war of love, jeno

chapter twenty-three

"Why are you so worried?"

"Why would I not be worried," Jihan asked lowly, her black mask covering half of her face as she walked beside Mark into Taeil's restaurant.

"You look like every other person walking down the street. Your friend is at her job as well. You should calm down."

Jihan rolled her eyes, the sudden breeze of the night making her pull her sweater close. It didn't help much, the patterned rows of small holes leaving room for the chill to sneak by.

Mark groaned seeing her slightly shaking, suddenly feeling slightly bad. "Do want my coat?"

"Does the pity come with it?"

Mark scoffed, pulling off his leather jacket. Jihan thanked him under her breath, welcoming the warm custom inside padding.

"You should've worn your jacket."

Jihan smiled mockingly, "right, gosh, can't believe I forgot. Not like I can keep it in my car with the girl that isn't supposed to know about NCT. Or, I don't know, my closet, where the said girl borrows my clothes? Thanks, Mark."

Mark returned the smile, "I'd assume someone that was supposed to be part of NCT's lead intelligence unit would know how to hide a jacket."

"I'd assume someone who was supposed to be seen as the leader of his unit would know what not taking bad chances means."

Mark scoffed, not finding anything to say. The two walked silently into the restaurant, the sound of the chimes echoing loudly.

Everyone's head immediately turned towards the two, Yuna and Jaemin right behind them. Jihan took a seat beside her fellow '98 liner, Jungwoo. Mark sat down in the vacant chair beside her, Yuna and Jaemin also taking their seats beside their older friend.

"They're being awfully moody today, aren't they?" Jaemin asked in amusement, taking off his mask and jacket.

Yuna nodded, also taking off her mask. "Jihan's been acting different lately. Not really sure what that's about."

"I'm sure it's not much to worry about," Jaemin concluded. "Probably just under pressure since it's school time now."

Yuna nodded, "probably."

"Are you kidding?"

"Come on, Eunjin. You owe me right now and by doing this, we're even, I swear."

Eunjin sighed over the phone, taking off her apron and hanging it back up on the silver hook connected to the wall.

"You're lucky there aren't any customers coming in, right now. My boss is letting me out early and I was planning on spending the extra time watching a movie."

Her coworker smiled over the phone, although Eunjin couldn't see him, she could hear the happiness in his voice, "you're the best, I'll talk to you soon."

"Yeah, yeah. Bye."

She huffed after the phone call ended, her phone once again turning dark as she stuffed it into her back pocket.

He's lucky the restaurant is around the corner, she thought to herself, picking up the baby carrier.

She was watchful of the silent streets, a shiver going down her spine noticing the lights turning off of all the nearby stores and shops, no cars in sight either.

Her thoughts suddenly fell back to the encounter she had earlier in the day. The memory confused her more than she'd like to admit.

L. Eunjin? Dog tags? Who's Jihoo? What did that man mean by attack? And what was that basement room about?

She couldn't tell but did she really care? She didn't know. For some reason, she felt emotionless thinking about it.

Sure, she wanted to know what significance it had on her but did the memory make her upset, happy, angry? Well, in short, no, not really.

She couldn't tell why she just didn't really care. She wanted to care. She wanted to know what in the world all of those people and things meant.

It intrigued her.

She wanted to feel something thinking back to whatever it was they were doing but she just emotionally couldn't do it.

It was like there was a missing wire within her that stopped her from feeling.

Which brought her back to the day she was in health class next to Jaemin watching the woman give birth. The screams alerted her but they didn't scare her. It was surely a shock at the time but now, it didn't really faze her thinking back to it.

She sighed as she walked up to the restaurant door. Taeil isn't gonna like this, she thought to herself, pulling open the front door.

pretty predictable huh

anyways i mentioned this on my board yesterday but i feel like more ppl could see it here as well so:
HYPOTHETICALLY speaking, if one were to be writing a book about elemental manipulation (like air, water, earth, fire) what would you call those people. like something that's not benders cause that's like atla and i'm looking for smth different 👀
like would you just call them air manipulators or _____ manipulators ?? orrrr how should i go abt this

also happy 8th months on wattpad to me 🕺🕺🕺