Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon.

- - - - - Chapter 7: Shifting Emotions - - - - -

Not wanting to go home just yet, I decided to spend the rest of the day hanging out with Chase at his house. It was relaxing to just lounge away the rest of the day with him and it actually made me the happiest I've been in a long time.

"Chase! Will you teach me how to make gnocchi?" I said excitedly with wide eyes.

"Gnocchi? You don't know how to make gnocchi?" He replied, arching a brow. "But it's so easy."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, easy for you. Not everyone's a genius chef. I tried to make it for my mom once and it was all mushy and it tasted horrible! I shouldn't have put any sage in it… Dumb school recipe."

"Sage is an acquired taste," he said chuckling lightly. "I don't like it much either."

I clapped in delight, grinning. "So you'll teach me how?"

"I don't see why not…" He mumbled slightly abashed, scratching the back of his head.

"Yay!" I hurriedly scuttled over to his kitchen and washed my hands in the sink.

"Don't you want to change out of that first…?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Huh?" I responded dumbly. "Oh! My dress… You're right… But I don't have any clothes with me to change into…" I frowned.

Chase chuckled, arching his thin eyebrow in amusement. "I'll get some clothes for you."

He left the kitchen and quickly went to his bedroom. After a few minutes, he came back and said: "I laid some clothes out on my bed for you. You can go change in there."

I smiled at him, giving him a quick 'thank you' and hurried off to his room. I shut the door behind me and quickly walked over to the bed where the clothes were sprawled out. A pair of gray sweat pants and a black t-shirt.

I quickly and carefully eased myself out of my dress and laid it gently on the bedspread, careful not to give it any unnecessary wrinkles. I removed my earrings and necklace, proceeding to set them aside on a nearby table.

Before I turned back around to put the clothes on, I stared down hard at the picture that was placed on the bed-side table. I picked up the frame in my hands and smiled to myself.

It was a picture of Chase and I that had been taken on my twentieth birthday last month. Luna threw a small surprise party for me at the Tailoring Shop which included all of the people dearest to me on the island: Luna, Gill, Candace, Julius, Chase, and of course… well, scratch that. Toby never showed up.

I remember when Luna was busily taking snap-shots of everyone and this picture was the one that had caught Chase completely off-guard. He was giving Luna an un-amused look as I snuck up and glomped him from behind.

I giggled at the memory and the look of Chase's shocked face in the photo with my arms locked around his body with my head poking out of his side. I sat the frame back down on the table and walked around his room, examining everything else he had without touching anything.

Besides the picture of him and me, the only other one was another picture of himself and his parents. I frowned slightly at it, wondering what happened with him and his parents. Chase never talked about them much; actually, he never talked about anything about himself or his past.

Hundreds of uneasy questions flew into my mind that I couldn't shake away. But I wasn't entirely sure if it was right of me to even go prying – he hasn't told me anything for a reason, right?

Sighing, I went back to the bed and slipped the pants and shirt on.

The pants and shirt were way too big for me. I smiled to myself though despite of it, and pressed some of the shirt up to my face and inhaled deeply, enjoying the fact that I now smelled like Chase. A mix of citrus and laundry detergent.

I giggled lightly as I realized I was acting like a junior high school student with her first crush. But still, it was a nice feeling…

I rolled the bottoms of the pants up a few times so I wouldn't step on them and tied the excess baggage of the shirt in the back, making it a tighter fit with my bare belly slightly showing. I did the same with the sleeves and headed back to the kitchen.

"Ta-dah!" I announced, grinning at Chase.

He smiled over at me and nodded with approval. "You don't look too bad in my clothes."

I laughed in response and quickly strode over to his side, eyeing the ingredients that he set out while I was in the bedroom. "You have everything out already? That was fast."

"It's a simple recipe… There aren't much ingredients required," he said smiling. "Are you ready?"

"Yes!" I said excitedly, nodding.

"Okay… Well, first, we need to boil the potatoes until they're soft enough to mash."

He walked over to a cabinet, opened it, and took out a large pot. "But first, we need to peel them."

He handed me a peeler and the bag of potatoes and grinned crookedly. "Get to work."

"I have to peel the potatoes? That's no fun," I muttered, eyeing the potatoes with disdain.

"I'll help you once I get the pot on the stove."

He filled the pot with water and set it on the stove, setting the heat on medium-high. And just as he promised, he grabbed another peeler out of the utensil drawer and began peeling potatoes.

He was already done with five of them by the time I was done with two.

I groaned exasperatedly. "I hate peeling potatoes! How do you do it so fast?" I complained.

