Twisted Games(Ryeji ver)

RYUJIN[CHAPTER 25]

SOMEONE ONCE SAID HELL WAS OTHER PEOPLE. They were right.

Specifically, hell was watching other people swan around an ice rink, drinking hot chocolate and making googly eyes at each other like they were in the middle of a goddamn Hallmark movie.

It wasn't even Christmas season, for fuck's sake. It was worse. It was Valentine's Day.

A muscle flexed in my jaw as Yeji's laughter floated over, joined by Rei's deeper laugh, and the urge to murder someone—someone female with pink hair and a name that began with R—intensified. What was so fucking hilarious, anyway?

I couldn't imagine anything being that funny, least of all something Rei said.

Yeji and Rei shouldn't even be on a date right now. It was only four days after her birthday ball. Who the hell went on a date with someone they met four days ago? There should be background checks. Red tape. Twenty-four-seven surveillance to make sure Rei wasn't secretly a psycho killer or adulterer.

Princesses shouldn't go on a date until there was at least a year's worth of data to comb through, in my opinion. Five years, to be on the safe side.

Unfortunately, my opinion meant jack shit to the royal family, which was how I found myself at Athenberg's biggest ice-skating rink, watching Yeji smile up at Rei like she'd cured world hunger.

She said something that made her laugh again, and her grin widened. She brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face, and my hand twitched toward my gun. Maybe I would've pulled it, had reporters not packed the rink, snapping pictures of Yeji and Rei, recording on their cameras, and live-tweeting the date like it was an Olympic event.

"They make such a cute couple," the reporter next to me, a curvy brunette in a bright pink suit that hurt my eyes, cooed. "Don't you think so?"

"No." She blinked, clearly surprised by my curt response.

"Why not? Do you have something against her lordship?" I could practically see her salivating at the prospect of a juicy story.

"I'm staff," I said. "I have no opinions about my

employer's personal life."

"Everyone has opinions." The reporter smiled, reminding me of a shark circling in the water. "I'm Jas." She held out her hand. I didn't take it, but that didn't deter her. "If you think of an opinion...or anything else..." A suggestive note crept into her voice. "Give me a call."

She pulled a business card out of her purse and tucked it into my hand. I almost let it fall to the floor, but I wasn't that much of an asshole, so I merely pocketed it without looking at it. Jas's cameraman said something to her in German, and she turned away to answer him.

Good. I couldn't stand nosy people or small talk. Besides, I was busy—busy trying not to kill Rei.

I'd run a background check on her before today's date, and on paper, she was fucking perfect. The daughter of the Duke Ni-ki, one of the most powerful men in Eldorra, she was an accomplished equestrian who spoke six languages fluently and graduated top of her class from Harvard and Oxford, where she studied political science and economics. She had a well-established record of philanthropy and her last relationship with an Eldorran heiress ended on amicable terms after two years. Based on my interactions with her so far, she seemed friendly and genuine. I hated her.

Not because she grew up in a life of privilege, but because she could freely touch Yeji in public. She could take her ice skating, make her laugh, and brush her hair out of her eye, and no one would blink an eye.