Cherry's Story Chapter 10 - The Missing Ingredient (Patreon)

Mima’s phone beeps. 

She leans the broom she was just using against the wall, taking out her phone and finds that she’s received a message from Huiyin on Wondr. Opening it, she sees a photo of her and another tired looking person (Lexa, perhaps?) posing with a stack of books. The message below reads, “Will be coming to the cafe soon. Serious talk.”

Serious talk?

Mima taps on the phone: “What do you want to talk about?”

An immediate reply: “sleepover”.

Mima blinks and tries to read the message again.

Sleepover…?!?!

By the time her mind’s finally processed that Huiyin is serious, she can already hear somebody knocking on the door. Then, some chattering from two distinct voices:

“Please open the door, Mima…” “These books are heavy…”

Mima hurries to the door and swings it open. The moonlight enters the lobby and two shadows balancing tall blocks stand in front of Mima.

“W-Where do we place these?”

“Uh,” Mima says to the voice she’s never heard before. “The table here — No, no, let me help you. Huiyin, put the books you have by the counter.”

Mima guides Lexa to the table. Huiyin walks to the counter with ease, dropping her books before sighing a “phew”.

“Let’s have a sleepover!” Huiyin says.

“I thought you already asked Mima,” says Lexa, who places the books on the table and falls into a nearby chair. “I’m so beat.”

“I did! Just not when.” Huiyin sticks out her tongue.

“I’m totally fine with it,” Mima says, “but did you get permission from the dorm?”

“It’s not necessary,” Lexa says, slouching in the chair. “Since the islands are so peaceful, the dorms recently instituted a new policy that lets students sleep in other areas. The old policy should’ve been dismantled years ago anyways.”

Lexa twists her back and Mima can hear the loud cracks coming from her body.

“This is Lexa,” Huiyin says. “The librarian roommate I have been talking about to you.”

“I guess she’s helping out too?”

“Yes, she has helped me find my primary sources and reference materials. I am still not good at finding books to read.”

“And I don’t mind killing some time here,” Lexa says. “Better to do something useful than just sleep forever.”

“Also you want to not be alone.”

“Well, yes,” Lexa says. “It’s bad to be alone when your roommate’s out and about…”

“She’s” — Mima can’t help but say it — “she’s cute…”

“Right?” Huiyin grins as Lexa blushes from the flattery. “I am so happy to be her roommate.”

“N-No.” Lexa sinks down under the table. “Arghhh…”

Huiyin and Mima begin to laugh over how terribly cute Lexa is.

Mima makes two cups of coffee for Huiyin and Lexa. 

She knows the correct amount of milk and sugar for Huiyin: just enough to be a little sweet and faintly milky. Meanwhile, Lexa is lactose-intolerant so almond milk is used as a substitute in hers.

“I’ve never had coffee before,” Lexa says as she sips her drink, “but this is really good.”

“Thank you,” Mima says. “Many vegans and lactose-intolerant people come to my cafe, so I always want to make sure they feel right at home.”

“See,” Huiyin says, sitting closer to her. “Mima is good.”

“Anyway, what’s the plan?”

“I was talking with Lexa and I am thinking about how to approach my dissertation and also how to help you at the same time —“

“If it’s too much for you,” Mima says, “you can just take it easy. I don’t really need any help.”

“No, you are what makes my dissertation interesting! I may be studying history, but I can apply it in your case. I can make the search for your mom’s recipe into a, um— what is it called, Lexa?”

“A case study,” Lexa says. “A kind of applied history. History informs the methodology and literature review while it is applied to the case study. It’s an innovative angle and Huiyin’s supervisor already approved it.”

“Huiyin…” Huiyin shakes her head. “Never mind! Anyway, that is what my dissertation is like! Isn’t it interesting?”

“It is,” Mima says.

“It is,” Lexa says, “but I’m curious. Did you get embarrassed at us saying Huiyin? You’re smiling a lot.”

“Yes…”

“Your Celestian has become very good recently too,” says Lexa.

