CHAPTER 72: WHAT THEY’RE HIDING

"Hi, Mr. Bear! Thank you for the ice cream!"

"Thank you, Mr. Bear!"

Rome raised a hand in response, then formed a cute heart sign toward the kids before they ran off happily.

When the last of the ice cream he was giving away was gone and the children had dispersed, he let out a tired sigh and plopped down on the curb.

What he was doing was exhausting—standing in the heat, moving around in that heavy costume, entertaining kids—but somehow, the fatigue melted away each time he saw a child smile.

It was strange...

He wasn’t exactly fond of children. In fact, he’d always found them loud and irritating. That was why, when raising Gabriel, he had enforced composure and discipline, molding him into what he believed was the "ideal" behavior for a child.

But now... maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe he should have just let Gabriel enjoy his childhood freely, the way Sylvia raised the twins.

Speaking of the twins, he hadn’t seen them come out of the gate yet. Unlike yesterday, when they stepped outside at exactly this time, there was still no sign of them coming out anytime soon.

He couldn’t wait any longer—he wanted to see them again. How he wished he owned the twins’ school. If only he had learned about them sooner, perhaps he would have been the one running it instead of Alpheus.

Without even realizing it, his feet carried him to the gate to catch a glimpse of the twins.

It wasn’t easy the oversized bear head of his costume limited his vision—so he needed to get a bit nearer for a better look.

What he didn’t realize, however, was that two people had already been standing nearby, watching him closely, Calyx and Alfonso. They were simply waiting for the right moment to put their plan into action.

Rome stiffened when he suddenly felt something press against his side. The bear head made it impossible to look down properly, but he didn’t need to see to know who it was—Calyx, standing close, eyes narrowed in a serious glare.

"...."

"Hey, Mr. Ugly Bear," Calyx said in a low, threatening voice. "If you don’t want anything bad to happen to you, you’d better just come with us. We just want to have a little talk, so don’t try anything stupid."

"Tsk. That’s not how you do it, Calyx. You’re scaring him," came another voice from behind Rome. "He’s probably already thinking we’re about to hurt him."

Rome didn’t need to turn around to recognize that voice. It was unmistakably Alfonso.

"Hey, Mr. Bear, don’t worry."

Alfonso calmly stepped forward and removed Calyx’s hand from his side.

"This guy here is just being dramatic. We only want to talk to you about something, so don’t think we’re threatening you."

"Tsk, idiot," Calyx muttered under his breath, glaring at Alfonso. "Where did you even get this gun?"

Rome’s ears perked up at the word gun.

"It’s just a toy gun," Calyx replied with a shrug. "I bought it off a kid earlier. Thought we could use it to make him cooperate."

"You dummy," Alfonso hissed. "What if he’d bolted the moment he saw it, thinking we were really going to hurt him?"

"...."

Calyx didn’t answer, but the way he scratched the back of his neck was enough to admit he hadn’t thought it through.

Rome let out a quiet sigh. In his excitement to catch a glimpse of the twins, he hadn’t even noticed his two friends until now.

He didn’t really want to talk to them—at least not yet. But if he didn’t clear up whatever misunderstanding they had in their heads, they might never let him set foot near the children’s school again.

They were his friends... but given how they had hidden the truth about the twins from him, he already had a feeling that if it came down to sides, they would choose Sylvia over him without hesitation.

"Tsk..." he clicked his tongue inside the bear head, the sound muffled but his annoyance obvious.

"You know," Alfonso continued, crossing his arms." You could just stop lurking around like some shady mascot. If you want to see the kids, say it straight. Tell us—" his brow arched, "—is it the twins you want to see?"

Rome’s lips curved upward at that. Just as he expected—his friends were on Sylvia’s side.

"Let’s talk."

Alfonso and Calyx froze at the deep, cold, and all-too-familiar voice.

"Sorry?"

Rome turned his back on them and began walking toward the school gate. Alfonso quickly stepped in to block him.

"Hey, you can’t just walk into the school without our consent—"

Alfonso stopped when the bear man slowly lifted the head of the bear costume he was wearing, revealing his face. His cold gaze locked onto him and Calyx.

"You wanted to talk to me, right?" Rome said before putting the costume head back on. "This isn’t a good place to talk. Let’s go to your office, Alfonso."

