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>Starting with when she blushed directly at him, in XY07, in a hint too obvious for even him to miss, based XY Ash had been keeping a sort of mental archive of anything suggesting she had feelings on him, since he couldn't be sure at the time
>As time went on, the archive grew more and more massive as she kept on showing signs; he did what he could to act oblivious in return aside from occasional deliberate hints to prevent her from giving up (until it's over)
>Since he didn't do any proper strategizing for gym battles outside of tailored training, he used that mental activity space left over to refresh his memory on hints he might risk forgetting about, while also devoting thought into figuring out precisely how he felt about her.
>All of this leads up to near the end of the series, when Ash throws a curveball (until this explanation comes after) by confessesing to Serena before she does to him
First Captcha: ayboy
Final Captcha, after a few failed sessions: food captcha involving pasta, where the two correct pictures were one of spaghetti and one of ramen