Sera felt so embarrassed about what these little kids kept asking them to do. Helios, who glanced her way, seemed to be thinking the same way as she did. He let out a sigh.
The twins kept complaining about the two leads who weren’t faithfully playing their roles in this very important scene no matter how long they waited. They puffed their cheeks.
“But Your Highnesses, it’s a little difficult because it’s something that’s done between people who like each other.”
After thinking about it for a while, Sera finally spoke. Then, the eyes of the two children trembled noticeably.
‘See, I told you Sera and Oppa are fighting. They don’t like each other!’
‘Are you sure Hyung and Sera are fighting? Do they really hate each other?’
Rosé and Ferre’s eyes were filled with tears as they exchanged a wordless conversation between them.
“If Oppa and Sera don’t like each other, then do you hate each other? I’ve been thinking that Oppa and Sera look like you’re fighting, so it’s true.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
At the disbelieving cry of Rosé, Sera and Helios glanced at each other. When their eyes met briefly, they similarly somehow heard each other’s thoughts.
‘What on earth is Rosé saying?’
‘Your Majesty, did we have a fight?’
Sighing with a troubled face, Sera sat down next to the children with a smile on her lips.
“Your Highness, His Majesty and I never fought.”
Sera whispered in a gentle tone.
At this point, the book had already long been forgotten. What on earth was Rosé thinking that tears started trickling down her cheeks?
When Ferre saw that his twin started crying, he also felt so sad that tears also pooled in his eyes.
Smiling sympathetically at the twins, she also felt that she might end up crying, too. Coming close to Rosé and Ferre, Sera reached over to wipe the cheeks of the two children whose faces were now soaked with tears.
“Why are you crying. Come now, please stop crying.”
“But why won’t you kiss? If you don’t like each other, then you hate each other. Sera always gets so stiff like a wooden stick whenever you see Oppa, and Oppa’s like that, too. You always tell me and Ferre to get along with each other, but you guys are fighting behind our backs!”
“Yeah, Rosé’s right! That’s why me and Rosé looked for a book so that you’ll get along. Hyung and Sera are bad. Hnng.”
The crying children’s tears steadily flowed. While Helios wondered how he could soothe this sudden onslaught of tears, he came up behind Sera and crouched down as well.
“Miss Popo.”
Sera looked behind her carefully.
With a look that said how sorry he was to her, Helios gave her a restrained smile. With a breath that tickled her ear, Helios spoke, his sweet whisper ringing in her ear.
“I think we should become Aurora and the mage again.”
“Pardon, Your Majesty?”
Helios whispered a few more words into Sera’s ear. Soon, her face had become as red as a fully ripe apple.
Having delivered what he wanted to say, Helios drew away from her and sat down beside Rosé and Ferre. His gentle hands patted the two children, whose cheeks were soaked with tears running down their faces.
Even so, he smiled. With eyes curved beautifully towards Sera, he waited silently for her permission…
…Permission for him to fall back into the role of the mage who would confess his love to Aurora and lift the curse from her.
“Be… Because it’s like this…”
Sera looked back at the sobbing twins. At one glance, she knew that those tears would burst anew at any given second.
“If… If it can’t be helped…”
Finding it entirely difficult to face him, Sera lowered her head slightly.
Compared to the demon’s magic spell in the ‘Sleeping Princess of the Garden,’ the veiled look in his eyes reminiscent of the dark night sky was much more powerful. It was all because of the wicked spell he had on her that her heart kept racing… that she couldn’t breathe properly.
‘His Majesty asked a favor.’
While attempting to calm herself down, she repeated the mantra of ‘it’s not like that’ in her mind. Sera glanced once more at Helios before she slowly extended her left hand to him.
Was her hand shaking?
Was her palm damp with sweat?
Wouldn’t he notice how fast her heart was beating?
Unnecessary thoughts took over her mind.
Helios slowly rose from his seat and took Sera’s hand. While she was sitting on the bed, he went down on one knee, now at a lower position than Sera. He slowly reached up towards her soft lips.
Whether he was embarrassed or too immersed in the role, he never took his eyes off her for even a moment.
The sweet atmosphere was palpably felt by Rosé and Ferre. Forgetting that they were crying just now, they held their breaths and watched attentively at the two actors who were immersed in their scene.
“Aurora, I give you a kiss of my true love.”
At the end of his last line, Helios took Sera’s hand and brought it very close to his lips. His own pink lips were so close at that very moment that they seemed to touch her.
Then came Rosé and Ferre’s exclamations.
“W… W… Wooow!”
Helios eventually let go of her. Sera’s fingers slipped through his grip instantly and without any hesitation.
As he saw this, he had a momentary urge not to let go of her hand.
But he didn’t do anything as foolish as to act on that urge.