This will help explain what is going on, there is no EEPROM, but... The ESP8266 doesn't have genuine EEPROM memory, so it emulates it using a section of flash memory. The amount of flash memory varies by model, from 512KiB to 4MiB. For example, the esp-01 has 512KiB or 1MiB of flash memory, and the esp-12f has 4MiB.
To save changed EEPROM data, the sector needs to be re-flashed. The EEPROM can handle 100,000 write/erase cycles for each position. However, reads are unlimited.
To read data from the EEPROM, you can use the EEPROM.read() function. The only limitation is that it can only read one byte of data at a time.
You need to add this line: EEPROM.commit(); That causes the data to be written in FLASH, after that it will remember even without power.
It is a fun part enjoy it!