Author's warning (potential trigger): This chapter makes a reference to suicide.

Another morning that summer, someone was already on the beach when I got there.

Sebastian wasn't out on the pier, and Willy wasn't out yet. Whoever this was, he was sitting on the sand… and appeared to be crying. Quickly, my brain registered the green jacket and brown hair, and that this poor soul was Alex.

In reaction, something pierced my heart and made it hurt. Every sob he emitted wrecked me and made me want to do something more and more. The battle between "help him" and "he wants to deal with whatever it is on his own" raged in my head. Either knowing someone, especially someone he barely knew, had seen him cry would make things worse… or he needed someone. Or both at the same time.

I can't say what conditioned this into me, but a little part of me feared that if he really did need someone, and nobody came to his side, he'd be found dead the next day. I'd feared this many times before with many people, and literally all of them were fine, and I know I'd feel weird if someone told me they were worried for my safety just because I was down about something… but still, it happened again. Being all alone and having the thoughts of death, pills, heights, and what have you somewhere in my mind at all times was nothing new to me, after all.

Some days, I felt braver than others. This was one of those others, so I decided to sneak back into town and let Alex deal with what he was going through.

It weighed on me, though, as I went to Pierre's. For the next few minutes, "Is he going to be okay?" and "Maybe I should go back…" were taking turns racing through my mind.

I came up to the store to find that all along, there had been a calendar and a piece of paper titled "Help Wanted" on the wall.

It seemed that someone named Clint wanted a certain number of pieces of coal, according to the "Help Wanted" paper. On the calendar, pictures of various people were on various days, and their names were listed in small print to the left of their portraits. If these were birthdays, Alex's appeared to be in a few days, and Sam's was 4 days after that (my heart did that thing again, with a bit of added anxiety), and Willy's was the next week. There were also two purple flags, one on the upcoming Thursday (listed as "Luau") and one on the final day of the season (listed as "Dance of the Moonlight Jellies").

I stood and pondered the whole birthday thing for a second. Firstly, I was charmed that birthdays were held to this importance. Then, I briefly panicked over the possibility that birthday gifts were a city-wide tradition and I'd neglected everyone's birthdays in the spring, and a little girl's birthday a few days ago. I hadn't been told about anything like that, though, and nobody seemed to be holding anything against me, so I decided not to worry about it.

More importantly, though, Sam's and Willy's birthdays were coming up. I felt like Sam and I were decently close, and I was half convinced he possibly cared about me… and my heart was doing a thing, but that's not important. And Willy was getting to be my fishing buddy; normally, if an older guy was sitting within view and sharing the silence and the ocean with me, I'd have a mini anxiety attack the whole time… and I mean, I did with Willy at first… but over time, that anxiety was slowly turning into a camaraderie. I was starting to get more and more comfortable with him, to the point where I enjoyed his company. I could tell he was happy to see me fishing, so that felt nice, too. I remembered him fearing that it was a dying hobby. Then, while Alex's birthday was even sooner than those two, I didn't feel like I knew him well enough.

So I decided that if at all possible, I would find gifts for Sam and Willy.

Of course, there was the question of what they liked. According to my anxiety, you fuck up the birthday present, you end up on their shit list forever.

I went home and did some research. Laslow curled up beside me on the bed, and I gave him some gentle scritches, which potentially eased me more than it did him.

…Sam said he was in a band, right? No, getting a band together. Trying to. Okay, so he liked music… but… what did he play? Did he even play anything, or was he just some kind of manager trying to recruit people who played instruments? What did all musicians like? Headphones? But what if he didn't use headphones for anything?!

I eventually got frustrated enough to sigh and decide that I'd ask Willy. He was a cheerful guy who seemed to have been here for a while, so maybe he would know the little things about Stardew Valley's people.

…And as soon as I decided that, the next revelation came along and threw that plan out the window.

Sam was trying to beat Sebastian at billiards. Sam knew I knew that about him! But… what do you get someone who's into playing pool?

I did a little research and happened upon a cue ball with red dots, that serves to help you train. This would be perfect, and I knew there was a sports shop in the city that had to have it.

I felt much prouder of myself than I could remember being in a long time. I almost went to a happy sleep without considering Willy's gift.

Now, what about Willy? What would he like? I didn't know what sorts of fishing gear he already had. The pole he used seemed to be pretty solid; for all I knew, it was already the most advanced one on the market, and even if it wasn't, would it be too forward to get him a new fishing pole? Maybe he was emotionally attached to his and would be offended that I thought he was all about the newest and greatest stuff.

What do you get a fisherman for their birthday aside from that? I did a bit of research on that front, and decided that when I headed into the city, I'd get Willy a pair of gloves. It was simple, it wasn't expensive, it wasn't cheap, and you never know when you may need a new pair of gloves.

Ah, if I had the luxury of asking these people outright. Such is the game of birthdays.