Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or anything associated with it.

Summary: It's obvious to Kathy and Maya that Chase likes Angela, but since his social skills aren't going to get him a girlfriend anytime soon, they decide to step in and help.

"What's she doing out there?"

"I don't know, she's just…standing outside the door."

"She's holding something!"

"It's an orange!" Maya realized, gasping.

Kathy turned to Chase with a smirk on her face. "'Who, Angela? You guys are idiots, there's no way in hell she likes me,'" she told him in a distorted imitation of his voice.

"I don't talk like that!" Chase snapped.

"Aw…she's running away…" Maya said from her spot at the window.

"Aw, damn," Kathy sighed. "That makes twice this week. Poor girl. Chase, you scare her so much she's too afraid to woo you!"

The orange haired waiter turned with annoyance to the blonde. "She is not trying to 'woo' me, and even if she was, I don't care…and don't say that, anyways, that sounds so dumb…"

"Woo, woo, woo, woo!" Kathy and Maya chanted.

Angela entered, looked at them with wide eyes, and then backed out. The girls hurried to the window, watching her run back towards her farm.

"Now look what you two idiots did," Chase mumbled, rolling his eyes. He felt a pang of empathy towards the girl who had entered only to find she didn't belong. Then again, who'd want to belong with them? They're insane.

"Wait! She bumped into somebody!" Maya noted in awe. "And she…aw…she hit Gill in the face with the orange. Now she can't give it to Chase."

"Wow, that was one weak orange. It exploded all over him. I've never seen Gill not have perfectly clean clothes. And he hasn't hit her or anything!" Kathy told her friend in astonishment. "Hey, him and Angela are walking back this way!"

Chase glanced at the window himself, watching as the two passed by. Gill was staring down at his shirt while Angela rapidly apologized. Gill shook his head and she fell silent, and that was the last they saw.

"Well, there she goes," Maya sighed. "Our only form of entertainment. Now she's going to be wooing Gill."

"She's not just going to switch guys like that," Chase protested.

Maya and Kathy exchanged a look, smirking.

"Chase, you want to come see what Angela is doing today?" Maya asked the boy excitedly.

The waiter turned to her with narrowed eyes. "Why are you two so fascinated with her? She'd be pretty creeped out if she knew that you were constantly spying on her, you kn-,"

Kathy grabbed onto the back of his apron and pulled him away. "Oh, stop your whining, orangetop," she said when he began to protest. "Just come watch the farmer with us for once."

"I don't want- what's she holding?" Chase asked, coming to a stop before the window.

Maya and Kathy grinned at each other.

"Is that…a tomato?" the boy asked, sounding incredulous. "A tomato?"

"Yes, Chase. It is summer…she's growing crops on her farm…a tomato is a summer fruit…"

"No, it's a vegetable."

"Maya, it's a fruit."

"Vegetable!"

"Fruit!"

"Vegetable!"

"Why does she have a tomato?" Chase interrupted them.

Angela looked over at the window and they all hurriedly ducked. In a few seconds, Kathy crept up. "The coast is clear," she told them. Chase stayed on the floor, and so she sighed and grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking him up.

"Hey!"

"Are you just going to sit and take that?" Kathy asked him, hands on her hips. "Your little girlfriend is too scared to even woo you. She's switched to Gill and tomatoes because she's so embarrassed since you're always so mean to her! Go and apologize to her!"

"I don't have anything to apologize for, you two were the ones who scared her so bad she hit Gill- and she's not my girlfriend, anyways! I don't care about her at all!"

He looked out the window nevertheless, and Kathy rolled her eyes.

The next day, Gill entered the Sundae Inn.

"Hi Gill!" Maya called to him enthusiastically.

Chase, who had been washing dishes in the kitchen, jumped so high that he slammed his head against the overhead cabinets.

"Just ignore Chase, he's in a jealous rage," Kathy told the blonde cheerfully, extending her hand to him. "It's not often we see you around here."

Chase turned and shot a dark look at her. She looked away, winking at Gill. "I'm not in a jealous rage!" the boy snapped.

"Gill, is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?"

"Uh-,"

"Maya, don't pester your customers!" Kathy chastised her friend. "Sorry Gill. What Maya meant to say was, what would you like today? Chase will make it for you right away."

The trio distinctly heard an angry, "Like hell," from the kitchen.

"Actually, I wanted some apple juice."

Chase banged his head against the cabinets again.

"Please, ignore him," Kathy told Gill.

Maya beamed up at the customer. "Hey, Angela loves apples, doesn't she? She used to come in and buy apple juice all of the time before someone asked why she wasted all of her time here."

Chase groaned. That wasn't one of his high points.

"Yeah, she does," Gill told them, and Chase watched in horror as a blush came onto the boy's cheeks. "I…kind of wanted to get some for her, to be honest…"

"Chase, hurry up and make apple juice for him!" Kathy told the gaping boy.

The waiter's eyes flashed as he looked at Gill, and he grabbed an apple from the fruit basket beside him, shoving it in the blender. Beneath the whizzing sound of the blender, the trio in the dining area could hear mutters of, "Stupid Gill," and "Can't believe he likes her."

Finally, Chase emerged from the kitchen with a glass of apple juice, shoving it into Gill's hands. He had at least had the decency to cover the top with foil so it didn't splash all over.

"Thanks," Gill said, pulling money from his pockets.

"Oh, no, this one is free," Kathy told him.

"What? You don't even work here right now!" Chase snapped. "Why are you even here?"

