(Hi! You might have first read this fic when I first wrote it many years ago when I was like 14-15 on . It's been like ten years now lol. I fell back into my love of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons when the most recent FOMT remake came out. I found myself ~craving~ the dopamine that stories and art in the fandom provided and stumbled back upon Barriers. Rewriting Barriers has helped me find joy in reading and writing again, something that I abandoned when I devoted my life to science and school. Writing again has made me happier than I've been in a while. Most importantly though, writing this has helped me stay sober :-)
I was especially inspired by Durotos and the revamp of their story, The Shy Newcomer. I read it when it first was published and am loving it even more this time around. I've also been loving ModernTsunami's story, Winter's End. I highly recommend checking out both stories if you have not already!
Side note: Rating was changed to M due to guidelines. There are adult themes and language that is not suitable for kids. I feel the need to warn people that this is NOT your typical family-friendly fic. The story will deal with difficult topics such as (but not limited to) alcoholism, abuse, women's reproductive choices, pregnancy, and mental health issues. Not sure if there will be smut per se, but there will definitely be some ~sexual themes~ lmfao. Ok, I'm done. )
I hated it.
The commotion surrounding the new farmer's arrival was absolutely unnecessary in every possible way. Our tight-knit town in the boonies saw a few unfamiliar faces every year, but the fact that this one was planning on staying made it even worse. Mineral Town wasn't perfect, but I appreciated the consistency and serenity it provided.
She was ruining that for me.
Inevitably, this newcomer was the subject of everybody's discussions. I couldn't do anything or go anywhere without hearing her name. All the places that I had once called mine, the inn, the smithy, Mother's Hill, and even my one sanctuary for peace and silence, the library, was now infected with her. A once comfortable routine, tainted. As much as I tried to tune it out and go on with my day, she was inescapable.
I didn't care how 'nice' or 'pretty' anyone thought she was. I couldn't even stand to be in the same room with her for more than a minute. For the life of me, I couldn't understand how one girl had caused such uproar from all the townsfolk for this long.
When I first moved to this tiny town in the middle of bum-fuck-nowhere, there was, at most, a week of chatter amongst the townspeople. Even less when Cliff came to town this past winter. I could understand a week or two of excitement over her novelty, but spring was almost over. It was getting fucking ridiculous.
Anybody with common sense knew that I preferred not to waste time in conversation. There's no point in beating around the bush; if I don't like you, you'll know. I'll return respect, but there's no reason why I should act 'buddy-buddy' with someone that I can't stand. Despite my attitude, this girl would not give up on trying to be my friend. She obviously wasn't smart enough to take the hint.
Don't get me wrong; I didn't turn around right off the bat and scream in her face, "Hey fuck you, you're annoying. I don't like you, so piss off." It wasn't quite that bad. I at least attempted to talk to her before deciding I didn't like her.
Our first encounter wasn't an ideal situation, to begin with, but she managed to make it worse. So far, she seemed pretty good at that. She just had to walk in on that day at the worst possible time. It was her first week in Mineral Town, but I still remembered like it was yesterday.
For what felt like the millionth time that week, I was getting into it with my grandpa. Once again, he was criticizing the piece I had so tediously worked on for weeks. It felt like nothing I made was ever good enough for him, but especially at that moment.
I wasn't sure why yelling at me was his primary form of communication, but I also wasn't going to sit there and take that shit from him. He had already riled me up past the point of no return, and I was ready to go at it.
"WHAT?" I roared, slamming my fist on my grandfather's desk. "What about it is wrong? Come on, old man! Tell me!"
He glared right back at me from his seat on the other side of the desk, exhaling as if trying to release the rage built up inside.
"What's wrong with it?" he asked condescendingly, his eyes narrowing in on mine. "Are you really asking me that question? You, of all people, should know exactly what's wrong with it!" He took a deep breath, followed by a heavy sigh. His tone wasn't as harsh this time around, but the disappointed look on his face said it all, "Gray, you act as if you know everything, but you have so much to learn!"
As the words left his mouth, I felt my jaw clench in an attempt to hold back a rebuttal. As always, the attempt failed miserably. "Maybe if I had a teacher who spent as much time trainin' me as he did yellin' and drinkin', I would be gettin' somewhere!" I yelled back.
