Who you choose?

Chapter One: A Story to Tell

My name is Shade River.

I'm an Umbreon.

I've always been a pretty calm Pokémon. I'm quiet and soft-spoken most of the time, and I usually prefer listening to people rather than being the center of attention.

That doesn't mean I'm always quiet, though.

Around the people I trust, I can be a little more open. I joke around, have fun, and sometimes even get a bit playful.

But there's one thing I've never been particularly good at.

Understanding romance.

I'm not completely clueless about it... I just have a bad habit of missing the signs when they're directed at me.

And, as it turns out, that became a rather important problem.

Because there were two girls who slowly became very important to me.

Eve Velvet.

And Starlight Clover.

They were both my friends.

At least, that's what I thought at first.

Looking back, there were signs.

Little things I didn't think much about at the time.

Eve would often sit beside me whenever I was alone, even when she didn't really have a reason to.

Starlight would sometimes get strangely nervous whenever I looked directly at her.

And there were moments when they both seemed to act just a little differently whenever I was around.

I noticed some of it.

I just...

didn't understand what it meant.

I thought they were being kind.

I thought they cared about me as a friend.

And maybe, in a way, they did.

But there was something else there.

Something I wouldn't understand until much later.

The truth is...

both of them were falling for me.

And somehow, I managed not to realize it.

Until things became a lot more complicated.

Even now, when I think back on those days, I sometimes wonder how I could have missed so much.

But I suppose that's the strange thing about life.

Sometimes you don't realize you're living through an important moment until it's already become a memory.

So, if you're wondering how I ended up in the middle of all this...

I should probably start at the beginning.

Before I knew what they felt for me.

Before I had to make a choice.

Before I even understood that there was a choice to make.

This is the story of how it all happened.

The story of two girls who fell in love with me...

And the story of how I eventually learned what love meant to me.

⸻

Five years ago...

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Shade slowly opened his eyes, still half asleep.