Under the Veil of Night

"Why are you siding with her? She's not even a part of Student Council," Jay grumbled heavily. He was not satisfied with the result of the meeting.

"She's the best representative if it's talking about women's view in this event," Mike smiled as he looked towards Misae. "Besides, Valentine is indeed something that women treasure more compare with the boys."

Jay looked towards Mike's smile in bewilderment. This devil's smile right now seemed a bit different. He looked as if he was looking towards something he treasured rather than the usual polite smile or the smile filled with rage.

"Are you three going to give chocolates too?" Neo asked.

Misae nodded her head excitedly. "I'm going to give chocolates to all my classmates."

"You're trying to court that many boys?"

"…"

"It's called obligatory chocolate," Alice explained. "If a girl doesn't have someone she likes, she can just give some chocolates to all of her classmates as a sign of friendship."

Misae nodded her head. "Yes, it's something like that!"

Both Alice and Kanae looked towards Misae with a wry smile. That was what you say, but you already have someone you fancied. She was just too shy to give the chocolate to the person she liked the most, so it became all of her classmates.

"What about you, Alice?" Tommy asked curiously.

Alice blushed. "I think, I'll just make chocolate for all of you."

"All of us? Yes! Thank you very much," Tommy laughed happily. He knew that he wouldn't get any chocolate, so he was also happy. Well, there might be some fans of his, but with his exceedingly low score and lazy performance, he doubted it.

Jay's eyes also lit up. Even if it was only friendship chocolate, it was better than nothing. At this point, he no longer cared if he had to get up in the morning. At least, he could enjoy the chocolate after the lunch break.

"What about Kanae?"

Kanae looked up from her monitor. She shrugged. "The first question shall be whether I can make the chocolate or not."

The students in the room immediately recalled how poor this girl in the cooking was. If she could make the chocolate done perfectly, it would be a big miracle as they knew she already made the mess in the kitchen pretty often. Even though making Valentine Chocolate usually only used the one from the stores and heated them up, it was still rather hard to make the good shaped one.

"I think… we can help you," Misae said with a pained face.

Kanae smiled wryly. "There's no need to force yourself if you don't want. I don't have anyone I want to give chocolate too."

Neo secretly watched for Kevin's expression. To his disappointment, this ice block didn't have any change in expression. He was completely absorbed in his work while the others were busy discussing this matter.

Alice smiled. "You can try. If you manage to make one, just give it to the closest boy that you know."

"Alright, I will do that."

When Tommy heard that, he wondered who Kanae would give the chocolate to if she managed to make it. She was pretty close with the member of the Fiore Group, but none of them harbor any romantic feeling for this girl. For them, she was their leader and their precious little sister. Well, there might be some that he didn't know, but as far as he had known, none of them dared to.

Kevin finally stopped his work. "There's no work for you today. You can go home earlier."

"Thank you, President," Kanae smiled. Even after working as Kevin's secretary for several days or more, she was not used to call him as 'Boss'. In the end, she could only call him as President.

"I guess the meeting is over?" Misae asked excitedly.

Mike nodded his head. "Yes. Do you still want to stay here for some time? I have just seen an interesting way to make tea last night. I'm sure you will be interested."

"I want to!"

Alice smiled wryly. Misae was truly a big fan of good tea. As for her, she has to go home or her father would be angry at her again.

"I'll be going first."

"Me too," Tommy stood up lazily. He wanted to stroll on the street again. His body was itching for a good fight. After the last time where he almost got beaten up, he wanted to vent up his feeling in a fight again. Of course, this has to be a fight where he won.

Jay nodded his head. "I still have training at my house. My father is not going to let me off my training."

After that, Kanae also got out. Since she had day off today, she wanted to take some money from the bank. She had almost used up the allowance she gave to herself for last month, so she needed more money to fill up her needs.

When the four of them have gone out, Mike and Misae started talking about the tea. Kevin tapped his table before looking towards Neo.

"Why are the girls so excited about giving chocolate?"

"Boss…." That was common sense and this ice block didn't know it. Well, it was not his fault, though. Neo knew that this man had never celebrated the Valentine Day as he often skipped the school. Even last year was not exception as this man didn't even come because of a meeting.

"In the Valentine Day, chocolate is used as the way to express a girl's feeling to someone they like," Neo tried to explain, but he found himself at lost. How should he explain this to someone who didn't even know about those feelings?

Kevin frowned. He didn't find anything special about this day except the girls were awfully excited about it. They were trying to give him chocolate, but he was not interested in them at all. In any case, he would just arrange a meeting for himself in the company and skipped the event.

"Boss, can we not skip this year valentine?" Neo wanted to get the chocolate from someone younger than him. He was sick of getting them from the older women because in the company, they were obviously the youngest.

Even if the employee wanted to give chocolates to Kevin, this man never accepted them. They had to go through Lou first and this man ended up throwing them all out. After all, Kevin was not too fond of eating sweets.

"You have to work overtime until Valentine."

"Boss…"

While Neo was trying hard to convince his boss to not give too much work, Kanae had made her way to the bank. She checked her account and smiled in satisfaction. Kevin was exceptionally generous in giving the salary. With this, she could spend a bit more than usual.

Come to think about it, she needed new clothes soon. Well, spending a little to buy one shirt and one trouser shouldn't harm her. Even if she hadn't grown taller anymore since years ago, her clothes have started to be too old for her.

'Ah, I want to buy a dress too.'

She secretly sighed internally. Dresses were usually more expensive, and she wouldn't have much chance to wear them. Because of that, she was used to only use formal shirt and leather pants on the formal meeting rather than a dress. Besides, those were more convenient for her if she needed to fight.

When she thought about that, her face showed a wry smile. It seemed that her life as part of the underworld has started to affect her way of thinking. Still, she knew that she didn't have any other choice if she wanted to survive in this city.

'Let's just take the money first.'

She took out her usual allowance including a bit more for the clothes that she had decided. After that, she walked from the machine with the intention of going out. She didn't take too much for the clothes, so she could only choose the cheap store or the mall when they were having a discount.

Her steps suddenly stopped as she sensed danger. In the next second, the sound of a gunshot was heard, and she immediately crouched on the floor.

"Nobody move!"

"Give us the money!"

She cursed internally. Why did she have to come to the bank right on the day there was a bank robbery?