No one spoke for a moment, then Yangjin told the maid to leave the room and wait by the front door. "It's tuberculosis, I think," Sunja said. Yangjin nodded. The lodger's appearance reminded her of Honnie's last few weeks. "Get the pharmacist," Yangjin told Bokhee, then changed her mind. "No, no, wait, I might need you." Isak lay asleep on the pillow, perspiring and flushed, unaware of the women staring down at him. Dokhee, the younger girl, had just come from the kitchen, and she gasped loudly, only to be hushed by her sister. When the lodger had arrived the night before, his ashen pallor was noticeable, but in the light of day, his handsome face was gray-the color of dirty rainwater collecting in a jar. His pillow was wet with numerous red pindots where he had coughed.
“Uh-muh-" Yangjin uttered, startled and anxious. "We have to move him immediately. The Others could get sick. Dokhee-ya, take everything out of the storage room now. Hurry." She would put him in the storage room, where her husband had slept when he was ill, but it would have been far easier if he could have walked to the back part of the house rather than her attempting to move him by herself. Yangjin pulled on the corner of the pallet in an attempt to jostle him awake.
"Pastor Baek, sir, sir!" Yangjin touched his upper arm. "Sir!" Finally, Isak opend his eyes. He couldn't remember where he was. I his dream, he had been home, resting near the apple orchard; the trees were a riot of white blooms. When he came to, he recognized the boardinghouse keeper. "Is everything all right?" "Do you have tuberculosis?" Yangjin asked him. Surely, he must have known. He shook his head. "No, I had it two years ago. I've been well since." Isak touched his brow and felt the sweat along his hairline. He raised his head and found it heavy.
“Oh, I see," he said, seeing the red stains on the pillow. "I'm so sorry. I would not have come here if I had known that I could harm you. I should leave. I don't want to endanger you." Isak closed his eyes because he felt so tired. Throughout his life, Isak had been sickly, his most recent tuberculosis infection being just one of the many illnesses he'd suffered.