Moonlight Flower

Vol.02 Backstory #05 [A Rainy Midnight]

"I'm beat!" Musica let out a loud voice as he cracked his neck and stretched his arms forward. He had just come to his home from his business trip that was just supposed to be only at most one month, but he was extended for another month.

After taking a rest in the comfort of his own living room space, Sora came. He had also come from his work in a city mall.

"Welcome back, Musica!" Sora greeted him from the door.

"Hey, man," he nodded up. "How's your city life so far?"

"Coping up. Getting more used to it."

"Where's Mion?"

"Still working. He's on night shift for two weeks."

"I see. Well, did you already find any clues?"

Sora then took a seat across Musica. "During our day-offs, we have gone to places where some online videos were pertaining to any person that somewhat can turn into a wolf, but in the end they were just fake."

"Online videos about supernatural events are mostly made up. Mixed up. Just to gain views and money. Don't be easily fooled."

"That's true. We're still naive about how this modern world works." He let out a deep but amazed sigh. "I heard Mion's manager had somewhat seen a girl before who turned into a big dog, or probably a wolf. That's the most reliable clue we have so far. We are planning to go there on our off this week."

"Really? Where's the place? I doubt it's in this city."

"In the south province. It's almost 700km by land. There's no direct flight so there will still be 12-hour or more travel time."

"Have you already booked the flight?"

"Yes. I work in the mall so it was easy for me to go to the ticketing office. But the sales person really helped a lot. I just paid."

Musica nodded. "When's your flight? I wanna join you."

"How about your work? I heard from the news your company has partnered with another agency. Aren't you going to be busy again?"

"Tsk." He clicked his tongue in defiance. "I want to take a break!"

Sora noticed his irritation or half-heartedness again toward his current work. He didn't ask anything at first, but he just asked it. "Don't you like your work? I mean most people would want what you currently have."

Musica rolled his eyes on the side. He put his elbow on the armrest and put the back of his palm below his chin. "It's complicated. People just see what's on the outside."

Sora knew he shouldn't pry more on his private life. After all, Musica was very kind and generous to them, especially letting strangers as them stay for free in his own house without doubting or even prying on their own personal lives as well.

"Anyway," Sora said to change the topic. "In the event that we still can't find her this time, we will leave this city soon. We are just saving up. We need to move forward even if we don't have any clues. After all, he is the only one who can know. His father told him that only he can know it when he sees her right away. Leap of blood."

"Or maybe they look alike, or with some resemblance."

"Let's hope that's the case."

>>>>>><<<<<<

After training and putting his best effort in his job, Mion was finally in charge of the cashier work. He was also comfortable in the night shift schedule, except during the full moon. He would ask the store manager to let him be in the morning shift for two days.

Before he started working in the convenience store, he decided to change his name. One moment, he was fascinated by reading. One physical book he read was an old dictionary. It was hardbound and bigger than letter size paper.

He decided to read the dictionary one letter per day. He started from A down to the last words. B on the next and C on the next. He scanned through the following words that seem to catch his attention:

From Civilization to Clam, to Claire to Clairvoyance, to Clear. The words "Claire/Clare" seemed to draw his whole being at that moment without an exact reason. He thought it was a beautiful girl's name so he chose "Clarence" as his new name. It was the name he put in his ID and how his customers got to know him.

There were just a few customers during midnight so he felt at rest even for a bit. He would clean and put in places the disarrayed items while there were still no customers.

One midnight, it was raining hard. Few people came in to take a shade. One particular young woman with a hood over her head bought a sandwich and a bottle of strawberry yogurt and sat on the farthest table and silently ate.

Those few people started leaving when the rain started to die down, except for her. She stayed for more than half an hour, busying herself with her phone. Mion/Clarence noticed her since she was the only customer who dined in around that time.

After a few minutes, he glanced at her spot again. She raised her left hand and stared at the ring with one sparkling stone, like a diamond, on her finger for long.

Somehow, she felt that someone was looking at her. She looked at the cashier area. Clarence immediately averted his eyes and pretended to line up some candies around him.

She stood up and put her garbage on the trash bin. One of their city's policies was CLEAN AS YOU GO. She went out of the store.

Another customer came and left immediately after buying. When the door opened, Clarence saw that the same woman was still outside. He realized that she might not have an umbrella and was waiting for the rain to stop completely. However,  he knew it would continue pouring down until the morning. He went out and handed out an umbrella to her.

When she looked at him, he noticed that her green eyes, the color of forest during the summer, were watery. Probably because of the rain. But he felt something else - a deep sadness coming from those eyes.

She looked at the umbrella on his hand. She said to him, "Sorry, I can't buy that. I don't have enough cash now."

"Ah, no. You can borrow it for a while."

"Really?"

He nodded and smiled. "Yes. It's on the store. We really have this so we can be of help to our customers when it's raining."

"Alright." She took it. "Thank you. I will return it tomorrow or within the week."

"You're welcome. Take care."

She opened the umbrella and nodded as farewell and started walking away.

"Come back again," he said his usual phrase at the store.