** WARNING! A LOT OF TAGALOG WITH NO TRANSLATIONS AHEAD!

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"Palutong, humanay!"

They quickly scrambled to get in line.

"Palutong, humanda!"

They immediately stood up straight, eyes focused only in what's in front of them.

"Masinsing pagitang, humanay."

They quickly got their distancing and faced forward when they were done.

He looked back and saw his superior watching me at a distance, silently evaluating his commanding skills.

He switches his attention back to his men. "Harap sa kaliwa, rap!"

They did as they were told and turned left, sharp and in sync.

"Pasulong, kad!"

Together, his group marches forward in sync, showing much improvement since they first got here.

Out of the corner of my eye, he sees his superior write something down in his little notepad. He quietly gulped.

"Takbong-hakbang, kad!"

Once again in sync, he and his men 
start running in sync. He remained focused and started leading cadences with them, but then he smelled something.

Sweet... minty...

A bit far off to his right, the sidewalk is lined with sampaguita bushes, and an all too familiar woman walks alongside them as the skirt of her baro't saya slowly grazes against the cement ground below her. Carefully, she examines each and every flower.

Time seemed to slow down for him as he watched her pick a few of the flowers, take in their scent, and weave them together to form a flower crown.

Suddenly, a soldier from the back called out to him.

"Captain Del Pilar, bato!-"

But it was too late. Pio tripped over a fairly-sized rock with a loud grunt.

"Señor!"

//timeskip...

Pio found himself sitting in a chair in his superiors' office, his superiors' face still fuming after lecturing the young captain on distractions, and the woman from earlier treating his scratches.

"Aray!-" Pio jolted a bit and hissed in pain as alcohol was dabbed on his wound.

His superior shot him an angry glare. "Ah, sakit ba yun? Kunin ko nga yung baril ko at-"

"Heneral, pakiusap po," the woman intervened. "patawarin nyo po si Captain Del Pilar."

The generals' tone calmed when he spoke to the young woman. "Binibini Perla, this doesn't concern you. Please, stay ou-"

"Pero ako po yung dahilan na bakit sya na distract." She confessed. "Ako po ang dapat niyong i-pagalitan."

Pio looked at her with wide eyes. "Binibini..."

"Pangako ko po, hindi po ako babalik dyan sa mga sampaguita pag nag-training po kayo." Perla promised. "'Wag mo lang sya i-pagalitan."

The general sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Perhaps... I'll consider it..."

Perla smiled. "Maraming salamat po, Heneral..."

Pio felt his heart drop. Expecting to see her by those sampaguita bushes was his only motivation for training. The smell of those sampaguitas and the sight of her there would re-energize him. Without her...

Well, he could still get up for training. He has to. But knowing Perla won't be at her usual spot by the sampaguita bushes, it would be a little harder to push himself to train.

'Oh binibini, what are you doing, making me feel this way?"

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Coming up ---> 'Katipunan Brothers'

This chapter started out great, but I didn't know what I was doing after that timeskip. And that eNDING was so cringey, I-Im so sorry! (T-T)