His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off.
"You know, Gramps, you better get your shit together before I hightail it outta here." This was nothing new for him to hear; I threatened to quit almost every other day.
He took another deep breath and closed his eyes as he shook his head. "Gray…" my grandfather started, the anger rising in his voice as he finished the word.
"Excuse me…?" a softer voice spoke up behind me.
Still infatuated with rage, I wasted no time telling whoever decided to show up to kindly get the hell out. "What the fuck do you want? If you have nothin' to…." I trailed off as I realized who I was talking to.
An unfamiliar young woman stood before me. I looked down at her, investigating the new human as she stood almost a whole head shorter than me. She nervously tucked a thin lock of golden-blonde hair behind her ear as wide blue eyes locked on to mine. The expression on her face was indescribable; it looked like she was on the verge of tears.
"Gray!" my grandfather roared, now at the peak of his wrath. He pushed up from his seat and braced his desk for support, his chair clattering on the floor behind him. "How dare you talk to a customer that way? Nonetheless, a young woman?"
I froze up as the anger subsided, and I snapped back to reality. No words came to mind, but yelling at some poor innocent girl I'd just met probably was not the move to make.
"Shit. Uhm…" I choked on my words, "I'm… sorry…." It was all I could force out of my mouth as I pulled down my hat to hide the heat I felt crawling up my face.
Gramps turned so he was facing the blonde. "Sorry about that, dear, welcome!" he greeted her with his best customer service voice, the previous anger nowhere in sight. "Please ignore my grandson Gray here… He's not good with people, as you can probably tell."
She brightened up in an instant. "Oh really, it's fine, don't even worry about it!" she assured Gramps, almost a bit too perky.
The girl looked past me as she spoke animatedly to my grandpa, and I found myself slightly peeved at the fresh, new personality she was putting forth. Any remnants of tears from her eyes had seemingly vanished.
"Good, now is there anything I can help you with?" Gramps asked the new face.
"Oh no, I was just wandering around!" The blonde produced an awkward grin as she slightly shrugged. Why was she smiling so hard? "I just bought the farm down the road and finally had some time to venture into town. I was just curious, y'know?"
Surprised was an understatement. So that was her? All the commotion for her seemed a little strange, but whatever. I didn't give a fuck. My grandfather seemed a little more enthusiastic than I was.
"So you're the new girl around? Heard a lot about 'cha lately," he said, sitting back down in his chair. "What's your name, dear?"
"Claire. Claire Langbroek," she replied in that sing-song voice once again, clasping her hands together in front of her chest. "And yup, that's me! What's your name, sir?"
"I'm Saibara McIntyre, the towns' blacksmith," Gramps said with a slight bow of the head. "If you ever need work done on your tools or machinery, come, and I'll help you out, okay?"
"Oh, wow, thanks!" Claire smiled and nodded as she headed for the door. I could have sworn I saw her eyes give me a once-over as she turned to exit."I'll see you around then!" she beamed as she left the building.
A heavy sigh escaped my lips as I retreated to the back of the store. Finally, it was over.
"Where do you think you're going, boy?" my grandpa questioned as the rage returned to his voice. "Go apologize to that young girl."
"But I already did—"
"That sorry excuse for an apology?" He raised an eyebrow. "No. Go. Now." I wasn't going to waste time arguing with him about this; I knew better than that.
Not a second later, I was running out the door searching for that stupid girl, Claire, or whatever. Luckily, she hadn't gotten very far. She had traveled almost halfway to the library by the time I caught up with her.
"Claire," I called from behind.
She swiftly turned around, seemingly taken back by my presence, and shot me a questioning glance. "Well, hi... it's Gray, right?" When I slowly nodded, her face crept up into that awkward smile again. "Soooo, what's up?"
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. If I had come this far, I might as well just apologize to the new farmer, no matter how badly I wanted to flee to the shop.
"I, uh... just wanted to say sorry," I managed to finally get out, "for the way I acted back there and stuff." Claire was silent as if waiting for me to continue. So I did. "Definitely wasn't okay for me to snap at you like that. It's just... ugh, my grandpa really knows how to push me to my breaking point…." I spoke a little more softly this time, really more to myself than her, "Sometimes I just want to quit…."
