33: A journey.

“Yongbok! Jeongin! It’s me, it’s me!” Jisung called from the boat, waving his hands vigorously. The boat swayed with his jumps.

Yongbok had his palm over his face, standing there on the pier clearly ready to greet his extremely excited other-dimensional brother and his friend, the extremely unexcited Minho.

He probably regretted letting them visit just about now.

“Shut up already!” Yongbok shouted. “I can see it’s you! Just pretend to be normal for a second and greet me properly here!”

“Jisung, stop moving. You will fall.” Minho said behind him.

“Ha! Like you had ever let that happen,” Jisung replied, then shouted to Yongbok, “Has the Sect Leader become complacent? Will he deny me entry if I don’t jeol before his greatness?”

“Shut your mouth, Jisung!”

Jisung grinned. Regardless of how much Yongbok yelled at him, he could tell by the relaxed way his shoulders were set that he was at ease in their presence. Maybe even happy, if Yongbok could experience such feelings.

They had left for the Yangling a few days ago, travelling with a swiftness that Jisung could not help in his eagerness. He’d exchanged letters with Yongbok and Jeongin regularly after their last meeting, and in his last letter, Yongbok had threatened to come to visit the Geumgangsan if he didn’t show anytime soon.

So they packed and left, Jisung in complete enthusiasm and Minho with grudging compliance.

The view here was really something that he missed to note in his mind at the first visit. The lake appeared to be endless, full of lotuses that had long since opened in the morning sun, and smelling like something Jisung had no idea was nostalgic, but was. It was greatly different from the serenity of the Geumgangsan; Jisung could already tell.

There were people selling stuff at the docks, talking and laughing, being human in a way that reminded Jisung of home a lot more than the strange reservedness of the people in Geumgangsan. Jisung looked at them with open curiosity once they stepped out of the boat, and some of them even waved at him excitedly. He waved back.

Jisung no longer finds it embarrassing to properly bow to people. Adapting to customs was pretty easy when the timeline stretched so far. The first month in this world had felt unreal, but as weeks passed, things had started feeling sort of surreal.

Bowing at a sect leader was mundane. Even if it was his brother. Also, Yongbok could see the little mocking flourish of it and rolled his eyes at him, which was also fun.

He showed them around, then. It was all very grand, of course, but in a more familiar way that reminded Jisung of the Lees’ manor back home. A lot of golden and red, and the wood they used in the buildings was much lighter in colour than in the Lee residence.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you have a throne.” Jisung said when they entered the main hall. “It’s even shaped like a lotus! This is the best day of my life.”

Yongbok elbowed him to the ribs, which made Minho step between them like a buffer.

“Please tell me you have a crown and a sceptre as well,” Jisung pleaded. “Oh no, what should I do to have a camera with me? Just to get a picture of my precious dongsaeng on his ancient gamer chair.”

“Do you want to die?” Yongbok asked, but the words held no punch. “What’s a camera?”

“Minho will tell you,” Jisung said with a grin, turning to Minho.

“’A device that can capture still pictures of real life’,” Minho intoned obediently. “’Much like paintings, but more realistic.’”

Yongbok blinked at him, clearly disturbed. Jisung’s grin widened.

“Minho is a very good listener with an amazing memory,” he praised.

“Right. Amazing. Congratulations or whatever.” Yongbok spoke sourly. “I’m going to put you in different rooms, by the way. You can ask to share once you’ve made honourable men out of each other.”

Jisung let out a panicked burst of laughter, then, a little too loud. Minho turned away from him, while Yongbok sent him a weird look.

“Haha, your sense of humour is so weird, Yongbok,” Jisung said, clapping his shoulder.

Yongbok squinted at him, clearly ready to say something else awful and inconvenient for Jisung and Minho’s carefully balanced relationship.

Quickly, Jisung pushed on. “So, you are running this place alone, right?”

“... Yes,” he replied, a little lagging at the sudden change of topics. “After the war, we had to rebuild, but a lot of our disciples survived because of mom and dad and...him. Jeongin was here during that time, even though his lady was really eager to get married.”

“He stayed?”

“Yes, until things got steady. And then he went and married that snake’s daughter to help with sect relations.” Yongbok looked just the right amount of bitter about that, so Jisung didn’t think he was actually upset over it.

“Hah, snake. He totally is a snake, isn’t he?”

“You came up with that name, you know,” Yongbok said. “Well, he did. Yang Jisung. We didn’t like the bastard at first. I think he’s fine now. Grows on you like a blue mold.”

“Yeah,” Jisung replied. He only cared about the guy only because his daughter makes Jeongin happy. “So it’s been fine, here? Not too hard being a single dad for like a billion disciples?”

Yongbok gave him a look. “I have subordinates, you know. I delegate work. What’s with this Mother Hen act?”

“Can’t I be worried about my dongsaeng? Can’t I care?” Jisung turned to Minho for support. “Minho, tell him I can care.”

“Mn. Jisung can care.”

Yongbok sighed, so thoroughly done with Jisung after only twenty minutes together that it was honestly funny. “Okay, I think it’s time for you two to go and change. I will see you at dinner. Jisung, I will kill you if you’re late.”

“Aww, Yongbok, don’t worry. I would never be late for a dinner with you!”

Yongbok gave him a doubtful look but called for servants to lead them to their rooms without another word then. Jisung thought that was just fine.