This is from Harvest Moon Tale of Two Towns on the Nintendo DS. It features the main male character, whose default name is Philip and a villager of Konohana, Reina. In this fanfiction, Philip lived at Konohana.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon.
Philip remembered the first time he'd met her.
"My name's Philip. I just moved in here to take over the farm. Nice to meet you," he said with a smile, although his heart was completely different. It's as if it was going through a rollercoaster.
The braided raven-haired woman clad in green dress raised a skeptical eyebrow and Philip felt as if she was scrutinizing him under her critical gaze. "I'm Reina. I'm a botanist, I research plants. Nice to meet you too," she said curtly.
She acted cold with him, even though it had been a few weeks since their first meeting. He wondered if he'd done something wrong, so he considered on apologizing. When he told Kana, who had become his best bud along with Hiro, he just laughed it off.
"C'mon, man. No need to worry so much. She's just like that," Kana said.
"But she acted kinda normal towards you. Why do I feel as if she's giving me the cold shoulder?" Philip complained.
Kana smirked, "Whoa, man. You're smitten. You aren't even that concerned with Nori."
Philip exploded into a hundred shades of red, "I-it's not like that! And Nori's very kind, so that's not a problem!"
"Hey, hey, calm down, man! I was kidding. Although your reaction proved otherwise..." Kana muttered the last part, "anyway, just give her some time. She'll warm up to ya. She's just wary of other people."
He'd taken Kana's words and just took it slow. Kana really wasn't kidding about the 'wary of other people' part. It paid off, although in several months. He was really surprised, at first.
He saw her in the low Konohana mountains, sitting on a rock by the small river, observing a plant. Coincidentally, he was going to fish in that river, so he approached her.
He touched her shoulder. "Hey there, Reina. Observing again?" He greeted with a smile.
He was sure that he'd seen a light blush coating her cheeks, but he passed it off as his eyes playing tricks on him, since it disappeared when he looked at her again.
"Yeah..." she said, "What about you?"
Philip was taken aback. She usually would just offer a 'yes' or 'no', and nod or shook her head. "M-me?" He stammered. He mentally slapped himself and coughed to clear his throat.
"Yes," she said. He could feel the annoyance radiating off of her, "Who else is here?"
Philip almost sighed in relief when she spoke that way. He'd thought that she was another person posing as her. Ridiculous.
"Oh, I'm going to go hand-fishing here..." he gestured to the river.
"I see..." she said.
There was an awkward silence after that. Philip started to catch fish. Finally, when he couldn't take it anymore, he called out to her, who had continued studying a plant.
"Hey, Reina! Do you want to join me?" He asked.
Reina raised an eyebrow, as if to say, joining what?
Philip grinned, "Hand-fishing, of course."
A look of surprise flickered on her eyes, before it changed to disgust. "I don't like slimy things."
Philip laughed, "A botanist shouldn't be disgusted with those kind of things! Come here, I'll teach you how to hand-fish."
After that day, with him helping her get over her fear of slimy things, they grew closer. Granted, he still did most of the talking, but she'll actually listen and responded longer and more than just nods. It was good, much better than he had expected.
They got very close until they were best friends already. They almost never fight, there was almost no reason to. Philip was content with it, until one day, everything changed.
"..." Philip was crossing the bridge when he heard someone speaking.
"..." A different voice said. Philip realized that this was a conversation between two people. Even though he knew that eavesdropping isn't good, something compelled him to see who it was.
He peeked from behind the tree. What he saw made his jaws clench and his fists to tighten. Dirk was shoving Reina to the big tree. Dirk's expression was flirtatious, while Reina's was stoic.
"So, what do you say?" Dirk asked.
"...go away," Reina said, face remaining impassive.
He could hear Dirk growl, "...stop trying to deny it, bitch."
Philip's face darkened with fury, he was about to confront him and defend Reina's honor, but her reply made him freeze in his track.
"I already like someone else," she said.
Dirk's eyes gleamed dangerously before a smirk made its way to his face, "Oh, yeah? Who? You aren't even close to any boy, or even anyone at all. Wait, you are close to Nori. Don't tell me you're a lesbian?"
Reina looked at Dirk with cold eyes, "You're forgetting a person; a boy."
Philip's heart sped up. As far as he knew, he was the only male close to her.
