Chloe pinched her eyes shut. She never liked the feeling of the morning coming so soon, and always wanted just a little more time to rest before starting the day. 'Besides, it's Saturday, right?' And her back hurt…? 'Ugh, how did I sleep last night…?'

The thought made her pause and her eyes shot open. "How did I sleep last night?"

Sitting up, the blanket draped across her shoulders fell off. She was in Ash and Goh's room in the lab. Looking at the bed, she saw no sign of Ash or Pikachu. Then the moonlight memory from the night before replayed in her mind, and suddenly her face felt very warm. Reaching down, she felt Eevee and Yamper still dozing by her sides. And her aching legs. "Ow… I shouldn't have slept like that…"

She pulled herself to her feet, nearly hitting her head on the bottom of Goh's bunk. She stumbled a bit, the numbness in her legs not doing anything to help her stability.

When she turned around, she saw something else that surprised her. Curled up next to the door, wrapped in his own blanket was Goh, Grookey attached firmly to his head. This was even more concerning than the previous revelations she was having. "Wait… Goh…?"

Hearing his name caused her friend to open his eyes. At least he was a bit more rested than she was, but the sharpness in his blue eyes made her stumble back onto Ash's bed. "Oh. You're awake."

"I… thought you were out with your parents."

"I was," he said. "But they got a call late and I figured I'd just come back to the lab since it was already dark. Imagine my surprise when I saw you in here with Ash."

And the heat in her face just increased. "W-What, you were just watching?" she asked, now herself feeling like a private moment had been rudely intruded upon.

"Well, I /was/ coming up here to go to bed," he said acridly from his blanket cocoon on the floor, "but when I saw Ash in here playing ukulele for you, I realized what was going on."

She swallowed. 'Oh no… Ash trusted me to keep these things in confidence…! Did I already blow it…? He didn't want Goh to get bothered by that sorts of stuff…!'

"Honestly, I didn't expect it," he said, staring daggers through her. "After all, we've been friends for years and Ash and I seemed like we were getting along well, too." He sighed, defeated. "But I guess being friends with a guy like me is just a pain, huh?"

She felt the guilt rise in her stomach again, now twisting like an Ekans. "Goh... W-what are you saying?" she asked, not even fully sure she wanted the answer.

He sighed, looking down. Grookey tumbled off his head into his hands. "I'm saying that you and Ash don't need me around crowding you. You two have clearly been hiding this friendship from me because you don't want me in the way. You're tired of being friends with me and you're meeting up behind my back!" His last words were shouted at her, his eyes clenched shut.

Silence again reigned over the room, and Chloe looked back at him. She shook her head. "No, Goh, it's not that at all…!"

"Then what is it, if you're so smart?" he spat, wallowing in his misery.

"It's…" The pressure in her stomach was making her feel nauseous.

"You can't say? Or you don't want to say because I'm right." Goh looked up at her, hurt in his eyes. "I've trusted you for so long, Chloe. I thought our friendship meant something to you, but I guess I was just mistaken. You'd rather hang around with Ash alone than with me. You've probably even got a crush on the guy or something."

Her face flared with heat and her emotions surged at the accusation. "Okay, That is NOT true!" she shouted, voice raised to the point of stirring Yamper, Eevee, and Grookey from their sleep. Her pulse was racing and she stared at Goh, upset and angry, like he had uncovered a secret she was keeping hidden. One she was keeping even from herself.

She gasped and covered her mouth and ran through her emotions and thoughts once more. The memory of Ash playing music. The talks with him when she laughed at his jokes or was caught up in his smile. The warm, fluttering feeling she had felt when he complimented her. The anger and shame being called out brought to her face.

"...oh no."

Suddenly the guilty feeling in her stomach made sense, and the joy she had gathered from keeping their meetings to herself became obvious to her. 'He's… He's right. I can't believe it but Goh is right'. She fell down onto Ash's bed.

"Goh, I've made a huge mistake."

He sat up. "Well, yeah. You have."

"I'm sorry…"

"Hmm?"

When Goh looked up at her, lying on the bed, he saw tears slipping down the sides of her face as she stared up at the bottom of his bed. "I… I didn't think this is what it would have come to. Goh, you're still my friend, please you have to understand that. I was just trying to help Ash out… Please, give me a chance to explain and I'll tell you everything."

He frowned, wanting to turn away from her, but their years of friendship bade him give her one more chance.

"Alright, Chloe. I'll listen. Explain everything."

