The girls knew they had to get Taehyung out of there before he was questioned by the authorities which were quickly starting to swarm the place like ants on an ant hill. Adelaide and Eve had made their way towards a clothing shop that was along the beachfront, having Taehyung and Kora wait in an alley by a dumpster for them to return.

"Why do I have to wait with mister dragon assassin here?" asked Kora; Taehyung huffing at the nickname and rolling his eyes.

"Because he just saved your life," said Adelaide to which Kora took her turn to huff. "Just stay. We'll be right back."

"Do you think we should be leaving the two of them alone?" asked Eve as they walked to the store and entered the cool air conditioned atmosphere.

"I'm sure they will be fine for a few minutes," said Adelaide more out of hope than surety.

When Adelaide and Eve had disappeared inside, Kora crossed her arms across her chest as she looked over at Taehyung who had moved to lean his back against the wall. Both of them remained silent for a moment before Taehyung asked, "Do you have my pan flute?"

Kora nodded, uncrossing her arms so she could move one hand down to pat her purse gently where it was housed.

"So where did you find my pan flute if it wasn't given to you?" asked Taehyung.

"At a gift shop," said Kora. "I told you that, idiot."

"Stop insulting me."

"Or what? You're going to hit me with your pirate sword?"

"You're impossible," said Taehyung.

"I'm the impossible one. That's funny," said Kora as she moved to unzip her purse, digging out the pan flute. "What's so special about this anyway?"

"It's connected to me," said Taehyung, "So essentially it's a part of me. It's what brought me to your world to your side to protect you."

"Brought you to my world?" asked Kora. "What are you? An alien or something?"

Taehyung smirked as he eyed Kora.

"Lets just say, I'm from a world where you spend your whole life waiting for the chance to be someone's hero," said Taehyung. "The day that you earn the right to be summoned into service is one that every training guardian dreams of. Normally pan flutes are destined to someone, but you...you bought mine."

"Yes, I did," said Kora as she looked at it before looking over at him.

"I don't know why the person I was assigned to protect didn't have it," said Taehyung, "but you need to protect that pan flute. Because you blew it, I'm your guardian now, and my very life is connected to the safety of that."

"So if I drop kick it..."

"I die," said Taehyung.

Kora didn't have time for a follow up question as Adelaide and Eve made their way back down the alley towards them. Adelaide was carrying a reusable bag with something bulging in it. Kora moved to put the pan flute back in her purse, zipping it up.

"Okay..." said Adelaide as her and Eve came to a stop in front of them. "We need you to change in to something different...um..."

"The name is Taehyung," he said with a smile. Kora cursed herself internally for thinking his smile was beautiful.

"Taehyung," said Adelaide, seeming to need to collect herself too as she shot her hand into the bag. "We need you to change into this to blend in more."

Taehyung looked at what was being held out to him warily. Kora put a hand to her mouth to contain a laugh as Eve shot her an evil look.

"It's just temporary," said Adelaide.

Taehyung looked over at Kora who was still stifling her laugh and slowly failing to do so before he nodded, taking the light blue garment out of Adelaide's hands. He rolled it up so that he could slip it on over his head. Kora watched as he let the billowy dress came down completely over the clothes he was already wearing. It was loose enough too so that you couldn't see the sheath he had about his waist still.

"May I...can I undo your hair?" asked Adelaide.

Taehyung nodded at Adelaide's question, turning so that she could undo his hair and make it completely loose. She moved it so that it framed his entire face before Eve took the sunhat out of the bag, cramming it on his head. Eve then held up some sort of pinkish lipstick and eyeshadow. Kora watched as Taehyung was a good sport, letting her apply it to his face.

"There...that should help," said Eve, tucking the makeup away after she had used it. Eve then moved to dig a compact mirror out of the purse slung over her shoulder, holding up the mirror so that he could see his reflection.

"Um...well, this is..." Taehyung started and stopped, staring at his reflection closely.

"Ingenious, right?" asked Eve.

"That is not the word I would use," spoke up Kora with a small chuckle; her heart betraying her and skipping a beat regardless of the fact that this irritating man was dressed up like a woman.

Taehyung looked over at her, just causing Kora's heart to beat faster.

"It'll do for now certainly," said Taehyung facing Kora for a moment more before turning to look at Adelaide and Eve. "Thank you both for helping me."

"Of course," said Adelaide. "Thanks for saving us back at the hotel."

'See? It's not that hard to say thanks,' thought Taehyung.

"Well, at least be thankful you're pretty enough to look like one of the ladies," said Kora before she even realized the words had actually left her mouth.

Taehyung scoffed as Adelaide and Eve looked at the two of them quarreling before moving to try and break it up.

"We can't go back to our hotel," said Adelaide, "Since that place has burnt down. We'll have to find somewhere else to stay."

"Google maps says there is another hotel about six miles away at the other end of the beach," said Eve who had dug out her phone to search for the nearest hotel.

"Does everyone here have a magical stone?" asked Taehyung.

"A magical stone?" asked Eve as she looked up from her phone.

"He's talking about your phone," said Kora. "He thought mine was a stone too."

"Where did you even come from?" asked Eve. "Everyone has a phone."

"I think we'll have time to talk about all that later," said Adelaide, trying to end the discussion before there was another fight. "The longer we stand in this alley, the more suspicious we'll look even with Taehyung disguised. Lets get some place safe to hash out a game plan."

Eve nodded as the four of them left the alley packed closely together. They pretended to chat along like friends to make it look less suspicious. The whole walk to the new hotel, Kora couldn't stop thinking about what Taehyung had told her about the pan flute. She felt like this all was falling right out of the plot of some book. She would have assumed she was dreaming if it wasn't for the fact that this man had touched her more than once.

'What has my life become?' thought Kora.