Less than an hour earlier...

Kang Seulgi was snacking again.

It was not her fault that she was bored.

Irene had scheduled meetings with potential clients for most of the afternoon and all of their agents were out on assignments or resting, so their offices were like a ghost town. Her playmate Wendy was currently re-stocking their medical centre with Joy's help.

She could also go help Wendy but being psychoanalysed by Joy through casual conversation was not on her list of priorities right now. 

So, instead she had pulled out a box of Pepero from her "Snack Draw" and started munching. But before she could log into her old faithful Counterstrike, her phone rang. 

Seeing who it was on the caller ID, she answered immediately.

"Yah! What took you so long!"

"Let me in first! Geez..." 

"Okay, okay, hang on!" Seulgi quickly sent a text to the security guard at the gates to allow Yeri to drive in. "Come quick, I'm bored!"

"Oh, you won't be bored after this." Yeri replied, her cheeky smile travelling through with her voice. "It's juicy."

Seulgi had known Yeri (or Kim Yerim as she was legally known) since childhood. They briefly lost contact when Seulgi joined the army but re-connected when she got out, especially when she needed a private detective to do some surveillance or background checks in the legal way; something Yeri was an expert at since she worked closely with Police departments, as they sometimes outsourced to her and she had proven very resourceful and dedicated, indirectly helping her older brother Heechul (a high ranking prosecutor) successfully convict several slippery high profile criminals through her dogged determination to collect evidence.

And here the private detective was now, all smiles as she gave Seulgi a big hug before excitedly shoving a thick manilla envelope into her waiting hands.

"Everyone at Nam Entertainment was pretty uninteresting… except the CEO. He's dirty and he's bad news, unnie." Yeri stated as she stole a few Pepero since the older girl's attention was fully on the papers in front of her. "As I always said, 'when they're dirty, follow the money' and sure enough there was the answer."

"." Seulgi went back to her phone to fire off a text to Byul, now understanding why the ex-soldier had picked up her Glock that morning.

The response she got was even more alarming.

"Seulgi-ah, track Eric's phone. Make sure he doesn't try to leave the country and alert the Police. I’m going to try and extract Solar." Byul's voice message came through seconds later.

"Byulyi-unnie wants to ' extract ' her… that can't be good." Yeri added worriedly. "I'm going to ask Heechul-oppa to get you a warrant to allow you to track and hack Eric."

Seulgi nodded as the private eye pulled out her phone to ring her brother, who was also the prosecutor that Irene had specifically requested to be assigned to Solar's case as they had worked well together before. Meanwhile, the resident hacker of RVSM quickly pulled up the systems needed to track Eric Nam's phone. 

Concerningly, it was switched off.

Nevertheless, she was able to triangulate the position of the phone's last known location - which was reportedly at home. She switched to hacking into his emails and Apple accounts, finding that he was currently still at home, and had just logged into his Macbook… to Google which countries did not have an extradition treaty with South Korea and then buying a one-way ticket for the next available flight to one of those countries.

Irene suddenly burst into her office, scaring the life out of both Seulgi and Yeri, and switched on the TV on the wall. 

"You need to see this." 

"We interrupt this programme to bring you shocking news of a shooting at the Korean Acting Awards." A news anchor spoke gravely before the screen switched to footage of Byul diving in front of Solar just as shots were fired, before the live broadcast was cut off.

Irene quickly placed the TV on mute as Yeri quickly updated Heechul on what they had just seen before hanging up.

“Oppa says that he’s going to ask Police to send a unit to arrest Eric but given what’s happened at the awards show, response time might be slow.” 

“He’ll probably be out of the country by then!” Seulgi jumped up and grabbed her laptop. “I’m going to stop him.”

“How?” Yeri asked, after sharing a concerned look with Irene.

“What’s that thing called? Um… citizen’s arrest!”

“On what grounds, unnie?! We have proof he’s suspicious but nothing that links him to that!” The youngest retorted, pointing at the muted TV screen still on the newsflash covering the shooting.

“Give me like ten minutes with his phone and I’ll find something. But I can’t do that if he runs off with it.” Seulgi looked pleadingly at the other two, “Please… Byulyi-unnie needs us to help her right now.”

Yeri seemed to consider it and quickly relented with a mischievous grin. “Fine. I’ll drive.”

As the two high-fived, Irene quietly but sternly added, “The official reason you are going to his house is to collect feedback regarding our bodyguard services. Use that to stall him until Police arrive, but you are not to arrest him. Are we clear?”

The younger pair gave her a simultaneous nod.

“Good. And lovely to see you as always, Yerim-ah.”

“Same to you, Joohyun-unnie.” Yeri grinned and stood up. “I’ll be warming up the car and getting the satnav set up. Don’t be too gross!”

“Yah!” Seulgi yelped but the cheeky private detective quickly skipped out of the room.

