Cherry's Story Chapter 5 - A Date (Patreon)

Once in a while, Mima’s dreams tend to be quite sentimental.

Her dreams are always about her time in high school. She’s never been a standout student compared to the actual geniuses in her class, but her attitude toward work was exemplary and her classmates respected her maturity. That said, she’d been described by them as an odd cookie: when she tried tea for the first time, she remarked how coffee was much better in taste (resulting in some looks of surprise and wonder from them).

In this particular dream, she’s back in her math classroom and she is helping someone with some quadratic equations. Her explanations rival math teachers’ and that made her a wonderful assistant teacher.

And yet, she notices that nobody sticks around after her supplementary classes. She realizes that she’s never had any close friends. Yes, Mima had some who invited her to a concert or two, but never someone she could confide in. Her mom is the closest thing she has to a friend. Maybe, she thinks, she’s just unemotional or too logical. Like a robot.

Someone who cares too much about math homework and not about the personal lives of others.

Mima exits the classroom with tons and tons of textbooks in her arms. She stores them in her locker and gives a loud exhale. Her sigh doesn’t do much to shake the stillness of the hallway. Mima feels cold, her chest numb with a dull pain for some reason.

Then, footsteps. Two classmates walk past her, their speech mostly composed of exclamations and giggles.

Mima doesn’t know why, but she has a desire to watch them. She notices how casual they are with each other. How relaxed. How wonderful their lives must be.

She follows, her legs moving by themselves.

They swerve left and right between halls resembling the alleys of a city and they’re able to find a place so quiet that they can only hear each other’s breathing.

Mima hides around the corner.

Their cheeks are close to each other.

They talk about the most mundane things. Schoolwork, places to go, movies to watch. They’re no different than schoolmates.

And yet, they’re close.

A breeze of wind manages to pass through the labyrinth of hallways and flutters their sleeves.

They kiss.

But it isn’t what you call romance.

It’s just ‒ how do you say it ‒ normal. Affectionate. A feeling stronger than love itself.

They look at each other earnestly.

And they laugh and hug.

Mima feels heaviness in her chest, and then her guts. She has difficulty breathing. It’s as if she has experienced emotions for the first time. She’s overwhelmed.

Mima steps into the scene. The serene atmosphere crackles with the echo of her footsteps. Her mouth is spouting strange words. Mima finds herself saying to the couple, “Is this a date?”

Her vision jolts into darkness.

She feels the warmth of the sun on her forehead. Her body is sweating.

Something heavy is pressing on her stomach. It makes a sound that is a cross between a yawn and a scowl. Mima tries to roll over, but whatever is weighing upon her body is just too heavy and she can’t move so easily.

Mima’s smartphone buzzes on the table.

She opens her eyes and realizes she’s overslept. Mima looks down and finds the cat sleeping on her belly. They purr in their sleep.

When she reaches for her phone, she discovers she has new Wondr messages from Cherry.

Cherry: I visit the café soon! ^_^

Cherry: Looking forward to date and cat! ^_^

Mima puts her phone down and slowly tries to get out of bed without disturbing the cat.

My dreams have been so strange lately. I don’t even know how to record that in my diary.

She puts on a familiar dress and some light makeup.

I must be envious of the people in my dream.

The cat makes weird but nonetheless cute sounds as they sleep.

But what am I jealous of? That’s not friendship. Nor is it love. What is it then?

Mima opens her door and walks down the stairs to the café. The doorbell jingles and she can hear Cherry say, “Hello, I am late?”

Can I do those things with Cherry?

“No, you’re really early,” Mima says as she guides Cherry to a chair. “Unfortunately the cat’s still asleep, but I can make you something quick.”

Is ... this a date?

Cherry watches Mima prepare a chocolate latte from her counter seat. The wall speakers are playing smooth jazz. It complements Mima’s movements: when she turns on the coffee machine while grabbing a bag of cacao, it is like she’s watching a dance performance. She twirls so gracefully, measuring the amount of milk needed and then taking out a cup from the cupboard for the next step in the routine.

A few minutes later, the steam leaves the machine and the chocolate latte is ready. Cherry marvels at the ritual and its result, radiating the aroma of chocolate and coffee. She sips, savoring the bittersweet flavor before gulping more down. The hot beverage surprises her body and she feels more awake already.

“How is it?” Mima wipes sweat from her brow with a towel.

“Delicious and warm.”

“Thank you!”

Mima smiles before disappearing into the kitchen. Cherry hears the distant clinking of something metallic. She continues sipping from her cup.

She reminisces about watching Lexa try on all kinds of hairdos this morning. Lexa, who is utterly terrified about her upcoming date, came out of her room with the messiest hair imaginable and asked Cherry what to do. She has already tried straightening her hair and even considered cutting it because suddenly she feels like her pigtails look too immature. Lexa even tried to cancel her date because getting her hair right has been such a problem.

Cherry told her that she looked fine the way she is.

