During the entire walk back, Seulyi kept skipping, humming a cheerful tune, even twirling and giggling to herself.

“She looks like she lost her mind,” Chanyeol said.

“Coming from the guy in the Magikarp onesie?” Woohyun remarked.

“Yeah, this is perfectly normal. It’s you guys who are underdressed,” Chanyeol said, hugging the Magikarp in his arms. It was amazing how long the Pokemon could survive above water without being placed back in its habitat. They hoped it was still alive.

“Maybe you should underdress for tomorrow,” Woohyun suggested, keeping his tone as non-judgemental as possible. Chanyeol may not have noticed, but everyone kept looking their way whenever they passed.

“No way! Yerin said this looked cute! I’m never gonna take this onesie off ever again!” Chanyeol protested.

“Well, good luck courting the girl,” Woohyun sang, slightly shaking his head. Not sure Yerin would appreciate the body odor that would come with it.

By now, Chanyeol’s crush on Yerin was very clear. During the entire walk back after the concert, Chanyeol’s had continuously kept blinking his right eye, like a twitch.

“Are you okay?” Yerin had asked.

“Totally fine,” he answered, blinking his eyes with a more rapid speed than before when she directly faced him.

It was then when they realized he was trying to wink, testing out Hyunmi’s earlier theory. Poor guy did not even realize Yerin uncomfortably looking away from him. She then excused herself, summoning Rapidash to make her escape faster.

“Thanks for the wish, but I don’t need it. I can tell she already likes me.” Chanyeol grinned confidently, leaving the others speechless.

They finally arrived at Pyxidis Hotel, the same hotel where everyone coincidentally resided at—mainly because it was the only hotel available in the city. 

“Let’s meet tomorrow at nine before heading out,” Woohyun said before everyone headed back to their own room. 

“Okay!” Seulyi said without missing a beat. She looked at Woohyun with seemingly so many things to say, but ended up flashing her widest smile instead. “Thank you for today. You made my dream come true. I’d hug you, but I shouldn’t.”

Woohyun frowned at the last bit but nodded in acknowledgement of her gratitude. Both Seulyi and Chanyeol left as soon as they bid farewell, leaving Woohyun alone with Hyunmi who had been spacing out during their entire walk back. Three times, she walked into a pole. The fourth time, he pulled her back. The fifth time, Growlithe barked so loud it made her cling unto Woohyun. 

“Don’t feel like sleeping yet?” He asked, trying to bring her focus back to reality. 

She looked up in surprise, staring to her left and right in realization that the others had left. “No,” she answered, finally turning to him. 

Woohyun smiled. “Care to join me for a drink then?” 

“Sure.”

Swablu and Growlithe sat together to snack on some of the Pokeblocks Hyunmi had given them. The two immediately dug in, especially Growlithe who had never eaten these homemade Pokeblocks. Swablu was eager to share and found joy in stuffing them into Growlithe’s mouth, chirping happily when his cheeks looked like a bloated hamster.

Woohyun ordered a blueberry smoothie for them both, guessing she liked it after witnessing her trying to slurp down the foam before. As soon as it arrived, she opted to drink instead of talking.

Based on what his mom had said, it wasn’t nice to pry out information from others. They’d either open up at their own pace, or he had to open up first.

“I’ve gathered four badges so far,” he began, noting she was finally looking at him. “But I’ve lost at least once to all of them before I actually won.”

“How can that be? You’re a great trainer,” she commented.

He couldn’t help but grin at her compliment. It was definitely not a popular opinion shared by many. Most people opted to laugh at him. “Because every loss teaches me something new.”

Hyunmi frowned, leaning closer. “Are you saying you pretended to lose?”

“No, I’m not that good.” He nervously cleared his throat at their distance, only two fists apart. “But every loss gives me a chance to assess their battle style, strategies, and their Pokemon’s move. If another trainer happens to use a similar technique, I would know how to beat it.”

Hyunmi leaned her head against her hand, still staring at him. “Then why’d you lose to Yerin twice?”

“As far as I can tell, she uses whichever moves she likes that showcases the strength of her Pokemon. She has no fixed strategies,” Woohyun analyzed. “Those type of opponents are harder to defeat.”

