Unlocking the Doc's heart (Lee Minho FF) ✓

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𝐂 𝐡 𝐚 𝐩 𝐭 𝐞 𝐫 - 𝟑𝟗
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Leeknows POV
"That's so horrible, with those poor people having legal fight with the surrogate to keep their baby, and they'd already paid her all that money" Ryujin continued.

"What I hate about it is that it's nothing like real life." Jeongin, one of the junior doctors said. "In the States, you can't pay someone to be a surrogate mum for you. You're only allowed to pay their expenses."

"Exactly. You know what you're going into when you're a surrogate." Ryujin said. "You're prepared right for the start that you're carrying a baby for someone else, so they're obviously doing it for dramatic purposes."

"But if you were desperate for a baby and you couldn't adopt and you were thinking about finding a surrogate, watching that storyline would put you right off." Yeji added. "You'd be worried sick that it'd all go wrong, when in real life the agencies are really careful about putting the right people together. I really wish these dramas would get their facts right instead of twisting them to suit the plot and I know they put that notice up at the end of the show with a helpline number to call if you're affected by any of the events in the programme, but it's too late by then. They've already planted the doubts and given them time to fester."

"The woman who gives birth is the legal parent and she can't agree to a parental order until the baby's six weeks old." Jeongin said. "Plus there are all sorts of conditions about getting a parental order in the first place."

I knew about parental orders first-hand. My lawyer had broken the bad news to me. "You have to be in a stable long-term relationship, one of you has to be biologically related to the child, and the child has to be living with you." None of which had applied to me where Eunha was concerned, and I'd had no rights whatsoever. I hadn't even been able to ask for access, because Soojin had proved that Eunha wasn't my biological daughter.

Bringing her up for eighteen months and being there for her mother during her pregnancy counted for nothing in the court's eyes. Even so, everyone here seemed really well versed in the legal side of surrogacy-much more so than in the paediatric department at my last hospital. It was the sort of thing that the maternity unit staff would be more likely to know more about, especially if there was a specialist IVF unit attached to the department.

So why did the paediatric department here know so much about it? Did someone here in the department have first-hand experience, maybe?

And again, I wondered, why had Y/N's name in particular cropped up?
Did it have anything to do with the long leave she'd mentioned, but never actually said what she'd done on her time away from her job? And Y/N had said that her ex had disapproved of a decision she'd made. Would that have been the decision to act as someone's surrogate and have a baby for them?

As a theory, it all hung together. But she hadn't chosen to confide in me.

It was none of my business. I should just leave it.

But it nagged at me for the rest of the week. That half-heard conversation with a patient's parent and the chatter in the ward kitchen... Perhaps I was adding two and two and making five. But somehow I didn't think I was. The answer I kept coming back to was that Y/N had had a surrogate baby.

The thought twisted deep my gut, reminding me of how Soojin had lied to me about Eunha. Why would Y/N not tell me about something like this?

Maybe I was being oversensitive and overreacting because it was getting so close to Eunha's third birthday, and I knew from seeing my niece and nephew just how much I was missing out on but it unsettled me enough for me to bring up the subject casually when I went out to dinner with Y/N on Saturday night.

"Ryujin and Jeongin were talking about that soap storyline, the other day." I said. "The one about the surrogate mum."

"Oh?" Her voice was perfectly neutral, as if I was talking about something as anodyne as the price of bananas.

Part of me knew I ought to change the subject. But part of me was hurt that I'd opened up to her and she was still completely closed off from me.

Was she keeping a big secret from me, the way that Soojin had?

" Never mind. Forget I said anything." I looked away.

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Y/N's POV
The moment he started off that topic
I had known for a while that I needed to tell Leeknow about Bora. Especially because he'd told me about Eunha.

But the words had stuck in my throat, along with the memory of how scathing Hyunjin had been. And the accusation Hyunjin had thrown at me when I had refused to give in to his ultimatum untrue, unfair and totally unjustified.

I didn't think that Leeknow would take the same approach. But what if he did? What if I make the same mistake all over again? I had got Danny totally wrong. Who was to say I hadn't got Leeknow wrong. too?

But I couldn't put this off any more. Not really. It was time to tell him. He has shared his story already. So I ought to tell mine. He needs to know.

I took a deep breath. "You told me about Eunha. So I guess I ought to tell you about Bora."

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Y/N's finally revealing her past.....

Will Leeknow support the decision she took or will he judge her like many did....?

Do vote and support ❤️😊