บท 35: Chapter 40: Lost in this state of mind!

"Here comes a famous and boring Sun-Young lecture just like her father enjoys giving out. Prepare yourself, bud. As soon as she arrives back home from her class." Duri warned as he peeked into the guest room his maternal uncle assigned him. "Could you clue me in on anything about this Hyun Dea guy everyone keeps mentioning?" Derek asked as he looked back towards Duri. Both Duri and Jang entered the guest room and stared at him. While sneering, Duri pointed towards Jang. "Call it an enduring tradition for our family or whatever but the head of the house is in charge of keeping record of our family tree and writing his thoughts about the family from his generation and keeping it up to date. Hyun Dea is the oldest dude in the journals down stairs. One day I'm going to have to do, or something." Jang informed his younger cousin with his chill tone. "Huh, my— our other family does something similar." Derek responded as he searched for his traveling journal before he had an epiphany.

"Yeah. Bro, I had to right my wrong, I can respect that you stick to this. It helped me save your life. I'm sorry for not being there for you." Jang responded as he pulled out his younger cousin's journal and returned it to him. "I can be as responsible as Chae." Jang thought to himself. Derek clasped his wrist with his opposite hand, dropped his eyelids as he turned his sight towards the ground.

"Truth be told, it's like the universe has our family entertaining each other for centuries. I've read some of the stories from the previous heads of our family, great times, many grandparents and throughout each journal, someone that's unique and with smoke is always introduced in some type of fashion. Heck, our grandfathers' headache of a relationship can add to that story, right guys?" Jang changed topics as he felt like he finally had someone to talk to about it. "Is smoke and ash exclusive to our two bloodlines? There are plenty of incredible and unique heroes in this generation. The world is a beautiful mess filled with perplexing wonders when you look past the heartache." Derek mumbled as he replied to Jang's words.

"Yeah, none of that matters, hold on, are you that Mistdeemer vigilante in that weird town near that North state?!" Duri asked with a baffled tone. "It isn't that tough to stick two and two together and figure it out based on the obvious clues, little brother." Jang jested towards his little brother as he began cracking up. "What else that isn't that hard is not interrupting with a comment nobody asked for, stoner." Duri fired back as he dismissed his brother with a wave of his hand. Derek stood sitting on his bed, fiddling with his hands. "Is there something—that you need to speak about?" Jang attempted to probe. "Neo wanjeon baboya!!" The boys heard someone shout from down the hall. Derek witnessed Jang and Duri's expressions shift to sheer terror and move farther from their baby cousin. Derek noticed a spear appear from thin air floating in front of him, he touched it, before it flew into his chest. The force of the spear that soared into him threw him back into the wall. Jang and Duri broke out into laughter, stopping, as soon as their sister walked into the guest room. Chae knelt down to her baby cousin, stirring up a miniature beige ash storm around him. Derek picked himself up and felt like the fight with Gan Gang Ja and what his cousin just did never happened. He was feeling as great as his few weeks of the worm within him progressed in it curing him.

Duri gave a sigh as he peeked out of the room. "Haven't snitched just yet?" Duri asked his older sister as he sneered her way. "Not yet. Only because Sun-Young asked me to hold off and I can respect that she wasn't as childish as the two of you, hopefully, you're aware that we have to afterwards, though, the reckless fools lead the reckless fools. That ridiculously immoral woman is concocting an unseeable counterattack as we speak, only she's too slow to think of anything effective on the fly." Chae argued with her younger brother before she turned her away and towards Derek. The traveler turned towards her before turning away as he held back a look filled with guilt on his face. The cousins spoke and changed up the conversations to various topics with the help of Duri who kept throwing them off until Sun-Young arrived so silently that nobody noticed her. "I honored my promise, Young, now I'll go figure out a way to talk to mom and dad, give you some time." Chae informed her younger sister as she left the room to find their parents. Duri and Jang watched the two stare at one another for a moment, both expecting her to start her loud lecturing any second. "Our Grandfathers look down on technology but they stay in contact with each other surprisingly well and often, yours brag to mine about what you've succeeded in often and he tells me about your stories, Mistdeemer, as a way to inspire me and raise my mood as bright as a young sun's shine. You're going to stay quiet and answer my questions with lies. You'll get a lecture when the other three arrive, just listen to me and maybe think about what I have to say." Sun-Young informed her older cousin as she sat next to him.

Derek looked up at his new cousins, Jang looked like he was daydreaming while Duri was very telling in his facial expression throwing a fit that even she caught before him. "You've been suffering from losses and defeats for over a little bit of a year and a half?" Sun-Young asked rhetorically to probe her cousin deeper. Derek closed his eyes as he looked past his lap with his head down with his hands wrung. "Because you've been suffering from this virus or whatever you came to us for help against?" Sun-Young continued as she held her hand on his shoulder.

"Generally, you value your persistence towards resolving the problems you face and your effectiveness at it, topping your suffering with the fact that you're dangerously careless towards disadvantage but you're a full on sore loser." Sun-Young finished as she stood up and walked away to continue the day until her parents arrived home. Derek struggled to respond but he was reminded of someone from his past, the thought of her stuck with him for the rest of his day.