The Sleuth Project ✓

Chapter 22: Skeletons in the Closet

"Curious to see you here so late, Maccio. Doing some late night studying?" Emerie Castrana greeted him sarcastically as soon as he had stepped inside the library.

"Good evening to you too, Emerie." He greeted her back, facing Emerie who was at her usual position — sitting right behind the library's desk as she painted her nails with the color black.

"I was actually going to do some groundwork for our group's research." Paliwanag ng binata habang nire-register ang kaniyang pangalan sa registration sheet ng library, which was used to keep track of all the students who visited the place.

"Oooh," Emerie grinned, raising a hand to check her nails. "Ann Lobris is your groupmate right? Well, according to what she said to the press the other night, she is." She rambled on. "Kaya naman pala nandito rin siya. Hmmm, interesting. In fact, she arrived a little earlier than you."

"Aren't you the detective." Rein raised an eyebrow before curving his lips into a smirk that usually made the girls fawn all over him.

Emerie though, ignored his remark, giving her nails a second coat of nail polish. "She's seated on the farthest table by the way. Though siguro napag-usapan niyo na yun — being research groupmates and all. Ang nacu-curious ako ay kung anong meron sa kanila ni Mayer Cortez?"

At the sound of Mayer's name, Rein stopped in his tracks, his smirk fading before raising his head to look up at Emerie with a frown. "Excuse me?"

The assistant librarian shrugged. "He's been talking to her for a good ten minutes now. Funny enough, she's actually entertaining him back — even flirting with him."

At these words, Rein's eyes narrowed into slits.

"What the hell do you mean?" He asked with a dangerous edge in his tone, slowly straightening his back.

"See for yourself." Emerie said without looking up. Rein stared at her, wondering if he should, before finally succumbing and turning around.

The sight that greeted him almost knocked the air out of his lungs.

Napakurap ang binata. He stood there by the librarian's desk, staring at his rival who sat at the very back of the library, not seen unless one would look hard enough to see that Ann Lobris was indeed playfully chatting with Mayer Cortez.

Agad na dumilim ang paningin ni Rein. Instead of Ann busy working on their novel and typing away on the laptop in front of her, she was engrossed in Mayer Cortez's charming presence who sat on the table where she was working. He looked cool — making conversation and flashing her a teasing smile that made the blood in Rein's veins boil.

The overarching burst of feelings from yesterday night that he had harbored during the socialite party, seemed to cover him like vines until he was nothing but green with envy.

"Have a blast doing your research by the way." Emerie remarked once more, snapping him back to reality. He sharply turned to face her again.

"Thanks. See you wherever, Emerie." Sambit ng binata pabalik, pilit na hindi pinapakita sa dalaga na apektado ito sa nakita.

He then left the assistant librarian by her desk, before walking towards the two with a lump in his throat. The library was barely empty during the night, with only a few students here and there scattered across the vast room, lost in their own worlds.

Just like the other students, Rein too was lost in his own world, fighting an internal battle as he walked closer towards the end of the library. He didn't like whatever he was currently feeling. He didn't like it at all.

When he was now just about two bookshelves away from the room's end, he could finally hear the ongoing conversation between Ann and Mayer who seemed to not have noticed his incoming presence.