needed to save as much money as possible during that period of time.
Groan!
He felt the pain course through his body, but it was definitely better than the night before; he had woken up early, even before his alarm rang. He quickly freshened up and made a simple breakfast.
Afterward, he slowly made his way to his other part-time job; it was at a convenience store that wasn't that far from his apartment. The owner was an old man who was grumpy and really liked to nag. When Lucien arrived, he didn't even greet him; he just straight up told him that he was fired.
Lucien asked him why he was suddenly fired, considering he hadn't even done anything, to which the owner just answered that he also didn't know how he had managed to offend such an influential person. When they called, he nearly had a heart attack.
Lucien was stunned when he heard what the owner said and then slowly the feeling of despair started to creep in. He got Goosebumps.
'Was it that grave of a mistake? I managed to not even pour more than some drops on him, but it was still such a big deal. Why must I grovel in front of their feet when there are others who live in such luxury?" He was slowly getting angry; he knew that he couldn't convince the owner to still let him work there, so he quickly went to his other part-time jobs.
The response he received was the same from everyone; some felt sorry for him, while others showed no concern at all. Ultimately, it did not affect them, but Lucien was left utterly speechless.
'What can I do? I need the money, and I need these jobs. I really need new jobs! Otherwise, how will I be able to pay my rent for this month? I won't have enough to pay.' He quickly resolved himself and began to ask nearby shops; he asked every person that he could and applied for every open job offer, but even after running around the whole day, he couldn't get a single job. As soon as he mentioned his name, he would be immediately rejected; sometimes they also just looked at his disheveled clothes and all the injuries and rejected him from the beginning.
Lucien repeatedly told himself that tomorrow was another day and that he would find other jobs, but deep down he knew that this was all the doing of the young master; he definitely ordered them to fire him and not give him any jobs.
'All this just because of a spilled drink. Why? Of all the different people, why did it have to happen to me? Am I just that unlucky? His emotions were rising, and a sense of hopelessness began to consume him.
He looked around; it was already dark and the many clubs were being lit up brightly. Many people went in while laughing and had joyful expressions on their faces.
Lucien felt envious; he also would love to be so carefree but he had no other choice. He had to work harder than everyone else to get what he wanted, while others were already born with it.
He quickened his pace; his body ached all over and he was exhausted, not just physically but also mentally. Just when he walked past a dark alley, he heard a scream. It sounded like a woman; Lucien heard it and turned around back to the dark alley.
He first waited at the front and tried to see what was happening, then he saw it.
He witnessed a man pushing himself on a young woman who was sobbing and appeared to be resisting him with all of her strength. The man did not stop and instead started to treat her even more harshly.
Lucien recognized what it was even though his vision was blurry when he suddenly saw something reflecting the light coming from outside the valley. He was paralyzed for a moment, but then he gathered up the courage to charge at the man and gave him a powerful punch. Though he stumbled back, the man did not appear to be particularly bothered.
Even though Lucien realized his mistake, he was unable to simply flee and abandon the woman. As soon as the man was out of reach, the young woman hid behind him, sobbing and trembling as she tugged at his shirt.
Lucien wanted to tell her to run but before he even could, he noticed the same glint at his back. It was too late when he realized what had happened. He experienced a sudden, intense agony that shot through his body, and a hot liquid ran down his back.
Argh!
He screamed because of the strong pain.
The intense pain shooting through his body made him tremble. However, before he even touched the ground, he felt another, even sharper sensation strike him in the front. After that, he gradually started to feel numb all over. Darkness crept up on him, but he was still aware of how much anguish he was in. He felt tired and had a feeling that he could finally rest, but he forced himself to open his eyes.
He knew what this feeling was, this wasn't the first time, he wouldn't succumb, he would fight.
He fought to stay conscious, but in the end, he repeatedly fell in and out of consciousness; the next time that he woke up, he was in an ambulance. The paramedic attempted to speak with Lucien, but he was unable to understand him; he was overcome with fatigue and a ringing in his ears.
'I'm so sleepy; I just want to sleep. No, Lucien, stay awake. Think of your family; you can't die here like this. You still have many dreams and goals that you need to achieve; you can't die yet.'
He fought with himself to stay awake and finally, after what felt like an eternity, he was brought to the operation room. He was informed there by the doctors that he could now relax and that they would try their hardest to save him.
That was the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness again.
Which brings us back to the current situation.
You might wonder why it is embarrassing, probably because he fell into such blatant deception. Even more embarrassing is the fact that, not too long ago, while he was applying for a café, he actually watched a TV broadcast where they discussed this violent scammer couple and even showed their appearance. However, Lucien was so infatuated that he was oblivious to the broadcast and even fell for their elaborate trap.
'Well, you could say that it is karma since I tried to play the hero while actually being a loser who doesn't even know how to fight.'
That's kind of pathetic, isn't it?
Well, yeah, it is.