The Sun to my Moon

Chapter 33: Lean on me

"No problem," Hwa-sook said.

"I'm going to talk to Ri-byung's eomma and try to help her understand that her whole family has to leave their entire lives behind them and enter the witness protection program if they want to have any chance of keeping Ri-byung alive," Hae-ri continued. "Hook, I need you to go pick up the rest of Ri-byung's family and bring them here to talk to the guys from the Witness Protection Program."

"Arasso."

She looked at Dal-geon. "Dal-geonssi, I want you to sit with Ri-byung and see if you can unhypnotize him."

"I don't know the trigger," Dal-geon protested. "Breaking the power of Edward Park's hypnotic suggestion without knowing the trigger will be damn near impossible."

"I don't care," Hae-ri said stubbornly. "You have to try."

Realizing Hae-ri was likely to prove intractable on this point, Dal-geon resigned himself to a wasted afternoon. "Ne, ne."

On second thought, it was entirely possible that Edward Park had planted a secondary suggestion beneath the first that might prompt Ri-byung to resort to physical violence against Hae-ri if the first plot failed. Dal-geon straightened. Perhaps breaking Edward Park's hold over Ri-byung would be well worth the effort, after all.

Orders dispatched, Hae-ri opened the door to the interrogation room and addressed Ri-byung's mother, Dal-geon at her elbow. "Eommoni? Could you come with me? I'd like to talk to you in my office."

She glanced uneasily at her son, clearly reluctant to leave him alone in the state he was in.

"Cha Dal-geon's going to sit with Ri-byung for awhile," Hae-ri told her. "I think he might be able to help him."

"Help him?" Ri-byung's mother said uncertainly.

"Dal-geonssi has a very unique skill set," Hae-ri informed her. "He's going to do everything he can to break the trance Ri-byung is under."

"Arasso," Ri-byung's mother said dubiously. "If you think it's best."

"I do."

Ri-byung's mother patted Ri-byung on the shoulder and followed Hae-ri to her office, leaving Ri-byung with Dal-geon. Ri-byung scowled at Dal-geon, obviously less than pleased at being left in the charge of the man he perceived as the major threat against Hae-ri's affections towards him.

Dal-geon suppressed a sigh. This was going to be fun.

___________

Hae-ri spent the rest of the day mired in witness protection program procedure with the Jin family and two NIS agents. Tae-ung had returned with Jin Ri-byung's father and younger sister, and Hae-ri watched their faces as it slowly dawned on them that they were going to have to leave behind everything that they knew if they wanted to keep Ri-byung safe. Ri-byung's mother and father were familiar with the Edward Park case from the papers. They were understandably horrified to learn their son had not only conversed with the notorious killer, but had been hypnotized and manipulated by him into poisoning someone.

Dal-geon found Hae-ri on her couch at the end of the day, drinking a glass of soju and looking depressed.

"Ya," she said tiredly. "Want some?" She gestured to the bottle on her desk, indicating for him to help himself.

He sat down next to her and took the glass from her instead, taking a healthy swallow.

He was tired, too. He'd spent six hours with Ri-byung before he'd finally found the trigger, and then another half hour with the kid helping him wrap his head around the fact that he really had been poisoning a woman he'd had a crush on for the better part of six months. After that, Dal-geon returned Ri-byung to his family, but he'd taken one look at the crowd in Hae-ri's office and retreated to the safety of his attic until the agents and everyone had left.