Hyunmi kept her gaze on him and finally fixed a smile filled with admiration. “Not many can turn their defeat into victory. You’re amazing, Woohyun.”

The compliment was so genuine and sudden that Woohyun didn’t know how to react other than by blushing and flashing a sheepish smile.

“I wished I could say the same about my case, but I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong,” Hyunmi said, poking the foam of her drink using the straw. “You said my Pokemon’s moves were graceful, but somehow it’s not enough to impress the judges.”

“Why?” 

“They said my choice of Pokemon and moves were all wrong to begin with,” she cried and buried her head between her arms. “I’ve studied everything there is to know about every possible Pokemon move. But Han Mira keeps winning even though she doesn’t know as much as I do.”

As if Swablu had sensed her dejection, she appeared to hug her trainer between her fluffy wings. 

Woohyun stared at the blue bird Pokemon, never having seen its move before. He wondered what was lacking. “If you show me your routine, I could help you.”

Both Hyunmi and Swablu looked up simultaneously. “You’d do that for us?”

“Of course. How could I ignore the one person who stood up to Yerin for my sake?” He grinned. “Besides, my mom was a Top Coordinator herself, so I know a thing or two about Contests.”

Her eyes began to twinkle as fell open. She held unto his hands, oblivious to him gulping down his saliva. “Thank you! You’d be the perfect person to train with.”

“R-Right…” He quickly averted his eyes, feeling the heat in his cheeks. 

“I think I can finally sleep in peace now.” Hyunmi let go of him and got up on her feet, motioning for Swablu to follow her. “See you tomorrow.”

“Wait!”

“Hm?”

“If you want to, maybe we could practice first thing in the morning before meeting the others. Since we’re still fired up and we should use our time wisely and—”

“Sure, I’d love to,” she answered, chuckling at his struggling words. It almost felt like she was saying yes to a promposal. “Goodnight.”

Woohyun couldn’t stop himself from smiling even as she left. But apparently he wasn’t the only one. Growlithe was grinning along with its canine teeth. 

“What? I’m just being nice,” he insisted.

Growlithe barked once, not buying it.

The next morning, Chanyeol was the first one up. He hurried to their meeting point, eagerness in every step, ready to meet Yerin. But when he noticed Yerin’s blazing figure waiting in front of the hotel, he realized he wasn’t ready to meet her.

He waited for someone else to appear first, which happened to be Seulyi in her sun hat. “Seulyi! Help me!” He yelped, quickly holding her arm for protection.

“Don’t! I don’t want Myungsoo to get the wrong ideas when he sees me. Hands off!” Seulyi said, swatting his hands like chasing away a giant mosquito. “Besides, ew, did you even shower? Why do you smell like rotten fish?”

“I didn’t change my outfit. Yerin said it was cute, remember?” Chanyeol said.

Seulyi made a face of disgust and exerted more strength to pull herself free. “I don’t want your smell to rub off on me. I used Bellossom Eau de Parfum just for today.”

“Chikoo!” Her Chikorita called out, using its vines to pull Chanyeol away from her. She gave the strange human a menacing glare, warning him to stay away from her lovestruck trainer.

The two exited through the hotel’s revolving door, and Yerin and her Rapidash greeted them. Her eyes scanned Chanyeol from head to toe, but this time, she didn’t comment on his outfit.

“Where is the one who lost twice to me and his girlfriend?” Yerin asked, peering behind them. 

“Here,” Hyunmi said, approaching from the opposite direction together with Woohyun, Swablu, Growlithe, and Wooper. “We were doing some mock battles.”

“Huh.” Yerin crossed her arm, eyeing the little blue creature that trailed after them. “So when your girlfriend claimed you had a Pokemon that could defeat me, she was referring to a Wooper?”

There were too many claims in that sentence that Woohyun wanted to address. “She was bluffing.”

“Doesn’t matter! I look forward to battling with you. Now that you have a water Pokemon—albeit a very tiny one—our match will be more interesting.”

She stared at the little guy. But Wooper kept staring at Chanyeol, wincing its usual smiley face before deciding to give him a quick shower using water gun. This, made Yerin laugh again.

