Our Strange Duet (Yandere Modern Princes x Reader)

Chapter 49: Hired Help

Rei had long since gained the admiration of his cupcake's parents. It only increased the amount of pride he had in himself, and he walked around with a simpering grin, holding his head high. The staff certainly saw an improvement in his attitude. He snapped less - none at all if the girl's parents were around - and went so far as to smile. Of course, his attitude would have significantly improved if (Y/n) had returned safe and sound.

Still, the male had enlisted the help of a trained professional. They were not cheap, no siree, but they were well worth the money, especially in the blonde's case. He was rather pleased to be able to have access to someone with such skill. There was no doubt - especially so when the male had a suspicion on his older brother - that the younger girl would have been found. It was only a matter of time.

And yet, Rei's inability to hold himself together was solely on the fact that he needed to keep up impressions with her parents. At any given point in time, he would have seeped into the depths of his own madness. It was a miracle that his mother had the intelligence to bring him something to hold his sanity together even if it bothered her. She was the one that had to act like a perfect mother-in-law to their darling daughter, after all. It made her want to gag herself on a spoon.

The male was sitting in a spa room. It was installed for the male's grandmother in past years to help her with her stress, and a favorite with her son-in-law. However, since his son was deceased, he attempted to stray away from the palace. Nonetheless, the blonde used it to do away with his uneasiness. At the same time when servants were tending to him by brushing out his hair, massaging him, and feeding him delicacies. Every single one of those chores, however, he would have preferred being done by his darling (Y/n). Her touch and attentiveness were something he craved for.

"How are you progressing?" the blonde sighed into his phone, one of the servants having reached a sore spot of his.

"You sound like you're having a good time, your royal highness," a voice said, a bit of a mocking tone in it - at least to the other male's ears - though it was genuine kindness.

"Hardly. Where are you at finding (Y/n)? I would have expected it was done by now, but I'm still in the dark. Weren't you supposed to be some kind of detective?"

"In training," the other end of the phone whined almost childishly, "Look, the travel time took a lot out of my schedule, okay?"

Rei rolled his eyes. The male was a pain to deal with, especially when he insisted on having a friendly chat like nothing was wrong at all. Still, in the blonde's agony without the (h/c) haired girl, he neglected to see that the purple-haired male he was speaking with was an amiable and extroverted person. He required the human connection that speaking with another brought, but the blonde was clearly unwilling to talk with him.

The only reason that he had been recommended to find (Y/n) was because he was highly regarded as a young talent. In fact, since the redhead Rei so annoyed had perished, his company was little more than wind in the dust. The male's father hadn't been smart with his own father's business, and it was overshadowed by its rival. In much the same way, as they grew, they expanded into Vethela, and Rei was introduced to its CEO. That had been the man to push forward the widely regarded detective.

He had said the younger male was a "diamond in the rough", under his employment for the benefit of his family. Nonetheless, Rei had taken the opportunity to test the male out. Of course, he had many others on the job as well but took painstaking lengths to study the purple-haired male's progress. Perhaps it was because - unlike the others Rei had hired - he was the age to try and take advantage of his cupcake and harm her in some way or another. Romancing her would be a worse outcome.

"Most everybody that I've hired has turned up nothing despite my warning that my brother is responsible," the blonde huffed, "All I hear are excuses, so unless you've made some kind of noticeable progress, you'll be sent back home a disgrace."