Dirk raised his eyebrow, "Oh? Who is it?"
Reina lowered her head. What she had said almost made his heart stop. "Philip."
She said it very lowly that he might not have been able to hear it.
But he did.
He didn't know what to do in this kind of situation, so he did the only thing that came to his mind.
He ran. But since he couldn't cross the bridge without drawing the attention of the two people, he sought refuge in the nearest building; Yun's Tea House.
He'd been acting awkwardly around her, maybe even distancing himself from her. He knew that this was cowardly, but he couldn't help himself.
Unfortunately, this didn't go unnoticed by Reina.
"Uh, yeah..." He said when she told him something, "uh... I forgot to feed my cows. Later!"
He turned around to bolt, but she caught his arm.
"Where are you going?" She asked him calmly.
"Err, to feed my cows?" It sounded more like a question than a statement.
She narrowed her eyes, "You told me before that you've fed them already."
Shit. He forgot. "Uh..."
"What's with you, Philip?"
"I, um... what do you mean?" Great, now he's stammering.
"Don't lie to me. You've been acting strange these past weeks."
"N-nothing's wrong! Maybe it's just you..." He said, trying to convince her, even though it didn't convince even himself.
"You've been giving pathetic excuses. Tell me the truth. Why are you avoiding me?"
He finally made eye contact with her. Though her face remained stoic, he could see the slightest bit of hurt inside her eyes. Then it clicked. She thought that he was avoiding her because he didn't want her company anymore.
"Reina..."
"Is there something wrong with me?" Reina asked him, her voice cracking just a bit.
"No, no, no... I," he tried to find the right words to use, "there's nothing wrong with you. It's just... it's just me. I need to sort something out first, okay? When I already do, I'll... I'll tell you."
"...okay."
With her response, he made his way back to his farm.
He didn't talk to her the following week, or the week after that. But he can't deny his destiny. It was proved the next week.
One afternoon, he was going to the Goddess Spring to offer an offering to the Harvest Goddess. That's when he saw her sitting alone by the pond, observing a rare plant that she had told him about before. When they still talk. That moment though, he knew that he had to confront her.
So he did.
"Hi," he said breathlessly.
She turned around with a hard expression. When she saw who it was, her expression softened, "Hey."
"So, uh..." he remembered something. Shit, I don't even know what to say...
"Have you sorted everything out?" She asked.
"Yeah..." Philip replied.
Silence fell around them. They were both tense.
"Look, Reina..." He started. He really didn't know what to say, so he settled for, "I'm sorry..."
"What for?"
"For avoiding you..."
Reina stayed silent, waiting for him to elaborate.
"I have something to say to you," he said. "Actually, I... heard your conversation with Dirk."
Reina still stayed silent; it was actually starting to scare him.
"And I heard what you said. I didn't know what to do, so I ran away. I'm sorry. I know it was a very cowardly thing to do, and-"
"I know," she interrupted.
Philip stopped, "Huh?" Was all he could say. She knew that what he did was cowardly?
"I know that you were there," she elaborated.
Oh, so that's what she meant... Wait, "What? How..."
Reina smirked, "I'm not a botanist for nothing, you know. I observe things."
Philip stood there with his mouth wide open, gaping like a fish.
"So?" Reina asked.
"So what?" Philip asked back.
Reina sighed, "I swear, you can be so clueless sometimes. You heard my conversation with Dirk, right? So, what's your answer?"
"Oh... Well, I'm still not sure about this whole situation, but if there's one thing I am sure of, it's that I like you too, Reina," Philip said truthfully.
Reina smiled, "That's what I'd like to hear."
"What does this make us?" Philip asked.
"Best friends. Though if you want to be something more, you'll have to ask me."
Philip remembered that throughout this whole situation, he hadn't asked her properly. "Reina, will you go out with me?" he offered his hand.
Reina smiled and took it, "Alright."
Philip grinned, "Follow me." He dragged her to the mountaintop summit, standing over the fence overlooking the valleys.
"What are we doing here?"
Philip didn't answer her question, he just pointed at the sunset.
That's how they spent the rest of the afternoon watching the sunset together, hand-in-hand.
THE END.
And that's it. Probably not much, but yeah. Thanks for reading, anyway!