"We're here."

Sun Mei opened her eyes to tall green trees peeking at the sky. The moving van came to a gradual stop on the grainy road before a quaint blue-painted house.

She stifled a yelp as her younger sister stretched out beside her, nudging the twelve-year-old in return.

"Hey..!" Sun Mei chuckled before getting out. After nearly a six hour drive, she couldnt blame the kid.

"Well?" Their mother stood before the house, her head turned towards her daughters with questioning eyebrows. "What do you guys think?"

"If we say we don't like it, do we have to drive all the way back to Kanto?" Sooyung asked as she rubbed her sleepy eyes. "Cause if so, then this is the best house ever."

"I'm with Sooyung on that." Sun Mei seconded.

Their mother sighed in defeat.

Sun Mei walked over to her mom. "Mom, we just drove for like, ever. Laugh at us a little."

Her mom gave her a pointed look, so Sun Mei rolled her dark browns and pointed them at the two story building before them.

"Its.. Cute?" She offered.

"Try harder."

"Ok, ok." The younger laughed at the intensity in her mother's words. After a good minute of scrutiny, she nodded. "Its not bad.  Its about the same size as our old house, the color's an improvement, and there's a nice space out front for a swing. I'd say its pretty great."

Her mother beamed. "B+."

"Really? You're grading me?"

"We just drove for like, ever." The older woman mocked her daughter. "Laugh at me a little."

Sun Mei groaned.

"Besides, you missed the best part."

"Hmmm?" Following her mom's finger, Sun Mei raised her gaze up to a circular window slightly higher than the rest of the second floor's viewing range.  A smile followed when she realised what it meant. "No way. A room in the attic? Ok, best house ever."

Laughing while shaking her head, her mom aimed to ruffle the top of her dark hair. "Well, thank your dad. He's the one who thought of you."

"He just thought of Sunny?" A rather annoyed voice piped. "Wow."

"Ah! No, honey!" Their mother cooed, but Soojung waved the sentiment aside.

"Don't worry about it. I mean - I get my own room, right?"

"Uh - yes, you do!"

"Then I just have one more question - why are we still standing outside?"

Sun Mei shrugged. "I dunno, admiring the prospect, I guess?"

"Ok, done. Lets go inside."

"Where'd you get such a sassy twelve-year-old?"

"Same place I got my rebellious sixteen-year-old." Her mother answered without skipping a beat.

"I am not rebellious." Sun Mei huffed.

"If you say so." Was all the comeback she received, as her mother joined Sooyung enter their new home.

Sun Mei remained outside a little longer, hands in her pockets and gaze set passively on the blue house. Ok, yes - she'd been the most adamant to moving regions, and yeah - she was always telling them to stop making pokemon such a big deal, and yes - she refused to join her dad's fanclub, but that didn't mean she was rebellious. Right?

She sighed, a common thought poppong in her head about whether there was a place in the world where pokemon didn't exist. Not that she hated pokemon. No, Sun Mei thought pokemon were pretty cool. But she didnt like how you were automatically labelled an alien or weird for having other interests besides pokemon.

"Hi."

"Ah!" Sun Mei jumped, nearly tripping over her feet in shock at the voice speaking right next to her ear. Regaining her balance, she aimed a ridiculous glare at the guy looking at her with an all too amused expression.

"Oh, you're new here." He tapped a fist against the palm of his other hand, as if putting two and two together. "Welcome to Littleroot. Where we greet with 'hi', not 'ah'."

Sun Mei continued to glare. "I wasn't greeting - you startled me. People in Littleroot must not have heard of personal space."

"I was teasing you." He smiled along with his explanation, pearly whites accompanying cute slanted eyes.

It disarmed Sun Mei a little. To the point that she was speechless. Ok, more than a little.

"I'm Baekhyun." He eventually filled the silence, offering an introductory hand.

Sun Mei eyed the hand before timidly reaching out with her own. A short shake. "Sun Mei."

"Good to know." He grinned with a nod. "And just fyi, its good to know me if you're new in town. I work at the PokeLab here, so I've got some connections with high people. Plus I'm like on my way to becoming the next allstar ace trainer, so..."

He stopped talking long enough to give Sun Mei a neat lookover. She knew what he was looking for. Pokegear. Every trainer's basic gear, no matter what class. Sun Mei was not a trainer, ergo she had no pokegear, ergo no pokemon. She knew what was coming next.

What do you mean you don't have pokemon??

What do you even do?

Pokemon is love!

Pokemon is life!

Ok, the last two were a little overrated. But that was usually her fate. Being sentenced to be some PokeOutcast. She'd dealt with it dozens of times.

"You don't have pokemon."

Sun Mei blinked, not at his words, but at the tone. He sounded almost pitiful. Which irked her some.

