The Sun to my Moon

Chapter 33: Lean on me

Se-hun and Hwa-sook met Dal-geon, Hae-ri, and Tae-ung in the hall.

"Heol," Se-hun commented. "I thought I had it bad when I was hypnotized."

"Ne, all you did was beat up a suspect, kiss Snow white, and nearly throw Dal-geonssi off a building," Tae-ung said.

"At least he didn't try to drug anyone into falling in love with him," Dal-geon pointed out.

"Ne," Se-hun agreed. Then—"Wait, I kissed Hwa-sookssi?"

"Ne," Tae-ung confirmed.

"But that was before—"

"Yup."

Se-hun frowned. "I don't remember that."

"Not to worry, Shrek, she liked it," Dal-geon informed him. "Even though she tried to pretend that she didn't. Isn't that right, Snow white?"

Hwa-sook hit him on the arm and shot him an annoyed look.

"God, what a mess," Hae-ri groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Guess you've still got it, eh, Timjangnim?" Se-hun said. "Did you see the way that kid was looking at you? Like he was a starving man and you were the world's biggest sandwich."

"Gomawo, Shrek, that's helpful," Hae-ri said dryly.

"What are we going to do with him?" Hwa-sook asked.

"We'll have to get him and his family set up with the witness protection program," Hae-ri replied.

"Witness protection?" Dal-geon repeated. "He poisoned you, Hae-rissi. He ought to be thrown in jail."

"He didn't mean to hurt me, Dal-geonssi."

"He put a foreign substance into your coffee without your consent. He has some culpability in this."

Hae-ri shook her head. "Older and wiser people than Ri-byung have been manipulated into doing things they wouldn't normally do by Edward Park. I'm not going to ruin the poor kid's life because he let Edward Park delude him into thinking he was in love with me."

"Think the family will go for it?" Hwa-sook asked. "I mean, witness protection is kind of a big deal. They'll have to leave their whole lives behind."

"They'll have to," Hae-ri said. "Edward Park is sure to find out that his plan didn't work eventually. I can't imagine he'll let this failure pass without wanting his intended pawn to feel the full consequences of his disappointment. Ri-byung won't be safe once Edward Park figures out he's talked to us."

"Forget Jin Ri-byung, what about you?" Dal-geon said. "Once he realizes that Jin Ri-byung botched the poisoning effort, he's bound to come up with a plan to come after you in some other way."

"Cha Dal-geon's right, Timjangnim," Tae-ung said. "You need to reconsider some of those protection measures we talked about when Dal-geonssi first got the lamb."

Hae-ri sighed. "Arasso. If I agree to let someone on the team stay with me for the next few days, will that make you happy?"

"Aniyo," Dal-geon answered. He wouldn't be happy until the threat to Hae-ri's life was removed once and for all, and there was only one way to make sure that happened. "But it's a start."

"Shrek, get the police on the phone and see if they can someone down here to talk to Ri-byung's family," Hae-ri instructed

"Will do, Timjangnim," Se-hun said.

Hae-ri turned to Hwa-sook. "Snow white, take that flask to the lab and see if you can run down the source of the poison. It's a long shot, but if we can figure out where it's from, maybe we can figure out how Edward Park got his hands on it."