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Jin had insisted that Eunie sleep as soon as she’d finished her medicinal preparations of the night before.  Now the sun had risen over an hour ago, and she was still asleep.  Eunbyeol had found it odd that no one else had graced her little infirmary yesterday evening.  She’d expected a stampede of patients after Ajun spread the news of the plague.  She had believed that, at the least, mothers loaded with questions would be piling up outside her door.  But none had arrived.

“Jin, I’m concerned that Ajun didn’t tell anyone.  The sooner we can quarantine the families, the better.  Especially the small children.”

Jin had glanced out at the dark night sky.  “I’ll go to the village in the morning and spread the word.”

She hadn’t been happy, but she had recognized that the majority of families would have already been asleep by the time he would have arrived had he left immediately.  So Jin had risen before the sun and made his way to the village.  He had spent two hours going door to door to inform each family of the danger.  He had only just arrived back home.  To find his wife sleeping soundly.

Jin had gotten caught in the rain during his errand.  He’d run most of the way home.  Now he stood, dripping wet, on the threshold of the door to their bedroom.   He strode across the room and found a towel.  He dried off as best he could.  Then he began to strip off his soaking clothes.  He used the towel to dry his skin before slipping on some other pants.  He hadn’t yet pulled on another shirt when Eunbyeol opened her eyes.

And feasted on his glory.  She lay in their bed sighing over her new husband.  She had just discovered that it wasn’t only Jin’s face that was beautiful.  She wanted to reach out and slide her fingers down that soft skin.  Maybe plant a line of kisses along it.  Her eyes grew wide at her own audacity.  

Really, Eunie!  What are you thinking?

I’m thinking that I’m a married woman, and I have a right to enjoy that lovely skin there.

Jin lifted his head then, and she squeezed her eyes shut and feigned sleep.  She was feeling slightly embarrassed by her thoughts and wasn’t yet ready to face him.  Several moments later, she rolled over to face the opposite direction.  Within a few seconds, she felt the pad shift as he climbed back into bed with her. 

Jin lay down next to her and allowed himself to drink in her beauty.  It was undeniable.  How had he spent so many years not noticing her?  

He had always admired her.  She was the smartest woman he knew.  Far more intelligent than most of the men of his acquaintance too.  Perhaps that was the reason he hadn’t looked her way.  Her intelligence had always intimidated him a little.  But he found that it didn’t bother him anymore.  Actually, given this whole looming epidemic crisis, he was taking a bit of pride in her skills.

Eunie had always valued his own gifts.  And she loved his fish.  His lips quirked upward.  They had, in fact, made her quite happy.  

He realized suddenly how hungry he was, so he ventured into the kitchen to prepare some breakfast.  He was once again reminded of her empty pantry.  A little rice.  Some kimchi.  Nothing else.  He searched the entire kitchen, but he found nothing more.  What was she surviving on?

He cooked some rice and mixed in the kimchi.  Then he headed back to bed.  A large bowl of the aromatic dish warming his hands.  He plopped down on the bed and began to shovel rice into his mouth.  He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes as he savored his creation.

Eunbyeol rolled towards him and sighed.  His eyes popped open, and he glanced down at her.  Her eyes fluttered open.  Slowly.  As though reluctant to let in the soft morning light.  Its usual glory was blighted by the rain today. 

“You going to feed your hungry wife any of that?”

“I imagine you are quite hungry,” he remarked as he took another bite.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked softly.  Confused.

“Eunie, what have you been living on?  There is a little rice and some kimchi in your kitchen.  Nothing more.”

She didn’t want to admit the truth to him.  But now that he was her husband, he was bound to find out sooner or later.

“Well, then I think the answer is obvious.  Rice.  Kimchi.  A little fish.”

His eyes careened into hers.  “A little fish?”  Those chocolate eyes grew wide.  “You mean the fish I brought you?”

She nodded and smiled.  “Such excellent fish.”

“Eunie?”

“Hmm?”

“What were you going to eat for dinner the nights I brought you fish?  I mean, if I hadn’t stopped by to visit you.”

