Kai's been acting strangely lately. What's been causing it? I don't own Harvest Moon. Maybe it's a good thing that I don't. Anyway, let's start the fic!

Chapter One: Mistakes

As the sun set, the buyer marched up to the run-down farm, nearly trampling the dog. Jack stared at the moron that nearly ran over his dog.

"Can you even watch where you go?" he asked. "And where do you take my crops?"

The buyer began to sweat nervously. He wiped the sweat with a towel that came from the unnoticable pocket in his pants.

"Er, you see..."

"Goodbye," Jack said, rolling his eyes in pity. As the buyer left, the farmer muttered things to himself as he walked to his bed. "Every day is the same. Forage for some measly plants to sell, sow seeds, sell other stuff, be ignored by the love of my life..."

Jack cursed under his breath and staggered into bed. He forgot about her. He forgot about the rejection he suffered. He forgot about Karen. Now he was reminded. The farmer went to sleep, wondering what would happen.

The next day, Jack hopped out of bed, forgetting to put clothes over his underwear. He raced outside, eager to see if his plants were growing. Outside, someone was waiting for him. The young man's face was red from embarrassment as he looked at the visitor's face. Karen.

Her green eyes sparkled in the sky, then widened as soon as she saw Jack's less-than-appropriate clothing.

"Er... hi..." she greeted, staring at him. Karen tried to restrain laughter.

"Hello, and sorry," the farmer replied. "You look like..."

While Jack was thinking of a good word to say, his lovable horse dashed towards him. The horse was so excited he accidentally trampled half the plants.

"CRAP!" exclaimed the farmer. He felt a powerful slap across his face. "Oops. You don't look like crap... you look like..."

The girl stormed off, giving Jack the finger. The farmer smacked himself in the head. He glared at the horse, who looked sympathetically at him. Either that or he wanted a share of the farm's profits.

"Tomorrow is another day..." he reassured himself. "I'll get her some flowers and we'll look back at this some day and laugh." Yeah, right.

The next day, Jack walked up to the flower shop, where Popuri was dancing around. Her pink hair and happy expression made it clear that she was enjoying herself. She was watering flowers that seemed to have been dead since last fall. The farmer greeted the strange person and walked up to the door.

"I knew you'd come to ask me on a date!" she exclaimed joyously. "Yay! I will!"

Jack stared at her, confused. "Er- actually I was trying to buy flowers for Karen."

Popuri's face turned flaming red. She snatched the axe from Jack's backpack and held it near his back. Evil thoughts filled her mind. Go on... kill him. There are no police in the village. No one will notice...

"How much for those?" he asked, pointing to the red flowers growing in the greenhouse nearby.

"Er- they're not for sale," stated the gardener, hiding her weapon. "I told you that seven times before."

"Sorry, I never really listen to you."

Popuri took out the axe again, sharpening it on a gate. Her eyes turned red like fireballs, matching her face. She took a wild swing and cut open Jack's hat.

"PSYCHO!" shouted the farmer, running for his life. "I should just find some flowers by the mountains."

Popuri sighed. You've got to stop getting angry, she told herself. After all, you like Jack. Control yourself, damn it…

After foraging for flowers, Jack walked up to the vineyard. Karen's father was yelling as loud as humanly possible, which meant Karen was home. It was nighttime now. He climbed a tree to spy. Jack stared at the door, waiting to see if she was leaving.

After a few minutes of listening to arguments, Jack was finally happy. The door opened, but as soon as he looked at who was coming out, he was furious. Karen and Kai walked away, holding hands.

Kai. Jack had always despised him, ever since they first met. Kai had always was mad at Jack when Jack visited Karen. He was a young man with tan skin and a purple bandana that confused everyone to no end. Why was he always wearing that?

Jack felt his heart rip in half as he stared in disbelief as he watched them. Then he felt his non-vital organs rip in half as he fell out of the tree and onto the hard ground. He uttered a loud shriek that echoed across Flower Bud Village. No one seemed to care that a farmer was on the ground in agony. Jack staggered to the Potion Shop.

After that experience, Jack was ready to be healed. At last he reached the Potion Shop. He reached over to the shiny doorknob. As he twisted the doorknob and pulled, Jack noticed a sign hanging on the door: Closed. The farmer passed out until the next day.

After the very simple surgery of being pounded by a hammer, Jack was back on his feet. He ran over to the Flower Shop, muttering about Kai being suspicious. Popuri was there, ready to either hug or kill Jack.

