That Summer | Raihan x Piers [Pokémon]

Chapter 17 ❀ A Friend's Opinion

Throwing a glance over his shoulder while he walked back to the group of friends he had come here with, Raihan caught Piers boarding his train, his two underlings following close behind. It was still uncertain if the slim young man would actually show up at the get-together tomorrow, but Raihan was hopeful. Not to mention that even if he wouldn't, he had a means of reaching out to the other now.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." The caramel-skinned male announced the moment he had reached Nessa and Bea, noticing how Sonia must have already left. The younger girl waved the matter off while the other couldn't help but frown at Raihan, giving him a suspicious look. "That was Piers, wasn't it?"

"Yeah." Even though Nessa's face expressed everything else but contentment, Raihan was too happy to read the situation, the toothy grin on his face being wider than ever. He and the indigo-haired girl had been very close friends — best friends to be more precise — so the girl was one of the few who knew about Raihan's and Piers' past together, and her immediate instinct was to get concerned about the current situation.

She wanted to ask him so many things, but the crowded train station was hardly the place for those sorts of conversations. Not only that, but Bea was still with them. Obviously, Nessa had absolutely nothing against the fighting-type Gym Leader — they were quite close themselves — but the subject at hand wasn't something she was going to reveal to others without Raihan's initiative.

Bea wasn't exactly the best when it came to expressing herself, but she was good at reading the mood. The short-haired female could tell that Nessa had things that were still unsaid, and being the nice person she was, she didn't want to impose on her and Raihan. "Oh, I just remembered something."

"I promised Allister I'd help him out with something, so I'll go ahead if that's OK. See you guys tomorrow." Not even waiting for a response or a simple goodbye, Bea offered the two a wave before sprinting off in the distance. Nessa and Raihan exchanged glances, the latter being clueless about the meaning behind the other girl's actions while Nessa could only telepathically thank her.

"Let's go to the Battle Café. I think we need to talk." The dark-skinned female stated, not allowing her friend to interpret her statement as an option but rather as an order. Judging by her strict tone, Raihan was expecting to get scolded for whatever reason, but he knew that as soon as they were alone, she'd show her true colors. "Do we?"

And so, the two Gym Leaders soon found their way into the mentioned building, taking a seat near the window — of course, after battling the owner and placing their orders. As if to mock her, Raihan had pulled out his Rotom Phone, snapping a picture of their desserts and a fragment of Nessa's face before posting it on his social media with a caption that went along the lines of: "Apparently, models can eat this much too."

"So?" The sapphire-eyed girl drummed her fingernails along the wooden table, drawing Raihan's attention away from his electronic device and to her. Being the childish, pain-in-the-rear person he was, he continued with his act of obliviousness, driving Nessa to sigh again. "So what?"

"You can drop the act, you're grinning like a doofus. What did you two even talk about, and why was he there in the first place?" The indigo-haired female asked, her eyes curiously as well as patiently waiting for a detailed reply. Raihan finally stopped making his friend's life more difficult and waved his Rotom Phone away. "I don't know, he said he had something to take care of around here."

"We actually didn't talk that much." Usually when a person would say that, they would be lying most of the time, or playing hard to get, but Nessa could tell that it wasn't the case this time, judging by the taller individual's voice and expression. Not only that, but she had suspected something like that would have been it — She was actually surprised that they had exchanged a greeting at all, given their rocky relationship.