Under The Veil of Night

"Hey Misae, stop looking towards the boys," Kanae waved her hand in front of her best friend’s face.

Misae’s face scrunched. "I’m not looking towards them!"

"Don’t lie. If you don’t look towards them, let’s just continue practicing," Kanae pointed towards Alice who has started the training.

This was martial art class, and Misae’s focus was completely on Jay and Tommy. The two boys have been fighting a lot, and she found herself unable to move her gaze. After the fight of Roy, Jay’s brother, she thought that all the clan’s member was terrifying, yet when Jay spar, he seemed to be at ease.

"Neither one of them put their full power here," Kanae pointed towards the two boys.

"How do you know about that?"

"That’s because this is just a spar. There’s no need to put your full power when you’re sparring because your intention is not to harm your opponent. You spar because you want to train stronger along with your partner."

As Misae listened to Kanae’s explanation, her eyes finally left the boys and turned towards Alice. There was no use staying idle and contemplate about this matter. She still didn’t like the clan’s member, but she too realized that they have life outside their world.

Her mother had told her that not all of them were bad, so she had to forget that they were members. All she needed to do was to act like usual around him.

"Let’s just train," Misae said promptly.

Kanae nodded and pointed towards Alice while smiling mischievously. "You train with Alice, I want to run laps."

"What? Aren’t you the one who ask me to train?"

Kanae grinned. "But it doesn’t mean that I’ll be the one to teach you, right?"

Misae glared towards Kanae, but the latter merely laughed before she started to run around the field. Retracting her gaze, she started to warm up and then walked to Alice’s side.

Alice smiled when she saw Misae. "Do you want to have a light spar?"

"Yes please."

The two of them positioned themselves in front of each other. After agreeing that they would start, Alice moved forward and punched according to the basic movement. Seeing her friend’s movement, Misae moved back to avoid getting hit, but he was too far to launch any counter attack.

"You don’t have to run that far," Alice wore a wry smile.

"I know. My feet just bring me away faster."

The two of them took turned to attack or retreat using basic movement. At first, the two of them were extremely clumsy. By the end of the lesson, they were not too clumsy, but it was still far cry from being a good fighter.

"I think, it’s not as easy as it seems," Alice giggled as she sat on the ground, unable to move.

"Yeah, I can’t move anymore," Misae groaned.

"You two have finished?" Kanae ran towards their side. Looking towards the girl full of sweats, they wondered if Kanae increased her pace again. Before this, she was never looked this bad.

Misae nodded her head slightly. She was still too lazy to move from her position. "Yeah, we can’t move anymore."

"When it’s time to go back, help us up, Kanae."

"No way, there will be second years coming," Kanae said with a grin. "Don’t you want them to see you in your good appearance?"

Misae gnashed her teeth. This girl clearly knew her weakness very well. She stumbled to maintain a sitting position as she looked towards Kanae resentfully.

"Don’t use that to tempt me."

Kanae laughed. "Come on, it won’t take long before the teacher asks us to return."

They remain in their place for a few more minutes before Alice and Misae scrambled to stand up. Compared with the energetic Kanae, they seemed like they have taken a beating. Although Kanae was covered in sweat all over her body, she seemed to be in good spirit.

Because the first years were quite slow today, they bumped into the second years. Misae saw from the corner of her eyes that the Student Council members were gathered together, except Kanae who stayed beside her. Seeing them still joking around as usual, she wondered if she was the only one who was bothered with the background of her friends.

When they finished changing after a lot of effort, Misae laid her head on top of the table. She didn’t have any strength left to do anything else. Her energy already drained empty from the time she sparred with Alice.

"Alice, Kanae, Why you two can stay calm when your friend turns out to be a clan member?"

Kanae and Alice looked towards each other. They were growing irritated with Misae’s attitude, but they still answered patiently.

"Because it’s a huge secret and you can’t tell anyone easily. Anyway, stop asking about that, it’s your decision in the end that matters," Kanae answered.

Misae pondered. It was true that no one would want their background came out. She was not close to him too, why would he bother to give her his family background? She too would never say her family background to a stranger outright. It was too stupid to do that.

As she thought about that, her mind cleared up a bit and she nodded her head. "You’re right. I’m sorry that I’m bothering you all these days."

"Don’t mention it," Kanae grinned.

"It’s fine," Alice smiled.

Misae looked towards the board in front of her. "After this we have chemistry. Kanae, you definitely have to help me make sure the reaction is correct. I make a mistake in that part over and over."

"Is that why your score only lingers on 40?"

"Don’t mention that!"

The three of them bantered around, but when the lesson started, Misae found it hard to ask Kanae. The girl beside her kept on having other students came to ask a lot of questions. In the end, she took Kanae’s answer sheet and learned them while asking this and that to Kanae.

"Ever since you stay awake in class, the room becomes livelier," Alice commented when they were getting ready to do their club activities.

Kanae pondered for a moment. "I think it’s just because the teacher asks them to reach my level."

"..." as if we could reach your level!

The other students didn’t want to recall the time when the teacher said that they have to reach Kanae’s level anymore. Who could reach this top scorer that always has good score in every test? They didn’t want to exhaust themselves to pursue studying like this person.

Misae nodded her head. "They’re just asking that from us because they want us to pass the passing grade."

"I think most of you already pass?"

"Well, students who get in with sports scholarship are usually quite poor in their study," Alice smiled wryly.

The three of them recalled Tommy and couldn’t help but nodded in agreement. They still remember very well that boy almost got detention after school because his score was close to not pass.

"Oh well, we better go back," Alice looked towards the clock. "I don’t want to be late for my club."

"Wait, me too!"

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