And so she did, starting from the day she asked Ash for help understanding Eevee, heading into the day she spoke with him in the park, the meeting they had after Ash and Goh's encounter with the police, the other small talks about school and everything else, including the talk about how important Alola was to him.

By the end, Chloe was sitting on the bed, hands cupping her face. Goh was standing as well, still dressed in the clothes he left in the day before. His back was to the door, and he stood there, cross armed, listening to the entire thing.

"You know Ash would have talked to you if he felt like it wouldn't have been a burden," she said. "He called you his best friend, even. There's just some stuff that he didn't want to bother you with. And… And I thought I was helping by keeping this all from you, but it just led to a huge misunderstanding and you got hurt, Goh, and I'm sorry…!"

Chloe kept herself from crying by breathing deeply until she felt her friend's hand on her shoulder.

"...I'm sorry, Chloe."

Goh sat down on Ash's bed next to her.

"I should have been up front with you, too. I should have told you I thought you and Ash were trying to push me away. Instead, I just got jealous… just like with Gary…"

Chloe nodded, being at least a touch familiar with the situation from her talks with Ash.

He sat up and nodded. "Well, that's not the future I want. The future I want is in the palm of my hand!" He turned to Chloe, smiling. "If Ash says we're best friends, then I'll have to trust him. And if we're still friends, then I'll have to trust you, too, right?" He smiled at her, the same smile of her long-suffering friend.

She smiled and nodded back to him.

"Yeah… Yeah, we are, Goh," she said, smiling, eyes still stinging from the tears.

"Then there's nothing to worry about!" he said. "We'll just keep moving forward, right?"

"'Going forward'?" she shot back, falling back onto the bed again. "Going forward to what?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I think that's pretty obvious from the way you reacted that you have a crush on Ash."

Chloe looked around the room for a distraction, her eyes turning to the Pokémon. "I… don't really know, you know? Maybe?" she said as she watched them. On the floor, Grookey was riding around on Yamper's back, but he was being much more well behaved than he had been, Chloe noticed. Yamper trotted around, reminding her of the Ponyta she saw, as he carried Grookey around.

Goh scoffed. "What do you mean 'maybe'?"

"I mean I don't know!" she said, rolling over on the bed to face away from him. "I guess I… like him a bit more than I used to?"

"Used to?"

She whined. "I know, it doesn't make any sense…!"

"Well… I'll just have to help you, I guess," he said. "That's what friends do, right?"

"Goh, I really don't think I need any help..." she said, looking away from him. Her heart was beginning to pound in her chest again.

"Don't worry, I'll be cool about it," he said, grinning. "I'll just do what I do best; gather data and share it. It's not like you have as many opportunities to ask him stuff where he won't get suspicious, right?"

"I mean… I guess so…" she said, frowning. "...it feels weird to even talk about, though."

"Hey, don't worry about it! This is just something you'll have to figure out! What's one more project for Vermilion's most diligent student?"

"I guess so... " she said, sitting up. "But why are you so gung-ho about helping me figure this stuff out?"

"Because we're friends, aren't we?" he said, confidently. "I want to help you out, you know?"

"But Goh, I was just supposed to be someone who he could vent to! I wasn't supposed to feel all weird about him!"

Goh rubbed his chin, grinning. "Well, there was a point where you needed to stop and you've clearly passed that," he said. He pointed a finger confidently in the air. "So let's keep going and see where this all leads! There's only one way to get to the ending and that's to press forward!"

Grookey hopped onto Goh's arm and cheered along with his trainer's confidence. 'I don't think Grookey even knows what's going on…'

"There's a lot of information you could use to help get him to like you back," Goh said. "Favorite foods, colors, scents, games, activities, the works! And who better to be your informant? He trusts me, I'm his best friend after all."

She tried to keep herself from laughing. "You're going to ask him about that stuff? And you're not going to make him suspicious?"

He grinned at her, hand still on his chin. "Trust me," Goh said. "I have my ways."

"Why am I not convinced…?" she said, glaring at him. "It feels like this is just making trouble where I could try to figure it out by myself."

"C'mon, Chloe. You've never been one to do things halfway," Goh said. "Remember when we'd have those tests of courage at camp? You were the bravest person there! This is just gonna take a little more of that courage!"

"Eievui!"

Eevee hopped into her lap from the floor, smiling at her. Chloe looked at the Evolution Pokémon, puzzled. "Eevee…?"

"She's saying she wants you to be brave!" Goh said, smiling. "No one knows what tomorrow will bring, so she wants you to take it one step at a time, you know?"

"Vui!"

