The Sun to my Moon

Chapter 9: Crush

Kong Hwa-sook set to work right away. Go Hae-ri saw her evict Kim Se-hun from his chair so she could sit down at his desk, tapping away at his keyboard and muttering things like "secure server" and "proxy web service." Se-hun watched her, looking slightly disgruntled at having his desk taken over, but also sneaking covert glances at her that were anything but displeased when he thought no one was looking. He had been doing this a lot since he and his wife had broken up over two years ago. Privately, Cha Dal-geon thought he ought to go for it, but Se-hun's near crippling timidity in this area seemed to have multiplied tenfold since Hwa-sook had broken up with her ex-fiancé just months ago.

Go Hae-ri ignored Se-hun's less than subtle staring at Snow White, keeping an eye on Gi Tae-ung instead. Tae-ung had pulled the file on Kim Do-soo and was making notes for himself. Hae-ri watched him for a moment, feeling a pang in her chest, wondering if she was doing the right thing. Tae-ung wasn't even fully healed-he wouldn't be cleared for full active duty for at least another week-and here she was asking him to do something that was probably even more dangerous than the operation that had gotten him shot. She'd thought she'd weighed the risks, these past few days at Ho-sik's cabin, but was she really prepared to face the consequences, if something-something else-happened to one of them? How would she live with herself, if she lost one of them because they'd followed the path she'd set forth for them?

No. She couldn't let thoughts like these rule her, or she'd never have the courage to go forward. She'd come up with a plan, and it was a good one. She'd considered every angle and she'd made her decision. She was committed to carrying out the plan, because the only alternative was to do nothing and just wait for Edward Park to strike again, and that was unacceptable. She'd done everything she could think of to mitigate the risks. She'd just have to trust to God for the rest.

"He'll be fine," Dal-geon said, appearing at her elbow and handing her a cup of that god-awful tea he insisted was good for her blood pressure. He took a sip of his own tea. "They all will be, Hae-ri Go."

"I know," she said with a certainty she didn't feel.

He grinned at her, clearly not buying into her false bravado. "You're as bad as a mother hen with her chicks."

She swatted him on the arm and took a drink of her tea. She grimaced. She didn't know Dal-geon could drink that stuff. She put the tea down. "Come on, let's go. We need to get on the road and if we leave now, we'll have time to stop at Bean's so I can get a cup of coffee to wash the taste of this terrible tea out of my mouth."

Dal-geon sighed. "One day, Hae-rissi, I will teach you to properly appreciate tea, and then you will never touch that vile beverage ever again."

"Maybe," Hae-ri said amiably, "but that day is not today. Now hurry up, we've got a lot of ground to cover."

×××××××

"So," Dal-geon said to Hae-ri as they waited in line at Bean's for Hae-ri's coffee. "Where are we going?"

"Busan," she informed him.

"Where officer Jerome lived and Jeong Ji-yeong was murdered." He remembered. "I see you are wasting no time getting me started on my assignment."

"That's right," Hae-ri affirmed.

"There's only one problem I can see."

"What's that?"

"I'm not actually psychic."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I killed Jerome when he tried to shoot you, remember? I can't actually commune with the dead. I'm not going to be able to summon his spirit to tell me who Edward Park is."