By the time lunch rolled around, Odd felt one hundred percent like himself again. It took a lot of struggling through classes, a lot of soda shoved down his throat, and a lot of dealing with a worried Ulrich; but he finally felt better. The two boys were walking side by side to lunch together, Ulrich still hovering unusually close, but Odd couldn't find it in himself to mind. After all, he's sure if Ulrich was as sick as he was, he'd be hovering a lot more than the brunette.

The two made their way quickly through the lunch line, settling themselves at their usual table before anyone else made it there to join them. It was early, only 11:45, and they still had five or ten minutes before the others would join them. They spent the gap in time in a relative silence, Ulrich eyeing Odd nervously as he picked around his food. Though he felt one hundred percent better, he still didn't really feel a hundred percent better. His body was okay, but his mind was elsewhere.

"Odd, please eat." Ulrich whispered, running his hand comfortingly up Odd's arm. The younger sighed, putting his fork down. He had no idea why he was so stressed recently. Aelita even asked him to join a club with her last night, there was no reason to stress over his friends leaving him behind. "What's going on? Stop telling me nothing. I know you better than that." Ulrich said, attempting to leave no room for argument yet still trying to be gentle.

"I don't know why I'm so stressed. I guess it's just all the school work we have." Odd attempted to lie, and Ulrich scoffed at it.

"Uh huh, because you always get stressed over school work." Ulrich said with a roll of his eyes. Odd sighed this time, rubbing tiredly at his eyes.

"It's stupid. I don't want to go into this whole thing when I know it's stupid." Odd said, looking Ulrich dead in the eye as he spoke. It was hard to maintain eye contact when talking about something he didn't want to talk about, but he forced himself this time. Odd needed Ulrich to know how important what he said was. He needed Ulrich to know that if he was going to attempt to help, he couldn't avoid it by saying Odd was silly and over reacting to a simple problem.

"Just tell me what it is." Ulrich sounded exasperated, bordering on annoyed with how Odd wouldn't just simply tell him what was wrong. Odd understood to a degree. He'd never had this much trouble talking to Ulrich before.

"I don't know, I'm just upset that everyone except you doesn't seem to come around anymore." Odd shrugged, his gaze now honed in on his barely touched food. Ulrich didn't say anything for a second, probably trying to figure out what to say that would actually be remotely needed. To his surprise, Ulrich placed a comforting hand on his arm again, his other hand guiding Odd's gaze back up to Ulrich's own.

"Hey, stop being shy with me." Ulrich said, Odd allowing himself to continue staring at Ulrich rather than the ground. No matter how much more inviting the ground seemed at the time. "I know where you're coming from. It has been really weird ever since-" Ulrich gestured wildly with his hands, attempting to say something yet not really wanting to speak it.

"Since we defeated XANA." Odd supplied for him, Ulrich giving a slight nod in response.

"You're allowed to be upset. I know I'm upset I hardly get to talk to Jeremy or Aelita anymore. They're always doing their own stuff." Ulrich shrugged, taking an almost angry bite out of his food. Odd was shocked, his eyes blown wide to reflect that. Ulrich was always insecure about their friends leaving him behind, but it was never something he openly admitted to without a lot of coaxing on Odd's part. Even validating Odd's feelings wasn't something he usually did using his own experience.

"Yeah, I just don't want us all to leave each other behind like that." Odd said, allowing himself to take small bites out of his lunch. His stomach didn't protest, not even weakly, so he allowed himself to take full bites then. Ulrich seemed satisfied by the quick change, and went back to eating his own food as well.

"You know we'll always be friends though, right?" Ulrich asked suddenly, his gaze once again burning through the top of Odd's head. Too bad that's not what I want.

"Of course I do." Odd responded. On the outside, he sounded absolutely thrilled by that. On the inside, he was cursing the fact he really did know that's all they'd ever be. He was tired of this little game they were playing with each other. It was fine that Ulrich had commitment issues, he really didn't care. It was the back and forward, we're friends and then I don't want other guys checking you out that got annoying.

"Good." Ulrich smiled at him, waving excitedly as Yumi, William, and Aelita joined them at the table. "Hey." Ulrich offered as a greeting, the other three echoing similar sentiments.

