D: Again it took me forever to think about updating. What is wrong with me people? It's so very messed up. But at least I'm here again. :D

Now to answer my lovely reviews. :D

Shimmerleaf - xD It was a horribly placed cliffy wasn't it? And then to wait so long to update. I truly am a horrible person.

sprite21 - I'm sorry. T.T I've yet again taking forever to update that you may have forgotten all about this story. D: I apologize. Buuuut for that I will make this chapter as long as possible to make up for it. :D Yay compromise.

Caliwindftw - Thanks! :DDD

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Disclaimer - I don't own harvest moon. D:

I Hate You

Chapter 3: Once Upon a Night

I looked to the door with wide eyes. He always managed to do this to me. I expected him to look over at me with that same face he had on the other day. The face that honestly broke my heart. But today he was apparently doing something new.

He glared at me.

He glared at me? How could he have the nerve to glare at me? I gave him a larger death glare just to be childish and stood up quickly.

I didn't know exactly what I was planning on doing. Anissa looked up at me in surprise.

"Akari…?"

I ran for the door.

Once I made it outside, I ran straight for the beach. I stood, looking out at the water. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to kill him. Why was he being so bipolar. What was he glaring at me for? He broke my heart.

I looked out at where the sky met the water. The sun had already gone down, but there was still a gentle orange glow where it had been.

I heard foot steps behind me and knew who it was immediately. It was odd the way I could pick out his foot steps but for awhile I had always waited to hear them.

"So what, you hate me now?" I said quietly.

The silence following my statement was sickening. I stood up and turned towards him.

"I guess so." He said coldly.

My breathe held in my throat. I wasn't expecting that. "Why? What did I do to you?" I screamed.

He looked down at the ground. "Why are you even here?"

I laughed. It seemed a bit odd but I laughed at the irony of it all. "To get away from you." I whispered.

He hadn't been there in the city, that was true, but he had been in my head. I was starting to realize though that it didn't seem to matter where I went. I never truly got away from him.

He froze a bit but then exhaled before turning around. "Just stay away from me." He said as if he hadn't heard my statement at all.

And then he walked away again.

I turned back to the water and ground my teeth together. I hated him. I hated him with every bone in my body. I hated him and more importantly, I hated myself for loving him.

I could feel the tears run down my face but I just stared straight at the waves before me. Before I knew it, the sunlight was completely gone and I was in the dark.

Someone taped my shoulder lightly.

"You're gonna catch a cold out here. The winter chill's still here at night."

I wiped my face with my hand lightly and turned towards the voice behind me.

A boy with curly light brown hair and amethyst eyes stood before me. He was wearing an apron and a shirt with rolled up sleeves. He had sandals on his feet and a light frown on his face.

"I'm fine." I said slowly.

"Why don't you get home? Anissa's been real worried about you." He commented.

I smacked my forehead. I had forgotten all about Anissa in the inn.

"It's alright. I told her I'd find you. And here you are. Just get home."

I nodded slowly and began to walk back towards the inn. If only I knew the path to the Caramel River District…

The boy followed behind me slowly and then chuckled lightly. "Do you know how to get home?"

I sighed and stopped walking. I put my hands over my face quickly. "No. I don't know how to get anywhere. I don't understand this place at all. I just- I just-"

"Wanna go home?" He finished silently.

I took my hands off my face and looked over at him. "No…not that…I don't think it's that." I said completely unsure. Did I want to go home? Maybe this was the wrong place to come. How could I deal with being so close to Gill? Especially now that he hated me. Maybe this was the wrong place for new beginnings considering I was only running into my past here.

The boy nodded. "Then what's got you so bent out of shape?"

I looked over at him as the tears built in my eyes. Then I burst into sobs, just like that. The boy seemed a bit panicked at first. His eyes were wide and I felt a bit sorry for him. I was so unstable and crying hysterically in front of a complete stranger. What had I become?

