* * *
Haimar’s comment while tearing open the medicine packaging made Ben look at the twins’ faces again.
Seriously, what do you have to do to look that young?
He could accept them passing for four or five years old, but nearly a ten-year gap?
Even science would struggle with that one.
“Time for Penka and Pinka only flows in dreams.”
“Dreams are the world where Penka and Pinka are kings.”
“…I… see.”
Understanding Ben’s doubt, the twins smiled shyly and kindly explained.
It was impossible to fully grasp, but since they insisted it was true, there was nothing more to ask.
They claimed they were over twenty, but their mental and physical ages seemed suspiciously close…
Ben decided to just quietly accept it.
Laying his head back on the pillow, Ben suddenly felt dizzy, his brow furrowing slightly.
At that moment, there was the sound of a water bottle being opened, and then medicine was held out.
“Open your mouth.”
Ben naturally obeyed.
The moment two small white pills entered his mouth, water flowed in — directly from Haimar’s lips.
Like a baby bird being fed, Ben swallowed the liquid and pills in one gulp.
God, that’s bitter.
He could accept that healthy medicine tastes bad, but this was too much.
He’d thought it would be over quickly, but the bitterness hit the moment it touched his tongue.
He barely managed to swallow, but some slightly dissolved powder tickled his throat and made him cough.
Cough!
The sudden cough pulled at his stomach muscles.
You know how it is — cough too hard, and your stomach cramps painfully.
His cough wasn’t that bad, but with muscle aches all over, even a small cough was torture.
“Water— just—”
After a few more coughs, when he was finally calming down, Ben reached out blindly for the water.
His hand brushed over the blanket, hoping to find the bottle — but instead, familiar lips met his again, letting him drink.
Haimar pulled away lightly after moistening Ben’s chapped lips, brushing his thumb over the corner of Ben’s mouth.
“Wowwww! Penka likes that kind of thing.”
“This isn’t a dream though. Weird. Haimar’s being nice.”
Only after his scratchy throat had settled did Ben notice his surroundings.
The first thing he saw, of course, were the twins — hands clasped neatly, eyes sparkling as if they’d just witnessed a rare and sacred event.
The sparkle was so intense it was almost about to shoot laser beams.
…Had he just accepted the medicine way too naturally?
He could write it as “accepted the medicine,” but anyone watching would read it as “kissed.”
And in front of others, no less.
What the hell happened to his social dignity?
Ben had never imagined he could be this shameless.
The fact that it had happened unconsciously made it even more embarrassing.
Sure, he’d just been given medicine, and he’d just accepted it… but it had felt too natural.
Even sick and out of it, he was usually mindful of others’ eyes.
Maybe it was because this was his own room?
He had no idea what he’d been thinking, and even he was flustered.
The only explanation was that it had been an automatic reaction — a habit — but that only applied when the other person was Haimar Eilec.
Now Ben was seriously worried about how he looked to the twins.
“Pinka’s moved. So cool.”
…Which part, exactly?
Ben’s eyes widened in surprise, trembling slightly as he looked at the twins, but they seemed completely unfazed.
In fact, they nodded to each other and even added fuel to the fire.
“Then Penka wants to kiss Ben too!”
Wait— what?!
Ben’s bewilderment shifted direction.
It was like pressing the button for juice on a vending machine and getting plain water instead — utterly unexpected.
The pit of confusion only deepened.
“Annoying.”
At that moment, Haimar, who had been leaning lazily against the bed, spoke in a low tone that snapped Ben right out of his daze.
His voice carried a clear warning that the twins were seriously getting on his nerves.
“Should I just shut those mouths for you?”
“Penka— mmph—?!”
“No! Don’t do that to Penka! Mmph!”
If you’re going to shut them up anyway, maybe don’t pretend to ask first.
The twins’ mouths snapped shut like clams, and they began exchanging fierce eye signals.
Just before Haimar’s long fingers swiped the air and sent them sprawling to the floor, the twins made a daring dive for the bed.
“Ah—!”