She took a deep breath and nodded. "You know what? You're both right. If… I'm going to deal with this, I've got to think about it clearly. And I promise, no matter how I feel about Ash, it won't change how important you and your friendship are to me, Goh. That's a promise."

She held up her pinky to him, something they used to do when they were younger, and something Goh quickly reciprocated.

"Okay, so what's our first move?" he asked.

As if on cue, Goh's stomach growled loudly.

"I think each and every one of us needs to get out of here and have breakfast." Chloe said.

"Yamper!" Yamper agreed.

Goh offered Chloe a hand, which she took, and he helped pull her to her feet.

"Thanks, Goh," she said. "For understanding. I'm still sorry about not telling you sooner."

He smirked. "Well, maybe you can do a bit of the homework for me the next time I have to come in for a test," he said. "Let's get something to eat! I'm starving!"

The two friends - as well as Yamper and Eevee - stepped downstairs and headed into the kitchen to find Ash sitting there in the clothes he was sleeping in. He was sitting next to Pikachu and both of them were about halfway through a stack of pancakes each. Ash waved to the new arrivals and swallowed before speaking. "Hey Chloe! And Goh, too! I thought you were still out!"

Goh shot a knowing look at Chloe and smirked. "Oh, I haven't been back long," he said, lying to cover Chloe spilling the beans to him. "Just in time to eat, though. I'm starving!"

"Honestly, I'm just surprised that Ash remembered to swallow before talking this time," Chloe said, standing back coolly before smiling back at Goh.

Ash and Pikachu looked at the two of them and tilted their heads to the side in unison. "...is it somethin' I said?"

"Don't worry about it, just slide that maple syrup over here," said Goh, taking a seat across from him as Chloe went to the kitchen to feed Yamper and Eevee.

'I'm glad everything seems to be going back to normal,' she thought as she began gathering the Pokémon food.

'When Goh said that he would be my informant, he wasn't kidding…'

Chloe was back at school. A few more days had passed since the weekend where she saw Ash playing ukulele in a way that stunned her and she admitted to Goh about meeting the Palletonian behind his back. With Goh on board and determined to play wingman for her and Ash, Chloe was once again sitting in the classroom eating her lunch, going through the texts she had been getting from Goh on his reconnaissance.

His favorite color is blue!

"Well, duh," Chloe said as she popped a dumpling into her mouth with her chopsticks.

Favorite food is croquettes. Attached to this one was a picture of Ash eating a croquette sandwich.

She swallowed the dumpling. "Well, I mean I guess that's helpful but I think he's overdoing it…"

She quietly saved the picture to look at later. She felt her face heat up again, only now she knew to call it what it was. 'I can't believe I'm blushing just looking at a picture…' she thought, sighing. 'I'm hopeless.'

"Why the long face, Chloe?" asked Mika, having snuck up behind her. Chloe immediately slapped her phone face down on her desk and sat quietly mortified. "That was that researcher guy, right? You said his name was… Alf, right?"

Chloe felt her face burn even hotter, having been found out. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said. "I was just checking some private messages sent to me that honestly people shouldn't be trying to stare at over my shoulder."

"Oh come on," Mika said, patting Chloe's shoulder, "what's a secret between friends?"

Chloe popped another dumpling into her mouth. "Mika, please chill out," she said between bites.

"So what's he like, this Alf guy?" Mika asked, leaning over Chloe's desk and lunch. "He's gotta be smart, right? You seem like the kind of girl that'd like smart guys."

"Mika, it's not like that so please stop talking," she said, chewing the dumpling in her mouth roughly.,

"If it really were not like that you could look me in the eye, but when you lie you have a hard time doing that."

Chloe swallowed the dumpling and felt her stomach twist. She looked up at Mika's face and saw a look in her eyes that reminded her of when Goh would catch a Pokémon, only much less kind. 'And I'm just as caught, aren't I?'

Mika gave her a wide grin. "C'mon, Chloe, it's not like I even know Alf, right? Why don't you tell me what he's like?"

"Because you're acting like I like him or something when it isn't like that at all," she countered.

"You were smiling like a dope at his picture and he was just eating a sandwich."

She hated getting Pidgeyholed like this, people telling her what to do and how to feel, but that anger in her face mixed with her embarrassment for being found out by a second person that she had developed some feelings for the Pokémon Trainer living in her father's lab to turn her completely red. She took a drink of tea from her thermos. "Look, Mika, if I admit to liking him a little bit, will you leave me alone?"

"Maybe," Mika said, coyly putting a finger to her chin, "but maybe I can help you out, too."