But once I started I just couldn't stop. They kept coming. It had been hard enough before when I just thought about being away from him. How did I know that being near him would cause him to just hurt me more.

"What did I do?" I sobbed out loud.

The boy looked around nervously. Probably wondering who the hell I was talking to.

I came to a stop when I thought about what I was doing. I closed my eyes tightly for a moment and then looked over at the boy.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

I'm pretty sure the poor guy was terrified of me at this point but he answered me none the less. "Chase."

I nodded. "The fact that you're not a complete stranger makes me feel a bit better."

He laughed, to my surprise. "Well anything to make you feel better. Why don't you get home and get some sleep. I'm sure you'll feel better in the morning. If you need to talk about it, I'll be at the inn." He told me then pointed down one path. "That's your path home." And with that he walked away.

I woke up with a start. Someone was knocking on my door. I sleepily got out of bed and opened the door.

"Woah, you're a mess." Luke commented.

I looked down at myself. I was still in the same clothes as yesterday and I'm pretty sure I had a severe case of bed head.

"Good morning to you too." I answered groggily.

Luke laughed and then pointed next to my house where I couldn't even see.

"Cleared that root away for you. Now you can get to the Ganache Mind District easily." He was way too peppy this early in the morning, that was for sure.

"Oh, uh thanks." I had no idea that path led to the same place we were yesterday. I was pretty close to it.

He smiled brightly at me. "No problem! Anything else you need, just let me know." I smiled.

"I'll be sure to."

With that he left my house and I went to the mirror to tame my hair. When it was as good as it was going to get, I threw on my boots and went outside. I looked at the hoed plots in the soil and began to plant seeds in each one. I made rows of six. Each crop had its own row. I watered them quickly and decided to take the new path to see Anissa. She had been pretty worried last night, according to Chase.

As I walked I thought of my nightmare from the night before. It were strange. I was standing in this odd chamber. The room was empty at first. But when I looked closer I saw someone on the floor. I ran to the body and turned it over, to find it was myself.

I was dead.

I jumped away from my dead body in fear. I couldn't understand what was going on. Suddenly Gill ran into the room, his clothes were covered in blood and he was crying. I realized that he wasn't hurt though. It was my blood.

My eyes widened and I ran to him. "What have you done?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "It wasn't my fault. He told me I had to. He told me if I didn't they would-"

He was cut off as he fell through the floor. I screamed out and woke up sweating. It was still late so I tried to go back to sleep. I didn't get back to sleep for some time but when I finally did, it was only to be woken up by Luke.

I sighed. I thought back to last night and realized I needed to see Chase. I felt bad unloading on him like that, even if I didn't really say anything.

I finally reached Souffle Farm and I ran inside. Ruth looked up from the counter and smiled at me.

"Don't tell me you need more seeds." She laughed lightly.

"No, no. I just wanted to know if Anissa was here."

"Oh you just missed her. She went to the Maple Lake District."

I frowned. I hoped I could find that. "Oh. Thanks Ruth!"

I ran out the door and pulled out my map. After a few moments of staring at it, I figured out that I was actually right next to the Maple Lake District. I looked down the path that Anissa had taken me through the day before and ran through it. That was when I saw her by the water. She was sitting on the grass under a large tree. She had her feet in the water and she was looking across the lake lazily.

"Anissa!" I yelled as I ran over to her.

She must have jumped ten feet in the air when she turned to look at me. "Akari! Uh, hi! Are you okay? I was really worried! Uh, where have you been? If you wondering what I'm doing though, it's nothing really. Just sitting here."

I looked at her without blinking. She was talking about as fast as Maya. "Okay…well I'm okay now. I'll tell you about the whole thing later but uh, what exactly are you doing here? I'm not putting you on trial or anything but your sweating up a storm."

Anissa sighed and looked across the lake again. I followed her eyes and saw Jin walking into town.

A knowing smile formed on my lips as I looked down at her. "You like Jin."

"Shhhhhhh! Don't say it out loud!"

