Gladion watched silently as Selene, Elio and Hau ate their malasadas. They'd decided to go and hang out at the Malasada Shop for a while—courtesy of the green-haired boy himself, of course. Thoroughly displeased with this and refusing to eat, Gladion hadn't had any say in the arrangements, and he'd simply been dragged along.

He couldn't be any less interested in what they were talking about, and it had gotten to the point where he'd spaced out just so that he couldn't hear what they were talking about. Selene was laughing and poking Elio's arm, while Elio himself had an amused smirk on his face. Hau was barely paying attention, practically inhaling his malasada and getting the creams from the inside all over his fingers and the corners of his mouth.

"Gladion, what's wrong?"

Gladion was suddenly whipped back into reality through hearing his name. Hau was gazing at him intently, his dark eyes appearing so gigantic at the moment that he felt they would swallow him up.

"Nothing's wrong. Leave me alone," Gladion grumbled. "Can't you see I'm trying not to get involved in this conversation?"

Selene swallowed a bite of her malasada before saying dismissively, "He doesn't even know what we're talking about. Don't bother with him."

"Well, why don't you start a conversation?" Hau asked, not seeming to understand how awful that idea was both to Gladion and the twins, even after Selene let out a scrupulously irritated groan.

They all stared at the black-clad teenager, waiting.

Gladion curled his upper lip in distaste. "I'm an incredibly uninteresting person. Move on."

"That's not true," Hau pointed out, his pout almost painfully childish. "You're a very interesting person, particularly because nobody understands you."

"Lillie understands me, you twit," Gladion retorted. He felt himself getting red and resented himself for it. "No matter if you find me interesting or not, you can't deny that I'm unsociable, so just let me sit here in peace."

Elio grumbled in agreement. Selene snickered.

Hau loudly spoke over everyone in a cheerful chirp. "That's exactly why I'm trying to make you sociable, Gladion! Don't you get it? I can help!"

"Sure you can." Gladion scowled. He needed a way to turn this around—quickly.

"Are you still going through crippling heartbreak because my sister rejected you?"

Hau's smile vanished and Elio's eyes widened in shock.

"What the hell, Gladion?" Selene hissed under her breath. She sounded disgusted.

The smile almost instantly returned to Hau's face, but it was obviously significantly less genuine than before.

"What was that for?" Hau asked, his voice faltering.

"It's just a question. Can't you handle that?" Gladion said pointedly. He wasn't thinking at this point. He hardly cared what came out of his mouth as long as it put Hau on the defensive instead of him.

This was how things went quite frequently. If he was put on the defensive, he'd try to turn things around as soon as possible. He didn't care if it offended the opposition. As long as he wasn't the victim, he was fine.

"Hey!" Selene stood up violently, Elio flinching in the seat next to hers. "What's your problem? I don't know if you're so stupid you sincerely don't understand this, but we've been trying all this time to be friends you can rely on. And what do you do? You step all over us. Well, you know what? We're not doormats. We're not pushovers. Come on, guys!"

His mouth plastered into a tight frown, Elio stood up to follow his sister and she stormed out of the restaurant. Hau hadn't moved and remained where he was, never looking away from Gladion even when Selene yelled, "Hau, we're leaving!" from the doorway.

"Why are you still here?" Gladion mumbled, watching as Selene gave up with an emphatic growl and slammed the door to the Malasada Shop.

"Lillie told you about what happened, didn't she? She wasn't supposed to. I told her not to. I thought it would just worry you..."

Gladion didn't have to ask what the other boy was talking about, and he scoffed.

"Why would I worry about you?" he demanded nonchalantly. "Yeah, Lillie told me you got all crybaby-esque on the Xtransceiver because I don't want to be friends with you. Grow up. Life is going to throw worse things at you."

Hau's smile collapsed again, this time into a slight glare.

"You're not a bad person, Gladion. I know that. Selene and Elio know that. Lillie definitely knows that." Hau blinked. "So why are you always pretending to be? Is it for your image? I don't see how acting like a bad person helps your image."

