A Day Without You

Life As We Know It

I was completely lost in the crowd. Nobody knew who I was anymore. The new faces seemed reassuring to me. Granted, there were people who remember me no matter how much time passes.

I more or less live on stealing from... well, practically people who are thieves themselves so, I never quite feel guilty about my actions. They are far worse than me. But the fact that I'm a lone wolf doesn't really help me. I always end up taking on people who outnumber me. It's pretty pathetic to say this but, there's a reason as to why I almost always lose a fight these days. But even amidst all that pain, I enjoyed living. I never expected anyone to understand my life - I was certain no one would even if they tried. Life wasn't easy and sometimes that got to me. My smile, or rather my grin, would disappear for days at a time sometimes and I would isolate myself from everything to get a grip. In between all that, I enjoyed my days and nights. That is how it went on for years - lazing around, getting into trouble, getting beaten to s**t, getting drunk at any given day... just trying to stay alive.

But it changed a few months ago.

I visited a pub, in hopes of drowning the pain I had all around my body in alcohol. 4 men... or was it 5... Anyhow, I 'owed' them cash so, they had at me with the punches and kicks that day. It wasn't anything much, I was used to it by then but my body wasn't I guess. I entered the pub and started to check out what to drink but, something else caught my attention - women. I was quite confident in myself but they just needed one thing in every man they entertained - money. It was safe to say that I wasn't loaded with cash at that time, so they didn't bother with me. They almost always treated me like a pest and swatted me away.

But this time, it wasn't the second hand affection I was after.

I had noticed something shine under the lights, and they were car keys. I felt like I hit the jackpot. The mere chance of getting an opportunity like that was making my heart race. I approached them rather hoping they'd shove me off so that sliding them away from the counter would get easier... and so it did. The parking lot for the bar was up on the 4th or 5th floor, so that's where I went. As I found myself inside the empty space filled with nothing but expensive metal, I pressed the button to get the indication of the car that came with it. As I heard the sound, my head turned to see it, which was placed more or less behind me, about a few meters away. I couldn't believe it was really happening... Nobody was there between me and the car and that trashcan probably still didn't realize his keys were gone.

Nothing was there to stop me and it felt oh so good.

I walked to it with ease and the fact that I didn't need to force the door open was bringing pleasure to me. I put the keys in and the car's engine roared on ignition. After a few minutes, I felt like I was flying. I knew at the back of my mind that someone would catch me someday but that didn't bother me one bit. I was enjoying the night lights and the cold wind coming through the window. The streets were more or less empty so I sped up, which made me feel even better. But I came to a stop, to see a women walking right in front of me, the headlights lighting up her entire figure. She looked frantic, scared beyond belief. I kept looking at her for a few seconds before she turned my way. I looked at her face one more time, this time getting a clearer look at her expression...

She looked the way I did 6 years ago.

It was like I was looking at myself. Scared, no idea what to do next... I felt the exact same things she was feeling then. All I kept thinking was, "Don't leave her here". I got out of the car to go and speak with her and the closer I got, the more I started to understand how much she had f**ked up. I tried to calm her down and spoke with her slowly. "You cannot stay here like this", I said to her as she looked at me with some suspicion in her eyes. I continued after that saying "You have nothing to lose anyway. Get in the car first and wipe the blood off", looking at her one last time before turning around and heading for the car. I could see the regret and fear in her eyes. That could've been me, had I had the courage to kill that d**chebag boyfriend of the b**ch that day. She didn't make a single sound and followed me to the car. As soon as she got in, I started driving.

There was this eerie silence all around.

We were both quiet and the only sound that could be heard was of the car's and the sound of her rubbing her hands with her shirt rigorously... but the blood refused to get off. I gave her a cloth I saw inside the car when I got in, hoping it might help because it wasn't already drenched like her shirt. As I turned my head to the road once again, there was a guy who had already almost touched the bonnet of the car. I pressed my feet on the brakes as fast as I could... But I could see him flying a few metres away from the spot. My head was close enough to hit the steering wheel and as I lifted my head up, I did so fearing the worse. I got out of the car, but there was only rage in me at the moment. He wasn't supposed to be there in the first place and if he would've died, I would've been in deep s**t.  The only thing that occupied my mind was beating some sense into him. "I finally got a car and this f**k up almost ruined everything", that's what I thought. She tried to stop me but I could see her shocked face, after I almost  shoved her off of me. But he... was laughing. He kept laughing, even though he almost died. That's when my mind shifted.

"He's had it way worse than I did"

I couldn't help but wonder what s**t he had gone through to be that way. He kept walking away from us, but she kept looking at his back. I could see a similar expression on her face as she saw him. "I can't leave him like this"... It's the exact same face I knew I made when I saw her. And that was that. Somehow, the three of us were together, riding in a stolen car with no f**king clue as to where we were headed. But things started to look heavenly for us that morning. As we stopped at the gas station for a refill, everyone got out of the car. It had been hours since we had been driving. Hyojong and Hyuna were enjoying the air, well it looked like they were and I put the nozzle in and went to check out the trunk to see if there's anything valuable in there. And it was a gold mine. All three of us were shocked beyond belief when we saw it loaded with cash. There was barely any free space in there to keep anything else. We were just smiling like idiots for a few seconds before we finally started to realize what was happening.

I could finally see good days ahead of us. Although I understood that what we were about to start was going to end badly, none of us had anything to lose anymore... Or so I thought.