Kanto's Pride

Chapter 33

The words from Ash hit the girls like a powerful thunderbolt.

The tension grew ten times more stronger than before. The raven haired boy hung his head low in shame, not even daring to look them in their eyes. The girls were just silent as they stared distantly at Ash, not being able to comprehend what he just said.

Ash knew they weren't going to say anything so, he mustered all the courage he could gather and spoke.

"I-I know this is shocking, b-but th-that's the truth," he said. The girls were staring at him with expressionless faces.

"It was very stupid and pathetic of me. I got caught up in those moments and did it, not even thinking once about how will you feel," he said with guilt in his voice.

"You guys, along with all the people I've met in my life are truly amazing. They had a big impact on my career and I am always grateful for it. But I-I.. failed as a person today. I will never be able to forgive myself for doing something so selfish. I toyed with your emotions, turned myself into a bad influence for others, specially doing something so unpleasant to some of my closest dear friends."

"If you want to be friends with me anymore that is," Ash corrected himself with a hollow laugh.

The quartet haven't spoken a word the whole time. It was so sudden, who could blame them? To think that the matter had reached upto this extent. And here was Ash, apologising for something they couldn't understand at first, but figured out quickly when he mentioned about kissing them.

Them?!

Each one of them understood now that they have made out with the same person they all loved. Surely, their heart was shattered from the information, but more importantly, Ash realised his mistake and was really expressing his regret about it. That's why they loved him much. He wasn't a bad person at all. Surely he could be sometimes rash, stupid and dense, but this incident isn't entirely his fault.

The girls started to recall the times they were alone with Ash individually. They now realised he never had any sort of romantic or perverted intend all those times. He was just being a good friend to them.

Serena remembered the day she hanged out with Ash before his battle with Tobias. They had lots of fun and she had one of her best moments in her life, which ended up eventually kissing the boy. She knew it better than to think Ash was a bad minded person. There was no way he could be.

Dawn remembers how helpful he was when she lost her necklace in that dark forest. He stayed with her until she found it and also escorted her to the academy safely. She smiled at the memory, at how perfect he was as a person to her. He never had any selfish reasons behind those helps and supports, it was just because he cared for her and her friends.

May recalled all those times she was with him. Many boys including Drew himself had asked her out before, but she never really were comfortable around them like she was around Ash. He always was a helpful big brother character to her. He agreed to go with her to a dance party even though it was very sudden, only so she could be happy. And May thought it was because he had a thing for her, how stupid she was. He never turned down any of her requests for the exact same reason.

Anabel reminisced how injured she was when they had confronted the hunters who were smuggling pokemons. If it wasn't for Ash, she would've been good as gone. He took care of and checked on her until she got better. She could now understand that he didn't have other intentions behind treating her to that ice cream parlor. And notably how he risked himself and protected her from getting crushed by that huge tree branch during the storm.

And what did they do?

They took advantage of their times with Ash and made their move on him. All he was trying to do was spending time with his dear friends and helping them out, but they crossed that limit of friendship and toped off their desires by osculating him. Now that they thought about it, they felt guilty. They made Ash question himself about his character. They never thought about how he would feel about it, but yet he was apologising like the entire thing was his fault alone.