Under The Veil of Night

Kanae smiled, but she didn’t speak as her mouth was filled with the foods. The two of them quickly finished their meal before they departed to school. Her friends were happy when they saw Kanae returned back to school.

"You sure unlucky to get sick so often," Tommy teased.

Kanae frowned. "I’m sure that there are more tasks for you before it’s time for the Student Council to elect new members."

"Not again! I have a competition today."

"Is that why the fields are filled with the girls?"

Tommy nodded with a sour face. "There’s a famous student from another school. He’s fast and handsome, so the girls are running out to see him."

"That’s correct. His face is one of the most handsome boys that I ever see in this city. I can’t wait to have him come here," Misae squealed in delight.

Alice and Kanae rolled their eyes. This girl’s habit still didn’t change in the slightest. Somehow, they felt pity towards Mike because that man has to bear with his girlfriend squealing for other men. Even if it was a mere admiration, the feeling wouldn’t be good.

"What about Mike?"

"What about him?" Misae stuck out her tongue. "It’s not like I’m cheating."

The others: "..."

They silently prayed that Mike wouldn’t get jealous of his girlfriend being like this. If he did, the two of them would need to have a long time talking about their difference. Well, it was not their problem, so they wouldn’t try to pry any deeper and involve themselves in the mess of other people’s relationship.

Because of the competition, there was only the morning class. Unfortunately for their class, it was Teacher Charlie who taught them.

"Good morning everyone, I hope you have read the part that I ask you to read before."

Several students averted their eyes. It was obvious that they hadn’t done that as they were too lazy to finish their homework. Even if it was only reading, they were still lazy.

Teacher Charlie swept his gaze across the class. "Miss Misae, can you tell me what you get from the part that I ask you to read?"

Misae stood up slowly with reluctance. She barely read anything as she was not sure that she could remember them all. Since this was history class, she could only try to rely on her memory about that.

"The part that we have to read tells us about the power division in a clan. Inside a clan, there are three kinds of people, core member, inner member, and the outer member. The core member usually belongs to the direct lineage of the clan head and the most powerful people in the clan. The inner member... the inner member...."

"They’re people who stay in the clan for a long time and show their worth," Teacher Charlie continued. "You can sit down, Miss Misae. Thank you."

Misae sat down again. She was rather nervous with the answer she gave before. It was clear that she couldn’t answer, yet the teacher didn’t seem to be angry at her. This made her rather relieved.

"I think Teacher Charlie pay more attention to you, Misae," Alice commented.

Misae frowned. "Why would he do that?"

"Because you score the lowest," Laura teased.

Misae’s face darkened. She was about to lash out when she saw the teacher was looking at them. Immediately, the words that she was about to utter out never appeared.

"...As for the outer member, they’re people who joined the clan recently and also people who don’t have good ability in fighting. Their position is the lowest and they barely receive any benefit except the protection for being in the clan..."

After two hours of enduring the painful lecture, the class was finally over. The students ran out from the class happily. Most of the girls immediately headed to the field. They wanted to catch a glimpse of that handsome boy.

Tommy stared at the massive army of girls enviously. He wanted to be the one to receive that attention too.

"If you perform better than that boy, you will surely get the attention from the girls," Kanae patted her friend’s back with a sly smile.

"What are you talking about? I’m FAR better than him!"

Seeing Tommy got riled up so easily, Kanae shook her head in amusement. She turned her head towards the others. "Shall we watch their competition?"

"Sure!"

"I want to hand this to Tommy first," Alice said awkwardly. She had prepared an additional bottle of water for Tommy because she knew that he had competition.

The others smirked. "You can go ahead. We’ll search for a good seating spot."

"Thank you."

Seeing Alice ran to the field, the others laughed internally. They quickly cleaned up their belongings before they headed to the field. Today their school was the host, so the students were more pumped up. Along the way, they could hear the girls cheered for the opponents.

"He’s soooo handsome!!!"

"I know, I don’t care which school he comes from. Handsome boys are in the first list for my cheering."

"I want to talk to him after the competition is over."

"I’ll do it first!"

When they heard what the girls were talking about, they silently looked towards Misae. Kanae sighed when she saw her friend’s eyes were locked to the handsome boys. Stop it! You’re basically drooling right now.

"Misae..." Laura didn’t know whether she should cry or laugh when she saw Misae already stared at the student from other schools so much. This friend of hers was quite peculiar.

Tap

"It’s cold!" Misae exclaimed in surprise.

In front of her, Mike was holding a canned drink. His face was smiling as usual, but there was a dark aura around him. Seeing his appearance, the others tactfully moved away. They didn’t want to get caught up in this couple’s quarrels.

"Do you have fun watching?"

"Yes~," Misae answered and reached out her hand to take the drinks, yet Mike already placed it above his head. With his big and tall build, Misae wouldn’t be able to reach it.

"What do you see?"

"Boys..." She could sense that Mike’s atmosphere was getting colder and darker. "I’m just admiring them. Can’t I do that?"

Mike looked towards her pout as he sighed internally. Why did he fall for a girl who loved to see handsome boys? He was pretty sure that he would be bound on getting jealous very often in the future. This was truly torture.

"You’re not allowed to look too much."

Misae wanted to retort, but she kept her words back when she saw his dark expression. Seeing this side of Mike, she couldn’t bring herself to counter his argument. In the end, she merely nodded her head, albeit a bit reluctantly. "Yes."

"If you want to look at boys, just look at me."

"Okay!" well, if she couldn’t see the others, Mike would be more than sufficient. The very reason she came closer to him was obviously his face, so there was nothing wrong with looking at him.

Mike sighed in relief. He might feel rather uncomfortable to have her stare at his face so much, but it was far better than having her staring at others. At least, he could admire her face from the corner of his eyes too.