Without waiting for a reply, Rome walked ahead as if he owned the place.

Calyx and Alfonso exchanged stunned glances. They never imagined that the person Alpheus had been suspicious of—the bear who’d been stealing the children’s attention—would turn out to be Rome.

"What is that bear man doing?" Alpheus muttered, watching as the mascot headed toward their office, Calyx and Alfonso trailing behind him.

"What the—"

Alpheus didn’t finish when the office door burst open without a single knock.

The bear man stepped inside, his eyes sharp as they landed on Alpheus and Dave, both startled by his sudden appearance.

"Tsk." Rome dropped heavily onto the sofa as though it belonged to him.

"Hey—you... how can you just barge into our office like this? Do you think we’re just going to let your rudeness slide—"

But Alpheus’s irritation was instantly replaced by shock when the man removed the bear costume head and glared at him with icy eyes.

"R-Rome?"

"You look surprised." Rome said sarcastically.

"Why are you here, Rome?"

Dave was the first of the four to recover from their shock.

"You seem to have an idea now why I’m here," Rome replied flatly. "That’s why you wanted to talk to me, isn’t it?"

Rome let his gaze sweep over each of his friends. The moment his eyes met theirs, they all looked away—except for Dave, who stayed put, shoulders squared, calmly seated on the sofa as he faced him.

"Nope, it’s not about that. We just didn’t know that the mascot who loves all the kids in this school was you. We thought it was just some random guy suspiciously lurking around the twins."

Rome’s lips curved into a smirk. "You seem to already know about them, huh?"

Dave muttered something under his breath before leaning back. "Yeah... You’re good at digging things up, I’ll give you that."

"Yeah," Rome scoffed. "And you’re good at hiding things from me. If I hadn’t started digging on my own, I wouldn’t have known anything about them at all."

Calyx’s eyes darted uneasily between Dave and Rome, while Alpheus and Alfonso’s expressions grew tense.

"H-Hey, Dave, what are you doing?" Alfonso muttered under his shaky breath.

But Dave only smirked, his arms resting lazily on his knees. "You don’t need to pretend anymore, guys. Rome isn’t an idiot. He’s here because he already knows about the kids."

"K-Kids?"

Alfonso tried to feign confusion, but his act was so stiff it was almost laughable.

Rome’s gaze snapped to him. "You’re not a good actor, Alfonso. So drop it. I already know about Sylvia’s kids, so don’t bother playing dumb in front of me."

Alfonso’s eyes widened, his lips parting as if to defend himself—but no words came out.

Dave leaned forward, his eyes locking on Rome’s.

"So... now that you know, what are you planning to do?"

Rome’s smirk faded into something colder. "What do you think? I’m going to keep seeing them. And this time... I’m not letting anyone stop me—even if it’s you."

A brief silence passed between them.

"H-haha... Rome, you seem to misunderstand things," Alpheus cut in. "We didn’t mean to hide anything about the twins from you. It’s just that you already have your own family, and knowing about them will only make things difficult for both you and them.."

Rome’s brows furrowed. His friends seemed to know more about the twins than he did. Maybe... they even knew who the twins’ real father was.

"So that’s why you kept them from me, huh? Did Sylvia tell you to hide them from me?"

The group fell silent, exchanging cautious glances.

Rome could tell right away they were gauging each other’s reactions and being careful with their words.

Tsk.

"No... Sylvia didn’t tell us anything. She just wants to live quietly with the twins—without you in the picture—because she thinks it’s better that way."

Rome’s fist clenched at Alfonso’s words.

Without him in their family picture? Just as he thought... they did have an idea who the father was.

Maybe Sylvia had already told them, and with just a little more push, he could get the answer he wanted.

"And what exactly do you mean by ’it’s better that way’?" Rome couldn’t help but let sarcasm creep into his tone.

Again, his friends exchanged glances.

"It’s because Sylvia and the twins are already happy with the way things are. They don’t need—"

Tok... tok...

Alpheus was cut off by a sudden knock on the office door. Rome’s friends looked at each other before Alpheus went to open it.

Rome’s eyes followed him, irritation bubbling inside at the interruption—until it was replaced by something else entirely when he saw who was standing there.

One of the twins.

"Uncle Alpheus," Egypt said politely, tilting her head innocently. "Did we disturb you?"