"Feeling better, Odd?" Aelita asked, taking a seat next to the blonde. Odd nodded his head, smiling gratefully at the question.

"Much. I'm sorry we couldn't go sign up for that club together last night." Odd said. Aelita shrugged him off, taking a quick bite of her cold looking food.

"Don't worry, I signed us both up." She smiled.

"Oh, great!" Odd exclaimed. Thank God, he thought. The last thing he had wanted to do was disappoint Aelita when she'd seemed so excited to get it done the day before. It's a good thing Aelita has a well thinking brain, because he would've never thought to just sign up for both of them had she been the one to get sick.

"Yeah. I'm super excited." Aelita gushed, and for the first time in months, Aelita and Odd had a genuine conversation. They talked about everything from who they thought would join the club, who would run it, what exactly they'd be doing. Then they fell into how they've been doing, what exactly they did during the days, how classes were going. It had been so long since they'd talked like the close friends they were, or perhaps used to be, and it was refreshing.

"So, you met a guy, huh?" Aelita teased, and suddenly Odd really regret ever even insinuating the fact he found men slightly more attractive than women. It was a lot rarer for Odd to talk about guys than girls, and his group luckily couldn't tease him about any girls he did come across. Obviously he wouldn't be interested. Everytime he so much as brought up the topic of a guy he met though, everyone was all over him.

"Oh, come on. Not you too." Odd whined, rolling his eyes. Aelita chuckled, not at all bothered by the clear discomfort the conversation brought Odd. It was funny to her, and if Ulrich hadn't been seething from across the table, it might have even been funny to Odd. Seriously, a jealous Ulrich sucked.

"What? You never make new friends. It's hard not to joke around." Aelita responded, chuckling at Odd's flustered appearance. It was true. Odd loved making new friends, but with how much they had to go to Lyoko, it became more of a hassle. Especially when they'd return to the past and his new friend forgot he ever existed. It was easy to rekindle that relationship, especially knowing they'd already make good friends, but he began to feel dejected after having to repeat the same conversation over and over to make sure they stayed on the same level.

Eventually, people he'd once confided in faded out of his life. They were hurt, Odd knew. He always came to care deeply for those few friends he'd made, but it was too much to keep up with. Two return to the pasts in one week could leave him confused for a few days, and he either repeated conversations or brought up ones that never happened so often it was aggravating. Trying to navigate around multiple returns in one week was simply too much. He stopped responding to them one day, giving extra school work and extracurriculars as excuses. They knew he was lying, he knows. Hopefully they forgave him anyway.

"He's cool. Really nice style." Odd decided to respond. Maybe he could stop thinking about Taehyung as someone that would be just another complication. If he decided to talk to him more, there would be nothing stopping him. No XANA attacks that made him ditch in the middle of a movie or dinner, no return to the pasts that would require him to even simply introduce himself again, and no potential for him to be hurt by XANA's threats. The only problem, was Odd wasn't all that sure if Taehyung even wanted to pursue a friendship with him.

"You should ask him to hangout sometime." William spoke up suddenly, eyeing Ulrich over his shoulder. Odd wasn't the only one that noticed how uncomfortable the whole topic made the German student.

"I don't know. He probably has plenty of other friends." Odd shrugged it off, hooking his ankle over Ulrich's.

"If he's anything like his brother, he has absolutely none." William responded. Odd was a little flabbergasted by that. It felt almost rude to talk about two people they hardly knew so casually, and while they weren't around no less. What William just said wasn't something he'd want Taehyung or his brother to hear passing by, so it wasn't a conversation he wanted to carry on.

"I'm sure it's just the language barrier." Aelita offered, quickly noticing Odd's flinch at the statement. "He probably feels uncomfortable talking to someone in French when he doesn't really know it."

"Well it's easier to learn when you talk to people." William responded. Odd knew William wasn't trying to be mean. After all, it really was true the more you spoke or listened to someone speak, the faster you learn the language. It took Odd enough time to learn French when he'd learned he was going to attend Kadic, and a lot of the kids at the school were from other countries as well.