"Y'know, a lot of people struggle to catch their first pokemon." He spoke with such a superior tone, Sun Mei had to clench her fists behind her to keep from doing something she'd regret. "I can help you catch a pokemon. We have a really neat variety of species here in Hoenn, so if you want?"

Usually, Sun Mei felt bad about butting in on people's enthusiam when it came to pokemon, but she happily blurt it out this time. "Actually, I have no interest in Pokemon whatsoev-"

Her satisfaction was cut short as a preppy tone started blaring from the youth's jeans pocket.

Baekhyun brought up a finger to pause her as he retrieved his phone and took the call. A series of "yeah"s and "ok"s commenced for about two minutes, and ended with a dramatic sigh.

"And the work of an intern is never done. Sorry, but I gotta run an errand for the Poke lab." He explained as he shoved the slim device down his pocket. "But don't be shy to come visit me at the lab. I'd be glad to give you a tour. Or teach you some basics about pokemon. See ya!"

"See ya." She mimicked as she watched him walk away with annoyance and relief. She knew trainers could be full of themselves, but really? With a shake of her head, she turned and finally passed the door of her new home. 

(^._.^)ﾉ

"How's it going?"

"Despite not having any electrical sockets, this attic is the bomb. But hey; who uses computers these days, right?"

"Very funny."

Sun Mei stood at the centre of the attic with her mom. Her luggage bags were untouched. All she'd managed in the last three hours was putting up her framed photography and paintings. 

Most people preferred creating moments with their pokemon. Sun Mei just loved moments, whether it was capturing them with her camera or creating them with paint. 

"I love this one." Her mom murmured, her eyes on the photograph nearest to her daughter's bed.

Sun Mei turned to find a memory of her father, just moments after defeating the Kanto Champion, surrounded by his winning pokemon.

"Yeah. Dad was on fire that day - literally too, at one point."

Her mom turned to grant her a peculiar smile. "You're kinda strange."

"Huh? Howso?"

"You've always gone on about how you don't like pokemon, but then you hold on to dad's biggest achievement - and its about Pokemon."

"I don't dislike pokemon." Sun Mei complained, this being something she's had to explain a lot. "I dislike the social construct. But thats totally besides the point. This was dad's dream. Of course I'm happy for him."

"I still think you should give pokemon a go."

"Mooooooom..!" The teenager whined.

"I know,  I know." The older woman raised her hands in defeat. "I just think you're missing out on a great come-of-age experience that teenagers go through."

"She was doing quite fine earlier," came a voice at the attic trapdoor, "flirting with some cute guy outside."

"Soojung!" Sun Mei cried out in betrayal. 

"What guy?" Their mom asked in all curiosity. 

"I wasn't flirting!" She defended herself, becoming more and more agitated. "I'm going out."

"To meet that guy?"

Sun Mei stomped down the wooden steps, as hard as she felt like.

"C'mon Sunny, we're just teasing."

"I'm going out."

Soojung and her mom exchanged looks of passive remorse.

"Think she's angry?"

The door slammed shut, sending a wave of subtle ire through the house.

"Nah, not angry."

(^._.^)ﾉ

Ten minutes worth of stomping about her new hometown had calmed her down, but she was also lost. The sun was beginning set, and the sky housed a myriad of colors; of pinks and blues and the whites of the clouds played to its canvas. This was something Sun Mei would have admired, but her mind was full of lesser irritations. 

"Flirting." She mocked to herself in a girly voice as she trudged along a dirt track.

Please. Sun Mei was too busy trying to find friends in a Pokemon-obsessed world to bother singling someone out special enough to feel romantically involved with. And Baekhyun didn't even make the standard for friendship. No amount of good looks could make up for an ego that big.

Finally stopping to retrace her steps, the teen turned her gaze around and found herself in some kind of natural enclosure. There were bushes and trees almost everywhere, and a slight shiver ran down her spine. Her mother's warning voice rang in her ear.

"Don't walk about near high bushes - wild Pokemon could attack."

Just as she began to turn around and walk back the way she'd so angrily came - a shrill outcry rang through the area. 

"Help!"

A teenage girl, with no defenses of her own or any Pokemon to speak of, and yet Sun Mei didn't hesitate for a second. She ran through a series of thick bushes and came upon a clearing where a man in a labcoat lay upon the ground with a spiky-haired Pokemon biting into his leg.

"Ah! You there, help me!" He called out to her, kicking his leg in fervor to get the wild Pokemon off. "Ack! In my bag over there, there are Pokeballs!"

