The end of November had passed and now December began. The first four days of the new month brought the season’s earliest hints of snow, along with the successful return of the members of Super Junior. Yui was relieved to see them all safe and unharmed, and judging from Kouichi’s reaction, she knew her sister was, too.

“Did you dye your hair again?” she had disdainfully asked Leeteuk as the latter was taking off his boots. “Your previous color looked better on you. But if that’s the only change, then it’s tolerable, I guess.”

“It’s nice to see you, too,” Leeteuk said sarcastically, but he smiled.

Heechul was also in that evening, and as all the members ecstatically greeted their band-mate like a long-lost brother, he smirked at the twins from beneath their hugs and excited salutations. “Why, if it isn’t our sasaeng fan and clueless teacher.”

“Yo, buzz-cut-hyung,” Kouichi shot back, while next to her Yui briefly tried to figure out who was who.

“So who has lessons today?” she asked. They had all returned to the 12^th floor only hours ago, and according to some hurriedly typed and unnamed schedules, it appeared that several members were supposed to be learning Japanese right now. Needless to say, the twins had arrived at the dorms barely after the members did themselves, so eager were they to make sure everybody was alright.

It was interesting to see how attached they had become to people they didn’t even know one month ago.

“Can we just party instead?” Shindong asked. He was already pulling out some beers and soju from the fridge. “Let’s celebrate our successful Malaysia concert! And the Taiwan concert, while we’re at it.”

“Drinks sound good,” Sungmin said eagerly, already reaching over to grab a few bottles from Shindong.

“And don’t forget about our MAMA win!” Ryeowook cheered from the couches, where he had been watching a movie with Yesung. As Sungmin passed him, he immediately grabbed a few cans.

“Are we legal yet?” Yui asked Kouichi, who snorted in disbelief.

“The drinking age is twenty, so according to Korean age reckoning, we are. Wow Yui, of all the rules to worry about, you’re concerned about one of the few we haven’t already broken.”

Overhearing the last part, Kyuhyun turned to them with an interested expression. “Could you two secretly be juvenile delinquents?”

“Just drink your beer,” Kouichi responded brusquely, shoving him onto another couch.

“Hey! That’s no way to treat your hyung,” he complained.

Sungmin, who had been about to pass a drink to him, stopped in mid-movement. “Kyuhyun-ah,” he said curiously, “what did you just say?”

“I’m not the magnae here right now,” Kyuhyun was quick to defend himself. “I have seniority, too!”

“No, go back to the part where you called yourself Kouichi-sshi’s hyung.” Sungmin was barely hiding his smirk. Heechul had also looked up and was now openly pointing and laughing.

“Is there something wrong with that?” Kyuhyun protested, now genuinely confused.

“Yeah, I mean, imagine if I had to call you oppa,” Kouichi said sweetly, raising her voice several pitches with the suffix. “I’d die, wouldn’t you?”

He stared, shocked. “Wait—don’t tell me—”

Kouichi whacked him on the head. “I’m a girl, you dolt!”

Yui patted him reassuringly on the head. “Don’t worry. You weren’t the only one.”

“How can that be—?” He was clearly floored. “After all this time—?” By now, the whole room’s attention had turned to them. Apparently he had been the last to find out.

“Well,” Leeteuk said practically, “who didn’t think she was a guy at first?” This question was awkwardly answered with embarrassed laughter from all the members excluding Heechul, who proudly raised his hand.

“We’ll celebrate Kyuhyunnie’s epiphany along with everything else, then,” Shindong decided. He raised his bottle. “Cheers, everybody!”

“Wait,” Siwon interrupted. He pointed to the twins. “How come no one gave any drinks to them?”

Count on responsible Siwon to notice the discourtesy. “Uh, I’m fine,” Yui politely declined, while next to her Kouichi jumped up and grabbed the nearest free bottle.

“Bring it on!”

As most of the room’s occupants clanged bottles and started popping off the lids with fizzes, Yui got up to join the nondrinking party at the other side of the room.

Eunhyuk, Donghae, and Yesung were back to sitting in front of the TV again, watching a movie recommended by the latter. Eunhyuk shifted over to make room for her on the couch, but then Yesung got up and offered her his seat instead. “I want to film them after they get drunk. It’s good blackmail material,” he explained with a mischievous smile.