They definitely had some kind of telepathy.
Otherwise, there was no way they could both target Ben, drop onto the bed in perfect sync, and occupy each side of him like mirror images.
“Hey, wait—!”
Ben’s weak protest lasted only a moment.
The twins, clinging around his waist, quickly scrambled up to his face and planted a kiss on each temple.
They had carried out their earlier declaration to the letter — and probably calculated that as long as they were clinging to Ben, Haimar wouldn’t go too far.
Cunning little things.
But along with the sudden double-kiss, a wave of drowsiness crashed into Ben’s mind.
If sleep had a beginning, middle, and end, this skipped straight to the end — no warning, just a heavy drop into oblivion.
Even the one falling asleep didn’t understand why.
It was the kind of sleep that made you think you might not wake up.
“…Haimar.”
He had wanted to sleep, but not to the point of suddenly nodding off like this—yet his eyelids were already starting to close fast.
Ben was helplessly swept away by the pull of sleep.
He called Haimar’s name once, briefly, intending for it to wake him, but with the sudden drowsiness hitting him so hard, he wasn’t even sure he had called properly.
Still, he did clearly hear Haimar let out a low sigh, press his lips to Ben’s forehead, and whisper:
“Sleep for now.”
There was an unmistakable trace of reluctance in his voice, but Ben was in no position to resist.
Letting go of the last thread of consciousness he had been holding onto, he surrendered his body to sleep.
At the edge of slipping under, voices—impossible to hear with his ears but loud in his head—rang out. They weren’t from his own thoughts; they were the twins.
[Ben, Penka and Pinka will make sure you sleep without getting sick!]
[Penka and Pinka will chase away all the bad dreams!]
Ben began to wonder if the reason he was falling asleep so fast was because of these twins.
True Espers of dreams—so this was something they could do, too.
Was this their desperate trick to keep from being chased away by Haima?
Well, if they could keep him from waking in pain again, Ben had no reason to refuse.
[Sleep well!]
They skipped explanations entirely and went straight to action—just like every other human from [Integra].
It was probably better for his mental health to just let it slide.
Surely they wouldn’t follow him into his dreams and cause trouble, right?
With that thought, Ben drifted off into a comfortable sleep.
Some time later, Ben woke to the tickling scent of coffee.
His eyes, clear and bright now that the worst of his fatigue had lifted, opened cleanly.
Just as the twins had promised, it had been a shockingly deep sleep.
He felt far better than he had at dawn.
The sting in his throat when he swallowed was less, and it seemed his fever had dropped as well.
“How do you feel?”
“…Mm. …I’m fine.”
Haima, holding a cup of strong-brewed coffee while leafing through a book, sensed Ben stir and checked his temperature.
Finding Ben’s condition genuinely improved after the long rest, Haimar said nothing, simply brought the cup back to his lips.
As Ben started to move sluggishly, he felt something heavy clinging around his waist.
Looking down, he saw—
“I tried to send them back, but they insisted they’d just run into your dream instead.”
The “I wanted to kill them but restrained myself” that went unsaid was perfectly clear.
The weight on Ben was, of course, the twins.
For creatures who’d just been threatened, they looked far too angelic—pure and adorable.
That they hadn’t been thrown out yet probably wasn’t because Haimar caved to their pitiful threats, but because he was simply tolerating them.
Still, they weren’t cicadas on an old tree—they could at least sleep comfortably without gluing themselves to him.
Ben tried to wriggle free, but it was useless.
The twins only opened their eyes, yawned widely, and sat up.
Sleep faded from their amber eyes as they blinked.
Then their faces puffed up in a sulky pout, and they clung even tighter to his waist.
“…Can you speak?”
Shake shake.
Then, small hands reaching toward Haima.
…Ah, so he still hadn’t unlocked their voices.
Haima, for his part, sat lazily, sipping his coffee as if it were someone else’s problem.
With the same calm face, he asked, “Do you want to eat?”—his expression making it clear the twins didn’t even exist in his world right now.
* * *
