Under The Veil of Night

Nolen School C

"Eh? You don’t come to school today?" Misae held her phone as she asked with disappointment. She has been waiting to see him again after school, but it turned out that he didn’t even come.

"I’m sorry. I have something that I have to do no matter what."

"It’s fine. Take care of yourself," Misae closed the phone and sighed. She noticed three pairs of eyes were looking towards her curiously. Her eyebrows creased as she thought hard for the excuse she could give.

"Is that Mike?" Tommy asked.

Misae pouted. "Yes."

"It must be hard to have a hardworking boyfriend like him," Laura commented as she laughed.

"Don’t laugh!" Misae pushed Laura playfully as if she was angry. There were a lot of disappointments from her going out with Mike. After all, that big man was also very busy.

"I’m sorry, Princess Misae," Laura acted like a servant, despite the obvious playful grin on her face.

"That’s better."

Alice rolled her eyes. She has become much bolder right now. Although she would be shy when meeting new people, she no longer showed the same trait when she stayed with her close friends.

"Don’t listen to her. She just wants to take advantage from you," Alice warned.

Laura laughed. "I feel that you’re not going to have things any easier. He’s a very busy man and I believe that it’s going to be even more in the future."

Misae sighed. "I know. I just can’t help it."

It was not her intention too to fall romantically with one of the men that she adored for their looks. However, staying with him provided her with so much joy and comfort that she couldn’t help it. Even though they barely did anything, just staying near him already made her giddy and jubilant.

"What about going on a date with him?" Tommy asked. He was feeling uncomfortable hearing about the girls’ problem. For him, if she was dissatisfied with this matter, she should just confront Mike and talked to him about that. What was so difficult?

(A/N: Try to understand girl better, Tommy!)

The three girls looked at Tommy like seeing an idiot.

"Tommy, he’s too busy. Asking him to date during this time is the same as courting rejection," Alice explained.

Tommy shrugged. In any case, he couldn’t bear to listen anymore. "I’ll start my practice."

"I’ll come with you."

Misae sighed to herself. A date, huh? She wanted it very badly as she had never gone out with him aside from with the group. However, she too would be busy as this time she had to prepare the end year party. The Halloween was skipped as they didn’t have enough time and capability to realize it like what Kevin did.

’I can talk about this to him, maybe.’

...

Kale Company, Kevin’s Office

Kanae came to work as usual. However, there was something different today. The usual cold president was nowhere to be seen. In his place, only the cold chair stayed behind while the ice block person was nowhere to be seen.

Ever since they no longer part of the Student Council, she usually walked to the company. This was the reason she didn’t know that Kevin didn’t even come to school today.

"Neo, is President absent today?" Kanae asked while pointing to the table.

Neo nodded his head. Kevin forced him to come here after the members forced that clan head to rest. The wounds on Kevin’s body were not that deep, but the place was highly visible. If people saw his neck being wounded, only the Heaven knew what they would say.

It was already enough that the members of Ryukalin Clan pestered their clan head to no end. There was no need to include more annoying people to the list.

"You can just work as usual. I’ll be helping from the side to make sure that you finish as usual."

"I get it," Kanae sat down on her usual chair as her hand moved to view the document and screened them carefully. Since Kevin was not here, there was only a limited number of documents she could check.

Neo typed on his laptop while yawning. He wanted to stay at home and did this while accompanying Kevin rather than Kanae. Besides, they no longer have too much work lately as Kevin has been expanding the business and adding more workers.

His eyes caught the sight of Kanae working. Usually, he would only see her doing this kind of work beside Kevin with unbelievable harmony. Not any ordinary people could catch up with Kevin.

Now that he saw her doing her work alone, he felt that there was something different. It was as if he was seeing a powerful leader doing her work calmly and efficiently. This sight reminded him when he first saw Kevin doing his work and made the company thrive.

SMACK!

"Neo?" Kanae was startled by the sudden sounds.

"It’s nothing. I just see a mosquito."

"Two mosquitoes bother you?" There were two faint red marks on Neo’s face. Certainly, it was the result of him slapping both sides of his own face.

"You can say so," Neo answered awkwardly.

Kanae was still suspicious, yet she didn’t pester the matter further. Her attention was back to the paper before her as she continued her work.

Neo sighed in relief. He was just trying to bring himself back to reality. At this point, he couldn’t accept himself seeing Kevin’s shadow on Kanae. Why were they so similar? He couldn’t comprehend it at all.

As they worked, time passed quickly.

RING! RING! RING!

"Ah, my phone," Kanae always forgot that she had a phone now. She quickly turned it on and heard her sister’s complaining tone.

"Sis, do you touch the kitchen again?"

"What? No, I don’t go to the kitchen."

"Then why is there a misplaced spoon?"

"Come on, you know that I won’t dare to do it," Kanae sighed.

"Anyway, will you come home early today?"

"Not sure. If I don’t call you, it means that I won’t."

"Okay."

Neo looked towards Kanae curiously. "Are you truly that bad of a cook?"

Kanae’s face darkened. "Don’t gossip. If you don’t work, I’ll report to Kevin that I’m the one doing most of the works while you’re lazing around."

"..." She’s as ruthless as Boss.

As he sighed, Neo turned his attention back to the screen. Why did he end up being friends with people like them?

Kanae suddenly felt her special phone vibrate. She frowned slightly, but she still answered it. From the phone, a hushed and trembling voice could be heard.

"Rei, where are you? Tom is wounded badly."