Moonbyul caught up to Solar, who headed into the toilets, and said nothing as she let the idol push her about until she was satisfied with her position, her damaged arms over the sink. The idol opened up the medical kit from the bodyguard’s backpack and used the trauma scissors to cut open the tattered sleeves and after another glance at the bloodsoaked tatters, opted to just cut them off and leave them as a pair of mismatched short sleeves. She then grabbed a bottle of saline and cracking it open, started cleaning the deep and shallow cuts that had been cruelly carved out by the sharpened tip of the hook, mostly on her forearms but a few shallow ones ended over her hands, and rinsed the deepest wound that had it embedded. She was surprisingly gentle as she used sterile gauze to clean more stubborn areas and kept looking up to gauge Byul’s reaction, just in case she was hurting her.

Solar’s anger slowly faded as she focused on her task (distractedly noticing that Moonbyul was wearing two rings on her left index finger when she had rinsed both hands free of blood too and wondering if they had always been there) but instead it paved the way for a tumult of other emotions; fear, sadness, guilt and exhaustion.

As if sensing this, Byul quietly broke their comfortable silence, “Do you want me to take over?”

Solar shook her head sharply. 

“No, this… this is my fault… it’s my fault that you got… th-these horrible cuts…” She ended with an almost broken whisper, “I-It should have been me…” 

“Unnie…”

“Wait, please let me finish.” By this point Solar was just finished with drying the wounds with more sterile gauze and moved onto bandages. “I know I apologised before but I really need to say again that I’m truly sorry for my ty behaviour before… Now, everything you did makes so much sense and all I had done was be a colossal to you.”

“You didn’t know.”

“Well, why didn’t they just ing tell me?!” Solar’s anger flared briefly as she finished tying off the last bandage. “What the hell were they think-”

Byul pulled Solar into a hug.

And the last of her walls broke down.

She immediately melted into the warm embrace, where she felt safe, and burst into tears.

It had been years since she had last shed tears and shown her weakness to anyone, even trying to hide it from Wheein.

She buried her face into the crook of her bodyguard’s neck as her arms wrapped around the slim waist and clung on for dear life. She felt Byul’s slightly longer fingers gently carding through her hair whilst one strong arm encircled her, holding her comfortingly close.

Byul silently let her cry for a few moments and only started speaking quietly once the sobs had died down, “Unnie, I don’t know all the details, but what I do know is that it was your CEO who tried to bury everything and refused to let anyone tell you. It was Wheein who insisted on hiring me and Wheein who asked me to continue investigating when Nam-daepyonim shut it down.”

She let out a sigh through her nose and added, “Anyway, you’ve had one really bad day, so you need to eat, rest and process everything that has happened. But first, you need to hear this again. It’s not your fault.” 

Solar froze.

“I mean it, Yongsun-unnie. It’s not your fault, okay?” Then Byul tightened both her arms around her as she whispered fiercely into her ear. “And I’m going to protect you… you and your staff. I promise.”

A blushing Solar nodded into Byul’s neck, feeling suddenly calmed by what she had said and immediately agreed when Byul offered to drive her home without involving any of the others. She reluctantly pulled back from the hug but allowed Byul to wipe the last of her tears away with the soft pad of her thumb before she reassured the younger girl that she would be fine for the few minutes it would take for her to get Solar a change of clothes and her personal belongings. As Byul left and Solar cleared up the mess she had made while dressing Byul’s wounds, she wondered if the bodyguard was like this with all of her clients… 

I’m going to protect you… I promise.

But as she rinsed the blood away from the walls of the sink, something told her that, whatever this was, it was genuine.

     Moonbyul returned to the classroom-turned-dressing room and found that Eric had already left and the majority of the room was in tears. She instinctively looked for Wheein and found her in the corner on the phone. So instead, she started approaching the staff and gently encouraging them to pack up, explained that she needed one of the cars to drive Solar home. Hyunwoo and the junior managers were quick to get on their feet, glad for the distraction, and go on ahead to transfer their equipment from one car to the other. She then went to ask Jihyun and Sook if they could help pack Solar's belongings, and both older women quickly dried their tears and waved the bodyguard away, pointing at her freshly bandaged forearms. Byul gave them one of her cheeky lopsided grins with both hands raised placatingly and Jihyun giggled wetly whilst Sook swatted at her playfully. She was pleased to see that the tasks had helped the moping team to pull themselves together and stem the tears.

     Byul turned her attention to Wheein, who had just finished her phone call with the PR Manager about what statement to release to the press. She approached the subdued resident-puppy and looked searchingly into a pair of sad eyes.

"Do you need a hug?" 

Wheein immediately nodded and stepped into one, hiding her tears in the fabric of Moonbyul’s shirt; tears she had been struggling to hold in since the attack. She clung to the older girl for a few moments and bit back a full blown sob making its way up when she felt a comforting hand rubbing her back. 

"I'll drive Yongsun-