The duke was away on business when Serena returned to Satoshi's estate. Brock was eager to discover what happened, for the officers who escorted Serena to Sonia's estate could only report that Satoshi's new page went inside before Giovanni sent them away. Brock and the other pages surrounded Serena, insisting that she told them if she gained an audience with Sonia.
Serena hesitated, uncomfortable with so many surrounding her. Then she told her story, starting with her argument with Giovanni and James before Sonia let her approach. Brock and the pages listened with intrigue as Serena elaborated on what she told Sonia to woo her. She ended the story with Sonia only giving permission for Serena to come back, leaving out Giovanni giving her the ring.
For the rest of the day, Serena was tutored for page duties Brock hadn't taught yet. Her lessons ended with her and the other pages taking a fencing class, which was required for their position. Serena struggled, having never held a sword before, and it didn't help that the instructor constantly used his hands to adjust her position, unaware of how uncomfortable Serena was with her chest tightly wrapped to hide her gender.
Shortly after Serena and her coworkers had their supper, Brock told Serena that she had been summoned. Serena grew worried about how Satoshi had reacted to Sonia rejecting his feelings. She went up the stairs from the staff dining room to the main floor and down the hall to the living room. There, to Serena's confusion, Satoshi was playing solitaire at a table in the center of the room with a happy-go-lucky smile. Serena stared at Satoshi momentarily before she cleared her throat, catching his attention. Satoshi looked up from his cards and laughed as he put down his cards to applaud Serena.
"There he is. Timothy: the man of the hour," Satoshi said. "They all doubted you. Everyone from Brock to Trevor said you wouldn't fare any better. 'Too big of a task for a new page,' Brock said. But I knew it. I knew you'd gain an audience and express my love to Lady Sonia, and now my foot is in the door."
"Er, I am grateful for your praise, my lord, but how is your foot in the door?" Serena asked. "I'm sure I told them that the countess has rejected you and only wants me to come back to tell me how you take the news and to list why she doesn't love you."
"They did, but just because Sonia says she can't love me now doesn't mean it's over," Satoshi said. "My dear countess hasn't realized that by allowing you, one of my pages, to return to her estate, we can keep wooing her until she accepts my feelings. We'll devise new ways to express my love until her heart is overjoyed by it. We have a chance as long as she allows you to come see her. Hence, my foot is in the door."
Serena didn't know whether to be relieved or unsettled. She secured her job by pleasing the duke, and part of her wanted to believe there was a chance Sonia could change her mind. Yet, as a woman Serena wished Satoshi would accept her fellow woman's rejection rather than remain persistent. Moreover, Serena was uncomfortable with seeing Sonia again, knowing she had fallen for her. After a moment, Serena resigned to smile, pretending to be as optimistic as her employer. Satoshi chucked with a toothy grin before he waved his hand to the piano.
"Come. Play me a song," he said. "Something cherry to match my mood."
Serena bowed and then walked to the piano to play a tune. As Serena played the piano, she constantly glanced at Satoshi, who returned to his game. The duke began to hum as he recognized the tune. Serena's heart raced upon seeing the man she loved so upbeat. She wished she was sitting beside him as his wife, with her and Satoshi humming together while someone else played for them. Her smile vanished as she thought of the idea, reminding herself of her lowly status and that the duke was in love with a countess.
"Sonia is a really lovely lady. Isn't she, Timothy? Satoshi said
Serena winced as though someone had slapped her hand.
"Y-yes, she is, my lord," she answered.
"Did you recite everything I said in my letter, or did you have to adapt?" Satoshi asked.
"I had to adapt, my lord. I had trouble getting her to allow me to express the full extent of your message. Serena answered.
"And she was very well entertained with how you delivered my message?" Satoshi asked.
"I think I can safely say that," Serena said hesitantly.
"I thought as much. It figures that I needed someone like you to give my message more flair," Satoshi said. "Though I suppose, in fairness, we have a lot of material to work with when it comes to someone like the countess. Can you imagine a more beautiful lady than Sonia, Timothy?"
Serena frowned bitterly, wishing Satoshi would stop talking about Sonia. Then her frown faded, and she stared at the wall while still playing the piano. She debated whether to carry out her idea and then decided to take a chance while Satoshi still awaited her answer.
"Actually, if I may be so bold, my lord, I can imagine someone more beautiful than Lady Sonia," Serena said.
Satoshi looked away from his cards to give Serena a curious look.
"Really? Is this someone you know personally?" he asked.
"No, it's someone I…saw a portrait of in a professor's estate," Serena lied.
"And what does the lady in the portrait look like?" Satoshi asked.
"Well, she has my complexion, has honey-yellow hair that goes down to her neck, and eyes as blue as the ocean," Serena said. "She has a smile that gives the impression that she would love to sing, dance, and play music forever if it's what it would take to make you happy. I imagine that if you saw her portrait, my lord, you'd see her as someone who would instantly love you. No. You'd plead for her love."
Serena continued to play, trying to be casual about describing herself. She never considered herself a prideful woman, but Serena's desire for Satoshi drove her to hope he might find her attractive just by describing herself. After several seconds of waiting, Serena glanced at Satoshi, who stared at the wall with a puzzled look while still holding cards in his left hand. Serena frowned bitterly again and kept her eyes on the keyboard, taking Satoshi's stare as the duke struggling to imagine someone of her description being as beautiful or more beautiful than Countess Sonia. Finally, Satoshi snapped out of his confusion and turned to Timothy with a sheepish grin.
"Frightfully sorry, Timothy," Satoshi said. "It's just that the woman you described reminds me of someone I knew long ago."
Serena's eyes widened, and she went off-key on the piano. She stopped playing and turned to Satoshi in disbelief.
