Cherry's Story Chapter 9 - In the Art Gallery (Patreon)

Cherry still can’t believe the school year is almost done.

She looks at the school calendar before her, the realization that only a mere three months are left finally dawning on her. This makes her anxious.

For the past few hours, Cherry’s been flipping back and forth through her passport. She wants to pretend the visa expiry date isn’t real or that she’s misreading it, but that’s — of course — impossible.

I knew I would only be here for a year…

Cherry knows that by the time she’s finished her dissertation, she has to leave Cadence City. That means leaving the room she’s been living in since she started school, Lexa who has become her best friend, and…

Mima…

She goes back to bed. She hopes she can sleep the sorrows away. Instead of dowsing off, she remembers her dissertation advisor, Ms. Wood, and how she has told her to send her a draft proposal as soon as possible.

Apparently, international students have a tough time when it comes to dissertations. As such, the school makes sure they get more direction and time. They are supervised by their advisor as closely as possible and go through a lengthier process overall.

While the help is clearly a good thing, it just makes Cherry more nervous. She already feels sad that she may have to leave the city that she now calls her second home.

It just seems so unfair that she’s going to leave soon…

Maybe she’ll do the irresponsible thing and try to postpone the draft proposal. It feels awful to skip a deadline, but…

I want to be with friends … and Mima.

She’s beginning to feel this precious time being drained away from her.

“No, you have to finish your draft proposal!”

Lexa slams the table after hearing Cherry’s hesitations.

“S-sorry, it's just… I'm not angry,” Lexa sighs, sitting back down, “but this is really crucial to passing your course. You've worked so hard to get this far! Won't you be disappointed if you don't do your best until the very end?”

“I know, but…” Cherry’s thoughts trail off.

“Also, does that mean you haven’t planned one bit for your dissertation?”

Cherry shakes her head.

“Ahhh!” Lexa pulls her hair. “Cherry, you... I know you can do this.”

“I just ... don’t want to leave.”

Lexa glances away, spotting Cherry's phone with a teal strap and coffee keychain. “I understand: it’s about Mima, isn’t it?”

Cherry lets out a weak, “Yes…”

“Why not make her your research partner? Like, she can help you with the details. I’m sure your advisor would approve of this, and it sounds like Mima could help you out.”

“That would be nice…”

“Also,” Lexa continues, “you could make this dissertation research into a date. I know the perfect place for you to gather information. You can kill two birds with one stone.”

“R-Really? Is there a place like that?”

“For the budding historian like you, yes.” Lexa triumphantly puffs up her chest. “The museum.”

The Cadence City Art Museum resembles a terrace villa from the picture books Cherry used to read. 

Once the residence of the mayor, it stretches all the way to the edges of the forest.

Mima looks all around and turns back to Cherry with a smirk, saying, “This might take a day or two.”

“It's fine if I can stay with you longer,” says Cherry as she squeezes Mima’s hand.

The two of them open the large doors together, stepping onto a red rug that extends as far as the stairs. To their left, a woman behind the desk greets the couple with a smile.

“Welcome to the Cadence City Art Museum. You must be Cherry and Mima. My name is Chloe Witherspoon and I am the curator of this wonderful museum. Lexa has told me about your situation.” This Chloe, a tall, curvy woman wearing a beautiful red silk vest and black pants, greets them.

“Haha…” Cherry scratches her head in embarrassment and realizes she needs to buy Lexa a cake to thank her later. “Thank you for taking your time.”

“If I may, I will assist you with your dissertation and guide you around the museum.”

“That would be wonderful,” Cherry says.

Mima looks around the lobby and sees the ceramic statues sculpted by artists around the islands. “This is the first time I’ve been to this museum. It’s pretty.”

“The museum is home not just to art, but history itself,” Chloe says, beaming with pride. “We have special exhibits that center around specific themes, artists, or movements. Our general exhibits, on the other hand, display a chronological history of the arts on our island.”

“Is your research question going to be about the arts?” Mima says to Cherry. “Or is that still undecided?”

“I do not know … but Lexa says that art is inspiring and this is a good way for me to be exposed to history.”

“Lexa is indeed right,” says Chloe. “Many students from the academy come to this humble museum for inspiration before writing their essays. Shall we take a look around?”

Cherry and Mima follow Chloe up the stairs.

Mima stays mum while watching Huiyin listen to Chloe explain the histories of the sculptures they’re seeing.

While Chloe goes on about the different movements that informed the artists’ principles in sculpting their figures, Huiyin obediently jots down notes. Mima switches her eyes between the lovely sculptures and admiring Huiyin.