Yui turned over to glance at Kouichi, who had already engaged in some light-hearted competition with Ryeowook. She made a mental note to keep a watch on her sister. Who knew what Kouichi’s tolerance levels were?

The sober onlookers didn’t have to wait long for their entertainment to start. Within the hour, various members were showing signs of being tipsy. Siwon, whom Yui had already earlier pegged as being more of the conscientious and controlled type, stopped after merely one or two drinks, and now sat contentedly with his eyes closed, a happy smile on his face.

Leeteuk also stopped soon after one bottle, and excused himself after bidding the others a good-night. As he passed Yesung, Yui saw him give a slight nod. “Keep an eye out on them, would you?” he asked conversationally. “Don’t let them do anything too stupid.”

Yesung grinned and pointed to his camera. “I’ll let you see the results tomorrow.”

The remaining members had more interesting reactions, Yui noted, as she watched Shindong head into the kitchen and then open the refrigerator. “Why is there no chicken?” she heard him ask in consternation.

“We’ve been away, remember?” Eunhyuk reminded him from the couch. “We have no meat in the dorms.”

“Chicken tastes good with beer,” Shindong insisted, not seeming to comprehend Eunhyuk’s words as he continued to rummage through the fridge. “Where’s the chicken?”

Ryeowook came up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hyung, I love you!”

“Chicken,” Shindong muttered in response, finally closing the refrigerator door. “I want chicken.”

“Hyung,” Sungmin now came up to Kouichi, who was staring at the exchange with another intense look on her face. “Hyunggg, I’m so druuuuunk…”

“Huh?” Yui watched her sister say stupidly, taking her eyes off Ryeowook.

“What should I dooooooo… I think I drank too muchhhh….”

“Shut up,” Kouichi mumbled, almost incoherently as she pushed him aside. “You’re blocking my view of Ryeowook-san.”

“Ahhh hyung, stop ignoring me. Hyung, why do you look so different? Heechulie-hyungggg,” Sungmin whined, tugging on Kouichi’s sleeve.

“Ah, you’re so annoying!” Kouichi complained, slapping him across the cheek before turning back to face her love interest. “Don’t compare me to that curly red-haired—”

“Ahhhhh, it huuuuurts... ahhhh….”

Yui raised her eyebrows at the other three only sober members in the room. “He aegyos when drunk?”

“He’s quite good at it, too, isn’t he?” Donghae quipped, as next to him Eunhyuk tried to stifle his laughter. Yesung already had his camera out and was steadily filming.

Heechul suddenly appeared in front of the camera. “Yesung-ah, can you pass on a message for me? Tell Hankyung, ah, tell him,”—he was laughing, but somehow something about his smile seemed off—“tell him that we miss him. We still consider him to be part of—”

“Heechul-sshi?” Yui asked timidly. Shindong suddenly showed up out of nowhere and dragged him away.

Still laughing, he gave her a half-wave in good-bye even as his form disappeared down the hallway. “Bye-bye, Yui-sshi. Don’t run away to China, now.”

China? Yui opened . “Wait—!”

Ryeowook now approached them. “Hyung, I love you,” he said, his voice cracking. Then he started crying into a bemused Donghae’s shoulders while Eunhyuk patted him on the back.

“It’s okay; this happens all the time, too,” he explained for Yui’s benefit.

Kyuhyun was the only one who appeared lucid, as he sat on the floor calmly watching the chaos around him. Yui counted the number of empty beer bottles next to him. Two, three, four… Holy krad, she thought. How is he not drunk?

She walked over to him, and he switched his attention from Sungmin and Kouichi to her.

“My roommate is so cute, isn’t he?” he commented.

“Sungmin-sshi’s your roommate?” He nodded.

Yui laughed. “Well, your roommate is arguing with mine.”

He looked mildly alarmed. “Why are you rooming with a boy? Are you secretly a boy, too?”

Maybe he wasn’t completely lucid, after all.

“Kouichi-sshi’s my twin sister,” she reminded him.

He scrunched up his eyes, staring more closely at her. “You two don’t look anything alike,” he protested. “How’s that possible?”

“We’re fraternal twins,” Yui explained, embarrassed at the way he was fixating his eyes on hers. “We look as alike as any pair of siblings.”

He reached up and with a slightly swaying finger, pointed at her head. “Then why is your hair so long? And brown?” Kouichi’s was short, cropped, and black.

“I got highlights last year,” Yui snorted. “You’re the one with hair the color of milk tea.”