"Really? Who?" Serena asked.
"A girl I met from my hometown in the Kalos region," Ash said. "I was about 10 years old then. My escort showed me around the city, and I snuck out to explore alone. I got lost and fell on the street, hurting my knee. I was alone crying in an alley when this girl with honey-blonde hair and blue eyes came to my aid. What was her name? Sarah? Stella? Sophia? Sienna?"
"Could her name be Serena?" Serena asked with hope in her voice.
Satoshi's face lit up like a flame lit with gasoline. He leaned against his chair and stared at the ceiling with a warm smile. His heart raced as though the name filled him with ecstasy.
"Yes. Serena. How could I have forgotten that was her name?" he said. "She calmed me down and treated my knee, then took me to the park to wait for her mother to come and help me find my escort. Serena danced to cheer me up while we waited. Seeing that girl dance with such a bright smile was the most uplifting thing I've ever seen in my life. Eventually, my escort found us and took me home, but before we left, I asked Serena for her name and something to remember her by, and she gave me this."
Satoshi rolled up his right sleeve to reveal a blue ribbon tied below his wrist. The edges had worn out and the fabric was tearing from the inside, but Serena still recognized the ribbon she had given Satoshi all those years ago. Serena stared at the ribbon with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open, for even in her wildest dreams, she never imagined that Satoshi would remember her so fondly that he would treasure the ribbon as a grown man. Serena's heart raced as she looked at Satoshi, who looked at the blue fabric with a fond smile. Her cheeks turned pink as she looked away and played with her fingers, debating whether to ask what was on her mind.
"Would you ask Serena to be your wife instead of Lady Sonia if you ever saw her again?" she asked.
Satoshi's smile disappeared, and he looked away from the ribbon to stare at the wall in thought.
"I…I haven't thought of that," Satoshi said. "If by chance our paths cross again and she isn't someone else's wife, only God knows what I would do. Honestly, Timothy, that was so many years ago that I wouldn't be surprised if Serena's forgotten about me. If she hasn't, she only remembers me as some wimpy rich child and doesn't think I've changed that much. Either way, I'm positive Serena is married by now. She was pretty as a ten-year-old girl, so I have no doubt she has grown to be irresistible. With her beauty and kind heart, she can have any man in the world, social ranks be disregarded. The girl I remember deserves to have a husband who would treasure her, and I believe it's too late to find out if it could've been me."
Serena bit the inside of her mouth as Satoshi answered. The more he spoke, the more Serena wanted to remove her disguise and reveal her true identity out of hope that Satoshi would instantly forget about Sonia and ask Serena to marry him. It took her willpower to resist the temptation, even as her heart raced with every positive thing Satoshi had to say about the girl he remembered. Satoshi continued to stare at the wall feeling melancholic as he thought of Serena getting married and forgetting about him. Then he looked at his game and sighed, deciding he was done with it. Satoshi gathered his cards and stood up to put them away in a desk drawer before turning to Serena.
"I think I'll turn in for the night," Satoshi said. "Get plenty of sleep tonight, Timothy. We'll discuss what you say to Sonia when you see her first thing in the morning."
"Yes, my lord. Good night," Serena said.
"Good night, Timothy," Satoshi said.
Serena waited until Satoshi left the room to lower the piano's cover to go downstairs to her bedroom. When Serena closed the door behind her, she paused before sitting on her bed and covering her face with her pillow to let out a bashful squeal. Her face turned beet red as she let out all the emotions she bottled up when Satoshi revealed he remembered her. The blue ribbon wrapped around Satoshi's arm festered in her mind.
After a moment, Serena removed her pillow from her face and got ready for bed. She unwrapped the sash around her chest, put her brown wig on a head mannequin, and put her fake goatee and contacts in separate cases. Serena was about to lie down after putting on her nightgown when she glanced at the mirror on top of her dresser and stopped. She turned to look closely at herself, thinking of how Satoshi remembered her honey-blonde hair and ocean-blue eyes. Serena's cheeks turned pink again, thinking of Satoshi proposing on the spot if she presented herself to him as a woman.
"Oh, Satoshi, please tell me more about my eyes," Serena giggled. "Hold me close, and I'll tell you what a dashing husband I have. You wrote a song about your love? I wrote a song about mine. Let's wait until we're alone and share our songs with each other."
Serena's blush grew as she imagined her and Satoshi singing love songs to each other. Then, her smile subsided as she continued to look at herself in the mirror. She brushed her hair with her fingers and looked at her eyes, cheeks, and lips, mentally comparing them to Sonia's. After a while, her smile melted into a frown, and she turned to her door as though Satoshi was waiting behind it.
"If I present myself to him as a woman instead of a man, would he instantly fall for me upon realizing I am the Serena he remembered, or would he be disappointed?" Serena asked herself. "He may still think Sonia is more beautiful than any other woman, leaving me more miserable than before after losing my brother. I suppose it doesn't really matter now. Satoshi only knows me as a man, and his heart belongs to the countess whether she wants it or not. I have to fulfill my duty as his page to whatever end, and that means completing my mission to woo Lady Sonia so she falls in love with Satoshi. If nothing else, I must undo my mistake of getting the countess to fall in love with me. If I can't get her to fall in love with Satoshi, I can at least try to make her understand that she and I can never happen without revealing my true identity."
Serena's heart ached as she accepted it was too late to get Satoshi to fall for her. With a gloomy sigh, she got under her bed covers and lay down with her eyes closed. Try as Serena might, however, she couldn't bring herself to fall asleep, for she was overcome with the anxiety of seeing Sonia again. She clasped her hands and quietly asked the Lord for guidance and wisdom to convince the countess that she had fallen in love with the wrong person.