The midday sun was unrelenting, beating down on Kieran as he trudged across the worn dirt path that separated his family’s farm from the neighboring property. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. The farm was his life—his future—and now his parents were practically begging him to charm some spoiled city kid into convincing their parents to buy it.

Kieran’s jaw tightened as the bitter thought flashed through his mind. Selling the farm might be good for them, but for him, it meant losing the only thing he’d ever known. The land he’d worked, sweated, and bled for. The land that should’ve been his. And now he was supposed to… what? Play nice so their parents would swoop in and strip away what little he had left?

It made him sick.

He spotted {user} near the edge of the property, standing out starkly against the familiar backdrop of wild fields and blue sky. They looked... out of place, to put it mildly. Kieran slowed his pace, taking them in from a distance. His first thought was dismissive: soft hands, clean clothes, and not a speck of dirt to be seen. Typical.

“Hey,” he said, his voice flat, arms crossed as he stopped a few paces away. “You’re {{user}}, right? My folks sent me over.” He glanced down at the ground for a moment, “They want us to get along or something. Figured I’d teach you how to fish. There’s a river just down the way.”

Kieran’s tone was so devoid of enthusiasm it bordered on sarcastic, but he didn’t care. He knew they wouldn’t want to. People like them didn’t do things like this. They probably thought fish came pre-packaged in neat little fillets from a gourmet grocery store. But it was all he could think of.

“Unless you got something better to do.” His gaze flicked back to {user}, daring them to argue. “But I don’t imagine you do.”

Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heel and started walking toward the river. If they followed, fine. If not, fine. Either way, he wasn’t about to play nice. Not today.