Sera dropped her pen as she looked blankly at Rosé and Ferre.
‘Where on earth did you two hear that?’
The twins’ eyes were sparkling.
“What does it mean, Sera?”
Ferre asked Sera once again while she had an expression between a smile and a grimace.
“Ren-dez-vus? Do you mean rendezvous?”
“Ahh, yeah! That!”
Rosé and Ferre nodded vigorously.
“Rendezvous means ‘to meet secretly’. Where did you hear such a difficult word?”
“It was written on a piece of paper that Raphael brought when he visited Heli Hyung.”
No wonder. They read the article after all. Sera was worried that the rumor had reached the twins’ ears through word of mouth, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case.
“Ah… I see. Now, Your Highness Rosé. I’ll return your diary.”
She returned Rosé’s diary and then took Ferre’s diary for her to check. By this time, Rosé usually would have started giggling at the message Sera left on her work, but unexpectedly, Rosé was pouting.
Ferre seemed to still be excited about the comments he’d get on his diary though. Noticing Rosé’s strange reaction, Sera asked.
“Is there anything wrong, Your Highness Rosé?”
“Ummm… Nothing like that.”
Rosé continued to frown with her silver eyebrows furrowed. Sera once again asked if there was something troubling Rosé, but the child only shook her head.
In the end, Sera picked up Ferre’s diary again. She felt a bit uneasy.
While she continued watching Sera, Rosé pondered over the tutor’s evasion to the question.
Rendezvous.
To meet secretly.
It was such a serious problem that Raphael came to find her Heli Oppa like that.
It was Rosé’s own woman’s intuition that gave her this conclusion—that the person her Oppa met was a ‘woman’.
‘Oppa’s having secret meetings with a woman? But just who is it? I’ve never heard anything like that from Oppa!’
Rosé’s eyes became three times rounder than usual as she raised her head to look at Sera. Sera was still in the middle of writing on Ferre’s diary.
‘Oppa and Raphael definitely got serious back then. I don’t know about Ferre, but it felt like that to me. By the way… Sera’s reaction was like that now, so this doesn’t seem to have anything to do with her. Is Oppa meeting someone other than Sera?’
It was something that Rosé never even thought about. Her eyes shook wildly.
“Sera, Sera!”
Hurriedly now, Rosé called Sera.
“Be a bit quiet, Rosé. Sera’s checking my diary right now.”
Even though she normally would have glared at him, Rosé ignored Ferre’s complaints this time. It’s clear that her younger brother, who really didn’t know how to read the room, wouldn’t understand just how serious the situation was right now. If he knew it, then he’d be shocked and he’d cry even more than Rosé herself.
‘Oppa, just who are you meeting! Which woman! A woman other than Sera?! And to think, it’s only like yesterday that you guys read 〈 The Sleeping Princess of the Garden 〉 because I thought you had a fight… Why is this happening now?’
“Now then, both Your Highnesses must be quiet and place your diaries to the side if you’re done checking them. In our next class, you need to submit another diary entry. It’s your homework.”
Watching Sera preparing for the class in a calm voice made Rosé even more impatient.
“Sera, what do you think about Heli Oppa?”
‘What kind of sudden question is this again?’
Sera blinked dazedly as she had placed the toy clock in front of Rosé and Ferre. It was for today’s reading exercise.
She was about to gloss over the question, but Rosé seemed to have read Sera’s mind. Rosé leaned forward and stared ferociously at Sera as if she was trying to shoot out laser beams from her eyes.
Thud!
Rosé banged down on the desk with her small palm.
“Sera, you like Oppa, right?”
Rosé shouted this loudly, confidently, in a voice full of conviction.
Sera tried to process Rosé’s words slowly… And thought what Rosé might really be saying… Then, Sera spoke slowly as well.
“I like him. Just as I like Your Highness Rosé and Your Highness Ferre.”
“No, no! Sera likes Oppa the same way a momma likes a papa! Right?”
“Absolutely not!”
“Sera wants to hold Oppa’s hand! You like him like that, right?”
“No, Your Highness!”
“Sera wants to kiss Heli, too! Right?”
“I told you, Your Highness, it’s not like that.”
Ferre was puzzled, all the while wondering just what was going on. He looked at Sera and Rosé strangely. He didn’t know why Rosé was asking questions like that, but as long as it’s for the sake of the class starting a bit later, then he was always on Rosé’s side.
“You’re lying!”
“It’s not true!”
Sera flatly denied everything.
However, these siblings really resembled each other. Rosé had a knack for talking as though she could see through people, in the same way that Helios did. Sera eventually thought that she might have to admit that she was involved in this matter.
“Haa…”
Sera wrapped her hands around her neck and let out a long sigh, then she looked at Rosé’s glinting green eyes. That look in those eyes really made it seem that she was one hundred percent sure that Sera likes the emperor.
Sera didn’t know when and where Rosé came to this conclusion with that much certainty. What great instincts Rosé had.
Sera no longer said only yes or no. Instead, she quietly pushed the toy clock towards the children.
“Please look over the items I gave you today and think of the questions that you need to study.”
But everyone here wasn’t focused on this.
Rosé thought, ‘I need to find out who Oppa is meeting.’ Ferre thought, ‘The toys that go vroom vroom are fun.’ And lastly, Sera thought, ‘Since Their Highnesses are distracted, then today’s class is doomed.’