Minseok let out a small sigh as he stared the invitation. He still couldn’t understand why the council chose him to go to the demon lord’s coronation ceremony. Surely, there were better candidates than him. Not only that, but he had to take a companion with him, and he didn’t know whom he should choose.

His safest choice was Chanmi, but the coronation ceremony wasn’t an ordinary ceremony. It was a masked party where they had to wear formal clothes along with a mask, which meant Chanmi would have to wear a gown or a dress to attend this party. He didn’t want a repeat of the last time when men wouldn’t stop staring at her.

This also meant that he was left with no one else, and he couldn’t just take anyone without ensuring that his partner would not cause trouble in the party. It would not only tarnish his image, but it also could cause a war between witches and demons, and he couldn’t risk that.

“Ge, can I come in?” a deep female voice asked.

Minseok’s eyes brightened. How could he have forgotten about Kristina? Yes, most of the time Kristina did cause trouble because of her reckless behavior and her filterless mouth, but he already knew Kristina better than others. It would be much easier for him to control her every actions as opposed to someone else’s.

“Ge, how long do you want me to stand here?”

“Yes, you can come in. Actually, I’m glad you came. I need to tell you something.”

That statement made Kristina a bit hesitant to step inside Minseok’s office, because it usually meant another scolding. She tried to think of what she might have done to make Minseok angry at her, but she couldn’t think of any, because she’d been resting in home for a whole week as a result of her sprained ankle.

“Why are you still standing there? Weren’t you the one who was whining just now?”

Kristina scoffed upon hearing that. She quickly sat down on the chair provided.

Minseok was about to open his mouth when Kristina raised her hand to stop him.

“Before you say anything, let me say thanks for giving me that alpaca doll set. I really appreciate it.”

Minseok furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, “But it wasn’t from me. I was too busy lately and completely forgot about it. In fact, you only just reminded me.”

“Eh? It wasn’t from you? Then who sent it?”

“The person didn’t leave any name?”

“No. That’s why I thought it was from you, since I had requested it from you.”

“Maybe it was from your secret admirer,” Minseok said while grinning teasingly.

“Haha… what a funny joke, Ge. That would never happen. Who would ever fall in love with a woman who covers her face and has a sassy attitude?”

Minseok shrugged. “Who knows.”

“So what is it that you want to talk about?”

Kristina quickly changed the subject while thinking that Minseok might be right about her secret admirer giving her the doll set. It was weird, though, because the day she got the gift was an ordinary day. It wasn’t her birthday or any other occasion. So why did this person send her something on that day?

“Are you available on 22nd May?”

“Why? Are you going to take me to that famous restaurant uptown?”

“No.” Minseok deadpanned. He ignored the disappointed look on Kristina’s face as he continued. “The council got an invitation from the demon lord requesting our presence at his coronation ceremony, which is also his birthday party.”

“22nd May is that per… I mean, the demon lord’s birthday?”

“Yes.”

“How is that related to me?”

“The council wants me to attend the party. and I need to take a companion with me.”

“So you want…” Kristina pointed her finger at herself, “to go with you?”

Minseok nodded.

“Do I have to?”

“Please come with me. I don’t know who else I should take. I’ll do anything to make you agree come with me,” Minseok pleaded.

A small sigh escaped from Kristina’s lips. She wasn’t looking forward to meeting Suho again, but she would feel bad if she rejected Minseok, especially when he looked so pitiful and lost right now.

“Alright, I’ll go with you.”

“Thank you so much. One more thing, this party is a masked party, which means you have to wear a formal outfit.”

“Eh? But I don’t own any gowns or dresses.”

Minseok looked at Kristina in disbelief. “Are you serious? Even Chanmi, who usually opts for a casual look, owns at least four to five dresses.”

“That’s because Chanmi-ssi has a reason to own them while I don’t. Why should I waste my money on gowns and dresses when I’m not going to wear them?”

