Author's Note: This is a simple one-shot, really, of a fairly unknown bonus bachelor in Harvest Moon: DS Cute. Mason is a bored, indifferent introvert, of whom runs May's Tailoring in Mineral Town. You can have various conversations with him on the phone and you could actually end up with him if you chat with him enough! If you want full details as to who he is and how to woo him, please check out my profile!

A World Away

The world has gone mad at the thought of living. Living to the fullest, if I were to specify.

People are obsessed with the ideal that one must dive into life at full throttle at all times to live. Otherwise, you're "wasting away" the best times of your life. Well, I'm not exactly the best person to inquire, but if you ask me, I'd rather live life at my own pace. Look, if you're one of those people who think otherwise, good for you. Hardworkers. That's what I'd call you. The world needs you, the kind of people that take life by the reins and whips it into shape.

As for me, well, I've found my calling. I work at my old Granny's tailoring shop. Maybe you've heard of it? May's Tailoring? Yeah, I'm doing what I love for sure, but I'm still waiting for that epiphany, that pivotal point in my life when I feel content with every second that passes.

That moment when I can finally conclude: "Hey, the world needs me, too."

Turning the scratched up, rusted knob of his family's tailoring shop, Mason pulled himself in for another day of work. He flipped the light-switch effortlessly, as his eyes took in the waves of lace and pastel fabrics. He took up a quick inventory check, swiping his pen over each little box. In the small corners of each page, small, almost-indiscernible names were scrawled in cursive. Setting Sun… Bamboo Forest. The dear Goddess above must have been laughing at his cheesy names.

All was well, he supposed. Taking his usual seat in the corner reception desk, Mason opened up a window just enough to lighten up the stuffy atmosphere. Running a hand through his disheveled locks, he let out a ghost of a sigh. All was well.

The day passed by at the blink of an eye, as his usual work space became cluttered in half-finished designs and color palettes pinned onto the cork board his mother left him. He had gotten a few calls, but none of them really left a deep impression. They were just another few faceless voices off in the distance. He was just about to fall asleep with his cheek rested on his palm before a chime rang in and broke the silent spell. There was no violent jerk backwards or a comedic fall off his chair; just a quick roll of his eyes as he checked the time. It was literally six minutes before closing time. Couldn't they have saved it for tomorrow?

Breaking out in a sigh, he reached over to the phone and picked it up, pen and paper ready for an order. A simple "Hello, this is May's Tailoring. How may I help you?" muttered from his end was returned with something a little out of the ordinary.

"Hey there! This time around, I want to talk to you."

His eye brow perked for a moment as he tried to pinpoint just where he had heard this voice before. Flipping through his paperwork, Mason could have sworn that he had made a few orders from this girl a while back. Pure Heart… Cool Costume… Yeah, this was her, alright. Jill, was it? She had made, what, five orders in the past two months? Maybe he should just let her have what she wanted so he could get home already.

Rubbing his eyes, Mason honestly had no idea where to start. Shrugging indifferently, Mason murmured, "You want to talk to me? I don't know, miss, I'm pretty boring…" Yeah and pretty tired, too. It'd be nice to get a move on home, lady.

"Are you kidding? You don't seem boring at all to me." Jill chuckled at her end of the call.

Huh. What a silly girl. Might as well play along. "I'm not boring at all? Really? ..Well, alright then," he managed to plainly reiterate. The rest of the conversation wasn't worth taking note of. She didn't have much on her mind and Mason, well he didn't really care for a talk when he could have been at home instead. Hanging up after such a short conversation, he couldn't help but sigh. Was that even worth the trouble? Shutting the windows, turning off the lights, and closing up shop left him feeling a tad empty for the night.

It was just another day after all.

She kept calling. You'd think that after one talk with Mason, she'd stick to business and leave his personal life out of the question. But she kept calling. And something about that just stuck out to him. Sure, he was constantly formal and kept his side of the conversation level-headed, but she definitely had thought up quite the list of things to talk about after the first fiasco.

Honestly, from his home town to his hobbies to his blood type, Jill really got down to the nitty-gritty details that even he didn't consider talking about before. At first, all that stuff seemed like such a bother. What was she thinking at her end of the phone? What was she going to use that information for? And what the hell did she think of him? Even though it didn't matter too much to him at first, Mason was starting to get a little too fond of these persistent little chimes. She didn't seem to judge like the guys back home and, well, she always seemed content with hearing from him. Her voice seemed to welcome him in, tugging like ebbing waves of open-hearted kindness.

It was… a nice change from what he was used to. Mason stiffly reached out to the dusty picture frame he had turned away from him for almost two years now. If there were any customers that came in, hey, they might have thought he was a family guy. But let's face it. He just couldn't bare to see their faces all day long so he turned them to greet the door. His fingers ran over the dusty mat that rested on all their faces. Mom, Dad and Gran seemed a world away from him now. This new girl-wasn't she a world away too? She seemed a hell of a lot closer than they were though.

Cleaning off the glass panel of the picture frame, he mused a little while longer. Yeah, she seemed pretty close for someone living multiple towns away. Yet, for some reason, he didn't mind at all.