“That’s what Lindsey said, but I don’t believe it,” Lexa said, her voice turning shrill. “How can someone like me have good fashion sense?

“Who is Lindsey?”

Lexa blushed. “Um, someone I, uh, confer with. About fashion and styling tips. Either way, I don’t know if I look ready for the date!”

“I think you do.”

The last time Cherry saw Lexa, she was running off to her class with a vexed look on her face. Her hair was still messy.

It looks like Lexa is a bit too excited for her date, Cherry thinks to herself while finishing the last of her chocolate latte. I am happy for her.

She giggles about how involved she is already in the life and adventures of Lexa the Librarian, even though they’ve only known each other for two days.

A date… I wonder how fun that would be.

For all her life, Cherry has been taught to focus on work and never think about silly ideas like love and romance. Those things are in the movies for a reason: they aren’t real. Fiction, one could say. But that’s what makes the idea of dating so exciting to her. Living out the fantasy — she recognizes that it might make her quite the boring person, but getting to be with someone you like and trust in a place closed off from the world is simply the kind of dream she has.

Maybe she’s just watched too many movies. She doesn't know how dates work, they just look fun. Dating Mima could be fun, she thinks.

Unfortunately, she can’t entertain that thought any further. She came here to study, not flirt! Everyone back in Yayue is counting on her, hence why her whole focus is on academic books lately.

But when she thinks about the books, Cherry feels a shiver go down her spine. After jotting some notes down in her diary last night, she tried to tackle some readings for her next class.

And she was not able to finish the page.

The books… Words… I —

Her cup is swinging idly from her fingers. The latte swirls around its rim. She puts it down.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Mima came back and Cherry hadn’t even realized. Cherry looks up and tries to crack a smile. She picks the cup of chocolate latte back up.

“Just a bit tired.”

There’s a part of her that wants to tell Mima that no, something is wrong. Or rather, something is making her feel emotional. She still hasn’t done the readings for tomorrow’s class because even opening the textbook makes her feel queasy and fatigued again.

It must be the language in the books. The words there are so intimidating and complex and the sentences are so long. There’s simply no place to stop and take a break between the walls and walls of paragraphs.

How am I supposed to survive here?

She wants to turn her mind off again. She wants to stop reading and hearing words she can’t understand. Cherry wants to curl up and close herself off from the world.

And yet, I can’t. I need to keep listening.

But she knows she is tired. She doesn’t want to make sense of the world around her. Everyone speaks differently, the food here doesn’t taste as good, all these new obscure words won’t stop pouring into her head and suffocating her ability to think. The words are flooding her and she’s struggling to stay afloat.

It’s just too much.

“Cherry, your drink…  It might get cold soon.” Mima is trying to smile, but it is obvious she’s worried. “You should finish it up.”

“Yes,” Cherry says, her mind still in a daze.

She gulps the latte down and realizes the drink tastes bitter now. No more of the warmth and deliciousness it once had. Just an empty cup.

Cherry feels like crying for some reason.

That cheerfulness Cherry had when she first walked into the café has faded away. The café feels dark and gloomy again as if nobody has been inside in years. Mima’s pouring a cup of black coffee for herself. She watches Cherry sulk in the background from the corner of her eye.

I don’t know what she is feeling, but —

She knows how debilitating sadness can be. There are times when Mima feels like she wants to give up and sell the café to someone else. The stillness of the café can be suffocating and it feels much lonelier when the only sound she can hear is that of black coffee pouring.

Mima wants to make Cherry happy.

She swerves back to Cherry’s side and asks, “Wanna do something?”

“Not sure…”

“Hmm, it doesn’t need to be anything special. We could watch something fun and cute on MagicMotion.”

“MagicMotion?” Cherry looks up for the first time in a while. She looks intrigued.

“Oh, you haven’t heard of it?” Mima guessed correctly that she wouldn’t know about it. She figured introducing something new like this might help distract her a bit. “It’s this website where people upload videos. Sometimes you get bands playing music there. And there’s also Lindsey, she does video tutorials on makeup and hairstyles. She’s quite popular.”

“Lindsey… Lexa mentioned her. She said she was looking her up for styling tips.”

“Yeah, she’s really pretty and fun to talk to. I used to watch her videos constantly, but nowadays I don’t have the time. We could watch something like that. Let me grab my laptop.”

Mima walks back up to her room and grabs her laptop. She eyes the cat, still sleeping and lazily stretched out on top of the blanket. After closing the door and climbing down the stairs, she carries the laptop over to Cherry’s table and sits beside her.

Cherry seems a bit fidgety. Is it because she is interested in MagicMotion? Or is it because they’re so close to each other? Either way, she doesn’t look as gloomy anymore and that makes Mima feel a little bit happy.

Mima opens up her laptop and the familiar Spells OS9 bootup sound rings out. She goes onto her Spellsbook Internet Browser and types MagicMotion.wiz into the address bar. The homepage loads and tons of videos of cats rolling about pop into view.

