★★★★★   ━━   ❪  @CH_TWENTY_SIX  ❫

eonni's noodle shop...

"hello?" mun says to the person calling his phone. junwon stops sweeping, curious about the caller.

who is it? she mouths to him, but only received a shrug from the boy.

however, when her classmate turns his head towards the shop, he begins to smile.

mun makes eye contact with junwon, indirectly telling her who it was. she smiled along with him.

the two teenagers enter the shop together with innocent smiles on their faces.

"gosh. what's this number?" mun asks motak, his eyes and voice bright.

"ahjussi, i didn't know you could pull such pranks like that. you're finally adapting i see." junwon teases the older man with a smirk.

"my old number." motak replies, his tone somehow feeling sorrowful.

at that moment, junwon notices the atmosphere in the room. something must have happened. she inferred.

"anyway, is something going on?" the curly-haired boy asks.

"no." "nothing's going on." both ms. chu and motak hurriedly denied, turning away from the two teenagers.

the straight-haired girl thought the opposite.

she noticed that even hana seemed affected by whatever they were discussing while they were gone. the older counters's body language made it quite obvious that it wasn't a simple topic. something in her itched to know what it was.

by the time she had gotten out of her thoughts, the others were preparing to open the shop. so she left her spot and went to the kitchen to help with whatever they needed.

"thank you. we enjoyed it!"

"thank you for coming! we hope to see you again!"

"thank you. come again!"

the two classmates bid farewell to their last costumers of the day. mun flipped the sign before continuing his task. beside him, junwon was cleaning the windows, making sure not to leave any spots dirty.

the girl sees hana and ms. chu staring outside the window. at first she thought they were looking at the costumers walking away, but when that sad look in their eyes returned, she knew they were observing mun.

"what is bothering them so much? i need to know or else i'm going to go crazy..." she thinks to herself, but her thoughts are interrupted when she feels a tug in her heart.

what the heck was that? that usually means our territory has opened somewhere near, but that only happens when i open it...

consecutively, a sound of a broom falling on the concrete and her name being called enters her ears.

"oh? junwon-ah, it's our territory!"

the said girl turns around, her eyes widening as she sees the curly-haired boy play around with the familiar, colorful lights.

"mun... did you just..."

how the fuck did he do that?

junwon couldn't comprehend the sight. as far as she knew, she was the only counter who could summon and somewhat control the territory, but now mun could do it? she had no idea what was going on.

behind her, ms. chu, motak, and hana had similar expressions. flabbergasted. bewildered. shock. and everything that meant the same. what in the world is happening? all 4 counters thought.

"our territory opened up-" before he could finish his sentence, junwon frantically pulled him inside the noodle shop. she gently pushed him onto the chair, the 2 oldest counters following closely.

"how did you just do that?" ms. chu asks.

"do what?" mun replies in confusion.

"you touched and played with our territory." she adds.

"so what? am i not supposed to do that?" he queries, worried.

"it's not that we aren't allowed to, we can't. only junwon can and knows how to do it." motak explains.

"is it such a big deal?" the boy questions.

"so this is why you were specially appointed..." their leader says.

junwon was still inawe. she had never seen any other counter who had the ability to play around with their territory aside from her. not hana. not motak. not ms. chu. not even cheoljung. it was exciting to her.

"i think he can summon the yung territory." hana concludes.

"summon?" the older counters repeated.

"did you summon the territory when you fought those kids?" hana's words makes junwon recall seeing the lights surrounding mun that night.

"oh, that day?"

"how can you summon that? that's nonsense. i've never seen anyone else but junwon do that." motak refuses to believe it.

"well, i also thought it was kind of weird..."

"hey, that's not weird! that just means you're special like me!" junwon defends her classmate.

"so you really opened up the territory?" ms. chu questions him, still in disbelief.

"i'm not 100 percent sure-" the older woman pulls him up from his seat.

"hey, go get changed. let's try this. come on inside."

junwon could only follow them, her curiosity and anticipation reaching to the roof.

the counters were now in the basement, their regular clothes replaced by their red uniform.

"do it." hana challenges the nervous boy in front of her.

"mun. if you can summon the yung territory at will, we'll never have to get hurt or die." ms. chu explains to him the importance of the territory.

"we can pop out those evil spirits like a vending machine and send them to the afterlife." motak says dramatically.

"it would also help me a lot too. i can summon the territory when i want to, but it takes too much energy for me to do it and it affects my strength most of the time." and that was the reason why cheoljung died. junwon's inner thoughts almost made those words slip through her lips.

"oh, so much pressure..." mun expresses his anxiety. he understood how crucial and serious this really was and he didn't want to disappoint them.

"what's pressure?" "you idiot." ms. chu pushes motak away, dismissing his stupid question.

"it's all right. it's okay." "don't feel burdened. relax. relax and try it out!" the two counters changed their strategy, attempting to reassure and encourage him.

"i'll give it a try."

junwon froze in suspense, her eyes solely focused on the boy in front of her.

suddenly, mun lets out a loud yell. the counters look around the room, trying to see if his attempt was successful.

however, hana seems reluctant at its effectiveness. junwon couldn't help but share the same feelings.

"was that it?" mun tried again numerous times, but the lack of vibrant rays made it obvious it really wasn't working.

"who wants ice cream?" hana asks to no one in particular, walking away in disappointment.

"are you kidding me?...i want a popsicle." motak approaches the boy in irritation before quickly following the younger woman.

"i have no idea how i did it..." mun whines to ms. chu, his sad puppy eyes making junwon's heart swell.

"it's okay. do you want ice cream?"

"yeah..."

"all right. let's go, pumpkin."

the teenage boy shouts again. caught off guard, the elder woman smacks the back of his head. the teenage girl snorts.

"i'm sorry. it's a habit."

"why... heal me..."

"you'll be fine, mun."

from  JAE.

i actually hate this chapter with a passion. sorry for this, i was in a rush to just get a chapter published 😓 i hope it wasn't too bad or too boring for you guys bc i actually adore the moments that happened in this chapter.

i know it's been awhile, but i'm finally back! my schedule is usually the busiest around august to october and although i'm not completely free yet, i have a lil more time to write and work on my books!

i've decided to change my layouts (writing, chapters, etc.) for my books! i also have a new header (?) for limitless that i actually loved making, so i hope you guys like it!

▻  𝗆𝖺𝖽𝖾  𝖻𝗒  ©  𝗝𝗝𝟬𝗡𝗚-𝗢𝗦𝗧  ™
𝐋𝐈𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒.  𝑡ℎ𝑒  𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑦  𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟
★𝔦𝔫𝔤  .  .  .  𝓚𝐈𝐌 𝓜𝐈𝐍𝐉𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐆  ?!