Sera’s lilting voice along with the sound of Rosé and Ferre’s pens moving from time to time stimulated Helios’ curiosity.
He stifled the sound of his footsteps and approached them carefully.
“What are you doing?”
Helios leaned down and spoke with a low voice. The moment his wide shadow was cast over her, Sera looked up, her eyes wide as though she was a startled bunny.
It was Helios! His Majesty was smiling beautifully with his eyes curved!
“Your Majesty, I didn’t know you were there!”
Sera stood up in a hurry and curtsied towards Helios to greet him. At the same time, Rosé and Ferre looked to see who came in and similarly jumped up from their seats to rush to him.
“Heli Oppa!”
“Hyung!”
The clear, cheerful voices rang out in the room like chiming bells.
This was a familiar occurrence to Helios, and so he knelt down on one knee to embrace the kids who ran to him. Regardless of who came first, both Rosé and Ferre hugged his neck and buried their faces in his chest.
A heartwarming smile spread brightly over Helios’ face.
“Rosé, Ferre.”
He skillfully carried up the children, who were rubbing their cheeks on him, and held the twins up on one arm each.
“You were studying just now. Did I break the flow of your class?”
Helios asked with a soft, saccharine voice.
At that, Sera smiled while looking at the three siblings. This was the first time she was seeing the perfectly beautiful siblings together. It might be because of their age difference, but rather than an older brother, Helios looked more like a young father. With features that resembled each other, it seemed as if there was a halo over their heads because of their splendid appearance.
“O…Of course not, Your Majesty. We’ve been waiting for Your Majesty since class has already ended. We were only playing a game because I thought that Their Highnesses might get bored.”
“Yeah. Sera and us were waiting for Oppa to come.”
Rosé nodded enthusiastically, and this time, she patted her brother’s arm to ask him to set her back down.
‘You rarely ask to get down first.’
Helios didn’t know what was going on, so he just looked at Rosé with a questioning gaze. Rosé hopped out of Helios’ arms the moment Helios’ arm lost strength for a moment. Then, she ran to Sera like a captive prisoner. She gestured and covered her ears with her hands, and Helios nodded and followed.
Sera leaned down to meet Rosé’s height, and Rosé went on her tiptoes to whisper into the tutor’s ears.
“Sera, when should we give it to him?”
Rosé’s voice contained an indescribable excitement because she’d been thinking about the letter all day, the one that she’d give to Heli.
“Hm, I think now’s a good time?”
Sera smiled and whispered back. Meanwhile, Helios just watched with a puzzled expression.
Then at that instant, Rosé’s face brightened up.
“Yay! Ferre, let’s give them to Oppa now!”
“Huh? Give what?”
“You know, what we made today!”
“Ah!”
Ferre belatedly got what she was talking about, and Rosé snatched his hand right away, leading him to the place where they hid their cards.
Helios was the only one who was kept in the dark, so all he could do was watch his younger siblings while they were whispering in one corner. They each had one piece of paper in their hands.
“Rosé and Ferre must have prepared something today.”
“Yes, they worked very hard on it.”
“What is it?”
“Your Majesty will find out soon. They’ve been waiting all day because they’re so excited to show what they’ve made for you.”
Sera smiled and beckoned to Rosé and Ferre, who were waiting for her to call them. After seeing her signal, the twins nodded from afar.
Rosé and Ferre, who ran from that distance in a hurry, held out a card each towards Helios in their cute, chubby hands.
“Heli Hyung…”
“Heli Oppa…”
They looked up at Helios with puppy dog eyes and blinked.
‘I was thinking so hard about how to give it to Oppa that when I saw you, I forgot what I prepared.’
The twins were totally in sync with the way their minds went blank. They suddenly became nervous because they’d been waiting all this time. Rosé and Ferre, who were now at a loss for words as they hesitated, eventually stared up at Sera. Blinking with their long eyelashes fluttering, they asked for her help with an earnest look in their eyes.
‘These two, really… You’ve been practicing how to give it to him all day.’
Sera giggled a bit and smiled lightheartedly as she placed a hand over the children’s shoulders.
“Their Highnesses each prepared a card for Your Majesty to express their gratitude towards you. Can you say what we practiced today, Your Highnesses Rosé and Ferre?”
“Ah… That’s, well…”
After biting their lips hesitantly, the twins looked alternately between Sera and Helios.
“You practiced a whole lot. You can do it the way you showed me.”
Sera whispered in a small voice, encouraging them.
Rosé and Ferre breathed in and out as deeply as they could. Then, with squinted eyes, they raised their heads.
Helios watched his nervous siblings with a gentle smile on his lips.
As if they were reading a history book, they were like robots spewing out a mechanical message. Ha ha! Sera and Helios burst out into laughter that they couldn’t hold back because they were just too cute.
And more than that, Rosé and Ferre didn’t forget to do the finger hearts that they learned from Sera. While sticking out their butts to the side, they smiled like baby cherubs and shot small hearts at him.
Helios received the twins’ cards and hugged them.
“Thank you, Ferre.”
Chu. Helios brushed aside Ferre’s sand-colored hair and kissed him on his forehead.
“Thank you, Rosé.”
Once more, chu. This time, he hugged Rosé and kissed her gently on her pretty forehead.
‘Forehead kisses on their highnesses?’
Sera looked at them with a contented smile, and at that moment, her heart fell to the ground for a moment.
‘Why are you focused on the forehead kisses!’
These siblings were really sweet towards one another. For some reason, Sera’s face got hot and flushed pink. She wrapped her hands over her heated cheeks and glanced towards the siblings who were getting along well.