To the left lay a leather satchell, its flap open with exactly what the man foretold. Three pokeballs. Sun Mei ran over and bent to pick up one of them - only to pause to look at the labels each ball had taped to them. One had a drop of water, another a leaf, the last a flame. Looking up to the brown and white Pokemon attacking the man, Sun Mei took a quick guess and assumed it was a normal type. So she went with the simplest choice and picked the water type Pokemon.

Like she'd seen her father do so many times before, Sun Mei pressed down on the release button and threw the red and white ball into the air. At the peak of its trajectory, the pokeball began to glow and a bright light shot free, zing-zagging till it hit the floor and began to take shape.

"Kip!"

What stood before Sun Mei was not what she was expecting. It was small and its rubbery skin was blue, with orange fins. It didnt look mature either. The little Pokemon looked up at Sun Mei with expecting beady eyes. 

The Pokemon attacking the man had its focus on the new appearance in the clearing, and began to advance. The older man, now free from the attack, had passed out, leaving Sun Mei to her own inexperienced devices. She began to panic, pointing a hand at the wild creature.

"There!" She shouted, her hands shaking in slight fear and nervousness in sending such a small Pokemon into battle.

The blue Pokemon turned about. It assessed the situation and rose to the tip of its toes to gain some height. It knew it was about to fight. But how much damage could it do to a Pokemon double its size.

"Um, ok so - hey, wait!" Sun Mei shouted in dismay as the Pokemon took off at full speed towards its opponent. The wild Pokemon wasn't startled in the least, and merely dug its backlegs into the ground and pushed back against the coming attack. The blue Pokemon went flying. 

Sun Mei ran forward, diving onto her knees as she sought to catch the little creature before it made contact with the ground.

"Hey, are you alright?" She asked as she turned it around to see its face. It coughed before opening its eyes and began to get back up and charge at the other again. But the girl held it back. "Wait, if we're going to do this, we do it together. Ok?"

Small dark eyes rested themselves on the teenager. It had never been proven; whether Pokemon actually understood humans. But in that moment, it nodded and turned back, ready to attack but waiting for her command. 

"Ok, you're smaller, so its better to keep your distance." She murmured in thought. "Do you know water gun?"

"Kip!"

"Awesome! Water gun, now!"

Well, it wasn't water gun, but it did the job. What the little guy produced was more like mud, covering the bigger Pokemon in a sticky layer, making it hard to see or move around.

"Mudslap?" Sun Mei laughed, then pointed. "Ok! Mudslap again!"

Repeatedly, the blue Pokemon hit the other with the muddy concoction, and its opponent couldnt do anything about it. It was too busy trying to keep standing and clearing out its eyesight to bother with attacking. Eventually,  it barked a retreating howl and turned tail into a thicket of bushes.

Sun Mei kept a tense vigil for about a minute, assuming another Pokemon would come and finish what the other didnt, but she eventually slumped down into the grass as the adrenaline pumped out of her bloodstream.

"Kip!" The blue Pokemon ran over to her, its orange fins wagging happily.

"You did great." She smiled meekly at it, timidly holding out a hand to pat it. She frowned in slight confusion as she grazed its rubbery skin. "You're not just a water Pokemon, are you?"

"Its a rare type..." A tired voice croaked out. "A ground based water type..."

"Oh my god!" Sun Mei jumped up, having completely forgotten about the older man. She ran over to him and bent at his side. "Are you heavily hurt? Can you stand, sir?"

"Don't worry about it." He grinned weakly and pointed towards an opening which played out into the distance. There, a patch of white could be seen, and it was getting closer. "My team's on the way."

As predicted, a group of men and women in similiar white coats entered the forest soon enough and helped the injured man up, stretcher and all. A woman approached Sun Mei.

"Hey, thanks for helping the professor out. We're always telling him to let us do the fieldwork, but he doesn't listen."

Sun Mei shook her head. "No problem.  Wait.. He's the Poke professor?"

"The one and only."

Sun Mei looked back over to the aged man. As a couple of assistants tried to help him up, he still seemed to be trying to do things on his own. He reminded Sun Mei of a kid. Which was aided by the woman's words.

"Thanks again." The woman spoke as she turned to regroup with the others. "You'd better start heading back yourself - nights almost here. And you don't want to be around when the hunter and dark types start coming out. Even with your Pokemon."

"Yeah, I'll be on my way." Sun Mei nodded.

"Kip!"

Sun Mei launched a quick smile down at the Pokemon, only to double take and call after the receding group of labcoats. "Hey - wait! This Pokemon isn't mine. It's the professor's!"

Bending down, she lay a hand on the pokemon's head in a goodbye pat. "You were awesome, but its time to go back."

"Kip?"

Retrieving the pokeball, Sun Mei clicked the button yet again. The same light emitted from the ball, engulfing the small Pokemon till it disappeared entirely.

"Bye.."

(^._.^)ﾉ