“Huh?!” Huiyin reacts to that like she’s just gotten an electric shock. “No, my Celestian isn’t that —“

“It’s great,” Mima says. “Why would we lie about it?”

“Because, because — ahh, this is offtopic! Anyway, this is my dissertation topic. The working title is ‘How History of Agriculture Affects Innovations’. I need Mima to sign an ethics form because we are going to study you. Just, just do it now….”

Huiyin’s face is flickering between smiling and frowning repeatedly. She might be going through a lot of emotions — confusion, happiness, and more — as she hands the ethics form over to Mima, who is trying to hold in her adoration of Huiyin.

Mima reads through the guidelines and signs it.

“This explains why you wanted to do a sleepover.”

“Yes,” Huiyin says, “if we want to make the dissertation work, I think I should stay with you.”

Huiyin looks straight into Mima’s eyes. She’s never had those eyes of determination before.

“Also,” she says, “I did promise to help you find your mom’s recipe!”

“She can’t keep quiet about how she’s gonna help you,” Lexa smiles tiredly. “I’m honestly jealous that someone's this motivated over you.”

“So,” Mima says, “what now?”

Huiyin grabs a pile of heavy-looking books from somewhere below and slams them onto the table.

“We read.”

Mima gasps in amazement.

She isn’t just enthusiastic, she really wants to put the work in.

“My Celestian is still not good,” Huiyin says, “so I will need your help going through these. My knowledge on coffee is also poor. I too need your help with that.”

“Splitting the batch into subjects may be a good idea,” Mima says. “One group will be on the history of coffee, then another will be on a general history on agriculture, and so on. We read around two to three books in each group.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

“Gay minds think alike,” says Mima with a smile.

“And it helps us get through the” — Lexa starts to count the books with her fingers — “fifty books faster.”

The three of them separate the books into categories and then decide what groups they should read first. The notes Huiyin needs are very specific but simple to acquire: all about how Attunements have affected agriculture. Anything resembling data or observations related to Attunements should stick out very easily.

“It might be too early to decide,” Mima says, “but I remember you need a hypothesis for a dissertation project. Do you have anything in mind? That could be useful in choosing the readings.”

“Hm, I did not think it through,” Huiyin says. “I figure reading will tell me more, but I think I want to see how Attunements help with farming. Attunements cannot affect living things, but they are able to influence water and soil. The watermill in my village at Yayue was built with help from people who know Attunements. They are able to show how precise the shape of the mill should be in order to get more water. That helps with farming. I can imagine something similar with what you are looking for in your mom’s recipe.”

“That’s interesting. I remember Attunements helping with crop rotation. Since they can gauge the soil conditions, they can figure out whether the soil has been overused for any specific crops.”

“Yes, Attunements are so useful! That is why I want to bring more of that back to Yayue.”

“I think you’ll be a good help to your family and friends,” Mima says.

“From what I’ve heard,” says Lexa while she skims through a tome, “you aren’t sure what kind of coffee your mom used, as well as missing an ingredient that might have influenced the taste.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing. I don’t think my mom went too far off the beaten path, so I was wondering if I’m missing out on the basics. I never studied the basics of coffee making nor its theory. It’s all about finding the feeling if that makes sense.”

“It does. Hence the dissertation being like this. It’s very interesting to figure out how to put the feeling into words. That’s why theory exists.”

Mima nods before flipping through more pages of her book, highlighting particular sentences with a small pen and scribbling notes on the margins.

Researching like this is so much fun. It makes me feel like I am back in school.

She glances at Huiyin who’s been reading through the books slowly and even enunciating every word she’s unfamiliar with. Seeing the effort that Huiyin’s putting into this makes her really happy.

She really cares about me.

This thought makes Mima want to find the passages relevant to Huiyin’s dissertation even more. She picks up a fresh book and starts skimming.

With a quarter of the readings done, the three of them heave a collective sigh of relief. 

They’re exhausted, and it's a little past 2 o’clock in the morning. Mima looks out of the window. It’s pitch black outside. She hasn’t been awake this late since Huiyin first came to Cadence Isle.