He laughed and shrugged. "I've been cooking my entire life, it's not a matter of doing it fast or slow. You just naturally get good at things the more you do them."

I nodded and watched him work. He was already peeling the last potato before I even got the chance to move onto my third one.

"Is ten potatoes enough?" I asked, not knowing what it was I was doing.

"More than enough. We're gonna have a lot of leftovers."

"Great!" I said happily, tossing the peeler carelessly into the sink. "That means I get to have it for breakfast tomorrow too."

The water was boiling by the time we were done and Chase plopped the potatoes into the water after he rinsed them off. He turned the heat down to low and smiled over at me.

"It'll take about a half hour to forty-five minutes."

I frowned. "That long?"

He shrugged helplessly. "Not much we can do about it."

"Okay…" I said, eyeing the bubbling pot.

I began cleaning the sink of the potato peels and threw them out in the garbage and cleaned the peelers, putting them back in their proper drawer.

"What do you wanna do then while we wait?" I asked, drying my hands off on a towel.

"Whatever you want," he replied casually. "Sorry that there isn't much to do here."

I shook my head. "I like your house. I wish we could spend time here more often, actually. It doesn't matter if we just sit around doing nothing, I'm perfectly happy!"

Chase smiled weakly in response, shoving his hands in his pockets, averting his eyes away from mine rather abruptly.

"What's wrong?" I asked, staring at him hard.

"Nothing," he responded monotonous, his face slightly flushed.

He turned his glistening purple eyes back over to me, watching me with a look I had never seen from him before. I could feel my face growing hotter and my heart increasing in intensity.

Why did I never realize how handsome he was?


"Say, Chase…" I said quietly, looking over at the picture of his parents. We were seated in his living room, watching whatever happened to be on the television. "What are your parents like?"

He looked over at me, smiling that sad smile that was enough to make me cry.

"My mother was a beautiful person inside and out – her beauty escalated way more than just skin deep. And my father… he was a typical business man. He was always busy but he loved my mother and me to pieces."

I smiled at him, assuring him that I was listening.

"Where are they now?" I asked as I watched him, clutching onto his arm.

"They're dead," he calmly responded, taking a sip of his orange juice.

I stared at him, comprehending what he had just told me.

Dead…?

"I'm an orphan…" He continued. "They both died in a car crash when I was ten years-old. My mother shielded me away from the impact and they both died immediately."

I watched him sadly, my heart wrenching itself into little pieces.

"After the accident, my grandpa on my mother's side took me in. I did all of the cooking and did everything I could to take care of him. And he died two years ago, when I was eighteen. And after that, I started living on my own before I ended up here."

I scooted as close to him as I could get and wrapped my arms around him, hugging him tightly.

"It's okay, Alice… You don't have to," he murmured, smiling. "I'm okay."

I shook my head and held onto him tighter. I felt even sadder as he pried my arms away from his body. I looked up in bewilderment at his pained face.

"Why are you pushing me away…?" I asked, hurt echoing in my voice.

"I'm sorry…" He responded, his forehead creasing. "I just… That's not what I need right now."

"What do you mean?" I asked, slumping my shoulders dejectedly.

"It'll only make it hurt more," he said quietly.


"Chase! I think they're ready!" I said excitedly, as I prodded a tender potato with a fork. "See? It went right through it!"

He laughed and nodded. "Okay. I'll get the colander and then we can strain them and start."

I giggled in excitement as I watched Chase strain the potatoes free of the hot water.

"Now what?"

"Hmm… Well, you can mash them and I'll get all of the other ingredients ready," he replied, rubbing his chin in thought. "Mash the potatoes with your hand and then fluff them up with a fork."

I nodded and did so as he took two eggs out of the fridge and readied one and one-half cups of flour. He cracked the two eggs in a small bowl and whisked them both together quickly, adding a pinch of salt. He looked over my shoulder at my progress and he laughed.

"What's so funny?" I frowned. "Am I doing it wrong?"

"No, you're just slow," he teased, arching a brow.

I groaned and rolled my eyes. "If I'm so bad, why don't you do it?"

He shook his head, obviously amused. "I like watching you instead. It's cute when you stick out your tongue when you're concentrating on something."

I blushed and my heart skipped a beat. "W-What? I do not!" I snapped defensively.

"Yes you do," he smirked.

I stared at him in disbelief, determined to prove him wrong as I continued to mash up all ten of the potatoes together.

I didn't even realize it, but by the time I stopped to think about it, my tongue was sticking out. Just a little bit though.

