October 1, 2022

"Mila, buy my produce now. All of them are fresh, especially my vegetables, they were just freshly plucked this morning from my family's farm!"

A kind-looking old lady yelled to a middle-aged lady with a huge smile on her face while introducing her fresh produce from their farm to the latter.

"Lady, how about my cucumber? It's long and tastes good!" hollered another seller from the side.

"How about you young man? What are you looking for today!? I have a lot here! Tomatoes, eggplant, cabbages, whatever vegetable you're looking for, I have it! All fresh! I'll even give you a ten percent just for you as you'd be my first customer for today!"

"How about it!?"

The market was really chaotic, looking like there's a festival with how noisy it is with sellers hollering their produce, competing for customers or arguing over here and there of who has the best products.

A typical occurrence every day in a wet market or any other local wet market, nothing new.

Meanwhile.

"John, go over there and help them unload those buckets of fish and place them over here!"

A middle-aged man yelled towards a thin but somewhat muscular young man just a few meters away from him and gestured towards the direction of where a couple of men are currently unloading buckets of fishes from a truck not too far away from them.

"Yes, boss"

The young man called John nodded his head obediently and immediately made his way towards where the others are.

"John, you're here! Quick, help them out, and put them at Old Gin's stall!" a rough-looking old man holding what looks like a list in his hand and pen on the other said to John the moment he noticed him.

"Yes sir!" answered John respectfully.

The old man is the owner of a large fish farm in their town. In fact, he is the only one who has a fish farm in town, and because of that, he's considered the biggest supplier of fresh fish in their local wet market, and not only, he's also known to supply his produce to some large supermarkets in a neighboring city, making him a local rich man.

"You're here early today kiddo!" a huge dark-skinned man smiled at John when he saw him picking up a bucket full of fish from the unloaded buckets sitting on the ground.

The fish bucket that John had picked is full of one foot in size trevally, and the fish buckets could reach over John's knee in height with a width of three feet, and John is someone whose height is somewhere around six feet, so you can already tell how big and heavy the bucket would be.

John smiled at the man and said, "Yeah man, need to work a lot from now on as my sister would be attending school soon"

The black dude snapped his fingers when he realized something, "Right, schools would be opening next month now!"

"Johnson, get moving and stop chit-chatting with John!"

"Yes, Mr. Cruz! Talk to you later bro!"

The dark-skinned man called Johnson scratch the back of his head and quickly went back to work after making some clicking sounds of "tsk tsk" along with his two index fingers pointing to John.

Person called Mr. Cruz is a man probably in his late fifties or early sixties, currently wearing a green long sleeve shirt coupled with a pair of gloves, jeans and boots.

Though he look kind, he had this dignified air around him that would make anyone feel that he doesn't f*ck around and that you need to respect him.

Mr. Cruz turned his attention back to John and with a chuckle, he said, "And you, continue on, and stop making small talks with Johnson here who just wants to make an excuse to have some rest. You can talk however long you want after you've finished doing your job"

Johnson, who heard what the old man said just laugh in embarrassment, while the other men who are working with them roared in laughter.

"Yes sir! We'd be done with all of these in a jiffy!"

John smiled to his boss, before he picked up the bucket of fish in front of him, but just as he straightened his back and was about to start walking, a sudden bout of dizziness suddenly struck him!

"Mrghh!"

Bang!

John slowly bent down and helplessly dropped the fish bucket on the ground with bang, scaring his co-workers as they turned their heads towards him and saw him holding his head while sweating buckets, though its normal to sweat a lot while doing heavy work, but this one is worse because he looked like someone who had just gotten out of the shower and didn't bother wiping his body dry with a towel.

"Kid, you okay?'

A middle aged man, who was near him and saw his abnormal situation placed down the fish bucket he was carrying and walked over to him.

John looked up at the man, with a weak smile, he replied, "Y-yeah, I'm...o...kay?"

His words at the end slowly turned into confusion as his body slowly tilted forward and he fell down hard on the cold wet ground.

Thud!

"O-oi! John fainted!"

"F-f*ck! I think John just died!"

'F*ck you, Johnson!'

Those were the last words that John heard where he saw people running towards him as the darkness slowly consumed him, but not before he angrily cursed Johnson in his mind.

[Beep!]

