Summary: Jack Harvest never liked himself—thought himself as plain and not much to look at. The women in Forget-Me-Not Valley seem to think otherwise. Not that he would know. Talk about some serious self-esteem issues eh?
Disclaimer – The only Harvest Moon related things I own is this story and the Harvest Moon DS cartridge I bought about a month ago. I do not in any way own the idea of Harvest Moon or any of its characters. Credit for any Harvest Moon character I use in this story goes to Natsume.
Rated: M Warning!: There will be scenes of sexual material. If you are seriously under aged or cannot handle this level of intimacy, please click that back button or at least skip these parts. I will not be held responsible for any occurring issues for I have given a note of caution. It'll be very light though. Nothing Porn-like I assure you.
As Plain as Brown
Jack Harvest had always thought of himself as plain. Inspecting his own features in front of the bathroom mirror, he thought he looked even plainer now than ever—especially his eyes. They were brown. They were plain and unimpressive. He also didn't like his hair—a little messy, and unimpressively brown. He wasn't sure how he got to be so self-conscious. Perhaps it had something to do with him being a middle child. It was easy to be ignored and although teenagers love to be left alone, often times as a kid, he felt unnoticed and unwanted because his parents were busy trying to keep his little sister Claire happy. She was only three years younger than him. He could see her growing up to be an even bigger spoiled brat having no clue about the real world. His older brother was already in college by the time he turned eleven so he was out. But he couldn't blame his parents. They were trying and despite Claire being a spoiled brat, he loved her.
On his fourteenth birthday, his mother caught him in the bathroom trying to fix up his hair. His mother gave a soft laugh at the sight. His hair had an excessive amount of gel that would probably turn his hair into stone and he sported an extremely distressed expression on his face as he frantically tried on different styles. Before she could say anything else, he mentioned to her about his disliking of how his hair was messy. She stopped him and washed the gel off his hair. After drying his head off with a towel, she combed it to straighten it. When he thought she was done, he pulled away, but she pulled him back.
"It doesn't look quite right." She then messed his hair up near his forehead a little.
"Perfect." She said. He looked at himself at the mirror and looked pointedly back at his mother.
"Mom. It looks the same as it always does."
"Well. I think you look adorable that way and I think all those girls outside would think so too."
"What girls? Don't tell me you invited the whole school?!"
"Well, we have so much space and I didn't want it to feel so empty. You should be happy that your friends are out there."
As she left, he looked at the closed bathroom door sadly. Truth is he didn't have any friends. He was a very quiet guy. In school, he'd always go to some secluded area and just sit staring at the ground, mindlessly throw pebbles, or pick at the grass. Those people outside his house. He only knew the names of his classmates—some of them acquaintances, but not friends.
Once he set foot outside, he spotted his blonde-haired sister chatting happily with her friends. As he walked he felt many people staring at him. He found a lone chair and sat down, hands grasping at the sides, and stared at the ground before him. He felt the stares and heard the giggles and whisperings he couldn't make out of the girls passing by. He sat there staring at the ground thinking they were making fun of him. He didn't want to look up, afraid they'd see his sadness. So he sat there the whole time. Staring at the ground. Unbeknownst him, the girls were thinking differently.
However, loneliness wasn't the reason he decided to start a life out in Forget-Me-Not Valley—which, he ironically almost forgot the name of. He decided during college that he wanted to get away from the spoiled life and do something—anything. So he left after he finished at the age of twenty-two. When he arrived, he found that there was nothing he could do except farm. So he decided he'd try it and see where it would take him and there was nothing here but farms anyway. There was an inn and a bar close by south of where he currently resides, a nice small pond surrounded by trees and flowers south of the inn, a beach south of the pond, another pond a little ways east of where he resides named after the harvest goddess (whom he hoped would give him a good harvest when he would start growing produce—if there even was a goddess), a mine east from the goddess pond, and a rather large intricately designed complex west nearby, which he believed to have rich people living in, but he'd rather not go near that building and that was about it.
Jack had a little bit of money saved up from—well, he was rich to begin with but only took enough to get where he wanted to go and left the rest with his family. He wanted to buy the land that he saw was for sale, but he didn't have much money left on him. By sheer dumb luck, the mayor seemed desperate to give it away and got it for free. He hoped it wasn't cursed or anything. But in return, the mayor wanted to see the farm prosper. So here he is now in a small farmhouse—one room consisting of a bed, a small kitchen, and a small bathroom, all under what must be less than five hundred square feet of space. He made a mental note to himself to expand the house a little when he had enough money saved up.
Having grown tired of looking at himself, he brushed his teeth and washed his face. Giving a last look at himself, satisfied that he looked a bit better now that he was cleaned up, dressed himself in a farmer's attire—a white T-shirt that would probably be dirtied up by the end of the day, blue overalls, black rubber boots, and white gloves. Heading towards the mirror again, he looked at his hair. Wanting to do something about it, he looked towards the comb, took it, and brushed it through his hair. This feat accomplished nothing. He had only succeeded in making himself look weird. Messing his hair back up, he decided he'd just settle with a blue hat. He put the cap on with the flap at the back—two tuffs of hair managed to poke through from under the cap. Letting out a defeated sigh, he left the house with a bothered look on his face.
