I mean maybe my hopes are too high and I'll be let down by a "would you be my best friend?" but like, this dialogue is something I 100% could see when speaking to the male character without one single thing changed but it's for the GIRL and that's SO COOL so I'm excited
Not to mention Chaz openly acknowledges Macherie's crush on Ali and like yeah they're pokemon but it's not treated like some gross joke, he's just "Macherie, your crush on Ali is a mile wide!" and then uses it as a POSITIVE thing to reinforce his argument with their relationship as a parallel to his and Lisia's! And this is a pokemon game! For children!
It's baby steps, but it's still progress! If there was that kind of representation in this game it would make me so, so happy. Soft recognition, because this is a kids game so there's a limit to how blatant romance can be, gay or not, but even a "do you want to go out to eat sometime, maybe?" would still be tremendous