"He'll come around. It's really scary when there's no one else who speaks the same language as you to learn with." Yumi said. "Learning French was really hard for me." The group hummed in acknowledgement. Odd was nearly fluent in both English and French, and by far the hardest was English. He still had a horrible time forming a coherent sentence in English, which was frustrating considering the countless years he spent in English speaking countries while his dad was in the military.

"Try learning German. There's so many syllables and gigantic words I barely got through the first lesson." William said, sighing dramatically. Ulrich chuckled at this.

"Deutsch ist leicht für die klügsten Idioten." Aelita chuckled openly at Ulrich's response, the pink haired girl the only other person in their group with even a basic knowledge of German.

"Translation?" William asked.

"German is easy for the smartest idiots." Aelita responded, Ulrich lifting himself up to give her a high five. The two smiled at each other, happy that they still shared something between the two of them. They appreciated having a language they could tell secrets to each other in, effectively pissing off anyone else in the room at the same time.

"So what, are you called me a dumb idiot?" William asked, seeming only slightly offended. This was the way Ulrich and William operated around each other. Undercut comments that sound offensive but really aren't meant to be, and the bickering that follow said comments.

"Jeogi geudeul-iiss-eo!" A loud, slightly familiar voice shouted from across the cafeteria. The group looked over, seeing an extremely excited Taehyung and his slightly more embarrassed looking brother following behind him.

"Jinjeonghae." Taehyung's brother said, his voice lilting in a worn out drawl. Taehyung ignored him, running right up to where their group was sat.

"Hey, you signed up for the performing arts club." Taehyung said, out of breath yet eyes still alight with the same excitement his voice betrayed. Odd smiled, nodding his head.

"Yeah! Aelita signed she and I up yesterday." Odd said, gesturing back toward his friend. She waved politely at the two boys, both giving small bows in greeting.

"Ah, that's awesome. Right, hyung?" Taehyung asked, turning back toward his brother. The older smiled warmly at Taehyung, an unmistakable fondness coating the expression he fixed his brother with.

"So cool." He said.

"Sorry if this seems rude, but what's your name?" Odd asked, wanting to finally put a name to the face and forget this whole pinball kid thing he had stuck in his head.

"Yoongi. Nice to meet you." Yoongi responded, allowing Odd to shake his hand quickly.

"Yeah, yeah, so cool." Taehyung waved him off, dropping down to sit next to Odd. There was still plenty of space left at the table, and Aelita took the time to invite Yoongi to sit as well. "Anyway, what do you think? Hyung and I spent so much time thinking of a good idea for a club, and you see our dad's friend from the military works here so we went to him with the idea." Well if people thought Odd talked a mile a minute, Taehyung must be able to travel to other countries before Odd could even make it to the next city over.

It was great.

"You guys created the club? That's awesome!" Odd exclaimed, allowing himself a more ecstatic reaction. It had been so long since he truly felt like someone could match his normal level of enthusiasm. After all, he did live up to his name. It was very hard to top him when it came to pure level of excitement most days.

"Yeah! We spend ages thinking of it. We noticed there was a drama club but it was all Shakespeare and the actress wasn't very good." Odd laughed wholeheartedly at that, Taehyung looking at him both confused and amused by his reaction.

"Oh, dude, you have no idea. If you see Elizabeth Delmas on your paper, cross it out." Odd said, a thoughtful look crossing over Taehyung's face.

"I have a Sissi Delmas?" Taehyung said. Odd immediately started shaking his head, a chorus of nope escaping his lips.

"That, my friend, is your terrible actress." Both Yoongi and Taehyung looked at each other then, skeptical and surprised looks on their faces.

"What if we audition her just to see how bad it is? You can join us when she does." Taehyung offered, and Odd smiled widely at that. He still felt guarded, nervous about accepting, but wow. Maybe the idea of being friends with Taehyung wasn't as far off as he thought?

"I'm all for that." Odd said, accepting yet another high five from Taehyung.

"You can come too, Aelita." Taehyung said, all smiles and open arms. Aelita nodded her head happily.

