"There you are, Ash!"

"!" He jerked is shoulder a bit as I screamed his name from his behind, and immediately turned his face towards me. "Oh, Cheryl. You startled me." Ash huffed as he put his right palm on his chest, but then he immediately gave me his usual brotherly smile.

I jogged playfully towards Ash, and hugged his legs. "Come play with me! You promised you'd play with me today!"

"What?" Ash formed a slight frown on his face for a brief moment before he slightly opened his mouth in agape. "Oh yeah! You're right, I did!"

"Ash, did you forget?" I pouted and slowly tugged his pants repeatedly.

"I'm sorry, Cheryl." He said as he patted my head. "But I'm talking with Laney right now. We'll play in a little while, okay?"

I frowned immediately upon hearing Ash's response. That's definitely not the response I want to hear, he promised to play with me today!

I peeked at the blonde girl from behind Ash's legs. She stood still, kept her eye on us while she put a faint smile with a slight frown. I puffed my right cheek and looked up to Ash again. "WHAT!? Noo! Play with me noow!"

"Uh.." Ash grabbed my arms and turned his face around to Laney.

Laney chuckled at the sight. "It's okay, Ash. Just play with her."

"Are you sure? But.. well.." Ash averted his gaze and fixed his beret hat.

"It's okay, we can talk later when you're free." Laney replied. "Don't forget to drop by the café some other times, okay? I'll bake you something delicious."

"Okay, thanks! Sorry, Cheryl's being such a brat. We'll take a raincheck, okay? Next time, let's talk more." Ash smiled at Laney while his hands made a pleading gesture.

"Ash come oooon! Let's go, let's go!" I tucked his pants again, this time more impatiently. I don't like hearing myself being called a brat, but I'm too busy to drag him off from other girl to be mad about that.

"Okay, okay…" Ash patted my head again, and then he grabbed my hand. "I'll see you later, Laney."

My name is Cheryl. I live in Bluebell village with my Mom, Jessica and my big brother, Ash; and we run the biggest farm throughout the village. Mom used to work along with Ash in the farm, taking care of the animals and stuffs, but because my Mom once fell sick due to fatigue Ash had forbid her to overwork herself, and Ash took over the farm by himself. I really wanted to help out at the farm, but Mom and Ash always tell me I can't, and that I to wait until I grow up a little bit more. So instead, I usually help my mom to run our dairy product store.

The farm used to be owned by Dad, however Mom said that Dad had left us when I was still a baby, that's why I don't really have any memories of him; well, I could even hardly get a good grasp on his looks or face. I might have grown up without a Dad, but I have the best brother in the world! He had never complaint on running the big farm by himself, and I know it's not an easy task. Ash is a real hardworker, and he is sooo nice to me. He always tried his best to give me whatever I asked him, and he always treat me nicely. He really loves me and I really love my brother! In fact, when I grow up I wish I could marry a guy like that is just like my brother. A true gentleman, and a hardworking farmer. But of course my brother is the best farmer in the world, no one is better than him! Ah, I wonder if I could find a guy as great as him when I'm finally an adult?

Buuuut, Ash also has this weakness to himself. He is nice to everyone. Too nice, even. This is why he worries me the most, what if some evil girls take his kindness for granted? I don't want those girls to take my brother away, that is why I have to protect my brother!

We finally arrived at our house. It's not really far from the town's square, and just across our house is a horse-breeding ranch. They sure have pretty horses on their ranch! I often stop by the ranch's fence to take a look at their horses. Ash opened the front door and hold them for me to walk in first.

"We're home." Ash notified.

"Oh Ash. You're back already?" Mom turned her face for a few seconds from the shelf towards us as he heard Ash's voice, then she shifted her attention back to the shelf . "I thought you said you're going to be home late today." She said as she mentally counted and arranged the stocks that will be sold for the next day.

"Um.. Yeah. Well." Ash replied ambiguously while fixing his hat. It's a habit of him whenever he feels uncomfortable or awkward.

Mom turned her head towards us once again, her eyebrows raised. Then her eyes met mine and she huffed slowly. "Cheryl.. Don't be too clingy on your brother. You're bothering Ash."

I pouted in disagreement. "But, he already made a promise to play with me today!"

"Don't be selfish, you can play with him anytime whenever he's free. Today is his day off, you should have just let him enjoy his time."

"Whaaaaaaatttttt." I frowned at mom's words. "But he's always working.. and he would be too tired to play with me after works!"