I looked over at Chase who was facing the wall, obviously suppressing his laughter because his body was slightly trembling.

"If you're done being a jerk, do you mind helping me with what it is we need to do next?"

"Sorry," he said, still chuckling. "The next step is um… Adding the flour and egg to the potatoes."

I nodded, determined to get this right.

"Make sure you don't over-work it, that's probably why your gnocchi came out too much like mush."

I nodded again and got to work. I added the whisked eggs and then a little bit of the flour, bit by bit, blending the ingredients together slowly.

"You're doing great," he told me from behind.

He was hovering right behind me, so much that I could actually feel his chest on my back and his hot breath on my neck. My heart began pounding so fast that it actually made me dizzy. And my increasingly red face made it that much harder to think – as if I had a fever.

Oh, Goddess… Don't tease me like that.

He reached an arm over to the potato and flour mixture and tore off a little ball of it and rubbed it in-between his thumb and index finger. I watched him curiously and asked: "Is the texture okay?"

"Yeah, I think it's ready to be rolled out now," he said walking over to a cabinet, pulling out a large cutting board.

I breathed a silent sigh of relief as he did so, grateful that he didn't notice my flustered face.

"Ready?" He said, smiling over at me.

I nodded sheepishly before he started chuckling again. "W-What now?"

He placed the cutting board on the kitchen table and walked over to me, thumbing my forehead. "You have flour on your face."

I blushed. "Oh…"

He flashed me a charming smile, and before I got the chance to smear my flour-ruined hands all over his face, the phone suddenly began ringing.

His serene face suddenly turned agitated as he mumbled curse words under his breath. I watched him in amusement, giggling, as he walked over grudgingly to answer the phone.

"Hello?" He said trying his best not to sound peeved.

"…What do you want, Maya?"

I watched him and tried my best to listen, curiosity burning through my body. But I couldn't hear a word of what Maya was saying over the receiver and it just sounded like a high-pitched rage of gibberish.

Chase held the phone far away from his ear, sighing – Maya's voice obviously too hard to bare. Once she stopped yelling, he said: "I can't come over now. I'm busy."

"No, that means you can't come over here either."

"Because I have company over."

"Yes, it's Alice. So what?"

"I don't want to fucking see you."

And with that, he hung up the phone without uttering a simple word of farewell. He groaned in annoyance, scratching his head furiously.

"What happened?" I asked quickly.

He sighed. "She called to yell at me about what happened earlier, and wants me to come over."

"Why don't you? It'll give you two time to patch things up," I said assuringly, smiling at him.

"I don't want to," he said bluntly, seething bitterness.

"Why?" I asked, surprised.

"Because I don't like her!" He hissed. "I can't stand her!"

I watched him disbelievingly.

"You don't understand, Alice. You don't understand how much that girl drives me fucking crazy. She's insane… she's truly insane."

"What do you mean…?"

"Her attitude about everything is enough to drive me up the wall! And the fact that she only likes me because I cook better than her is probably the biggest bullshit I've heard in my entire life. I don't love her. And quite frankly, I never will."

"Then why… are you with her?" I asked dumbly, trying to organize my thoughts.

"To make my life easier… because the person I'm in love with is in love with someone else," he said calmly, his tone level lowering.

"Who's that?" I asked with wide, curious eyes.

"Take a guess. You know her better than anyone else."

I stared at him, collecting and arranging everything that had just occurred in my head to the best of my ability. It was hard to make sense of everything – I always assumed that Chase and Maya were happy together. He never once uttered a breath of annoyance about her… so why now?

And the only girl I really know on the island is Luna… And her and Chase don't even know each other well enough to hold a decent conversation. And there was no way it could be Candace… she and Juli were happy as clams, and he knew just as much about her as he knew about Luna.

Unless…


9:48am.

Luke would be here in less than fifteen for our date at the Sundae Inn… and I couldn't shake the escalating nerves. But it was pretty safe to say that I wasn't only nervous because I was about to go on a date with someone I hardly knew – but because of Chase and what had happened last night.

I couldn't place my finger on it and I wasn't definitely sure… And the more I thought about it the more absurd it sounded. There was no way that I was the girl that Chase was talking about – it was impossible. So it had to be someone else on the island… But who?

Kathy the barmaid? It was a possibility… They both work in the evening and at night. A definite possibility. But then again… Selena was always at the Inn too in the evenings. But Luke did say that she liked him…

I racked my brain trying to come to a conclusion but to no avail. I sighed in defeat, waiting eagerly for Luke to show up. I paced around my room eagerly, listening to the faint tick-tocks of my clock that was hanging on the wall.