Claire took a step closer, almost a little too close for my comfort. We couldn't have been more than a foot apart from each other. She brought her gaze up to meet mine, locking me in intense eye contact as she spoke with a purpose.
"Don't quit. You can't just give up!" I could almost see the fire in her eyes as she spoke. She raised a clenched fist with vigor. "If you want to improve, you have to put in the hard work. It's called training!"
I half smiled at her words of encouragement. Maybe she wasn't all that bad. Or at least, that's what I thought until she spoke again.
"I mean, I can tell you have some serious anger issues you need to work on," she said with a small shrug. "But you shouldn't let one little incident like that make you quit."
I stopped dead in my tracks, bewildered by what had just come from her mouth. Claire had said the words so casually; I had to stop and think about what they actually meant. My newly acquired smile disappeared. "Wait... what?" I asked, wondering if I heard her correctly.
"It's okay, Gray," she smiled once again as if she hadn't just insulted me. "I get it. I'm not the type to judge. But if you ever need someone to talk to, you know where my farm is!"
I felt my blood begin to boil as she waved, trotting away towards the library.
"What the fuck just happened?" I muttered to myself. Anger issues? Me? This bitch had no idea what she was talking about. What right did she have to make assumptions about me? Who was she to determine who I was after one interaction? I had never met somebody that was as content with being so outrageously rude as her. Instantly I knew I wanted nothing to do with somebody like her.
From that day on, I put up a barrier between Claire and me. It had to be done. And despite her apparent desire to become friends with me after that day, I wanted nothing to do with her. She infuriated me. Her presence only reminded me of the disturbance she had caused by moving to our peaceful town. As much as I wanted to tell her to piss off and leave me alone forever, for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to be that mean out loud.
Since our first encounter in early spring, Claire hadn't rested on trying to befriend me. She visited the smithy on occasion to buy and upgrade tools, attempting to make small talk with Gramps and me each time. Gramps entertained the girl, much to my frustration. I would usually ignore her attempts, focusing on my task—which, in case she had forgotten, was the whole point of me being at work in the first place. If I pretended she didn't exist, she would usually leave me alone, claiming she would talk to us "next time." I dreaded every "next time."
It was the same at the inn, or really anywhere else she saw me. As she got to know the townspeople and infiltrated my friend group, she would make the same dumb attempts. I continued to ignore her, throwing in a grunt or a nod if I felt obligated. Claire had to be the most oblivious girl I had ever met. That, or she was just stupid. The chances were 50/50.
I dropped my head back onto the lumpy pillow at the top of my bed. Somehow, I had managed to waste two hours, silently lamenting Claire's existence in my town. I picked up the hardcover book that had been resting against my chest, unread, and threw it to the side of my bed with a loud THUD. She had been disrupting my routine too much lately, and my brain needed a break.
Just as I began to rest my eyes, the bedroom door creaked open. Sometimes I hated being so close to the door.
"Uh, hey, Gray." I glanced towards the door to see my roommate, Cliff, loitering in the doorway. He softly shut the door behind him and headed towards the back of the room.
"Yo."
"Umm… where's Kai?" Cliff asked a few seconds later. "It's kinda late, isn't it?" I glanced at the clock. He was right. The inn had been closed for about an hour, and Kai—our summer roommate—was nowhere to be found.
I shrugged against my headboard. "Don't know, don't care. Probably still with Popuri at the beach or somethin'," I answered, not particularly interested in Kai's affairs.
Kai was a pretty cool guy: he could cook, and he was fun to drink with. He was one of my first friends when I moved to Mineral Town over three years ago, as we were forced to share a room that summer. We were both new to town that year, so we quickly bonded over this shared experience.
He was a nice enough guy, but Kai only seemed to care about two things: himself and getting ass. He'd been in the same off-and-on-again relationship with Popuri for over a year now, but that had never seemed to stop him before. When Kai was in Mineral Town, the pair was inseparable. When Kai left in the fall, he acted as if nothing had ever happened. Most of the men in town hated him, while the women adored him. I had to hand it to Kai, though; he sure knew how to keep this boring town interesting.
"Oh… yeah. Probably," Cliff said quietly from the far side of the room. He hung his head as he walked, long chocolate bangs covering his face.