"So it's true then."

She frowned. "I never said it was."

"You never said it wasn't." I pointed out.

She sighed and laid back on the grass. "Is it noticeable?"

I broke out into laughter. My poor love sick friend. "Just a bit." She sighed. "So is this why you were asking me about love yesterday?" I asked her.

She smiled sheepishly. "Perhaps."

"Well do you talk to him?" I asked her.

"Not really. Maybe a little."

"Well let's change that! I'm kind of friends with him! I'll just go ask him how he feels about you and-"

I tried to muffle out the rest of my sentence through Anissa's hand.

"No. Akari, promise me you will never tell him how I feel."

She let go of me and I struggled for air. "Okay, okay. You don't need to suffocate me."

She scratched the back of her head. "Sorry."

I just smiled and pulled at her arm. "Come on. We have to go see Chase. He had to come out and find me yesterday. I need to make it up to him." Anissa nodded and we walked to the inn.

We stepped inside and Maya ran over to us. "Oh Akari! Where have you been? You ran out so quickly! You didn't even finish your cake! I ate it because I didn't want it to go to waste of course."

I could only laugh at her. "I'm fine. And it's okay. From what I had of it, it was amazing. I'm glad someone got to enjoy it."

She smiled. "So, come here to eat again?"

I shook my head. "Actually I came to see Chase."

Maya looked at me with a bit of a blank expression and then snapped out of it. "Oh yeah, of course. Oh Chaaaase!" She yelled running to the kitchen. She ran to the kitchen door just as Chase opened it, falling flat on her butt.

"Maya! Are you okay?" Chase asked worriedly picking her up off the floor. Maya nodded slowly, rubbing her forehead.

Chase held Maya's arm and led her to a chair.

"I'm okay Chase."

Chase frowned and looked at her head worriedly. "I'm so sorry. I hadn't seen you there." He said quickly.

I laughed at how he couldn't let it go and he looked over at me. "Akari. You feeling better?"

I walked over to the table Maya was sitting at and Anissa followed me there.

"Yeah. I'm okay."

"What happened?" Maya asked curiously.

I sighed.

"Akari wasn't feeling well." Chase cut in.

I smiled. "I feel much better now though so don't worry about it."

Maya frowned. "It wasn't the cake was it?"

I laughed. "No Maya. Of course not."

She smiled brightly. "Good. Chase made it and I would've had to hit him with something for making you sick."

We laughed and I took a seat next to Maya. "How long are you guys gonna be working?"

Maya looked over at Chase. "Well I get off in a little while. What about you?"

Chase looked at the clock and smiled. "I get my lunch break in five minutes."

I smiled. "What do you guys think about eating lunch at my house?"

Anissa smiled. "That'd be great."

Chase stood up and began to walk towards the kitchen. "I'll make us some food and maybe we could have a picnic by the river."

"That sounds great." I said happily and in a few minutes we were packed up and heading towards the river. I ran into my house and grabbed a blanket to lay down on the grass. We all sat down and Chase unloaded the basket he had brought.

"You know, you never finished your story from yesterday." Anissa commented.

I looked over at her, my mouth stuffed with a cookie. I swallowed hard and looked at the ground.

"What story?" Maya asked.

"It's nothing really!" I yelled.

"Nothing? You had been telling me about that one time you fell in l-"

Anissa was cut off as I threw a cookie at her face.

"Hey!"

"Speaking of love, why don't we finish the conversation we were having earlier about J-"

Anissa tackled me and stuffed some watermelon in my mouth. "Uhh, these are stories for another time I guess, Akari."

I sat up and spit out the watermelon. I hated watermelon.

I looked over at Maya and Chase who were looking on in total confusion and began to laugh.

Anissa joined in which only caused them to be more confused. That is, until they started laughing as well.

"You guys are crazier then me!" Maya shouted. I had to laugh at that statement.

We ate the rest of our lunch in quiet conversation until Chase looked at his watch.