"Hi, Jack!" Popuri said enthusiastically, embracing Jack tightly.

"Ow... my non-vital organs!" said the injured farmer. "Stop squeezing meee..."

When the flower store worker let go, Jack explained his situation. Popuri nodded, grabbing her axe. As soon as the farmer turned around, the axe was gone. An angelic smile spread across Popuri's face.

"So that's why I think Kai is eeevvil," Jack concluded in a slightly paranoid tone.

"Why not pick me?" Popuri asked in a I'm-nice-and-am-not-holding-a-weapon tone.

"Because…" Jack started, but caught a glimpse of the axe and decided to change his mind. "Oh what the hell, I'll give it a shot."

Once again, Jack had his non-vital organs crushed.

Later that night, Jack tossed a few plants he found in the woods in the wooden box. Then the buyer walked blindly onto the farm and gathered the crops, along with a wristwatch that Jack accidentally dropped.

"Wow, a gold watch!" he exclaimed. "I hit the Jackpot!"

Jack stared at the wall, wondering about how his date would be. Popuri was possessive and incredibly creepy when other girls were mentioned. Now if Jack made a single wrong move, the axe he used to cut lumber would cut his neck. After worrying some more, he looked at his watch to see what time it was.

The watch was gone.

Jack just ran to Popuri's house, not knowing the time. She greeted him happily and dragged him to the mountains, where a restaurant was.

"When was there a building here?" Jack asked. "Those building guys always come to ask me for help when they're trying to build some crazy thing up here, so I'd know if this was up here."

"I think the sprites built it," Popuri answered, motioning to the gnome-like creatures in the corner.

"Blegh, these flowers on the table are ugly," Jack commented, pointing to decaying purple flowers on the table. Flies circled them, then left.

Popuri turned red, with both embarrassment and anger. "I planted those…" she said, twitching in restrained rage. "Though it's not my best work, you still…"

"Oh crap…" Jack moaned, trying to think of a topic to discuss. "So, how about that party on New Years?"

"Oh yeah," she responded, still mad. "I saw what happened there. You and that Karen were off having fun while I passed out!"

"You should be able to handle your alcohol," he said. "If you want to even try to stay conscious during that festival, that is."

"That sounds like something Karen would say!" Popuri snapped.

For the love of the Harvest Goddess, Jack thought, how can I even try to survive this?

"Ello-hay," the harvest sprite waiter greeted. "At-whay o-day ou-yay ant-way?"

"What is he saying?" Popuri asked.

"It's pig-Latin," Jack answered. "Eak-stay ease-play."'

"Salad please," Popuri said.

"Alad-say," Jack translated to the gnome. Geez, first she's obsessed with plants, and now she's also eating them? What the hell?

Jack was even more nervous now that everything he brought up was considered an insult. How could Jack ever survive? All that was on his table was salt, pepper, and two menus. Maybe MacGyver could make a fire with this to burn the place so he could escape, but he was only a simple twenty-something year old farmer. If only he'd kept those smoke bombs he had as a kid….

Meanwhile, chaos ensued in the kitchen. The harvest sprites couldn't cook very well, seeing as they had to jump just to reach the oven. Obviously, one knocked an ember onto the ground, which quickly spread through the wooden frame of the building.

"Is that smoke I smell?" asked Jack, looking at the door.

"No," Popuri insisted. "The sprites are great cooks."

A thick black cloud emerged from the crack beneath the door. "Oh God!"

"What'll we do?" Popuri cried, scared to death.

"Uh…."

"Uh…" has to be the worst thing to hear someone say during a crisis.

"I know!" Jack exclaimed.

Jack grabbed the watering can from his backpack in a hurry. He jerked it towards the flames and sent a wave of water at the raging fire. It helped, but not nearly enough. When he tried to spray the water at the flames again, it was empty. There was only one thing to do.

"Get out!" the panicked farmer cried, pushing Popuri out the window. He rushed out also.

"Wow…" Popuri said, soaking wet after falling into a pond. "You saved me."

"It was nothing," boasted Jack, out of breath. "I saved you, and that's all that matters."

As Jack finished that statement, the flames doubled in size.

"Shouldn't you save the sprites?" suggested the pink haired girl.

"How?" Jack asked, forgetting about the small pond next to him. "Let's just go."