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Rosé and Ferre, now wearing white lace pajamas, walked in while they were holding hands. The gentle night breeze carried that sweet scent of a child mixed with the soft fragrance of soap as they entered the room.
“We’re done washing up!”
At the same time, while wearing their pajamas and night caps, Rosé was holding a stuffed rabbit by its ears and Ferre was holding a stuffed monkey by its tail, showing their clear faces and reddened cheeks. While twisting those ears and tail, they looked like reckless little rhinos running in.
“Seeeraaaaa!”
“Heli Oppaaaa!”
As if it was a promise they made before, RosĂ© gave Helios a big hug, while Ferre turned to Sera for a big hug. As they nuzzled into the adults’ embraces, they rubbed their heads at them, which in turn meant that their still-damp hair left wet marks against their clothes.
“RosĂ©, didn’t I tell you not to run?”
“I didn’t run!”
Helios slightly bumped Rosé’s forehead, which he usually did whenever he scolded her, but even this was something RosĂ© liked. She continued hugging him and cuddling up to his neck, and she found the familiar scent of his older brother that she missed very much.
Helios wrapped an arm around Rosé’s waist and gently carried her to bed. After raising her soft bangs back like a habit, he kissed the smooth forehead of his little sister. He successfully tucked RosĂ© under her blanket, so it was now Ferre’s turn this time.
“Ferre, come here now.”
A low voice called out to Ferre, beckoning to him. The smile on Helios’ face was so gentle that anyone would be comforted just by looking at it.
But Ferre just glanced at him once, then further cuddled up to Sera like a baby kangaroo in her arms.
“Don’t wanna. I wanna stay with Sera more. I wanna play more.”
“Ferre, it’s bedtime now. It’s already late.”
Helios once again called to him with a gentle tone of voice, but Ferre continued to hug Sera’s waist with both arms.
He wished he could just keep hugging Sera like this. After taking a bath and as he was being embraced like this, it felt like he was being enveloped with soft cotton candy while his eyes were slowly drooping down.
He knew that it was bedtime now, but he still wanted to stay with Sera. Pouting his pink lips, Ferre shook his head. A few drops of water sprinkled out from his slightly damp hair as he did, and at this, Sera blinked.
“No, Ferre. It’s time to sleep now.”
Helios now approached his younger brother with a few quick steps, grabbing his waist, pulling him off Sera. It couldn’t be comfortable that he was in a superman position now in the air, but still, Ferre didn’t let go of Sera’s dress and just clutched tight so that he wouldn’t part with Sera.
“Noooo. Don’t wanna! I wanna play more with Sera.”
“Ferre, Miss Popo will stay here until you fall asleep.”
“No. I wanna play with Sera!”
“Then, Ferreritan. Miss Popo will pat you until you fall asleep.”
“I don’t want pats, I wanna play!”
He thought that Ferre would complain less this time, but Helios could only give a dejected smile as he reluctantly let go of Ferre’s waist. He sighed.
On the other hand, Sera felt relieved that Helios couldn’t beat Ferre’s stubbornness and just let go.
This might burden Helios, but Sera was glad that her prayers earlier in the evening had been answered. Anyway, her time being overly conscious of Helios had been cut short, since they wouldn’t be having another uncomfortable conversation today.
“Your Majesty, how about we listen to His Highness Ferre’s request today?”
Sera’s face started reddening, almost betraying her true feelings that she didn’t want to be alone with him.
“Really?”
“Yes, this is good, too, once in a while.”
Helios was inwardly surprised because it was a suggestion that he didn’t expect to hear from Sera, who was excellent at breaking down the stubbornness of children. He stared at Sera with a curious look, but in the end he smiled and shrugged.
“Wow! Yay!”
Ferre was the only one who ran around in excitement as he unexpectedly got what he wanted. Rosé, who had already been tucked into bed, also sat up and crawled towards Helios, tugging on his hand.
“Then Oppa and Sera can read us a book together today.”
RosĂ© sat on Helios’ lap, and Helios in turn looked down at her and smiled tenderly.
“A book? For how long will you ask me to read it this time?”
His tone was sweet, but his concern seeped through because he was worried about having to stay up all night, reading the same few books over and over again like before.
“Umm.”
RosĂ© carefully looked up at her Oppa’s face, which was upside down from her perspective. Seeing the troubled expression on his face, RosĂ© thought that her older brother still looked cool and handsome even when his face was upside down like this.
She wondered why Sera felt uncomfortable with her Oppa. As she thought about it, Rosé suddenly came up with a good plan.
‘Yeah! We should make them read together so they can make up!’
It was a perfectly good idea to her. Whenever RosĂ© and Ferre fought, Sera would sometimes ask them to pretend to be each other and think about the other’s position. That’s why RosĂ© thought that it would be a very, very good idea that Sera and her Oppa will be doing this.
<Clap!
The moment Rosé clapped her hands together once, Sera and Helios looked at her in surprise. Her cute face had the same expressive smile she had whenever she planned pranks for Sera a few months ago.
“I’ll get the book.”
Jumping off from Helios’ lap, RosĂ© ran to the bookshelf that was full of children’s fairytales.
“They both seem to like it.”
“Yes, it does seem that way, Your Majesty. I didn’t know they’d like it this much though
”
“As you said, Miss Popo. I believe this is good once in a while.”
But still, they wondered why they were both so excited about this. Both Sera and Helios tilted their heads to the side as they watched Rosé run back towards them barefoot.
* * *
“RosĂ©! I wanna choose a book, too. There’s a different book I wanna read!”
Ferre whined at Rosé, who chose her own book. Her green eyes were narrowed as she looked at Ferre with a serious expression. Ferre pulled on her pajamas with dissatisfaction, but Rosé just turned back to the bookshelf, her nose practically touching the books.
The way she held out an index finger to read the titles one by one seemed too cautious of an action for a seven-year-old. But somehow, as she read the covers, she soon took them out and piled mountains upon mountains of books on the floor.
“You clean that up, Ferre.”
In her hand, RosĂ© closed another book and added it to one other pile, as if she still wasn’t satisfied with her selection.
“Why do I have to clean up when you’re just picking books? I also have lots of books I wanna read with Sera and Hyung!”
“What, is it gonna be ‘Summer Kingdom’ again? Are you going to ask to read the book Sera wrote?”
Rosé’s personal favorite was the book about a younger sister who left home to go on an adventure in search of her older sister, who left home to avoid their kingdom getting swallowed up by an intense heat wave because of her.
Rosé put both her hands on her waist, staring back at Ferre with a disappointed expression. Then, she let out a long sigh.
On an important day like this, Ferre was being very tactless.