Chloe scowled. "What do you mean, 'help'?"

"Well, clearly if you're having to look at pictures of a guy taking like some creepy stalker, he probably doesn't know you like him, does he?"

Chloe's grip on her chopsticks tightened. "I am not a creepy stalker. I just have a mutual friend gathering information that could… you know…" She pushed her lunch aside and put her head on her desk. Groaning, she said "...I am being a creepy stalker, huh?"

Mika picked up Chloe's lunch and opened it. "You said it, not me," she said, taking one of the dumplings and popping it into her own mouth. "Though, you know, there's easier ways to get to know someone than spying on them."

"Like what?" Chloe asked, looking up.

"You could take him on a date," Mika said, shrugging.

Chloe's face was back down. "You can't say that. You CAN'T."

"Then don't call it that!" Mika replied, continuing to eat Chloe's lunch. "Call it a… friendly hang out session! Just you and him and that cute Pikachu of his!"

'I see she's already forgotten about my Eevee, too.' Chloe thought, though she only rolled her eyes at Mika. "Something tells me you've got more than one motive for helping me," Chloe said, sighing into her arms.

"Look, I've got the perfect idea for you. A block away from my parent's bakery there's a new arcade opening up this weekend, okay? Why not take him there? Heck, make a day of it for the two of you together. Don't tell him it's a date and just go hang out with him! That's the best way to learn what he's really about, right?"

Chloe grumbled before looking up at her blonde friend. "I hate it when you make more sense than I do," she said. "And it won't be a date, it's just going to be two friends hanging out."

Mika shrugged. "Sure, call it whatever you like. But you're not going to get anywhere with Alf spinning your wheels. You've gotta take initiative!"

Grudgingly, Chloe took her lunch box back from Mika. "I hate to admit it, but you're right. And guys like video games right? Parker's always playing some kind of game or another… How bad could it be?"

"You better tell me how it goes," Mika said, handing Chloe back her chopsticks. "I'm talking about serious details. After all, if I'm going to be playing matchmaker for you like this, then you owe me the juicy stuff!"

Before Chloe could respond, the bell signalling the end of lunch rang out, and Mika began returning to her desk as other students began returning to the classroom. "Don't forget! You owe me!"

Chloe waved her off as other students began talking and standing between them. 'Yeah, thanks…' she thought.

On some level, she was already dismissing the idea Mika had planted in her head. 'Not only is this just another example of people thinking they know better for me than I do, but how am I going to walk up to Ash and ask him to spend the day with me. I'd be completely transparent without a good excuse. I can't just say 'Let's go to the arcade…!'

It was thoughts like these that kept her company as she went through the motions of the rest of her school day and began heading back to the lab. She held onto Eevee for comfort. The small Normal-Type nuzzled her cheek, sensing there was something wrong, but Chloe wasn't sure how to explain feelings like that to a Pokémon.

As she walked by a building on her way up the hill towards the lab, her eye was drawn to an advertisement that must have been posted while she was at school. Displayed on the advertisement was a strange, head-shaped design that she had never seen before, as well as one Pokémon she absolutely had: an Exeggutor. But it wasn't just any Exeggutor; it was the tall and thin variety that she recognized from seeing Goh's in Cerise Park. The kind that only grew in the Alola Region.

"Alola…" she said out loud.

"Eievui...?" repeated Eevee, not sure what they were looking at.

Immediately, Ash's words came back to her mind:

"It feels weird to say 'I love Alola' because there's so many ways people'll take it. But I want to love Alola my way."

She began to study the posted advertisement closely:

On Loan from the Alola Region: Rare artifacts depicting the Guardian Deities of the Alola Region, on loan to the Vermilion City Museum of History for a Limited Time!

Looking at the date posted, the exhibit started on Saturday; the same day the arcade Mika mentioned would be opening for business. The gears in her head were beginning to turn. "I… think this might be just perfect, Eevee." Taking out her phone, she stepped back and took a picture of the advertisement and began racing up the hill. "This is the perfect way to get Ash to come with me this weekend! He misses Alola a lot, so he'll definitely be excited to see some things from it, right?"

"Vui vui!" she chirped in agreement.

Chloe turned up the hill and began running back as quickly as possible.

As soon as she entered Cerise Park, she was nearly blown off her feet. Eevee closed her eyes and leaned into the wind while she was struggling to keep her footing.

"Woah, Dragonite!" Ash called out, surprised. "Stop for a sec!"

