11:07 AM.
My mom and I have long since dozed off, only to be awakened by the particular sound of the hospital ward's door handle shaking loudly.
Awakened by the sound me my mother and I drowsily tilt our heads over to the entrance of the hospital door, expecting that doctor and nurse pair to come back from their particularly long break they've been on.
"Open this door, Amane..."
The deep voice of a man well on in his years, with strong authority in his voice as if he had been through many a corporate war, orders my mom to open the door as naturally as if he were her father...
First of all, who the hell is this guy, and why does he know my mom's name? Lastly, WHO THE HELL TALKS TO A PREGNANT (formerly) LADY LIKE THAT! If he knows my mom, then shouldn't he damn well know that this lady just gave birth???
Amane, my mom immediately starts to shake like a leaf in the wind, wtf? Since I am the one being held in her arms, I can feel her fear vibrating through her body, mom you need to get a hold of yourself, or you're gonna give me shaking baby syndrome!
Looking at my mom, she's just stuck frozen, like a tongue licking a piece of metal in the middle of winter, and a deer caught in headlights, she just won't move, her fear of whoever is on the other side of that door is truly deep, she won't fight or flee, she's just frozen.
BANG~: "DOES HE HAVE TO REPEAT HIMSELF, CHILD?"
Suddenly, another voice, just as authoritarian but more domineering than the male voice prior, shouts at my mom to hurry up and open the door.
The entire 7th story of the hospital goes quite from the central reception to the end of the ward on this level, and people progressively slow down what they are doing to observe what is happening; it's like the world stopped.
Through the opaque whitish glass, I can see multiple people standing around the solid wooden door, along with the two main people directly behind the door. I guess these people are also part of Mr. and Ms. annoying. Everyone in the ward is quiet and staring at this group, but the group itself, I can hear murmuring from even here.
Amane: "I- I- I understand, please give me a second, please...."
MOM, what the fuck are you doing!? Didn't anyone teach you not to open the door for strangers? It doesn't matter how many people are standing around watching this debacle! If Something happens, they're just gonna get bystander effect!
Amane: "I- I-I'm sorry, daring."
My mom reprositions a pillow under me before placing me on top of the pillow and slowly reaching to the hospital bed bars.
Amane, in extreme pain, slowly gets up from her assisted bedrest. You can see the pain in her eyes as she has extreme difficulty reaching for the standing crutches with brand new golf balls for feet.
Ah, she almost slipped reaching for the crutches, but luckily her hands landed right where they needed to go. Even in extreme pain, she urgently scoots to the violently shaking doorknob of the hospital door before unloc-
CREAK~TSSSSSSSssssss---
The Damping Cylinder/Dashpot of the Hydraulic Door Operator makes a violent sound as if it were in anguish before-
CRASH~
The door slams into my mom's side head-on! The force at which these brazen unknowns barged into the room overpowers the commercial solid wooden door installed with a pneumatic dampener; the door quickly slammed into my mom, cramming her body in between the door and the entry wall of the room, which is shaped like a "|_|."
The unknown assailants quickly barge into the room like packed sardines, progressively murmuring louder and louder.
?: "WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU? STOP HIDING AND SHOW YOURSELF RIGHT NOW, CHILD!"
A few seconds go by in quietness before the sound of soft whimpering can be heard behind the pack of wolves proudly standing in the middle of the hospital room, like they were promised the square footage 2,000 years ago...
Then all at the same time, the pack of jackals tilted their heads like they sensed the smell of wounded prey at the shadowy crevice at the entrance of the room where they heard the silent whimpers of a crushed animal.
?: "Get out of that corner and stop acting like you are hurt..."'
tap~
Tap-
TAP.
The older lady standing in the middle of the room says, while arms crossed as if she and her group of cronies didn't just commit a felony...
Amane: Sniff- Sniff "I'm- I'm sorry, Grandma Gloria..."
Gloria Yuuma: "You aren't moving fast enough, get her out of that damn corner!"
Multiple side characters appear out of the group of forgettable faces and drag Amane from out of the crevice, throwing her crushed crutches aside and forcing her to present in the middle of the room in front of the older lady... (Amane is the semicolon --> |:\_| best i can do visualization)
Amane: Sniff- Sniff "I'm- I'm sorr-
SMACK-
Gloria Yuuma: "I told you to get an abortion."
Amane Yuuma: "Yes, Hiccup* I- I understand buu-"
Gloria Yuuma: SmACK-"You of all people should know that I hate liars more than I hate people that don't listen to orders..."
