It was a wonderful day. There weren’t any dark clouds blocking the blue sky, the bright rays of the day warmed Luhan’s sun-kissed skin and the occasional cool breezes tousled his light brown hair. The trees and flowers celebrated the spring with full colors, spurting green leaves and colorful petals everywhere. Even the Pokémon around seemed to bask in the sun, enjoying the beautiful nature.

During days like these, Luhan knew he had made the right decision pursuing his dream of being the first Pokémon Master of his home region rather than going to university and studying medicine like his parents had hoped he would. It had been over four years since he received his first Pokémon from his Professor, and despite the problems that Luhan had encountered during the way, he didn’t have any regrets. Being a Pokémon Trainer wasn’t easy but it was a never-ending adventure, full of surprises and challenges.

For Luhan, it was the dream.

Luhan was walking quietly and checking information about one of the Geodude’s he had seen in the cave just moments before on his Pokédex, trying to decide if he should go back and try to capture it or not, when a smooth voice drew him from his thoughts.

“No! This is human food for humans. I already gave you your food earlier, don’t you remember?”

Turning towards the voice, Luhan saw a boy sitting on a fallen tree trunk next to the path, smiling cutely at the little Oddish by his feet. “Okay, I’ll give you a small piece, but only if you promise not to tell anyone. Mom already scolds me for feeding you too much,” he continued with a pout, giving a tiny part of his croissant to the excited looking Pokémon before shoving the rest of it into his own mouth.

The boy smiled at the Pokémon and fixed his light pink bangs, finally noticing Luhan watching him. His lips formed a small o-shape and the lightest blush appeared on his fair cheekbones. Luhan took it as his cue to step closer and introduce himself.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, you were just really cute when you played with your Oddish and I didn’t want to disturb,” Luhan explained and rubbed his neck nervously, causing the redness on the boy’s face to spread all the way to the tips of his ears. “I’m Luhan, by the way.” He then bowed politely, almost dropping his cap in the process.

The boy rose to his feet, quickly wiping away crumbs from his jeans, and bowed in return, “don’t worry about it, you just caught me by surprise. I’m Sehun.”

If Luhan had thought the boy was stunning from further away, up close Sehun was almost mesmerizing. He had plump pink lips to complement his wild colored hair and piercing dark brown eyes that seemed to almost sparkle in the sunlight. Unlike Luhan’s skin that already had a bronze hue from the warm days of the spring, Sehun’s complexion was still pale, only the few freckles dotting the cheekbones giving away the time he had spent under the clear skies.

A few centimeters shorter and maybe a year or two younger than Luhan, the blushing boy in front of him was the epitome of cuteness. (And Luhan had a soft spot for everything cute and pink.)

“So, Sehun,” Luhan started, trying to reduce the awkwardness, “are you a Pokémon Trainer too?” He hunched down to coo at the Oddish that had waddled next to its Trainer and gently petted the Pokémon’s green leaves, earning a soft purr from the creature.

“Yeah. I actually just turned seventeen a couple of months ago so I’m still quite new to all of this,” Sehun confessed.

“I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it! And when your Oddish evolves, it will be a lot easier to capture other Pokémon and win battles,” Luhan said, trying to encourage the younger Trainer, but as he got up, Luhan realized he had said something very wrong.

Sehun’s face was a mixture of pure horror as he looked at Luhan. “No, she will not evolve!”

“Huh, why wouldn’t she?”

“Because Glooms are ugly,” Sehun stated, as if the answer was obvious, and lifted up the tiny Pokémon from the ground, crushing it to his chest. “Pinku Pinku is perfect as it is.”

Luhan stared at the boy in front of him in disbelief, “but she’s useless like that.” Seeing the shock on Sehun’s face, Luhan realized just what he had said. Oops. “I just mean that–– She’s not very useful in the battle, right? Does she even know any moves and, uh, she looks kind of lightweight and…” His rambling was cut short by a soft sob coming from Sehun’s embrace.

Both boys tilted their heads to look at the small Pokémon, now teary eyed and shaking slightly. His Trainer, however, looked positively murderous. Oh crap.

“Look what you did! Are you happy now? You made her cry,” Sehun groaned (how the boy managed to look cute even when his face was twisted in fury was beyond Luhan) and tried to comfort the poor creature in his arms, giving it much softer words and looks than the ones directed to Luhan, “let’s show this dimwit what you’re made of, okay? We’re going to kick his petty and make him cry, aren’t we?”

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset her,” Luhan tried to explain but Sehun’s deadly glare shut him up.

“You will be sorry when we crush you in a battle.”

“When you–– wait what?”

“Take out your strongest Pokémon, we’re settling this like men,” Sehun huffed and laid his Oddish, which had finally stopped crying, back to the ground. “I challenge you into a battle.”

Luhan would have liked to argue or point out how stupid the idea was but Sehun’s fierce stare (he looked very much like an upset kitten) stopped him before the words even reached Luhan’s tongue. So he decided to do as the boy said and chose his Pokémon; after all, Luhan wasn’t one to turn his back to a battle.

“I hope you know what you’re doing. Charizard, I choose you!”

When the huge lizard-like Pokémon emerged from the Pokéball, despite his face losing the little color his almost translucent skin had, Sehun’s determination didn’t falter. His tiny Pokémon, though, squawked and hid behind its Trainer, looking absolutely horrified.

