There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 739: Side Story 4. Endless Journey - 22

After all the drama, a concession was made in which the children promised each other that they would meet up at least once a week--whether it was in the lakehouse or the cliff house.

And so, once a week, a small table would be set on either house. And no--they didn’t do fake stuff like fake teacups and fake plates to have fake houseplay. No, no--they’d have juice boxes--and milk in a sippy for Byul--and mini cakes for their afternoon tea meeting. Like grown-up.

And it was an exclusive meeting too. No grown-ups, because they talked about children’s business. Which snacks tasted the best these days, which lotion didn’t make them itch, how to cheat nap time--which they knew they shouldn’t do, but why should they sleep when they didn’t feel sleepy was something they could never understand--stuff like that.

Adults wouldn’t understand, so it was strictly for children.

Unless Nari or Byul wanted to use the bathroom, then they would call the nannies.

Sometimes, however, there were exceptions. Like Auntie Rina, because she could make them fun playground like the ice skating rink and ice dolls.

"How’s school, boys?" she asked them while sipping on her fruit juice from the glass, not a box--because she was an adult.

"Fun!" Asa replied. "Asa can rread well now!"

Oh, Rina missed when the boy still called himself ’Aca’. No wonder Bassena was feeling down these days. Apparently, the twins also started feeling embarrassed about calling their fathers ’Dada’ and ’Baba’ because the teachers kept calling them ’fathers’ instead.

"Asa can read well," Kar nodded in support. "And he’s not crying anymore."

"Karr! Asa stop crying long time ago!" the younger twin pursed his lips in protest.

Rina pressed her lips to hold back her laughter. "But why did Asa cry?"

"Because everryone kept looking at Asa and Karr," Asa frowned. "Childrren and parrent and teacherr all look at Asa and Karr lots."

"Have you told the teachers that you don’t like it?"

"Ung," Kar nodded. "Dada also tell them, and teacher stop staring, and tell other children to not stare at us, but adult picking other children still stare a lot..."

Rina smiled wryly. Poor children...they were bound to become the center of attention the moment they stepped into society just for who their parents were. But even without their parents, it was inevitable. They were big for their age, with Zein’s devastatingly high-visual gene. Even those who didn’t know the twins’ parents would want to stare just for their striking appearance.

"So Kar and Asa are popular," Rina chuckled. "But you know they don’t mean harm, don’t you?"

Kar and Asa glanced at each other before sighing. "Yeah, we know..." Asa propped his chin on the table, copying his Baba during stress. "But still uncomfortable."

"I guess you’re just like your Dada," Rina patted the twins’ heads.

That got them perked up. "Like Dada?"

"Your Dada also didn’t like being stared at," Rina nodded, reminiscing about the past while sipping her juice. The children followed her and sipped on their juice--except for Byul, who had his milk. "But he got used to it in the end. There’s nothing to be done--your Baba and Dada are very famous, very popular, so people always want to look at them."

"Hmm..."

"But you’ll get used to it someday," Rina told them with a smile. "You won’t care about people’s stares anymore after that."

"Oh," Kar and Asa nodded with narrowed eyes, making a serious expression copying the adults.

Rina laughed inwardly looking at these boys. Perhaps that was why Zein and Bassena decided to enroll them in regular school instead of calling educators to their house. They knew how it would be for their children in the future, so they wanted to make the twins got used to people’s interest and curiosity.

The stares they got in the future might be more sinister than they could hope, but the interest and curiosity they received from the children were mostly innocent. Hopefully, that would help ease the burden when they entered the real, harsh society that their fathers had to endure in the past.

"Oh, but I heard you also made friends?" Rina asked innocently, but it made Nari and Byul flinch and gasp and bow their lips sadly. Rina looked at the toddlers in panic. "Huh? Huh--why? What’s wrong?"

Byul’s lips trembled and he dove into Kar’s lap, hugging the older twin’s waist while his sister hugged her plushie with a sulky face half-buried in the fluffy bear head. Asa patted her back while grinning awkwardly, and Rina couldn’t help but laugh.

"Oh my~! Are you jealous because Kar and Asa have new friends?"

"Hmph!" Nari turned her face away, puffing her cheeks adorably.

Rina wanted to laugh out loud but she didn’t want to make the princess sulk further. It was fascinating, because Nari didn’t even feel jealous when Byul and Lucy were born. Perhaps she felt threatened because it was the friends the twins made somewhere she didn’t know?