Gloria Yuuma: "Do you think this is amusing? I tell you to get rid of it, you lie to me, tell your guards and your retainer that you have to pee in a public restroom on the way to the family doctor knowing they would accompany you to the stand guard outside the restroom, then you snuck out the bathroom window and stole the car so you could run off with your foreigner boyfriend?"
"Such a good girl," one side character says coyly."To think she'd bear a foreigner's child…" says another cronie snarkily.
Foreign. The word hangs in the air like something toxic.
My mother's hands—warm, trembling—tighten around me. Her breathing is shallow and waning with fear; she must be having a panic attack. Her eyes, tired and doleful.
"Where is the car? Where is your boyfriend now? Living like rats for the last 9 months, come to find out he left you around a month in, and you had to sell the car to scrape by because he left you right? Come to find out, he took most of the money gained from pawning the family car... I wonder? How will an unemployed little girl WILL pay us back the $240,500.99 she owes us? Hm? Maybe you can ask your pedo boyfriend, who ran off to Mexico? Do you like being groomed!? Do you think he spent it all by now? I will have the family su-."
?: "That's enough."
The voice is Pale and sterile, like a sky drained of warmth; the whole entourage goes quiet.
I still have questions, though... But, I have an underdeveloped larynx and I must scream.
Perched atop of my pillow like a crown on a purple pillow, I can't even will my body to move, so my eyes roll sideways just enough to see the figure looming over me in the corner of my vision at the bedside: the Yuuma Patriarch, dressed in dark gray, his presence cutting through the sterile light like a shadow given form. Behind him, a cluster of women formerly whispering among themselves—half pity, half disgust.
Bows~ Amane: "Gr- Grandpa Sasaike."
"Amane… the family has decided."
Sasaike Yuuma: "You have seven days," the Patriarch says."From today—July 7th, 2083. If you refuse, Amane… then you and your child will no longer bear the Yuuma name."
His tone isn't cruel. It's just… final.
"Understood."
Her answer comes so quickly it almost sounds like relief.
"... .... ... ... ..."
A few long moments pass, this man hasn't spared his daughter a single glance since entering the ward, even as he talked to her, his back was turned with a his hands crossed behind his back in a traditional eastern manner. No, he's calmly walked into the room and has been staring at me since...
Deeply under his breath, he mutters, "Maybe Gloria was right, I've been too lenient..."
After a few moments that felt like years, he breaks his cold but deeply disdainful gaze and leaves, as casually as he came. Like obedient ducks in a conga line, the entire posse rolls out after dumping their toxic emotional sludge like the bad relatives they are.
The door snaps shut behind them. The air feels lighter—but emptier, too.
Abit later
Holga: "Um, Yoohoo, your papers are here... Sorry for the wait, I hope you don't mind um-"
Seeing the clearly shaken-up patient, but not knowing what happened until much later, she says
Holga: "I'll just leave the documents on the chair next to the bed..."
The room is quiet now. The air conditioner hums like it's trying to fill the silence left behind.Mom strolls over and sits slumped in the chair by the bed, her hands trembling just above my rolled blanket. Her breathing comes in hiccups, small and uneven—like her lungs forgot how to keep time.
She hums something under her breath. A lullaby without words. The kind you sing when the world is crashing down on you. Her eyes wander the walls, the IV stand, the window's gray skyline. Anywhere but me. Yet every so often, her fingers brush my cheek as if to remind herself I'm real, that this—we—really happened, despite all that happened, you can still see the will of love in her gaze, she is not avoiding looking at me out of disgust, but fear that she might break.
Between sleep and waking, I hear her whisper." Sorry… Mama's sorry, my little one. You deserve better than the world I can give."
Outside, nurses move about, their shoes squeaking faintly across the linoleum—life going on, indifferent and unshaken.
Amane curls up into a ball before quietly whispering to herself.
"But- But do i have to live my life as the family puppet, I-I never asked for any of this, I don't want an arranged marriage my entire life has been signed away on a dotted line before I was even born... Why am I the family's pawn piece to be sowed away for the slightest bit of profit for the company? I just wanted to be rebellious for the one time in my life."
The days blur. Morning, night, morning again. Mom's voice grows steadier each time she whispers to the empty space above my crib. Maybe she's practicing letting go. Maybe she's convincing herself it's mercy.
Five days later, on the fifth sunrise, she signs the papers.
No tears. Just a trembling smile, the kind that says, I love you, but this is how I keep you safe.
System Notification:"New Timeline Event: Orphan Path unlocked."
System Message System Language Pack (Outdated Translation):"Good job, host! You's life be… interesting now."
...
I want to scream, but my baby lungs only wheeze. Even my first heartbreak is narrated in broken English.