A/N: Hi! Welcome to yet another word vomit of a story which I thought of when I was sitting on my toilet seat and playing harvest moon (still haven't found a cursed tool) and drinking coffee. that might be too much unnecessary information. anyways, enjoy, and if you have time please tell me what'chu think.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon Mfomt (if I did, I'd ship myself with Gray so much it's going to be disturbing)
PROLOGUE
Claire—Jack's childhood friend, got fired from work a month ago. Her last pay from the company went to her parent's debt that piled up because of their sudden deaths a year and a half ago. Right now, she's jobless and is about to be evicted from her apartment.
Jack is actually amazed at how her life took an abrupt turn for the worst.
"Claire, to be honest, I really want to help you but my mom and dad cut my allowance off! I don't have money to lend to you. Hell, I don't even have money to spend for myself!" Jack repeated for the nth time today. He desperately want to help Claire but he's also in a tight spot.
Jack's parents were cold to him and didn't really care about who his friends are, to even bother helping them.
"I don't get what your parents want this time, Jack. I thought they already gave up on you 20 years ago," Claire considered, knowing Jack's parents likely just wanted to teach their lazy son a lesson.
"Harhar," Jack sunk into his chair and threw a pillow which hit Claire's face squarely. He sniggered much to his friend's irritation.
"They told me they won't give me allowance anymore because I don't want to inherit that stupid farm in some forgotten island," he explained.
"Well, one, you should really start finding a job.Two, how old are you again to still rely on the allowance they give you? Tch, idiot,"
Jack rolled his eyes, "Great, who knew you sound so much like my mom, maybe you'd want to join in our family sometime?" He snarkily replied. "We both know that if I had my allowance you won't even have to ask money from me, I would've given it to you. No questions asked." he proudly reminded.
"I know! I'm just desperate right now! It took me a year and a half to pay off the money my parents owed! I shouldn't even be fired! Its just that my boss really ticked me off!"
"Oh tell me the juicy info of why you punched your boss." Jack hugged his knees, smiling widely, urging Claire to spill all details of her little travail.
"So it was a normal day at work. and there he goes being chummy with me again. Since, I was in a good mood—"
"Which is rare—continue,"
"I was in a good mood so I let it slide when he draped his arm on my shoulders. But then all of a sudden he touched my boob and told me, 'Whoops!' So I punched the hell out of him!"
Jack shot up from his seat, undeniably pissed and looked like he'd kill Claire's boss' whole clan. "The bastard did what? Oh he didn't deserve your fist! He deserves my fist shoved down his throat! His dick minced into tiny unrecognizable particles—"
"I know! I wanted to kill him too! But it'll leave a bad record so I just punched him. So sit and calm down. He's already in the hospital anyway,"
"If I was there the fucker wouldn't even be alive! You should've reported him Claire! You shouldn't be fired because of this!"
"Well, he owns the company! There should be a lot of better jobs out there. Its also a relief that I don't have to stay there,"
Jack plopped himself back to his sofa, vexed that he couldn't do anything. "I'm still not letting him off so easily. I'm gonna kill that pig and revive him and then kill him again until I'm satisfied! All men are fucking wolves!"
"Oh including you?"
"Yeah! Don't trust men so much! Even me! If one day you feel uncomfortable with whatever the hell I—or any man, did, say so! And then kick me—or them, on the crotch! Don't stop till you're sure we won't be able to reproduce!"
"I get the point," Claire laughed for the first time today, slowly feeling better and soon Jack was laughing too.
"If I were a guy though, I would've hit my boss harder than that,"
"Harder? Then he would've been in hell by now," Jack chuckled.
"Wait," Jack stood up from his seat, suddenly wearing a smug smile, "That could actually work!"
"What could work?" Claire was confused where the sudden enthusiasm came from.
"You can pretend to be me!"
"Is that supposed to explain itself?"
"It will be a win-win situation!" Jack slapped a hand to his forehead, proud of his idea.
"What would? Can you just spit it out already?" Claire whined impatiently.
"You're going to get kicked out of your house, right? You've got nowhere to go!"
"Thanks for reminding me about my miserable condition!"
"No, moron. I need my allowance back and the only way they're going to give it back is if I took over the farm,"
"But you don't want to own that farm!"
"That's where you come in! You see the mayor of that town doesn't really know me—how I look like and all that. He doesn't even know my name. All he knows is that I'm a guy!"
"Uhuh, so what does all this have to do with me?"
"Pretend to be me Claire! Go to that island, the farm is yours! You'd have a place to stay and my parents will continue sending me my allowance! Its a win for the both of us!"
"Jack, your parents are going to figure things out eventually and you're going to be in a bigger trouble than you originally were,"
"They won't. They're usually out for business trips all around the globe for the whole year, every year. To convince them that I'm working on the farm you could send me some pictures and I'll just get it edited. It's perfect! I'm a genius!"
"This doesn't really sound like the best idea,"
"Okay, to make you feel better let's settle with this: live on that farm for the mean time while I enjoy my remaining days of not being slaved, save up, and once you think what you have will be enough for you to be able to start over here in the city, then you can come back and I'll take over the farm as what was intended. I'm sure you'd have saved up enough before my parents even notice,"
Claire thought about Jack's proposal thoroughly, and was convinced that it doesn't sound so bad. She would just have to work harder to earn enough to get herself an apartment and other provisions.
"I accept," Claire held out her hand and Jack shook it finalizing their deal.
It had been exactly a week since they made that deal and Claire was sure that Jack said, "The farm is in perfect condition," before she got a haircut and packed everything she owned in her suitcase.
"The farm is in perfect condition," Claire uttered completely floored at how significantly inappropriate those words are to describe the farm's current form.
Glancing to her left, all she sees are overgrown weeds, branches, tree stumps, stones, boulders, a barn that looks like it would fall apart if the wind blew a tad bit stronger, and two storehouses in the same sorry state.
"The farm is in perfect condition," Claire voiced louder as she closed her eyes hoping that once she open them, the farm would be in perfect condition.
She turned to her right and cringed at yet another morbid sight. Its a small wooden cottage that have glass windows that are cracked and covered with a thick layer of dust, a front door falling off its hinges, the roof lacking several planks of wood to properly shield her from the weather and walls that had more holes than nails that it needs to keep it upright.
She shoved her hands in her pocket and counted the change left, "500 gold?" She still needed 9,500 gold to be able to go back to the city and drag Jack to this devastated farm and ask him which part of this wreckage is 'in perfect condition'.
Claire knew she couldn't do anything other than stay and endure, it doesn't mean she won't complain though, "Jack you piece of shit! I am going to dismember you in ways you can't even imagine!"
"Oh you must be the new farmer," a jolly voice called.