She fell silent.  Her eyes traced the chopsticks in his hand.  “Can I have a bite, Jin?  I’m really hungry.  I ate much more than I’m accustomed to yesterday.  Apparently, all that food enlarged my stomach.  I find myself ravenous this morning.”

As his eyes slid along the curve of her lips, he found himself ravenous too.  For more of her.  But she had ignored his question.

“Eunie, you may not evade my question with your superior intellect.”  His eyes speared hers.  

She sighed.  “Sometimes I fast dinner.”  

And lunch.  And breakfast.

“Is that why you’re so thin?”  He had noticed a few months ago that she seemed to be dropping weight, but knowing that girls were sometimes touchy about such subjects, he had remained mum on the issue.

He gaped at her.  “How often do you skip meals?”

“Hopefully, not at all now that I’m married to you.”

His heart lurched.  “Eunie!  If you needed help, why didn’t you ask me?”

Her eyes caressed his as her expression melted.  “Jin.  I was not your responsibility until yesterday afternoon.  I couldn’t ask you to feed me.”

“You most certainly could have!  What kind of a friend would I be if I allowed my best friend to starve to death?”

She looked away from him and cleared her throat.  

“Eunie.  You are a very capable woman.  Why are you struggling so?”

“Because the vast majority of my patients come from dirt-poor families.  They pay me what they can.  Usually crops or rice or a service.  Oftentimes, they don’t pay me at all.”

“Eunie,” his voice was full of tender rebuke.

“What?” Her fiery eyes instantly fenced with his.  “That young mother last night…am I just supposed to turn her baby away because she doesn’t have the means to pay me to save her child’s life?”

Chastened, he widened his eyes.  “What?  No.  I…”

“Jin, you know the vast majority of the men in our society distrust me.  Their wives come to me in secret.  And often they cannot pay me because their husbands hold the purse strings.  That’s probably why Ajun didn’t tell anyone else about the sickness.”  Then she confirmed this by enquiring of him, “She didn’t, did she?”

“No.  No one knew what I was talking about.”

“Did you tell them who came to see me?”

“No,” he shook his head.  “I said I wasn’t sure who the patient had been.  Only that she was a tiny child from a neighboring village.”

She sighed.  “This is going to make it so much harder to quarantine people.  If she won’t tell her family members or friends her daughter was around for the last few days that she’s sick, then no one will know they’ve been exposed.  Once this disease gets going, it will most likely spread like wildfire through the population.  Especially the tiny tots.  

“Yona taught me about this.  She lived long enough that she saw the red epidemic devastate the village every ten to fifteen years.  I know that many people believe that it’s due to climate changes based on the constellations, but she didn’t believe that.  She said that each generation of new children hadn’t been exposed to the sickness the last time it passed through, so they lacked the immunity of their elders.  Therefore, the epidemic was free to damage the next generation of young people while leaving the older ones mostly unscathed.”

Jin winced.

Eunbyeol sat up.  “I feel so helpless during times like this!  It’s so frustrating!  I feel like my knowledge could save so many.  But they won’t listen to me.”

“You can only do what you can do.  You can lead people to the truth, but you can’t make them swallow it.”  He glanced down at the bowl in his hands.  Then he handed it to her.  “And I can only do what I can do.  Swallow all of this.”

She frowned.  “But, Jin, aren’t you hungry?”

“Not anymore.  I’ve had plenty to eat lately.  And I can always make some more.  I’m going to head back into the village in a little while and buy up some stores to restock the pantry.  Especially before this epidemic rages.  You will not starve, Eunie.  Not so long as you have me.”

She stared up at him as she struggled to hold back the tears that were threatening to overwhelm her eyelids.  “Jin…” she whispered.

“Eat,” he urged her gently.  “Now.”

He reached for the chopsticks and grabbed some kimchi rice before holding it up to her lips.  “Come, love, take a bite.  I have a feeling you’re going to need all the energy you can muster over the coming weeks.  In times of trouble, people tend to reach out to those they’ve ostracized when they believe they can help them.”

“Or they blame them for the problem.”

“No one could blame you for this.”

“Let’s hope not,” she grumbled as she accepted the bite of food.