It’s been two weeks since Seulgi found Irene’s Ninetales wandering around the streets downtown and things had settled down in their dorm. They were no longer at each other’s throats which was something she was thankful for, especially since she was getting swamped with schoolwork. Not only did she have mandatory battle strategy classes every day but Jihyo had assigned a paper in their breeding class, due next Tuesday.

Seulgi liked all the work though. She could tell that she was becoming a better Trainer and more adept at communicating with her team. Even her Vulpix was growing up quickly, picking up on things his older teammates were learning. It wouldn’t be too long before he would be ready to evolve. Everything seemed to be going peachy, which meant the other shoe had to drop soon.

She was in her room working on researching proper ways to incubate and keep Pokémon eggs while Irene browsed through her emails when a loud explosion erupted through the night sky. Vulpix yelped in fear and ran for the safety of the nearest person, which happened to be Irene, curling up into a tight ball in her lap and shaking like a leaf. The Champion set down her tablet and ran her fingers through the baby Pokemon’s fur in attempt to soothe it.

“What the hell was that?” she asked, gently lifting the frightened Pokémon off her crossed legs to peer through the window. Students were running out of Dorm Three, but by the looks of things they were more irritated then scared. Irene felt the bed space next to her depress and scooted over so Seulgi could see. “Oh.”

“Oh? Their dormitory just exploded, Irene!”

“Bah, it was bound to happen sooner or later, I told Jackson it would be a bad idea for him to keep two breeding-age male Magmortar in the same room.”

Seulgi just stared at her. “You seem awfully nonchalant about this whole thing.”

Irene gave her a wry smile, “You’ll learn soon enough that this Academy is a strange place. Explosions like that aren’t uncommon, we’ll probably be given a few days off so maintenance people can repair the damage. Maybe they’ll coat the walls in a fireproof material this time to prevent it from happening again.”

The raven-haired girl settled back down on her bed and resumed reading on her tablet while Seulgi slowly got up to return to her desk. Sure enough, not twenty minutes had passed before both of their tablets beeped with a video alert. Seulgi pressed the icon on her tablet and message from Professor Kim popped up on-screen.  

“Students of Kalos Academy. No doubt you have heard of the incident that happened just a little while ago. Rest assured that we will have this sorted out as soon as possible so as not to interfere with everyone’s studies. However, the damage to Dorm Three was rather extensive and as of tomorrow morning the campus will be closed for the rest of the week while everything is repaired.”

“See? Couple of free vacation days, nothing to worry about. Now are you almost done with studying; I’d like to get to bed.”

“Y-yeah, I don’t think I’m going to get anymore studying done at this rate.” Seulgi turned off her desk lamp and retreated to her loft. Vulpix jumped off Irene’s bed with a tiny thump and joined his Trainer. “Irene?”

“Yeah Seulgi?”

“Did Professor Kim say the campus was going to be closed all week?”

“Mhm. What’s the matter with that? Way I see it I get to relax for like five days.”

Seulgi recalled her Vulpix and placed him in her overnight healer before getting changed. “I just don’t have anywhere that I can go,” she whispered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing Irene. Good night.”

“Mmm. Night.”

Episode 5: Respite

Of course by the next morning the whole Academy was atwitter with gossip about last night’s explosion, as everyone packed their bags for the impromptu vacation. No one was more excited about this than Wendy. The time off they were given wasn’t enough for her to take a trip home to Kanto to see her father, but her family had a nice enough house in the city that she could comfortably spend the week playing videogames with Joy and Yeri, eating their weight in junk food.

At least that was her plan until she saw a morose-looking Seulgi leave her dorm with a single suitcase, a frown on her face. Wendy still felt bad about how they left things a couple of weeks ago so she sidled up to her, “Hey Seul, why the long face?”

“Hello Wendy. I guess I’m just irritated about the whole campus being closed for the rest of the week. I’m a transfer student from Johto, where the hell am I going to go?”

Wendy hissed sympathetically; she had forgotten that the other girl was a transfer student. “Well hey, if you need a place to stay for the week you can come hang with me, Joy and Yeri. Dad set me up with this sweet place in the city and you’re more than welcome to use one of the guest rooms.”

Seulgi grinned, a wide bright smile that had Wendy’s heart leaping with happiness. “Really? I wouldn’t want to intrude on your break Wendy.”

“Then don’t,” a voice called from behind them. It was Moonbyul, carrying a duffel bag in one hand. “Why stay with Wendy at her place when you can join me, Solar, Daniel, Jihyo and some others at my parents’ estate? You and your roommates can totally come too Wendy, we have an indoor pool, fully stocked bar…”

Wendy’s eyes widened, she knew she probably shouldn’t accept the offer but some things were too great of a temptation even for her. She’d heard of the Moon estate, it was supposed to be massive. Moonbyul may be the current Hoenn champion, which came with some damn decent pay, but her parents were multi-millionaires. She turned to Seulgi, “You gonna go? It sounds like it could be a lot of fun.”

“And God knows you need to unwind a little, you carried this dorm to victory it’s the least I can offer,” Moonbyul added.

Seulgi looked back and forth between Wendy and Moonbyul. Honestly she hadn’t expected for them to be this welcoming. But it was leagues better than what she had planned to do, which was to get a hotel room somewhere, so she nodded. “I’d love to go, Moonbyul.”

“Great! Our ride should be here in…” she checked her watch. “Fifteen minutes. I was just on my way to get Solar, Daniel and Jihyo.”

“We’ll join you then, if