The Sun to my Moon

Chapter 17: A rose

Go Hae-ri spent the afternoon under the eager tutelage of Kong Hwa-sook, learning more about network security, dummy IP addresses, and anonymizing software than she'd ever wanted to know.

She explained what she wanted to do, and Hwa-sook helped her set up a search to help her filter records that might be useful in her investigation into projects Edward Park might have worked on, if her theory about the planning development was right. After Hwa-sook breathlessly reminded her for the twelfth time to call her immediately if one of the alerts she'd set up raised a red flag, Snow white rushed off to catch her flight to Jeju island and Hae-ri settled down to work.

She thanked her lucky stars that she had had the foresight to hire Hwa-sook so her team would have someone with technical expertise for times like these. Her automated search mechanism had narrowed the list down from thousands to a few hundred. The prospect of sifting through all those records was a daunting task, but not unmanageable. Even if it was a long shot, it would be more than worth the effort if it got them even a little bit closer to catching Edward Park. Unlike Cha Dal-geon, she recognized that sometimes fancy tricks and shortcuts didn't cut it. Sometimes getting things done required a long, hard slog. She didn't mind. There was something oddly satisfying about working through a complex task slowly and methodically until you reached your goal. She had patience to see this sort of thing through, unlike certain consultants she could name. Long shot though it may be, it would be more than worth the effort if it got them closer to catching Edward Park.

It was just her and Gi Tae-ung in the bullpen after Hwa-sook left. Kim Se-hun, still not having any luck with Miki, had left the office early in the afternoon to pursue a lead on Jo Bu-yeong. Dal-geon was off somewhere haranguing a priest for information about the Kim Woo-gi. She resisted the urge to cross herself, thinking of the chaos she had potentially unleashed on an unsuspecting clergyman by permitting Dal-geon to enter a place of worship unsupervised. Tae-ung was running down everything he could on Hwang Pil-yong from the confines of his desk. He showed every sign of intending to bunker down for the long haul, but Hae-ri noticed him shifting in his chair ever so slightly and made him go home, telling him sternly he would be of more use to the team if he let himself heal properly before trying to pull any marathon efforts so recently after being injured.

He tried to get her to leave, too, but she'd gotten into a groove with what she was doing by that point and was reluctant to break her rhythm. He left, and she continued her slow and patient search in the peaceful quiet of her office.

Not for the first time, she questioned her own decision to split the team up for this investigation. It was true that they could pursue more lines of investigation this way, but she had to admit she was accustomed to operating with Dal-geon at her side and she kind of missed him hovering at her elbow when he wasn't orbiting around her causing trouble. Worse, she had underestimated how anxious it would make her, setting the members of her team these dangerous tasks and not having the assurance that they at least had each other at their backs. This feeling was somewhat amplified when it came to Dal-geon. Partially because he had no gun or tactical training, but mostly because he, more than anyone else on the team, seemed to rush headlong into dangerous situations without appearing to give the slightest regard to the consequences of his actions. He was always confident he could use his wits to get him out of trouble if the need arose. She had less faith in Dal-geon's ability to defend himself from a knife or a gun with his wits than he did, so she'd gotten in the habit of keeping a closer eye on him than the rest of the team. Now she was realizing that was a harder habit to break than she'd anticipated. Not being able to reassure herself that she was in shouting distance if he really needed her was driving her crazy. The check ins helped, but even though he was being better about that than she had any right to expect, given his contrary nature, it still wasn't the same as having him with her all the time.