"I'd love to see Sissi embarrass herself at your auditions." The four all giggled together. Odd noticed that Yoongi still seemed overly shy, the older having hardly said a word since he'd ran up behind Taehyung. That wouldn't do. For having such a hyperactive sibling, it was shocking how subdued Yoongi seemed. Was it really all because of their language barrier?

Yikes, what if he could barely understand a word of what they said?

"So, the group is for all kinds of production assets right? Behind the scenes and performing?" Odd asked, attempting to direct the question toward Yoongi but keeping it open in case Taehyung needed to answer. It was clear Yoongi knew the question was for him, but his mouth open and closed a few times before he tapped Taehyung on the back.

"Yeah, the behind the scenes stuff was Hyung's idea. He likes to make music and write lyrics, and I like to dance and sing. We decided to put those two together." Taehyung responded, placing a comforting hand on Yoongi's leg. God, the poor guy looked so embarrassed.

"That was an awesome idea." Odd said to Yoongi, the mint-haired teen giving Odd a shy smile back.

"Thank you." Yoongi responded, and Odd was happy that he caught the sentiment in his statement.

"Oh, time for class. I'll see you around?" Taehyung asked, looking genuinely sad to have to cut their conversation short. Odd's stomach flipped, his own heart dejected at the thought of not being able to continue talking.

"Yeah. Do you usually stick around for dinner?" Odd asked, thinking that there really was no point in beating around the bush. Taehyung didn't seem like the type to do so, so there was no reason for him to either.

"Oh, let's sit together during dinner! What do you think, hyung?" Taehyung said, turning back toward Yoongi. The older had that same fond smile on his face, his head shaking slightly back and forward at the younger's excitement.

"Okay, you nut." Yoongi said, Taehyung hopping up and pulling his backpack over his shoulders.

"Great! See you here at 5." Just as Taehyung started walking away, he paused abruptly, causing Yoongi to run right into him. Yoongi hardly bat an eyelid; he just moved out of the way as Taehyung practically ran back to the table. Taehyung must be like this at home, too.

"Silly me! Here, put your number in." Taehyung said, handing Odd his cellphone. Odd chuckled, putting in his number and handing Taehyung's phone back to him. The other typed out a quick message, a notification popping up on Odd's phone not a moment later. It was a short message, just saying, "it's taetae, your new best buddie! Xx." Odd laughed again, typing a message back and waiting to see Taehyung's response.

Not surprisingly, Taehyung smiled so wide his face could've been split in half.

I don't have a cute nickname, but hi new best buddie!

"Don't worry, I'll think of one for you. Now, we really have to go. Bye!" Taehyung said, this time actually running off in the direction of his next class. Yoongi chuckled lightly, giving their group a small wave before running after his brother. What a strong personality.

"Wow, he's something." William chuckled, Yumi and Aelita joining right along with him. Ulrich looked absolutely furious though, and for a moment Odd forgot how much Ulrich hated even the very idea of Taehyung hanging around Odd. For the first time, Odd got just as frustrated back. Why did Ulrich have to be so upset about him hanging out with anyone outside of their immediate friend group? It wasn't his fault no one else had any genuine interest in wanting to talk to him.

Was he just supposed to have one friend and that's it? That didn't seem very fair. Ulrich got to hang around with his old on again off again girlfriend and Odd never said a word. Why couldn't he hang out with a guy that ran the club he wanted to be in, was really funny, and seemed to truly enjoy talking to him?

"Time for class." Ulrich said, speeding off and dumping his food into the trash. Odd groaned, shaking his head. Maybe this is why Yumi never decided if she truly wanted to commit to Ulrich or not. He was clingy.

"He loves you." Aelita whispered in his ear.

"I love him. I can admit it." Odd responded, lifting himself up from the table as well. It seemed like their group was a battle ground so often. Aelita and Jeremy, Ulrich and Yumi, and now all the sudden he and Ulrich were awkward around each other. Great.

The only way to pacify Ulrich would be to end his friendship with Taehyung before it ever started, and part of him was reluctant to do that. Why should he have to?

The whole way through Math Odd could hardly stop thinking about that first text Taehyung had sent him. It kept his heart a little lighter, no matter how much Ulrich's silence threatened to crush it.