Under the Veil of Night

"Kanae, wake up! You fell asleep again," a girl was shaking her friend vigorously. Apparently, her friend had fallen asleep when the lesson started.

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

"No! It's lunch break now and I'm hungry," the girl named 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 students tossed 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 by too much. She was wearing a proper uniform with her short wavy hair let loose on her shoulder. Like most girls, she wore a thin layer of make up to make her face look more beautiful.

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

On their way to 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 bribed them," the other girl said with disdain.

Kanae gripped Misae's arm as 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 every day was pretty common because of her laid-back attitude in class. Still, there was no use explaining to people who just wanted to look down to others.

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

"There's no need to waste your energy on them."

"They shouldn't spout lies when they don't know the truth," Misae was still feeling rather displeased when she heard other people talking badly 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 forget about her displeasure. In this school, there were free meals for lunch, but the menus were set. The two of them usually chose the free one because they were delicious enough.

The two of them lined up to get their lunch before they started to eat. Looking towards the way Kanae ate, Misae wondered if her best friend had not eaten for days. The food was disappearing at light speed into Kanae's stomach.

"You'll choke if you eat that fast."

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 in her mouth. They were friends ever since Junior High School. Now that both of them were in Senior High School, they knew each other quite well.

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

Kanae noticed her friend staring at her and she flashed a smile. "Why are you looking at me that way? 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 spending 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 the question.

Finishing the meal, they headed back to their classes. As first-year students, they didn't have too many lessons. Most of the lessons only repeated what they learned during their junior high school. Still, some of them already forgot what they had 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 to this question?"

Kanae swept a 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."

While 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 finished, Misae felt happy that she finally understood what the teacher explained just now.

"If only you didn't fall asleep, you could teach me far earlier and I wouldn'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 hated 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 would be sleeping?

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

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

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