5. Redundant Tears

"It looks like they made up just fine." Ulrich said from the factory door, noticing Odd and Kiks at the end of the bridge.
"I'd say they must have done more than make up." Jeremie retorted.
"Who cares? They're not holding grudges against each other, so it doesn't matter." Yumi said. "If they have something going on that they want us to know about, then they'll tell us... until then we're just going to pretend that we don't notice."
"Is that what you do when its you?" Ulrich asked.
"Huh?"
"When you notice that someone likes you for instance. Do you pretend you don't notice?"
"I think that if a person likes me, its best not to question them until they're ready to tell me. So in a way, sure." She said as she walked past them and dropped down into the sewer.
"Amazing."
"Aelita doesn't know what pretending is, so I won't ever have to worry about that." Jeremie responded lightheartedly as they followed Yumi.

"Come on. We'll follow them." Odd told Kiks while tugging on her arm.

"Hey wait up!" He yelled to Ulrich and Jeremie just as they dropped down the manhole. When Kiks had gotten down, she ran over to Ulrich.
"Hi."
He looked at her. "Hi."
"What's wrong with you?"

"Why are you talking to me?"
"Why are you being mean to me?"
"Why do you think I'm being mean to you?"
"It's called tone Ulrich. Along with choice of words." She responded.
"Sorry. I really don't want you to think I'm being mean, but I'm not having a very good day."
"Because of a girl?" She asked.
"Why would you think that?"
"WELLLL... It's pretty obvious, even to me, that you like Yumi... and Yumi just walked away from you... which would leave me with the impression that she said or did something to upset you... or you did something to upset her..."
"You saw that?"
"Maaaayyyybbbeee."
"Is it really that obvious that I like Yumi?"
"Let me think..." She pretended to ponder the subject. "Yeah." She said quickly, nodding her head.
"Any suggestions?"
"Tell her?"
"Astounding! That's what everyone else said too." He countered sarcastically.
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe they're saying that because its true?"
"That might be... but I've already tried... it doesn't work."
"Then you could be like Odd." She said, gesturing at the blonde. "Beat around the bush and suggest it, without saying it."
"Is that what he did?"
"Yep."
I don't know whether to call him a genius or a moron.
"Listen Ulrich, Yumi likes you. You shouldn't be so worried about what she's going to say. Even if she were to reject you, which is VERY unlikely, she would still respect you more because you finally told her. Just think... if it's this obvious to us, how obvious it must be to her."
"If that's the case, why can't she act like she likes me back."
"She does. Haven't you noticed how she blushes every time you say something nice to her? Or how about in the elevator?"
"Okay. So maybe hearing this from a girl was a little helpful." He said, looking at the brown haired girl next to him.
"I'm glad to hear that. Now why don't you run up there and tell her?"
"I'll do it later. I have to compose myself first."
"Okay. Well, if you need any help... feel free to ask, I'm always here."
"Thanks."
"Now you just have to work on not being in a bad mood every time I try to talk to you."
"You can count on it."

"Odd..."
"Yeah Jeremie?"
"Do you think that me and Aelita would be like girlfriend and boyfriend if she were here?"
"Of course. I couldn't imagine it any other way."
"Well... She calls me her best friend. I'm not sure that she even knows I have actual feelings for her."
"If she doesn't now, she will when she's out of there. Has Kiks been able to help you any on that materialization program?"
"We haven't had any time." He said as they emerged into open air.
"What about when we were in Lyoko?"
"When you were in Lyoko... she was to busy having a panic attack and trying to talk me into letting her go."
"Oh. Sorry about that."
"Even if she wasn't, I was busy working on her program."
"Oh yeah! Aelita said you reprogrammed her completely! Thanks!"
"I didn't really do anything Odd. All I did was rewire her to our scanners."
"But—"
"I swear, I didn't mess with her programming."
"Then how come..." He thought for a minute. "Aelita said that her outfit had been black instead of white, and that her 'self destruct' program, was originally supposed to knock us out."
"I couldn't tell you. I just know that I didn't have anything to do with it."
"Should we tell Yumi and Ulrich?"
"Yumi and Ulrich yes...Kiks no. We should keep it quiet until we figure it out."
"Actually... Maybe just Yumi... I don't want to give Ulrich any other reasons to not like Kiks, if this turns about to be something psycho." Odd said quietly.
"Well we know that she's on our side now, so I don't think we have to worry. For all we know, she might have reprogrammed herself deliberately."
"Is that possible?"
"Sure. Its really hard to do... and not very likely. But she is very strong in Lyoko and if anyone could have pulled it off, it would have been her."

