The Sun to my Moon

Chapter 30: Trace. Test.

Cha Dal-geon showed up at Go Hae-ri's apartment at an ungodly hour the next morning, insisting on testing all the beverages and every last article of food in her refrigerator for organophosphate residue before he would permit her to eat breakfast. When that effort yielded nothing, he went through all her bath products and makeup. After that, it was testing her sheets and laundry detergent. He even tested the vents to ensure that the poison hadn't been introduced via the central air unit. Hae-ri was slightly disturbed by the number of different ways Dal-geon could think of to poison her.

He went through the same process before he would let her get in her car, swabbing the door handles, the steering wheel, and the gear shift with the cotton swabs that Dr. Kevin Kim had given them. He helped her with the standard bug sweep, commenting that poisoning someone by leaving residue in less obvious places would be a rather ingenious method of transmitting the poison if the culprit knew of the bug checks. Hae-ri just hoped the person who was actually responsible for poisoning her wasn't as creative as Dal-geon.

When they got to the office, Dal-geon enlisted the rest of Vagabond to help with the task of identifying the source of the poison. They had been informed of Hae-ri's diagnosis the previous night in the course of their usual check-ins, but hadn't been caught up yet on the revelations from their visit to Kim Sun-young. Hae-ri gave them the salient points and was keen to discuss the new developments with the rest of the team, but they were all in agreement with Dal-geon and didn't seem interested in talking about anything but how she might be being poisoned.

They huddled in the bullpen, discussing ways and means of poisoning their hapless team leader. Hwa-sook kept patting Hae-ri's arm absently, almost as though to reassure herself that Hae-ri was still really there. Hae-ri let her, thinking it must be making Hwa-sook feel better somehow, but this uncharacteristically demonstrative gesture from Hwa-sook made Hae-ri notice the equally unusual behavior of the rest of the team. They were all standing unnaturally close to her and she realized they had unconsciously formed a protective circle around her. She was touched by the sentiment, but somewhat exasperated by the fact that its practical effect was to force her to crane her neck to look any of them in the eye. As an independent woman, she was sensitive to having her personal space invaded because it meant other people loomed over her. She tried shifting away subtly so she could look at Se-hun without getting a crick in her neck, but it didn't work; the rest of Vagabond team merely followed and then closed ranks around her again. She gave it up and let them loom while they brainstormed possible methods to kill her.

Tae-ung thought someone might have poisoned her water, but Hwa-sook pointed out that Hae-ri normally drank water out of the water bottles in the fridge supplied by the NIS, which any number of people might have ended up drinking. Se-hun came up with the idea that someone might have dusted her computer keyboard with poison. Dal-geon tested all the theories they come up with, just in case, but so far nothing had panned out.

"I don't get it," Hae-ri commented as she watched Dal-geon check the bulletin board in the bullpen. "Why go to all this effort to poison me? Why not just kill me and have done with it?"

"Because of me," Dal-geon said tightly. "He knows this is the best way to torture me. He already knows I don't deal with loss well. What could be a more elegant means of destroying me than putting me in a situation where I'm forced to watch you slowly waste away, knowing there's absolutely nothing that I can do about it? He's crafting a private little hell, tailor made for me."

Hae-ri had no idea what to say to that.

"Dal-geonssi, did you try the couch in Timjangnim's office yet?" Se-hun called from the opposite side of the room.

"Good idea," Dal-geon said. "I'll be right there."

But the couch was a bust, too. After several more unsuccessful efforts, Dal-geon was getting visibly frustrated. "Think, people. What other ways could Edward Park have used to poison Hae-rissi?"