Under the Veil of Night

"You really went to bother her in the workplace?" Alice exclaimed in surprise. She did not expect that Misae would be so bold to go there.

Kanae nodded her head. "I had to spend a long time teaching her yesterday."

"You barely taught me. I spend most of the time doing the questions from the book by myself. You only helped me out after that."

"I still helped you, right?"

Misae nodded her head as she stared at the others fighting in front of her. They were in the martial arts class because today was Friday. The teacher gave them the freedom to do what they wanted because this Monday would be the start of the mid-term test. Most of the students happily used the time to spar with their friends. Those lazier ones would just stay behind and didn't try to get involved at all.

It was mostly the boys who wanted to vent out their feeling before the test that fought. After all, studying was tiring, so they wanted to have a break occasionally.

"That fight is really loud," Misae turned her head to the side.

On the field, two people were fighting. Based on their movement alone, the other students already knew that they were really good. Most of the time, they could not follow the movement and one of them would already leap back. After that, they charged to each other again.

"They're incredible," Misae exclaimed.

Alice nodded her head in agreement. "I'm sure they had lessons from their family or something similar."

The only possibility for the students to have high martial arts skills was that they learned from their family or they lived on the street and fought. Most of the time, they deduced that it was because of their family. No one wanted to speculate them having a connection with the street because that meant those people were either a gangster, or a member of group or a clan.

"I'm not really comfortable near them," Misae frowned. People who were good at fighting had higher chances of being a member of one of those three factions. Considering her low opinion of them, she would prefer to not get close with any of them.

"They're boys. You won't have many chances to meet with them either."

Kanae nodded her head. "You should train too. Maybe you will become very powerful in the future."

"That's in the far future."

The fight on the field finally finished. The two students backed off with their body drenched in sweats. They were enjoying themselves in the fight as they were not many chances they could get to fight.

'That bed head student is there.'

Kanae noticed Tommy among the two students who fought. She didn't pay any attention again because her best friend already pulled her arm and said some words.

The lessons for today except the martial art class all explained things for their exams. In this rare moment, the students paid more attention to the class and didn't dare to sleep. If they didn't pass the exams, they would need to attend supplementary classes after school, and they didn't want that to happen.

Who wanted to stay behind after class? So they needed to have a passing grade and they would be fine.

Misae looked towards the paper in front of her while wondering.

"Kanae, do you think I can get at least 60 in all subjects?"

She shoved her last exam's results to Kanae. Most of them were below 60, the passing grade.

Kanae stared at the paper blankly. Do you prepare for the exams or not? This result was far from satisfying.

"If you don't study, you might not pass."

Even Alice felt her eyes hurt when she saw those red marks. From the seven subject's tests she showed to them, only three of them were above the passing grade. If that was the score Misae got for the midterm, she would have to stay for the special lesson.

Misae smiled sheepishly. "I'm not too good at studying. Let me see yours."

She scanned through Kanae's test paper and wondered how this girl could get such high scores. Even the lowest she found was already 88…

"You have to teach me tomorrow."

"I have work for all day," Kanae yawned. "I don't have time to teach you unless if you want to walk into my workplace again."

Misae was not that thick-faced yet to barge into the workplace twice. Not to mention she was being a bother there, she might not be able to concentrate as much as before. After all, it was simply ridiculous to continue bothering Kanae to help her study.

"Why are you still working even when it's already near the midterm?" Alice frowned.

"I need to work," Kanae answered simply.

Misae sighed. "You can just work for me, being my tutor."

"No thank you."

The three bantered around before they departed and Kanae went to her workplace. The Old Man wanted her to study, but she insisted on coming here. Even the next day, she came to the store and the Old Man berated her again.

"You have the midterm exams soon. Focus on them. Next week you don't have to come here."

Kanae scratched her head. She didn't really need to study because she still remembered most of the material. However, she did need more sleep because it would be a disaster if she fell asleep during the exam.

"Okay," she said reluctantly.

The Old Man patted her head. "Don't force yourself too hard. Even though you need to work, you're still young, so you have to focus on your studies first."

Kanae nodded her head. There was no phrase such as 'too young to work' for her. She had to work if she wanted to live and in this city; it was hard to find a good job that didn't require danger. She enjoyed working here very much.

"I'll return here right after the last exam is over."

"Alright little lass."