Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon, or the lyrics to White Horse written by Taylor Swift.

Note: The effects and use of Tricloryl is not accurate. I just used the name as the brand of the medicine used in this story.

This is an entry for Harvest Moon's CONTESTS! Yay! This time, the current theme is music.

***

The wind started to pick up as it flowed through a small town that was located on the coast of a far off place. They called it Mineral Town. Everyone went about their day, doing their old regular routines, nothing extraordinary happened there.

Except for the day when She left without a word.

She was a remarkable person. Everyone loved her, she was respected and was regarded as a very good friend. No one really knew why she disappeared.

Except for one person. He knew why she left without a word.

It said it all in a letter she wrote to him.

***

When the shop closes at one, a certain young man in a cap goes out to visit her. He did this everyday for the past year.

This particular day was different.

The young man went up to the home/business where she lived, only to find that the lights were out.

"That's odd," He said. "She's usually home, helping out her Dad."

The young man knocked on the door anyway. He waited a few moments before he knocked again. This time, before his knuckles touched the wooden door, the door opened.

The young man dropped his hand, as he stared bewildered at the two adults, who stood there with tears streaming down there faces.

"W-what happened? Where is she?" The young man asked, worry filled into his emotions, which rarely occurred.

The couple said nothing, one of the adults, a woman, handed him a envelope and they both closed the door as quickly as they had opened it.

The young man stared at the rose-coloured envelope, with the name Gray hand-written on top.

Confused, Gray walked down to the bench by the beach and sat down.

He stared at it for only God knows how long before he decided to open it. As always, is was written in a style that expressed emotion, meaning, value, and life to it. Gray knew it was she who had written it, because…

She had written it in song.

'Say your sorry that face of an angel comes out just when you need it to. As I paced back and forth all this time 'cause I honestly believed in you. Holding on, the days drag on. Stupid girl, I should have known, I should have known.'

Gray looked casually at the young woman that stood in front of him. She was pissed, angry that he was late. Late for the most important day of her life. The day she was going to hand over her written piece of work to a professional publisher, hopefully who would make her famous. She needed somebody to accompany her though, so she picked Gray, and he was three hours late, making them miss the ferry!

"C'mon, no one would care less if you sent that thing on time or not. Just chill." He said, well, casually.

"CHILL? You expect me to chill? After you had me waiting for three hours? THREE hours Gray! What could possibly keep you from meeting me on time?

Gray had a very short temper. Once somebody started to get angry with him, it didn't take much for him to get angry right back.

"IT WAS MY STUPID GRANDPA DANG IT! HE KEPT ME LATE BECAUSE I DIDN'T POLISH THE STUPID CLASP OF THE NECKLACE JUST RIGHT!!! SO IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT, BLAME HIM! NOT ME!!!" He shouted at her.

"Well, sorry, it's not my fault for your stupid issues!" She said sarcastically.

"ISSUES?!" Gray fumed. "YOU'RE the one who has issues!!!" He poked her in the chest, hard enough which caused her to stumble backwards and fall into the sand.

She just sat there, hugging her paperwork to her chest, as a tear crawled down her cheek.

Gray stood there, watching her sitting there, hoping that she would get up.

An hour passed, and she still sat there, silently crying, finally Gray sighed and squatted down beside her. "Look, I'm sorry for being such an idiot. It's not your fault." He said tiredly. "C'mon, let me help you up." Gray held out his hand, the young woman reluctantly took hold, and she slowly stood up.

Both of them left the beach quietly.

'I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairytale. I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet, lead her up the stairwell. This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town. I was a dreamer before you went and let me down. Now it's too late for you and your white horse, to come around.'

"C'mon, just try it!" A young man with glasses handed a small white object to her.

"Ew! No! Get away from me!" She said as she stood up and walked to the counter inside the inn.

"Hey long time no see! What can I get ya?" A middle-aged man with red hair asked.

"Just a bottle of beer, please Doug." She sighed as she sat on a stool and laid her head down in her arms, which rested on the counter.

"That's a little heavy for you. Aren't you tryin' to quit?" Doug asked as he pulled out and held the bottle away from her.

"Today's different." She said quickly and coldly as she raised her head.

"Is Gray being butthead again?" The red-headed man asked as he started to hand over the bottle to her.

The long-haired woman took the bottle from Doug's hand and took a long gulp from the from it.

"I honestly don't know what to think…" She finally admitted at last.

"What do you mean?"

She stared at the counter and scratched the surface with her finger-nail . "I don't how to describe it."

"What's not to describe? He's an idiot! He doesn't deserve you!"

The young woman just stared at her bottle. "….Maybe."

Doug sighed and started to polish a glass.

