"Mr. and Mrs. Kim.” Jongdae – no, Jiyoung – walked forward and put the flare gun in the waistband of her shorts. “I beg of you to at least listen to your son before you make such a drastic decision.”

Jongin’s sister jumped out of her seat and pointed with a shaky finger. “Witch! He’s a witch!”

Jiyoung huffed. “I’m not a witch, why do you people keep on assuming that.” Her brows furrowed in agitation. “I am Jiyoung, as you have heard before, I am a sorceress. Not a witch, a sorceress. My partner, Jongdae, already told you this so I expected you all to – oh never mind.”

Amelia stood up, frightened. She tentatively stepped forward, only to get her arm grabbed by Andy. 

“Let go, Andy!”

He shook his head. “No,” he firmly told her. “This gu - this thing ain’t good.”

“Yes she is!” Andy kept a firm grip, and she finally resorted to stomping on his foot. He yelped, his grip loosening. Let,” she yelled, ripping her arm out of his hold, “go!”

Rushing over to Jiyoung with a hesitant smile, she asked, “Are you Jongdae’s friend?” She fiddled with her fingers. “The one I was talking to?”

Jiyoung nodded, chuckling. “Yes, Amelia. I’m Jiyoung, and I apologize that we have to meet under such…” She gestured to Jongdae’s body. “Strange circumstances.”

“It’s okay.” She kept her gaze to the floor. “I-is Jongdae okay?”

“Yes,” Jiyoung responded. “In fact, he is watching our entire conversation at this very moment.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” The sorceress ruffled Amelia’s hair. “Jongdae’s fine. He’ll be able to go back to his body in a couple of minutes. Right now I just need to borrow his body.”

.

“It’s okay.” Amelia let out a sigh of relief and grabbed Jiyoung’s hand. “Guys, Jongdae and Jiyoung ain’t witches! They’re very, very nice people.”

Jiyoung nodded. “We are. And I would gladly appreciate it if you would take a moment to realize how rash your actions were, Mrs. Kim. Jongin was not given the choice to deny his powers, nor was he given the chance to prepare for the future that’s ahead of him. You could have ended his life over something he had no control over.”

His mother let out a sob.

“From what I’ve seen, Jongin is an incredibly generous individual who has risked so much to help out his loved ones. He has sacrificed his own life, willing to go in disguise to steal from the wealthy just to bring you all food! This boy is a hero.”

Jongin squeezed his eyes together, and Jongdae would have face palmed if he could. Good job, Jiyoung. He sighed as she cursed under her breath.

Amelia gasped. “Wait…”

Andy’s lips parted, his eyes widening. “No way, that’s like…”

They faced each other. “Robin Hood!”

Lex and Taemin gasped, and then everyone faced Jongin.

“Big brother, why didn't you tell us?” Taemin asked, giving him a small pout.

Lex's eyes narrowed. “Yeah, I thought you trusted us- ah!” She covered her face with her hands. “I had a crush on big brother. Gross!”

Jongin smiled sheepishly. ”Sorry…”

His mother wiped her tears away with her hand. “How?” she questioned. “How is my baby magic when none of us are?”

Jiyoung replied, “People don’t need to have relatives who wield magical abilities to get it themselves. It comes naturally, some get it earlier than others, but people do tend to get their abilities when they are born into magical families. Your son just so happened to be one of the few who got it spontaneously.”

Everyone looked at Jiyoung with bemused expressions.

Andy stared blankly for a moment. “Eh?”

Amelia giggled at her brother.

“You ain’t be needing a, uh, magic family to be, um, magic, yo,” Jiyoung explained.

Jongdae snorted. Just because their vocabulary isn’t as large as yours doesn’t mean they’re idiots.

Jongin’s mother nodded in understanding.

His father suddenly let out a loud laugh, which startled everyone, including Jiyoung. She jumped, placing a hand over her chest, well, Jongdae’s chest.

He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly and grinned. “Sorry. It’s just real weird seein’ a guy speaking with a girly voice.”

“Okay…” Jiyoung drawled. “So any questions?”

Jongin’s sister quizzed, “You said he’s this Guardian, does this mean my little bro has got to leave? With you?”

Jiyoung nodded. “It is mandatory that Jongin comes with us, without his help we’ll never be able to properly restore Exoplanet to its initial form.”

“Oh hell no!” his sister shouted.

“Language, Sulli!” her father scolded her.

“That’s my little bro, I ain’t gonna let him go off with some random lady and her little helper.”

Jiyoung let out a shaky exhale to keep down the shouts that were threatening to come out. She needed these people to trust her and that wouldn’t happen if she didn’t control her temper. She responded, “I assure you that he will be fi-“

The body Jiyoung had possessed went rigid and the blue- white eyes turned back to their original shade of brown.

