Under The Veil of Night

Shiro yawned as he leaned back on his chair. "Tommy, it’s almost time for school to end."

Tommy shifted slightly. He looked towards Shiro with a tired face. "I’m still very sleepy. Can’t you let me sleep longer?"

"It’s impossible," Shiro also yawned.

"You’re also tired right, Doc? Just use one of the beds to sleep," Tommy pointed to the side.

Shiro shook his head lightly. Thanks to Kanae, he was still feeling extremely sleepy. They finished a mission late last night, and he wanted nothing more than to sleep. But if he dared to sleep, there might be students complaining.

"I’m just busy studying unlike you, young man."

Tommy scoffed. He got out of the bed as he walked outside while yawning endlessly. Even at the school, he still didn’t get enough sleep because the teachers were always calling him to finish his work. None of it was finished yet, so he was feeling extremely tired.

He noticed the students in the classroom busy debating with each other. He also saw Misae and Alice looking down.

"Girls, why do you have upset faces like that?" He waved his hand and yawned again.

"Geez, Tommy, you’re still as sleepy as ever," Alice giggled when she saw Tommy’s appearance. His bed hair had become even messier because he didn’t care about it at all.

Tommy shrugged. "What can I say? I’m a big sleeper."

"How’s your history test, Tommy?" Misae raised her head in curiosity.

"Me? As usual, only around 40 something, is there anything wrong with that?" Tommy asked back.

Misae showed her own test. It got a score of 37, which was worse than Tommy’s. "Almost all of us get bad scores with this teacher. He’s very strict in grading."

"What about Kanae?"

Alice smiled wryly. "Don’t ask about her. She got 99."

"I guess that should be expected," Tommy smiled wryly too.

There was no way a girl like Kanae could have a score lower than 80 unless she was in extremely bad condition. Besides, he knew that girl already memorized most of the lessons they needed to know for this semester. Even though Kanae was tired because of their activities, she didn’t let her score suffer in the same way.

"What are you doing here, Tommy?" Misae asked.

"I’m on my way towards the field. There’s practice again today," Tommy answered lazily.

"Is there a competition in the near future?"

"None right now. I just need to practice, and the seniors are all busy for the end term exams in a few more days, so I can use the field for myself."

Misae nodded her head. "You’re diligent when it comes to practice."

Tommy smiled back. "I’m dreaming to become an athlete in the future. Not a big one though as someone with my background can never hope to be famous."

"Why?"

"I live in Black Street," Tommy answered with a shrug.

Misae’s eyes widened. She looked towards Tommy in disbelief. As a police officer’s daughter, she had heard from her father about how dangerous it was to stay in that place. Never would she guess even in her wildest dream that someone close to her was from there.

On the other hand, Alice looked unperturbed. She could guess that from Tommy’s way of talking and gesturing. Those who lived in Black Street have a rougher way of talking. Tommy was slightly unrestrained, but it was not that apparent when he was in school.

Besides, Tommy’s ability in fighting that he showed when facing Roy before was not something that could be replicated by training in a safe environment. It was an instinct born from countless life and death battles every day. From that observation, she could deduce Tommy’s background.

"You don’t look that strong," Misae frowned.

Tommy laughed. He was already considered a local leader in the Black Street around his house because he was far stronger than the other ordinary thugs. Of course, he would not say that to this girl.

"Anyway, I’m going to practice. What about you two?"

"I’m going to accompany you, is that alright?" Alice asked innocently.

Seeing Alice’s sweet face, Tommy coughed lightly. It seemed, he has a weak spot for pretty girls. "Yes, you can."

Misae smiled knowingly when she saw these two. Alice was staying around Tommy longer and had followed him to practice for quite some time now. If she still didn’t realize anything, how could she be called an expert in searching for love?

(A/N: *cough* *cough*)

"What about you, Misae? Are you still in detention class?"

"There’s no class during this time. I want to spend a few minutes in the Student Council Room before they go to the company," Misae answered with a grin. "But before that, I have to deliver this to the teacher’s office."

Their class representative was absent that day because he was sick. They needed a volunteer and Misae chose to nominate herself. This way, she had a reason to get out of the classroom and stay in the Student Council Room for a few minutes.

"You’re truly a crafty girl," Tommy shook his head. "I’ll be going now, see you later."

"Okay."

Misae took the stack of the papers carefully before walking out from the classroom. She made her way slowly to the teacher’s office.

"Excuse me, I need to submit these papers from my class."

Misae peeked into the room from the glass window. Her eyes scanned the surroundings quickly.

The teacher’s office was empty, so she made her way towards that teacher’s desk. It was located in the back. She put the papers down and turned to get out of the room when she heard the sound of several students talking from the teacher’s room across the hallway. There were two teacher’s rooms because there were a large number of teachers.

"This should be Teacher Charlie’s desk, right?"

"Yup. There’s no doubt about it."

"They’re away for a meeting, so this is our chance to copy the answer sheet."

"Yeah, that annoying teacher always gives us hard questions. This time, we’re going to make sure that he eats his own words about how no one can get the perfect answer."

"Let’s play a prank on him too. This will also give him a lesson."

"Sure, let’s flood his table with water...."

Misae listened to their conversation with disgust. Although she also got a bad score from that teacher, she would never resort to something as low as this. It was blatant cheating and she despised that.

From her current position, she could guess that they were mostly boys and had bigger figures than her. Unfortunately, she was not too bright as a person as she didn’t try to think too much into the future.

"Hey, you shouldn’t do that! That’s cheating!"