Sumin had been trying her best to bury down the curiosity back to its grave, but it would always escape from her grasp whenever she saw Queen Trithis' face. She tried not to think about it, just in case the woman decided to read her thoughts.

Then, it was already Christmas.

All of the sudden, the Queen told the five of them to go out and have some "fun" out from the Palace.

"The five of you need some time out from the Palace too, don't you think?" Queen Trithis said with a smile.

Chanyeol immediately brightened up when he heard that, while the rest didn't seem to share the same excitement as his. Sumin was rather lazy to come out from this safe Palace because then she would be reminded of her ugly, old life. But they didn't have a say, anyway.

Each of them were given beautiful outfits, which were the opposite of what they had been wearing before they stepped into the Palace. Sumin got another dress, which ended right after her knees. It was only a simple, white dress with a pair of black flat shoes to complement it. Then a warm, brown coat and white gloves to give her more warmth.

The others also wore cool outfits. Chanyeol wore a red striped beret, with white-collared shirt, brown suspenders, and light brown trouser. Kai wore a black-collared and white cargo pants. Chen wore a white t-shirt with denim jacket and jeans. Luhan wore a red-collared shirt with khaki pants. All of them also had the same brown coats, gloves, and wore brown "monk straps" shoes.

Oh, and they were also very attractive.

Sumin would be lying if she said she never thought they were all very good-looking. Each of them were handsome, and sometimes she was a little overwhelmed with it. It didn't do anything nice to her heart sometimes; she admitted it silently.

From only having one good-looking guy in her life, to having three more into it.

"Hey, Sumin!" Chanyeol greeted her first, as usual. He grinned as he came toward her, then looked at her in her white dress. "You look beautiful as always!"

Sumin flushed at his compliment. Count on Park Chanyeol to shower you compliments easily as if he merely said a "hello".

"It's ironic, isn't it?"

Sumin looked at Kai, waiting for his next words with a lifted eyebrow. Kai cocked his head to the side lightly. "Your dress is white like purity, but you are far from that, don't you?"

Kai received a middle finger from her at that remark, and he returned the same very gladly.

They went back to the town with the same grand "coach" carriage they had been in the first time they met each other. It brought a little nostalgia to Sumin, looking at how they were all now clean and nice, compared to their old selves before.

Sumin's curiosity was always trying to lure her in when it came to the other three. What were their jobs? When did Kai and Chen meet? Why did they use nicknames? What did Kisoom hide from Chanyeol? Why were the five of them chosen, instead of the other three Magives that the Queen had told them previously? Why them, the ones who had been poor and dirty?

Suddenly, the carriage stopped, which cut her thoughts abruptly. The door was opened, and they slowly went out one by one.

Julius smiled politely at them, then gave each of them a small, black pouch into their hands. Sumin felt the weight of coins inside it once the pouch had been set on her palms and she could also feel papers inside the fabric.

"These are enough amount of money from Queen Trithis so you can buy all you want in the town today," Julius explained their confusion.

Sumin stared down at the pouch as if she had something extremely unusual and odd upon her very own palms. It was weird when she received a bag of money with consent, when she used to take away people's money without any of their consents. Not that she was ungrateful; she was pretty much the opposite of it. It just felt, simply odd.

"We are at the Badrula Alley, the first ever alley to be ever made in Otrera, named after Otrera's first Queen," Julius explained, and then they started to go in.

There were lots of people around the place, ranging from children to old people. There were also lots of chatters around with some wanting to buy, to sellers trying to promote their products. It was even busier with today being Christmas. There were also lots of various shops around the place, and Sumin's eyes perked when she found a book store in one of them.

"I will be waiting at the carriage to take you back to the Palace," Julius informed, then he retreated.

The five of them were too busy ogling around the place, that they didn't know what to do next. Well, Sumin was definitely not used to do this type of thing. She was used to survive for her life and not having the chance to look around with all the time she wanted. From the look of uncomfortable expression on Luhan's face, he definitely felt the same thing.

Chanyeol was the one to break their silence, with a big smile, of course. "So, what are we going to do? Do you guys want to eat? You know, lunch?"

Just after he said that, they all could hear grumbling noises from someone's stomach.

"Well, that's the cue," Chen said with his trademark cat-like smile. "Let's go have some fun on this jolly Christmas, shall we?"

After eating to their fullest at Madam Werta's place, Sumin dragged them to the book store, which of course earned complaints from the others. Especially Kai and Chanyeol, who voiced their protests very clearly.

"We already have library at the Palace so what are we doing here?" Kai asked, frowning as they entered the store.

"I thought we are supposed to be having fun," Chanyeol muttered, pouting.

Sumin glared at them, disappointed, but not surprised at all. "This is fun. Besides, I have never come to this store so I want to look at the books they got here."

"But I'm sure the Palace has all the books in this store!" Chanyeol said, pleading with his eyes to go away from this place.

Sumin rolled her eyes, glancing at Luhan for some help. But obviously, Luhan had the same opinion as the other guys, so he didn't want to help. Instead, he ignored her gaze and pretended to be amazed by the book store.

Sumin sighed.

"Fine," Sumin said, earning hopeful looks from their eyes, "you all can go around and I'll be here to check. We'll meet again at the carriage, okay?"

Chanyeol nodded with a cute smile, which somehow annoyed Sumin of how eager he was to get out from the place. The four guys immediately walked out after giving out their goodbyes to her, which left her feeling pretty disappointed even more.

It annoyed her that they just didn't understand how beautiful literary was, which was clearly disappointing her.

Sumin shook away those thoughts, determined to read the books and probably buy one that took her interest. She went to the Fiction section, the section she rarely ever went when she was at the library. She stared at the titles and kept moving until she found a title that took her interest.

She stopped when she f