it's a bit of both but more of the former. there's a consistent pattern to it that can be deduced by observing the girl.
..and figuring it out is part of the game so just in case, SPOILER WARNING:
the strawberries you see build up at the end of each level is carried over to the next. however she "eats up" a certain number of them before the level starts based on her mood so you'll have to guess how much is missing. Each mood has a different number ot strawberries "eaten". The game starts with three strawberries which get eaten based on her mood.
Our focus was to have players gradually understand the girl. Whaddya think?
Really liked your game btw. I made a huge monster but I forgot to take a pic, haha.