I slightly curled the bottom part of my hair, so when I put my hair into two low pig-tails, the hair had long, elegant curls. I wore a chocolate-brown skirt that stopped mid-thigh and a light and airy, white blouse. Seeing as the jewelry Julius had made me for my birthday was all I had, I opted not to re-wear the earrings and just wore the subtle, pretty necklace.

Only owning about four pairs of shoes (my farming boots, heels, slippers, and Uggs), my only choice was to wear my chocolate-brown Ugg boots.

I couldn't deny it, but I had to admit that I was pretty cute looking today. I quickly applied some lip-gloss and gave myself a couple spritz of my sparkling peach perfume as a loud rapping on the door disturbed the silence.

"Coming~" I called, loud enough for the person outside to hear me – hopefully Luke.

I quickly opened the door to find a large bouquet of red and white roses greet my face. My face immediately began to grow hot with awe and embarrassment, highly flattered.

I giggled and took them graciously from Luke's hands. "Oh, wow! Thank you… They're beautiful."

I smiled at him and he grinned back at me sheepishly. "Not as beautiful as you."

I blushed as my heart skipped a beat. "N-Not really…" I mumbled shyly.

He laughed, grinning broadly. "You always are, especially today!" He added with extra emphasis. "Are you ready to go?"

I nodded and said: "Let me just bring these inside…"

I quickly went back inside and placed the bouquet on my dining room table.

I'll put them in water once I get home.


As soon as Luke and I set foot in the inn, we were immediately greeted by Maya who was coming down the stairs.

"Oh! Hey you two!" She said, smiling. "Here for a date?" She said just loud enough for the entire inn to hear, with a hint of pleasure and triumph in her voice.

I smiled hesitantly at her, biting my lower lip nervously.

"Yup," Luke responded cheerfully and boldly.

I saw Chase's head peek out of the kitchen in the corner of my eye and I quickly looked over at him, smiling widely.

He didn't smile back; in fact he actually looked pissed and annoyed. He ignored me and tucked his head back into the kitchen.

What was that about?

Luke and I proceeded to sit down at an empty table near the window.

"Eat up!" He said excitedly. "Whatever you want, I've got it covered."

I smiled weakly at him. "Are you sure?"

"Of course! More than ever."

I pondered and stared at the menu; unsure of what it was I was in the mood for. I immediately thought of the gnocchi that Chase and I had made last night and that I still had left-overs in the fridge. I actually wished that I was able to eat that instead of the things on the menu.

I smiled to myself, giggling lightly.

"Hm?" Luke asked, arching a brow as he looked away from his menu.

"N-Nothing…" I replied hesitantly.

He grinned at me. "Decide what you want?"

"No…" I said glumly. "I keep looking at the desserts but I shouldn't be eating something too fattening so early in the morning," I sighed.

"It's better earlier than later! And besides, you shouldn't worry about your body so much," he said, furrowing his brow. "I don't get why girls care so much about their bodies."

"Because girls are a lot more self-conscious you think! They always want to look their tip-top best for their boyfriend," I said defensively. "Men just don't understand how hard women try to look their best… It's a tough job, you know."

He laughed at my response, obviously highly amused that he got such a rise out of me.

"I think you're great the way you are now."

"And I'm only great right now because I'm keeping an eye on myself," I shot back.

He feigned defeat and chuckled. "Okay, okay. You win!"

I smiled at him, looking back down at my menu. "I actually think I want potato gratin… with a side of sautéed mushrooms."

"A hundred percent positive?"

"Mmm… Yep!"

He grinned and looked around the room to catch Maya's eye. She quickly came over and smiled.

"You two ready?" She asked sweetly, pulling out a pad of paper and a pen.

I quickly told her what I wanted, trying to avoid eye contact at all costs. I could just feel her hatred seething out of her eyes, threatening and challenging me brutally. And quite frankly, it made me feel two inches tall.

Maybe it was all in my imagination, but that's how I truly felt. It was as if every pore in her body was trying to strangle me to death and I seriously felt overwhelmed with awkwardness and tension. Not to mention intimidation.

"And I'll have spinach risotto," Luke added.

Maya quickly nodded, scribbling it all down on her pad, gathered the menus, and headed off to the kitchen to give Chase the order.


Chase strode over to our table with our plates of food and he didn't utter a single word to me. He looked even more pissed than he did just thirty minutes ago. I watched him, slightly glaring at him, all the while he served us. And still, he ignored me.

