After taking a long-due shower in the hotel gym locker room and eating their first meal in the hotel café in what felt like days, the two decided to split up temporarily for the afternoon. Kouichi left to look for new clothes, presumably knowing that her sister wouldn’t, or probably couldn’t, bring herself to carry out any more large-scale criminal ventures for the moment. After wiring the $5,000 to their remote bank account in Japan, Yui stepped out the doors and started walking through the streets.

The wind blew through her thinning clothes again, and she shivered. She needed another jacket. They had yet to find nice one and bring it back successfully due to security, but Yui knew that Kouichi was working on a strategy. She passed by a street vendor selling hats and scarves, and instinctively grabbed something before she even realized what she was doing.

The vendor didn’t even notice. Yui sighed, pulling the hat on top of her hair when she was out of his sight. Your ears were cold, the little voice inside her head reasoned. And besides, you would only bring Kouichi down if you got sick now, so early into the year. You still had eleven months to go, after all.

I’m not really a thief, she reminded herself. But the annoying little voice wouldn’t stop.

Yes, you are.

Unaware of where her feet were taking her, Yui found herself walking towards the playground again. Upon realizing, she inwardly groaned. Quickening her pace, she walked past it and as soon as she reached the all-too-familiar edge, she broke into a run. Racing past stores, a preschool (her heart lurched again), a bank, and a plaza or two, her energy finally gave out and she stumbled, breathing hard, onto a nearby bench at the train station. With glassy eyes, she watched the passerby.

The Christmas season was approaching. From across the streets, happy families were coming out of stores, hands linked together with shopping bags in tow. Younger children skipped with giddy happiness, probably anticipating next month’s presents. Little did they know that only across the street from them sat a young girl whose main thoughts revolved around deciding which child would become her next kidnapped victim.

What right did she have to ruin their happiness?

She shook her head. That little boy wasn’t unhappy. When he woke up from his stupor, they had played together until dawn. Though she didn’t have toys, books, or games, they had sat together in the locker room, spending hours playing make-believe. She convinced herself that she was his mother, and he was her son. He couldn’t have missed his real mother, because she was already there. She blocked out her memories of his tear-filled eyes when he woke up to an unknown place, to his panicked cries as he futilely ran around the room, screaming “Mama, mama,” to her finally resorting to sedating him again—this time, with more force—until he was sufficiently calm enough to stay quiet. The anesthetic would blur his most recent memories, and next time he woke up, she was the babysitter his parents hired, and they were on a one-day field trip. “Your mama will come soon,” she had comforted him, “so just wait a few more hours and be a good boy until then, alright? Make your parents proud of you.” And with that, his eyes would brighten while her own heart stung. 

Yui glanced at the train map. According to the schedule, the train ran regularly on the weekdays, in regular thirty minute intervals. There were overnight trains running from Moscow to St. Petersburg starting at 22:00—she checked her watch—if they bought tickets today, they could be in St. Petersburg by tomorrow morning.

She leaned back and stretched her legs as she contemplated their options. Previously she and Kouichi had decided that they would limit themselves to five kidnappings a city, so as to not raise suspicion. Today’s little boy had marked the fifth, of their total and of this month.

Yui bit her lip. When they had first started out, she had assumed that the business would become easier as time progressed—it was a dirty job, to be sure, but it was the fastest and least scarring way for them to earn the necessary $2,000,000USD by the end of their twelve month time-limit in order to pass their initiation trial. The kids were never physically harmed; their worst bruising was merely psychological and given how most required anesthetics to calm down, the whole ordeal would only remain a blurry encounter in their memory, anyway. No lasting harm to anybody, save the kidnapper’s guilty conscience.

Yui buried her face in her hands. What a disappointment she was. Unable to properly live up to her parents’ expectations, and unable to satisfy her own moral standards, she found herself doubting her usefulness and self-worth on more than one occasion. A lone Japanese teenager stuck at a train station in Russia, with no currency on hand and no legal ways of earning it. That’s who she was.

She reached into her backpack to pull out her wig—“If I’m going to stand out for being dressed like a homeless person, I might as well be Russian—,” when she finally noticed that she wasn’t alone. On the other side of the bench, there sat a young man reading some papers. Though the flaps of his winter hat covered the sides of his face and his hair was noticeably red, something about him seemed to strike a resonance of familiarity to the girl and she found herself walking towards him.

