Author Note: Another chapter coming tomorrow ❤️ xoxo
"Ignoring the signs, running through red lights.
I'm going blind, walking through hell fire".
-New West
Chapter VII: 🍂
🔸So Mun POV
When I wake up, I am invaded by a pleasant warmth, the sun's rays invade my room, touching the blankets and my face.
I squeeze my eyes shut, finally the first night without Adrien in my dreams, without the bounce of his fingertips on my skin.
As I rise, my thoughts drift back to the night before-sensations, the cool embrace of his body, the strain on my powers, and the eventual surrender to unconsciousness.
Today, however, I wake refreshed.
With a yawn, I get up and go to the bathroom to wash up, then head to the kitchen, where Mae-Ok is setting the table for breakfast.
Mo-Tak and Do-Hana are already there, sitting.
And they all stare at me.
"Good morning dear!" Mae-Ok is the first to break the silence.
"Morning! Feeling better?" Mo-tak adds, studying me carefully.
Do-Hana doesn't speak, just nods at me. She seems thoughtful or maybe angry.
Maybe both.
"Good morning" I reply with a smile, sitting down at the table. I grab a glass of milk and some pancakes and start eating, they start eating too, but without moving their attentive gazes from me, as if I am a patient escaped from some weird-ass asylum.
"So Mun, is there something you need to tell us?...."
I sigh, placing my fork on the table, not knowing where to start.
Mo Tak's question hangs in the air for a while as I reflect. I separate the feelings of pleasure from the negative ones, choosing what to say and not to say.
"I went to Adrien, alone," I confess.
"So Mun! How many times have we said we are a family? We must operate together! Always! Have each other's backs!"
Mae-Ok looks a tad strained when she says that.
"There is no such thing as a lone counter! And no matter how much stronger you may be, you can't act on your own! So Mun!"
"Yes, I'm sorry guys. It's just that I was tired of my constant nightmares and Adrien, and I wanted to put an end to it," I explain, mortified.
I don't like to make them worry.
Mae-Ok sighs, melting into a motherly smile.
'The important thing is that you know, come on! Let's forget everything and have a nice day!"
Mo-Tak agrees, smiling in return.
"Yes let's have a nice day together!" he exclaims, resuming eating.
Everyone except for Dohana, who does not seem convinced and to our surprise, gets up abruptly, abandoning her breakfast.
She is angry and I don't understand why.
"Do Hana, are you alright?"
I ask unsure. Motak and MaeOk also look alarmed.
"Dear, what is it? Did you detect any third-level spirits nearby?"
Dohana shakes her head and with fluid gestures grabs my arm, forcing me to get up and follow her.
"Give us ten minutes!" she asserts sternly, leaving Motak and MaeOk utterly speechless.
I find myself swiftly ushered into her room, where she firmly pushes me inside and seals the door behind us.
''You may be able to fool the two of them but not me! Spill it out before I do!"
Dohana, she doesn't seem to be just angry now she is definitely furious.
Her brown eyes shine with a light of their own, with rage, and her height approaches mine, a tad shorter, by a few inches.
"Do-hana I don't understand... What are you talking about?"
She gets closer and closer, to such an extent that I end up falling on the bed, colliding my legs on the edge of her mattress.
"What's going on between you and Adrien? And don't tell me you just fought, because that's not all!"
Her words prompt a crimson flush to creep across my cheeks, my embarrassment laid bare like an object exposed to sunlight.
"What...? How? H-how do you..."I trail off, utterly surprised and shaken to my core. How is this possible? How does DoHana know this? Did she see me? Did she see us?
"I accidentally saw some of your memories while you were sleeping, I was just trying to tuck you into the blankets, and I touched you. I didn't want to intrude but I couldn't stop myself," she explains, in front of the shock on my face.
"You saw my memories?"
I spoke slowly, still groggy, now even a little upset.
I know about her powers: Psychometry is one of Dohana's abilities, and it allows her to read and enter other people's memories, which is why with her I'm more careful not to let anything from my past filter through, because she might see it, she might feel the things I feel.
"You had no right! You can't just enter in my space and see what you wanna see! I'm allowed to have secrets!"
Dohana halts my protest, drawing her face close to mine. Everything happens so swiftly that it silences my thoughts and complaints.
Then her lips press on mine.
It leaves me completely bewildered and unprepared, to such a degree that out of surprise I do not return the kiss, nor do I move a finger to stop her. It seems I don't want to. I don't want to stop her.
