Whole chapter inspired by Boa's "Temptations" - feel free to listen in background

Solar woke up with a start.

After her heart-to-heart with Wheein, she remembered dozing off on the sofa with Moonbyul’s head on her lap.

And she had woken up on the same sofa, except she was lying down with a blanket over her and without Byul.

Someone, likely Byul, had moved her into a lying down position and placed a blanket over her, and she hadn’t noticed.

Sometimes, she wished she didn’t sleep like the dead.

     After a quick yawn and stretch, she went upstairs to wash in the ensuite of their shared bedroom but was disappointed to find her bodyguard wasn’t there either. She did however, pause a few times in her morning routine at the odd thunk coming from outside and at the third or fourth interruption, she went to the window to investigate.

What she saw made her pull on her coat and shoes at a rapid rate as she tumbled down the stairs and out the patio doors at a speed that would put Usain Bolt to shame.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?!” She whisper-screeched as soon as she arrived in the snowy backyard.

Moonbyul paused with an axe on her right shoulder and had the decency to look at least partly surprised at the intrusion before she replied a little too calmly for Solar’s tastes, “Chopping wood for the fireplace?”

“In your state?! Did you forget about your broken ribs, dislocated fingers or the gaping hole in your side?”

The ex-soldier was wearing her white shirt and black slacks from the night before, along with her military boots and grey coat, but was clearly holding her left arm close to her body with the thumb and forefinger of her left hand clutching the front of her white shirt to keep it in place.

For someone who had taken and given out quite a beating the night before, she looked annoyingly good… even with the black eye.

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration, unnie.” Byul stated as she hoisted the axe into the air with one arm and brought it hurtling down into the log standing in front of her, splitting it easily.

Okay, so Solar was just a little impressed.

“Exaggeration or not, Byul-ah…” The idol stepped closer as she asked seriously, “I just want you to rest… is that too much to ask?”

The bodyguard suddenly looked down at her own hand resting on the axe handle, unable to handle the intense look in Solar’s eyes, and the idol’s gaze dropped down to join hers, noticing the bruising over the knuckles that she hadn’t noticed in the indoor lighting the night before. 

“I just… we need firewood anyway, and I… I don’t like feeling useless.” Byul mumbled at her feet.

Solar frowned.

“Byul-ah…” She covered Byul’s bruised hand with her own as she gently commanded, “Byul-ah, look at me.”

She waited until deep dark eyes slid up to meet hers before she continued, “You are never useless. Infuriating maybe, but never useless, okay?”

Byul wordlessly nodded but still looked forlorn, so Solar decided on a different tactic.

“Teach me.”

“S-Sorry?” The bodyguard looked much more appropriately surprised.

“Teach me how to chop wood! I’ve never done it before!”

“Are you… are you sure, unnie?”

“Why not?” Solar pretended to gasp and be offended, “Wait, are you saying I can’t do it? Do you think I’m too weak?”

“What? No!”

“Well, you can do it with one arm, so how hard would it be to teach me to do it with two?”

A small lopsided grin finally appeared on the younger girl’s face and matched Solar’s own challenging one. She then started explaining to the idol how to stand the log so that the axe would split it along the grain, how to allow gravity to do all the work and to just assist the falling of the axe head and how to aim for the platform under the log. 

Solar knew she was clumsy and was more scared of hitting her own kneecaps, to be honest.

Therefore, her first try was timid and only succeeded in embedding the axe head into the log and sending a jarring sensation up her arms and into her spine.

Byul, to her credit, did not laugh and instead helped her kick the log off the axe blade.

“I think you were staring too hard at the top of the log, unnie. Like I said, try to aim for the platform and use your knees if you have to to help drop that axe head straight down. Here.”

Her bodyguard used her booted foot to help swing the heavy axe onto her right shoulder and then bounced on bent knees to raise the axe high with one arm before once again slamming it down into the platform, splitting the thick log along the way. 

“See, I’m not really using that much force. It’s all technique.” She explained with a swish of dark hair as she handed the older girl the axe. “You can do it, unnie. You got this.”

Solar really tried not to stare.

Why was she so damned attractive?

Shaking the thought out of her mind, she placed a new log onto the platform before hefting the axe in both hands and did exactly as she was taught, with Byul quietly encouraging her from the side.

Thunk!

Two pieces of chopped wood dropped onto the floor innocently.

Dropping the axe as she threw her arms up in a triumphant cheer, she let out a delighted squeal and leapt into Byul’s waiting arms to give her a hug.

“I knew you could do it…” Solar could hear the smile in her bodyguard’s voice close to her ear.

She pulled back to look up shyly at the younger girl.

“Well, I had a good teacher…” 

The two then fell into a slightly awkward silence as they realised what sort of position they had allowed themselves in. 

They both knew what happened if they let each other get too close.

Like magnets with an opposite charge, it was inevitable.

Their foreheads met as their noses did and misty breath mingled between them.

They were meant to keep it “professional”… 

Whatever the hell that meant.

And with a mumble under her breath that sounded very close to, “  it ”, Solar grabbed Byul’s collar and yanked her in for a desperate kiss.

Teeth clashed almost as soon as lips did but they didn’t care.

The dam had been broken last night.

And there was no stopping the flood.

Byul’s lips were soft and supple, her hands were somehow pressing and pulling her ever closer at her waist and hips, and when Solar gently bit down on her bottom lip during a battle for dominance, the resulting deep groan that rumbled into was enough to send a pleasurable shudder up her spine.

Yet somehow in the heady haze, her mind reminded her of the reason why she had been so keen to find the ex-soldier that morning.

She tried to lean back to tell her but found herself unable to stop herself when Byul chased her lips.

When she finally found an opening, she quickly pressed a finger to Byul’s slightly swollen lips to say what she needed to and was slightly amused to find that they were both breathing harder than they had been during the woodchopping. 

“Happy Birthday, Byul-ah…” She whispered as she watched Byul press a kiss to her finger before she retracted it.

The bodyguard let out a small snort of amusement and instead of replying, she slid a hand up to cup the back of Solar’s head to pull her in and steal another toe-curling kiss.

Solar’s legs almost gave way when Byul’s tongue ran over her own.

“Byulyi-unnie! Yongsun-unnie!”

“Where are you guys?”

At the sound of their ‘kids’ muffled voices, a breathless Solar pressed one last kiss onto Byul’s lips before stepping back and started picking up the chopped pieces of wood just as the patio doors opened.

“There you guys are!” Hwasa exclaimed with a smile as Wheein shot past her to bundle Byul into a hug.

“Happy Birthday, Byulyi-unnie!” The resident-puppy squealed and gave a pleasantly surprised bodyguard a hug. “Come inside! We made you breakfast!”

As Wheein tugged Byul inside, Hwasa helped Solar pick up the rest of the firewood.

“Byulyi-unnie was out here chopping this since the early morning, wasn’t she?” The model asked and sighed when Solar nodded. “This is her blaming herself for what happened yesterday…”

At the older girl’s