Gladion sighed loudly, trying not to let the younger Trainer's words get to him. "I'm not a bad person, but I certainly don't like you. And I'm not your friend. I'm not Selene or Elio's friend, either."

"You know how hard we're trying, right? It's not that hard for me since I like being nice to people and seeing how they can change, but it's not easy for Selene and Elio. Especially Selene, because she knows you don't like her, and she doesn't like you much more."

"Maybe you should follow in her footsteps," Gladion suggested sarcastically. "Liking people who don't like you back, that's always a stupid idea. Even if it wasn't in the same context, having a little-kid crush on my sister must have taught you that."

Hau cringed. "Gladion, do you think maybe you could stop bringing that up? I'm not trying to talk about that right now. I just want to know why you won't be my friend."

"You're still not over her?" Gladion went on, ignoring the eleven-year-old sitting across from him. Hau only had a little bit of his malasada left, and since the conversation started, he'd been taking incredibly slow and distracted bites. "That's pathetic. It's been a long time since Lillie threw you away for Selene, and you're still thinking about it?"

Remorse curdled in the green-eyed boy's stomach when he saw Hau was close to crying. His eyes were glimmering with unreleased tears, and his lip was quivering. Even if he wanted to, Gladion couldn't take pleasure in the sight, because, as mentioned before, he wasn't a bad person.

"Lillie didn't throw me away. She's still one of my best friends. And I'm not going to be angry at her if she likes Selene that way and not me." Hau's voice was weak and sad, though Gladion noticed it was also distant. "I've accepted it by now that she doesn't like me the same way I liked her..."

"Liked?"

"Yeah...I'm kind of over it now. It's not a big deal." Hau tried to grin and just barely managed. "As long as I can still hang with her without it being awkward, it doesn't matter!"

"If it didn't matter," Gladion said tartly, "you wouldn't almost be crying."

"I'm not almost crying about Lillie," Hau replied calmly, sounding much more stable now for some reason. Gladion had to wonder if he really was feeling better after so little time—or if he was pretending.

Lately, he'd wondered just how good this child was at pretending.

"It's that no matter what I do, you still don't want to be my friend."

"I don't like you," Gladion shot back, mustering up the coldest tone he could. "Even if you try, you can't fix somebody not liking you."

"Sure you can! And you do like me, you just don't want to." Hau looked at him boldly, triumph evident in his expression. "Why wouldn't you want to?"

Gladion twitched, looking away. Yes, he liked Hau. He liked Hau more than he wanted to.

But no, he didn't like Hau.

He wouldn't let himself like him.

He wouldn't let himself be used ever again.

"I don't know anything about you. You're always so happy, but there has to be a part of you that we don't see! Nobody is that simple!"

Gladion's hand flew over his mouth. He hadn't planned to say that out loud.

However, Hau just laughed, utterly unfazed. "Wow. I don't know whether that's a compliment or an insult."

"It wasn't either one!"

Hau smiled. "Well, there's a side to everyone we don't see, right?"

"Do you want to know why I won't be your friend? I don't trust you," Gladion said grimly. By now he was getting aggravated and infuriated without even being provoked. "What are you? What are you trying to hide behind...that?" With a flourish, he motioned to Hau's face, of which was smiling even bigger now. "Are you trying to use me for something?"

"No! What would I use you for?" The younger boy almost sounded amused now, and it annoyed Gladion to no end. "Yeah, I'm hiding things, but you shouldn't have to worry about them. They have nothing to do with you, after all."

So he was hiding something?

"Tell me what it is," Gladion commanded. "I'm not going to be used again!"

"It's nothing. It's just my own problems. I'll figure them out. You shouldn't worry about me." Hau got up to leave and walked away for a few steps before looking over his shoulder and saying, "I'm trying to help you with your own problems, too. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that keeping your problems to yourself is a really bad idea."

A low growl rumbled in Gladion's throat as he watched Hau leave the Malasada Shop without him. He didn't want to trust Hau, and he didn't want to like him.

But unfortunately, it seemed that he did.

Maybe having a friend—especially if it was Hau—wouldn't be so horrible...