Under The Veil of Night

"Rei?"

"Yes?"

"Do you mean, Rei from Fiore Group who’s also the legend of the street?"

"I don’t think there’s any other Rei aside from Rei from Fiore Group. As for the legend of the street, that’s a bit of exaggeration," Kanae replied. In her opinion, the nickname legend of the street that she got was a bit of overestimation. Though, her teammates didn’t think that way and rather liked it.

Neo gaped his mouth before he screamed out loudly. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!"

Closing her ear, Kanae smiled bitterly. Was it that hard to accept? It was not like she purposely hid it this long, ok? Alright, she did hide it, but there were many others who have already realized it from a long time ago.

"You... you... how... can..."

Neo banged his head to his table as he thought about the numerous occasions when Rei helped them out. He always found it strange that Rei often meddled in their business and helped Kevin even when Rei was not called. At the same time, he was always astonished by the fighting prowess that Rei showed.

Accepting Rei as a woman was already very difficult back then.

NOW KANAE IS REI?

Neo felt like digging a hole and buried himself there. Even believing that the entire city collapsed sounded easier than believing that Kanae is Rei.

He had interacted with Kanae for a long period of time. And from that time, he always saw her as a normal girl with slightly higher IQ and probably a bit better in physique compared to other people. But now, he realized that she was not just a bit better, she is one of the best fighters!

The contrast...

It’s just too much....

Kanae watched amusedly as she turned her head to look at Kevin. "Do you think it’s that hard to accept."

Kevin arched his eyebrows. For him, it was more of relieving news, but for Neo, it just meant that his research overtime that he did was for naught. All three members were those who were very close to them in real life.

"Probably."

"Boss!" Mike walked inside with his phone on his hand. He was surprised to see Neo muttered like crazy. "Neo, what’s wrong with you?"

"Rei..."

"Yes?" Mike tilted his head. "There’s no Rei here."

Neo shot a glare at Mike and pointed to Kanae. "KANAE IS REI, IDIOT!"

This time, Mike couldn’t be bothered by the poor nickname he got from Neo. His eyes widened as he looked towards Kanae full of disbelief. Just like Neo, his mouth opened and closed just like a fish.

"T-that’s...."

Mike looked at Kevin, hoping that the news was false. By this time, Kevin had walked from behind the stack of paper and looked at the other three. He noticed Mike’s gaze and nodded in affirmative.

"NO WAY! THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!" Mike yelled loudly as he looked at Kanae in horror. He always thought that Rei must be someone unfamiliar to them and also very powerful. How come... how come that person turned out to be Kanae?

He can’t believe it.

Kanae smiled bitterly as she watched the two of them looked like they were in utter shock. Well, she didn’t mean to hide it so long, but seeing their faces now, she felt oddly satisfied.

It seemed that her act was so good that they couldn’t believe it.

"Hey, what are you screaming so loudly for?" Patrick rolled his eyes. He was holding his right ear with an annoyed expression. "Don’t you know any manners?"

"B-b-but, Rei is..." Neo couldn’t finish his words. He still found it hard to believe that the one standing in front of him is Rei. Countless legends about Rei repeated itself in his head as he gulped down his saliva.

He had to believe this... no matter what.

Patrick yawned. "Don’t you already know that Kanae is Rei? Anyway, rather than shocked like that, you better follow me to the training room. Let me temper your heart."

Both Mike and Neo were jolted back to reality. They looked at Patrick as if they wanted to cry.

Training?

Anything but that!

Even though Mike liked training, training with Patrick meant that he would be pummeled up without any chance to fight back. That kind of fight was not fun at all. He disliked it so much.

However, the two of them were dragged out by Patrick, who couldn’t stand their shocked expression. They would need some time before they could come in term that Rei is Kanae. Due to their shock, they also forgot that they wanted to ask many questions to Rei.

Kanae giggled. "They’re funny."

"You already know that," Kevin shrugged. He walked closer to Kanae, trying his best to ignore the paper around him. "Do you want to help out now or have some rest?"

"Let’s have a snack first," Kanae suggested. "I’m sure you’re tired after browsing through that pile."

"Sure."

One way or another, Kevin managed to get out of the surrounding paper as he followed after Kanae to the other room. The quarter where he lived was pretty big, so it took him some time before they could reach the living room where Taro and James were watching television.

"Big sister!" James exclaimed when he saw Kanae. After he saw Kanae wearing girl’s clothes, he changed his way of calling.

"Hey, James, what are you watching?" Kanae hugged the boy. He was only slightly shorter than her, but he was truly cute.

"I’m not watching. Uncle Taro hogged the television all for himself," James pouted, showing his displeasure.

Taro’s back drenched in sweat when he saw the accusation look from Kanae. He immediately tried to fix the situation. "That’s a lie, I’m not hogging the television all of myself. He can choose too."

"Uncle Taro is lying."

"James!"

Kanae laughed and pulled the boy to the sofa. She picked up the remote with a grin on her face. "Now, what do you want to watch?"

"I want to watch an animal movie!" James exclaimed happily and hugged Kanae’s arm.

"Alright, let’s watch."

From the back, Taro was grieving because of the false accusation. He wanted to ask for consolation from Kevin, but found out that his gaze was fixated on Kanae. To be exact, he was looking at James who got close with Kanae.

Although Kevin was glad that Kanae liked James, he was secretly feeling jealous. ’Why did she allow him to get so close? She didn’t even allow me to hold her hand so often.’

Unaware that he was giving off a dark aura, Kevin walked to the other side of Kanae. He placed his hand on top of hers, surprising the girl.

"What is it, Kevin?"

"Nothing." I just want to hold your hand too.

Taro pretended that he saw nothing. He didn’t want to see more of Kevin shameless attitude of wanting to get close to Kanae. It would be better for him to stay on the back and read the magazine to ease his wounded heart.

James picked up the remote on the table. He clicked another number as the channel changed.

"...Breaking news, the Wells Family has just announced that they’ll be supporting the new research from the government. However, the representative that they send today is Ivan Wells, and not Jason Wells. It’s unknown what kind of problem has occurred inside the family, but for the representative to change, could it be there’s something wrong with their previously ’perfect successor?’...."

Kanae’s mouth opened wide when she saw the news. She turned her head towards Kevin. "Do you know anything?"

"No."

"I need to make a call," Kanae released herself from the two boys’ grip. She headed to the other room as she nervously typed on her phone, wondering what could have possibly happened to Jason.

From the bottom of her heart, she hoped that he would be fine.