Narrator's POV

4 days had passed.

Exactly 23 hours left to the start of the ball.

Needless to say, due to Sulli & Krystal's kindness, things had been easy for Sooyeon, and of course Daehyun.

Sooyeon swept the floor with the broom meticulously (after days of gruelling practice) while deep in thought. She'd learned that the Stepmother wasn't here - she went on a long trip somewhere, Sooyeon gathered, from listening intently on the Jung Sisters' conversation.

Her brows furrowed in thought as another thought kept egging her mind. Was a fairy godmother supposed to be coming down to help Jessica - in this case, Cinderella? Or were her & Daehyun supposed to?

After all, Jessica wasn't the typical mistreated maid in this household - she was a little neglected, mostly her fault for being so anti-social.

Something's off here... she thought, placing the broom in the closet.

I'm gonna find out what it is.

Daehyun eyed Sooyeon with mild interest - okay, it wasn't that mild, but he deemed it to be. She was a blur across the floor. One thing he knew for sure, she would make a perfect maid. Note to self, don't tell her that.

The constant frowns she put on made him wonder what she was thinking that she wasn't telling him. They had to solve this as a team, anyway. 

Daehyun noted that the ball was due in just a matter of hours. He had no clue what to do or how, and if he had to turn a pumpkin into a carriage with his bare hands.

We aren't magic wielders, so how are we supposed to help?

He remembered that Jessica didn't want to go to the ball, despite the constant pushes by her sisters. Were they supposed to force her to go? Jessica made for an interesting take on Cinderella. Interesting, but oh-so-exasperating. This whole fiasco was exasperating. Daehyun was slowly accepting that this world was real. There was still this thought in his mind saying that this was just one long dream. Sighing, he turned his attention to the dirty rag in his hand, his thoughts returning to the the Jessica problem.

I'll have to talk to Sooyeon about this.

"Are you sure, Sica?" 

Krystal sighed as her stubborn-as-a-mule sister blatantly refused. She remained adamant to Sulli's awfully-life-threatening aegyo and was still dressed in her normal everyday wear, seated at the dining room chair.

"Of course... Anyway, if you change your mind, do come, sis." Sulli straightened her purple renaissance dress (which Sooyeon was still marvelling at, by the way).

"And you two?" Krystal addressed the helper-duo who were standing by the doorway and they jumped slightly.

"We'll be fine here," Sooyeon smiled. The sisters had offered lending her a dress and Daehyun, their late father's tux, but the helper-duo refused politely.

"Alright, if you insist. We'd better get going, it's a few ways to the Castle," Krystal pulled her taller counterpart along with her and waved politely to the three single souls left in the cottage. "We'll be back some time after midnight!"

And off they went.