Seeing Makomo stop where she stood, Dawn looked back at her in surprise.
"What's wrong, Makomo? Why aren't you coming?"
"You two go ahead." A perfectly measured trace of apology appeared on Makomo's face. "My stomach hurts a little. I'll use the restroom first and be right over."
Hearing that, Cheryl and Dawn suspected nothing. Instead, they expressed their concern, asking whether she had caught a chill or eaten something bad.
Makomo waved a hand, watched the two leave, then closed the door.
After closing it, however, she did not leave. Instead, she pressed her ear against the door and listened to the footsteps outside. Only after confirming that Cheryl and Dawn had left the corridor for the dining room did she carefully open the door again.
She looked outside a few times, confirmed that no one was there, and waited another few seconds. Then she took a deep breath, left the room, and tiptoed over to the door of Xia You and Cheryl's room.
She gently turned the handle, and the door opened straightaway.
Makomo's heart rate instantly shot up to one hundred and eighty.
But a surge of secret delight also rose within her.
Those two were so unguarded they hadn't even thought to lock the door!
That was hardly surprising, really. In a place like a Pokémon Center, most Pokémon Trainers, if not all, were fairly well-mannered and would not barge into other people's rooms. Besides, there were surveillance cameras in the corridor. If something really went missing, checking the footage would not only get the culprit caught, but utterly ruin their reputation and get them blacklisted by the entire Pokémon League.
So no one dared take that risk.
But to Makomo, none of that mattered.
After all...
What she was going to "take" was not money