“Then what about your prom dress? Please don’t tell me you didn’t attend your high school prom.”

Kristina groaned. “Please don’t remind me of my prom night, Ge. I’m trying to forget that night ever happened. It was one of my worst nights ever, and to answer your question, I rented a dress for my prom night.”

Minseok shook his head. He wasn’t going to ask what happened that night, since it wasn’t his business after all, and he didn’t think Kristina was going tell him regardless.

He took out his wallet before handing his credit card to Kristina.

“Here, go buy a new one. It’ll be on me. You don’t have to pay me back.”

Kristina then grinned in delight. “Thank you so much, Ge.”

Kristina decided to go to the human realm to buy her new dress, because the humans had a much better fashion sense and more choices compared to the boutiques in witch realm, and she surely couldn’t go the demon realm to buy a new outfit.

It wasn’t her first time going to human realm to buy clothes, so she already knew where she would go. And after that, she would stop by at one of her favorite restaurants for lunch and eat to her heart's content because she didn’t know when she would get the chance to go there again.

That was supposed to be her schedule for the whole day, so why was she standing in front a jewelry shop and staring at the Cartier bracelet on display? Had she finally gone out of her mind? Why was she thinking of buying this bracelet to go to that arrogant, erted demon lord’s birthday? Yes, she should just walk away and forget that this ever happened.

But there was nothing wrong with checking the price, right?

She sighed and stepped inside the jewelry shop. A female sales assistant immediately approached her with a smile on her lips. She didn’t have to read the woman’s feelings to know that her smile was fake.

“What can I help you with, miss?”

“I want to know the price of that Cartier bracelet that’s on display?”

“It costs around $6300, miss.”

Kristina was shocked upon hearing the price. She had never expected that a bracelet could be so expensive that it would cost her two months’ salary. Besides, that arrogant, erted demon lord was richer than her. Surely, he was capable of buying this bracelet for himself. She wouldn’t even spend that much money on a gift for her gege or her supervisor for their birthdays.

“Thank you.”

Kristina was about to leave the shop when she felt the sales assistant’s feeling. She snapped her fingers, and all the glass inside the shop broke into pieces, making the sales assistant yell in shock. She smirked as she walk out of the shop.

This’ll teach her a lesson for looking down at me.

She then headed toward the boutique, but she stopped her steps when she spotted something, and the price for it was quite reasonable.

That bastard better not complaining about my gift, she thought before she stepped inside into the shop.

After searching for almost two hours inside the boutique, Kristina finally chose a short sleeve long black dress that reached her ankles for her to wear to the party.  She purposely chose a long dress, since she doesn’t want any men to ogle at her long legs again, especially that erted demon lord. Not only that, but the price was quite reasonable. Although Minseok promised that he would pay for her dress, she still felt a bit guilty to use his credit card to buy such an expensive dress.

Now, the only thing left for her is to search a high heels shoes and a mask to wear along with this dress. She then huffed as she headed to the cashier counter. What was that arrogant, erted demon lord thinking by organizing a masked party? Couldn’t he just organize a simply party? He must have too much money to spare. If that was the case, he should give her a little! Did he know how hard it was make a money? And she’d been short of cash lately.

She was too deep in her thoughts and bumped into someone’s back.

“Ouch!” she yelped as she rubbed her forehead.

“Well, well, look like we meet again, Kristina.”

Kristina stopped rubbing her forehead. Her eyes widened in shock when she recognized the man she bumped into. It was the time-control demon, Tao.

“What are you doing at here?” Tao asked.

“What else would I be here for? To buy a car? A house? I’m here to buy clothes.”

Kristina raised her arm to show Tao the black dress.

“Ahh… For what occasion?”

“Don’t tell me you, a demon, don’t know about your own demon lord’s masked party?”

Tao’s laughter made Kristina a bit irritated.

“What’s so funny?”

