The Sun to my Moon

Chapter 4: Missing

When Cha Dal-geon next saw Go Hae-ri, she was back at the hospital. Furthermore, she was smiling.

"Hook's being released from the hospital tomorrow," she informed him, beaming.

"That's great," he said, smiling back. "Are you going to adapt the rotation of visitors to a schedule more suitable for visiting his apartment?"

She shook her head. "His mom is coming to stay with him."

Good. Maybe that meant Hae-ri would finally get some rest. "Bet he's excited about that," Dal-geon remarked.

"Yeah. He's convinced she's going to drive him crazy before the week is out. It shouldn't be for too long, though. The doctors say he can come back to work in a couple of weeks."

"Ah, I see the real source of your excitement," Dal-geon teased. "You're a harsh taskmaster, Hae-ri Go. The poor man was shot, and all you care about is getting him back to work as soon as possible."

She swatted him on the arm. "Oh, hush. It will only be light desk duty to start. I won't set him to carrying heavy stones uphill until he's been back on the job at least a couple of days."

"Hmm. Perhaps I'd better warn him about the drudgery to come. Encourage him to continue milking this whole getting shot thing for as long as he can."

She shook her head at him, but she was still smiling.

Dal-geon looked at her, a soft smile on his own face as he watched her. Things couldn't be that bad if Hae-ri was smiling like that. He felt hopeful for the first time in what felt like weeks. Maybe things would be all right now.

×××××××

After that, Dal-geon had thought things were going well. Tae-ung was improving every day, much to everyone's relief (especially Dal-geon's-he'd grown accustomed to guilt, over the years, but he had to admit the prospect of bearing up under the added burden of guilt would have been rather daunting if Tae-ung had actually died. As it was, it was only a millstone of middling weight around his neck. Nothing he couldn't handle).

Tae-ung's mother, as predicted, did indeed drive him crazy, riding roughshod over him regarding everything from physical therapy to his eating and sleeping habits. Tae-ung bore up well, seeming to recognize there was nothing to do but endure this treatment with patient stoicism until it passed. Se-hun found all this highly amusing.

Hae-ri continued to fuss over her favorite patient, but she was spending more time at the office now and the steady stream of baked goods had slowed to a mere trickle. Dal-geon interpreted this as a good sign. She still looked like she wasn't getting enough sleep, but he felt hopeful that her sleeping habits would improve once Tae-ung was back at full speed again.

The Friday after Tae-ung returned to work, Dal-geon was lying on his couch when Se-hun and Hwa-sook returned from interviewing a suspect in their latest case. Hae-ri had gone with them, wanting to look at the scene again, but she didn't appear to have come back with them. Dal-geon had been waiting expectantly for the trio to return, pondering his chances of being able to convince Hae-ri to grab a bite to eat with him after she came back from the interview and had finished all her paperwork for the evening. He thought his odds were pretty good. Hae-ri's defenses were always lower after she'd been shut in her office doing paperwork for a couple hours. Plus, tomorrow was Saturday, so she wouldn't have to worry about having a late night. He might even be able to tempt her to go listen to some jazz with him at a nightclub a few doors down from the restaurant he'd picked out.

"How'd it go?" Tae-ung asked. He was on desk duty-Hae-ri hadn't set him on the stone carrying regime just yet.

"Good," Se-hun said. "Case is closed. The mother confessed."