Behind the house, Jack gave the vast field a look. There were seemingly countless rocks and pieces of twigs and branches, and even more weeds then there are insects in the world. Strangely, he found he was looking forward to working on this field—like he already had a master plan hidden beneath his sleeve. But he didn't have one. He just wanted to start working—like it was in his genetics. He considered it odd, since no one else in his family liked doing manual labor. Brushing that thought aside, he began his work.
Nami McKay was exhausted. Her feet were aching and longed for rest. But she continued on walking, hoping the dirt path would lead to a place to stay, and perhaps some food. A few minutes of walking passed and she began to make out a farm in the distance. She made her way up and noticed that it was barren. She figured now that she stopped that she'd sit on the wooden bench under the tree across the farm. No more than five seconds had passed until she had spotted a man knelt on the ground pulling out weeds. She sat there silently watching him work as she enjoyed the feel of her aching feet finally getting some rest. It didn't occur to her how long it was until she saw him tense up a little as if he noticed her presence and slowly turned around to look at her. She felt like a thief caught red-handed—a deer frozen in the middle of a road caught under the headlights. Nami hoped he didn't think she was some stalker or worse—a serial killer. She hadn't counted on staying there as long as she had. But she especially hadn't counted on him being the most handsome man she'd laid eyes on. He gave her a look of surprise before giving a soft greeting. She should've said hi back, but being herself, she blurted out the first thing that came up.
"What are you looking at" she rudely interjected. She felt so stupid after letting that out. But before he could respond she made a mad dash towards town and left him with a confused look on his face.
She stopped running until she reached a building and leaned against the wall. Her heart was pounding so hard and fast she felt each beat pulse throughout her body. Even as her heart rate slowed down, she found that the strength of her heartbeat had not weakened. An image of his face framed her mind and she felt the pounding increase in strength. She shook her head to rid the image of him and sat on the ground.
"This shouldn't be happening to me." She said to herself disappointedly.
"Why now?" Why now of all times did she have to fall attracted to anyone? Nami had a dream—a dream of exploring the world and seeing amazing places. She had just started trying to make her dream a reality three weeks ago. Mentally straightening herself, she kept her goal imbedded in her mind where she could see it. Nami stood up, dusted herself, and marched into the building she was leaning onto realizing that it was an inn. Sure of herself, she was confident she'd get over him before she even left Forget-Me-Not Valley and shrugged it off as a schoolgirl crush. It's easy to get over a guy. Just think of a bunch of sexist facts about all men in general. Simple right? Right?
Jack Harvest had only been working three hours and he was already starting to feel the heat get to him. It was only May. Wiping the sweat off his forehead, he suddenly got the feeling he was being watched. Tensing up a little, afraid if it was a serial killer, he took a chance and slowly turned around. To his surprise, it was a woman. She looked no older than he did, had sky blue eyes, and hair as red as a rose that was cut short that you'd think she was a guy until you saw her face—not that he meant anything by that. The outfit she sported would also fool anyone until you saw her from the front—again, not that he meant anything by that. He amazed himself how fast he was able to analyze her appearance. Quickly moving from his own amazement, he gave her soft greeting. She looked like she was about to say something else before she glared at him.
"What are you looking at?" she said rudely. Before he could respond she dashed towards town. He knelt there wondering what was it that he did to make her run away like that.
"That was weird."
One thing was for sure though. She was awfully pretty. Automatically, his low self-esteem kicked in and he felt he shouldn't even bother with her. It wasn't like he stood any chance anyway. Sighing disappointedly, he continued on pulling weeds feeling worse about his own self than he did earlier that morning.
A woman sat beside the windowsill in her room staring at the view of the town below. The woman couldn't help but feel sadness as she looked on. She had brown eyes, shoulder length light brown hair brushed neatly, and a pretty face. She was rich—had the life almost everyone wants. But then, why didn't she feel content? She let out a sight, and sat there for a few more moments contemplating over her unhappiness.
"Lumina Tristesse get down here! It's time for piano practice!"
"Yes grandma. I'll be down in a minute!"
Her grandma Romana, kind of annoyed her. Actually, no—kind of annoying is an understatement. It's more like beyond annoying to the point that would make her cry. She was always dissatisfied with her playing. As soon as she would hit an incorrect note, Romana would make her redo the whole piece from the start. But Romana was a very old woman and was all she had left of her family—family she knew at least. Her parents had died in a plane crash during a business trip when she was ten. Lumina had been devastated and hadn't left her room for two weeks since that day. Her eyes glistened from that memory. Blinking them away, she brought her mind back to Romana. It was only a matter of time before Romana would leave this world. So, Lumina would try to make her happy by doing as she says even if she detested it.
"Lumina!"
Quickly rushing down the stairs, she jumped the last three steps onto floor.
"Running and jumping off stairs is not how a proper lady should make her way around." Her grandmother chastised in her old scratchy voice.
"Yes grandma, but I didn't want to keep you waiting." Lumina panted.
Romana gave her a look of disapproving and began to walk away from her.
"You can practice on your own today. I'll be outside in the garden but I want to hear music coming from here. Understand young lady?"
"Understood." Lumina couldn't stop the smile that appeared on her face. Her grandma wouldn't be sitting beside her to berate her skills. As she began playing, she kept a wish in her mind. She wished for happiness and wished for it to come soon.
Some facts about this story:
Nami's original last name was going to be McKenna but it showed up as an error in Microsoft Word and "McKay" was one of the choices of revision. Which name do you suppose sounds better on her?
Lumina's last name is adopted from Frederic Chopin's piano piece "Tristesse".