"Unfaiy! Nayi wanna go skool wit big byodel too!" the little girl pursed her lips aggressively.

"But you still get to meet once a week like this, don’t you? And you can visit more often too--it’s just half an hour ride."

"Nayi wanna meet big byodels and Lucy eveyiday!" fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"Yul--Yul chuu!"

Even little Byul didn’t want to lose, shouting from Kar’s stomach. It was the first time Rina saw the twins look so helpless. Their second crisis after that dramatic first day of school.

"But Nari, Byul...no matter how many friends Kar and Asa get, you still know them the longest, right?" Rina tried to mediate. Two pair of glazed black eyes turned to look at her. "You’ve known each other since babies, anyway, so you are special to Kar and Asa...right?"

The twins nodded quickly.

"Yeayi?"

"Unh! Nali--uhh, Narri and Byul arre spetsial!" Asa stuck his tongue out as his speech started to slip in panic.

Byul looked up and Kar nodded again. "School friends don’t go on family vacation together."

"Yeah! School friends have to ask permission to play!" Asa followed up quickly.

"Byul and Nari can go anytime, play anytime."

"We can sleepover and party together!"

Nari blinked prettily. "Spetchel?"

"Ung! Special!"

"Tspesyeel..." Byul repeated with a giggle when Kar patted his head and played with his fluffy curl.

When the babies cheered up again, the twins sighed in relief. Rina had to bury her face on a cushion because she couldn’t hold back her laughter. It was just so~ adorable! She couldn’t wait to hear someone confess their love to the twins, because she was sure there would be more than one or two falling for them already.

After all, children were simple--they were all fallen for good visuals.

Unbeknownst to her, such a thing already happened. Just a week after school, several kids already confessed to the twins. They didn’t care even if the twins were together--a girl even said she wanted to date both of them. What a diva.

Zein was beside himself with laughter, while Bassena was busy interviewing his sons about their replies. But the twins’ answer was simple: No.

"Uncle Joon say we only date someone we want to live forever with," Kar elaborated to his fathers. "Kar don’t wanna live forever with someone Kar only know for few days."

"Same!"

Zein laughed again. "That’s very Han Joon to say," he said. "If it comes down to it, he had been in love with Radia since he was seven."

"True," Bassena nodded. "At any rate, that’s a good answer, boys. Keep replying like that."

"Okay!"

They saluted each other, and Rina rolled around the bed when she heard it from Cohen later. Back at the children’s afternoon tea, she patted the twins’ head after calming herself.

"Oh, you must be popular in school, huh?"

The twins did not deny it and just shrugged. "But Asa and Karr pick frriends that not stare."

"Ung...they don’t ask lots of things," Kar added. "We just play nicely."

"That’s good," Rina nodded. "Only make friends with people who make you comfortable."

"But teacherr say we have to befrriend everryone..." Asa pursed his lips, feeling conflicted.

"It’s fine--just make friends with good people that make you comfortable," Rina waved her hands.

Letting her nephews get exploited by others just because they had to befriend anyone? Not on her watch. She knew enough there would be parents who told their kids to get close to the twins to make a connection with House Ishtera. Who didn’t know that Zein, the Tree Guardian’s Big Brother, was the uncrowned Lord of Lucre?

Just like House Mallarc in Althrea, people knew House Ishtera was one of the district’s biggest shareholders. The mines they owned in the mountains, the weapon industry that contributed five percent of the workforce in Lucre, their connection to Trinity as the protector guild, and the charity foundations that helped a lot of citizens in Lucre...if Luzein Ishtera said ’no’ to something, half the people in Lucre would said ’no’ without hesitation--and vice versa.

Since it was hard for people to meet Zein--or even Bassena--directly, a lot of people would try to get close through his children.

"Anyway, there’s no need for you boys to make a lot of friends--just have friends who really want to be your friends," Rina reminded the boys. After all, the twins had no need to seek connection--they were the connection.

The twins nodded with serious face, and Nari spoke with puffed cheek. "Nayi will go to big byodel skool too, so Nayi become fyends too!"

Rina wanted to say that they were already friends, but...it didn’t feel right to call these children just friends. They were kind of like siblings, or cousins, or soulmates, or...hmm...anyway, they felt more than the concept of ’friends’ from the school, so Rina closed her mouth and just enjoyed the children’s closeness.

Fortunately for Nari, she couldn’t go to school with the twins. Not yet anyway. Because, before Nari could enroll in school three years later, the twins awakened.