Under The Veil of Night

She was about to sprint outside when her eyes caught a certain news on the newspaper. Her family always ordered a newspaper, and it would be put on the side. The news on the front of the page caught her interest because she found it to be quite familiar.

At the corner of the front page, there was news telling about the attack of a gangster at a certain store. These kinds of news were almost everywhere, but Misae noticed the picture. It was the same picture of the store as the one Kanae worked at.

Stopping her movement, she stared at the picture intently. There was no doubt that the picture was the same as the one where Kanae worked at. Feeling panicked, she immediately bolted from her house and went to school. The driver was stunned when he saw the girl in such a hurry, but he obeyed her order to drive faster.

The moment the car arrived in the school, Misae hopped down and sprinted towards her class.

"Hey, don’t run on the hallway," one of the teachers reprimanded her when she almost crashed to him.

Misae waved her hand. "I’m sorry, but I’m in a hurry."

She ran all the way to her class and opened the door hurriedly. On the desk beside hers, there was a girl with her head hanged low. She seemed to be ready to fall asleep at any given time. Seeing that familiar figure, Misae felt immediate relief and slumped to the floor. It seemed that she was alright.

She ignored the other students who looked towards her with a curious gaze. All of her attention was set on the person sitting on that desk. She didn’t even realize when someone called her name continuously. In the end, the boy peered towards Misae’s face, startling the girl.

"What are you doing sitting in front of your classroom?"

PLAK!

The newspaper landed on the boy face.

"Ah, I’m sorry! You surprised me," Misae immediately apologized. She didn’t mean to hit him, but he surprised her by appearing out of nowhere.

Tommy rubbed his nose. "I’m fine. You haven’t answered my question, though."

"Ah, it’s because of the news... the store where Kanae worked at is attacked, so I’m worried that she might get hurt, but it seemed that she is fine," Misae answered. Her words stuttered along because she was unsure about it.

After she had finished her words, Tommy opened the door wide and looked inside. It was as Misae said, Kanae was sitting calmly on her chair with her face looking down. It seemed that she was really alright.

Tommy glanced at the newspaper on Misae hands. "You better catch your breath first. It must be tiring to run all the way to the class."

Misae blushed, it was really embarrassing. But Tommy didn’t make her feel more awkward as he returns to his own classroom across her class. Misae glanced inside again, it was really a relief to see her friend still alright.

"Misae, what are you doing here?" Alice was also stunned to see Misae sitting in front of the class.

Misae felt extremely embarrassed, so all she could do was explaining once again while standing up. The two of them returned to their desk as Alice heard about the matter.

"Is that true?" she looked towards Kanae worriedly. If that was true, did her best friend managed to barely avoid a dangerous situation?

"Yes, there’s even a news report about it," Misae handed the newspaper to Alice.

The usually uninteresting news about stores or something got attacked immediately became big news for them. No matter what, someone around them got involved, so this became something really big.

Hearing the noisy two, Kanae woke up and found the two girls were staring at her vehemently.

Kanae looked at Misae face with bewilderment. What was happening to this girl? Did she hit her head or something? It seemed like the way Misae looked at her changed into a weirder gaze.

"Misae, is there anything you want to tell me? You have been looking at my face for a long time," Kanae moved her hand in front of Misae a few times.

Misae snapped back to reality. "Sorry, it’s just that I’m glad that you’re alright. The recent news about your workplace getting attacked made me really worried."

"Hmm... workplace attacked?" Kanae tilted her head. "How do you know?"

"Here," Alice passed the newspaper that she had just read to Kanae. On the very first page, Kanae could clearly see the picture of her workplace and the police coming in. The two of them was not in the picture, but she remembered that they were still inside in this scene.

Kanae smiled slightly. "You’re too worried. I’m fine as you can see."

It was indeed true. There was not the slightest bit of harm on Kanae as the two of them ran their gaze towards Kanae. She could even move around freely, so the two of them knew that their best friend was genuinely alright.

"Still, it’s rather worrying that you have to work there again," Misae shuddered at the thought. There might be a chance that her best friend had to encounter the same situation again.

In truth, Kanae didn’t feel the slightest bit of worry about the recent attack in her workplace. How should she say? That gangster was clearly an amateur that has only learned how to fight because his movements were clumsy. However, it was indeed annoying to have them bother her work again.

"I’m just going to be here in the morning," Kanae informed. "After the bell, I’m going to help cleaning up in the hall."

"Can we come over?" Misae asked with a hopeful gaze. She wanted to meet with those boys again.

"Yes you can," Kanae answered.

Misae beamed. The permission from Kanae was the same as having a grand pass because with one word, Kanae could skip the class. The exams were different, but it was still rather easy for Kanae to skip the usual class.

Because the three of them were talking loudly about the attack, the news spread out fast that Kanae was working and her workplace was getting attacked. Many felt pity, but when they heard that she was fine, they quickly forgot about the matter again.

Only one person was laughing when she heard about the matter. "As a poor person, she’ll always be unlucky."

Sakura was instead feeling happy because Kanae’s workplace got attacked. After all, she hated her cousin very much and seeing that girl got trouble was a happy event for her.

On the side, the other classmates were looking at her weirdly. Ever since the incident in the party, no one tried to get close to her again. There was no one who was stupid enough to get close with Sakura when they knew that the Student Council treated this girl badly. They wouldn’t want to make an enemy out of the Student Council.

In the end, Sakura was laughing alone and she felt rather suffocated. This was the very first time she felt the pressure coming from the people around her. No one ever dared to ignore her before, but now no one came closer to her.

Sakura’s fist clenched tightly. If only her father was not away because of work, she would surely ask him to make her cousin’s life miserable. In addition, she would crush that Student Council!