"Because I like to spend time with you," she patted him hard on his shoulder, making him wince. "Now get back in the kitchen, orangetop."

Maya giggled.

Chase walked away, swearing under his breath. Kathy turned to Gill and nodded, the boy returned the gesture and headed out the door.

"So, Chase," Kathy began as she headed into the kitchen. The boy groaned. Kathy coming into the kitchen was never good news. "You seemed pretty jealous of Gill back there."

"Why would I be?" he retorted.

"Because once upon a time Angela was trying to woo you, but since you blew her off and never did anything back, she decided to woo Gill instead and he's actually doing something back…so, to make a long story short-,"

"Angela and Gill are going to get married~ and you're going to be lonely forever~!"

"Well put, Maya," Kathy told her friend, patting her on the shoulder.

"Piss off," Chase told them both, pulling his apron over his head and tossing it the floor. "I'm leaving."

Maya and Kathy watched him go. When he left the door, Kathy turned to Maya and said, "I think maybe we went too far."

"No, I think we went just far enough."

Kathy hesitated and then laughed. "Says the girl who thinks a tomato is a vegetable."

"Coming from the girl who thinks it's a fruit!"

Chase headed to the Town Hall, his footsteps echoing in the empty streets. Stupid Kathy. She's so damn bossy. And Maya, with her god-awful singing! No wonder they got along so well, they're both a bunch of damn idi-

His own thoughts were cut off as he bumped into somebody.

"Oh, right, I guess this is for you, Ang-,"

Gill's apple juice spilled from his hand, and all over the person in front of him. Chase looked up in horror at Angela, who stared down at her soaked clothes and then looked at him, her cheeks bright red.

"Angela…I am so…so…sorry," Chase started, his jaw dropped.

"Maybe you should watch where you're going," Gill said, his voice as snooty as ever. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, dabbing at the front of Angela's shirt.

"It's okay, it's fine," Angela mumbled, pulling away. "Thanks anyways, Gill…"

She hesitated and then bolted past the boys.

Chase turned to Gill and said, "'I guess this is for you?'"

A light went off in his head. He thought of how Kathy had let Gill take the apple juice for free, and how they had dragged him to the window to see Angela holding the tomato…

"Well, why would I go and buy apple juice for Angela?" Gill replied when Chase voiced his questions. "I'm going out with Luna, after all. Kathy just asked me to-,"

Chase's eyes widened. "I got it." As soon as Kathy's name was mentioned there was no reason to here the rest of the explanation. Those two idiots are a lot smarter than I thought, he realized, turning and running after Angela.

She was sitting in front of the town square, talking to a bird and wiping her shirt with her own tissue.

"That was pretty embarrassing, wasn't it?" she asked the bird. "I don't know what Gill was up to…or what's up with Kathy and Maya, either…I mean, I had to give Gill one of my shining tomatoes…that would have made a lot of money! But…I don't know…"

He watched her pause, as if a thought had just come to her.

"Maybe they're trying to get me and Gill together," she told the bird, standing up and wiping more vigorously at her shirt. "But I don't know why. They know I-,"

"They're not trying to get you and Gill together," Chase murmured.

Angela jumped, nearly stepping on the bird. It flew away instantly, shouting at her from the skies.

"Oh…Chase…I didn't know you were there…and you saw me talk to myself…well, this day just keeps getting better and better…"

"Well, you were talking to the bird, actually. That makes it a little better."

She hesitated, as though unsure whether or not he was making fun of her, and then smiled. "I guess so."

"How come…you don't come to the Inn anymore?" he asked her awkwardly, his cheeks tinged with pink. He avoided her eyes and instead picked an interesting spot on the ground.

"Er…well…"

"Is it because of what I said?" he asked, finally forcing himself to look at her. "That whole…'Why do you always waste your time here?' thing? Because I didn't mean it, okay? I was just…being a jerk. I…" he swallowed hard. "I kind of liked when you stopped by."

He heard squeals from the open Inn window, but when he looked over there was nobody there.

Great, they're never going to let me live this down…

"Thanks, Chase," Angela told him softly, smiling up at him. "Maybe I'll start…coming by again."

"That'd be…nice," he mumbled.

"What you said…about Kathy and Maya not trying to get me and Gill together? Do you know what they've been trying to do, then? Because they told me I should take a tomato to Gill and then I saw them talking to him later, and he had that apple juice and everything…I don't really get what's going on."

Chase made a face and stared over at the Inn. Maya and Kathy were standing at the bar, pretending to be cleaning. He knew them better than that.

"They…saw that you weren't stopping by because I…had been a jerk to you…and they noticed that I…felt kind of bad about it. So they did this all to set you up…with me. To get me jealous of Gill so I would talk to you."

Angela's jaw dropped temporarily, and then she laughed. "Wow. I was…I was really off!"

Chase surprised himself by beginning to laugh. A wave of relief ran through him; rather than turning and running, like he probably would have, she was just giggling away.

"I'm sorry they tried to make you like me," Angela told him; her laughter began to die as though a new, terrible thought had caught her attention, and she began to walk away, brushing past him to get to the staircase. "I'll stop by tomorrow or something."

"But…er…okay," he mumbled. He watched her walk off to her farm and headed back into the Inn, his head in his hands.

Summary: At first, this was just going to be a oneshot, but I decided to prolong Chase's torture. If you're wondering why Angela leaves so soon, think of it this way; she's used to being put down by Chase, so she hurries away before he can make her feel bad again. Next chapter, Kathy and Maya start with the lessons. :p Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys enjoyed it!