“Hey! I am not her helper! If anything I’m the dang – whoa!” Jongdae yelled. He put his hands on his chest and looked at his hands. “That was really weird. I feel light and fuzzy now. Oh wait, now I’m lightheaded.”

He fell forward, and Jongin appeared at his side, grabbing him before he could hit the floor.

His mother gasped, opening to speak; however, before any more words could be said, Amelia grabbed the large bag that Jongin had brought earlier and held it up.

“Let’s look at them presents big brother gotted!”

Amelia looked at her twin for help. He nodded and grabbed Jongin’s mother and sister’s hands, dragging them to the floor where Amelia was sitting. Jongin’s father followed. Taemin and Lex happily sat down on the floor by the twins.

Jongin smiled a little, relieved of the distraction and wrapped an arm around Jongdae's shoulders. He walked to the kids, keeping his teary eyes to the the floor as he sat down.

Amelia struggled to untie the knot on the bag, and Andy had to help open it. All four children stared with wide eyes, oohing at the stuff inside.

“Wow!” Amelia pulled out an item - it was a glass dome, and inside stood a house figurine with two little people on the outside. There were tiny colorful dots lying around the scene, and Jongdae assumed they were meant to be lights.

Amelia shook the object and gasped as small and white flurries flew around inside.

“It’s a snow globe,” Jongdae told her, tilting his head down as everyone turned with raised brows. He explained, “My old friend used to have a collection of them, and he told me that snow globes are given as gifts between the wealthy.” He pointed at the flurries. “That white stuff flying around is called snow. There isn’t snow in the West, because of the hot temperature, but there is in the other sections.”

Jongin asked, “What’re they doing?”

“Celebrating Christmas. It’s an annual holiday that, once again, wealthy people celebrate with their families and friends.” Jongdae pursed his lips. “My friend told me it was a holiday meant for religious people, but some non-religious people also celebrate it, and everyone gives each other presents and prepare large feasts and even set up big trees with colorful lights and ornaments on them.”

Jongin’s father let out a whistle. “I ain’t ever in my fifty-five years of living heard of this Christmas. It’s kinda awesome.”

Lex nodded. “We should do Christmas, too!”

Taemin looked at her out of the corner of his eyes before he looked to the floor. He scoffed. “Stupid,” he said, “he just said there ain’t no snow in the West.”

Lex glared at him. “You’re stupid!” She tried to turn her body but Amelia was right next to her, and she ended up just placing her head on his shoulder. “Stupid Taemin,” she mumbled.

Taemin’s face turned a complete fuchsia tint and he turned his head so she wouldn’t be able to notice. He gulped and tried to think of an insult in return but stammered, “O-okay.”

“Aw, looks like someone has a little crush!” Jiyoung exclaimed, then squealed.

Amelia gingerly placed the snow globe on the floor, reaching in the bag to see what else was inside. She took out a box that was filled with peppermint candy canes. “No way! You got us red canes.” Passing them around, she hugged her own and grinned. “These are my favorite.”

Jongin beamed. “That’s why I got ‘em.”

Jongdae bowed his head, taking the wrapper off of his candy cane, before sticking it in his mouth. The last time he had one was a few weeks before Sir Yesung left, and although it was not even two months ago it felt like years had gone by since he last saw his friend. A small frown adorned his lips as he thought about all of the things he went through. Jongdae hoped he was okay.

“Ooh! What’s this?” Amelia held a large, black cloak. One that was too familiar.

Jongin said, “Don’t know. I found it in the middle of the street, must’ve fallen off o’ one of them rich persons.”

“That’s mine!” Jongdae exclaimed as he snatched the cloak and hugged it to his chest.

Jongin’s mother stared at him, pursing her lips. “If you’re really a poor man, then how’re you able to buy that, hm? Nice clothing like that costs way too much slips for a man like you.”

Jongdae reached inside and pulled out the tag, where his name was written with messy penmanship. “This,” he said, pointing at it, “is my name. My friend gave it to me when I was fourteen after scolding me because I caught a fever from walking in the rain. He told me if I didn’t take it he wouldn’t teach me mathematics, so I kept it.”

Looking at the piece of cloth, he noticed the numerous stains from dirt covering the expensive fabric and sighed. “This is the only thing I have left from him. He left so suddenly that I wasn’t able to gather any more supplies or books, because the officers told me I wasn’t allowed on the property. And all of the other stuff I had from him was, well, it was destroyed along with everything else I owned after the explosion.” He was rambling by this point.

Jongdae just really missed his old life: his f