A/N: Okay! So this is the last introduction chapter. Hopefully, after this, you won't be bored to death. However, I want to warn you guys that I'm still sort of figuring out the plot of this fic. I have an idea of the main point, but I need to plan a bit more. Enjoy!  

Besides Selene, Elio, and, of course, his sister Lillie, there was one more person.

When Gladion first met Hau, he thought he was stupid.

The boy was so giddy and free that he immediately registered as either insane or dumb in the blonde's mind, and Gladion couldn't understand how a human being could be that happy. He knew there were plenty of people in the world happier than him, but Hau was so gleeful all the time it didn't even make sense. Did he not have worries? If he did, he was able to handle them about a million times better than Gladion.

Out of the group, Hau was probably Gladion's least favorite person. He liked him even less than Selene.

It wasn't surprising, really. The two were practically exact opposites. Hau seemed to like him quite a lot, which annoyed Gladion since he didn't return the feeling and didn't understand why a person would like him, but he figured something must have been messed up in Hau's brain or whatever and that Hau liked everybody regardless.

He'd also strongly disliked Hau's connection to his sister. Even though he knew there was no chance of Lillie breaking up with Selene, he'd suspected for a long time at the beginning that Hau had a crush on Lillie, and he had no idea if that crush remained. He heard from Selene that Hau had started crying when Lillie deported to Kanto, which was extremely unusual for the boy and made Gladion even more suspicious.

Of course, it could just have been that Lillie was one of Hau's best friends and that he would only get to see her one week every month thereafter. But Gladion chose to think otherwise, for the sake of being cautious.

Apparently, Hau had confessed to Lillie over the Xtransceiver around a month after she left. Lillie had revealed her relationship with Selene to him then and to the entire group a day or two later. Hau had acted more subdued than usual for a week and had obviously been heartbroken. Gladion, being who he was, yelled at him for being so weak.

More than anyone else, Hau was persistent with getting Gladion to admit to being his friend—which, of course, the older boy never would, because they weren't friends. It had become evident to Gladion shortly after they first met that Hau wasn't stupid, just obnoxious and probably naïve. But that didn't change how incredibly, ludicrously exasperating he was.

Gladion wished Lillie didn't like Hau so much, because then he could probably hurt him without getting scolded.