Ulrich ran as fast as he could through the woods. While he had been talking to Kiks, he had fallen behind Yumi to a point where he couldn't see her anymore.
Where is she?! He thought to himself. There's no way that she was this far ahead of me. I should have caught up with her by now.
 Dodging the low hanging tree branches, he scouted the area meticulously. When they had walked out of the sewer, Kiks pointed out that she couldn't see Yumi. Both of them had run ahead to try to find her, with no luck. They had split up so that Kiks could run back and tell Odd and Jeremie to help look, and Ulrich could search on his own until then.
Is she trying not to be found... or has something happened to her?
 Looking down he noticed large shuffle marks in the grass, where dirt had been kicked up.
"CRAP!" He said to himself, stopping and looking in all directions. "YUMI!" He yelled, listening for any sort of response.
I don't know why I thought that she would answer anyway. He thought. He continued to search anxiously on the ground for any other clues.
"What's this?"

"ODD! JEREMIE!" Kiks cried, coming to a stop just soon enough to avoid from running them over, but not soon enough to run into Odd arms.
"What is it!?"
"Yumi... me and Ulrich can't find her! We were walking then... she was gone... and ..."
"Calm down!" Odd pleaded, grabbing her hard enough to stop her from having a nervous breakdown. "Alright... Now... Yumi's missing and you all can't find her? Right?"
Kiks nodded.
"We'll help find her. Come on Odd. Kiks, you lead the way." Jeremie said beginning to run.
Kiks ran into the lead, going faster than Both Odd and Jeremie.
"And I thought that keeping up with you was bad!" Jeremie said in between breaths to Odd.
"If we ran at your normal pace we'd never find Yumi!"
"I'm warning you now that you might be carrying me Odd!" He wailed as they followed Ulrich's path. Finally they could see him, bending over something on the ground.
"You can stop running." Ulrich said in an inviting tone.
"What about Yumi?!"

"Ulrich... those are struggle marks, aren't they?" Jeremie said, pointing at the ground.
"That's what I thought to, until I saw dog prints."
"SHE WAS ATTACKED BY A DOG!?" Odd yelled incredulously.
"No. She was playing with a dog... Yours."
"Kiwi couldn't have gotten out... what are you talking about? How do you know?"
Ulrich pointed a little ways away at a dog tag, neatly laid on the ground with writing beside it.
"That's how."
"So she found Kiwi out here, took of one of his tags and left it there? Yeah right. SOMEONE'S GOTTEN KIWI!"

"Calm down Odd."
"Is Yumi one for practical jokes?" Kiks asked in confusion.
"No. Ulrich is though."
"Huh?"
"A few weeks ago Ulrich pretended to have disappeared to freak Yumi out. Apparently she decided to return the favor." Jeremie replied.
"THAT'S TERRIBLE!" Kiks shouted, punching Ulrich in the arm, just hard enough to cause pain.
"What was that for!?"
"I just ran half way across a forest... freaking out and having a nervous breakdown! And why!? BECAUSE YOU DECIDED TO PLAY A JOKE ON YUMI!" She stomped off angrily.
When she was far enough away that she couldn't hear anything, Odd and Jeremie began to roll on the ground in laughter.
"ULRICH GOT BEAT UP BY A GIRL!" Odd howled, tears of laughter coming out of his eyes.
"She didn't beat me up."
"She could have though!" Jeremie retorted. "Id say you finally met your match... in and out of Lyoko!"
That was not cool... and she didn't mean to beat me up... or prove anything... she was just mad. That's ALL.
 Ulrich followed suit, and stormed away in the same direction that Kiks had, leaving Odd and Jeremie to get over themselves.