[Host found...Initiating Binding Process in three..}

[Two…]

[One…]

[...]

[Binding Successful!]

[Beep!]

***

John's eyes snapped open as he quickly sat up from the bed, startling the people around him.

"Kuya!"

A little shadow suddenly pounced towards him from the side and hugged him tightly as the sound of sobbing echoed throughout the room.

"What... what happened?"

John frowned and started rubbing his temples while looking at the person standing in front of him while softly caressing the head of the little creature still hugging him tight.

"You suddenly fainted while working, the guys quickly brought you here at the clinic. Don't worry, nothing's wrong with you, you just fainted due to overworking your body"

The woman in a nurse's outfit said while smiling brightly at John.

She is around the late twenties or early thirties, with a silky smooth red-colored hair, a pair of blue eyes, and a somewhat chiseled chin, making her quite stunning, and if someone were to rate her from one to ten, then she'd be standing between eight and nine.

Not only that, but she also got those awesome looking twin peaks of hers, which makes her a very desirable woman in the eyes of many men, even John can't resist the sight of it sometimes and would sneakily peeked at it.

"Kuya, I was so worried! I thought something bad happened to you! You don't need to work so much, I don't w-want s-something to- Uwaaa!"

The little girl that was hugging him lifted her head, revealing a face covered in snot and tears, before burying her head back again in John's chest and cried, covering that part of his shirt with her tears and snot, and John could only caress his sister's head with a loving smile on his face.

"Stop crying Kylie, I'm not going away," he said smiling.

"I wish my lil sis is also like her" the nurse said with a chuckle, her voice tinged with a bit of jealousy.

John turned his attention back to her and said, "So how long was I out Lorraine?"

"You were out for almost five hours, it's already four in the afternoon," Lorraine said.

"That long!?" John, in surprise, couldn't help but raise his voice, before wincing in pain when he felt a slight, but stinging pain in his head.

"It seems like you still need some rest"

"No, I'm feeling fine already"

Lorraine just smiled and said, "I see, though if you're really feeling okay now, then you're now allowed to leave, but make sure to get some proper rest this time when you get back. Old Gin already heard about what happened to you and told me to tell you that you can take tomorrow off and not to worry about your wage today, he'll still pay you in full"

Old Gin is Mr. Cruz, the former is what close friends and family calls him.

"I see, that old man is really kind even though he's quite the miser. Though how much do I owe you?" John said with a chuckle, feeling grateful towards the old man.

Lorraine laughed when she heard his voice full of bitterness, "He's a softie, and you don't need to pay for just sleeping on the bed, so don't show that reluctant look on your face that looks like your losing millions you miser, and you had the gall to call Old Gin miser when you're even worse than him"

"Though you need to make sure to treat me to a meal next time!"

John laughed as he smiled at her and said, "Thank you, then we should get going then as I'm already feeling fine, and I'll thank Doctor Lizzy on the way out, and shouldn't she be the one I should be treating the meal to? Since she owns this place"

"Shut up!"

"Are we going now?" the little girl finally let go of John and stopped crying as she looked at him with her bright red eyes due to her cries earlier.

John slowly stood up from the bed and said, "Yeah, let's go home and have your favorite food for tonight's dinner, an adobo"

Hearing the word Adobo quickly made Kylie's lit up in the excitement that she even raised her arms up and yelled in excitement.

"Yay! Quick, let's go home!" Kylie said as she quickly grabbed her brother's hand and started pulling her brother towards the exit, seemingly forgetting what happened to him earlier.

"Thanks, Lorraine, I'll see you later," John said with a helpless smile on his face as he just allowed himself to be dragged around.

Kylie stopped in her tracks and looked as she remembered something, "Unnie, thank you for looking after my Oppa!"

Then Kylie winked at her before she once again pulled her brother out of the clinic, but not before they said their goodbyes and thanks to Doctor Lizzy on the way out, who also happens to be Lorraine's mother.

Lorraine walked out of the door and looked at the fading silhouette of the two siblings in the distance.

"That little fox, she's only eight years old but her mind is already so mature for someone her age"

Lorraine couldn't help but laugh when she thought of Kylie acting like an innocent little sister in front of John, but acts quite differently when he's not around.

Then she sighed to herself and muttered with sympathy, "Well, it must have been because of the environment she has grown up to"