Refresh (Stray Kids Hwang Hyunjin)

Thirty-eight

Afternoon past swiftly and soon they stood at the gates of the palace, waiting for the royal family to be ready for their arrival. It took almost five minutes but eventually the gates opened and the first thing they saw was the royal family standing in a long line before them, all dressed neatly with a crown or tiara sitting on the top of their heads. Well, one royal family member was missing. Much to the three witches' delight and dismay, it was Hyunjin. Alex hadn't even noticed one was missing. And Mark... Well he was just confused.

When both groups were only five metres apart, the introductions began.

As Alex expected, with every name said, her memories returned. By the time the last person had introduced themselves, everyone was looking at Alex in shock. There was only one memory remaining. And she just knew it was the most important of all.

As the royal family escorted their guests to the dining hall, Seungmin somehow found a way of getting beside Alex.

"So? Any new memories?" He asked with a smile.

"Yep."

"Any involving a special someone?"

"Nope."

Seungmin stared at her, confused for a moment before realising. His smile grew wider.

"What is it?" Alex asked but he simply shook his head.

"Nothing." Then he joined the royal family again.

Queen Ari was telling Jinyoung something about the King and his son not being present for the dinner because of personal reasons but Alex couldn't care to listen. As said before, she hadn't even realised some people were missing.

The dining hall was much bigger than Alex expected. A whole hundred metres by fifty metres with a long table right in the centre.

There were over twenty seats at the table and a throne right at the end for the King. In front of each chair (which Alex soon found out were made of the best and most expensive wood in Wonderland), was a gold plate with all the utensils you can think of strategically placed around it. All of the utensils were also made of pure gold.

Alex felt underdressed for the occasion as she wore a red sweatshirt, black jeans and a muddy pair of sneakers.

"So, we heard you have some news for us. And I'm dying to hear it all. Could one of you tell us as we wait for the entrée?" Queen Ari spoke as she took a seat beside the throne. It was obvious that since the the King wasn't there, she was to sit in the throne but wanted to be closer to the guests. That made Alex instantly like her. Then she remembered she had been killed in her previous life.

"Well, being that I'm the only one from Wonderland out of all of the guests, I guess I'll be the one to tell you. You all remember what happened before we went back in time, right?" Jinyoung asked. Some people nodded, some shivered. Only two people stayed completely motionless: Hyuna and Changbin. Alex guessed that they were the Prince and Princess she had been told about. The ones that let King Naymoor's Spirit out.

"It's not something you could forget in centuries. Let alone days," Queen Ari told him.

"Agreed. Anyway, King Naymoor's Spirit is currently still on the loose. He hasn't done anything yet but he plans to. We need to stop him before things turn out that way again."

"Well, how can we help? We're just humans?" Eunbyul asked.

"Technically, we need the witches in the palace," Jinyoung said. "And I'm telling you this so you take shelter."

"What about you? Where are you going to take shelter?" The Fourth Queen Yuna (Minho, Felix and Minjung's mother) asked.

"I have a hut out in the woods-"

"A hut? You cannot take shelter in a hut! I will not allow it," Queen Ari argued. "Come stay in the palace. We have spare rooms, a library full of witchery books, many brewing rooms with water over seven hundred years old, and many more."

Jackson turned to Amber and smirked. They had water older than the one she was complaining about.

"I don't know, I think we'd be burdens," Jinyoung rejected the offer.

"Burdens? You guys are heroes," Chan stated. "You saved us from both the Third Queen and King Naymoor!"

The Third Queen, who was sitting right beside Chan, whacked the back of his head.

"On behalf of everyone I'm with, I agree to living in the palace," Jackson uttered.

"What?" Jinyoung glared at him.

"Look, I'm done with living in that small place and having cereal bars whenever I'm hungry. The best witches live in luxury!"

"I agree with Jackie. I can barely stretch out my legs without kicking someone," Amber added.

Jinyoung sighed.

"Fine but this place better have Wi-Fi."