They walked away from the vendors of balut, but they were still by the bay near the Market. Cesar and Samantha were ahead of them while Mark, Ruth, and Justin followed them wherever they went. Justin glanced for a while at Mark and back to the path where he was walking.

“Sorry, Mark. My Psychology has no effect.”

Mark looks at Justin for a while and smiles, then watches back to the path he’s walking.

“It’s ok Justin. At least you tried.”

“Thank you, Mark. I thought I could help you, but it was a failure.”

“It’s ok, Justin. You‘re just trying to help.”

“Thank you, Mark. I should try helping you for real this time.”

“Justin, you are so annoying. The past is the past, we can’t get it back this time. Let's just move on, ok? I’m sure the future has something better in store for us. So cheer up and don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“Thank you, Mark.”

Cesar and Samantha stopped at the front of a bench. Then Cesar turned towards them.

“This is a good place, we’ll sit and relax here.”

Ruth looked at the bench beside her.

“We should look for a better bench. It has only one slab of concrete seat in it. The slab concrete at the front of the seat is missing.”

Justin and Mark looked at the bench beside Cesar’s, which is further away. Justin scratched his head in frustration.

“The seat is already taken.”

Cesar looks at the other bench beside theirs and finds people sitting on it. Then he looks back towards them.

“We’ll just walk further for a while if we can have a better spot.”

Mark draws near Justin’s ear.

“I’m tired, we should bear our crosses and just sit here.”

Justin nods.

“Nope, here is good enough Cesar. It’ll do.”

“Ok, we’ll hang out here.”

Cesar and Samantha sat down on their bench. Mark, Ruth, and Justin sat on their dilapidated bench.

Mark looks at Samantha and Cesar while they are talking. Ruth and Justin are talking beside him without them noticing that as Mark is looking at Cesar and Samantha, the more he got depressed. Mark strays from just looking at them with smiles on their faces while they are talking. He gets annoyed and turns his head towards Ruth and Justin. Turning his head towards them, they noticed that his eyes are watery.

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Ruth and Justin stopped talking and looked at each other. Ruth then patted Mark’s shoulder. She looked at Cesar and Samantha and knew what made Mark’s eyes water. When Ruth looked back at Mark, tears streamed down Mark’s face. Ruth then hugged Mark. Mark then sobbed like it was the end of the world on Ruth’s shoulder.

Samantha and Cesar stopped talking and went over to Mark. Cesar stooped down to Mark to see his face. Ruth and Mark ended their hug as Samantha and Cesar went over to them. Cesar puts his right hand on Mark’s knees.

“What’s wrong, Mark?”

“Um, uh, it’s just-“

Ruth seeing Mark struggling to speak takes the initiative, “He’s just having a lot of emotions on what is happening today and he just can’t bottle it up inside.”

While Ruth is still speaking, Cesar looked at her intently and then looked back at Mark when she finished talking.

“Oh, I’m sorry ‘bout that Mark. A lot of bad things just happened today. If I’d just avoided fighting Junrey, you would not get punched in the school. I’m also sorry I didn’t do anything to stop you from embarrassing yourself here. I’m really sorry, Mark.”

Mark wipes the tears from his eyes using his forearm then he looks at Cesar.

“It’s not your fault Cesar but it is fate’s. Why does she let this happen to me? Did I do something wrong to deserve this?”

“Sometimes, bad things happen so that we could get close to God. So that we could get stronger today than yesterday. So don’t despair, just give it to God.”

“You’re right, Cesar. I shall ask the Lord and I shall receive what I want. I’ll pray that an obstacle should be removed from the path of getting what I want.

“Good. Just give it all to God, Mark. But let his will be done, not yours.”

Mark sighs. Mark carries all this time the pork cracklings he bought from the vendor. He put the two on the bench and held one.

“I’m just gonna eat it out.”

Cesar smiles and stands up. He then pats Mark on the shoulder.

“Good, Mark. Just relax there and don’t worry about what happened today, we’re always here for you Mark. Just ask us something if you need anything.”

Mark nodded then Cesar and Samantha went back to their bench and returned to talking to each other. Justin bends forwards to see Mark across Ruth.

“Mark, just don’t look at them. Ok?”

“Ok, Justin.”

Ruth then leans towards Mark

“’I’ll pray that an obstacle be removed from the path of what I want?’ You gotta be kidding me, Mark.”

“Come on. I was.”

“You better be.”

Mark just eats all the chicharon, all three of them, and is sunk on the bench. Twenty minutes have passed by and throughout this time, Mark is jittery at hearing Cesar and Samantha talking to each other. Ruth notices this.

“Mark, you should go home and ease your mind for today. Considering what has been happening today, you should get some rest.”

“You’re right, I’m not being myself today.”

Justin bends forwards to see Mark.

“I’ll go with you, Mark.”

Mark smiles at Justin and Justin smiles back. Ruth stands up from the bench and goes towards Cesar and Samantha. Mark and Justin can’t make out what they’re talking about. Then Samantha and Cesar, along with Ruth, approach Mark. Cesar squats down and puts his hand on Mark’s knee.

“Mark, I want you to rest. I know it’s been hard today. I want you to go home, and put your heart at rest.”

Mark sighs.

“You’re right. I should go home.”

At this, Cesar stands up and pats Mark on the shoulders. Mark then stands up along with him when Samantha approaches him. She asks him to talk with her privately without anyone hearing them. Mark’s heart was racing, it was almost as if he was having heart palpitations.

They then seclude themselves from others. They walked away a couple of walks from their peers. They stopped where nobody could hear their conversation. Mark looks at the ground because he’s afraid of getting eye contact with Samantha. Because she’s gorgeous. Samantha looks at Mark and holds his arm.

“Mark, don’t leave me. What about what you said to me that you’ll help me with Cesar?”

When Samantha held Mark’s arm, Mark was petrified. Throughout Samantha’s speech, he was like in a state of trance where he can’t hear what she said. When she had finished talking, Mark just looked up at her and smiled. Samantha pitied him because, in her mind, Mark has to relax his mind from what has been happening today and he has to break his promise so that he could rest. Samantha hugged Mark because she wanted him to feel better. And indeed, he did. When she hugged him, he was in a state of euphoria. With so much elation that the last thing he remembered was falling to the ground after Samantha let him go.