"Potato gratin and spinach risotto," Chase said as he clunked the two plates on the table without any care in the world.

"Thanks!" Luke said. "It looks awesome!"

"There's no reason for it not to be," Chase replied monotonous, glaring down at Luke.

I frowned up at him angrily, looking at him both quizzically and peeved.

"Chase?"

"What?" He snapped, glaring at me with battered eyes.

"Um… T-Thank you…" I said quietly, ashamed at myself for a reason that I didn't even know – my anger dissipating.

"Yeah. Whatever. Hope you two have a nice meal. Enjoy," he said coldly before he strode away back to the kitchen.

"What crawled and died up his butt?" Luke whispered, leaning over the table as he eyed the kitchen with suspicion.

I sighed sadly and shrugged. "I probably did something stupid to make him mad at me again…"

Luke frowned, shaking his head in pity. "That's no way to treat a customer. Especially a lady."

I sighed again, fighting the pathetic tears. I stared down at my food that normally would have been mouth-watering to me, especially being Chase's cooking, but now it was as if I was staring at a stuffed pig with an apple in its mouth on my plate.

"Don't look so sad, Alice… You didn't do anything wrong. Eat up, please?" Luke frowned, pleading me with puppy-dog eyes.

I smiled faintly at him and nodded, picking up my fork and proceeding to take a forkful of potato and mushroom in my mouth.

It'd be wrong to not eat something that someone else is paying for me…


Luke and I were standing outside of the Inn with a bit of an awkward silence. I know that he had work to do and he'd be leaving me sooner or later but he was still lingering there, by my side. His ever-changing facial expressions puzzled me, because it looked as if he was contemplating something extremely hard and then seemed to relax, only to start up again.

It was actually pretty amusing to watch.

Chase didn't throw me a single glance for the rest of the time that Luke and I were having our brunch. But Maya definitely took notice and seemed way more than thrilled – and that part made me sick to my stomach. But there were a few actions that Chase made that did stick out in my mind rather sorely, such as him (supposedly) tripping over the carpet and spilling a pitcher of water all over Luke's lap. And (supposedly) locking Luke in the bathroom, claiming that he had no idea where the chair came from.

I groaned as I thought about all of the little things that Chase did to Luke today, and I couldn't understand any of it.

Why was he taking everything out on Luke?

"Alice, I had a great time today!" Luke grinned. "And I'm all dry now so you don't have to be upset anymore."

I sighed and shrugged my shoulders, frowning. But he just laughed it off, as usual. I could never understand how he could brush things off so easily and not hold a grudge on anyone.

"I really did have a great time; you made it all worth it. Believe me!"

I nodded and smiled. "I believe you."

"Great!" He grinned, laughing.

He took my hand in his and leaned in slowly to me, stopping a few inches away from my face, contemplating again whether or not he should give me a kiss on the lips of not. He opted for the latter and gave me a slow kiss on the forehead, his arms wrapped around my small body.

I blushed and my heart began thumping harshly and he began chuckling as he pulled away.

"Ready to go home?" He asked.

I nodded sheepishly as he took my hand in his again and led me back to my house, completely unaware and oblivious of Chase leaning against the window pane from inside the Inn.


It's been four days since my date with Luke and I haven't seen Chase since – he's been flat-out avoiding me at all costs. And if we did manage to make eye contact, he'd either look really hurt and sad or just plain irate and pissed off.

And in the past four days, Luke has been giving me frequent visits to my house, surprising me with gifts that I never dreamed he would ever get for me. Or even expect him to. Always with the flattery – whether it be what I was wearing, how my hair was for the day, or just a plain 'you look beautiful no matter what'.

The flea market was in two days and as hyped up as I normally was about them, I couldn't feel happy about anything. I was actually dreading it. And not to mention that Chase's birthday was the day after the flea market – that made everything that much worse. I don't know what I'd do if we still weren't talking by then.

And I definitely wasn't looking forward to see Maya's happy and accomplished face at the flea market. And I was trying my best to avoid her. But she just seemed to pop up everywhere I turned and looked – probably being the most maddening thing ever.

Well, she should be happy. Chase and I aren't friends anymore, and now she can have him all to herself.

- - - - - End: Shifting Emotions - - - - -

I love gnocchi. :'D It's so good. And I hope you guys do know that Alice is Angela. Except incredibly shorter and named Alice. :D I'm sorry if that's confusing. ( ; ~;)

I love and appreciate every single review; you guys have no idea how happy your reviews made me last chapter. :D Thank you all for supporting this story. I love writing it.

So go on and review loveys!

- Tara