“Dang,” Doha muttered as he listened in on their conversation. “Zeno’s too straightforward.”
Minji was also unsure of his question. However, it seemed Raya had fully immersed herself in this emotion, so she responded honestly.
“I do,” she answered.
“So, why didn’t you leave?” Zeno asked, pressing on.
A small smile played on her lips. “I might regret my marriage, but I don’t regret what came with it.”
“My son…,” she trailed off before shaking her head. “Let’s just say that my marriage is one of the reasons why I’m able to keep the most important aspect of my life safe.”
“Sometimes,” she continued, snapping back to her professional self, “we need to sacrifice some things in order to keep some things.”
“I wish the world wasn’t like that, but it is. So, humans have no choice.”
Minji focused her gaze on her lap, nodding in agreement.
“Anyway,” Raya chimed with a smile. “Why don’t we do an ultrasound for Mindy?”
Minji froze and squeezed Zeno’s hand.
Zeno cleared his throat and brought their intertwined hands up for Raya to see.
“My wife is afraid of medical devices,” he said.
“Oh,” Raya muttered. “This won’t hurt. The gel will be cold, and I only have to run the machine over her stomach. It’s not invasive at all.”
“I was molested with it once,” Minji said, going out of script.
Raya’s face was painted with horror and shock.
Meanwhile, Doha and Eli turned to each other, wondering how to fix the situation.
“I don’t know, man,” Doha said. “That never came to my mind.”
Zeno, too, held in the urge to curse. However, he maintained his demeanor.
“My girlfriend and I have been through a lot.”
“I can see that,” Raya muttered, still surprised. Fortunately, she placed down the probe of the machine and faced them fully.
“Are you living together?”
“Yes,” Minji excitedly answered, a stark contrast to her past revelation.
“Oh, that’s nice. May I ask how your living conditions are?”
“It’s bad,” Minji said, remembering the script. “We live in a 22 square meter apartment with a shared bathroom. We even have a bunk bed because the space cannot fit us both. The kitchen is also a common area, but we might as well live with cockroaches and rats instead of people.”
Raya was even more horrified, writing more quickly on her notes. “That’s not good,” she muttered.
Minji continued with the trauma dumping. “Along with that, we have to send money to our parents, so I still work, and my boyfriend works three jobs a day.”
Zeno nodded dejectedly, causing Raya’s face to fill with pity.
“I thought your parents weren’t present anymore,” Raya muttered.
“They aren’t,” Zeno answered. “They just left a lot of debt for us to pay.”
“Both of you?”
“Yes,” Minji sighed, fanning her eyes to ‘supposedly’ stop the tears from falling. “Fate is so cruel sometimes. It led two broken people together. But even then, I’m thankful I met Zen—I mean, Zander.”
Raya sighed and looked down at her hands. They were calloused and trembling from overworking. However, even then, she realized that every person had a story to tell and that there were people who were suffering like her. Some, even more.
She reached into her pocket and was about to give the young couple some money when Zeno spoke again, halting her actions.
“However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how far it may feel.”
It was now time for the climax of their method of acting. Everything they had said thus far led up to this.
“We’re moving out of that hellhole,” Minji continued.
Raya felt genuine happiness in her heart. “Is that right?”
“Hmm,” Zeno hummed. “When we felt that all hope was lost and our situation would never change, someone helped us.”
Raya’s brows furrowed in confusion, wondering where this conversation was going.
“That’s why this will be our first and last time here in the clinic.”
Raya was still confused. “You should get checked at least every month, especially since this is your first baby.”
“Don’t worry,” Eli whispered through the mic.
“Don’t worry,” Minji smiled. “We’re going to keep up with the check-ups. We’re just moving to a better place in the province.”
Raya sighed in relief. “That’s nice.”
“Yeah, and it’s all because of this company,” Zeno said, placing a calling card that Doha had curated for them. It had the words ‘Live a Zen life,’ and it had a bunch of rainbows on it—another detail that Zeno merely noticed this morning. He wanted the card to have a more mysterious vibe to it, but it was better than nothing.
“They helped us pay all of our debt and have now brought a small house for us in the countryside.”
Raya’s face hardened, and she slid the calling card back toward Zeno.
“I am happy for the two of you. However, I am not interested in taking a loan.”
“It’s not a loan,” Minji quickly defended. “They don’t ask us for money. They don’t have an interest rate.”
Raya couldn’t help but chuckle this time. “It just seems too good to be true, Mindy.”
“That’s what we thought so too,” Zeno said, still in character. “However, it’s real. In fact, when we saw this card flying in the streets of Seoul, we called it out on a whim. However, it already knew about our information. We were skeptical, but it turned out to be the best decision we had made in our entire lives.”
“They just asked us for some more information in return. No money involved at all.”
The midwife didn’t seem convinced, but Zeno knew his words had already left a mark. With that, he stood and grabbed Minji’s hand.
“We were given this new chance, so we want to pass it on to other people,” he continued with a soft voice, one that sounded very believable. “When we feel that all hope is lost, we hold onto things that most times make us sink. However, this card right here is a chance to float. I really do wish you would give it a chance.”
They began walking out, and Raya wondered if this was a birthing consultation in the first place.
As they reached the door, Raya couldn’t help but ask out loud.
“Why me?”
Zeno turned around and placed his sunglasses down for a moment, revealing his sparkling and sincere eyes—a sight that made Raya gasp in fascination.
“You’ve brought us the kindness we never got to experience from our parents.”
“I can just tell,” he continued.
“You deserve a better life.”