A former ice-type gym leader named Noelle from the neighboring region of Lykke has arrived to Galar to put herself in exile, her aunt, the Ice-Cold Professional, Melony has invited her to be her gym trainer for the upcoming Gym Challenge that's set...
Noelle hasn't trained this hard since she was younger, fresh out of high school. When she was trying to earn her gym leader license from her father with her best friend, well, former best friend. Their relationship has been strained for a while now. She doesn't know what she's doing right now or if things will ever go back to the way it was. It's still so surreal how Noelle is in another region for who knows how long and she is already getting homesick. Her aunt, Melony, has been training her non-stop and Micah, the man she abandoned back in Hulbury (she still had to make up for it), has been training her when Melony had to focus on another gym trainer. While Micah is a bit more forgiving, he's still just as merciless as Melony is, which is a given. Let's not forget that Noelle hasn't seen Gordie in a week and has no idea what is going on between her aunt and her cousin right now. Back then, they used to be stuck to the hip, now they just act like they're strangers. What ever the case may be, nothing feels the same anymore and it has been draining for her.------
"Hi, sweetie!", Melony calls out before sitting beside her niece on the bench in the Circhester Stadium locker room.
Ah, right. Noelle just had her butt kicked by her aunt- again - and was sitting in here to relax. Originally, for 30 minutes, but apparently it has been an hour. Noelle waved at her aunt before looking back at the floor. Melony picked up on this and raised an eyebrow, "You have been spacing out a lot since you got here." She then chuckled as a question popped into her head and wanted to explore it further, "You haven't been thinking about Raihan, are you?" Oh, yeah, she almost forgot about that handsome man on the train. Noelle has been wondering how he was but she wasn't gonna go through the he-- cursed plains of Route 8 just to find that out for herself. He's probably too busy with training his gym trainers to have a small chit-chat with her. Noelle shook her head a bit at her aunt's question, but it was a good guess. Melony seemed a bit disappointed by the response but brushed it off anyway. "So, what has been bothering you?", she asked, but this time with a bit more concern.
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Now, Noelle is not one to pour her issues out on to the nearest person available. She's expressive to a fault but she never liked bothering others, heck, she doesn't even want to talk to a therapist in fear of taking up their time, time that they could spend on someone who needs a therapist more than her. "It's nothing. I'm okay.", Noelle blurted out that automated response, whether or not she was okay or not, it's something she'll always say. Melony has picked this up the more she got older and could tell that it was a lie, but she wasn't one to push or pry is the other doesn't want to, not unless it's very serious. And this is kinda serious.
"I don't think that's true, Noelle.", Melony said with a stern voice. "You haven't been acting like yourself lately. You're more clumsy than usual and you're always spacing out, even during training." Noelle froze (no pun intended) at the way her aunt points out her unusual behavior. Sure, Noelle is typically...unusual in the most awkward way, but it's not that obvious, is it? Just then, Gordie came into the room and his eyes met with Melony's. The room fell silent and cold almost instantly. Noelle felt the tension and it was very intense, not even a Charizard could melt this. Melony got up from her spot on the bench while Gordie went to the lockers. She turned to her niece with a small smile, "Well, looks like I have to get back to work. We'll talk more about this when we get home." Grand. Just when Noelle thought that she could escape it, she was trapped by it once again. Melony is never one to forget to either scold or get to the bottom of someone's problem. However, she doesn't seem to want anyone get to the bottom of her or Gordie's problems. Before Noelle could say anything in response, Melony walked out of the locker room and out into the stadium.
