Since Selene preferred to take the Pokémon to her home as soon as possible, all the kids decided to call it a day and left. All except Lillie, who only had to wait a bit more until her limousine came for her. Selene tried to say goodbye, but the blonde girl interrupted her.

“Actually, I wanted to ask… Would you like to come to my house? I think I have a book about Jangmo-o that may help you taking care of it”, proposed Lillie.

Selene didn’t see that coming. She was still nervous around Lillie. Somehow, she couldn’t believe that her friend was not angry at her for the incident in Poni Island. Still, Lillie’s innocent eyes pulled her to accept the invitation. After the driver helped the girl to put the carrier inside the back seat, they all began their journey towards Lillie’s house. Both were so nervous they didn’t say anything, although the source of their nervousness was different for each girl. It took a while to arrive to their destination.

Selene knew Lillie was rich, but she didn’t expect to see the building in front of her. A huge, white mansion with a classic and elegant style emerged from the forest. It looked like it was taken out from a movie. Among the dozens of windows and the big entrance lied columns and decorations with exquisite details. When the girls got out of the limousine, Selene kept looking at the building in awe, while Lillie giggled a bit behind her.

However, the inside was even more elegant than the outside. Shiny tiles on the floor, expensive-looking vases and paintings all around the world… For a moment, Selene forgot her fears about Lillie and instead, worried about why a low-class girl would be in such an elegant place. An old tall butler offered his help to carry Jangmo-o while everybody went upstairs inside Lillie’s room. Once inside, the blonde girl asked her friend to wait for her, since she was going to search for the book in her library. A few seconds later, the butler came in with a teapot, two teacups and a plate with macarons on it and left again. However, Selene was too nervous to eat anything.

After a few minutes that felt much longer for the girl, Lillie came back to the room holding a book. Selene stood up nervously, which surprised Lillie a bit. Ignoring that, the blonde girl offered the book to her friend.

“Here it is: ‘Living among Fighting-type scales’. It has a lot of information about Jangmo-o’s eating habits and such. I hope it helps you”, explained Lillie.

Selene took the book and stared at it in silent. Truth was, up until that moment, she couldn’t believe all that was happening. She thought that Lillie made it all up just to be alone with her and scold her. She definitely expected some shouts, or at least some kind of reprimand. The girl slowly raised her head and contemplated Lillie’s face. There she was, smiling like always, her sparkly eyes looking at her with kindness. A kindness she didn’t feel she was worthy of. Suddenly, Lillie’s smile disappeared, her face now showing surprise and worry.

“Selene…”, murmured Lillie. “You’re… crying!”

It was right. The girl couldn’t hold her feelings anymore. Her cheeks turned cold because of the tears that began flowing from her eyes. The nervousness Selene felt a few seconds ago had actually turned into sadness that made her cry and sob. How could Lillie be so kind to her after that incident? How could she have such a good friend?

“I’m… I’m sorry”, muttered Selene between sobs.

“Why? Why do you say that?”, asked Lillie in confusion and shock.

“I broke my promise!”, exclaimed Selene frustrated. “I promised you I wouldn’t get in danger, but I did! You should be angry, but… you’re still so nice to me… I didn’t want to break my promise. I didn’t want to worry you! I’m sorry…”.

It was then that Lillie finally understood. During the whole day, she noticed her friend being slightly distant towards her. She initially thought it was caused by the incident, but it was so clear at that moment: all that time, Selene was worried about Lillie, about breaking her promise and making her mad. She couldn’t believe her friend would worry that much about that promise. However, she knew how sensitive Selene could be from her time together. She also knew how much Selene appreciated everybody’s friendship, especially given her situation. With a gentle smile, Lillie approached her friend and placed her hands on Selene’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry”, apologized Lillie. “I wasn’t mad at you at all. I was just worried, but maybe my reaction was not the best”.

“No, you’re right to be mad!”, protested Selene while crying.

“Don’t be silly. I would never get mad at you for something like this”, answered back Lillie. “Sure, you ran quite a risk, but you wanted to help Jangmo-o. If it had been me, if I could touch Pokémon again… I’d probably had done the same”.

There it was again. Whenever Selene talked to Lillie, she felt her friend really understood her feelings and worries. And precisely because of that, she was scared of losing someone as important for her as that girl who was there, comforting her. Her cries ceased, but between sobs, Selene managed to ask:

“Are… are we still… friends?”.

That question took Lillie off-guard. For Selene to imagine that such a trivial thing would finish her friendship, it really looked like the girl cared that much about that promise… or more like, she cared that much about their friendship, something that Lillie hadn’t experienced before even with her friends at the school. Lillie raised her friend’s face, taking a closer look at her glassy eyes, seeing how much she meant for Selene. The blonde girl didn’t notice how her cheeks blushed slightly at that thought.

