Yui was unusually warm and comfortable. The bus stop bench on which she slept seemed much softer today, and next to her she could feel the warmth of Kouichi’s body. Yui rolled over to snuggle closer to her sister, a contented smile spreading across her face. For some reason, the usual icy winter winds and freezing temperatures weren’t bothering her as they normally did. She yawned and kicked out her feet; surprisingly, they remained covered by her jacket—usually, stretching them would have exposed her toes to the cold. She sniffed. Hmm. Even her jacket smelled nice. Clean. It almost felt like she was sleeping on a—

She opened her eyes and immediately noticed a few things. First, she was inside an unfamiliar room, not at the bus stop; second, the bench was actually a bed and the jacket was in fact a large comforter; and third, perhaps most disturbing, was the fact that the person whose face lay barely five centimeters from hers did not, in fact, belong to her sister.

“YAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” she screamed, jolting up and jumping back. Apparently in her sleep she had managed to tangle herself into the sheets, and in her sudden frenzied leap, she somehow managed to knot herself into them even more. The resulting combination cumulated in her flailing gracelessly out of bed in a heap of sheets and kicking legs and lots of yelps.

On the bed, Kyuhyun curled up his body a bit more and reached his hand to grab the blankets back. “Ugh—cold,” he muttered, barely conscious, while his fingers patted the bed for the comforter that was on the floor. Thankfully he hadn’t bothered opening his eyes yet.

Yui took stock of their surroundings. The clock on the dresser read 10:20 in the morning, and on the room’s other bed, two figures were now shifting, too. Finally managing to disentangle herself from the comforter, Yui half stumbled, half ran, over to the other bed and grab the smaller pair of hands that hung out from underneath the blanket. “Kouichi—,” she hissed, and then heaved. With another crash, Kouichi fell to the floor and landed on top of Yui in a painful heap.

“Wha—what was that about?” Kouichi asked groggily. And then, “Ugh, my head…! I think you hit my head.”

“It’s your body that fell on top of mine,” Yui said with deceptive calmness. “Not your head. For your cranial pains, you can blame your little drinking escapade from last night.”

“My what?”

On the other bed, Sungmin was stirring, too. He opened his eyes and looked at them dazedly, as if he weren’t sure if he was dreaming or not. Given the scene that lay before his eyes, perhaps a dream wasn’t too far-fetched of an idea. “What’s going on?” he mumbled.

“You’re just imagining things,” Yui said hopefully, as she tried to drag Kouichi to her feet. “Because this can’t actually be happening…”

He just groaned and buried his face into his pillow. “I am so drunk,” he muttered, though not as cutely as he did the night before.

“No, you’re sobering up,” Yui corrected him before she could stop herself. “I mean, nothing. Get up, Kouichi!”

“I feel nauseous,” Kouichi groaned. “And I really need to go to the bathroom.”

Meanwhile, Kyuhyun finally seemed to realize that he wasn’t going to find his blanket with his eyes closed. He opened them and stared at the twins standing at the foot of his bed. He blinked.

“What’s going on?” he asked, apparently not aware that he was the fourth person to wonder that, whether inwardly or out loud.

Yui groaned. Among the room’s occupants, she was the only one who legally shouldn’t be experiencing a hangover right now. Nonetheless, the confusing scene was starting to give her a headache, too. “Um—we can explain,” she said, her mind unhelpfully blank. “This isn’t what it seems like.”

As she spoke, she tried to remember exactly what had happened the light before. After some point in the middle of the night, Kouichi had woken up briefly to go use the bathroom—she had tripped over the hazardous basketball that was lying around on the floor, and the resulting swearing had woken Yui up—and then…?

Kouichi hadn’t returned. Yui had fallen back asleep, and then woken up feeling anxious because she sensed she was alone. She had gotten up to search for Kouichi, and after checking the bathroom, she had noticed that one of the bedroom doors was open. 

Kouichi had somehow climbed into one of the beds and lay sprawled underneath the blankets, only half-covered by the thick quilted comforter. In her sleepy state she probably didn’t register her actions, and was probably only doing what her body told her to do, Yui remembered herself vaguely rationalizing.

Then Yui had looked longingly at the other bed, whose space remained largely unoccupied by its inhabitant.

A bed. A real bed. Maybe just five minutes…

“I’m truly sorry,” she muttered, blushing as her memories returned. “I swear it wasn’t intentional.”

No one was even listening. During the time she had spaced out, trying to recollect the exact circumstances that led to their present awkward situation, the other hung-over occupants had already returned to their various states of sober misery.

Sungmin had his side and had placed his head under his pillow, trying to go back to sleep. Kouichi had for whatever reason climbed back next to him and was now rolling around, making pained noises while clutching her temples. Every once in a while, she would accidentally kick him, for which he would retaliate randomly. Kyuhyun merely lay face-down into his pillow and issued noises from his mouth every few seconds, as if to indicate to Yui that he was still, in fact, breathing.

