Beneath Their Devotion (Yanderes x Reader)

2.14 Surveillance

The halls were too quiet to Haru's liking, and not in that peaceful quiet of a place at rest, but rather the tense, pressurised silence. He had wandered the halls aimlessly for nearly an hour now, with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders rigid. His head was buzzing with a nervous energy that had no outlet. It made the world feel too bright somehow.

He hated this feeling—the helplessness. It made his skin itch. He wasn't built to wait.

There was nothing left for him to fix, nothing to hit, no enemy within reach. Yuuichi had already taken care of the men who had laid a hand on Y/N. They were probably lying somewhere in a ditch by now or deep underwater. Good. But it wasn't enough, not if there were still others. He wondered, briefly, how far down the list he'd have to go before people learned.

Haru had lightly knocked on Y/N's door earlier, careful not to wake her if she was resting . But there had been no answer. He waited for a minute, then another, his head bowed slightly so he could hear her breathing through the door, but the stillness had remained. So he'd walked away.

Now he found himself moving without intention. His feet were guiding him through the halls until he stood before the heavy oak door of his father's new office.

He paused. He shouldn't be here. But then again, that had never stopped him. The rules had never applied to him when it came to her.

The knob turned easily. The door opened, revealing a room preserved in wealth. It was the kind of place that looked designed more for show than use—just like his father.

He slipped inside and shut the door behind him.

The computer sat like on the desk. Haru sat down on his father's chair and leaned forward. The screen reflected in his eyes as he typed in the password—one of several he'd memorised over the years. His father never noticed, or maybe he pretended not to. Haru could never be sure with him.

He pulled up the internal server, clicking on the surveillance logs. He scrolled through the dates and camera indexes until he found the footage he was looking for. The cafeteria, midday.

It didn't take long for him to find the right clip. He remembered it clearly, seeing Y/N and Sylvie covered in food that day.

He clicked on play and the footage flickered to life. Students moved across the screen looking for places to sit. Haru's eyes narrowed once he saw Y/N, leaning in. She had a tray in her hand and was walking towards an empty spot. He adjusted the timeline and slowed the speed. That's when he saw it. Two people, a boy and a girl, shoving Sylvie to the side. It was clear it hadn't been accidental. Their movements were too intentional for that. A step too far, a foot placed too precisely, and Sylvie stumbled right into Y/N.

His hand curled into a fist before he even realised it, nails biting his palm. He paused the tape as the food hit her and she fell to the ground. She looked stunned. And somewhere, behind that expression—hurt.

Haru's fingers were cold on the keyboard. He zoomed in on the two students behind the incident. As the footage sharpened grain by grain, Haru's brows dipped, recognising tjem. The blonde girl, Angela Davison, a new transfer, a legacy student from the American branch, and Jun Guo, who had recently been inducted into the Circle. He was the son of a foreign diplomat if Haru remembered correctly. But none of that mattered.

He stared at the screen, expressionless, before reaching for the notepad on the desk and writing the names down.

For a long moment, Haru didn't move. He just sat there, pen in hand, eyes fixed on the paused image of Y/N covered in food, caught in the motion of flinching away.

He could feel something precise and hot coiling in his chest.

He closed the program and got up from the chair. The lights of the office flickered as he stood, as if the room were briefly acknowledging what had just been decided. Haru slipped the notepad into his pocket and closed the door behind him.