Cliff and I had become decently close since he had come to Mineral Town last winter. I didn't have much of a choice, as Cliff spent most of his time in our room when he wasn't brooding at the church. Being new and quite shy, Cliff hadn't locked down a steady job or made many other friends in town besides those he'd acquired through Kai and me. This was partly because he didn't say much, which I enjoyed. It was a nice compliment to the chatterbox that was Kai. When Cliff did speak up, I usually didn't mind the subject. He frequently needed advice, but sometimes I think he just wanted someone to talk to. I understood that feeling.
"What's with you, man?" I sat up and turned towards Cliff, who was sitting at the table in the middle of the room. I knew him well enough by now to see that something was bothering him. "You seem off today."
He fidgeted a little and looked down at his hands. "It's... just Ann again," he sighed.
Since his arrival two seasons ago, Cliff had been smitten with my cousin Ann, who also happened to be the inn keeper's daughter. We weren't actually cousins, but it was easier to say than explain our shared lineage every time.
It was apparent Ann returned his feelings; they were both just too shy to act on it. Instead, they both told me how much they liked the other as if I would do something about it. They were hopeless, but admittedly, entertaining.
Cliff continued his thought after a deep breath. "She thinks I have a thing for Claire when I don't. It's just… frustrating."
My brow slightly twitched at the sound of her name. Was it possible to go one day without hearing someone talk about her? "And why would Ann think that?" I said flatly, not interested in the subject now that Claire was involved.
"Whenever Claire comes to see Ann, Ann thinks she's flirting with me because she says hi," Cliff said, letting out another defeated sigh. "Ann gets self-conscious like that sometimes. Claire's just nice… she's a friend." He crossed his arms on the table in front of him and rested his chin against the top arm.
"Maybe she's doin' it on purpose," I suggested, looking away from the traveler.
"Huh? Claire?" Cliff turned his head towards me again.
"Yeah. Somethin' about her seems off to me. Wouldn't doubt it," I said dryly. I heard a short chuckle from Cliff in response to my statement, so I returned my gaze to his.
"Are we talking about the same Claire?" Cliff asked, now propping himself up on one elbow. "I think she's... kind. She talks to me like I'm a real person."
I rolled my eyes at that, remembering the way she had talked to me. Am I the only one who sees through her act?
Crossing my arms over my chest, I huffed in annoyance. "She's fake. Trust me, just like every other city girl." I'd come across so many just like her before I was sent to Mineral Town, girls that seemed sweet and innocent, but deep down, were trouble. Big fucking trouble. Trouble that I knew I needed to stay away from.
"What do you have against Claire?" Cliff raised an eyebrow, "I mean... she really is a nice girl. She practically just moved in—"
"Yeah, over a season ago," I interrupted him. "I don't see the big deal. I've met her. She's not all that great. If anythin', she's annoyin'."
"She's still new," Cliff asserted, somewhat uncharacteristically. As he spoke, I realized that Cliff probably related to the farmer on their shared novelty in town. "I just… I don't think you've gotten used to her yet. She's probably nervous just trying to make friends here. I know I was when I first came… I mean, I still am."
I didn't have time for a chit-chat about feelings with Cliff. I was tired, and most of all, tired of talking about Claire.
"I know her enough to know that I don't want anythin' to do with her," I spat.
Cliff sighed and rolled his eyes ever so discreetly. With that, I flopped down on my bed, facing away from my roommate. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting to doze off so I could dream about anything other than her.
(A little bit about the characters, setting, story etc: This story will not be 100% canon, and I'm ok with that. The world I've created here is the assimilation of all of the HM/SOS games I've played over the years (think: fmot/mfomt, awl, ds cute, hm 64) along with some headcanons that I can't lay to rest, lol. For the most part, I've tried to keep the characters/story/setting as canon as possible while still giving them their own unique characteristics and quirks. Like, if I just wrote all the characters as-is from the original FOMT, it would be bland af. I need a little more spice for the drama haha. I really wanted each character to seem different from the others, so this may be reflected in not-100%-canon details, interactions, backstories, etc. Harvest Moon left a lot very open-ended when it came to the characters, so I took the opportunity to give it my own spin. I hope you all enjoy it, and I look forward to any feedback you may have regarding how I've developed the characters/story/etc.)