Yet, she’s too astutely aware that Huiyin will have to leave the island soon.

She reflects on the beautiful yet all too few memories she’s made with Cherry — in her cafe, on the Holiday Steps, and on the phone — and she desires more. The school year is almost ending and Mima knows that Huiyin will be sailing to Yayue in a few months.

The thought makes her want to cry.

Mima already longs for Huiyin when she’s at school. The distance is already insufferable. And to be separated even further — between many oceans — is just unthinkable.

How can someone be so close to me today and yet so far tomorrow?

The cynic inside Mima has been whispering to her about the real reason she’s learning Yayue: maybe if she impresses Huiyin just enough, she'll magically find a way to stay. It’s probably not very likely, but she would want that if it could happen. Her emotions remain conflicted as Huiyin and Chloe walk further away from her.

Huiyin stops a few feet away, noticing Mima is no longer by her side. She looks back to her, worry plainly written across her face. “Mima? What’s the matter?”

“Ah, I’m just tired. I’m gonna sit somewhere and catch up with you later.”

Huiyin frowns, voice tinged with concern. “Are you sick?”

“No, I just didn’t get enough sleep.”

“You should sleep more and stop drinking coffee at night.”

“Already followed your advice on the coffee, heh.”

Mima watches Huiyin and Chloe wander off. She sighs. She tries to shake off these weird feelings she has, but instead returns to moping over the inevitable departure of her dear Huiyin.

“This is a small exhibit that’s very special to me.”

Cherry looks upwards and sees a banner that reads The Art of Motion. 

Her eyes shift back to Chloe who is staring back at the exhibit as well, rather than at her.

“Unlike the other exhibits which were curated by my assistants, this is my own little project,” Chloe speaks softly, in a tone unlike the one she's been using as a tour guide. “It’s something I had to fight for…  because other people didn’t understand it.”

“How so?”

Cherry is perplexed since all of Chloe’s explanations are surprisingly detailed and easy-to-follow.

“You’ll see.”

Cherry takes a step inside. She finds herself wandering through corridors of paintings with one shared motif: dancing.

It seems that the paintings only capture impressions of the dancers’ movements. To Cherry, the fluid, spattered brushstrokes create the illusion that these dancers are moving. A ballet dancer twirls in the midst of the flashes of photographs. An ice skater is jumping mid-air, but it looks as if they are leaping through the frame of the painting. A flamenco dancer looks to the side, beckoning someone off-screen to dance with them.

“Do you see how the brushstrokes look like they’re slicing the canvas? It is a simple, effective way to draw motion. Yet, the painter gives us strong lines that are rarely straight. The lines are natural and curved, almost like swirls. It makes photographs of dancers look unrealistic at capturing how we move.”

Cherry turns her head toward Chloe.

“I feel like I am actually watching someone dance,” she says, “even though it’s just a painting.”

“Indeed, it’s so hard not to think like that. The fabric of the clothing here” — Chloe points to a woman breakdancing — “is not just suspended in the air but also moving with the wind. It is as if motion is part of the painting.”

“That’s why the exhibit is called that.”

“Not many people understand why I’m so fascinated by this set of paintings.”

“I am not sure if I understand the depth of it,” says Cherry thoughtfully, “but I do like these paintings.”

“Thank you. And to be fair, most people would think I am biased. After all, I know the painter well.”

“You know the painter?”

“The painter is a person dear to me. I’ve been waiting for her for years,” Chloe says. “Ever since she wandered off into the world, I’ve been thinking about her. I go to this part of the museum and look at these paintings again and again.”

The two stop at a giant painting of a woman moving slowly on rollerblades, her hands interlaced behind her back.

“I remember how she called this her first work of art. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Just someone rollerblading slowly, contemplating about something. It’s not as fast-paced as any of the dancers, but there’s something very meditative about it. Unfortunately, the painter doesn’t have much of a flair for names: it’s just called Girl on Rollerblades.”

Cherry chuckles, but she can’t hide her admiration for this simple yet evocative painting. The purple sun behind the woman is reminding her a lot of Yayue.

“‘Even if we stand still, everyone else is moving.’” Chloe puts her hand on the wall and stares at the plaque she just read from. “The painter thinks that’s the meaning of this art. I quite agree: Looking at paintings like these restores the broken clocks inside our minds. It’s useful because the time around us is always ticking by. Hence, the expression: time waits for no one.”

Cherry turns to Chloe and says, “So, are these paintings alive?”