"It's alright, mom. She's right, I did make a promise to Cheryl to play with her on my next day off." Ash smiled as he patted my head.

I smiled widely at Ash's words. Aha, my brother is really the best!

"Don't spoil your sister too much, Ash." Mom put a little warning on her words.

Ash gave mom a faint laugh and we proceed to walk before mom cut us off again. "Oh, by the way Rutger dropped off earlier today." We stopped and shifted our attention back to Mom. "A new villager is going to move into the village to take over the run-down farm on the west-end area and Rutger was showing him around the village."

"Oh really? I just heard about it now." Ash replied.

"Yeah. So Rutger had bought him a cow and a chicken, can you deliver them to his farm tomorrow morning? He's around your age so I think you guys can get along well." Mom asked.

"Sure, no problem." Ash nodded.

"Ooh! Hey, Ash. Can I go too?" I looked up to Ash.

"Cheryl-"

"I'm soo bored being at home. I just want to take a walk with you and I wanna see the farm!" I cut Mom's words before she start to nag all day.

"Cheryl." Ash squatted to meet my eye level with his. I averted my gaze from his, I knew he was also going into his nagging mode. "This is not a trip or anything like that. It's an important request from the mayor, you hear?"

"I know.. but.." I looked up to Ash with my puppy-eyes. "Pleaseeee?"

"…."

"I'm going to work hard at the shop afterwards! Promise!" I offered him my pinky finger.

"…"

Ash sighed and again, he fixed his hat. "Alright. But also promise, don't disturb me when I'm talking to the mayor or the new villager, and well, basically just behave yourself."

"Mm-hmm!" I nodded vigorously.

"Fine. You can come along." Ash hooked my pinky finger with his. "But remember, behave."

"Mmmm-hmmmmm!" I nodded again, a bit more exaggerated than before. I could faintly hear my mom's sigh behind me.

I grinned to myself. Heh, it works everytime.

"Aaaaasssshhhhhhh!" I called out to him as I entered his room. Upon hearing my voice, he immediately buried his head under the pillow and covered his ears. I came up closer to him and shook his arms. "Ash! Wake up!" I tried to call out to him again only to be replied by his unclear murmurs under his pillow.

"Ash, waaaakeee uuuuppp! You don't want to wait until Mom come herself to wake you up, do you?" I tried to threaten him.

Ash lifted his pillows, put it on his arms and lifted his head a bit. He narrowed his eyes on me for a few seconds.

Then he buried his face back to the pillow.

"Aaaash!" I shook his arms more vigorously, starting to get irked on his sleepyhead habit.

"Sheesh." He hissed from inside his pillow. Then he lifted his head, narrowed his eyes on me again.

Then he finally got up from his bed and head to the bathroom without any words.

Good thing he finally got up, I was already so tempted to smack him on his head next if he buries himself back to his pillow.

Just right after we got dressed up and had our breakfast, we heard a knock on the door. Mom rushed to the door to find mayor Rutger was standing in front of the door.

"Good morning, Jessica. Are we all prepared?" The mayor asked.

"Of course, Rutger! I have prepared the finest cow and chicken, and Ash is going to deliver them to the farm in my stead." Mom replied.

"Oho, very well, then. Shall we go, Ash?" The mayor turned to Ash.

"Alright, I'll go get the animals and we're good to go." Ash replied.

Then the mayor politely asked for leave to Mom, and he guided us to the new farmer's house. Along the way, mayor Rutger keeps on bragging how proud he is of the newcomer that he could see the beauty of Bluebell by choosing to live here rather than Konohana, our village rival. Konohana is also a famous farming village across the mountain, and both mayor of the villages never get along. That's why once a week, they have a cooking festival on the mountain summit in order to show whose village is the best, but really it is just a reason for the mayors to bash each others' village since the villagers are cool with each other.

After quite some walks, we finally see a house and somewhat looks like a farm surrounding the area. It's not exaggerating when Mom calls it as a run-down because the farm was truthfully in a bad condition, with all those weeds and all.

We stopped in front of the house and Rutger knocked on the house's door. Not so long after that, I heard the sound of the door creaked open. My vision was blocked by Rutger and Ash, so I had to peek a little from in between those two to take a look at the new villagers.

Just then, a boy came out to the door to get his guests.

And at that time,I don't know why my eyes just decided to lock themselves on the figure, and refused to look away.