"Get the women and children to the lifeboats!" A sonorous voice bellowed over the wailing of the sirens.
The screams of terrified women, the questions of sleepy scared children, and men trying to keep their families together filled the cold night air. The small group, made up of five men, a young boy, and a small red-haired woman, tried to keep together in the chaos. A crew member spotted the two and beckoned toward them a half-empty lifeboat. The woman hung back, unwilling to leave her family. A gentle hand pushed her forward.
A tall brunette man, with sad eyes and a firm smile, nudged her toward the boat. "Go, Princess." Her small hand clutched at his for a moment longer before she was dragged into the small lifeboat by her younger male companion.
"HAK! HAK!" Her heartbroken cries tore at his resolve for a moment. He managed to catch her eyes and offered her a quick smile. "I'll see you soon, Princess! I promise!"
There was something in her air that told him she didn't believe him, for she maintained eye contact until the lifeboat dropped out of sight. Only then did he let his smile fade.
A day later, the woman searched for the familiar faces of her family among the survivors of the Kouka sinking. She and her companion had only spent a short time out on the frigid sea before the Suiko picked their lifeboat up. She found the four brothers but her best friend was nowhere to be found.
When the green-haired brother pulled her aside and quietly told her of their friend's bravery and insistence that they and a few third class women go before him, she didn't cry. Her face pulled itself into a calm mask and she nodded her thanks to the brother. He watched her go with grief in his heart.
For her's were the eyes of a woman who had loved and lost and never to find again.
On the date of the Kouka's sinking every year, she could be found standing on the dock staring out to sea, toward the place where the man she loved had perished.
Then, and only then, did she allow her tears to fall.