"By the way, Brock, what were you doing in that place? You looked completely out of it."
After learning that Ash and Dawn were traveling together, Brock naturally joined them. While walking on the road, Ash finally couldn't suppress his curiosity and asked.
"That's right... crouching in that position was scary."
Dawn nodded with empathy.
"About that... sigh..."
Brock thought for a moment and then sighed deeply.
"Actually..."
Under the gaze of Ash and Dawn, Brock finally revealed one by one the reason why he was hiding in that place crying. Saying it was one by one, it was actually just one reason in simple terms.
...
After Brock recounted his experience, Dawn gave him a look that she didn't know how to describe, while Ash had a sudden realization.
"So, to put it simply, the girl who gave you a ride received a call from her boyfriend just as you were about to confess, and then she left you here, right?"
Ash suddenly remembered that there seemed to be such a plot before, but Brock's emotions at this moment were obviously more lost than in his memory. Was it because he wasn't by his side in the first place, so he had no one to tell these feelings to?
"But... isn't it a little strange to fall in love with someone at first sight?" Although Dawn hadn't experienced this kind of adult relationship, she still gave a very insightful view. "If you fall in love at first sight, you only like the other person's appearance, right? Is that also considered love?"
"Wrong, wrong, wrong!" Brock quickly gave a negative answer to Dawn's view. "You can only have a follow-up if you fall in love at first sight! If your first impression of someone is that you have no feelings, then it's unlikely that you will develop a relationship of mutual affection later."
"Oh..." Dawn replied with a vague understanding, "So does she have feelings for you?"
Brock: "Cough cough!"
Brock turned around and started to cry again.
He didn't understand why Dawn looked so gentle, but she could say such hurtful words unintentionally. It was clearly the middle of summer, but Brock felt cold all over.
"Let's not talk about these things..." Seeing that Brock's emotions were about to start becoming low again, Ash quickly changed the subject. "It's almost noon now, right? Should we have lunch first? I'm hungry."
"Pika~"
"Aipom!"
Hearing that it was time for lunch, Pikachu and Aipom's spirits also perked up, and they started to raise their hands and agree crazily.
They hadn't eaten Brock's cooking for a while, and they were of course excited that they could taste that deliciousness again soon.
"That's right! People shouldn't always look back at past sad experiences. Instead of thinking about the failure in the morning, let's think about what to eat for lunch!"
Brock said excitedly, and then ran to a small clearing in front of him and put down his backpack. Then, under Dawn's surprised gaze, Brock took out all kinds of things from his backpack at a very fast speed.
Pots, pans, various seasonings, and even folding tables and chairs.
Dawn looked at Ash with an incredulous expression, and then stammered as if she wanted to say something, pointing at Brock with her finger.
"Don't ask me." Ash shrugged and expressed his helplessness. "I'm also very curious about how Brock managed to stuff so many things into his backpack, although his backpack is indeed very big."
"No matter how big it is, it shouldn't be so exaggerated, right! This is a table! A table! And so many benches! There's even a stew pot!"
Dawn finally organized her words, but even so, Ash could still feel her confusion. Although he wanted to explain it to her, Ash himself really didn't understand how Brock did it, so he couldn't help either.
...
After experiencing this little interlude, Dawn finally forced herself to accept this seemingly flashy and impossible reality. After all, instead of dwelling on how Brock did it, it was better to pay attention to the stew pot that was bubbling with heat.
"It smells so good~~"
Dawn, who was sitting on the bench, had already started to drool just by smelling the aroma coming from the pot. Actually, she wasn't that hungry when Ash suggested having lunch, but after smelling the aroma of Brock's cooking, she knew that she was actually hungry.
"Today's lunch is meat soup, and I've also added my special seasoning. In addition to the fresh and fragrant taste of the ingredients themselves, you can also taste a slight spicy and sour taste. Drinking a bowl of meat soup and mixing it with a bowl of rice is the best thing to do on such a hot day."
Brock, who had returned to the culinary world, showed a different temperament from before. If he was a decadent and lovelorn person before, then he was now like a legendary figure in the culinary world. He just opened his eyes, which seemed to always have only one slit, and showed his snow-white teeth as he said confidently.
"(Gulp~)"
Dawn and Ash swallowed a mouthful of saliva at the same time. The smell of the meat soup had completely aroused their appetite. Seeing this, Brock didn't continue to tempt them, but picked up a bowl and served them each a bowl, and then added a bowl of rice to each of them.
"Eat, don't be polite. There's so much here, there's more after you finish."
"We won't be polite!"
"Let's eat!"
Ash and Dawn completely abandoned their restraint after Brock brought the food up and began to feast. On the other side, Pikachu and Aipom were also enjoying Brock's special Pokémon food. For the two who had been accustomed to eating ordinary Pokémon food sold on the market for the past few days, the Pokémon food made by Brock was definitely a heavenly delicacy.
Just as everyone was enjoying the leisurely and wonderful lunch time, on a large tree not far from them, a small figure was standing on the treetop, using the cover of the branches and leaves. Its gaze was firmly locked on the Pokémon food in front of Pikachu and Aipom, looking ready to go.
"Munch~"
Its throat made a low murmur, and its center of gravity also lowered. When it saw Aipom's gaze shift to Pikachu's bowl, revealing a momentary gap, its body plunged down.
....