“Of course. Don’t ever worry about that. I’m more than happy to be your friend”, claimed Lillie with a soft voice.

Those simple words helped to calm down Selene’s mind and heart, making both girls giggle. After that, they enjoyed the tea and macarons while they took a brief look at the book and its contents. They even tried to feed Jangmo-o with some Pokémon food Lillie had stored in her mansion, but the creature wasn’t in the mood for eating. Time passed by quickly and soon, through the terrace of the room they could see the sky turning orange. Since there was some distance between the mansion and Kukui’s house, it was time for Selene to leave. Both girls went outside and towards the limousine, the butler carrying the Pokémon again and introducing it inside the vehicle. Feeling a bit shy after everything lived during the afternoon, the girls just waved their hands and smiled, but just when Selene was going to ride the limousine, Lillie said “Selene!”, who turned around and looked at her.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll take care of Jangmo-o just fine”, asserted Lillie with confidence. “You will be a great help for her. And if you need anything, I’ll help you”.

Selene could feel how honest Lillie was at that moment. Her words made her feel more confident, but also happy. Happy about having such a great friend by her side. Thanking Lillie for her words, the girl rode the limousine and went back home.

Not only that afternoon, but the next couple of days proved to be a challenge for Selene. As soon as she got to Kukui’s house, she began reading the book, trying to learn as much as she could about Jangmo-o. There were some advice about what food the Pokémon would prefer and, after sharing that with the professor, they both tried feeding Jangmo-o with different things, but still, the creature didn’t want to eat anything. Additionally, as much as she tried, the girl couldn’t make the dragon come out of the carrier. That night, Selene went to sleep, disappointed at her failed attempts and wondering what she could do. Before falling asleep, she could swear hearing Jangmo-o eating.

The following days beared similar results and her friends at the school could see it. Worried about the Pokémon’s condition, Selene was not as cheerful as her usual self. After explaining the situation, they all tried to come up with solutions. Mallow and Kiawe had much more experience taking care of Pokémon or thinking about the nutrition, so their advice was useful. Lana and Lillie offered their perspective after looking at the book and thinking how to adapt those tips to Jangmo-o’s needs. About Sophocles, his suggestions mostly involved crafting a machine of some sort, so they were quickly disregarded.

Still, Selene tried all those ideas, but Jangmo-o was still shy, crouching at the end of the carrier. However, the girl did notice that the Pokémon ate the food left inside the carrier at night, and so, she began thinking food was not actually the problem. But then, what could it be? When she shared that doubt with her friends, Lillie came up with an idea:

“Instead of being over her, why don’t you take some time to observe Jangmo-o? That is what researchers do: they observe Pokémon’s natural behaviors. Give her some space. Maybe you will notice something.”

Selene hadn’t thought about that possibility, but she knew Lillie was right. When she went along Kukui and Hapu, their original plan was observing Pokémon in the wild and seeing what they naturally do. All that time, the girl was so worried about helping Jangmo-o that she didn’t think about what the dragon actually needed. Following her friend’s advice, she asked the professor for a camera that she placed at some distance from the carrier to check Jangmo-o from the living room with her phone.

Laying on the couch, Selene’s eyes were glued on the screen. For a while, silence was so intense that it felt like nobody was in that house at the moment. The Pokémon did nothing at all but rest. The girl tried to be patient, but after almost an hour of doing nothing at all, she got slightly nervous. Trying to calm down, she left her phone on her tummy and laid her head back while sighing. She really wanted to help Jangmo-o, but she began doubting if she was the right person to do so. Her thoughts twirled inside her head until a sudden noise brought her back to reality. It was a strange sound coming from her phone, like scratching and bumping. When Selene looked at the screen, she saw Jangmo-o trying to bite her claws, which was impossible because of her collar. Then, she bumped her head against the top part of the carrier, but once again, the collar softened the impact. After doing this for a while, the Pokémon got sadder and crouched again.

Selene found all that strange. Why was Jangmo-o doing all that? While thinking about that, she observed the Pokémon repeating those actions to no avail. Was there actually a problem with her claws? She tried to think about the day they met, when she was with the other Jangmo-o or at the hospital… and she remembered something: her claws and the scale on her head were slightly dented. Everybody initially believed it could be because of fights or because of living in the wild, but what if…?

The girl felt she found something. She had a hunch, but she wasn’t sure. That was until she remembered the book Lillie lent her. She rushed through the pages until she stopped at a specific page and read it carefully, her eyes shining as the idea in her head began taking form. However, she needed to check one more thing: Jangmo-o herself. Selene quickly climbed the stars and ran towards the carrier, surprising the Pokémon. The girl crouched and stretched her arm towards the dragon. Jangmo-o was nervous and moved a bit, but after a slight struggle, Selene grabbed one of her claws and carefully observed it. It was then, once all the pieces fit together, that she screamed aloud from her surprise at her discovery and at how absurdly simple it was.