Under The Veil of Night

"Welcome home, dear, what would you like for dinner?" Clara asked with soft voice.

Misae was stunned to see her mother looked rather haggard. She knew that Clara was busy for the past few weeks because of a case, but she never knew that it was this hard. Her bright mother seemed extremely exhausted that the trace of her usual demeanor was lost.

"I’ll be the one making dinner, Mom," Misae offered.

Clara smiled wryly. "Is my appearance that bad?"

"Kind of," Misae hesitantly answered. "Is it because of the case that mother doing recently?"

"Yes. I manage to win the case, but it’s quite a long battle," Clara answered.

Misae nodded her head. She walked in the kitchen and took out several vegetables and the others. With familiar movement, she washed them before cutting them little by little.

"Mom, is it hard to be a lawyer?"

Clara was sitting down as she pondered. "It’s not that hard, but you will have to face numerous cases. They can be rather hard because sometimes the truth is not like what you see."

"Mom, do you remember the incident that I get into in the past?"

"I do."

"You always tell me that not all clans are bad. The previous one is a local annoying small clan that doesn’t do things according to regulation. If the clans are not bad, is it fine for me to have relation with them?"

Clara frowned. She never liked her daughter has any relation with them even though she knew that it was inevitable since she knew how Misae hated them. However, this girl’s question made her realized something.

"Are you talking about Mike?"

Misae nodded her head as her hands moved the vegetable to the pot. "Yes, I’m thinking that the clans are all bad, but father has been showing me about them a lot. I have been talking with him personally for quite some time, so I think that he’s not bad."

Not only not bad, but he was really good to her. Misae still remembered how he used to protect her. Those little actions were what made her always admired him, but his background kind of scared her.

Clara thought for a few seconds. "If you truly want to be with him, I won’t stop you."

The knife on Misae’s hand nearly fell to the floor. "Mom, are you serious?"

Clara nodded her head. If Misae truly wanted it, she would support her daughter’s decision. She only protected Misae from the other clans because of Misae’s intense reaction. If this girl already accepted them, she would be more than happy to accept them.

Of course, if they placed her daughter in dangerous situation, she would skin them alive.

"Is it really possible?" Misae asked worriedly.

Clara chuckled. "It’s possible, but it might be hard for you because it’ll require a lot of waiting in your part. Just like your father, I don’t even know if he can come back home safely, so I always pray for him."

"Mhm," her father’s work was indeed dangerous since he had to face against those people from underworld continuously. For Clara, it just meant that she had to have faith in him that he would come back home safely.

"Mom, I have been thinking about moving from this city, is it fine?"

"I too wanted to move you out of this city since three years ago if you didn’t manage to recover," Clara smiled. "But it seems you’re doing pretty well on the school."

"That’s because I meet with Kanae and the others," Misae reminisced about the past. If not because of Kanae, she might never be able to make friends with the others as she was too afraid to open up.

Clara coughed a bit. "There’s something that I have to tell you about that."

"Yes?"

"Please continue cooking and listen to my explanation from start to finish."

"Okay."

Slowly, Clara recounted the truth behind Kanae’s action in the first. It was all Clara’s selfishness to take advantage of a troubled girl because of her situation. However, it was exactly that incident that allowed the two of them to become close friends.

By the time Misae finished cooking, her mother also finished told her about the past. Misae’s hand trembled as she finally realized that she was always being protected by her friends. Kanae’s first reason was mission, but to continue this long, it must be because they were already genuine friend.

No wonder she always felt that it was safe in the school. It turned out someone was always looking after her continuously in secret.

"You won’t be angry that I ask her to accompany you, right?"

"There’s no way I can be angry, Mom. You do that because of me, so I’m grateful that I can meet with Kanae after the incident," Misae smiled slightly. At least, it was because of Kanae that she could forget about them and have a normal life. However, that solution couldn’t last forever. She had to face them again as long as she still lived in this city.

Now that she wanted to have a relation with someone who has dangerous life, it would be difficult if she didn’t overcome this past trauma.

"That’s good, baby," Clara rubbed Misae’s hair.

"Mom, you say that there’s a big mission for you lately. Is it the mission regarding Kanae?"

"Yes. Kanae make a move to get herself out of the Nali Family. Since her action is done without asking for the permission of her uncle, this causes quite a dispute in the family. I’m helping her to sort them all," Clara replied.

Misae nodded her head. She never knew that Kanae’s family situation was this bad because that girl rarely said anything. If anything, it was Kanae always took care about her very well.

"There are so many people around you who care about you, Misae. For their sake and your own sake, you need to face your past and overcome it. Every change starts from oneself."

"Yes, Mom," Misae nodded her head. If she couldn’t overcome it because of herself, she had to remember those around her. They were her precious friends, so she didn’t want to make them worry about her so much.

"About moving school, what’s your decision?"

"I..."