Oops, I forgot to clear my browser history.

Mima started looking at videos of how to play with cats when she adopted the one upstairs. Usually her favourite videos on MagicMotion would be the food and recipe ones. She’s learned a lot from MagicMotion, and seeing a meal being made in real-time beats reading from a recipe book by a mile.

“What is this?” Cherry points to a video with the title She SQUEAKS!!!! “Click?”

Mima clicks on it. It’s a white kitten stumbling towards the camera and meowing, but it sounds more like squeaking.

Both Mima and Cherry gasp.

The white kitten is like a ball of fur. Her eyes are so big, but her mouth is so small. She rolls around and squeaks a lot, making small steps with her tiny paws. At one point she starts trying to chase a toy mouse and the way she runs around after it is so clumsy.

“This is amazing,” Cherry says after twenty seconds of fascinated silence. “This cat is strong.”

“Aren’t they…? Ah, the video ended.” Mima moves the mouse over to another video titled The TRUTH about the Bouvier cats: tHEY ARE GOOD. “Wanna watch another?”

“Yes!”

The two of them end up watching cats purr and run around for a grand total of three hours. The streak of videos only ends when Mima notices a customer standing awkwardly in front of the counter, awaiting a chance to order. Mima is embarrassed that the customer probably saw her and Cherry go all Aaahhh and Uuuu over cat videos.

But at least Cherry is having fun.

Cherry isn’t sad anymore. She’s still watching cat videos with Mima’s earphones and she looks like she’s mesmerized by whatever’s on screen. Her laughter is so soothing.

I want to make her happy.

Cherry lets out a small yawn. She’s watched many videos of cats and dogs playing with each other and even found some content that taught her a bit about the history of Attunements. It is not in-depth, but it is introductory and the presenters of the content are very fun. In some videos, they even bring out puppies to demonstrate the effects of Attunements.

Cherry closes the laptop and watches Mima in conversation with her customers. Cherry is a bit too far away to hear what she is saying, but she does look at ease.

I want to be more like her: calm, measured, polite.

Cherry reflects on herself and concludes that she isn’t like Mima at all. She imagines what people must think of her: she might not be smart because her language skills aren’t up to par. Maybe she’s even a bit reckless because she is carrying on at the academy without any assistance whatsoever. She knows she is unfortunately very unprepared to be here and asking people for help makes her feel like a drag.

But she is here anyway. She should stop loathing herself and try to make the best out of things.

“Hey Cherry, come here. I’m free.”

The voice of reason is calling out to her. She stands up and moves towards Mima — for guidance and more. Maybe she will do something special for her...

Cherry has opened up a bit about herself to Mima and is trying to explain in her own words why she’s feeling lonelier than ever. Mima listens and nods, even offering some words of consolation to her. It makes Cherry smile.

Afterwards, the conversation moves towards other trivial things like favorite foods (Mima mentally notes that Cherry likes spicy food), books (it seems that Cherry really likes romance and travel books!), and aspirations (isn’t it lovely that Cherry wants to bring her knowledge of Attunements back home to her family and friends?). When Mima asks Cherry if she likes to play any video games, Cherry stops.

“Maybe later!” An awkward smile breaks out across her face.

That’s a very weird response. It makes Mima laugh a bit, which embarrasses Cherry further. Maybe she’s too embarrassed to tell me about this stuff, Mima wonders, but that’s cute. I’d like to hear more sometime.

Cherry says, “I, um, feel happy being with you!”

“Me too!”

Am I on a date?

The question is on Mima’s mind again. She remembers the two classmates from her dreams having fun chats like this and kissing each other. It’s not like the dates she’s seen in movies, but that still has to be a date, right?

“I have to go now. It is late.”

The rays of the evening sun reflect on the glass Cherry has been drinking from.

“Ah…”

Cherry’s face is basked in a dark orange light, making it difficult for Mima to see what her facial expression is like.

“Before I go —“

Cherry leans closer to Mima. Before she knows what’s happening, Mima feels something on her right cheek.

A kiss.

“Bye!”

Mima sits, feeling her cheek as Cherry flies out of the café . The warmth on the spot where she was kissed hasn’t gone away yet. Her eyes are fixed on the doors and she finds herself reliving the moment of Cherry leaving the café with a bright smile over and over again in her head.

She exhales and time finally progresses. The birds outside flap their feathers and the cat wakes, meowing loudly and demanding to be fed. Mima hops up and grabs a box of cat food out of her cupboard.

Cherry…

She wants more of this. She longs for another experience like it.

I think I want to be with you.

Maybe it’s different to what most people would call a date, but it was more precious than anything she’s ever seen in the movies.

I want to be like this forever with Cherry.

Mima feels her heart pumping as she pours pet food into the cat’s bowl.

I think I’m in love with her.

With a meow, the cat starts to nibble at their food.

Dear diary,

I kissed her. I did not think, but I kissed her. I’m very happy.

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