“Uh, can I… just a second,” Sehun excused himself, a slight pink hue on his cheeks again, and bent down to face his Oddish.

While Sehun was sharing words of encouragement with his Pokémon and praising its skills, Luhan turned to his Charizard. The creature was bouncing on his feet, excited about the future battle and probably already planning a dozen different ways to roast the small purple lump in front of it. Most Charizards Luhan had met in his life were scary and intimidating beasts but, to his initial dismay, somehow Luhan’s Charmeleon had evolved into an overgrown and curious puppy and not the fierce battle machine he had hoped for.

“Listen up, boy,” Luhan took a hold of the Pokémon’s jaw, forcing it to concentrate in his words, “I know that you want to crush that little Oddish there and show off your powers but do you see that cute boy with the pink hair? That’s the Oddish’s Trainer and I like the Trainer very much. If you scorch his Pokémon, the boy will be really sad and that would make me really sad. Do you understand?” The Charizard nodded eagerly but Luhan was sure that the only words the Pokémon was hearing were crush, show off and scorch. “So what I want you to do is to take it easy. Take a few hits, use some of the less powerful moves and let’s try to end the battle gently, okay? No need to barbecue anyone today.” Luhan could see the confusion in the lizard’s eyes and he couldn’t really blame the poor thing.

But before Luhan could prepare the Pokémon any more, Sehun was done with his pep talk. “Are you ready to get your kicked?” the boy asked with the now confident looking Oddish in front of him.

“Bring it on,” Luhan replied and turned his snapback backwards, ready to fight.

“Pinku Pinku, use sleeping powder!”

The Pokémon took a stance and shot lilac dust out of its leaves, creating a dense cloud moving towards Luhan’s side of the path. But before Luhan could even open his mouth to give commands, his Charizard was already dissolving the mist with air currents made with his strong wings, leaving the dust as harmless glitter. Afterwards the Pokémon jumped excitedly up and down, certainly pleased with his quick thinking.

Luhan, on the other hand, silently cursed the dumb lizard when he saw Sehun’s determined face crack after the Charizard dodged his attack so quickly. Clearly the Pokémon had no idea what taking it easy meant.

It was time to attack back and Luhan settled with one of the most basic moves. “Charizard, do slash!” he ordered and watched how the Oddish barely avoided the sharp claws directed at it. For such a small thing, it had pretty fast feet.

The fight went on like that for a while, Luhan dominating the battle and Sehun struggling to keep up, but for both Luhan’s and his Charizard’s surprise, delivering a few good hits here and there.

But all good things come to an end, and soon enough the poor Oddish was too tired to dodge Charizard’s ember and got hit by the flames. It stumbled a few steps back before collapsing to the ground, a few tears of disappointment and exhaustion already rolling on its plum cheeks. (The Charizard, on the other hand, looked very pleased and smug when Luhan called it back.)

Sehun rushed to his Pokémon and took it on his lap. “It’s okay, girl. You did really well, I’m proud,” he praised the Pokémon and Luhan felt his heart clench at the sight. “You can sleep for a while, okay?” Sehun called the Oddish back into its Pokéball and got up from the ground to face Luhan.

“Looks like you won, congratulations. Though, I guess it wasn’t much of a fight,” he said looking a bit embarrassed.

“No no no, I think you did great,” Luhan said quickly, not liking the sad look on the boy’s face, “I mean, not too many new Trainers have the guts to do what you just did. It’s important to have faith in your Pokémon.” Luhan was sure that, Sehun would be an amazing Trainer someday, he had the right kind of fire in his eyes and warmth in his heart.

“It was a good fight.”

“Thank you,” Sehun said a bit shyly but with a wide smile on his face, eyes crinkling with happiness, and Luhan could swear he felt his heart skip a beat. “I’ll work hard to become a better Trainer.”

Sehun picked his hoodie and backpack from the grass and started getting ready to continue his journey. But Luhan wasn’t ready to let the pink haired boy leave just yet.

“So where are you heading?” he asked and twirled his foot on the ground, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Um, I’m not sure yet. I’ve been just walking around for a few days. A friend of mine lives in Petalburg City, though, and I’ve been thinking about visiting him at some point.”

Luhan’s mood brightened up instantly. “Really? Because I’m going to Rustboro City to challenge the Gym Leader there! It’s in the same direction so we could go together.”

After thinking about the offer for a second, Sehun nodded happily and Luhan had to contain his shrieks of joy. “Yeah, I don’t see why not. It’s always nice to have company.”

“Awesome! I’ve heard that there are a lot of Skitties living in the area. You could try to capture one,” Luhan suggested and Sehun’s face lighted up with excitement at the mention of the cute cat-looking Pokémon.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go, hyung!” Sehun grabbed Luhan’s hand and started pulling the boy after him, animatedly chatting about other types of Pokémon he would like to catch and train. (Not really to anyone’s surprise, all of them were cute and small.)

Luhan looked at their interweaved fingers, a blush coating his cheeks and mind full of hyungs and cute smiles.

“I’ve heard about this great Pokémon café that should be just around the corner. We could stop by! They have all these Pokémon themed pastries and you can play with the Togepis roaming around there. Sound’s good, right?”

Lifting his gaze to meet Sehun’s eyes, Luhan saw his own reflection on the beautiful brown pupils. Maybe he could get used to another hand holding his on his way to become the next Pokémon Master.

“Yeah, sounds great,” Luhan replied, giving Sehun his warmest smile.