Karen

One summer morning, a young man named Yuto wakes up to greet another morning in his farm. He yawns and stretches his arms as he looks forward to another day at the job. The work at the farm is hard, but he always returns home feeling rewarded and satisfied knowing how important his job is. He brushes his teeth and takes a shower before wearing the traditional farming overalls left by his late grandfather. He then takes a good look at the mirror feeling ready to tackle anything the day can throw at him.

Before he heads out, he grabs the photograph of his grandfather and nods proudly. The farm is doing well, and he hopes that his grandfather is smiling at him from heaven. He takes a deep breath after walking out of the house as the warm summer air kisses his cheeks. The farm is quiet, Mineral Town is at peace, and he can predict nothing but good memories today. His prediction comes true once he opens his mailbox.

In the mailbox, Yuto finds a pink letter lightly sprayed with perfume. The envelope is blank, but he knows who sent it based on the perfume’s scent. There is only one person in Mineral Town who smells this nice. He quickly opens the letter and reads it quietly. The letter asks Yuto to meet at Mount Moon bringing his finest cheese to their favorite spot at the usual time. He chuckles as he wonders why is she pretending to be so mysterious. Yuto knows exactly who it is.

He places the letter in his rucksack, and then goes ahead with his daily routine. There is nothing to harvest, so he will only need to water and deal with the animals. He rings the bell at the chicken coop to let the hens out to the yard. After placing the eggs into the mayonnaise maker, he goes to the barn to finish his chores.

His barn is packed with many different animals who give high quality byproducts. Bess is the first animal he owned, and she gives him the best milk of any other cow. He milks her, then places the milk in the cheese maker to get great cheese. His heart beats strongly imagining the love of his life taking a bite of the cheese his cow makes.

After his work is done, he checks the time and finds that it is about time for his date. He rushes home and grabs his basket and blanket. He then packs his cheese, some bread, strawberries, and a couple of wine glasses. No matter how many times they go out, he can’t help but get butterflies in his stomach as he gets excited to see his date.

Yuto arrives at the meeting spot early to set up the blanket for their date. He brought the food, he knows that she will bring the refreshments. He arranges the plates and wine glasses in the middle of the blanket in a very fancy and romantic manner. The setting is perfect, he only needs to wait for his date to arrive. The anticipation drives him crazy as he wonders what she will be wearing today.

“Hey,” called out the young maiden. Yuto looks up, his heart skips a beat as soon as he sees Karen. She is standing across the flower field confidently as the wind causes her brown hair to dance. Her green eyes are captivating to look at, Yuto can’t wait to look into them as she samples the cheese. Her native inspired outfit looks perfect on her. Yuto can’t help but to fall in love with her all over again.

“Sorry I’m a little late. We got a sudden rush of delivery orders, I tried my best to power through them as quickly as I could,” said Karen as she walks to Yuto.

“It’s no problem,” answered Yuto. “You should have called me over, I could have helped you out!”

Karen giggles, “but you have so much work at the farm. I couldn’t ask you to help. Besides, we’ll be having our date at night if I waited for you to help.”

“Good point,” he answered.

They laugh cheerfully before Karen takes a seat on the blanket to get the date started. She then pulls out a bottle of wine with her name written on it. He remembers the day he came over to see Karen and found out that her parent’s had a lot of wine made for her in honor of her birth. He helped her carry all three cases of the wine back to her house. Ever since then, they have a lot of picnics with his cheese and her special custom wine.

Karen pours the wine into the glasses, then takes a sip before having a bite of Yuto’s cheese. She beams with excitement as the cheese blends so well with her wine. “No matter how many times I taste your cheese, it only gets better!”

“Well, you know what they say; my cheese are your wine are just like us. Perfect together.”

“Oh you! You are such a flatterer,” said Karen blushing.

They laugh cheerfully as they continue to savor every last bite of cheese and every drop of wine. As they eat and drink, they talk about all the things they’ve done since the last time they spent time together. They both live on the opposite ends of town. Because of this, they don’t spend time as often as they would like to. But no matter how far apart they live, they still manage to make their relationship work. They both make the best of whatever free time they can get.

Their picnic is over a few hours later, and it is now time for them to pack up. As Yuto packs the wine glasses, he asks, “so, are you going home now? I’ll walk you home if you’d like me to.”

“Actually, I have a few hours before I need to go home. Why don’t we take a walk around the forest and take a look around?”

Yuto nods. He then takes her hand and leads her into the forest so they can appreciate nature. The forest has a lot of wild animals such as monkeys or bears, so he holds her hand tightly so he can protect her. Karen loves watching the cuter animals such as foxes, squirrels, deer, and wild birds. As long as he has Yuto to protect her, the risk is worth it.

As they wander through the forest as quietly as they can, Karen finds a group of wild angora rabbits nibbling on some grass in a field. She pulls Yuto behind a bush so they can watch them without being noticed. Her eyes sparkle as she watches them play and eat peacefully. Soon enough, a larger rabbit joins the rest carrying a wild carrot to share. Watching them is almost too cute for her to handle.

“They are so cute! I wonder if the whole group is one big happy family?” asked Karen.

“I’m sure they are,” answered Yuto who is too busy watching her.

As Karen continues to watch the angora rabbits, Yuto recalls the day he learned about her favorite hobby. It was about a week after he gave her the preserved flower and asked her to be his girlfriend. He noticed her sneaking around Moon Mountain alone. He was worried about her, so he followed her to make sure she was safe. He found her feeding some wild animals hoping she can pet them. One of the creatures tried to bite her, but he rushed in to save her.

Karen then admitted that she had a weakness for cute animals, but she didn’t want anyone to find out. Yuto promised to keep it a secret, but he wants to escort her from that moment on to make sure she is safe. They now take trips through the forest together so he can make sure she admires the animals safely. To satisfy her needs even further, he made sure to fill his barn and coop with as many animals as possible. Karen especially loves to visit Yuto’s alpacas, llamas, and angora rabbits.

Soon enough, the rabbits are full and they vanish deeper into the forest. Karen sighs after getting her fill of watching the angora rabbits. The then looks back at Yuto and nods, signaling that it is now time to go home. Yuto nods back, then leads her out of the forest and back to town.

They don’t say much on the way back to Karen’s home. Instead, they both enjoy each others company as they walk through town. Anyone who watches them walk together can’t help but to admire the happy couple.

They arrive at the supermarket late that afternoon. The sun is setting, and the sky is burning with an orange glow. They enjoyed their date, but it is now time to drop Karen off home. They wish their date could have lasted longer, but they also know that they can go out another day. Karen has plenty of wine, and Yuto can always make more cheese. As they look into each others eyes, Karen blushes right before she closes her eyes and leans forward to kiss her prince. Yuto holds her cheek and kisses his princess. Their kiss is short, yet passionate. Their hearts beating as one until they step away from each other, giggling at each others blushing faces.

“Bye Yuto, lets have another picnic soon,” said Karen.

Yuto nods as he answers, “good night, I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

They then release each others hands and parted ways. Karen’s hair dances around until she closes the door behind her. Yuto smiles as another date had passed. He takes a deep breath right before pulling the blue feather out of his rucksack. He intended to give it to her today, but he was too nervous to propose. That doesn’t bother him, they are young and there will be plenty of dates to find the right time. For now, he returns to the farm and gets ready for the next date. He hopes that maybe next time, he will ask Karen to be his wife.

The End.