Amidst Uncertainties

Chapter 32

Lied

We are in my office... again. Good thing Resident Alfaro didn't seem to care about us regardless of his initial curiosity about who Sync was, and I'm glad that he didn't dig more of that a while ago. Mukhang naramdaman din niya ang tensyon at hindi na ginustong makisali pa.

"What do you want?" I asked as I calmly sit down on my swivel chair.

"Who was that?" Kunot noo akong tumingin sa kaniya.

"Who?" balik kong tanong.

"The doctor you were talking to just a while ago." Umupo siya sa upuan sa tapat ng table ko. His eyes were dark and almost angry, but I'm not sure.

I don't know why he's asking about that. I was expecting him to ask me about his father's case like when the surgery will commence or anything related to that so I was a bit caught off guard and confused that he's asking a question way unrelated.

"He's not important. Anything you want to ask about your father's case?" tanong ko, sinusubukang ibahin ang topic.

"What's his name?" he asked about Joaquin again.

Hindi ko na napigilan ang pagtawa nang mahina na may halong inis. Seriously? What exactly is this guy's deal? Why does he care about Dr. Alfaro, when I, myself, don't care about that doctor?

"Resident Joaquin Alfaro," I answered anyway. "He is my father's favorite resident." I shrugged, showing him he's not totally a big deal and that I really don't care about that person.

Tumikhim siya bago bumuntong hininga sabay tango. Muli kaming nabalutan ng katahimikan. We were just watching each other, tinatantiya ang isa't isa. I took a deep breath as I looked away from his intense gaze.

"I will do my best on the operation. Of course we can not guarantee that the result is something you are expecting, but please know that we will do our very best," I said, crossing my arms against my chest.

"I trust you," sabi niya sa mahina at halos hindi ko na marinig na boses. Tumango ako, hindi pa rin siya tinitignan. "Iiwan ko sa 'yo 'to." I saw him put down the brown envelope containing his father's complete medical record. I nodded as I watched his hand moving away. "I'll... go now," dagdag niya pa. Muli akong tumango at wala nang sinabi pa.

Agad naman akong nakahinga nang maluwag nang magsarado ang pinto ng office ko pagkalabas niya.

Being in the same room with him is suffocating. Because no matter how hard I tried to forgive him for what he did, I still couldn't. Hindi ko sigurado kung tama ba 'to o kung valid pa ba ang galit ko, but still... it makes me so mad and angry every time I remember how he confessed about his mistake.

And although I knew and felt back then that he was indeed sorry, my anger overpowered his sincerity.

After finishing my paper works, I went home to my condo to take a good rest. I also asked my chief resident that I would take a 2-day day-off because I'm going to pick Tinay up from the airport tomorrow and then the next day, we are going to attend our batch's reunion. Bukas na ang balik ni Tinay from States and she asked me na sunduin siya sa airport dahil hindi alam ng parents niya na uuwi siya.

Jacob also just got home from Korea. But as far as I know, he's already home for a few months now. Hindi lang kami gaanong nagkikita dahil busy na sa kani-kaniyang mga trabaho.

Jacob lost his memories of Tinay, but he still knows kung sino kami nina Lei at Tonia. Si Tinay lang ang nakalimutan niya. It's a case of selective amnesia because he was traumatized when Tinay left and when he got into an accident that happened 8 years ago. However, Tinay has no idea about that.