Under the Veil of Night

Lying on the bed, Misae stared at the ceiling as memories of her time with Mike flooded through her mind. She could recall all the time she had spent with him. At first, she only saw him as a handsome senior she admired. There were not many handsome people around, and he was one of the most handsome men she had seen so far.

Later on, she met with him more often and interacted with him. She found out that he also liked tea and knew a lot about it. As she was also a big fan of tea, she talked about that a lot with him.

She didn't know when, but she started to fall for him. As she thought about this, tears started to flow more profusely from her eyes. She even hid a secret message in the chocolate she gave to him because she wished that he could be her boyfriend in the future.

After that, she learned about his work trip and followed him there because she already started to like him. Staying by his side made her feel safe. Then, his confession came and she felt like she was on cloud nine because of how happy she was. She felt that her dream had come true.

Although they barely did anything alone together, she enjoyed the time she spent by his side. She also learned a lot of new things about him. Every single thing that he did for her caused joy in her heart. Whenever she learned something new about him, she always jotted it down in her mind as she didn't want to forget it.

'I like you.'

Her eyes stared at the ceiling as she recalled how happy she was to stay by his side. She never asked whether he was part of a clan as she thought that he was an ordinary person. Never did she imagine that she was wrong, completely wrong.

'Why do you have to be part of a clan?'

She thought that she had already overcome her trauma of the past when she accepted Jay as her friend. Yet, when she found out that her boyfriend was also part of a clan, her body didn't want to react as she willed it.

Tears poured out even harder. She no longer knew why she was crying. Was it because of the revelation that he came from a clan or because of her trauma from the past? She didn't know at all.

In the end, she fell asleep while crying.

"Clara, you say that his name is Mike Johan?" Kano frowned as he asked in a low voice. He had just finished an errand when his wife suddenly called him to talk about Misae. Feeling that something was terribly wrong, he rushed back home and found out that Misae's boyfriend was actually part of a clan.

Clara nodded. She felt was so distressed that she didn't know what to do anymore. If it were only an ordinary friend, Misae wouldn't be this troubled as she could just easily avoid them. However, this person was her boyfriend. With Misae already being so close with him, she was pretty sure that Misae would be very troubled and heartbroken.

"Yes, he introduced himself as Mike Johan."

"If that is his real name, Misae became acquainted with quite a powerful clan member," Kano sighed.

"Is that a bad thing or a good thing?"

"From Misae's perspective, it's quite a bad thing. We can't possibly ask him to leave the clan with such a position and he has quite a lot of enemies who want him dead," Kano answered.

Clara's eyes widened. "He's that important?"

"Yes."

Clara sighed and leaned back on her chair. Why did it seem as if Misae always attracted dangerous people? Even in the past, this girl attracted people with malicious intents. She felt her headache growing worse.

Kano smiled wryly. "I'm afraid we can't resort to the same method as we did in the past."

"The situation is different, so it's impossible," Clara answered ruefully. It was already her negligence that Misae got involved in a dangerous case and now, she allowed her to get hurt once again.

"Can't you do something?"

"No one dares to do anything to the Ryukalin Clan. Even this house is in their territory. I can have Misae transfer schools again, but I doubt she is going to agree."

Clara nodded. "She has too many friends she likes now. There's no way she wants to leave this school. Besides, this situation is quite different."

"What do you think we should do?"

"I don't know."

Clara buried her face in her palms. She truly didn't know what she should do to protect her daughter. It seemed as if everything dangerous always approached Misae, no matter what the girl did. This made her frustrated as she couldn't bear the thought of letting Misae get hurt.

Her mind drifted to the past, to be exact---to nearly three years ago when an unfortunate incident happened to her daughter.

…

Three Years Ago, Misae's Previous Junior High School

"Look! The snow is piling up nicely outside," Misae's friend pointed to the window with a grin on her face. Her red hair caused her to stand out in the class as many people were rather curious about her hair.

Misae put down the paper in her hand as she peered outside. Her eyes grew bigger in excitement as she saw the falling snow. "This year's snow is very beautiful!"

"Shall we play outside?"

"Let's ask the other boys too!"

"Okay!"

The girls ran out with the others as they started to play in the snow. This city rarely saw heavy snow, so the students enjoyed this rare event. Only once every few years would the snow pile up a lot, giving them the chance to play more exciting games.  Even though they knew that they have to study, none of them wanted to stay holed up in the classroom.

"Misae, help me make a large snowman," the red-haired girl waved her hand excitedly.

"Wait, there's not enough snow for that," Misae said disappointedly as she saw the ground below when she scraped up a handful of snow. They had to go outside the school grounds if they wanted more snow because the school staff cleared up the snow periodically.

She thought that they could finally make a large snowman, but that didn't seem to be the case.

"You're right."

"Kids, what are you doing outside? It's time for lessons," a teacher saw them and yelled.

"Aw, return back to class?"

"Let's run! I don't want to study."

Naughty as they were, the students ran away to the other side of the building. Misae and the red-haired girl followed after the others as they laughed happily. Seeing the teacher running after them, they found it rather funny.

Then, it happened.

BANG!

The sound caused them to freeze in their places. Several students stumbled into the snow as they were too surprised. Misae was not an exception as she fell to the ground. Her face was buried in the snow, her mouth filled with an icy sensation. She quickly sat up and coughed to spit the snow out.

The next moment, she saw several men moving towards them with evil grins. As they were only ordinary 13 to 14-year-old students, they were terrified. None of them had ever encountered such a situation before.

One of the men pointed his gun at the students.. "Nobody make a sound, follow me."