Over the course of the next two months, Irene and Wendy met up fortnightly, usually at the Gym when it was not in use. Their meeting was something that Irene always looked forward to and soon gotten used to. Wendy’s presence in the gym and in her life had made it so much more exciting.  

Often times, Wendy would be incredibly late for she had to be extremely discrete about their rendezvous sessions but the girl decided it was worth every trouble. Abra, had become such a master at teleporting that Irene was sure that she must already be the most accurate teleporter.

The former Gym Leader was beginning to warm up to Wendy’s Abra for she was in fact a pretty helpful and gentle pokemon but it sometimes still spooked Irene when Abra seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. Wendy had in fact told her that Abra, like what they had been taught in classes, was really good at reading minds. Irene sometimes thought she could see a faint smile on Abra whenever she got close to Wendy and would blush heavily after.

Wendy, appeared to be slightly oblivious to Irene’s feelings but Irene thought it might be a good thing for the both of them. During that time, Irene had also acquired her nickname of ‘Fire Trainer’ from Wendy. It was more of a tease because Wendy had said that Irene was truly a master at using fire-type pokemon and had extensive knowledge about them. Whenever Wendy called her that, Irene would pout then give a shy smile after.

The two pokemon trainers used rotational training method on their pokemons, which meant that Wendy would take turns training with only Pikachu or only Abra at one time, leaving the other at home.

Pikachu, after having discovered Quick Attack during that gym battle was improving at a satisfactory rate and Wendy liked to command a simultaneous Quick Attack with Thundershock from the small mouse pokemon. Though it was pretty effective, Pikachu tired out very quickly and was forced to take short rests. Meanwhile, even though Abra’s progress was still pretty slow, it was a pro at using teleport to evade attacks and had loads of potential.

Once, Abra’s evasiveness had made Charmander so frustrated that the lizard pokemon had ensued a full-powered Ember on the entire grass field which was a really unfortunate location. The luscious field of green was soon charred black and became a barren ground. The damage was so severe that Irene had to report it and Wendy offered to pay for the destruction caused. Fortunately, Irene had only received a very stern warning from the authorities and nothing more that could damage her reputation nor Wendy’s.

After these two months of training with Wendy, it was not hard for Irene to see that the calmer Abra had a better constituent which Professors commonly termed as base stats as compared to the enthusiastic Pikachu. Yet, Irene could also tell that Wendy still preferred using the small electric mouse Pokemon as her main Pokemon. Irene had been thinking a lot during the past two weeks. Now as Irene was watching Pikachu making a huge arc around Charmander, and lashing out Thundershocks in a quick succession, her thoughts began to grow stronger.

Charmander was getting used to Pikachu’s undisciplined attacks and could avoid each and every one of them easily now. Wendy needs better opponents and realer experience. The more she thought about it, the stronger she felt and she also began to realise that she herself requires such experience as well.  

Irene decided that she needed to talk to Wendy about possible future plans. Irene found her heart racing at such thoughts. A future plan with Wendy…

It was undeniable that beside their Pokemon’s abilities which have grown, something else seemed to have blossomed between Wendy and herself. Once, when they had been training by a lake, Irene had stood too close to the shoreline and Charmander had playfully pushed Irene, not expecting his Trainer to lose her footing by the muddy banks and fall into the water. Despite the water being fairly shallow, Irene was still scared and floundered about. It was only when Wendy had gotten into the lake waters that the fire rrainer had calmed down slightly. It was truly embarrassing as Irene reflected on the incident because she had completely thrown herself into Wendy’s arms.  

From then on, Irene realised just how sensitive and thoughtful Wendy was and began to fall more for the girl. Wendy often packed lunchboxes for them and had even become aware of Irene’s preferences for food.

At the end of every training session, Irene would also feel a sense of loss and hoped that her next training session with Wendy would arrive much sooner.

**

Wendy had been humming merrily to herself and had entirely missed her elder sister leaning against her doorway, with a slanted smile on her face. When Taeyeon spoke, Wendy had jumped in shock.