He merely smiled vaguely, slowly putting his hand back down. “I like bubble tea.” While Yui was still trying to work out the connection between their statements, he continued, “Taiwan’s bubble tea is so good. I really miss it.”

“Oh? I used to live in Taiwan,” Yui smiled. “But I never got a chance to try their infamous tea. Sad, huh?”

“Ryeowook is sad,” he said, sounding doleful himself. “Why is he so sad?” At his remark, both turned just in time to see Ryeowook now approach Kouichi and Sungmin.

“Kouichi-san,” he was saying tearfully, as he grabbed her hands. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“For what?” she was asking, squeezing his hands. “We’re the ones who should be apologizing to you. Did you know we stol—”

“I love you,” Ryeowook declared passionately. “Hyung, I love you.”

“You’re my hyung,” Kouichi corrected him. “And I love you, too.”

Ryeowook had already moved onto the next person. “Sungmin-hyung, I love you,” he said, wiping his tears.

“Hey,” Kouichi said, giving him a groggy punch. “You just told me you loved me!”

“Hyung, I’m so sorry,” Ryeowook said. It wasn’t clear in context to whom he was talking to, but Sungmin seemed to assume that he was the recipient.

“It’s okay, Ryeowook-ah,” he said, reaching over and patting his dongsaeng. “Just looking into my eyes makes people fall in love with me.” He flashed a winning smile, though the effect was somewhat dampened by the way he was blankly staring at Ryeowook. “It’s because I’m really cute. And I’m so drunk, I don’t know what to do. What should I do?”

“Hyung, I love you,” Ryeowook repeated, still sounding like a broken record. Next to Yui, Donghae was rolling on the floor, already in stitches of laughter, while Eunhyuk had walked over to pull Ryeowook away from Sungmin. “Ryeowook-ah, Sungmin-hyung, I think you two drank enough for the night.”

Yesung continued filming.

Kyuhyun was tugging at her sleeve again. “Sensei,” he asked almost seriously, “How old are you? Should I still call you sensei when you’re younger than me?”

“Didn’t we go over this on day one, Kyuhyun-sshi?”

He frowned vaguely. “Don’t call me that. Call me oppa. I want to hear you call me oppa,” he pouted.

Yui groaned, feeling herself being affected against her will by his unintentional aegyo. “Don’t look at me like that,” she scolded him. “You’re kind of cute when you do that.”

He sighed and closed eyes, leaning against her shoulder. “Am I really cute?” he asked.

Yui stared at him. “I can’t tell if you’re sober or not.”

“Four bottles,” Eunhyuk whistled as he came around to pick up the mess. “He’s definitely not sober.”

“Ryeowookkie also had four,” Donghae noted. “Aigoo, they really went all out today.” He looked apologetically at Yui. “Sorry you had to witness this.”

“No, this is highly amusing to watch,” Yui admitted, surprising herself with her words. She shifted and tried not to think about the weight on her shoulders. “You get to see a very different side of people when they’re drunk.”

There was a movement from one of the other couches, and Yui looked up to see Siwon walking towards them. He smiled and gave his characteristic three- greeting. “Good morning,” he smiled. “Beautiful world, isn’t it?”

“Are you drunk, too?” Yui asked, but he merely shook his head and pointed to the room clock: 2:57. It was morning.

“Where’s Shindong?” Yesung asked, having finally put down his camera. He’s probably compiled enough material to blackmail them for the rest of the decade.

“He already went back to the rooms to sleep,” Donghae answered as he got up, “and is probably borrowing some member’s bed for the night again. He left with Heechul-hyung right before Ryeowook confessed his love to us.”

“Ryeowook confessed to everybody.”

The said confessor was now dozing in Eunhyuk’s arms. Tactfully choosing not to comment on Kouichi, who had crouched down to Ryeowook’s level and was absently tugging on his sleeve, Siwon reached over and grabbed him from the side, as with Eunhyuk’s help, they carried the eternal magnae off to bed, too.

Yesung tucked his camera away into his bag. “I’ll take care of Kouichi-sensei,” he offered, offering his hand to the girl. She accepted it with a lost expression on her face.

“Where’d he go?” Yui heard her ask weakly, in her confusion momentarily lapsing back into Russian. Then Yui stared as Yesung reached up and touched her philtrum.

Siwon and Eunhyuk came back in time to witness her facial expression. “It’s just a weird habit of his,” Eunhyuk laughed, while Siwon moved to take Kouichi into his arms.

