Health for Life

May 2nd, 1926

There was a clunk as the ship bumped against the dock. "Remember! No skin to skin contact! These people can be very contagious and I wouldn't want to lose any of you sorry lasses to the scum!" The captain cried. Haneul shook his head. He had made this shipment many times before, and his captain always said the same thing, right where the locals could hear him. He prepared to unload this week's shipment. He was disgusted by his captain's ignorance. The people living here were people too, no different than us other than the fact that they were sick. Even if it was a disease as ugly as leprosy, he had no right to call them scum.

Haneul looked over the edge of the boat before descending the ramp. In front of him were about a dozen men, some of them lucky enough to have been spared sores that plagued their faces, but that just meant the signs of disease were elsewhere. He grabbed a crate filled with rice and descended down the ramp towards a man who was waiting to receive it. From behind him Hanuel saw that something was different today though. There was a girl wearing a blue ragged dress and dawning long brown hair that cascaded past her waist. He caught her eye and smiled. Those green eyes looking back at him lit up when her lips curled up at the edge and he was entranced in that moment. Nothing but this girl had any chance of penetrating his mind.

"Haneul! Get a move on, you're blocking the traffic!"

He shook his head and finished his decent down the ramp. Placing the crate down in front of the man waiting to receive it. He continued on, walking toward the beautiful woman. "What, might I ask, is a gorgeous woman such as yourself doing here?" He said this with a slight bow of his head as he reached her. Her voice was timid but he could hear the melody of it the second she opened her mouth. "I'm here to watch my brother, he's the man you just gave the rice to." She lowered her head and her brown hair fell over her eyes.

Haneul looked over his shoulder at the man and realized that his feet and lower legs were bandaged, and there were sores that were slowly bleeding around the edge of the bandage. He was amazed by her compassion and attention to her brother. There was something in that that made him start to fall in love with her. Haneul felt sorry that he hadn't noticed her brother before, but he tried to make up for it. "If there is ever anything that I can do for you miss, it would be my honor to assist."

She looked up at him then, a mix of shock and appreciation on her visage. He guessed she didn't get much courtesy from outsiders. "Thank you," was all the girl said and then she walked by him to help her brother. As she turned he saw the signs of disease on the back of her arm, small bumps and skin sores. His heart sunk but it was then that he decided that nothing could keep him from her. "What is your name?" he called to her. She turned, a smile once again on her lips, "Bora." He bowed, "Haneul, it's a pleasure to meet you." And with that he went back to his work.