He was a lonely person and didn't have many friends in Echo Village. He had a hard time making friends because his unfriendly aura usually pushed them away.
It wasn't until that farmer came to the village when everything changed. He didn't become a friendlier person; she wasn't a genie or a magician. But everyone in the village could see that she was having an impact on his life in a positive way.
They could see the farmer, around noontime, her hair in a high ponytail on her head, bouncing against her neck as she struggled to hold down the top of the jug of milk she was carrying.
At first they all presumed she was taking the milk out to ship it. It was what farmers did, after all — but they were all proven wrong when she made a left turn and ran up the slope to the town square, where he ran his Animal Shop from Mondays to Thursdays.
Every time, he gave her a confused look but she held the jug of milk out and he took it every time.
At first, he didn't know what she was doing. She came every day with the jug of milk in her hands, at noon, even on weekends when she would knock on his door and share a glass of milk together in his house.
Milk wasn't his favorite thing. But it was obvious he always liked sharing it with her.
They could see how his face transformed from when she first moved here to now. In the spring, he couldn't be bothered with the new farmer who was determined to bring life back to the village. But every single day, at noon, with her ponytail still tied on top of her head, she jogged to where he was and shared a glass of milk with him, much to his dislike.
But then time passed, and a smile slowly started to grow on his face when he saw her leave her farm and jog back to the town square. You could literally see him falling in love with her.
She didn't do much. She planted crops. She attempted to bring life back to Echo Village with the old man who had known her folks. Neil didn't know why but she wasn't an animal kind of rancher.
She only had one cow, and that cow loved her very much. If she shipped the milk, she could very well get good money. But still to this day, she ran out of her farm and noon sharp and held the milk out for them to share. She did that for many years, even after they had gotten married.
The other villagers didn't see her face much once Neil softened. They mostly spent their time together. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The villagers just wanted them to be happy, and they were.
Some of them heard the story of when Neil came to her farm one day to change the routine and give her a glass of milk, only to see her ponytail was now taken out and her long brown hair was lying on her back. Neil was so shocked to see her hair that way that he actually screamed and jumped back.
No one is surprised when the villagers wait for their clocks to strike twelve and then look out the window and see the farmer, her ponytail still high on her head, still holding the cap down so no drops of milk escape the jug and then run up the slope to share lunch with the Animal Dealer.