Unfortunately, Doug and the young woman he talked to weren't the only ones at the counter. A middle-aged woman with short jet-black hair was there as well.

She chuckled to herself silently. "Wait, 'till Gray and everyone else hears about this…" She said softly to herself.

'Baby I was naïve, got lost in your eyes, and never really had a chance. My mistake, I didn't know to be in love I had to fight to have the upper hand. I had so many dreams about you and me. Happy endings, and now I know.'

The dark-brunette sighed as she walked down the narrow cobble-stoned road. She flipped her long hair over shoulder as she entered her house.

Walking past her parents, she went straight upstairs to her room. Too exhausted to change into her pajama's, she flopped down on her bed, with her arms outstretched.

But she couldn't sleep.

The young woman tossed and turned. She tried every comfortable position imaginable, but it didn't work.

After a few hours she started to consider taking sleeping pills.

The now extremely tired yet wide awake young woman went to the bathroom that was across the hallway from her bedroom and turned on the light.

Closing the door behind her so she wouldn't disturb her parents, the young woman opened the wooden cabinet above the sink, reaching in, she pulled out a small blue bottle with dime-sized pills inside, that said "Tricloryl."

Never having taken sleeping pills before, she assumed that one handful should be enough.

She quickly brought her hand to her mouth and swallowed them, without water.

Already feeling the drowsiness starting its affect on her, the young woman opened the door, turned off the light, and closed her door.

Then everything went black.

'I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairytale. I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet, lead her up the stairwell. This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town. I was a dreamer before you went and let me down. Now it's too late for you and your white horse, to come around.'

Gray ran into the clinic as soon as he heard that his girlfriend was in the clinic.

Apparently, her mom found her passed out in the bathroom this morning. Freaking out, she and her husband brought their daughter to the clinic, unsure how their daughter got to be unconscious.

Rumor had it that she started drinking again. Of course, Gray had been told by the middle-aged woman what the young woman said to the inn owner, but he didn't care about that at the moment.

"Oh God, please let her be alright…" Gray prayed as he burst through the door of the clinic.

A young nurse ushered him into the next room as if they were expecting him.

In the next room, which was the patients room, Gray saw his girlfriend all alone laying on a hard bed, sleeping.

The dark-brunette slowly opened her eyes, awoken from the sudden sound of the curtains opening.

"W-where am I?" She murmured.

Gray silently thanked the Heavenly Father, before he walked up to his girlfriend, tense, but relieved.

'And there you are in your knees. Begging for forgiveness, begging for me just like I always wanted, but I'm so sorry…'

Days passed and she recovered quickly. She explained to Gray what happened, she denied that she started drinking again, that it was only a one time thing. What the middle-aged woman with the short black hair "Manna" said was true, but only because Manna caught her in one of her worse moods.

Gray then did something extremely unusual.

As he and his girlfriend were walking up to the mountain for the Starry Night Festival, he went down on his knees .

"W-what are you doing Gray?" She asked nervously.

"I just want to ask for your forgiveness. Please, I known I've been an idiot-"

"Uh, duh1" She said sarcastically.

Gray quickly moved on, not wanting to get frustrated. "But I really want you to forgive me. I can't express to you how much I love you. You mean everything to me."

"You're telling me this, why?" The young woman asked, now curious. "You've never done this before, why the sudden change?"

Then, out of his pocket, Gray held a sparkling soft blue object in his hand.

The bright-eyed young woman's jaw dropped, eyes huge, almost filled with tears.

"Gray, do you mean-"

"Yes…"

She stood there as he was still kneeled on the ground. After what seemed like forever, the young woman finally made her decision.

"Gray, I-I can't."

'Cause I'm not your princess, this ain't a fairytale. I'm gonna find someone, someday who might actually treat me well. This is a big world, that was a small town, there in my review mirror disappearing now , and it's too late for your white horse, now it's too late for you to catch me now.'

***

Gray folded the letter slowly. He pulled down his cap to cover his eyes. He hated it when he showed too much emotion, it was weak.

Suddenly, the wind picked up even more, and it tore the letter out of Gray's loose grip. It tumbled through the air as he tried to catch it, but already flew out into the ocean by the time he was half-way across the beach.

'Oh try and catch me now. It's too late to catch me now.'

Gray, stood there as the last piece of his girlfriend's possession disappeared. He then realized that song/letter was the same one that his girlfriend tried to publish just weeks earlier.

"Good-bye Karen." he whispered, as a tear fell to the white sand.

***

I bet you thought it was Mary or Claire didn't you? I hope you like it. I think the lyrics fit really well with story, don't you think? I'm up for suggestions for improving this story if you think it needs it!

~ Jakunen-Neesan