“Of course I know about it. News travels fast, after all, but I wasn’t as lucky as you and didn’t get an invitation to the party.”

“I didn’t get the invitation. My superior was chosen to be representative of the witches, and he has to take a partner with him, so he chose me.”

“So you’re going with your superior, who is male, huh?”

Kristina raises her eyebrows. She thought she heard it wrongly because although she detected displeasure underneath Tao’s tone, there was nothing on his face, and she couldn’t read his feelings. And why would he even feel displeased?

 “Yes, why?”

“I was curious, that’s all. So you’ll wear this dress to attend the party?”

“Yes.”

Tao tsked. “This will not do.”

Tao took the dress from Kristina’s hand and put it on top of the clothes rack.

“Hey! I was gonna buy that dress.”

“I’ll help you find a better one.”

“Excuse me?”

Tao grabbed Kristina’s hand before dragging her.

“Yah! Let go of me! Why are you dragging me?”

Tao ignored her. Kristina kept yelling and screaming until it made people inside the boutique stare at them, but Tao still didn’t want to let go of her hand. He abruptly stopped, making her bump into his back again.

“Give me a warning first!” Kristina yelled as she rubbed her forehead. Was his back made of steel or something? He’d better pray that there was no bruise on her forehead, or she was going to punch him in the face.

Again, Tao just ignored her, which made her blood boil. Why did all the demons she met enjoy making her angry?

“Here, go try this.”

A short, yellow dress suddenly hit her face.

Oh, this demon is going to get it! she thought as she gripped the dress angrily.

“Wait a minute. Here’s another one.”

This time Tao chose a gown.

“Wha-”

Kristina’s words were cut halfway when Tao put another dress in her arms. She wasn’t able to voice out her protests because Tao kept cutting her words by putting more dresses in her arms.

“Hey! Have you had enough? Do you know how heavy these clothes are?”

Tao turned around to face Kristina. He then looked at Kristina’s arm that were full with clothes.

“I think this should be enough for now. You can go try it now.”

“Look…”

Tao quickly put his finger to Kristina’s lips to stop her from talking.

“Just trust me, okay? Can you go try it now?”

Kristina grumbled as she walked toward the changing room. She didn’t understand herself right now. How could she follow Tao’s orders so easily? And what did Tao know about women’s fashion?

She entered the first fitting room. She’d better get this over with so that she could finally go home.

Kristina spent a total twenty of minutes to try every dress that Tao had chosen for her. Yet none of it managed to satisfy him. She took off the pink dress and threw it to join the pile of discarded clothes.

She then wore the gown. She sighed as she stared at herself in the mirror. This was the last one. She hoped this gown would finally be able to satisfy Tao. If not, she would randomly take any dress or gown from this pile of clothes and buy it. She wasn’t going to spend her whole day trying every dress or gown in this boutique just to satisfy the demon.

She came out from the changing room. Tao was sitting on the sofa while reading a magazine.

“Hey.”

Tao put down the magazine and looked up at her. He was a bit stunned.

“So? What do you think?”

“Can you turn around for me?”

Kristina rolled her eyes before she did as Tao instructed.

“Beautiful,” Tao mumbled.

“Huh?”

“I think we finally found your outfit for the party.”

Thank god! Finally!

Kristina glanced at the watch. It had been thirty minutes since Tao asked her to wait while he left to buy something after asking her shoe size. She was going to give him another five minutes. If he wasn’t going to show up then, she would leave. She was getting exhausted, and all she wanted to do now was to go home.

“Sorry for taking so long. Here.”

Tao handed Kristina a medium sized box.

“What is it?”

“Just open it.”

Kristina opened the box. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw the contents inside the box. It was a pair of shoes and a mask, both blue.

“Why…”

 Kristina grunted when she realized that Tao had disappeared.

“What a rude demon.”

Author's note: I'm very sorry for not updating. I'm too busy with assignments and my part time job. Hope you enjoy this chapter