𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 - 𝙎𝙤 𝙈𝙪𝙣

- 𝟑

When So Mun woke up the next morning, he felt a large amount of pain on the side of his stomach. He groaned as he tried to recall what had happened yesterday to make him feel this type of pain.

What did I do yesterday? He thought as he rubbed his eyes, facing the window to look at the sun.

He turned his head to look at his alarm clock, it read 9:16. He got out of bed to open the blinds of his room.

Surprisingly, whenever he walked out of his room he heard nothing. He assumes the other counters are doing their own things.

He shook his dazed head out of his thoughts as he went to go shower. As he striped down and turned on the water to adjust the temperature, he thought about how he acted when he became a counter.

It was..tough.

Like, on his birthday, he had gotten recruited as a counter. While he was disabled, no less.

Whenever Hana had saved him from Shin Hyeok-u one day and told him to follow her, he was concerned for what he was getting himself into.

At the noodle shop, Motak then hadn't been happy that a high schooler had been accepted as a counter. He was visibly annoyed, and it bothered So Mun.

He wondered how a petty kid like that could become a counter and save lives from evil spirits.

Ms. Chu had always had faith in him. That's why So Mun still has a special place in his heart for her, she's like a mother to him.

He had gone through alot.

First, losing his parents at the age of 11. Then, having to visit that same memory seven years later and finding out his parents were not only murdered, but an evil spirit killed them.

Then, he had to focus on being a counter. Making sure he trained and trained and trained. Didn't have time to hang out with this friends. All he did was go to school, visit the noodle shop, then go home to study and sleep. That was his schedule for seven months straight.

Defeating Ji Cheongsin and Shin Myeonghi was too difficult. It was his first time experiencing this, obviously as a new counter.

But, also everyone elses first time too?

He was constantly worried someone would get too injured on a mission, or even die.

He still worries about that to this day.

It's been two years, and yet he hasn't changed about that.

He lost his smile, slowly but surely.

It was a mixture of multiple different things; Hana, focusing on his job as a counter, not being able to see his friends and grandparents, and stress.

Overtime, his sketchbook was starting to get full more and more not by his comics, but sketches of evil spirits.

It was too hard.

Whenever he got eliminated as a counter wrongly. Whenever he saw Hyeoku hurting his friends. Whenever he went back inside his memories. Whenever he saw Ms. Chu about to die in a coma.

All at the age of 18.

At the age of 19, he heard what Hana said about him. He had to overwork himself more and more, now that he graduated high school.

He's 20 now. What's going to happen?

What's next? Is he going to get–

"So Mun! You almost done in there?! Are you okay?"

Noona.

Guess she was still at the hideout, he thought.

Whenever he got out, he was greeted by Hana throwing his uniform on his face.

"Up for training?" She smiled at him.

Despite how his bones still ached, (He still didn't know why) he accepted her offer.

He joined her at the ring, walking through the strings as he grabbed some boxing gloves to put on.

"Come here," Hana motioned at him to give her the first hit.

-

"I haven't even..oh god." She says as she helps So Mun get up from the ground.

Hana didn't even bother to notice how tired the boy was after their sparring.

"I don't even know why I feel like this," So Mun admitted. She glanced over at him, taking a sip of her water.

"I feel like shit. When I woke up, my bones were aching. I don't know what I did."

Frowning at the younger, she grabbed the first aid kit from the cabinets as she pointed to the ground, indicating that he should sit down.

"For the record, after we came back from our errand, you had decided to help Jang-mul build an entire ass office room."

Oh.

So Mun looked up to make eye contact with her. "I guess I wasn't being smart, huh?"

Hana laughed, "You did help him very well though,"

She grabbed a towel as she dabbed it lightly on the side of his face, wanting to get rid of his bruises that she gave him.

Unconsciously, he had gotten some ointment and a q-tip to tend it to the wound on her hand, closing it up as Hana swept her thumb over his.

"Sorry for the way I acted yesterday,"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Why?"

So Mun shrugged. "I felt bad about it, and I still do."

"Don't be." Hana passed him a new water bottle for him to drink as he finished cleaning up her wounds. "Pinning me to the wall was kind of...fun, to be completely honest."

He laughed this time. "Hey, imagine if an evil spirit had done that. Would that be funny?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah sure, being stabbed and then thrown through a brick wall so hard that we fly through it sounds fun."

"Oh? So you want me to do it again?"
"Not a chance."

As they get up, Hana tells So Mun that she's going to go get them some breakfast from a nearby store.

As he waves goodbye and tells her to stay safe, he has his old puppy-like smile on his face; Just like he used to always have.

Wait, what?