The Sun to my Moon

Chapter 22: Overprotective

The next morning, Cha Dal-geon, Go Hae-ri, and Gi Tae-ung were all rather somewhat worse for the wear for the lack of sleep from the night before. Tae-ung wasn't doing too badly, except for rather tired-looking eyes and the occasional jaw-cracking yawn. Of the three of them, Dal-geon was most accustomed to going without sleep, but usually he managed at least a few hours before dawn. That night, he could honestly say he hadn't slept a wink. Every whisper of the wind through the trees was one of Edward Park's disciples come to steal Hae-ri away into the night.

More than once, he considered tiptoeing upstairs and crawling into bed with her on the theory that he might be able to finally relax if she was in his direct line of sight. Ultimately, however, he decided his peace of mind wasn't worth the risk of losing a critical limb at Hae-ri's hands when she inevitably woke up to find he'd invaded her bed in the middle of the night. Besides, he needed to stay alert in case Edward Park or one of his disciples did try to break in.
Hae-ri, for her part, was irritable and short-tempered the next day, especially with him. She greeted him in the morning by grouchily informing him that he owed her a new cell phone, and she expected him to deliver one by the end of the day. To Dal-geon's dismay, he discovered she still didn't believe there was any connection between Edward Park's token and herself. The rest of the team, when he told them, agreed with his interpretation, however. Kong Hwa-sook and Kim Se-hun were horrified when Dal-geon filled them in, but agreed that it made sense that Edward Park would have chosen the lamb as a symbol representing Hae-ri.

This of course made Hae-ri even more irritable, especially when she discovered Dal-geon had told the rest of the Vagabond not to bother spending any more time searching for children who might fit Edward Park's idea of a lamb and focus on designing protective measures for Hae-ri instead.

When she found out they had taken him at his word and abandoned the original search, she threw up her hands. "What if you're wrong, Cha Dal-geon? I'm supposed to just sit back and do nothing when a child could be in danger, just because you're convinced receiving a stuffed animal in the mail means Edward Park is going to come after me?"

"I'm not wrong, Hae-rissi," Dal-geon said, growing impatient with her completely myopic state of denial. "Do you honestly believe I would risk the life of an innocent child if I thought there was even the slightest possibility that I might be wrong about this?"

"You never think you're wrong. It has happened before, you know."

Eventually, Dal-geon realized it wasn't so much the idea that Edward Park might be after her that Hae-ri couldn't accept, but rather the symbolism behind his message to Dal-geon that she found so incredible. Catholic Hae-ri was deeply uncomfortable with anyone comparing her to a symbol representing her Savior, and Dal-geon eventually realized it was this characterization of herself that she found so hard to accept rather than the notion that Edward Park might come after her in general.

Once he told them his suspicions, the rest of the team agreed with Dal-geon that they needed to take special precautions to ensure Hae-ri's safety. Tae-ung proposed a schedule for them to all watch her in rotations to make sure she was guarded at all times.

Despite the fact that it was four against one in favor of this idea, Hae-ri flatly refused the proposed security measures. She and Dal-geon argued over it more than once, but to Dal-geon's increasing frustration, Hae-ri remained adamantly against the idea.

"Even assuming you're right about the whole lamb thing, I still wouldn't agree to having the team act as bodyguards," Hae-ri told him.

"Waeyo?"

"They have more important things to do."

"More important than protecting your life from Edward Park?" he asked incredulously.