It was early, and the crew was at breakfast. Aelita was sitting between Ulrich and Jeremy; Yumi was across from Ulrich and next to Odd who was across from Aelita. "Stuffing your face as usual, Odd?" Sissy mocked as she walked past their table. "And how are you today Ulrich, dear?" "I'd be a lot better if you wouldn't bug me so much Sissy, dear" he mocked back. Ulrich was standing up and moved to discard his nearly empty tray when Odd asked him; "Hey! You gonna finish your bagel?" "Naw, here ya' go." He said handing Odd the untouched bagel. "Goodness Odd you shouldn't eat so much, it'll make you even more unattractive" said Sissy in her annoying voice. "Sissy if you say one more thing to him you're gonna be even more unattractive when I'm done with you" said Yumi. Aelita, Jeremy and Odd all looked surprised at her for that. As if she never said anything like that before. Sissy walked away with her nose in the air and Ulrich had just got back to the table when he saw Sissy storming away; "Who chased her away?" he said proudly. "T'was milady in shining armor that chased away the fire breathing lizard" said Odd playfully wrapping his arms around Yumi and laughing. Everyone else started laughing too. Yumi was secretly blushing feeling his arms wrapped around her, his head resting on her shoulder. She didn't know why she was feeling like that, Odd did that sort of thing all the time, but today she felt different about it.
"Milady may I hold your parcels? She shouldn't need to burden herself after such a victory, rescuing the lowly peasant from his fate, while her prince was elsewhere" said Odd in some cheesy medieval ascent. He was only doing that because they were studying Shakespeare in English class. "Odd quit fooling around" "Ah, milady thinks me a fool in my gratitude, while I am but a fool for her." "Say what?" "What?" "What did you just say?" "I said that you called me foolish" "No, after that." "I didn't say anything." Yumi sort of blushed to herself again; they were alone so she couldn't tell if he had said what she thought or if she was hearing things.
They got to the courtyard they usually hung out in; the others were already there, waiting for them. "Hey Yumi, what took you and Odd so long to get here? And why does Odd keep following you around?" Ulrich said secretly to her. Yumi blushed when he said it, was he really jealous? As if she and Odd would ever… "Well, I want to tell you something Yumi." He said interrupting her thoughts. "But I can't say it right now so could you meet me later on tonight?" "Um…okay." "Alright then, meet me at the factory at eight o'clock." "Okay." Yumi left to go home soon after he said that. "Farewell my fair maiden; shall see thee 'morrow." "Bye, Odd." Yumi walked to her house and ate dinner while her little brother made fun how much she loved Ulrich, but her mind wasn't on him, she was thinking of Odd again, the crazy little blonde boy that she always thought of as a brother. Her heart was already set on Ulrich, only him; not William, and certainly not Odd. Not that there was anything wrong with them, but she had her mind made up. "I love…Ulrich, that's all, just him. He likes me and I like him, and I'll tell him tonight."
It was about 7:45 when Yumi snuck out, she ran as fast as she could to get there early. When she got there she saw him and she stopped in front of him. "Hey, Yumi." "Hey, Ulrich, so what's up?" "Well I wanted to tell you that I…um, I …wanted you to know that I… I …like you. Yumi. I like you a lot." "I like you too Ulrich." "I know I'm a year younger than you but I still…wait, you said you like me too?" "Yeah." "Oh…so…um…you wanna be my…you know," Yumi interrupted him with an abrupt kiss. Ulrich was blushing madly and Yumi seem so calm about it. This kiss marked the beginning of something; maybe it was a relationship, or maybe it was something so bizarre that neither of them would ever foresee it.