Ferre shyly twisted his body as he whispered. Next to him, Rosé also acted shy, but she was smiling widely with her hands covering half her face.
They giggled together, but in the end, they alternately laughed at Sera and Helios.
‘I didn’t know you’d tease me about something like this.’
Sera smiled at the children. It’s true that young men and women around Sera and Helios’ ages would be engaged or were in marriage talks, so the topic of kisses wasn’t out of place. But she didn’t know that something like this would be directed at herself and Helios.
She was a bit embarrassed to hear the word ‘kiss’ from the kids, but she wasn’t at an age where her cheeks would turn bright red just because of that.
Well, perhaps they’d gotten a little pink though.
Sera reached out towards the tiles, thinking about how cute the twin highnesses were. However, it wasn’t a wooden tile that she had touched.
It was Helios’ hand.
This time, her face really became almost the color of a peach.
“Ah… Your Majesty. Since you touched it first…”
In a hurry, Sera gave him the tile. But Helios did the same thing.
“No, please. You should have it, Miss Popo.”
The one wooden tile that stood out among the pile was left alone.
Both Serra and Helios needed two ‘s’ tiles for the word ‘kiss’, but she was too embarrassed to take that one for herself.
“It’s just one tile for the word, so Your Majesty should take it. I’ll look for another one.”
Sera looked around as she said this to Helios.
If there won’t be another ‘s’, then that’s perfect! If she quickly took another tile, His Majesty wouldn’t be able to find another one so quickly even if he took the one that’s been lying there all alone.
But was it because she was in a hurry? Of all things, she couldn’t find the tile that she wanted to find now.
And more than that, Helios pushed the tile that was left alone by Sera in front of her, perhaps thinking the same thing.
“I’ll look for a different tile.”
When he smiled softly, Sera felt her face heating up again.
Then at that moment—
“Hyung, what are you doing?”
Ferre, who was watching leisurely, suddenly had a serious expression. Then, he pouted his lips and complained.
“This is a game, but how can Hyung give that to Sera?”
“What?”
“Hm?”
“Sera, why didn’t you take the tile even though it’s right there?”
Confused, Sera and Helios looked perplexedly at Ferre.
“What are you both doing? If you’re like this, then the game’s gonna be boring.”
This was a highly anticipated game for Ferre. But in the end, he looked very disappointed as he said, ‘What is this?’
He expected more tension while trying to see who would combine the tiles faster, but Sera and his hyung were both being so slow.
He couldn’t help but get angry—it was like watching a turtle crawl. Then they even started giving each other tiles, so it was very very frustrating for him.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Your Highness Ferre. I’ll do my best.”
Helios also tried to appease Ferre, but he could only raise his hand because Sera said it first.
The game started again, but nothing much had changed.
Sera and Helios tried to pretend to be doing their best, but they kept looking at each other every time they found the needed tiles.
In the end, as he didn’t like watching them continue what they’re doing, Ferre declared that it would be better for them to stop. And so, the game ended like that.
* * *
The twins begged Helios for permission to see Sera off, so he took the kids outside. Ferre and Rosé waved at the carriage until it was nothing more than a small dot in the distance.
On their way back to the Star Palace, Ferre was still pouting as he didn’t like how the game ended. He was clinging to his Heli Hyung instead of Rosé, and in turn, Helios was hugging Ferre back to soothe him.
He was worried that Rosé would get sulky as well, but against his expectations, she just calmly walked while holding his hand.
“Hyung, why did you play such a boring game? You played with Sera but it was no fun at all. Hyung, I hate you.”
Ferre buried his face on Heli’s chest and continued to grumble.
‘Yeah. I don’t know why I was so conscious of Miss Popo either.’
He didn’t know the reason either.
The reason why he was always so caught up in Miss Popo’s pace.
His younger siblings were so eccentric that he didn’t think that much when they said the word ‘kiss’.
Their parents expressed so much of their affection towards each other, so perhaps the twins were just projecting that onto him and Miss Popo because it was what they had seen before.
However, when he looked at her—when she had no idea what to do just because their fingertips touched—Helios couldn’t act as if nothing had happened.
“I’ll do my best next time.”
Helios patted Ferre’s head.
And Rosé, who quietly just watched this exchange, thought to herself.