Mima goes back to Huiyin and Lexa who are now sitting on the floor playing with the cat.

“What’s the cat’s name?” Lexa asks. “I don’t think I’ve heard it yet.”

“Cherry,” Mima says, surprising Huiyin. “Another reason why I've been practicing your real name.”

“That’s, that’s silly. You’re just finding excuses to call me Huiyin. It’s so, so silly of you to call the cat Cherry.”

“Cherry is a good name,” Lexa says. “But so is Huiyin. Don’t you like it too?”

“Yes,” Huiyin says as she strokes the cat’s head. “But I don’t want to trouble people who might have difficulty saying my name…”

“It’s fine,” Mima says, “we care about you.”

Huiyin whimpers as Mima sits down beside her. She pushes her head into Mima’s shoulders and says, “You’re toying with my heart.”

“Well, that’s what girlfriends do.”

Mima kisses Huiyin on the forehead.

“I’ll, uh, leave you lovebirds alone.”

Lexa stands up and goes off into the bedroom.

“Did Lexa get embarrassed?” says Huiyin. “Did we embarrass her?”

“Yes, we sure did.”

The two of them carefully get down to lay on the floor, trying not to disturb Cherry the cat from their comfortable sleep. They’re looking at the lights that refract around the ceiling, like constellations in the sky.

“Mima.”

“Hmm?”

“I don’t want to leave Cadence Isle. I don’t want to leave you.” Huiyin edges closer to Mima. “It is breaking my heart that I have to leave.”

“Me too. I wish we could live together.”

“I want to. I want to be together with you.”

“But our relationship isn’t going to end,” Mima says, “just because we’re far apart. I know we’ll be together in the end.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yeah, I have been imagining what our future will be like together.”

“Really?” Huiyin’s voice is high-pitched here, almost a gasp. She’s beginning to sob loudly.

“Yes,” Mima says as she tries to hold in her own tears. “We’re managing this cafe together. I could be in school, catching up to you. So many possibilities.”

“That … will be nice.”

Huiyin is still crying and wiping her tears away. Mima, on the other hand, is telling herself not to cry.

Hold it in. Hold it in. You need to be brave. Huiyin will be sadder if you cry.

But she tears up anyway. It’s so painful to imagine that in just a few weeks time, Huiyin isn’t going to be here anymore. What’s going to brighten her days after Huiyin’s gone? She knows that she’s told Huiyin a lie: she can’t imagine any part of her future without her smile.

It’s so difficult.

“I have decided,” Huiyin says, “to do everything I can to be with you.”

Mima turns her head toward Huiyin.

“I am going to wait and move toward you,” she says. “I will make those dreams of being together real.”

Mima says, “I’ll look forward to it,” before kissing and hugging her.

The two of them settle down into each other’s embrace, eyes still glistening with fresh tears.

The morning after, Huiyin has a breakthrough.

“Have you tried this?” Huiyin says as she points to a diagram in a book. “This is an ancient technique in coffee making. The descriptions make it sound possible that this is what your mom used.”

Mima blinks as she’s handed the book and starts reading.

“No, but … this is worth a try.”

Huiyin and Mima go into the kitchen and start preparing the ingredients. They follow the instructions from the book and after many hours of practice, they’ve finally gotten a drinkable coffee blend out of their work.

Mima sips it and her mouth stays agape as she puts the cup back down.

“This is so close to my mom’s recipe,” she says. “I can’t believe it.”

“Did, did we find it?”

“Not quite but this is the closest we’ve ever been. It’s just lacking this tarty feel. I thought it was alcoholic, but no, it’s a tartiness that’s ... obscured by bitter coffee powder. I think, I think I know what the missing ingredient is now.”

“You do?!” Huiyin exclaims.

“If my hunch is right,” Mima holds her hands with the most heartwarming grin, “then we really are fated to be together, Huiyin.”

“What do you mean?”

“The missing ingredient is cherries.”

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