“Told you you should’ve showered,” Seulyi said out loud, giving away Chanyeol’s secret in public. “Now, come on! We need to find Myungsoo!”

Of course, she was the most eager to lead the way. She wasn’t that familiar with the city, but for Myungsoo’s sake, she would do her best navigating through.

“You’re going the wrong way,” Yerin said, taking the lead without sparing her a glance. “The Flower Haven’s this way.”

Seulyi pressed her lips together, following her with slight embarrassment and utmost admiration. “She’s so cool.”

“And pretty,” Chanyeol added.

“So aside from Woohyun, what are your names?” Yerin asked, majestically riding her Rapidash as everyone else kept walking by foot. 

Woohyun rolled his eyes. “She knows my name but identifies me as the loser.”

“We both know you’re anything but,” Hyunmi said. “I’m Jang Hyunmi, and this is Swablu.”

The Pokemon chirped a happy greeting. 

“I’m Kang Seulyi, and this here is my…” Seulyi stared at Chikorita, suddenly blank. “Choko? No. Choki? Hm.”

“Chikorita?” Yerin guessed.

“Yes! Chokitori!”

Chikorita stared at her trainer with squinted eyes, exhaling a deep sigh as its leaf hung low. When will her trainer finally memorize her name?

“And you?” Yerin asked, turning to Chanyeol.

“I am your future boyfriend.”

“Excuse me?” 

“Did I say that out loud?” Chanyeol panicked, pulling the hoodie of his onesie lower to burry most of his face, revealing only his pursed out lips. “I-I’m Park Chanyeol.”

“Future boyfriend, eh?” Yerin laughed at the absurd statement. She had her own share of fanboys, but non as direct and blunt as this guy. “I’m not interested in guys who are weaker than me. Defeat me, and I’ll consider it.”

“F-For real?” Chanyeol asked, feeling hope reeling into him. “I’ll do it! I’ll defeat you and be your boyfriend!”

Woohyun and Hyunmi looked at Yerin with narrowed eyes. This challenge, which seemed to favor Chanyeol, was doing the exact opposite. Judging on his love for Magikarp, it was easy to assume he only possessed Magikarp. There was no way he could defeat her using the splashing fish, and Yerin was well aware of that.

“That’s sly,” Hyunmi muttered.

“An evil genius,” Woohyun agreed.

One they arrived at Flower Haven, they identified the two tall figures standing amidst the flowerbed as Kim Myungsoo and Han Mira.

Seulyi was torn between feeling joyful for seeing Myungsoo again, but also completely dejected for seeing him with Mira. She would find out the relationship between the two of them somehow, someway.

“Are you two dating? You’ve been together since yesterday,” Woohyun asked, extremely blunt when addressing his childhood friend’s affairs.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, Seulyi thought. Woohyun was truly a life saviour and extremely dependable as her wingman. She could pry more information about Myungsoo from Woohyun, maybe even obtain Myungsoo’s cute baby pictures.

“No, of course not,” Myungsoo said, straightening the black sunglasses, a great item of disguise for an idol. “She helped me with the choreography for last night's performance.”

“That was you?” Hyunmi asked, staring at Mira with a conflicted look. She had admired those moves, but refused to admire her rival.

“You know, Hyunmi here is a coordinator too. Maybe she could help you out next time,” Woohyun suddenly said, much to Seulyi’s demise.

Talk me up, you idiot! Not her!

“Really? How come I’ve never seen or heard about you before?” Myungsoo asked, tilting his sunglass up to give Hyunmi a closer look.

No, look at me!

Seulyi began rolling on the ground in protest. And instead of stopping her, her Chikorita joined in. As did the other Pokemon who thought it looked fun.

“I… I’m humble,” Hyunmi stated with all seriousness, causing Woohyun to laugh.

“It’s not humble when you say it yourself.” It was then when Woohyun noticed Seulyi rolling around, remembering he was supposed to help her. “Or, you know, you could ask Seulyi to help with… Uh…”

Who was he kidding? Seulyi barely remembered her own Pokemon’s name. There was nothing much she could help with.

