It was now the middle of spring, one year since Rachel had taken over the farm, and the town was already much improved. The town now had a restaurant, run by Clement, with Felicity (a stunning girl of Rachel's age) working as a waitress. Hossan and his son Niko operated the inn, where Felicity stayed when she wasn't working. Doctor Klaus-a stern, no-nonsense man-worked in the clinic, living in his flat above it. A young man named Rod ran a pet shop; coincidentally, he was Allen's childhood friend. Soseki, a lazy but kind journalist, lived in an Eastern-style house next door to Tina, a more active and successful journalist, who had instant chemistry with Rod. Charles and Camellia-a beautiful, loved-up couple-ran a travel agency, and their six year old daughter Hina often visited Rachel at the farm. Hina was fascinated by Rachel's livestock.

On this particular day, Rachel wasn't in the best of moods. She was feeling pressurised to revive the town with her farm, and wanted to please everyone and was so afraid of failure. She missed her father and wondered if he was alright living on his own for the first time since her mother had died eleven years ago. She had cut her hand on her sickle when harvesting fodder, and had just endured a long lecture from Klaus after he bandaged it.

Most of all, her relationship with Allen was on a downward spiral. He talked about himself a lot, and about how great he was. He rarely asked how she was feeling. In fact he didn't seem particularly interested in Rachel's life at all. Sometimes Rachel saw Rod and Tina walking together hand in hand talking and laughing, and it made her face the facts that Rod and Tina had a warmth that seemed to be missing from her and Allen.

The worst days were when she had gone to visit him in the evenings and they ended up on the sofa together, but doing different things-he was reading, she was drawing-on opposite sides of the sofa, not even looking at each other. Of course, Allen walked her home every night but he kept his arm around her waist in a formal manner. Rachel wished he would relax, hold her close to him as they walked, kiss her and laugh with her, before dropping her off with a heartfelt goodbye.

In short-and it scared Rachel to admit it-it felt as if Allen was dating her for appearances' sake.

He doesn't love me she thought to herself. He just wants to have someone adoring him.

But he asked you out a small voice had argued. Surely if he just wanted a girl on his arm he would have asked some beautiful, like Felicity. Why would he want a messy farmer if he was going for looks? Admittedly Rachel had no answer to that, but she was walking to Allen's house with the intention of talking things out one way or another.

Allen wasn't in a good mood either. He was trying to come up with new hairstyles and drawing a blank every time. The wigs he was practising on all just seemed to look the same, and he couldn't get the layers right. No matter what he did, they were all uneven. No one wanted their hair to be uneven, especially when Allen had always cut it perfectly.

There was a knock at the door to his flat. "Come in," he sighed. It was most likely Rachel, and he wasn't really in the mood for company right now.

"Hi," Rachel said as she walked in. "How are you?"

"Not great. I can't get this new style right."

Irritation stirred inside Rachel. Was it too much to ask for him to not be thinking about hair all the time? He hadn't even looked at her when she walked in. She wished with all her heart that he could just put down the scissors and the wig, take her in his arms and listen to all her worries.

"Do you ever think of anything else that isn't hair?" The question had come out sharper than she intended. Allen turned and glared at her.

"Well, funnily enough, I work with hair and if I get it wrong I get no customers, and if I get no customers bills don't get paid and I don't eat."

"I know how the economy works Allen."

"It's not like farm work you know. I don't have animals to give me milk to sell. I actually have to work for money."

Rachel blinked. "Are you serious? You think I have it easy?"

Allen shrugged. Clearly he didn't care. Of course he didn't; the farming wasn't about him.

Rachel flushed. "Do you know how much time you have to invest in animals for them to produce the good quality products that people will actually buy? Do you know how scary it is when I wake up to bad weather and the possibility that my crops-my revenue-will be damaged and lost? Do you know how physically draining farm labour is, not to mention the fact that everyone is counting on just me to revive this town? Oh, and I cut my hand on my tools in case you haven't noticed!"

She showed him her bandaged hand, but Allen just snorted.

"Well, that's your own damn fault if you were so stupid to get cut with your own tools. How do you even do that? The blade is nowhere near your hands!"

"Accidents happen-"

"And anyway," Allen continued coldly, as if she hadn't spoken. "You agreed to revive the town. If you don't like it, why don't you just quit? I bet Dunhill could take over and you could move to a happy, prosperous little town that won't require any real work from a little weakling like you."

Hurt swelled up inside Rachel. "Yeah, well at least if I left I wouldn't have to date such an arrogant cock like you!" Rachel snapped. That took Allen by surprise. His eyes widened for a second, then narrowed. He drew himself up to full height-six foot four, to be exact-and folded his arms across his chest.

"That's what you think of me, is it?" His voice was dangerously soft.

"It's what you are," Rachel said, defiantly. She had seen Allen angry before and he had scared her back then. This was a whole new level. Her heart was beating almost painfully fast, and normally she would have dropped her head to avoid his eye and quickly walk out of the room. But this time she was determined to have it out and she stood her ground.

"We've been dating for half a year and you never ask me how I am. You don't listen to what I have to say. You won't even kiss me in public, or hold my hand, you only want me holding on to your arm like it's the 1800s or something!" Rachel took a breath and asked the question that had been scaring her. "Do you want a girlfriend? Or do you just want to have someone following you around, doing your bidding and adoring you for the world to see?"

Allen snorted. "I've been wondering something similar myself. Do you want a boyfriend, or are you just sticking with me because I'm good in bed?"

Rachel wanted to slap his arrogant face. "We haven't had sex since Starry Night, a season ago. Besides, you're not that good in bed. I only thought you were because I was so drunk."

Allen stepped closer to her, his eyes were flashing angrily. "Why are you still here if I'm so mediocre? Here's an idea: why don't you go and fuck Neil or Soseki? You can make comparisons and date your favourite. Of course, that's if they want to sleep with a dirty little farmer with no special features."

This hurt Rachel the most. "I'm not a slut," she whispered. "I'm sorry you feel that way about me, Allen. I'm sorry I can't give you the happiness you seem to think you deserve. Maybe one day you'll find some bitch who'll kiss your stuck-up little feet and inflate your ego until you can't fit through the door."

With that, she turned away and walked out the flat before Allen could say anything else. As she left the salon, the tears were silently falling down her face.

By the way, I don't particularly ship Rod and Tina, I just shoved them together. God, I miss having rivals in this series (even if you hated having to compete for your favourite).