“Water,” one of them eventually muttered.

“Aspirin,” requested the second.

“A massage,” mumbled the third.

“You three really are hopeless, aren’t you?” Yui chided them, sounding for the entire world like a mother scolding her three children. But she barely held back a smile as she did as they all asked.

There was a knock from the front door. Yui started; she wasn’t sure she was supposed to answer it or not, but none of the dorm’s actual occupants made any movement to go get the door, either. A quick unanswered rap on Yesung and Eunhyuk’s rooms indicated that they were also either out or sleeping. The knocking persisted.

Yui looked uncertainly at the members, and then sighed and headed over to answer the door.

Several middle-added ahjummas stood outside, all carrying cleaning supplies. Yui imagined that her surprised facial expression could only mirror theirs. There was an awkward silence.

“Uh, are you sure you came to the right place?” Yui asked stupidly, while they stared at her and clearly wondered the same question.

“Who are you?” one of them asked. “Females are not allowed in the Super Junior dorms.”

“Uh,” Yui stalled, as she stepped aside to let them in. They smartly marched in and started organizing things right away. To Yui’s dismay, one or two headed straight for the bedrooms. Not knowing what else to do, Yui followed her helplessly. The woman glanced back, appraising Yui up and down. “Do the managers know you’re here?” she asked suspiciously.

“Uh—well—”

The woman was now staring at Kyuhyun and Sungmin’s room. Or more particularly, at its occupants. Apparently having not realized that they were being stared at, both Kouichi and Sungmin had started some blind kicking war with each other, Kouichi with her eyes closed and Sungmin with his face buried into the pillow he was hugging. The woman watched the childish demonstration and tsktsk’ed in disapproval. “Sungmin-sshi,” she called out reproachfully. “Who is that next to you and what are you two doing?”

As if energized by her voice, Sungmin suddenly aimed a particularly strong kick at Kouichi’s side that sent her yelping as she crashed onto the floor. Then both looked up.

Behind the woman, Yui face-palmed.

“Oh, hello, noona,” Sungmin said brightly, giving absolutely no sign that he was hung-over barely a few minutes ago.

The woman’s face lightened a bit; she was apparently pleased with the title. “Well?” she demanded, slightly less harshly this time.

“Um, this person?” Sungmin looked questioningly at Kouichi. “Uh—”

“Cousin,” Kouichi answered promptly.

“And her?” indicating Yui, who cringed.

“Cousin,” Kouichi said again.

“Whose?” the woman said suspiciously.

“His,” Kouichi said cheerfully, pointing at Sungmin. Luckily, he had enough of his wits to not gape too openly. “We’re just visiting for the moment.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “So what was that scene just now?”

Kouichi shrugged. “Uh… guys’ way of sporting?”

Another woman walked in and tsked at the scene. “Don’t you have schedules today?” she asked, looking at the time.

Sungmin’s cocked his head to the side, thinking about it. “I think I might have a Japanese les—”

“No, you don’t,” Yui quickly insisted.

“Why are the ahjummas here?” Kyuhyun asked in a muddled voice, having finally rolled over from his initial position. “Is today cleaning day?” Staring at them from his bed, he was still lying down on his back in a very languid manner.

“You and Ryeowook-goon were drinking last night, weren’t you, Kyuhyun-goon?” one of the women asked sternly. “As well as you, Sungmin-goon. That’s why all of you are like this right now.” Her eyes also briefly glanced over at Kouichi. The two guilty members sat up and bowed sheepishly, acknowledging the truth, while Kouichi completely missed the rebuke.

“Ryeowook’s here, too?” she asked eagerly, perking up. The woman only frowned at her impertinence.

“—sshi,” Yui muttered. “Kouichi, you forgot the ‘sshi.’”

“Whatever. We’re all cousins, anyway,” Kouichi said airily, giving another carefree shrug.

“We are?” Kyuhyun asked. He rubbed his temples. “Just how long have I been out?”

After an hour or so, the cleaning ladies finally finished tidying up and left, carrying with them their judgmental opinions of Super Junior’s “cousins,” as well as any future plans Yui had of applying for their job.

Some of the members were now sitting in the now-tidied up living room, having finally gotten over their respective hangovers. While all of their non-drinking band-mates had left earlier to pursue other activities on their day off, the ones who had slept in now all sat grouped together in the 11^th floor living room. Having had no chance to escape sooner, the twins found themselves still stuck in their midst.

Yui squirmed uncomfortably, being acutely aware that it was her first time sleeping next to someone other than her sister. Though with any luck, perhaps they had been too hung-over to think about it—

“So,” Sungmin said expectantly, “Can someone please explain what happened last night?”

So much for that hope.

“Which part?” Yui asked. “The part where you got drunk, or the part that came afterwards?” Because it was kind of obvious how the two were linked.

Ryeowook merely looked embarrassed.