“Costumes!” Seulyi filled in the blank, immediately sprinting before Myungsoo, her dress and hair all fixed as if she had come from a hair dresser instead of rolling on the ground. “I’m pretty good at making costumes.”

“Not as good as me,” Chanyeol mumbled to himself, admiring his self made Magikarp onesie. He wondered whether Yerin wanted one. Would she wear it if he presented it as a gift?

“That‘s an interesting suggestion,” Myungsoo said, nodding at Seulyi. “We should discuss more about it later.”

“Why not now?” She showed her eagerness, forgetting the main reason for their gathering.

“Because we’re supposed to catch this scammer?” Mira reminded, slightly shaking her head, as if wondering why Myungsoo even wanted to be associated with the likes of them. “The faster we catch him, the sooner we’ll get this over with. I’m curious how he looks like anyway since he managed to scam you all, twice. Bet he has a common face.”

“He wears a disguise every time he approaches someone,” Chanyeol explained. “I don’t know about you guys, but that moustache was really believable. I couldn’t recognize him at all.”

“Yes. He was like a completely different person,” Seulyi agreed.

“I heard his victims describing him as having an Aipom. Didn’t he have his Pokemon with him?” Yerin asked, trying to gather information.

“Oh! Now that I think about it, he did have an Aipom with him!” Hyunmi remarked.

“The Aipom was in costume too. So we couldn’t recognize him either,” Woohyun added.

Growlithe, Swablu, and Chikorita all nodded along, agreeing to every single one of their words. They had been scammed as well.

“Alright, to make the search easier, we should split up in pairs and go look for them,” Yerin commanded.

“No need for that, I will go solo,” Mira said. She took her Pokeball and summoned from it a Ninetales. 

The others—except for Hyunmi and Myungsoo who had seen her Pokemon before—all looked on in amazement. Her Ninetales’ fur were the shiniest and glossiest Pokemon fur they had ever seen. From different angles, it even seemed to gleam against the sunlight. The Pokemon was just as elegant as her owner was, paying no heed to their fascination. To a contest winning Pokemon, the attention was common.

“I’ll explore the Flower Haven, and you guys can split up and look elsewhere,” Mira said calmly, as if having to find a scammer was just child’s play for her and her award winning Ninetales.

“Okay! Someone should explore the beach again,” Woohyun suggested, not volunteering himself since Growlithe would be at a disadvantage.

“I can go there. I know the place pretty well since Chikolette and I have been there for the past few days,” Seulyi said, leaving out the part about the swimming lesson in case Myungsoo would chide her for it. “Let’s go, Hyunmi!”

“No, actually…” Hyunmi immediately clung to Woohyun’s arm, unaware of him stiffening at the contact. “I’ll go with Woohyun. You should go with Myungsoo, and Chanyeol with Yerin.”

Hyunmi grinned victoriously. Oh, she was so smart, allowing her friends some alone time with their crushes. She should ask them for a blueberry smoothie later as a token of gratitude.

“W-w-what? J-j-just the t-two of us?” Seulyi gulped down her nervousness. She was totally fine about seeing Myungsoo because her friends would back her up. But being alone with him? She couldn’t manage a word out.

“We can do that,” Myungsoo said, calling out Roselia from his Pokeball. He looked at Seulyi and flashed her a dazzling smile, one that nearly made her faint.

“Sounds like a plan. Chanyeol and I can explore the gym and contest grounds in town,” Yerin easily agreed, and Chanyeol was awestruck that she showed no protest. See? She wanted to spend all of her time with him.

“Great, then we’ll go to…” Hyunmi eyed Woohyun, wondering why his face was red. Was she holding him too tight and suffocating him? She immediately let go.

“The place where we first met,” Woohyun said, the words sounding a bit too nostalgic for their brief encounter. It was as if only four chapters had passed since then. “The Pyxidis Market.”

“Alright, it’s settled. Let’s catch the scammer!” Yerin let out a battle cry, and her fiery passion gauged the others to shout along—all except for Mira who stood there shaking her head.
 

who is that pokemon?

 

Magikarp	Wooper
Rapidash	Aipom
Growlithe	Ninetales
Swablu	Roselia
Chikorita