I got myself a nice jacket at 40 percent discount, it was the cheapest one they had. It was nothing compared to the thermal jumper that my Mom had bought for me, which could sustain a whole lot of bruises without getting a scratch, somehow. But I really didn't care how I looked, I wouldn't have walked inside the store if I did. Before going in I caught my reflection on the crack-less front window of the store, my left eye was black and bloodshot—I really had no idea. I went in and grabbed the brown jacket and took it to the dressing room, just to see if it fitted me. I really didn't care if it made me look like a hobo or something, although that didn't matter in the end. Because when I put it on and stepped in front of the mirror I noticed I looked like a conceited jerk. I looked way older than I was, and much more arrogant, I assume. It made me look taller too, and, I'm not going to lie, I really liked that. And why would I lie at this point anyway? I probably would have paid a lot more money, definitely full price, if I knew it was going to make me look as mature as it did. But I basically got it for free.

I got out of the store and started walking down the street wearing my new brown jacket, and quickly found a subway station. It occurred to me to go to the park downtown and start asking people about a nice and cheap place to stay in for a couple of days. It was one in the afternoon, and I guess I was on a good part of town, so not only was the car I got on mostly empty, but it was also relatively clean, as clean as a subway car could be I guess. There weren't any people asking for money, or any of those guys who for some reason think people riding the subway want to listen to corny songs as sung by amateurs who think they are professionals. Although I have nothing against the ones who do it passionately, I guess, for the art and so. And there weren't any uppity jerks who looked like me with that jacket either. There were two or three weirdos though, but they were too far away from me to bother me, and at least one of them might have been a pile of rugs. Besides, I really didn't mind weirdos or hobos, not really I mean. Not as much as the uppity jerks or the ones who sing very loudly and lack any kind of self-awareness. During a stop one of the weirdos got out, the others didn't move at all. If they were people at all I assumed they were asleep. So I was left even more alone then, and almost nobody went in. It was kind of peaceful, even with the awful noise of the metal clashing below. But then just before the doors of the car closed a woman went in, and I took my eyes off of her right after she went in, and didn't pay attention to her. But then she sat right next to me, genuinely next to where I was sitting, not leaving even one empty sit between us, having basically the rest of the car to herself. The first thing I noticed was her scent, she smelled really pretty. I'm very good with scents, and I have a very good sense of smell in general. Or at least I used to, and I'm still very good at it when I can focus myself. The thing is though, I'm very bad with the names of the scents, or what words are used to differentiate each from one another. I assume she smelled like a flower or something, the scent had layers to it and everything, like when it first hit you it smelled nice on a superficial level, and for a cheaper or a more simple smell that would be the end of it, but for hers, immediately after that first hit you'd get another deeper one that complemented the first one and made it more complex or something fancy like that. I really don't know, and it shouldn't be that complicated anyway, like it isn't necessary to make a lot of words up to describe stuff like that, but anyway she smelled really nice and refined.

I turned to her a bit confused but not really thinking about it, and I got really startled when I saw that she was staring directly at me very intensely and with her eyes wide open. It took me a lot of seconds to identify her, it was really hard to concentrate with her like that. Then I recognized her and realized that I knew her, and then it took me even more time to remember her name. It was Lorelei, and she was a member of the elite 4 from my home region of Kanto. She looked really nice for her age, too nice, for her age I mean. It's not like she was old, but there was a huge age difference between her and me, and yet she looked very nice to me. I remember that the last time I saw her I was still a stupid kid, and I didn't think about her in a way that distracted me, in fact she used to scare me a lot, with her being in a very powerful position, and being very powerful herself, and all of her seriousness. I genuinely thought that if I said or did anything wrong then she could somehow punish me or send me to detention or something, like she was a stern teacher or a principal or just my boss. But she seemed completely different when I saw her again. She was wearing her glasses but I could still see her eyes very well, she had those kind of eyes that you don't see very often, not because some people you see and talk to everyday don't have them, but because they don't ever look at you with them with that intense gaze that showcases them perfectly, like the more you stare at them, the more you want to keep looking at them, and the more you need to look away from them, at the same time. And she had this very expressive smile with her teeth showing, like she was very happy to see me. She had a very beautiful face, she was very attractive in general.

"Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town," she said. She had a very nice voice too, a very soothing voice, that I really wanted to concentrate to listen to.