“I’ll carry her.” Having apparently now fallen asleep, she was like a limp doll in his grip. As he carried her, Siwon momentarily shifted her weight to better balance himself. Something near her collar seemed to catch his gaze, and his eyebrows shot up.

Meanwhile, Eunhyuk pulled Sungmin up. The latter had been sitting blankly on the floor, aegyoing at the coffee table.

Donghae was taking stock of the absent members. “Leeteuk-hyung, Heechul-hyung, Shindong-hyung, and our Ryeowookkie are now all in bed. That takes care of the 12^th floor, right?” He glanced at the living room’s remaining occupants. “I think I’ll crash here for the night, too. It’s too late to try to catch a train to Mokpo at this hour.”

“MaSi-ah, you might as well stay with us on the 11^th floor dorm, then,” Yesung suggested. “Don’t go back to your parents’ house now.” Siwon nodded in understanding.

“Wait,” Eunhyuk interrupted. He glanced over at the twins. “What about the senseis?”

Yui, who had been trying to support Kyuhyun, suddenly looked up in alarm. “Um—”

“Let’s first just put all of these people to bed first,” Siwon suggested. Still carrying Kouichi, he started walking towards the door.

Eunhyuk supported Sungmin, while Yesung walked over to help Yui with Kyuhyun.

“This troublesome pair of roommates,” he muttered, but with affection. “Let’s go, you drunkards. Stand up straight and look smart.”

“I am smart,” Kyuhyun mumbled weakly, as on Yui’s other side Sungmin muttered something equally incoherent.

In front of Yui, Eunhyuk rolled his eyes. “And this is why I don’t drink.”

“Everybody ready?” Siwon asked. After a few sober affirmatives and a volunteer to turn off the living room lights, the awkward procession made their way out the 12^th floor entrance and closed the door behind them, automatically locking it with a click. With some difficulty, they chose to squeeze themselves into the elevator and waited for its doors to close, having wisely decided not to trust half of their party with the stairs.

 “Mmph,” Sungmin groaned as Eunhyuk unlocked the door. “Mmphughah.” He then slumped a bit more, and Yui had to briefly let go of Kyuhyun’s hand to stop him from falling over sideways.

“Thanks,” Eunhyuk whispered as he righted his fellow band-mate. He was probably going to say more, but then Yui had to quickly re-grab the swaying Kyuhyun’s hand while Yesung hurriedly tried to right him again.

“Do they always do this?” Yui asked Siwon, half-exasperated. “I mean, shouldn’t they know their limits?”

He shrugged, or moved his shoulders as much as he could, given the weight in his arms. Next to him, Sungmin hiccupped. “As long as they can wake up in the morning and make their schedules, no one can really stop them. We have so little time to relax and enjoy ourselves as it is.”

It’s true, Yui realized, as she looked at Kouichi’s sleeping figure in his arms. Not only for the members, but also for her sister, as well. She had gotten so accustomed to seeing the stress and exhaustion many nights’ lack of proper sleep on Kouichi’s face that she had almost forgotten what her sister’s relaxed facial expression looked like. That fierce competitive spirit with which Kouichi pursued her drinking contest with Ryeowook was the first time she had invested her energy into anything that didn’t involve one or multiple peoples’ lives on the line, and Yui could tell it had been a very welcome de-stressing change for her.

As she looked at Kouichi’s peaceful, albeit very drunk, face, Yui found herself slowly understanding why Kouichi had so eagerly grabbed that first drink.

  “I guess you’re right,” she said softly, unconsciously giving the hand she held a tight squeeze. She chalked up the sudden return gesture to her imagination.

Following Eunhyuk and Yesung, they entered the apartment and attempted to navigate their way to the rooms in the dark. Someone tripped, and Yui found herself losing balance. “Urk,” she groaned as she hit one member and felt another step on her foot.

After another near incident in which she herself stepped on something big and round and nearly lost complete balance all over again, she made a mental note to apply to work as the members’ cleaning lady, as well. There was no way the twins were investing all their efforts into protecting them only to have someone unfortunately get hurt because he trips over a basketball while trying to find his way back to bed at 3 in the morning.

They made their way over to one of the couches, where under Yui’s instruction, Siwon gently laid Kouichi. She could pick her up later after they dropped off the other members into bed.