Irene merely shook her head with a small smile and moving in close, gave Seulgi a soft kiss.

“Be safe, okay?” She whispered as she held her fiance tight. “I’m really not in the mood to pick the both of you up from the hospital today… Byulyi has me worried enough.”

Seulgi nodded and pressed a comforting kiss against her temple. “I know… We’ll be okay, I promise.”

After letting Seulgi go, Irene stared at the TV for a few moments, watching the clip of Byul protecting Solar looping on the ongoing newsflash.

This was meant to be an easy assignment. 

Irene and Seulgi had tried to use this case to keep Byul away from choosing the most dangerous and borderline suicidal missions for herself, because they were scared of losing her. 

But ironically this turned out to be one of her toughest yet.

Physically and mentally.

Irene sighed through her nose as she switched off the TV and started walking towards the medical centre to look for Wendy; she needed the resident doctor to help find out which hospital Byul was to be sent to, so that they could meet her and the idol there. 

In the meantime, she pulled out her phone and dialed a number for one of their agents who were due back in a few days.

“Hi, Donghae-oppa. I hope you’re well rested… That’s good. I’m afraid I’ll need you back a few days early to help with a protection detail… Oh, you’ve seen the news. Will you be able to be on standby within a few hours? Perfect. Thank you, oppa!”

After all, their contract cancellation date was still a few days away (as per Byul’s request) and the client would need protection until then.

RVSM was nothing but professional to the end.

---

Five days later...

Moonbyul winced slightly as light seemed to pierce through the crack in her eyelids. 

In her barely conscious state, she tried to remember what happened.

‘Oh, right.’

And it all came back in a screaming rush of pain.

The awards show.

The text from Seulgi.

Gunshots.

Solar .

Her eyes fluttered open.

The ex-soldier immediately recognised where she was and mentally thanked Irene and Seulgi, knowing that they would have moved heaven and earth to get her transferred from the hospital to RVSM’s medical centre as soon as possible.

Byul was not particularly fond of waking up in hospitals since she had lost Dahee.

She then registered that she was lying on a hospital bed but sitting up slightly, propped up on multiple pillows, especially on her right side, where her arm was in a sling.

Her left hand was being held tightly.

Her eyes slid over to focus on the person sitting on the edge of the bed, holding her hand and studying her intently.

She was slightly disappointed when Solar subtly let go of her hand but managed to give the idol a small tired smile and watched as her shoulders almost seemed to sag with relief.

Solar scooted a little closer and after hesitating a moment, reached out to brush some hair out of Byul’s face.

“How are you feeling?” She asked genuinely.

The ex-soldier blinked owlishly before gingerly trying to move her right side and adjust herself in the bed.

‘ Yup. That hurt. ’

“My right side feels like I’ve been hit by a truck. But aside from that, I feel okay.” Byul replied hoarsely but gave the older girl a cheeky lopsided smirk.

Solar couldn’t help but return the smile, albeit with a playful eye-roll at Byul’s attempt at humour, ridiculously glad that the girl was awake enough to even do so. She asked if she needed anything and moved immediately when Byul glanced at the jug of water on the side table. She swatted her hand away and helped her take a few sips through a straw.

“How long was I out?” Byul asked quietly after thanking Solar for the water. 

The latter meanwhile set the glass back onto the side table and then pulling a chair closer to the bed, sat down in it on Byul’s left. 

“You’ve been asleep for five days… Three of those were in intensive care after your surgery and then two here. You did open your eyes a few times but it was never for long. I don’t think you remember opening them, right?”

Byul shook her head.

Solar looked down at her lap, suddenly unable to look at the deep dark eyes that read her too easily sometimes. 

She tried to block out the memory of how glassy they appeared when they were unfocused.

“You were hit in the right shoulder and upper chest.” She ploughed on instead. “The doctors said you were incredibly lucky that the first bullet hit your clavicle and got deflected out, because it broke the bone but missed a group of major blood vessels there. The one in your chest hit the upper lobe of your right lung but they repaired that during emergency surgery.”

“Unnie…” 

Solar ignored Byul and swiped at the tears suddenly falling from her eyes, “Th-They used titanium p-plates to fix your broken ribs and c-clavicle…”

All she could see was Byul lying in a pool of her own blood, not responding no matter how many times she called out to her.

“ Unnie .” 

A familiar husky voice pulled her back. 

A larger warmer familiar hand took one of hers from her lap and gently squeezed it.

She looked up and saw the same Byul looking back at her. 

“I… I’m okay now.” The bodyguard confirmed.

Solar finally allowed herself to cry, something she had refused to do since Byul went into surgery, as she put on a brave front trying to be strong for Wheein and Hyejin.

But now, she clutched onto a scarred hand with one of her own whilst the other covered her face as she sobbed into it. 

“I was so scared…” She finally managed when her tears had slowed down enough