"This place reeks of capitalism," Abigail complained.
"I'm more getting blinded by it," I replied, referring to how oppressively bright the overhead lights were.
Abigail was here at JojaMart to grab a kind of cereal she liked, and I was following in the hopes that Sam would be the one ringing it up so I could see him and possibly make his day in this metal box of a store a little better.
We went to approach the counter, and my heart nearly leapt out my throat upon the sight of Sam standing at the register.
"Hey, it's Sam," said Abigail. "Let's go say hi!"
To my fortune, things were slow at the moment. The three of us could probably get a decent conversation in! That would've made my birthday if nothing else!
Oh, did I mention it was my birthday? That's why Abigail had approached me in the first place; I was going to go fish, and her "Happy birthday" had started the conversation that led us here.
As we approached Sam's register, I couldn't help but note how bored he looked. "Miserable" could have been an overstatement... but maybe it wasn't.
We discovered he'd actually completely spaced out. He only saw us there when Abigail set the cereal on the conveyor belt, and the noise very clearly brought him back to reality.
"O-Oh, hey, how are you guys doing today?" he said, flipping the belt on and blushing a bit.
"Good, thanks," Abigail giggled. "How're you holding up in this corporate hell?"
"About as well as I can," he sighed, taking the cereal and scanning it. "Wait... isn't this treason? Because your dad-"
"This place has the cereal I like," said Abigail, plainly.
"...Fair enough," Sam agreed with a shrug. "Neither of you would happen to have a membership card, would you?"
"Nah, I don't shop here that often," Abigail replied.
"Me neither," I said, shaking my head.
As Sam pressed a few buttons on the register, he looked over at me and said "Oh, happy birthday, by the way!"
"Thank you!" I said with a huge grin.
"Wanna hang out at the saloon tonight, after I get out of here?" he asked. "Us three and Sebastian?"
"Sounds good!" I said. "What time do you want to meet?"
"Does 6 sound good to you guys?" he asked in response.
"Yeah," I nodded.
"Sounds alright to me," said Abigail.
"Sweet!" Sam answered, a little more enthusiastically than expected. "Oh, uh... your total is 405G."
I then realized someone, some older dude, was waiting behind us with a case of beer and a pack of fish. So much for that decent conversation.
"So you know that night that we performed with the Junimos?" Abigail asked as we crossed the bridge back to the more familiar side of the river. "It's... possible Sebastian heard that."
"Oh?" I asked.
"Yeah," Abigail continued, as if she had no feelings on the matter. "He said he thought he heard something that sounded like music, but above it all, he could hear a flute. A flute that apparently 'sounded like' mine."
"Oh..." I said.
"He's not sure he heard anything," she said. "He still thinks he may have been hearing things. I guess I should ask... Should I keep that night a secret?"
"Something tells me the Junimos might appreciate that," I said, speaking the first sentiment that came to me. "Maybe we were chosen... they trust us... and I wouldn't feel right breaking that trust."
"Good point," she nodded.
For the rest of that day, even as we all shot the shit at the saloon later that night, I thought about how hard we should have tried to keep the Junimos a secret. I was pretty sure we could trust Sebastian to keep it; he didn't really like talking to people at all, so he wouldn't be the type to go blabbing secrets, I figured.
Author's note: Aye, I'm back for a bit! And while I realize 1.5 is out, I won't be covering it until I can play it for myself, when it comes out on consoles. Thank you guys for understanding!