Wendy had been nursing her Pikachu for the past three days with the help of the Family’s Pokemon, Chansey. Chansey was a large pink and ovoid creature with gentle eyes and had been with her family since her grandfather’s time and was one of the family’s main caretaker along with the other numerous other pokemons. Chansey had been feeding the small electric mouse tenderly for the past few days and each time Pikachu cried out in agony, Chansey would look into those injuries and go about as fast as she could to fetch pain-relief medication. Super Potions and Burn Heals usually do that work but Wendy insisted on Hyper Potions and Super Burn Heals and Chansey abided by her wishes. Wendy muttered a thank you to Chansey in a low tone and the pink nurse pokemon returned a cheerful pokemon cry. As Chansey went about doing her job in high-spirits, Wendy could not help but break out in a wry smile as she thought about how Chansey’s work was rarely appreciated in the house. Wendy sighed as she thought about how she needed a break from this stifling environment which was her house and her family. Squeezing her eyes shut, Wendy pushed such toxic thoughts to the back of her mind, she needed to maintain the peace and harmony within her family.  

Wendy ate dinner with her family that night. It was a rare occasion since the patriarch of the Son Family, was rarely at home for dinner and Wendy was silently glad about that fact. Mr Son, or more commonly known as Mayor Son was a strict father who imposes high standards on his daughters. Ever since the passing of Mrs Son more than ten years ago, Mayor Son became even sterner and Wendy bore the brunt of his harsh upbringing.

The Sons descended from a line of wealthy merchants and in Mr Son’s generation, had gotten themselves into politics for whichever reasons, Wendy did not wish to know. Mr Son is the mayor of Daegu and is aiming for bigger and better cities. Rumours has it that he is a strong contender for mayor of Busan to revive Busan’s sluggish environment and make an even bigger name for himself.

Despite playing the role of a good daughter, Wendy was often resentful of her father’s oppressive charge on her. Of late however, Wendy had taken a leaf out from her sister’s books, becoming rather bold and began to deviate away from her father’s expectations of her.

It started from when she had first switched the course which she studied at university. From PokeMedicine to PokeMaster. Even up till now, Wendy’s father had not even suspected a thing since Wendy had done her due diligence in reading up about PokeMedicine research papers and had paid bribes that was more than sufficient to keep those around her tight-lipped about her education.

The next most rebellious thing she had done was to adopt the tiny Pikachu. This, she could not hide from her father and Mr Son accepted it with disdain as long as her daughter made the promise to never let that tiny electric creature be her main Pokemon for the Sons had pride themselves with using only intelligent pokemons for centuries.

That meant that Psychic Pokemons usually served as their mains. Mr Son had an Alakazam for himself, a humanoid pokemon with a perpetual sly look, while Wendy’s elder sister, Taeyeon, had evolved a Golduck from the Psyduck which Mr Son shared equal dislike for.

Fortunately, Golduck, the blue, bipedal, duck pokemon proved to be a strong and capable enough Pokemon, eventually passing the scrutiny of Mr Son. Golduck however did not seem to forget Mr Son’s contempt for him when he was a Psyduck and rarely appeared before Mr Son, often preferring to train by himself in the water gardens. During Summer, Wendy would often borrow her sister’s Golduck to take her swimming and the duck Pokemon was more than glad to have Wendy as his companion because Wendy had been kind to him as always. Golduck had repaid Wendy’s kindness by always keeping a lookout for her Pikachu.

Wendy herself has an Abra, the devolution of Kadabra, whom she was not too close to since it was a hand-me-down from a cousin. Abra however seemed to not be too bothered by her owner’s lack of affections for her since Wendy had not been mean to her either. Her father however, was growing exasperated with Wendy for not having evolved her Abra into a Kadabra even after the many years of being together with it.

Abra ate with the other Family’s pokemon at the PokeTable and was served by several Machops, humanoid pokemons packed with muscles and who pride themselves in doing housework, something which Wendy could never understand why. Wendy knew some Families slave-drive their pokemons and was glad that at least the pokemons in their house, especially senior ones, were treated kindly because Taeyeon had insisted they be treated so. When a Machoke died just last year, Wendy despite not being close to him still wept uncontrollably whilst others of his kind mourned quietly, in reverend respect for their senior.

During dinner, Mr Son asked about Taeyeon’s progress at a prestigious private Research Center, Star Maximus, where she works as a Lead Researcher. The Research Center specialises in researching and producing premium Pokeballs. Apparently, Mr Son also has a stake in Star Maximus and thus was mildly concerned about the company’s health.

Taeyeon, being a professional, gave a half-smile to her father and coolly stated that she could not and would not divulge the company’s secrets. Mr Son gave a grunt and a lopsided smile at his stubborn daughter. From the all-knowing expression on her father’s face, Wendy had roughly known that Mr Son had more informants in the company than to rely solely on her sister.

Later, when Mr Son turned his attention to Wendy, she had panicked so much so that she had almost dropped her soup spoon. Those shrewd eyes of Mr Son narrowed upon the girl’s flustered behaviour.

“Is there anything you wish to tell me?” Mr Son asked severely and Wendy knew that this could be one of her father’s tricks; pretending to know but not truly knowing.

“Yes, I just graduated last summer,” Wendy japed knowing that her father enjoyed mild sarcasm in daily conversations.

Her old man laughed appreciatively. “Right. I would have thought that you were still in high school if you hadn’t reminded me.”

Wendy forced a smile and wondered if it was a wrong move, it would inevitably lead to discussions about her future prospects. Fortunately, her Abra saved her in time when it had teleported right next to her side, startling all of whom were at the dining table, even the Machops as well.