“Sir? Excuse me, sir, are you lost?” Yui asked in English. The young man looked up from his papers. The sight of another face ethnically similar to his own seemed to reassure him, though judging by his continued facial expression of extreme concentration, perhaps English wasn’t his preferred language, either.

Yui pointed to the pamphlets held in his hand, and trying to keep the sudden amusement out of her voice, she continued, “I’m sorry, sir, but you’re holding the map upside-down.”

“Eung—? Ah,” he exclaimed as she reached over and righted the papers. “Thank you.” From those two words, Yui judged his accent and then taking a guess, switched languages.

“Hanguk saram imnikka? Are you Korean?”

He looked even more surprised. “Yes,” he responded quickly, in his native tongue. “You’re Korean, too?”

Somehow, his transparent relief seemed to warm her heart. It had been a while since someone looked so happy to see her. “Ah—eung,” she said noncommittally. Changing the topic before he could ask any more personal questions, she pointed to his map: “Are you trying to get somewhere?”

He looked at the colorful papers. “Ah, yes—I was thinking of visiting St. Petersburg. I heard that it is a beautiful city. But I’m not sure how to get there,” he said somewhat helplessly.

Yui looked at his handheld map; it was exactly the same as the one she had just been staring at on the walls. “I’m actually thinking of traveling there, myself. Do you want to get there right away? There’s another train leaving in ten minutes.”

“I don’t have tickets yet…”

“You’re a tourist?” He nodded.

“Take an overnight train,” she advised. “I heard the ride is quite nice. You would take the one that leaves at 22:00,” she added, seeing his confused expression.

He thanked her warmly. Though as she turned to leave, he hesitantly asked another question—“Can you help me buy tickets? I can’t read Russian, and my English is bad, so—”

This tourist really made her job as a thief too easy. It would be almost be a shame to leave him without taking some reward, but at the same time, there was no satisfaction in stealing from a clueless traveler who couldn’t even understand the country’s local language. Ignoring her inner instinct to swipe his cards, she helped him purchase a ticket and gave it to him without taking anything.

He gratefully bowed his thanks over and over again, a sight which somehow gave Yui the interesting sensation of relief for having not done anything dishonest to him.

“Well… enjoy your trip,” she said awkwardly as they waved good-bye. “Who knows, maybe we’ll meet again.”

By the time she finally made it back to the hotel, she found Kouichi waiting for her on the benches. As she walked towards her twin, Yui noticed that her sister was frowning slightly.

“Why happened?” she asked, concerned. “Why aren’t you waiting at our usual spot down at the gym locker room?”

Kouichi grimaced. “I don’t think we can go down there anymore,” she said, somehow managing to answer Yui’s question without actually answering anything. Yui patiently waited for an elaboration.

“Some people noticed that we’ve been perpetually living there,” Kouichi said, during which Yui winced. After everything that happened today, the last thing she wanted to be reminded of was their state of homelessness. “One of the hotel janitors asked me where my room was, and when I listed a room that wasn’t actually occupied, I think he got suspicious.”

“Why did he ask for something like that?”

Kouichi looked embarrassed. “He saw me sleeping down there. Apparently, it wasn’t the first time, either.”

Yui’s eyes widened. “Already? We only lived there for a week…”

Kouichi shrugged in resignation. “Well, it was only a matter of time.” She got up from the bench and handed Yui a plastic shopping bag. “Here. A jacket for you.” Yui nodded her thanks and headed for the bathroom in the hotel lobby. Kouichi followed.

It was a higher quality material than the one she currently had on. Though wearing it inside the heated hotel made Yui felt uncomfortably hot, she remembered the cold temperatures outside and knew that this jacket would keep her warm.

Kouichi smiled. “It looks good on you.” She reached for the area behind Yui’s neck and pulled out a hood lined with fake fur. Yui genuinely smiled, happy that her ears finally had protection.

However, with a jolt, she noted that Kouichi was still wearing the same clothes from this morning. “Did you get anything for yourself?” Yui hesitantly asked, suddenly mad at herself for being too self-absorbed to notice sooner.

