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Chloe had never been one for romance, at least not as far as her own life was concerned.
She loved reading overly dramatic and cheesy romance novels, they were a huge guilty pleasure of hers, but the thought of having a boyfriend herself had never really appealed to her.
People always teased her about her friendship with Goh, and something about dating Goh always weirded her out. She'd say that to those people as well, that she had known Goh for most of her life and that he was like a second brother to her, but they never believed her. Whatever, that was their problem.
One day, when they were doing homework together, Goh had come out to her.
"I'm gay", he'd simply stated out of nowhere.
Chloe had looked up from the math problem. "Huh, uh, sure. Thanks for telling me?", she'd awkwardly replied.
And that had been that. She'd thought she had figured out why dating Goh was such an absurd concept to her, she'd somehow subconsciously figured out he liked guys already.
But that didn't really explain why she didn't like any other guys, either.
She figured it out when she met Serena.
She had never believed love at first sight like it was depicted in novels existed in real life, and she had been horribly wrong.
The moment she saw the other girl, standing there looking out at the sea, Sylveons Fairy Wind blowing through her hair, Chloe felt mesmerized. She turned around, and she looked so pretty.
And oh, that explained the whole not liking guys romantically situation.
When the girl ran up to her, introducing herself and saying that she had seen Chloe on tv earlier, she felt her heart skip a beat and heat rise to her face.
Serena.
She even had a pretty name.
They had a chat, and Chloe was once again amazed by how grown up she sounded. They were the same age, yet Serena spoke in a way that showed how much she had grown up on her journey.
Her talk was encouraging enough that Chloe found the confidence to join the Contest, and even when she lost her round she wasn't upset, because Serena had managed to win hers.
When it was time to say goodbye, Chloe didn't want to leave. Her and Serena laughed together, like they had known each other their whole lifes instead of merely for a day.
They worked so well together, they had hit off right from the start, and Chloe really liked her.
She had even forgotten that she had been supposed to meet up with Goh and Ash, up until they ran up to her.
"Sheesh, what took you so long?", she asked with a pout.
Ash answered something about battling, and Goh something about catching, because of course they would, what else had she expected.
Chloe was suppressing an eyeroll, when someone suddenly yelled:
"Ash!"
It took her a moment to realize it had been Serena.
Ash turned around, and his face lit up.
"Serena!"
Chloe felt as though she was watching the entire scene playing out in front of her eyes in slow motion.
It hurt to watch.
They knew each other.
They knew each other very well, by the looks of it.
Even as their boat left, Serena and Ash were still yelling at each other. Catching up, and words of encouragement.
And from Serenas expression one thing was clear to Chloe:
Serena liked Ash.
Chloe had finally stumbled into her own romance, and the person she liked was in love with Ash Ketchum, of all people.
The sun had set pretty far, and the port of Lilycove City was slowly but surely disappearing in the background.
She couldn't see much of it anymore, but she could see Serenas silhouette still standing there, still looking toward them, toward Ash, probably still with that same love struck expression that broke Chloes heart.
All of a sudden, she couldn't watch anymore, and she ran off to the other end of the boat, hugging her oblivious Eevee tightly.
A few moments later, someone behind her asked: "Chlo, are you okay?"
Thank Arceus, it was Goh and not Ash.
With a sigh, she shook her head.
"Remember when you told me you were gay?"
Goh frowned at the topic change, but indulged her anyways. "Um, yeah?"
"Yeah..."
Understanding passed Gohs expression. "Oh.", he simply stated.
He walked closer, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Serena?"
Chloe simply nodded.
"I... I think she...", Goh started compassionately, but Chloe couldn't stand the thought of him saying it out loud, so she interrupted him.
"I know.", she said frustrated. "I'm not blind, she couldn't have been more obvious."
Fighting back the tears was hard, it took all of the scrap energy she still had left, but she refused to cry over this.
"Do you think he knows?", she whispered.
Without a moment of hesitation, Goh responded: "Ash? No." He chuckled. "That guy wouldn't know romance if it was a Wigglytuff Double Slapping him in the face."
Against her better judgment, Chloe let out a snort, though she couldn't help but wonder if Goh was speaking from experience.
Considering how much time those two spent together, and how much Goh has opened up to him compared to anyone else, it wouldn't surprise her.
Seeing Serena look at Ash like that, couldn't have been easy for him, either.
"When we get home, do you wanna eat some of that mint chocolate chip ice cream you like so much and watch some terrible romcom movies together?", Goh asked.
Chloe grinned at him. "Do you even have to ask?"
Today hadn't been what she had expected at all, and it wouldn't be easy to let go, but at least now Chloe knew what kind of person she was looking for, so that was somehing.