Medicinal Love

Author Notes: This is the new version of my former story. There will be a lot of changes from the original. Time—the Harvest Moon time and real life's time are very different. Also I want to thank The Scarlet Sky for beta-ing this chapter!

Summary: Claire Howe, a biochemist undergrad who is taking a Bachelor's and Master Degree path(1), was supposed to graduate this year; however, she had not written her thesis paper due to lack of time and so she has decided to take a year off school to write her thesis paper. What she did not expect was her thesis paper bringing her to a no-recognition village named Mineral Town.

Chapter 01

Date: Spring Quarter

The room was quite homely; so much similar to an office cubicle. Nice curtains in conservative colors. A small computer perched on a desk. Fake plants here and there. And that standardized atmosphere of dread to even be in this kind of setting.

A blond young woman fidgeted around her seat. Her blue eyes glanced around the room. She has always hated coming to the advisor's office each quarter, but she needed to keep track of how she was doing in terms of graduation. 'Even though advisors tend to be not reliable all the time,' Claire mentally grumbled as she recalled how often she had to recheck the system herself to make sure that the advisor had not 'advised' her wrongly.

"Ok, Claire. Here we are." Her advisor organized a few documents and turned to the computer screen that was on her left. Scrolling down the page, Claire's advisor told her, "It appears you have met all of the requirements except a thesis paper. Which you need if you want to get a Master's Degree."

"I know." Claire sighed; frustrated because she had tried writing her thesis paper but in the end, she was displeased with how it turned out.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

Claire straightened up in her seat. "If you excuse me, I'm thinking of delaying my graduation a year later so I can spend some time working on my thesis paper. I'm hoping that by the end of next summer, I will produce an outstanding thesis paper. This way I'll be able to turn it in to the head of the department during the Fall quarter and hopefully by either Winter or Spring quarter, I'll graduate with both degrees."

"And what about going to a pharmacy school?"

Claire looked at her advisor in the eye. "I've taken the necessarily tests and I have letters of recommendation."

"I hope so if you still wish to pursue UCSF," her advisor gave over the information a once over. "Ok, then, looks like everything is going well. Don't forget to petition for your one year leave from school and turn that in to the administration office. They will want it before the end of this quarter."

"Alright. Goodbye then." Claire rose from her seat and went out of the office. 'Paperwork…. Great.' She moaned at doing paperwork for school. But she knew it had to be done and she headed toward the Academic Student Services building.

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Click. Tap. Click. Click. Tap.

The repeated melody of Click-Tap continued as Claire ruthlessly searched her school's online library website. She banged her hand to her desk. "Why is it so difficult to find books on practical use of herbs in medicine?!"

"There should be plenty of those books, Claire. Especially if you look through Eastern countries and what-not." A hand landed on her shoulder.

Claire nearly jumped with fright. But she recovered as she recognized her roommate's voice. "Yeah there are, but none of them strikes me compelling enough to actually use it for my thesis. So what do you want?"

Her roommate grinned. "Want to go to Pinkberry's for some frozen yogurt?"

Claire shook her head, even though the offer was tempting enough. "No thanks. I'm not in the mood to, anyway. Besides, don't you have class right now?"

"I don't feel like going." Her roommate shrugged then smiled. "Besides, it's not like it's going to affect my grade or anything."

Claire rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I'm surprised you can get those stellar grades with you ditching class most of the time. Seriously, how do you do it?"

"Skills, my friend. Just plain ol' skills." A smirk formed on her roommate's face.

Claire could not stop rolling her eyes out at that. "Uh huh. I'll leave you and your skills alone while I head out to the school library."

"Which one?"

"The one near the science department." Claire grabbed her handbag and left her room, knowing that her roommate would lock the door when she left.

'What am I going to do?' Whining in her head, Claire glanced at the campus scenery around her. 'I can't afford to screw the time that I've allotted for myself.' She nearly screamed, but Claire managed to restrain herself before she made a fool out of herself in front of all the other students and a group of middle school students touring around the university campus.

It was not long before Claire reached one of her school's numerous libraries. There were several other students lounging in the area. Some were either studying for their finals—even though finals week was not until the next month. 'Overachievers.' Claire thought as she passed by a study group. Others were just chilling around. The rare…some were actually reading the books. Claire headed over to the subject area of the library and began the self-torture. Fingers browsed through several titles as quiet chatter from a nearby table filled the air.

