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“I hate Sera.”
“Hyung, bad.”
“You’re both so bad.”
“Hyung is like a sea cucumber.”
“Sera is like an anemone. A peanut.”
As they grumbled with their swollen eyes looking like pale pink sausages, Rosé and Ferre poured out all their frustrations through the only bad words they knew.
The children were now lying on their bed, the sheets wrapped tightly around them. As their backs were turned to each other while they were in the same position, they looked especially like a decalcomania painting.
And their faces were so puffy because they had cried so much.
“RosĂ©, Ferre. Are you two going to keep sulking?”
Not wanting to wait for them any longer, Helios took the blankets from them right then. His voice as he spoke had hints of exasperation.
Rosé and Ferre, being dragged out of their blanket swaddles, made eye contact with their older brother for a moment, but they soon pulled up their blankets up to the crown of their heads again.
“We have nothing to say to you!”
The twins shot back in unison from beneath the blankets.
“Are you really going to keep hiding under your blankets even while it’s really hot?”
“Yes! We’ll stay under the covers!”
Sera tried to ask them softly, but their sulky voices muttered back once more.
It would only feel suffocating for them to stay underneath those blankets on this hot summer day.
The children’s stubbornness was so great that they really didn’t show their faces to Sera and Helios until the end, even if the two were just there watching them.
‘This is a big deal now.’
In the end, the first to be impatient would be the first to lose.
Sera let out a sigh, but eventually stood up. The children continued to keep the blankets over their heads with all the strength they could muster.
The little ones really did struggle and did their best to do so, but their efforts weren’t enough to beat the strength of an adult woman.
When the blankets were finally taken away, the children looked up at Sera, their faces full of tears. It hadn’t been long since they painstakingly changed into their pajamas, but there were already traces of tears and snot everywhere.
“Now, now. Please stop crying, both of you. I’ll wipe your faces for you.”
Sera’s gaze was as gentle as ever, and it was mixed with sympathy. She leaned down to come closer to the children, patting them softly on their heads.
The twins looked up at her as if they were holding a fierce staring contest with her, though it was difficult for them to open their eyes because they were so swollen. With them looking like that, they squeaked out.
“We’re gonna stay like this! Until you and Oppa change your minds!”
“Yeah! If you say that you’ll stay with us, we’ll be good kids!”
“Your Highnesses
”
“You can just change your mind, Sera. ‘Kay?”
“You can just keep teaching me and RosĂ©. Don’t go. Please.”
Their cries soon turned into pleas. Their small hands grabbed onto Sera’s wrist, the hand of which was holding one of the blankets.
Feeling how tightly they were holding onto her right now, Sera realized just how earnest the children were about wishing for her to stay. For a moment, this made Sera’s pupils tremble.
With a gentle touch, she stroked their cheeks.
RosĂ© and Ferre’s eyes grew bigger at that moment, sparkling with expectations, but their gazes became complicated because she wouldn’t give them the answer they wanted to hear.
The children then realized her intentions, and they let go of her wrist.
“I hate Sera.”
“Yeah, Sera is really really bad. Even worse than Heli Hyung.”
RosĂ© and Ferre pulled the blankets up their heads again. Soon, the white blankets with thin patterns slipped through Sera’s fingers.
Letting out a small, ‘Puh,’ the children rolled around their bodies in their blankets again, like two kimbap rolls.
Soon after, their shaking shoulders could be seen through the flimsy material, and their sobbing voices leaked through.
Sera and Helios quietly patted the children on the back. They also felt heart broken as they listened to the children’s sorrowful weeping.
“Stop crying now, please.”
“RosĂ©, Ferre. Let’s stop crying now, hm?”
Later on, the twins’ sobs became more infrequent, and silence finally came. From earlier in the day and until this time of the night, the children had spent eight full hours crying.
Even with their infinite energy, there’s no way they wouldn’t have been tired after all that.
Hearing their even breaths, Helios slowly lifted the blankets from over their faces.
Rosé and Ferre were sleeping soundly now, facing each other and hugging each other like that.
The pillowcases were damp from the tears that had trickled down from their eyes.
Sera and Helios sighed. Then, they both smiled despondently at the same time as they watched the children wordlessly.
“I didn’t know
 that it would be to this extent, Your Majesty.”
Sera was the first to speak, and she whispered with a sad expression.
She knew that they were very fond of her, and considering their age, it’s only natural that they would cry. But they cried for eight hours
 She felt guilty, that it was all her fault.
“No, I regret that I told it to them like that. I shouldn’t have brought it up—I didn’t know they would react this badly.”
The look in Helios’ deep purple eyes sank, and his voice expressed how conflicted he was feeling.
“Miss Popo.”
After a pause, Helios called Sera’s name. Sera subsequently looked up at him, and the faint smile on her lips made it evident how much she felt drained.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Have you thought about the suggestion I mentioned last time?”
He was asking this question, at this moment. How clever for him to choose this timing.
Helios took a quiet breath. He knew that he was putting her at a difficult spot by asking her this question right now, and yet he couldn’t understand why the words left his lips anyway.
“Ah
 I
 I
”
Flustered right then, Sera hesitated to answer. Her lips opened and closed, and as expected, she couldn’t give a straight answer.
This alone was an answer in itself.
Without asking any further, Helios respected Sera’s decision. He gave her a slow nod.
And when he saw her bow her head in a silent apology, his heart felt heavy.
Even at this moment, he could already guess what her answer would have been anyway. But despite those already expecting it, why was it that there was an uncomfortable feeling simmering inside him? He didn’t know why he still wanted to make her stay.
If it was just the desire to keep his younger siblings’ tutor, then he would have been able to list down more concrete reasons as to why he wanted her to stay.
Slowly rubbing his forehead, he stared at Sera silently. She turned to the children, gently caressing one each of their hands as an apologetic, guilty look was apparent on her face.
He could feel the same kind of sentiment in her gentle eyes that he had seen in his younger siblings—a look that said she didn’t want to part from them.
“Miss Popo, by any chance
 Are you very busy during the week after the contract period ends?”
Helios carefully asked as he gauged Sera’s reaction.
“Is Your Majesty talking about the week that you’ll be going to the Imperial Villa with Their Highnesses?”
“Yes.”
Why do you ask? Sera looked up at Helios with round eyes. She couldn’t understand why he was asking her that question.
“RosĂ©, Ferre, and even you, Miss Popo. You all need some time to say goodbye. If you don’t mind, I would like to suggest that you come along with us to the Imperial Villa. So that you and the children can say goodbye properly.”