“Yes,” Chloe says. “Why do these paintings make you believe that they move? There’s the principles of illusion theorized by artists, but I believe there’s something more fundamental at play here: we resonate with movement. Much like the subjects in these paintings, we choose to move. Never do we stand still. Waiting, much like these paintings, is just potential movement.”

Cherry looks at the painting again. She finds her eyes following the flow of the woman’s silky dress, stopping at the water drop beginning to drip from her index finger.

“If there is something universal in this world,” Chloe says, “it’s that we flow. We flow to somewhere else. That’s why this special exhibit is close to my heart.”

“Even if the person close to your heart … needed to leave?”

“Yes, it is precisely why she had to wander off once more. I have to take care of her paintings until she returns.”

“That just sounds unfair… You two should be together.”

Chloe laughs.

“My heart still flows to her. I know this because I remain drawn to her paintings. It may look like I am standing still and waiting, but each day I am moving toward her. I am understanding where her thoughts are flowing to and that’s what makes me content.”

“I do not understand…”

“The paintings you see right now,” Chloe says, “they are of me.”

Cherry blinks repeatedly. She looks at the big painting again and then back at the others in the distance. Though the faces are all obscured by the blur of motion, the physiques of the dancers are all the same.

“It may not be obvious as I’ve not danced in a while,” Chloe says, “but I used to be a waitress who danced at a restaurant.” She takes a small, but deep bow, the flow of her body unmistakably one of a dancer.

All of those deep explanations about movement make so much sense now!

“It must be weird to see yourself in these paintings then,” Cherry says.

“Yes, and yet I realize how much affection she has for my dancing. When I first laid my eyes on this painting, I saw how much she appreciated my dancing for the first time. I didn’t dance well, but I wanted to learn different movements. These paintings idealized what I wanted to do within the art of dancing. It awed me … It made me realize how much she loved me. When she said she had to leave for a bit, I was heartbroken. Yet, I know she will return. She will flow back to me because that’s what her paintings have shown me.”

Chloe closes her eyes — a little tear emerging from between her lids — and Cherry imagines that she’s dreaming about being with the painter once more.

“Thank you for taking the time to guide us through the museum!”

“It was my pleasure,” Chloe laughs lightly. “Revisiting these paintings through fresh eyes like yours has reinvigorated my love for these works.”

After waving goodbye, Cherry hurries back to Mima. She's still sitting at the bench where she left her, eyes adrift. When she sees Cherry coming, she looks up with a small smile.

A smile that isn't entirely happy. Cherry slows as she approaches, unsure how to proceed now.

“What’s the matter?” Mima says right away, attempting once again to hide her brooding away from Cherry.

“Nothing,” Cherry answers a little quickly.

She knows Mima is still sad about her mom passing away — that’s why she has continued to work on cracking her secret recipe. And it’s possible too that Mima already knows Cherry will be leaving. That obviously means that Mima will be lonely for a while…

Cherry reflects on what she’s heard on motion and stillness. It’s all very abstract and she isn’t sure if she fully understands or agrees with the ideas but —

Waiting as movement … I choose to wait and that’s like moving too.

Although she’s reached that conclusion, Cherry feels the better conclusion is simply that Celestian art is a very strange world.

As Cherry and Mima exit the museum, Mima says, “Have you figured out a subject to study for your dissertation?”

“Yes, it will be very simple. Something you know deeply.”

“Something I know deeply?”

“I’d like to help you figure out the recipe of your mom’s latte. I want to write a cultural history of the relationship between Attunements and coffee!”

Mima’s taken aback.

“What for? Is it that interesting to study?”

“I don’t know,” Cherry says as she starts to hold Mima’s hands, “but I want to study something with you. Between your passion project and my studies, we can make something even more beautiful together.”

Mima grins and says, “It’s funny how you’ve become more articulate as time has gone by, but you’re still always the Huiyin I know.”

“Ah, my Yayue name… You're pronouncing it so well!”

“It’s a nice name. I told you I want to try to learn it.”

Cherry blushes. It’s so nice to hear her actual name spoken properly after months of not hearing it. Mima must have done so much practice to reach this far.

“Thank you.”

“No,” Mima says, nearing Cherry’s lips, “thank you. I … didn’t think anyone would ask to help me with this. It’s a lovely thought. Thank you.”

“I like you,” says Cherry.

“I like you too,” says Mima.

The two of them kiss in front of the art gallery.

Dear Journal,

There isn’t much to say except I want to do everything I can for Mima before I leave.

I love her very much.

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter