Season one, chapter thirty-seven

"Humans will never learn"

THEA SIGHED DEEPLY feeling worry wash over her just watching her boyfriend overwork himself, he's been locked inside the basement trying to summon the territory for the next 5-6 hours without any rest at all. She knew that he was one of those who worked hard to do his best, but Mun was going overboard and wouldn't even listen to Thea or Ms. Chu's complaints.

The girl shook her head, looking one last time at her boyfriend's figure in the darkness of the basement before walking up the stairs, hesitating to leave him alone.

"Ms. Chu. Can we really let Mun keep doing that? He's been doing that for hours without a break" Thea said with concern, sitting on the wooden table on which the aforementioned put the wooden sticks wrapped in a white blanket

"He must be that desperate. It's not like anyone else beside you can do this for him" Ms. Chu responded sighing in the process "Goodness, I miss the days when he used to act silly around us" Thea smiled upon remembering when Mun had just joined the group

"What does he want to tell them?" Thea murmured, putting both of her hands under her chin

"What?" Ms. Chu questioned looking at her with both of her eyebrows raised in curiosity

"Mun, I mean. He said he has something to say to his parents" Thea responded imagining the possible words her boyfriend had to say to his parents

"Parents and kids miss one another even when they are in each other's presence. And they said goodbyes so abruptly"Ms. Chu began to explain"I'm sure he has millions of things to say. Think of this as our last chance to catch Ji Cheong-sin. He learns very quickly, so we have to catch him once we have him trapped" Ms. Chu said seriously

"Yes. So the ones who will be holding these staffs are you, me, Mo-tak, Thea and Mun. If the five of us will be holding these, who'll summon him?" Hana asked for the first time with curiosity after Thea had completely ignored her presence

"Oh, it's..."

"Who do you think?" Jangmul asked entering the restaurant as unexpectedly as usual to which both teenagers stood up from their seats bowing to the older man "Mun will have to do it himself. He'll call forth the territory and summon Ji Cheong-sin"

"He's doing it?" Thea asked, arching an eyebrow

"There's an old adage for this. 'The one who tied the knot must untie it'" Jangmul added before taking one of the white sticks on the table

"Speak of the devil. He shows up as soon as I mention him" Ms. Chu sat in the chair next to her "Were you listening?"

"See? It fits perfectly in my hands" Jangmul began to say by hitting the stick on the ground "Hi-Yah!"

"Goodness" Ms. Chu exclaimed, startled, when the older man began to play with the stick "My gosh. Stop fooling around in here. Jangmul is going to take one of the five staffs. What can we do? We have no one around here"

"What do you mean? Ms. Chu, have you forgotten already? Think of our beautiful days in the field. We worked in great harmony, like a ping-pong game" Jangmul began to say making movements with his hands "Give. Yippee"

"Take. Whoopee" Ms. Chu played along "What's with me?" She smacked her hand

"What do kids calm this nowadays? Tiki-taka, right?" Jangmul started laughing

"Where did he get that from? He's way too loud" Ms. Chu complained with a frown. A smile appeared on the faces of both girls who appreciated the small interaction between both adults

"Anyway, Chairman Choi" Hana began to say

"Yes?"

"It's not that I don't trust you, but you're going out in the field for the first time in a while. You might not be like your old self. Will you be okay?"

"I see. We aren't in the position to worry about my age or condition. Wi-gen told me everything too" He pointed up to the ceiling"We only have a month to summon Mun's parents. In soccer, we call this the stoppage time. It's when even the goalie gets out on the field to score"

"Hana, Thea. Make sure you two stay sharp too. Ji Cheong-sin thinks we're dead, so he'll step into our territory at least once" Ms. Chu explained, directing her gaze to both girls standing side by side

"I'll be on the lookout" Hana nodded determinedly

"I will take care of training my psychokinesis" Thea added, determined to do so, if she wants to protect her family she will have to do it somehow

"Anyway. Where's Mo-tak?" Jangmul asked sitting on the chair next to the group leader

"Don't even get me started. I've been too heartbroken to look at that kid these days. If he's sad, he may as well just say so. He spaces out all day long. Sometimes, he stays out all day, doing who knows what out there" Ms. Chu began to say with concern on her features "If Mo-tak makes another mistake, they warned us they'll disqualify him. I'm worried sick"

Thea sighed, that man has already been through enough and he didn't even deserve to feel that way. Everyone there took that into account, but there was nothing they could do to make him forget the pain he felt at losing the person he loved.

The restaurant fell silent for a few seconds before the sound of Thea's phone ringtone filled the place, she wasn't expecting any calls from anyone so who could it be?

Kangsu 🫶🏻

It was the contact name, so without waiting any longer she answered her friend's unexpected call. She spared a glance at her teammates before heading to her room.

"Thea, sorry for calling you this late but I had no choice" SooJin said on the other end of the phone line as Thea closed the wooden door behind her

"What are you talking about? Did something happen?" Thea questioned raising an eyebrow at the sudden way her friend was acting

"None of that, I want to ask you for a big favor" SooJin exclaimed with notable nervousness in her voice

"With?"

"I want to confess my feelings to Su-Ho but I don't know how, do you think you could help me with it?" Thea stood still for a few seconds, her brain trying to process the new information "Thea? Are you still there?"

"Uh, yes, I'm still here. That was unexpected but I'll help you. Why don't you ask him out on a date tomorrow?" Thea suggested sitting on her soft bed

"A date? I don't think I can be alone with him, do you think you could come?" SooJin asked, letting out a small nervous laugh

"What? If it's supposed to be a date, only you two have to go. Besides, I'm already dating someone, I can't see guys right now, I'm sorry Susu," Thea revealed, biting her lower lip as she heard the gasp of surprise on the other side of the phone line

"You're dating someone!? Who!? Is it Mun!?" SooJin began to ask question after question "You have to tell me everything! How is it possible that you haven't told me anything until now!? I'm supposed to be your best friend and I just found out now? How long have you two been dating?"

"Slow down please, one, yes I'm dating Mun, two, I hadn't told you because I'd been too busy to do so, three, we've been dating for a few days," Thea said, answering most of her questions

"Does Su-Ho already knows?" Thea sighed deeply, of course she hadn't thought about that

"No, I'm not going to tell him, that would break his heart. Also, don't change the subject, are you going to ask him out on a date or not?" SooJin sighed, struggling to pay attention to her friend's words or her head

"I don't know, I'm afraid he'll reject me" SooJin admitted and Thea could hear the fear in her voice

"Rejection is part of life, don't wait to be accepted all the time. If he rejects you, you'll heal and recover from the fall, however I don't promise that you'll get over it so easily, experiences like that take some time to do so." Thea explained so gently, as if she had gone through the same experience before

"Wow, you're really good at this" SooJin laughed with amusement "Anyway I won't go if you don't go, I need to have my best friend there so I can calm my nerves down, pretty please?"

"Okay, okay. I'll go with you but just this once" Thea said giving up "Only because I know what it feels like to have the urge to confess to someone. You've been wanting to do it for the past 10 years so I'd be a bad friend If I don't help you"

"Thank you, thank you! You're the best! I swear I'll return the favor!" SooJin began to say in a squeaky voice making Thea laugh "If only I could hug you right now."

"Don't even think about it, I hate physical contact" Thea refused, making her friend on the other side gasp

"You're a liar..."

That night Thea did nothing but enjoy chatting with her best friend, talking about various topics such as mentioning memories from when they were little, it was a great night.

Author's note;

This chapter was more like filler even though I didn't have that much inspiration or imagination 😅 anyway I wanted to know that if I published the other story I told you about, would you guys read it?

Question of the day: Any crushes out there that you have at school? 🤔

Mine doesn't even look at me, I confessed to him multiple times but he rejected me in every single one of 'em so now I live to give advice, I'm no good for relationships 😭 See y'all in the next chapter! Tell me your experiences in the comments 🤡