Mingi, Jongho, Yunho, Aurora, and I, 5 of us are standing on the entrance of the town.

“What do you want to do, ladies?” Yunho asks.

“Eat.” “Shopping.” The ladies haven't answered yet but the 2 men respond instead.

“Take a bath.” I say making everyone look at me. Well I haven't taken a bath for days. I’m getting itchy, okay.

“What about you, Miss?” Yunho gently asks Aurora but she only shakes her head in response.

“Okay, let’s eat first.” Mingi decides for the group. “My treat!”
Then he takes a lead in the front as 4 of us follow after him.

The town is buzzing with crowds of all kinds of people and characteristics; from rich looking guys to ragged clothes one, children and old people, they all are mingling and hanging out around the street.

Two sides of the street are packed with taverns, brothels, and gambling dens.

My eyes go wide when I see the e houses where women are wearing few clothes on them. Their sultry voices constantly calling the passerby.

I never imagined I’ll be in this kind of city. It’s such an eye-opening opportunity.

But I have to keep in my mind that I need to be extra careful as this place is a lair of thieves, a pirate stronghold.

As we walk deeper into the town, the crowd part automatically for our group.

With Mingi in the front, his fiery red hair and intimidating height catch the crowd’s attention, he’s like the king of the jungle. Mingi loves the attention he receives as he greets people along the way.

“Wow, he knows so many people.” I mumble but Jongho who’s walking beside me objects, “Nah, he just greets every single human he sees.”

Oh, that sounds like Mingi.

I also notice people are focusing on Yunho and Jongho.

Of course, they’re the crew of the notorious pirate king, these crowds are pirates, they must notice them too. Plus, these 3 are strikingly handsome. Being handsome is also intimidating.

Walking on another side of me is Aurora.

She is walking with her head hung low all the time.

I feel sorry for her as this is the pirate town, she must be overly anxious.

Yunho notices the girl's discomfort so he’s trying to speak to Aurora to ease her tension.

But it doesn’t help much as the stares of the crowds also focus on her.

Her ray of beauty lightens up this whole place. Her white dress sways softly as she walks. She looks too angelic to be in this wickedest city.

Every man in the street literally crane their neck to see her face. While women give her piercing stare out of jealousy.

This is the disadvantage of gorgeous woman that I’ll never experience.

All 4 of them attract all attention leaving me invisible in the background.

This is good, I don’t need attention.

But why do I feel like I’m their maid or something?
 

I shake away silly thought as we’re making our way into a tavern.

Smells of food, alcohol and sweat mixing in the air touch my nose, making me gag a bit.

Inside the tavern are lively just like outside the street, people here are way too loud.

Sitting at a table at a secluded corner, Mingi begins to order food.

“Give us 5 tankards of kill devil rum.” Mingi orders but Jongho cuts him off.

“You idiot, we can’t get drunk. Remember we have work to do.” Jongho whispers to Mingi which makes him pout with disappointment.

Right, they have to get ready for the plan tonight.

Then Yunho nudges me, “Miss, you may follow her to clean.” He says and I look at another waitress standing nearby our table.

“Thanks,” I mumble to Yunho and I call Aurora to go clean together. She probably needs to bath too.

Aurora and I get up and follow the waitress.

She leads us upstairs where rooms are lining the corridor.

She points at 2 available rooms as we make our way into a separate room.

Before getting inside, I see men come to guard our room.

Ateez is surely afraid of us escaping.

Then I wonder if Aurora will use this opportunity to escape or not as this scene doesn’t appear in the original storyline. I hope she doesn’t because that will create a lot of chaos.

Inside the room, there's a big single bed and nothing else. I see the only window in the room. Peering outside, I see that there’s no place to stand. If she wants to escape, she has to jump from the second floor which I doubt she would do that.

Not wasting time, I walk into the small bathroom, quickly fill a bathtub with cool water, get undressing and drive in.

I don’t even have time for relaxing as my head fills with worry about Aurora.

Once done, I wear the same cloth at the same time that I hear a woman's shriek in the next room.

Oh no, Aurora.

I quickly run outside and see the guard hold Aurora by her wrist.

“What’s the matter?” I ask the man.

“She’s trying to run.” He answers me as I look at Aurora. She avoids my eyes and her face is paler than usual.

I mentally facepalm at her reckless action.

“I think there’s a misunderstanding. We’re going back to our table.” I say as I embrace her trembling body.

“Please don’t be hasty. This is the pirate den. You won’t know what bad things they could do to us.” I whisper into her ears. She meekly nods. But to be honest, I can’t read her mind what she really thinks right now.

We go downstairs and join the guys at the table which is now full with a variety of food.

They look so happy eating. Obviously, the tavern food is much better than on the ship.

The guys are chatting about some stuff. Yunho still isn’t giving up on talking to Aurora even though she replies mostly with a nod.

I mostly listen to the guys and busily stuffing food in front of me.

The meat is so tender, the soup is soft and creamy and there are finally vegetables.

“You sure eat a lot for a lady.” Mingi speaks up, he looks between my plate and Aurora’s plate which a large portion of food is still visible on hers.

“It’s a lifestyle.” I beam at him and continue eating.

Once we finish eating and come out of the tavern, the sun is low and dye the sky with red.

I am now full and ready to sleep. But remembering we have an important task tonight, I suddenly thrill at the thought.

Since we still have time before the plan, the guys decide to stroll around the town to kill time.

While I’m observing the strange objects in one of the stores, I hear Aurora gasps out loud. I turn around to see her stand frozen. In front of her are 3 men; 2 of them are as big as a tower, clearly they are a guard of the man standing in the middle whom Aurora recognizes.

The man looks like he is in his 50s. Stout and relatively short compare to average men.

His clothes and jewel on him scream that he is rich.

“Oh my dear Aurora, what a surprise to see you here. I heard the bad news that your ship was sunk by pirates. I’m glad you’re doing fine.” The man talks to Aurora whose face is pale as paper.

Her eyes promptly see Ateez members who start to walk over to her as to why she stops talking to the rich man.

She mouths ‘Run’ at the man at the same time as I notice her glowing teardrop pendant on her neck. Whenever it glows, that means the Wonderland map is nearby.

“The merchant!” I yell and point in the man direction. He’s the buyer of Wonderland map. The fact that Aurora’s pendant glows indicates that the map is with him.

“Run!” Aurora shouts at him which makes the merchant realize what situation he is in as he notices Ateez crew.

“Guys, capture him! The map!” I shout to the guys. They’re shocked at his sudden appearance but they swiftly charge at the merchant.

Mingi and Jongho then crash at the 2 guards of the merchant, they’re balling into fist fights. The merchant then turns on his heel to run away.

Aurora also starts running away but she’s captured by Yunho. She’s screaming and hitting him.

The whole street is looking at us as we cause the scene.

All of the guys are all occupied then that leaves me to chase after the merchant.

I sprint after him, running as fast as I can. But it seems like this character doesn’t have great stamina as I start panting in less than 1 minute.

The plot is not supposed to be like this!

We are not supposed to meet the merchant here. He should be where the trading takes place at midnight.

Our unexpected encounter here will ruin the storyline. And that scares me the most.

Determined to get the map no matter what, I ignore the burning sensation on my lungs and legs.

If we lose the map, both Ateez and my life are going to be doomed.