She guides me down onto her mattress, climbing on top and resuming the kiss with skill. Unlike me, who never had relations or intimate encounters until now.
Adrien is my first kiss and she is now my second.
"I didn't get a good look at your memories, only a few glimpses, but more than that, I felt the pleasure erupt from your body to me.
For a moment I felt so jealous! To think that Adrien could make you feel such a way, that he... a stranger, an obnoxious bastard! Could steal your first experience like that!"
I look at her spellbound, feeling butterflies in my stomach, a slight flutter of wings in my belly. I like Dohana, I have always liked her, from the first moment I saw her in front of Eonni Noodle's Shop, when I was still an ordinary human being, with no powers and a disabled leg.
I never thought she could like me back.
"So Mun, I like you... And I hate what he is doing to you"
This time I reciprocate, bringing my hands to her face, then luring her mouth against mine. Our clothes rub against each other as I savour the softness of her lips. Her hands brush my hair, my cheeks in a slow rise and fall. A different height and deep downfall.
And for a moment I forget everything.
"I want to help you So Mun, to forget what he made you feel. He is only manipulating you. There is nothing real about it. You don't need him."
Yes, it is true. I'm stronger, I don't need him. I just need her, my family and my friends. They are all that matters and they are all I have to protect from Adrien.
🔸Adrien (Hwang Pilgwang) POV
Finally, the restoration of my house is complete-a meticulous endeavor to mend the aftermath of the dispassionate clash between the little one and me. While I could have enlisted the aid of a mere mortal to handle the repairs, the therapeutic effect of undertaking it with my own hands was undeniable.
Each interaction with an object became a stroll down memory lane, invoking his presence as I touched its surface. It is an annoyingly human experience, but pleasant and vexing.
"Oh finally our mansion is back in one piece! I had to sleep in a motel because of you two!," Gelly's petulant voice reaches my attentive ears.
"It's not 'our' mansion, just my mansion," I retort half-heartedly, lounging in an armchair with a chalice of wine in my right hand, black boxers hanging around my hips to cover my private areas.
Gelly gasps at the sight of my body, and I read in it a certain lust, a desire on her part to touch me like the old days, to make love to me as she dared to do before, but I ignore her completely.
"One more thing, i have a surprise for you. I brought some allies, they wish to assist us in eliminating the counters," she proclaims with excitement, running her hand over her short, dyed blonde hair.
"Let them in," I say disinterestedly, pouring more wine into my glass.
As Gelly swings open the front door, they fill in one by one, all under my watchful eyes.
One is massive and the other three are slender. Four in total, yet none appears to be stronger than me.
"Come on, say, what's your plan?" I inquire patiently, savoring the nervousness etched into their skin.
"We are planning to lure them all into one place and since they are like a family, use So Mun as bait, maybe beat him senseless or humiliate him to such an extent that the others will yield because of him. And once So Mun, the strongest, is taken out, the others will be child's play!" He says all excited, confident, as he talks to me about humiliating what is mine.
"Yes! We could play with his body, in front of his friends!"
The massive one continues, talking animatedly to the other two Koreans, with coloured hair.
I sigh, pissed, shattering the crystal chalice in my hands, letting the red drink mix with the blood and soil my hands, as the glass pierces my flesh. And then without warning, I toss the shards of glass with ferocity, at an inhuman speed.
They do not see it coming and the three fall to the ground in agony, a pool of blood spreads beneath them, beneath the neck I have just cut. Pierced open.
A precise aim, a shoot to their exposed necks.
"Adrien! No! Why?!" Gelly cries out in bewilderment.
I rise from my chair, absorbing their malevolent spirits and souls into my body, increasing my power, feeling every fiber of my being grow stronger, harder. Invincible.
"I thought it was a delightful plan, I just don't like the choice of bait," I smile, only to later twist my mouth. "Oh, their blood stained my new carpet, it is a hard one to find..."
"Adrien! You must stop this obsession of yours! You'll lead us to the edge! This So Mun must go! I will personally make him-"
I'm unable to discern what moves first-my irritation or everyone's insistence on ruining my mood. Nevertheless, my hand swings over her neck, lifting her off the ground.
Gelly winces, kicking in every direction, as she struggles to breathe.
"Don't you dare touch him, nor you or any other except me."
I release her and she falls to the floor with a faint thud, coughing and holding her throat in anger.
"You've been warned, and I hate repeating myself."
🍂