Adam was a type of person always willing to carry heavy burdens as long as he could help people, especially his family. He could go more than ten hours a day, working, just to provide the needs of his sister and parents (who had decided an early retirement).
Being the breadwinner of the family, he naturally had so much pressure placed upon him, a crushing weight of expectations always on his shoulder every time he wake up in the morning.
While his younger sister, Ella, a high schooler who spend his hard-earned money on useless things like make-ups, do not even think twice when begging for more allowance. His mom and dad, who had retired early when he turned twenty-one, were also just chilling in their house while leeching off his money.
Adam naturally did not hate them. In fact, he love them. He was willing to go through extreme conditions just to sustain their life and support his sister's education.
However, in this particular day, he had enough of all this bullshit. The burden he needed to carry was just too much. He felt that he wanted to just give up and run away, seek riches on his own. However, he could not do that to his own family, which made him extremely conflicted about what path to take in his life.
Adam had just turned twenty-nine this year, being a computer programmer working under a black-hearted company with strict working conditions. Oftentimes, his boss always forced him to go overtime, even without giving him additional payment for it. He always reason that doing overtime is good, and this will help his promotion in the company.
But now, where was it? Nothing!
Adam was fired in his job, that damned black-hearted company cutting off employees because of their continuous losses. His boss said that it was because they were paying employees unnecessarily that the losses kept increasing.
But Adam knew more than anyone else that this was all crap he just made up. The truth is, they were getting all those losses because of the shitty management they got. Their board of directors were extremely useless, the upper management oftentimes just sleep while the lower-ranked employees worked their ass off just to remain in this shitty company. After all, if they got fired, who would hire them now?
Well, Adam got the jackpot and got fired by his boss. He still remembered his boss saying that he truly felt a pity for firing him, but it was a necessary evil for the company to survive and see another day. That piece of shit even dared to say that his years of working in his crappy company provided Adam a lot of experience.
Yeah, he did get a lot of experience, experience of shitty upper fucking management.
"Piece of shit," Adam muttered angrily as he crushed the can of soda in his hand. He was just too angry for this. Now, where would he even get the job?
Adam noticed the stares of the passersby who just witnessed him crushing the can. He stared back at them fiercely and they looked away and started walking.
"Idiots!" Adam said to himself, tossing the can to the bin before he started to walk. But before he could even go that far, he saw his slight reflection from the vending machine's transparent glasses.
He saw himself having messy hair and extremely huge eyebags. His trusty white t-shirt he always wear when programming were terribly unkempt, and his jeans, while still in condition, had lost their color after using it for many years.
Then he took a good look at his physique and just laughed for being extremely thin. He was a man with average height of 5"8, not that tall but not that small. To be completely honest, Adam admitted that he looked extremely average. Just like your everyday dude that you see in the train station but just forgot about him an hour later. That's how unremarkable he was.
Adam just sighed at this sight then moved his feet again, continuing to walk. There was no point of being harsh at himself. It would just make him even more depressed.
As he continued walking, his phone suddenly buzzed so he fished it out from his right pocket and saw that his sister, Ella, just messaged him.
Ella: Buy me a can of Coke on your way home. Greatly appreciated.
"This girl…"
Adam did not even have any more energy to get angry so he just retraced his steps and returned to the vending machine. He pulled out his wallet, but then a hand suddenly appeared beside him and slipped it out from his hand.
Adam was shocked as he looked where the hand came from. He saw the thief in a thick jacket running away, red bonnet on his head. Then, he shook his head and gave himself one big slap, waking him up, before chasing after the thief.
"Hey! Come back here you fucking thief!"
Adam screamed out of his lungs, but he can't seem to narrow the distance between them. The thief was too experienced, and most importantly, really fast. Adam was just a computer programmer who spends his day staring at the computer, typing out codes that really hated to see right now.
After dozens of seconds of sprinting, Adam could no longer see the silhouette of the thief and his stamina ran out, causing him to stop and pant heavily.
"That fucking guy, I'll kill him the next time I saw him."
Adam gritted his teeth, anger exploding within him. He felt like the universe decided to make fun of him today, giving him bad luck one after another. It was truly a frustrating experience!
But the worst part was yet to come.
As Adam walked through the streets, he suddenly saw the guy in thick jacket and red bonnet along with others who had the same taste in clothing as that thief.
Adam's surroundings turned dark, his eyes fixated on the thief's hand who was currently counting bills and splitting it with his pieces of shit friends. He did not care anymore if they were dangerous or not, no one will get away from stealing his money!
Adam approached them and the group of six people noticed him. The thief's face, which was smug originally as he counter the money, suddenly froze upon seeing him here.
"Give me back my fucking money!" Adam demanded as he continued approaching him.
"Lil' boy, you seemed to be in a wrong neighborhood." A bald guy replied as he stood up from his seat, Adam suddenly realizing how towering this man was. His skin was full of tattoos and teeth golden. There were knockles on both his hands.
But Adam did not care anymore as he said again, "I said, give me my fucking mo—"
Before Adam could even finish speaking, the towering bald man suddenly threw an overpowering punch, landing on Adam's face.
Thud!
Adam fell to the ground, his vision extremely blurry while his head felt extremely painful. He could feel that his skull broke from that impactful punch with a knuckle, and his teeth were lost as well, some even making their way straight to his throat.
"Asueniak#(#..."
At this moment, Adam could not even utter a single coherent word. He was just there, lying on the ground after one punch. Blood poured out from both his mouth and face. He could hear the bald man saying something but he could not hear anything. Whatever it was, he hoped they were happy for doing this to him.
He suddenly thought of his parents. What would their reaction be if they found out what happened to him? What about his sister? He was supposed to buy her Coke so that she can study for tonight because her exam was nearing.
But then again, Adam suddenly realized, that they never actually tired about him. For them, he was just a tool to get milked and when he lost his worth, they will just probably abandon him. The concept of family was a joke, Adam thought before making his one last smile.
Finally, I can get some rest. Adam calmly thought as he closed his eyes.