"I should get going. I only get a half hour break. But finish eating here. I can see your not done. Especially Maya." He laughed at Maya stuffed more of Chase's cooking in her mouth.

"I'll see you guys around."

"Bye Chase!" Maya called and we waved as he walked back to the inn.

I looked over at the two of them and Anissa smiled at me. "Can you tell me now?"

I sighed and looked at Maya. It couldn't hurt to tell her, could it? Was she good with secrets. It was true that she was loud but that didn't mean she couldn't keep a secret.

"I'll tell if you tell."

Maya looked at the two of us. "Will you two stop talking in riddles and explain what's going on?"

Anissa frowned but nodded. "Fine. Me and Akari were gonna talk about secrets that you have to promise to keep, okay? Can you keep a secret Maya?"

Maya smiled. "Of course I can! I may seem loud but I keep everyone's secrets!" She smiled.

I laughed. "Whatever you say Maya. It doesn't really matter anyway. They're not huge secrets."

"Mine is!" Anissa yelled.

I laughed and we began to explain things to Maya. Anissa admitted her love for Jin and I told her how I had fallen in love before.

"Wow. What happened on 'that night'?" Maya asked.

I sighed. I hated this story.

"It was like any other night at first…

(woosh woosh woosh FLASHBACK woosh woosh woosh)

I leaned back on a rock in "our spot". There was only a month left of summer and I was worried we were running out of time.

"We need a new…project."

Gill opened one of his eyes and looked over at me. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we used to do the garden but there really isn't much else to do with that. We need something else." I told him, sitting up.

Gill frowned. "Why are you so worried about doing something else?"

"You only have a month left here…" I said quietly.

Gill sat up and looked at me. "Don't think like that. I promise I'll write and call on the phone. Plus I'll be back next summer. I promise."

You never did keep any of those promises Gill…

"But I'm just…gonna miss you. You're my best friend." I said slowly.

Suddenly something happened that never happened before. Gill was hugging me. He was naturally a cold person. He had a heart of gold if you could ever dig it out of the ice.

But he wasn't exactly the type to show much affection to his friends, so I was still very surprised.

I hugged him back and closed my eyes, trying to hang onto this for as long as I possibly could.

He eventually let go although I refused to take my arms back. He just leaned back and looked at me. "You shouldn't be so dependant on me."

I smacked the back of his head and laughed. "You shouldn't be so full of yourself."

I looked up at his eyes and was frozen in the spot. His eyes always found a way to pierce me.

Before I knew it, my lips were touching his. He kissed me back for a moment, at least I thought he had.

He quickly pushed me away though and stared at me with wide eyes.

"Gill, I'm- I'm-"

But he never listened to me. He just ran off. I followed him. I followed him all the way to his house.

"Gill, this is stupid. This doesn't change anything! Gill, please!"

He just slammed his door in my face.

(woosh woosh woosh ENDFLASHBACK woosh woosh woosh)

"A few days later he left. I confronted him before he left but he ignored me and just ran off again. He never answered me. A week after that I met my mother's new boyfriend, Tyler. He convinced me it would be better if me and my mother moved to the city. I hadn't wanted to leave the ranch but I listened to Tyler and just left to get away from the memories. A year later I decided to come here." I finished.

Anissa looked at me with sad eyes and Maya for once had nothing to say.

I looked down at the food in my plate. I suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.

"Does it…still hurt as much?" Maya asked slowly.

"Just as much as it did that day."

Anissa put a hand on my shoulder. "He shouldn't have done that. He should have given you an explanation. He was in the wrong Akari. Maybe it's better you never see him again."

I covered my face. "That's just it. I do see him."

Maya tilted her head. "Does he live here?"

I nodded.

"Who is it?" Anissa asked quickly.

"Gill."

Yay updates! Again sorry it took so long. I feel like this is the same thing I said last time but, ugh, I suck. Review please, and hopefully now that it's summer I'll update more. :D