Cho's Sun
Chapter 02
(Pain in the Neck)

The only way anyone would beat Cho into the office would be to sleep there. Jane often slept there, last night being one of those time. He opened one eye as Cho entered. Cho was not noisy, but he was not trying to be quiet either. Jane studied him, from his prone position, watching as he bustled around. He smiled. Cho was different this morning.

"Who is she?" Jane smiled and took a sip of tea.

Cho stared at Jane, raising his eyebrows. "Who," he asked.

"That's what I asked you," Jane said.

"What are you talking about?" There was a edge of exasperation in his voice.

"I was asking you who the girl you met was. That's all. No need to get all defensive." Jane smiled his very annoying smile again, sipping tea.

"I am not defensive," Cho said, frowning.

"Yes you are. You are refusing my answer my question and you frowned, and from your body language, if I didn't know you better, I'd be worried."

"Jane, if you didn't owe me so many times, I'd be tempted to hurt you. If I hurt you, I'd probably have to fix you, though. Besides, why do you say I met a girl?"

Undaunted, Jane grinned. "It's Monday morning. A normal Monday, you come in, get the coffee I've made, purely out of the kindness of my heart, since I don't drink the stuff, and grumble about it. You then sit at your desk, shuffling case files and frowning. This morning you float in, get coffee and actually smile as you sip it. You then leaned back and stared out of the window. You haven't touched a case file yet." Jane smiled and continued. "If you haven't met a girl then I'm not psychic."

Cho closed his eyes and shook his head. "You are not psychic, Jane"

"I know. There's no such thing. I just wanted to see if you were listening. But you did meet a girl. You didn't deny that." Jane looked very pleased.

"OK, I met a girl. Her name is Sunny. She seems like a nice kid."

Jane intently stared at Cho. Are you blushing? And did you have se..... " Cho's hard glare aborted the soon to become too personal question.

"Koreans do not blush! Now, don't you have work to do?" Cho glared at him. "You do don't you? Work can keep you safe. You like work!"

Jane smiled but did lie back down on the couch. Teasing Cho was fun, but beyond a certain point, it could become hazardous to one's health. In normal circumstances, Jane's sense of self-preservation was fully functional, but it was so much fun making Cho twitch.

Lisbon, Van Pelt, and Rigsby made a noisy laughing entrance. "I told you he was going to do that," Rigsby said, laughing. There was general laughter and assent.

Jane sat up and announced, "Cho has a girl friend!" The glare Cho directed at Jane told everyone all they needed to know.

"That's nice," Lisbon offered. "Don't you have something to do?"

Jane sighed, took a sip of cooling tea. "Yes, Boss," he said lying back down.

Everyone scattered to their respective posts and the office settled down to it normal routine.

The week passed normally. They tied up some loose ends, testified at a couple of cases, contributing to solid convictions, and caught one new major case of arson. The arson case was not too convoluted, but it was high profile. The quick solution brought in by Rigsby and Jane made CBI look good. So good that the entire crew was given Friday off, and almost unheard of event.

Cho was meeting Sunny, tonight. She had later classes Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday, she had an evening seminar, but Thursday, she only had a morning class. Thursday was the first evening they could get together. He'd sent her a text message, telling her he had Friday off. Her reply had been simple, "!!".

The restaurant was nice, quiet, but not fancy. They had decided on Italian, tonight, the pasta giving them a carb load after their vigorous run. They'd done a five mile course, setting a blistering pace. Side by side they paced each other, not racing, but each testing the other. Their speed precluded conversation, but they were so attuned, that words were essentially unnecessary. Cho did briefly speculate that, if this were a date, it would be one of the best, then he had to focus on maintaining his pace. Now what not the time for idle speculation.

"I think my legs are wasted," Sunny said. "Probably limper than the spaghetti they serve here. That was quite a jog!"

Cho smiled and took a sip of ice water. "If you call that a jog, please, never ask me to go for a run with you. I'm more use to running for coffee, than running like something's after me!"

She laughed. "Now, now, you know you were holding back. You are a very proper gentleman. That was fun. We should do it again, sometime. Say, next month?"

"That soon?" Cho grinned.

Their meals arrived and they fell silent, doing proper justice to the food.

Sunny's apartment was small, not much larger than a dorm room. "It's humble but it's home," she said, waving him in.

Cho looked around and nodded. "Hmmmm. Nice. Not much bigger than mine."

She laughed and punched him in the arm. "Now you're being patronizing. It's all I can afford, going to school.

"OK, it's not really bigger, but mine isn't much larger. I don't need more so why pay for it? It serves my needs."

"That sounds like something I'd expect you to say. You seem very practical and logical. I find that very appealing." She put her hand on his arm. "You mentioned that you don't have to go to work tomorrow, right?"

Cho nodded. "Got the whole day off, as long as we don't catch a hot one."

Sunny smiled. "Does than mean you don't have to rush back to your apartment tonight? Sometimes, it gets lonely in here late at night."

oOOOo