"Mistyyyy?"

"Misty? It's us!"

"Mistyyy?"

Misty sighed heavily. She got off her bed and went to unlock the door of her room, letting May and Dawn in.

"Hi Misty!"

"Yeah, hi." Misty walked back to her bed. She lay down and pulled up the covers. "What?"

"So!" Dawn clapped her hands together. "Let's go somewhere!"

"Let's go shopping!"

"Yeah, it's the weekend. All girls are having their boyfriends visit them." Misty hid her face with the covers.

Dawn pulled away the covers and May tried to get Misty off the bed.

"Fine! Fine! Just let me go!" Misty got up. "I accept going shopping!"

"So, have you called her yet?"

Serena's eyes were traveling all over the shops' cases. Ash was slightly behind her. "Euuh..."

Serena turned around. "Did you?"

"No..."

"Ash!"

"I don't know how to start the conversation!" Ash complained. "Misty is too complicated and hard to understand! She's... hard to figure out!"

"No, she isn't! You're chickening for no apparent reason!"

"But there, I asked you to come with me so we can buy her something she'd like. Aren't I trying hard?"

"Call her."

"Are you helping me or not?"

Serena put her hands on her hips. "You better cooperate with me. Clemont is coming to Celadon today and I don't have time to waste."

"Is he?" Ash joined her side. "You never said anything about this Clemont guy."

"Excuuuse me?" Serena gasped. "He is THE Clemont, the one and only."

"How's he like?"

"The opposite of you, but also a lot like you." Serena nodded to herself. "He likes my baking, eats too much of it, thinks I'm hard to figure out and drinks so much coffee he gets huge eye bags the next day."

"That doesn't sound like me."

"He's a lot like you." Serena put her finger on her chin. "A little thinner though."

Ash felt like throwing up, remembering the numbers on his scale. "I want to die."

"Not before you make up with Misty!" Serena clapped her hands together and walked ahead of Ash. "Tell me, what does she like?"

"I don't know..." Wait a minute, did he seriously date Misty for almost three years but didn't know what does she like? What kind of boyfriend was he?

"No idea?"

"Hum, maybe..." Ash thought hard. "Flowers?"

Serena glared.

"All girls like flowers!"

"Exactly, dumb head!" Serena scolded. "If you buy her flowers, it means you did no effort whatsoever thinking about her preferences! It means you are totally careless about Misty's tastes! It just means you're a horrible boyfriend!"

"Buying flowers means I'm a horrible boyfriend?" Ash was horrified.

"Well, yeah!" Serena huffed. "Sometimes, it does!"

"This is harder than I thought it'd be..." Ash turned to his left, looking at a small café place. There was a pancake smell filling the second floor of the Celadon mall coming from it.

He looked at Serena.

She shook her head.

"Fine!"

"Can we go back to the dorms?"

May and Dawn turned toward Misty who was just slightly behind them. The three were shopping for clothes.

"What? Why?"

Misty pointed outside the boutique. "That's Ash and Serena."

Dawn and May looked at each other. It was indeed Ash and Serena beside the showcase of the boutique. She was showing him something on her phone and he looked quite interested.

"See? That's what he's been doing while I was crying myself to sleep!"

"Misty! Please don't. Maybe-"

"Maybe what? Just what?" Misty's voice was wobbly.

"..."

"..."

"Misty!" Dawn called out after Misty left the boutique in a rush.

Everything happened so fast for everyone; Misty pulling Ash by the arm and slapping him hard across the face; Serena gasping and stepping to the back, and Dawn and May almost tripping on the boutique entrance.

"I HATE YOU!"

Misty's voice echoed all over the second floor of the mall. Everyone around turned to stare. She ran off quickly, hiding her face with her hands and letting her purse fall.

"Misty!"

Dawn and May couldn't care less about Ash. May grabbed her friend's purse and they followed after her. "Misty!"

"Come back!"

Ash and Serena stood frozen in their spots.

She turned toward her friend. "Are you okay?"

Ash shook his head, shock written all over his face.

Serena didn't know what to say. She knew it wasn't the right time to scold Ash for not explaining the situation to his girlfriend before she sees him with Serena and gets all the wrong ideas.

"Uhm... do you want... pancakes?"