“Abra!” Wendy shouted dramatically but later whispered lovingly into her ears. “You sensed my difficulty didn’t you.”

Abra merely turned to her and gave her a faint smile of serenity with her eyes shut.

Wendy sighed and thought that she should treat this psychic pokemon of hers better. After all Abra was her main pokemon and stuck by her through all these times.

Mr Son grunted in approval when Wendy began to feed the pokemon morsels of food from her own bowl and the pokemon, though appearing to be asleep, accepted her feed with a lazy, half-opened mouth. Wendy laughed at Abra’s reactions and wished that she had spent more time to bond her Pikachu with Abra instead of letting them sleep in their separate PokeBalls so often.

Then again, Wendy pondered on how long she could keep the fact that she had gotten a PokeMaster degree instead of a PokeMedicine degree from her father for long. Perhaps she should start training up her pokemons lest her father challenge her to a PokeFight in a fit of rage.

**

Heechul scratched the stubble which had grown out from his chin as he listened to Irene’s recounts. A month in the wild catching pokemon had eroded his hygiene habits.  

Amidst Irene’s recounts, Charmander would sometimes throw in animated actions to depict scenes from earlier that day. Once, Charmander became so excited he singed a bit of Heechul's hair and earned a pinch to his tail.

“A Pikachu and… Wendy…” Heechul reflected on that name for he seemed to have heard them somewhere before. He vaguely remembered that name belonged to someone else’s daughter, someone of importance and then it hit him. Heechul snapped his fingers and jumped up so high from his seat that Char was almost knocked off from the dining table.

“She is the mayor’s daughter!” Heechul exclaimed out loud. “She is officially registered as Son Seunwan or Son Seungwan! Whatever it is but I remember someone called her Wendy during a dinner party where Gym Leaders were invited to. Oh goodness gracious, you guys beat her Pikachu?! Even severely injured that pokemon at that?! There goes our Gym license.” Heechul sank back to his chair exaggeratedly. He went on about how great the Mayor was to have let them keep their license for so long while Irene and Charmander watched him speak animatedly with a of confusion on them.

“Well… she seemed like someone important all right but I thought she looked nice enough, only a little about the use of potions. I doubt she would sabotage us in any way,” Irene reasoned, carefully leaving out the part where Wendy also made her heart race.

She was later supported by Char on her opinions. Times like this, Irene found her Charmander the cutest pokemon ever lived and could not resist but pinch his hot, chubby cheeks. Char swatted them aside since he was no longer a baby pokemon and thought he should be treated with more respect.

“Arrogant lizard,” Irene spat at the red lizard which only shrugged smugly in response.

“No…” Heechul whined. “You two had better go apologise to the mayor’s daughter tomorrow. If not all my efforts in catching that Ponyta and registering it would have been in vain. Can you believe that it costs twice as much to register a second duplicated pokemon?!”

Irene muttered under her breath that it was stupid of Heechul to capture a second Ponyta anyway and was about to protest against Heechul. However, before Irene could object to her brother’s suggestion, Charmander had sprung before Heechul and hopped angrily about his two lizard feet and waving his fist in the air. “No, I am not going to apologise. No, no, no!”

Heechul swept the lizard aside and spoke more seriously to his sister, grabbing her two shoulders tightly, his eyes locking onto hers. “Make a trip down to the mayor’s house and apologise!”

Irene could only oblige reluctantly. “Pack me a bag full of Hyper Potions then.” The girl spoke grudgingly. She had only meant it as a joke but Heechul had taken it seriously and prepared a crate full of Hyper Potions for Irene to take along.

**

Irene complained and cursed as she carried that crateful of Hyper Potions, which had been crammed into her bag, in the blistering heat. She counted herself fortunate her family owned one of the older version of the compact Bag which belonged to one of the older PokeGear line.

Since the Mayor’s house was situated in an inner lane that was not accessible by public teleportation pods, Irene could only rely on her two trusty but short legs to walk in. Perhaps that was why her brother had favoured Ponyta which he could ride on. Also, Charmander had decided that it was too troublesome to walk down to the mayor’s house and decided to stay in the comforts of his PokeBall. That made the female PokeMaster even angrier since her dignity as a PokeMaster had totally been crushed. PokeMaster… Irene suddenly recalled the PokeDex in Wendy’s bag and that bothered her slightly.

From Irene’s knowledge, the daughters of powerful figures such as Mayors and aristocrats usually have nobler and safer degrees in say, the field of PokeMedicine, PokeEngineering and PokeLaw, as compared to one that requires groundwork such as PokeMaster.

Also, even though it was not officially required of the PokeMasters to duel, most had made it their main hobby and often had strong pokemons in their family. That brought another question to Irene’s mind. If Wendy was indeed the Mayor’s daughter, should she not have stronger pokemons than a puny Pikachu?

Consumed by her own thoughts, Irene did not realise that she had arrived before the gates of the Mayor Son’s mansion. Sensing that their owner had stopped in her tracks, both Charmander and Vulpix got themselves out of the PokeBall, standing in line with their Master.

The Mansion before them was palatial and boasted of a large rectangular baroque fountain that lay parallel to two green lawns. The walk into the mansion itself would probably require another good five minutes or so and Irene spied several private teleportation pods lining in neat rows by the green lawns. The Mansion itself was white marble decorated with Baroque carvings and fanned out by eight great white columns. And even though Irene could not see the back of the Mansion, she did not doubt that there was to