Under The Veil of Night

Lying on her bed, Misae stared at the ceiling as memories of her time with Mike flooded out. She could recall all the time she had spent with him. At first, she only saw him as a handsome senior she admired. There were not many handsome people around, and he was one of the best one she found so far.

Later on, she met with him more often and interacted with him. She found out that he also liked tea and knew a lot about them. As she was also a big fan of tea, she talked about that a lot with him.

She didn’t know when, but she started to fall for him. As she thought about this, tears started to flow harder from her eyes. She even secretly made a hidden message in the chocolate she gave to him because she wished that he could be her boyfriend in the future.

After that, she learned about his work trip and followed after him because she already started to like him. Staying by his side made her felt safe. Then, his confession came and she felt like she was in the cloud nine because of her happiness. She felt that her dream came true.

Although they barely did anything, she enjoyed the time she spent by his side. She also learned a lot of new things about him. Every single thing that he did cause joy in her heart. Whenever she knew something more about him, she always jotted them in her mind as she didn’t want to forget them.

’I like you.’

Her eyes stared at the ceiling as she recalled how happy she was to stay by his side. She never asked about him being part of a clan as she thought about him as an ordinary person. Never would she imagine that it was wrong, completely wrong.

’Why do you have to be part of a clan?’

She thought that she already passed her trauma of the past when she accepted Jay to be her friend. Yet, when she found out that her boyfriend was also part of a clan, her body didn’t want to react as she willed it.

Tears poured out even harder. She no longer knew why she cried. Was it because of the revelation that he came from the clan or because of her trauma in the past? She completely didn’t know.

In the end, she fell asleep while crying.

"Clara, you say that his name is Mike Johan?" Kano frowned as he asked in a low voice. He had just finished an errand when his wife suddenly called him to talk about Misae. Feeling that something was terribly wrong, he rushed back home and found out that Misae’s boyfriend was actually part of a clan.

Clara nodded her head. She felt rather distressed right now that she didn’t know what she had to do anymore. If it was only an ordinary friend, Misae wouldn’t be this troubled as she could just easily avoid them. However, this person is her boyfriend. With Misae already being so close with him, she was pretty sure that Misae would be troubled heavily.

"Yes, he introduces himself to me as Mike Johan."

"If he gives his real name, Misae just have being acquaintance with a powerful member of a clan," Kano sighed.

"Is it a bad thing or good thing?"

"From any perspective, it’s quite a bad thing. We can’t possibly ask him to leave the clan because of his position and he has quite a lot of enemies who want him dead," Kano answered.

Clara’s eyes widened. "He’s that important?"

"Yes."

Clara sighed and leaned back on her chair. Why did it seem as if Misae always attracted dangerous people to be around her? Even in the past, this girl attracted people with malicious intent to come to her. This made her felt that her headache was growing stronger.

Kano smiled wryly. "I’m afraid we can’t resort to the same method as in the past."

"The situation is different, so it’s impossible," Clara answered with a rueful tone. It was already her negligence that Misae got involved in a dangerous case and now, she allowed her to get hurt once again.

"Can’t you do something?"

"No one dares to do anything to Ryukalin Clan. Even the place where we stay is in their territory. I can ask for another school transfer, but I doubt Misae is going to agree."

Clara nodded her head. "She has too many friends she likes now. There’s no way she wants to leave the school anymore. Besides, this is quite different."

"What do you think we should do?"

"I don’t know."

Clara buried her face in her palm. She truly didn’t know what she should do to protect her daughter. It seemed as if anything dangerous always followed after Misae, no matter what the girl did. This made her frustrated as she couldn’t bear the thought of letting Misae got hurt.

Her mind drifted to the past, to be exact, to three years ago at nearly the same time as now when an unfortunate incident happened to her daughter.

...

Three Years Ago, Misae’s Previous Junior High School

"Look! The snows are piling up nicely outside," Misae’s friend pointed to the window with a grin on her face. Her red hair caused her to stand out in the class as many people were rather curious about her hair.

Misae put the paper on her hand down as she peered outside. Her eyes grew bigger in excitement as she saw the snows. "This year snows is very beautiful!"

"Shall we play outside?"

"Let’s ask the other boys too!"

"Okay!"

The girls ran out with the others as they started to play in the snow. This city rarely produced heavy snows, so the students enjoyed this rare event. Only once every few years that the snow would pile up a lot, giving them the chance to play longer. Even though they knew that they have to study, none of them wanted to stay holed up in the class.

"Misae, help me make a large snowman," the red hair girl waved her hand excitedly.

"Wait, there’s not enough snow for that," Misae said disappointedly as she saw the ground when she scraped the snows. They have to go outside the school ground if they wanted more snow because the staffs cleaned up the snow periodically.

She thought that they could finally make large snowman, but it didn’t seem to be the case.

"You’re correct."

"Kids, what are you doing outside? It’s time for a lesson," a teacher saw them and yelled.

"Aw, return back to class?"

"Let’s run! I don’t want to study."

As naughty as they were, the students ran away to the other side of the building. Misae and that red hair girl followed after the others as they laughed happily. Seeing the teacher ran towards them, they found it rather funny.

Then, it happened.

BANG!

The sound caused them to freeze in their place. Several students stumbled on the snow as they were too surprised. Misae was not an exception as she fell to the ground. Her face was buried on the snow, filled her mouth with them. She quickly sat up and coughed to spit them out.

The next moment, she saw several men moved towards them with evil grins. As they were only 13-14 years old ordinary students, none of them have ever encountered this situation. This made them rather terrified.

The man pointed his gun. "Nobody move, follow me."