Under The Veil of Night

"Kanae, wake up! You fall asleep again," a girl was shaking her friends with vigor. Apparently, her friend had fallen asleep when the lesson started.

The girl slowly opened her eyes and looked towards the other girl beside her. With a slight grin, she answered, "Misae, you know I’m tired. Let me sleep for a little bit."

"No! This is lunch break and I’m hungry," the girl called Misae pouted.

Upon hearing the word lunch, sleepiness left Kanae as she stood up. "Then what are you waiting for? Let’s go to the canteen."

"I’m coming," Misae grinned.

The two girls walked to the canteen. Some of the other student passed them a glance but didn’t pay much attention. The two of them looked normal for high school students, so they did not attract any unnecessary attention.

Misae was slightly taller than normal girls, but not too much. She was wearing a proper uniform with her short wavy hair let loose on her shoulder. Like most of the girls, she wore a thin make up to make her face looked more beautiful.

On the other hand, Kanae was slightly shorter, around 5’2 feet. She also wore the proper uniform, but her ribbon was slightly crooked to the side because she fell asleep just now. Kanae has longer hair that was tied into two braids hanging on her back. With the addition of her glasses, she looked like the studious type of students.

On their way towards the canteen, some students from their class looked towards them with an unfriendly gaze.

"She’s only sleeping every day, but her score is that high, she must be cheating!"

"Nah, the teachers don’t suspect her, I bet, she bribes them," the other girl said with a tone of disdain.

Kanae gripped Misae’s arm. Unknowingly, Misae was ready to give those girls a good bashing. "Don’t listen to them. Rumors are everywhere."

"Those are lies," Misae grumbled. She knew her best friend the best, so she obviously knew that Kanae would never cheat or bribe the teacher.

"We know that, but they don’t," Kanae answered nonchalantly. Hearing rumors about her everyday were pretty common because of her usual attitude in class. Still, there was no use explaining them to people who just wanted to look down to others.

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"That’s why I want to explain it to them."

"There’s no need to waste your energy for them."

"They shouldn’t spout lies when they don’t know the truth," Misae was still feeling rather displeased when she heard other people talked bad about her friend.

Kanae chose to change the conversation to food. "There’s fried chicken today."

"Really? I want to line up for that one."

As she had expected, the chicken completely made Misae forgot about her displeasure. In this school, there are free meals for lunch, but the menus were set. The two of them usually chose the free one because they were already delicious enough.

The two of them lined up to get their lunch before they started to eat. Looking towards the way Kanae eat, Misae wondered if her best friend has not eaten for days. The foods were disappearing at light speed towards Kanae’s stomach.

"You’ll choke if you eat that much."

Kanae smiled and wiped her mouth. "I always eat fast and so far I have never choked."

Misae nodded her head and put the chicken drumstick on her mouth. They were friends ever since Junior High School. Now that both of them were in Senior High School; they have known each other quite well.

She eyed her best friend that seemed to not have enough meal. Knowing Kanae, the small portion that the school provided for free was surely not enough for this big eater.

Kanae noticed her friend was staring at her and she flashed a smile. "Why are you looking towards me? Do you want to treat me to a meal?"

"I’ll be penniless if that’s what you ask every day."

"I’m just hungry," Kanae shrugged. "Don’t worry, I won’t really ask you to buy me any food."

Although Misae didn’t mind to spend a bit of money for her friend, Kanae was the one who would not accept it. That girl would accept if it was only occasionally, but every single time was clearly out of question.

Finishing the meal, they headed back to their classes. As the first-year students, they didn’t have too much lesson. Most of the lessons were only the repeat of what they have learned during their junior high school time. Still, some of them already forgot what they have learned in the past, so they were struggling to catch up.

Misae was one of those students.

"Before you fall asleep accidentally, do you know the answer for this question?"

Kanae swept her glance towards the paper and nodded her head. She took a pen. "Let me write down the way to answer it."

"While explaining."

"No problem."

When Kanae was explaining, some other students came over and peered towards their work. Some of them just curious while the others wanted to learn too. Kanae ignored their presence as she continued explaining. When she has finished, Misae was feeling happy that she finally understood what the teacher was explaining just now.

"If only you didn’t fall asleep, you can teach me far earlier and I don’t have to wait until now."

"You know I’m tired," Kanae argued.

Misae looked towards the paper. "With that kind of attitude, the students are going to hate you very much."

Kanae’s eyebrows shot up. "Until now they haven’t hate me, right?"

There was no way they were going to hate someone who was helping them with their homework. If Kanae was not willing to help the other students, it would be a different case. Still, there was a portion of the students who disliked Kanae for her ability.

"No one wants to sit with you," Misae looked over and remarked.

Kanae’s face stiffened before she shrugged. "They love to talk during the lesson too much. They need to learn how to stay quiet and sitting beside me will help them in that way."

"..." why don’t you just say that they wouldn’t be able to talk because you were sleeping?

"The teacher has come," Kanae pointed to the door.

Misae quickly rearranged her way of sitting. She looked that Kanae was still awake for the first few minutes of the lesson. After the teacher gave them a question to do, she noticed that the person beside her already has her head dropped to the table.

Looking towards her best friend, Misae slightly sighed. ’You should have taken off your glasses if you want to sleep.’