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“It’s a relationship between an employer and an employee, Your Highness.”
Sera answered, turning her gaze from the twins to him.
“Hmm
?”
Aushuvel shook his head, not quite satisfied with that answer. Raising one hand that was holding hers, he twirled her around. At this, her skirt fluttered and sank back down.
“I heard something while I was on the way here to the empire, that Heli is dating someone. Do you know who it is?”
“I am only a tutor. I don’t understand why you’re asking that question to me, Your Highness.”
Sera looked up at him with an expression that said she really didn’t know, then she shifted her gaze towards the twins. She saw that RosĂ© and Ferre were about to do the move that they’d been stumbling over a lot.
At the highest point of the dance, the partners would have to hold each other’s hand, while the free hand would be on either the shoulder or waist, then twirl together in a small circle. This was the move that they always had trouble with.
“Your Highness, you have to bend your back here while you twirl around.”
Aushuvel observed Sera as she was more preoccupied with teaching than dancing with him. It’s the first time that he had a dancing partner who didn’t give him her full attention. But what he’s more suspicious about was how she said it’s just a strict business relationship.
So, he blurted it out.
“That secret meeting His Majesty had. Isn’t it with you, Miss Sera?”
“Ah
!”
Sera looked down immediately when she felt something soft beneath her foot. It was Aushuvel’s shoe. She hurriedly took off her foot from there and stumbled back from Aushuvel, but she was in a daze for a few seconds as she processed just what happened. She didn’t even notice that the piano’s melody had already stopped.
“I’m so sorry!”
“You didn’t step on it that hard though?”
Aushuvel glanced down on his foot as he said this. Then, he looked up at Sera, his dark blue hair and green eyes clear for her to see.
The atmosphere around her was already tense to begin with as her eyes didn’t express the same easy-going smile as her lips, but this time, her entire expression crumbled.
‘How fun. You kept saying that there’s nothing between you since a while ago, but I can’t believe you reacted immediately like this. You’re giving me a shock with this, too.’
“Isn’t it quite the feat to step on the foot of a foreign kingdom’s crown prince? I could raise this matter and use it as leverage to gain precious things from the empire.”
Raising the corners of his lips, he pushed forward the foot that Sera had stepped on. Just as he expected, her lips slightly gaped open as confusion flashed through her eyes while she tried to avoid his piercing gaze, not knowing where to look.
“I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I didn’t mean to do that. Does it hurt a lot?”
“Mm-hmm, it hurts a lot.”
“I’m really, terribly sorry. I’ll call the court doctor right away. I’m so sorry!”
But as Sera repeatedly bowed and apologized, Rosé and Ferre stepped up to intervene. The children stopped dancing and rushed up to Aushuvel like two little chicks.
“Shu Oppa, why are you being so mean to Sera!”
“Hyung, it’s okay even if your foot got stepped on! Heli Hyung said that a man’s heart should be as broad as the ocean!”
Rosé and Ferre stood in front of Sera and spread their arms wide, as if they were two valiant knights who were protecting her.
“I heard that it’s natural to step on your partner’s feet while dancing. And just be honest, Shu Oppa. It doesn’t even hurt you, right?”
“Yeah, yeah. Hyung, you don’t look like you’re hurt, not one bit.”
“Oppa, you also have to forgive other people’s mistakes.”
The twins now had their arms wrapped tightly around Sera’s waist.
Aushuvel laughed in vain, seeing how RosĂ© and Ferre acted in such a way that was unfamiliar to him. The twins’ eyes, green and purple, shot beams at him as though they’d swallow him whole if he said anything bad to Sera.
He once thought that they were two stubborn kids who used to be shy towards people who weren’t family. He already noticed this from yesterday’s conversation, but the twins really were very attached to Sera.
“RosĂ©, Ferre. I’m
”
He laughed in bewilderment.
“Shu Oppa! Sera said sorry already, so Oppa should accept it!”
“That’s right! Hyung!”
“Me and Ferre heard that Sera already said sorry to Oppa!”
“Yeah! Sera said she’s sorry so many times already!”
Even so, what surprised Aushuvel even more than the twins’ chirp-like nagging was Sera’s attitude towards them.
As though this was an everyday occurrence, she scolded Rosé and Ferre.