The bell on top of the door clinked as the waitresses welcomed the customer in united. Lisa removed her jacket and gave it to one of the employee. He accepted it and bowed a bit before disappeared to the small room where all the coats and jacket stored.
"Reservation under Kim," she informed the neat waiter as he guided her to their table.
Her mom waved at her excitedly. She told the waiter that it was okay for him to leave, she already found her family.
She greeted her family giving them hug one by one. Jennie was absolutely gorgeous tonight- she always was though. Lisa softly touched Jennie's back and kissed her temple giving her a loving smile. She didn't even aware of the surprise look their parents threw at them.
Lisa sat beside Jennie and took her hand in hers.
"What did you order?" Lisa asked as she put her phone on the table.
"Broccoli Alfredo Stuffed Shells for you and Apple Cranberry Walnut Salad for me, Raspberry Sunrise Smoothie for me and mineral water for you," she answered.
"Is your food even suitable for dinner?" Lisa scrunched her face.
"Yeah it is, I'm on diet, remember? I've gained weight."
"And I don't remember of agreeing that thing with you. Your body shape is just fine, even if you do gain weight it doesn't matter. U don't want you to starve, you'll get sick."
"Well... we can always share your food?" Jennie soothed Lisa's thigh, she didn't want to argue in front of their parents.
"Okay," she nodded.
"Lisa-ah, from what I heard, you really like smoothies." Jennie's dad said.
"She does, daddy. But she doesn't like it when she's having heavy meal." The lawyer answered.
"Yeah," Lisa chuckled. She felt less awkward with Jennie's parents after having dinner with them couple days ago. "Anyway, thank you for picking Jennie up dad," she smiled to the older guy version of her. "I was going to go but you know... emergency surgery and all."
"Aah don't mention it, it's my pleasure, darling." He squeezed her arm.
"We wanted to come to Seoul at your birthday, Lisa-ah, but your dad said that you didn't celebrate your birthday so we cancelled the plan," Jennie's mom cautiously spoke.
"It's fine, mommy. It's not a big deal, thank you though for the consideration." She grinned.
"Jennie said you're working on a heart project?" Jennie's dad asked in curiosity. "Something with growing it?"
"Uh that, yeah I'm working on the proposal right now but with work and all it's kind of out of my hand no I'm taking it slowly."
"How does it work?"
"Well... we try to strip out the cell from a donor organ leaving the connective tissue that used to hold the cell in place. It's called decellularization then we reseeded it with the recipient's own cell hoping that it would regenerating without tissue rejection," Lisa described her project in a way that she thought the easiest for common people to understand. Jennie was playing with her hand under the table feeling proud of the way Lisa explained it
Not long after, their food arrived. The waiter who wore a suit came and presented the meal on the table. They thanked him and started to dig in.
Lisa cut her shell smaller and offered the first spoon to Jennie. Jennie threw her a questioning look but ate it anyway.
"Aww, you guys are so sweet!" Lisa's mom clapped happily.
"Oh no mom, I just want her to taste it first so if there's poison in it, she'll be the first to pass out," Lisa shrugged earning a shove from her partner making her laughed. "I'm just joking." she unconsciously kissed the side of Jennie's head.
The four older people on the table exchanging a meaningful smile that went unnoticed by the two lovebirds.
Lisa wiped her mouth as she turned to her back and nodding to the waiter that been waiting for the cue.
Three waiters walked to their table and cleaned it up. One of them brought a large piece of cake and set it after Jennie.
"Happy birthday, Ms. Kim," Lisa pulled her closer. Jennie mumbled thank you before pecking Lisa's brow.
They sang the happy birthday theme song and requested the birthday girl to blew up the candle and feed there the cake. They took lots of photos together. Lisa set one of the picture of her and Jennie's as her wallpaper. Jennie did the same.
Lisa excused herself to the toilet. She gave the waitress her credit card to pay the dinner on her way. When she was just backed to her seat when the two sides of parents bickering on who was going to pay.
"This is my daughter's celebration dinner, of course I'll pay," Mr. Kim said.
"Daddy, mom, I should pay for the meals." Jennie raised her hand.
"Excuse us, Jennie is our daughter too now." Mrs. Manoban shot him a glare completely ignoring Jennie.
"Thank you, Ms. Manoban. I hope you all have a pleasure dinner. Please do come again," the young girl suddenly appeared beside her bowed politely. She handed her her credit card and bill. Lisa smiled and nodded a little.
"I'm sorry folks, but I'm the one who's going to marry her, so..." She set the card in her wallet and sat comfortably. Jennie was blushing hard at the remark.
The parents couldn't argue with that. Each put their wallet back into their purse.
They hugged each other before separating on their own way.
"Do you want to go home?" She turned to her as they waved to their parents. "The night is still early. We can have a date for ourselves if you want." she smiled.
"Hmm," she actually liked the idea. "What do you have in mind, Lili?"
"There's a small but very yummy ice cream store near here, want to go there?"
Jennie gasped. "You already ate three-quarter of your meal and half of my salad, not to mention how big your cake was! Are you sure you still have a room for ice cream?"
"Is there even a time when my stomach doesn't have a place for it?" Lisa laughed. "The place is nice, we can just buy one small cup and talk all night," she said that with the big puppy eyes of her. "My car is also parked not far from that shop."