"Yes, the very same," I said. Then I cringed a little bit, like I knew that was very corny but I felt like I had to play it up. And she didn't notice it, I think, she seemed to eat it up as a cool response.

"Look. At. You. You look so different," she said. Then she touched my shoulder and felt up my new jacket as if it was made out of a great material and very expensive. Then she took off her left glove and touched below my eye with the tip of her fingers, which felt kind of cold but also really nice. "How did this happen?"

"...I tripped," I said.

"Where?"

"I don't really remember, it's nothing serious really, I've had a lot worse."

"Yeah, I bet. Ash Ketchum. I remember very well, you got all the way to the quarter finals on the indigo league at just 10 years old. It was something otherworldly for me, I even feared for my spot on the elite 4. I see you haven't slowed down, what brings you to Castelia City?"

"Oh you know, I was sort of taking a small break before I continue running around, and I decided to pay a visit to my friend Cynthia since she's in town."

"Cynthia, the Sinnoh League champion?" Lorelei asked, seemingly quite amused.

"Yes, well, she isn't the champion anymore but everyone still think she is, and with good reason."

"Of course, she's the only Sinnoh Champion in my eyes. She might just be the best of the best."

"Yes, maybe, but you know, I've been all over the place, to Sinnoh and a few other places, and yet I have never encountered an establishment more professional and well prepared than the one from Kanto, and I'm really not just saying that because it is my home region or the first one I experienced, you guys really know your stuff, and you take it seriously, as you should. And it shows,"

"Oh dear, well, thank you so much. I can't believe that's true."

"Well you better, because I may be kind of young to say stuff like that, but I have quite a bit of experience, and I've seen a lot of the world, and I'm just calling it like I see it." I was lying. I had no idea of what I was saying. Of course I was also lying when I said I was taking a short break, I had no idea of what I was doing, and that had been going on for quite a while. More specifically, nothing had been going on with me for quite a while. To be honest I just wanted to keep listening to her voice, and it seemed like my garbage had worked. She seemed really pleased and proud, like for real.

A small part of me thought she had me all figured out, that she knew my exact situation and was just pretending. But there was no way she knew, no real reason for her to act that way other than she believed it—no real reason for her to suspect anything was wrong—so maybe I was just paranoid or deluded. It's fine. It's always fine really, there's never a real reason to make a big deal out of things. And during that moment she seemed really pleased with what I was saying, and she had a distinct shine in her eyes while I spoke. And, when I finished, she just said she was really proud of all the work they had done in Kanto and of the image they had worked so hard to cultivate, and then I felt bad for lying. I really just wanted her to feel good, at least I accomplished that. It was obvious from her inflection that she really cared for the work she put on the league, and a nice, validating compliment is only nice to hear. So what's the big deal? As she spoke to me really enthusiastically about how they had totally revamped the indigo league, I kept staring at her lips, and I guess she was too focused on what she was saying to notice. I really wanted to kiss her, her lips looked very attractive to me, and I guess any other person would have also found them irresistible. I just wanted to embrace her and for her to embrace me, in a quiet and mature way. I don't know if she noticed anything, it's not like I was staring at her shamelessly with my open mouth drooling, but I was not not staring at her while I listened, attentively so. I could multitask really well if I focused.

I really don't know when people notice something and when they don't. I used to think I was able to notice even the tiniest gestures, and that I was overall able to read people very well, notice their mood very well, even when they were trying to pretend. But I was wrong, because the semblance that people put up front has nothing to do with their true intentions, not even with what they are truly thinking right then. And you can say that I'm just an embittered cynic, but at least I'm irrefutably right about that, and at the very least I don't lie like that. Wait, I guess I do. I guess I was doing exactly that with Lorelei, but, instead of pointlessly trying to defend myself, I'll just say that I don't pretend there is ever a time when I can be truly truthful with someone. That's just not something achievable for an adult human. And I don't think I am a bitter person just for thinking that. Sometimes I find myself unconsciously staring at someone, any person, and suddenly, when they notice I'm staring, I look away, and I end up seeming weird. Other times when I stare at someone on purpose, just to see if they notice—like they do like every time I do it unconsciously—they don't seem to notice at all, and that bothers me even more. It truly does, I wish the act of staring yielded more consistent results overall. Anyway, my research on that subject has led me nowhere, just like everything else I'd done so far, and yet, I still ended up there, on that subway car, staring at Lorelei. And that's something if there ever was.