Psychology: Mind over Matter. Pain-relief Drugs: Are they Good for You? Herbal Medicine & its Practical Uses in Modern Society.

"Wait a minute," Claire murmured; her hand paused at the last title. Picking the book from its shelf, she skimmed through the pages randomly. Satisfied with the content, Claire grinned and continued skimming the titles around.

Time passed but Claire was content with the number of books she had found. She was not sure whether they would be useful in her thesis but the contents looked promising. 'Finally!' Claire thought as she trudged through the stairs to her dormitory. Night time appeared and students were getting ready to head for the dining halls. Claire had to quickly run to the elevator before it closed on her. 'I wonder how many universities have elevator music playing in the elevators?' Claire thought as she listened to the music as she watched the numbers go up to six. Several students shoved their way in once Claire got out of the elevator and into her floor. She glared at them. "I wonder what's up with them." Annoyed by the rudeness, Claire kicked her room door opened.

"Took you long enough, didn't it?"

Scowling, Claire glared at her roommate. "What do you mean it took me long enough?!"

"It's almost dinner time." The other occupant pointed the clock while looking at Claire with a blank expression.

Claire shook her head in confusion. "And how is that any different than any other dinner time?"

Her roommate sighed in frustration. "You should really check the monthly menu. Tonight's the special."

At that moment, Claire's face was loosing all color. "Tonight's the special?" When her roommate nodded, panic took over Claire's composition. "Why didn't you warn me that tonight's the special?! Great, and now the best stuff will already be gone."

Every month at university, the dorm cafeteria would have the best meals where the foods tasted like a four-star restaurant…for one night. It's common knowledge that dorm food is not 'the' greatest food in the planet, no matter how much the colleges claim that they hired the best chefs and cooks. So for one night where everything was actually what it's worth, every student that lives in the dorms would always try to get the best seat, plates, anything that they could possibly grab their hands on to.

"Well, they will be if you continue moping around, that is. If we hurry right now, we could still make it. After all, you do remember that the clock is ahead by fifteen minutes, right?"

Claire almost snapped her head. Then she hurriedly glanced at the clock. "Oh right. I almost forgot about that," she weakly chuckled. "Well let's get going?"

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"Man, that was some good stuff." Claire sprawled across her bed, patting her stomach with a pleased expression slapped on her face.

Her roommate moaned. "Tell me about it. Too bad this only happens once every month, right? You'd think with all those tuition and housing fees, the school would get at least some decent cooks for us."

Claire looked at her roommate as she turned over to her side so she was now on her stomach. "Rip off, isn't it? The only good thing is the prestige this university has." Her eyes landed on the stack of books that were on the ground. 'I really don't want to but I have to do this sooner or later.'

"Hey Patty, can you get me one of those books?" Claire pointed the books on the ground.

Patty, whose name was actually Patricia, glared at Claire. She picked up the top book from the pile and threw it at Claire. "Hey! Geesh, what got you all so cranky? Is it that time again?"

"Claire."

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

Opening her book, Claire did not bother Patricia any further. Claire could already sense that Patty was at her limit, and thought that it would be wise to start reading the intro to the book Patricia had thrown at her.

As she reads through the introduction, Claire noticed that this was Herbal Medicine & its Practical Uses in Modern Society. Further along the book, there was this impulsiveness that was waiting to happen.

Around Mineral Town, there are several herbs that can be picked…

…can be used as medicine…

It was not rare for some societies to use herbs as medicine. In fact, Eastern societies tended to use it more often than Western societies. This Claire already knew, but there was this nagging feeling within her. That impulsiveness she had was taking control. But her mind went to the name, Mineral Town. 'Where is that?' Claire pushed herself off her bed and grabbed her laptop. Typing Mineral Town on Google, Claire was a tad bit disappointed when she saw that only five results where shown. Fortunately for her, one came with an image.

"Shit. That's far." Claire cursed as she saw that Mineral Town was nothing but an island and that the nearest city seemed to be somewhere in the east of where she was.

"What are you cursing about now?"

Claire sneaked a glance at Patricia, hoping to judge her reaction. "I'm just researching a place that I'm planning to stay at for a year." She only heard a sigh as her roommate stayed stoic.

"Then don't whine about the distance."

'That Patricia….' Claire mentally shook her head at her roommate and went back reading at the information Google had provided her.

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(Edited 1/4/09) Changed Jill's name to Claire.

Author Note: Thanks to The Scarlet Sky for beta-ing this!