Taeyeon chuckled unrestrainedly at her younger sister’s antics. “Seriously… I have been standing there for a good whole five minutes just watching you swirl around in joy. You seem really happy these few days? Anything good happened lately that you would like to share with your elder sister?”

Colour rose to Wendy’s cheeks as she hesitated for a moment before shaking her head, denying her sister stories of her recent encounter with the most wonderful person she has met in her entire life, Irene Bae. Just the thought of Irene made Wendy’s face flush a deeper scarlet.

Taeyeon sighed. “You don’t even trust your sister in sharing your happiness. I wonder who would save your when a crisis befalls you?”

Narrowing her eyes, Wendy asked her sister in caution. “Are you implying something? Or are you cursing me?”

Taeyeon then bounced her body away from the doorway, strode into Wendy’s room and stopped before her younger sister, giving a light pat on her head.

“Figure it out yourself, my baby sister. Anyway, I just want to let you know that I am happy that you are livelier nowadays,” then Taeyeon leant in and did the unexpected of giving her sister a hug.

Before Wendy could make sense of what warranted her sister’s unusual behaviour, Taeyeon spoke again, this time with much warning in her tone. “I am not the only one that realised you have gotten livelier, Wendy. Be careful, Father has plans for you, for us.”

After Taeyeon had pulled away from her sister, Wendy gave her sister a grateful half-smile and nodded. “I won’t let father down, I will make Abra stronger and at the same time, excel in my area of specialisation.”  

“Your area of specialisation,” Taeyeon spoke enigmatically and smiled even more mysteriously upon repeating Wendy’s words. “We shall see…”

“What do you mean by that?” Wendy asked with slight annoyance at not being able to pick up her sister’s hints.

Taeyeon chuckled once more and shrugged. “Well… you should know your area of specialisation best. Anyway, I will be going away on a business trip for the next three months, try to not get into trouble.”

Wendy’s initial annoyance then showed on her face as she frowned at Taeyeon. “Yes, I will try not to.”

“That is my good sister!” Taeyeon said cheerily and had her heels to leave but threw her head back over her shoulders as she said, “oh right, for this business trip, I will just be bringing along two of our Kadabras with me, Golduck will remain at home.”

Wendy was slightly taken aback by this information but even if she had been curious about Taeyeon’s arrangements about leaving her favourite pokemon behind, she had not let it show.

“And one last thing before I forget, I heard that the new Battle Frontier in Gyeongju has been fully constructed. I have two opening tickets for it, thought you might want to check it out.”

Wendy looked at her sister as she started conjuring up plans in her mind. Perhaps, she would go to the Battle Frontier with Irene, perhaps Irene and herself could have a go at one of the Battle arenas. Wendy had no idea that all those ideas would evoke so much joy and she started smiling.

Taeyeon cocked her brow upon seeing the smile on her younger sister’s face. Taeyeon then turned back again and asked once more, “really nothing to update me?”

Startled, Wendy quickly wiped the smile from her face and shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Well then… help me take care of Golduck then. I’ll be going.” Taeyeon said and turned to leave for real this time round.

As Taeyeon sauntered away from the room, a smile crossed her face as she sought comfort from placing full faith in Golduck’s ability and loyalty to protect her younger sister during her time away.

**

“So… what have you been up to recently besides lazing around in house?” Heechul asked scathingly, earning a glare from his younger sister.

“I’ve been out training,” Irene hissed back.

The word ‘training’ must have caught Charmander and Vulpix’s attention as they scuttled towards their trainer, their faces lit up with eagerness. Irene raised a brow at them. Charmander who had been slightly reluctant to receive training initially had truly become fond of their training sessions with Wendy and her pokemons. Irene was beginning to grow suspicious that it was because the lizard pokemon was getting attached to Wendy and the snacks she brought to training.

“Oh? Seriously? Char and Vulpix? Training?” Heechul asked in surprise as he observed the pokemon’s enthusiastic response. “Why are you suddenly so enthusiastic about training though? You weren’t that enthusiastic about pokemon duels back when you were in school, I even wondered how you became the Valedictorian…”

Irene threw a pillow at Heechul at her brother’s mockery and Charmander joined in swiping at the male. The