She had lost count after forty calls over several months, to be honest. Jill twirled on her toes as she tried out Mason's recent masterpiece, Longing Memories. Blowing her bangs out of her face, Jill took a better glance at her reflection in the mirror. As she added more and more to her wardrobe and changed her wallpaper ever so often, Mason seemed to come up with some gorgeous pieces to meet her future demands. They were, without a doubt, stunning each time, so she didn't need to worry much about what she was paying for.

"Haha, I wonder if this mirror leads to a parallel world?" She joked to herself as her eyes ran up and down her reflection to observe Mason's handiwork. Sticking a tongue out, Jill let out a quick chuckle and turned away. "Nah, I'm fine just where I am."

Taking a seat by her bed, Jill flashed a look at her phone. Sighing with a forlorn smile painted across her expression, she murmured, "Yeah. Just where I am."

Slumping back against her bedpost, she flipped through the latest catalogue Mineral Town had sent over. What caught her curiosity was the change in Mason's choice of names over time. Earlier this year, the catalogue was filled with quite the selection: Cool Costume, Setting Sun, Bamboo Forest and the like. They didn't have much meaning behind them beyond the initial impression, but that was totally fine by her.

But Jill didn't want to stop there. She wanted to know the guy behind these cutesy names and delicate designs. Heck, he seemed like a colorful character before she had even tried chatting him up. After all these calls, however, he was definitely making a bigger impression on her than she could have expected. As she ran her finger down the catalogue, her smile took a softer turn when her finger came to rest on a particularly new outfit of his.

Dialling May's Tailoring up, Mason's usual professional droll greeted her. Jill's voice rang out in a warm, familiar way. "I would like to order 'Yours Forever,' please!"

She supposed that she had made quite the impression on him as well, huh?

The world didn't seem so out of reach anymore. In fact, it seemed as though he had it in the palm of his hands. Adjusting his hold on the phone, he supposed he could word it that way. She was going on about what his type was or whatev- Wait. What his type was? You could say his heart skipped a beat or his mind went blank for a moment. But the feeling that gripped his chest was so much more than just that. It felt as though it could render him numb, as though she had discovered a weakness of his he had long been hiding away. The shock meshed with the complicated emotions that had been blooming all this time.

"My… type… A hard worker. I've never needed to answer that before," he answered slowly as the certainty in his voice steadily slipped into his answer. "Goddess above, that was embarrassing," he murmured under his breath.

"I heard you, y'know! Say… Mason. Last question for the night alright? I'll stop embarrassing you for the time being, hahaha!" Her amused laughter jingled over the line.

"Oh, come on. Out with it, Jill!"

"Okay, okay! You don't need to get your newest outfit in the twist! What do you think of me, Mason? Tell me the truth and nothing but the truth, alright?"

Well, if he thought his heart was going to pound right out of his chest, this would be just about the right time to do it. He was dead, the flustered guy, and it was impossible to squirm his way out of this one. She wanted the truth and nothing but the truth, after all. So he was going to give her just what she ordered.

"What I think about you? Well I…" He attempted to think of just the right thing to tell her. What did he think of her after all this time?

"...I think you work very hard. See- See ya." And with that, he smacked his phone back onto its stand. Resting his face in the warmth of his hands, he could feel the rest of his face lighting up just as warmly. He was at his limit this time for sure.

Jill was always telling him things about her home, knit tightly into the valley multiple towns over. About how her clothes managed to make her feel great about herself, even if she had to care for the animals and get crusted in dirt and dust everyday. She always managed to give Mason little tidbits about her life, as though she was filling him in on what he was missing. He honestly felt as though he had been missing quite a lot…

"Wait, I have to tell you something today." It was about time he traded places with her, wasn't it? It was time for a change and he absolutely needed to take the first step to make a difference. "We've been talking for a while, right? It's meant a lot to me."

"But I… think we need a change of pace." Mason swallowed, hoping that his voice didn't sound shaky over the phone.

"What… do you mean, Mason? You don't like this the way it is?"

"Well, I think I've fallen in love with you, " he managed to spit out. "Just talking to you over the phone isn't going to cut it anymore, Jill." His grip tightly wound around the phone. Just go for it, Mason. Nothing to lose.

"Will you marry me? Would you run the tailor's shop with me?" I can only say something like this once. If she says no then… I know my answer.

The silence over the line was deafening. In fact, he assumed that she was on her way to hang up or maybe he had gone deaf from all the blood pumping up to his ears. He was about to take his retreat calmly and get the hell out of there when she answered the violent storm tossing in his head with a voice like a ray of sunshine.

"Yes. Mason, of course I would!" Goddess, he could hear her smile through the phone. "I wouldn't ask for anything else."

"Thank you." That was the only thing that came to his mind right now. "No, I really mean it. Thank you."

"I'll make you the happiest girl in the world."

Hm? Me? What do I think now that I have the love of my life right in the nook of Mineral Town? Well, one thing's for sure... the world is definitely still mad. But living to the fullest isn't so bad every so often... and having someone to live side by side with you in all this madness is something else entirely.

I can't really describe it in words, that feeling that seems to have enveloped my life. It's vivid, immeasurable and downright priceless. It's a certain bliss that fills every empty hole I could have found in myself.

I guess you could say I found my epiphany.

Someone in this world needs me too.