The Fading Moon Chapter 1: The Girl Beneath the Moon

Read chapter 1 of The Fading Moon by MananTayal on NovelPedia.

Tokyo never slept. Even at midnight, the city glowed with endless lights. Neon signs reflected across wet roads while trains continued carrying thousands of people through the heart of the city. Somewhere among those millions lived a man named Mike. At twenty-three years old, Mike had already grown tired of life. He lived alone in a small apartment on the eighth floor of an old building in western Tokyo. The apartment wasn't much. A bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a balcony barely large enough for a chair. Yet it was enough for him. Every morning he woke up at six. Every day he went to work. Every evening he returned home. Every night he ate instant food while watching random videos before falling asleep. Then he repeated everything again. His life moved like a machine. Predictable. Silent. Lonely. Mike wasn't always like this. When he was younger, he dreamed of becoming a photographer. He wanted to travel around the world. Capture beautiful places. Meet people. Tell stories through pictures. But dreams changed. Reality arrived. Bills needed paying. Rent needed paying. Life demanded sacrifice. Now he worked as a graphic designer in a small company near Shinjuku. The pay wasn't terrible. The job wasn't terrible. Everything was simply... Ordinary. And Mike hated ordinary. One rainy evening, after finishing another exhausting day at work, Mike stepped out of the office building. Dark clouds covered the sky. Rain poured down heavily. Most people rushed toward train stations. Others opened umbrellas. Some ran for cover. Mike simply sighed. "Perfect," he muttered. He had forgotten his umbrella. Again. The universe seemed determined to make his day worse. With no other choice, he started walking toward the station. Cold rain soaked his clothes almost instantly. His black hair stuck to his forehead. Water dripped from his jacket. The city around him became blurry beneath the rain. That was when he noticed her. A girl stood alone beneath a streetlight. She couldn't have been older than seventeen. She wore a school uniform. Dark brown hair reached her shoulders. A blue umbrella rested above her head. Unlike everyone else rushing through the rain, she stood completely still. Looking upward. Toward the sky. As if she were waiting for something. Mike glanced at her briefly before continuing. Not his business. Yet something felt strange. A minute later, curiosity got the better of him. He turned around. The girl was still standing there. Not moving. Not checking her phone. Not talking to anyone. Just staring upward. "What is she doing?" Mike wondered. He almost ignored it. Almost. Instead, he walked back. As he approached, he realized something. The girl wasn't looking at the sky. She was looking at the moon. A faint silver moon had appeared between the clouds. The girl smiled softly. For a brief moment, she looked genuinely happy. Mike stopped nearby. "You know it's raining, right?" The words left his mouth before he could stop them. The girl turned. Large brown eyes stared directly at him. "What?" "It's raining." "I noticed." "Then why are you standing here?" The girl blinked. "Why are you asking?" Mike immediately regretted approaching her. Good question. Why was he asking? Normally he avoided conversations. Especially with strangers. Especially with teenagers. "Forget it," he said. The girl tilted her head. "You're weird." Mike laughed. "I'm weird?" "Yes." "You were standing in the rain staring at the moon." "And you walked over to a random girl to point that out." Mike opened his mouth. Then closed it. Unfortunately, she had a point. The girl smiled triumphantly. "Hah." Mike rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He turned to leave. Then he heard her voice. "Wait." He looked back. "What?" The girl stared at him carefully. "You're having a bad day." Mike frowned. "How do you know that?" "You have the face." "The face?" "The exhausted office worker face." Mike couldn't help laughing. "The exhausted office worker face?" "Exactly." "And what doe