By the time the wind stopped, Chloe's hair was mostly out of place, only her flower barrette holding her two braids together as Ash approached her, putting a hand behind his head. "Sorry, Chloe! We'll take our trainin' somewhere a bit further from the door."

Chloe looked at him and saw the spark of amusement in his eyes, like he was simultaneously embarrassed at messing up her hair and trying not to laugh at how she looked. 'But I can't get mad at that grin on his face,' she thought. 'It's not like he knew I'd be coming into the park.'

Composing herself, she straightened up her back and approached him, and the amusement in his face faded, replaced with a wide-eyed confusion. "Ash, I have something I want to show you," she said, taking out her phone.

She saw the curiosity clicking behind his brown eyes, negotiating with the intimidation he felt. 'Is he worried I'm going to snap at him…?'

Eventually his curiosity won out. "Show me what?"

She took out her phone and showed him the advertisement she saw, giving him an excited smile of her own. "I saw this today on my way home from school. It's a special exhibit on Alola!"

"Alola…" Ash repeated rotely, the word slipping out automatically as he looked at her phone.

"Yeah, I mean…" She coughed, clearing her throat as she felt the pink blush once more stinging her cheeks. "You mentioned you missed Alola, right? I thought you'd maybe like to check it out… with me." The last two words came out almost tacked on, Chloe hoping that he didn't notice she asked him to go with her.

But to her surprise, he leaned into her personal space, eyes practically glimmering with excitement. "You mean it?!" he asked. "I mean, it's nice of you t' even tell me about this, but you'd take me to the museum and stuff, too? That's so nice of you! Thanks, Chloe!"

'He completely missed that it's just going to be the two of us, didn't he?' she thought. 'But if he's relaxed, I guess I'll be able to learn more about what he's really like.' Her mind immediately returned to that night, where she watched a gentle, subdued Ash playing ukulele in the moonlight. Looking back at the excited boy in front of her, she shrugged. 'It's almost too hard to see them as even the same person…' she thought. "Anyway, that exhibit opens on Saturday, so why don't we meet at the bus stop near my school on Saturday, say around noon? We can head to the Museum from there." 'And maybe a few other places, too,' she thought, not that she'd tell Ash what she was planning.

"Sounds great! I know where that is, too, so meetin' you there should be easy!" He looked at her with that wide, toothy, excitable smile that he seemed to save just for looking at her with. "Thanks, Chloe! You're awesome!"

"Bowah!" called Dragonite from above, catching Chloe off guard. The huge Pokémon scooped Ash up in one arm and Chloe up in another before squeezing the two of them together in a group hug.

Chloe's face began to burn like she was on fire. "W-WHAT!? DRAGONITE?! L-LET ME GO?!"

Ash was laughing loudly, his entire chest shaking. "Dragonite just saw you said something that made me happy, so she wants t' make you happy, too, Chloe!"

"A little warning would be nice!" Chloe protested, but there was no escaping Dragonite's impactful hug. Eventually she was released, and she nearly fell to the ground if it wasn't for Ash catching her hand.

"Steady!" he said. "Dragonite's hugs used t' take a lot outta me, too, so I get it."

Chloe retracted her hand like Ash was made of lava. "R-Right, thanks." Quickly recomposing herself, she turned to him. "So, Saturday at noon at the bus stop outside my school, okay? Don't be late."

"Got it!" he said. "Thanks again!" Ash then turned to Dragonite and put a hand on the Pokémon's arm. "C'mon, let's get away from here so we can practice your Hurricane a bit more!"

"Doh…" Dragonite said before looking back at Chloe, and then turning back towards Ash who began to lead her away.

"Saturday at noon, huh, Chloe~?" came Goh's voice from behind her.

Her face burned again. "I wasn't going to hide it. I was going to tell you as soon as he agreed."

"Oh, I know," he said, smugly smirking as she turned to face him. "I'm just surprised how upfront you were. You're already asking him on a date, huh?"

Chloe frowned. "Oh, you be quiet," she said. "If you really want to help, just make sure he's ready to meet me. And it's not a date."

"Right, right," he said, smiling. "I'll make sure he's ready to go, don't worry. You guys have fun, okay?"

"We'll have a blast," she replied sarcastically. "Now I do still have homework, so I better get started on it." And so, she extricated herself from the situation and quickly left the park before Goh could tease her any more.

Goh smiled. "Alright, then. I guess I'll go catch up with Ash." And so Goh turned around, too, to head further into the park when a gust of wind almost blew him off his feet, too.

"Sorry, Goh!" shouted Ash.