Just like the first day they had spent in Morocco, Taesnin quickly got use to the way of life in the new town and his father earned just enough to feed themselves and to buy oil for lamps. This was obviously a lot lesser than what they could afford back home, but considering their circumstances, this was not bad at all. The only major drawback was that in Qaryat al-Faw Taesnin would go to the mosque to study literature and science, but here, they did not have enough money to have him study, so instead he would spend his time either helping his father trade treasures for money, or by making the port his classroom and the travellers his teachers.

He had already heard so many colourful, exotic stories about the land in the east that he had made up his mind that he needed to visit some places there; and the west, he knew that the western countries were home to some of the nicest people, those who really liked tea and cocoa, interesting choice he thought.

The past few years were spent like this, Taesnin growing older and wiser, more curious and more daring in his ways to kill that curiosity.

‘Taesnin-shi, could you help me with this sack of black pepper, it’s over a 2-3 kgs for sure’’, Taesnin’s mate Azam  spoke to him. He was currently trying to move the very last order for the ship leaving for South Africa and was having trouble loading the heavy goods. Taesnin being the person incharge of this trade should be the one in the lead, except he was not. Unlike most other days when his attention is either on food, or if working by the mosque, then on the teachers reading tales to their students, today his sight was fixated at a ship that was almost completely parked at the harbour.

Azam followed his gaze and rolled his eyes once he noticed what had caught Taesnin’s attention. Him and Taesnin were close friends and he knew all about his unending search for new stories and fascination with people that came to town from abroad. He too liked the foreigners,  they were always so different and wonderful, especially at times when family ships that were going around the world for vacationing purposes brought with them stunningly gorgeous girls; he would be ten times more interested in their life stories and things of that sort then. Azam would understand if Taesnin was drawn to those people for the girls, or the money and maybe even the stories, but Taesnin was never interested in those kind of things. Definitely the stories, but he almost never spoke of the girls as keenly as they deserved to be spoken of. He thought all people were beautiful and their personal experiences was what made them amazing.  

So this time round when he saw his friend looking at the ship with shining, expectant eyes, he knew what was going through his mind. Sometimes he wondered if the foreigners would get irritated by his never ending string of questions, but then again, with that face and sugar-coated voice, anyone would cave for all things Taesnin.

He grunted in frustration and tried pushing the sack with all his might, the noise finally caught Taesnin’s attention as he quickly hurried by Azam’s side and loaded everything on board successfully.

‘‘Everything is set for them to be off, we’re free for the day right?’’ Taesnin asked as Azam wondered who really was in charge.

‘‘I think so, unless there is anything else you father wanted us to do..?’’

Taesnin thought for a split second, then looked towards the ships again, and replied with a ‘‘nahh, that’s all Azam, off I go’’ before sprinting in the direction of the said ship.

~*~

This was new, I don’t think we’ve had people from his place come here before, I don’t recognize the name of the ship, it’s obviously written in a foreign language, and the people look different from any community I’ve ever seen.

Taesnin was immensely intrigued by Pearl Sail and her passengers this afternoon, all of his attention was drawn to the said ship’s passengers, or rather, a passenger, a certain young boy who was standing tall by the deck with a pen and book in his hand, observing the surroundings and noting down everything he saw.

Taesnin was taken aback by that action and instantly thought, ‘what a bloody genius idea!’, noting everything down while visiting a new place, it makes total sense, one would not forget the details and it’s a real good way to spend time as well.

Taesnin continued looking at the boy with admiration, his eyes big with obeisance and amazement. He was sure that the boy must be well educated, or at least smart enough to think of such a thing, I mean Taesnin himself hadn't thought of it, and he liked to believe that the was plenty smart. He was also sure of two other things, one that he wanted to read everything that was written in the journal and the only way he would be allowed to do so would be by getting to know him well; and two, the boy he thought was so clever was not only brains but also easy on the eyes.

Taesnin was probably being quite blatant in his act of staring, but he really couldn't help it, he had seen good looking people before, but this boy was something else. He surely had a good physique, tall, lean, broad shoulders, but that wasn’t all, he had the face to match, defined jawline, perfect nose and beautiful oriental eyes, he really was the definition of handsome, Taesnin thought.

He saw him as he carefully looked at the merchants participate in animated conversations and young kids running around with their wooden toys, Taesnin followed his gaze and saw him make note each of everything. He felt like he had finally found someone interesting enough to spend a whole lot of time with. He knew that all he now needed to do was to make the boy think he was equally interesting so as to have him tell at least a few new facts and tales of the places he would have visited in the past and a written about in that blue book of his; he instantly started thinking of ways to make himself acquainted with him and how he could catch the attention of  this beautiful stranger.