Again, she tripped on another ambiguous item on the floor.

Now holding onto the back of Eunhyuk’s shirt as a safety measure, with Kyuhyun still in tow and Yesung on his other side, she allowed herself to be guided towards one of the bedrooms. Surprisingly, her handicapped companion was tripping a lot less than she was, though she attributed this to his body’s familiarity with the surroundings.

Finally, they reached the beds. Supposing that the one that Sungmin wasn’t being led to was Kyuhyun’s, she gently directed him to his own bed then groaned as he collapsed on top of the covers. Yesung took another opportunity to poke his philtrum.

Yui glanced over to see how Eunhyuk was dealing with his situation. She watched as he grabbed Sungmin’s blankets and with a smooth, quick motion, expertly pulled them out from underneath him. He then proceeded to cover the other member with them.

Turning back to Kyuhyun, she attempted to do the same, but only succeeded in rolling him off the bed. He made a small noise in unconscious protest while she instinctively squeaked, “I’m sorry!”

“Need help?” Yesung whispered, stifling a laugh. Silently he picked him up and she grabbed the blankets; with team effort, together they succeeded in putting the last drunk member to bed.

“Now what?” she wondered out loud, as she followed Yesung and Eunhyuk back into the living room. She wasn’t sure if she was talking to herself or to the members, but Eunhyuk answered anyway.

“Saying this out of concern for your safety,” he began awkwardly, “I think it might be better if you stay here tonight.”

Next to him, Yesung was nodding. “It’d be dangerous for you to go back home by yourselves, especially with Kouichi-sensei drunk like that.”

“You can drop the title,” Yui said, deciding things in the spur of the moment. “Banmal is fine.” She was also speaking for her sister.

Smiling in agreement, Yesung reached over and touched her philtrum. Eunhyuk had trouble holding his guffaws in as Yui tried to rearrange her shocked facial expression. “I’d thought you’d be used to it by now, Yui-sshi.”

“Yui-yah,” she interrupted him, the same time he corrected himself—“Yui-san.”

“Just ‘Yui’ is fine,” she finally concluded, stifling a yawn.

“We really don’t have much of a student-teacher relationship, don’t we?” she faintly heard Eunhyuk ask.

Siwon suddenly returned, carrying with him blankets and pillows. Yui stared at him as he promptly covered her sister’s sleeping form on the couch, inserting the pillow underneath her head in the process.

“Siwon-sshi—that’s okay, we’re—”

“Staying,” Siwon decided firmly. “You cannot go home now, correct?” The way he was staring at her made her uncomfortable; it was too perceptive. “You can take the other couch over there.”

“But then what about you?” Yui asked weakly. After all, he didn’t live here, either.

He shrugged nonchalantly. “I can just stay in one of their rooms.” Eunhyuk and Yesung nodded.

“You can your sister can stay on the couches in the living room. No one will disturb you here. Then you can leave in the morning if you want.”

“T-that’s fine,” Yui declined hastily. “I think we’re still better off going home.”

“Too dangerous,” Siwon said firmly, and Eunhyuk nodded. “It’ll be better if one of us accompany you then. Or at least call a taxi.”

Yui sighed, realizing she was trapped. Not only were they unable to afford a taxi, they had no destination to go to, anyway.

“Plus, was this Kouichi’s first time drinking?”

Yui’s eyes widened. “How could you tell?”

Yesung shrugged. “When you see enough… but that makes it all the more important that you two spend the night here. Do you know how to take care of a drunken person once he sobers up in the morning?”

Yui helplessly shrugged. She hadn’t spent enough time in Russia to observe people in their post-Vodka states, and hadn’t had the time nor opportunity to enjoy the alcoholic drink herself. Eunhyuk seemed to use her silence to strengthen his argument. “See? Stay,” he insisted. “For your sister’s sake, if nothing else.”

“Okay,” Yui sighed, giving in. She could see no way out. “Good night, then.” The members bid her good-night and started heading back into their respective bedrooms.

“Just knock if you need anything,” one of them called.

“Thank you,” she whispered back, feeling her heart well up in gratitude. Their kindness finally struck her, and for the first time she fully began to appreciate their student-teacher-relationship-turned-friendship.

Or perhaps the members had always treated her as a friend from the start, she mused, as she settled into the other couch with a pillow and blanket. Without completely comprehending her sudden emotions, she quickly wiped her eyes before they got too wet.

“Thank you…”