Jennie giggled, Lisa could act like a kid sometimes- most of the time was more like it. "Okay then, lets go."
They walked slowly, hands entangled. They talked, they teased, they laughed together.
At the same day as today, twenty-eight years ago, Jennie was born and Lisa couldn't be anymore grateful for that. To be the partner of this extraordinary woman, to be given the opportunity of holding her hand, to felt the warm embrace from her anytime she wanted were something she couldn't never imagine before.
People said times could heal every wound. Time couldn't do that favor for Lisa though. Year by year she survived, but she barely breathing, she merely got through the day without thinking. Work was the only thing in her brain since it occupied all the room in her mind- it eased the pain somehow.
So time didn't heal. It only made her used to the loneliness and sorrow.
Jennie in this matter, did help her. She reminded her that her heart still could recovered from the horrible experienced in her past. She leaded her to the way of forgiveness, to the acceptance of reality and herself, she assisted her to moved on.
She showed her ocular proof that it was okay to not be strong all the time.
Because she'd be the strength when she was down.
Lisa opened the entrance and let Jennie in first. There was an old man with his grandchild who stood before them, waiting patiently since they wanted to get out.
Lisa smiled politely to the man and was about to walked pass him when a grip eta hand stopped her. It was the old man.
"Dr. Lisa Manoban, right?" He asked and smiled kindly.
Lisa nodded. Jennie threw her a question look. Lisa swore she had seen this man somewhere but she couldn't put her finger where.
"You probably don't remember me," he chuckled. "I just want to say thank you for your help many years ago," he said with her hoarse voice. "I thought I wouldn't last this long, but you gave me the free surgery. You make my heart can beat so much longer."
"Mr. Kang?" She surprised. "Is this really you?!" The old man she saw when she was a resident was a skinny, dim gaze with no hope for life, not this healthy and bright kind of rear. He looked younger, to be honest.
"Yes, doctor. This is me. Miracle, huh?" he smiled again. "I'm here with my grandson," the kid pulled his granddad's shirt as he hid behind him. "He's tired, he's been playing a lot today," he picked the little boy and carried him. "Thank you, again doctor," he bowed, Lisa quickly stopped him.
"Don't do that, Mr. Kang. It's my pleasure to help you." She assured him.
"You're a good person. I'll always pray for all the happiness for you, doctor," he patted her shoulder instead. "Goodnight, Doctor Manoban."
"Goodnight, Mr. Kang." Lisa smiled as she waved a little, watching them crossed the street.
Lisa ordered the smallest cup of banana ice cream and a bottle of mineral water. She then took a seat in front of Jennie at the comer of the shop.
She offered Jennie first, the latter took it and said she had enough. Lisa chuckled as she shook her head. She always enjoyed every spoon of ice cream- she treasured it.
"Lisa-ah." called for the girl who was busy with her sweet food.
"Yeah?" She responded.
"Who's Mr. Kang?" She asked the old guy from before.
"He's my patient, he was suffered from arrhythmia and we gave him pace maker for her heart."
"For free?"
"He practically had nothing. He was an alcoholic back then, he said he tried to quit but his kids didn't want to do anything with him something with not believing him and whatnot. He cried every single night thinking he might die alone in the hospital bed with all monitor attached to him and the bills he can't pay. I can saw in his eyes that he wanted to change, to get better, so I proposed to Dr. Park to give him a pro bono surgery. It was quite a fight with the boards but they gave in in the end," Lisa shrugged like it was not a big deal.
"Why fight though?"
"The list of pro bono patient is long, one surgeon usually present one patient they want to help. It's the board's job to decide what case will go first to get the surgery considering the urgency. We already put the temporary pace maker on him but he needs the permanent one, without it he'd die without estimated time, he could just sit and die."
"So you won?"
"I won, yes." Lisa laughed. "Thankfully yes, that guy deserved it."
"He indeed changes, isn't he?" Jennie smiled warmly at her.
Lisa nodded. She put the empty cup on the table and slumped on her seat.
"Everybody deserves a second chance."
"You're right. Tell me more about your residency phase." Jennie drank the water.
"I've told you."
"Five years of residency can't be summoned in fifteen minutes," Jennie pouted cutely.
"Mainly what I did was unsure about whether I should shower, sleep or eat. Mostly I choose sleep so I had to sacrificed the shower and eat which meant I didn't shower for couple days and ate whatever snack in vending machine. I could sleep in the shower but I also starving so I'd have decent meal and not slept or shower."
"That's... tough," Jennie replied. "I'm happy I'm not a doctor." She scrunched up her face in horror caused Lisa to laugh hard.
"Well, I live somehow."
"It doesn't make it any less tough," she shrugged. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I'm torn between sit here and able to see you in full length or sit beside you so I can hold you. What do you think?" Lisa always had her way of asking this kind of question in calmness, Jennie wondered if she was that innocent or simply liked to make her heart flutter.
"I'm happy with whatever you choose," her cheeks turned pink.
"I choose to go home so I can give you your birthday present and cuddle with you in our comfy couch." She stood up and extended her arm, which got accepted instantly by the gummy-smiling girl.