“Oh gosh,” Kyuhyun groaned, having finally processed the morning’s events. “Please, please tell me nothing happened.”

“Um, I’m pretty sure nothing happened,” Yui said, turning beet-red.

“Why were you in my bed?” Sungmin asked bluntly, turning towards Kouichi. His cheeks were pink.

Kouichi looked like she didn’t know how to answer. “I guess I couldn’t help it,” she mumbled, looking away. “Your bed looked too inviting.”

“Come again?” Sungmin asked incredulously, as he turned a darker shade of red; next to him, Ryeowook produced a surprised noise from his throat. “Did you just say—are you implying—”

“Yah!” she yelled, her face the reddest among them all. “I’m supposed to be a boy!” There was a pause. “Um, that didn’t come out right.”

“I think it was because it had been a while,” Yui said slowly, thinking aloud, as Kouichi whacked Sungmin on the knee in embarrassment.

“A while since what?” Kyuhyun now asked suspiciously. Both ignored Kouichi’s yelp as Sungmin kicked her ankle in retaliation.

“A while since we last slept in beds,” Yui admitted, unwittingly pushed into telling the truth. Mortified, she dropped her gaze and stared at the floor. There was another short pause, broken as Ryeowook bopped the noisy background duo on the heads—“Cut it out!”

“What do you mean by that?” Yui looked up at the soft tone. Kyuhyun was staring at them with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Do you really have no place to sleep?” he asked quietly. Kouichi’s head quickly snapped over.

Yui glanced over at her twin, who now stared back in confusion. It was rare for them to be caught completely speechless, but ever since they had befriended Super Junior, these sorts of moments seemed to have been occurring more frequently. She opened .

“What do you think?” Kouichi said, slightly defiantly.

“How would I know?” he asked, taken back by her attitude. “Can you explain why you were in our beds any other way?”

“We were just drunk,” Kouichi said brusquely. “We didn’t know what we were doing.”

“I don’t remember Yui-sshi drinking,” Ryeowook said, raising his eyebrows.

For a drunk who spent half the night crying and professing his love to a roomful of guys and girls alike, he had a pretty good memory. Three pairs of eyes turned expectantly towards Yui.

“I-I didn’t—it won’t happen again,” she said, changing her mind on how to answer halfway through her response. She turned to Kyuhyun. “I’m sorry for scaring you this morning,” she mumbled, not quite meeting his eyes.

He also appeared to be embarrassed and looked away.

“Well, no harm done, I suppose,” Ryeowook eventually said, glancing at everybody from one person to the next. “Provided nothing really happened.”

“Definitely not!” the other four yelped, suddenly united in defense of their integrity. Then they looked at each other and collectively gave an awkward laugh. The tension was finally starting to lift.

Suddenly, there was another knock on the door, and all of them froze again.

 “If anyone asks,” Kouichi said almost pleadingly, “we are your cousins, okay?”

“Saves our skins, too,” Sungmin mumbled. “Okay.” Kyuhyun went to answer to door.

“It’s Siwon-hyung,” he announced, smiling with visible relief as he came back.

“Good morning again,” Siwon greeted all of them. “How are you feeling now?”

“Sober,” Kyuhyun grinned. “Hyung, it’s good to see you again.”

“What, you don’t remember seeing me yesterday?” Siwon asked, ruffling his hair. “Kyuhyunnie, you drink too much, you know?”

“Eternal magnae over there drank just as much as I did,” Kyuhyun laughed, slyly shifting the main object of blame to Ryeowook. “He got just as drunk as me.”

“You guys were both senseless. Just drink in moderation, okay?” Siwon said seriously, looking at all of them. “It’s good for your health.” Next to him, Yui nodded vigorously.

The younger two sheepishly nodded, accepting the older hyung’s criticism. Sungmin also indicated he was listening to his dongsaeng’s advice. “I came here to check up on you guys now, since I figured you’d finally be awake.” Now he glanced over at the twins. “How about you two? Did you have a good night?”

Yui blushed at his unintended meaning, while Kouichi shrugged. “Yeah, it was okay.” The other three males stared.

“Hyung,” Ryeowook gasped to Sungmin, “You didn’t—!”

“Of course not,” Sungmin spluttered. “Ryeowook, you know me better than that!”

“Didn’t we just go over this?” Kyuhyun muttered.

“Wait,” said Kouichi, starting to get it, “no, that’s not what I meant—”

“What on earth are you all talking about?” asked Siwon, completely confused.

“NOTHING!” all four shouted, and he jumped, taken back by their intensity.

“O-okay…”

Out of the corner of her eye, Yui saw more than one glance longingly at the bathroom. Recognizing the body language, she got up and turned to her sister. “Kouichi, we should get going now.”

Kouichi made a noise of agreement. “Until next lesson, then,” she said. “No awkward feelings, okay?” This was met with some laughter. Then the boys stood up and stretched, and acknowledging that their drinking party escapade was finally over, the twins picked themselves up and left with a good-bye.