 Through the mirror, Kouichi’s reflection half-shrugged and shook her head. Yui’s heart sank even lower within her, as again she was reminded of her sister’s selflessness in sharp contrast with herself. She pulled off the hat she was wearing and placed it over her twin’s blond wig, trying to smile through her self-disappointment. “Here, you can have this. I’m sorry I don’t have anything else to offer you…”

Kouichi smiled with gratitude. “Thanks. I actually wasn’t expecting you to come back with anything,” she said lightly.

Yui hung her head. “Sorry I couldn’t do better…”

Kouichi shrugged. “I saw how you were like this morning. No offense, but you looked terrible.”

Yui gave a small laugh. “I know.”

“So what did you do this afternoon? Besides the hat,” Kouichi said, indicating her head. Yui paused for a second.

“I helped a lost tourist buy a train ticket today…” she said slowly.

Kouichi raised her eyebrows. “And?”

“That’s it,” Yui said plainly, knowing full well what Kouichi was waiting to hear.

“What? You didn’t take his wallet? His money? His cards? Anything? C’mon, Yui, don’t tell me you couldn’t even pickpocket a tourist. What, did he look poor or something?” Kouichi was indignant, and in a weird twisted way, she was probably rightfully so.

Yui shook her head. “It’s not that…” she began. “I guess… I dunno, I just didn’t feel it was the right thing to do at the moment.”

Kouichi snorted. “And the hat, then?”  Yui had no response.

“Look, Yui, I know you were feeling bad about the kid, but seriously…” Kouichi sighed. “You have to put that those morals of yours aside. It’s been a month, and in case you haven’t noticed yet, we’re kind of behind on our goal.” Yui stared at the floor and nodded mutely, knowing her sister was right.

“We can’t expect make $2,000,000 by the end of our twelve months if you don’t take advantage of every opportunity to steal—”

The toilet flushed, and both girls froze. An old lady exited the stall, and as she approached the sinks to wash her hands, both girls let out silent sighs of relief. It was a good thing they had been speaking in Japanese.

“Let’s get out of here,” Kouichi muttered, and Yui nodded her assent. Picking up their belongings, they exited the bathroom and prepared to leave. As they passed through the lobby, a receptionist called out, “Did you sign out yet?”

“We’ll be back,” Kouichi said cheerfully.

Listening to the lie, Yui again noted, with some sadness, at how easily it flowed from her sister’s mouth, and how easily she had accepted it within her. Lying had become a daily part of her life; it wasn’t even something worth distinguishing from the truth anymore. Because they were never going back.

They stepped onto the streets and started walking again, seemingly with no clear direction in mind. Kouichi had fallen silent and hadn’t bothered restarting her lecture, and in a subconscious form of self-punishment, Yui resorted to brooding about her prior encounter with the tourist and all the ways she could have acted differently. In her earlier happiness at being appreciated for doing something morally right, she had overlooked an important fact about his nationality and inwardly groaned again. Of all the luck, having to meet a—

But thinking about him suddenly reminded her of her previous thoughts from the afternoon, and now that they were officially shelter-less again, it seemed like a sensible time to bring it up.

“I think we should leave the city tonight,” Yui finally said, breaking the silence. Kouichi grunted. “After all, we already kidnapped and released multiple kids around this part of town; it’s time to move on.

“There’s an overnight train leaving Moscow for St. Petersburg at 22:00… our tourist friend will be on it.”

Kouichi exhaled. “Always a second chance, huh,” she said cryptically, and without another word exchanged between them, the two set off for the train station.

With her coat hood and wig on to hide her identity, Yui unobtrusively fiddled with the ticket machine while Kouichi stood guard behind her. Yui had just hacked into the system’s main interface and was typing out the appropriate codes when Kouichi gave her a nudge. “Police coming,” she whispered.

“Nearly done,” Yui said, concentrating on the script in front of her. “Give me a two minute distraction.”

She heard Kouichi’s footsteps walk away and tried to concentrate without feeling too anxious. Having to deal with a machine that operated in Cyrillic was frustrating, as she was more comfortable in other languages, but once Yui broke it down to the basic algorithms, the series of familiar Arabic numbers gave her some relief.

The machine’s encryption key wasn’t too hard to figure out, but she guessed that upon her successfully breaking into the machine, its internal system had set off a warning signal of some sort. The only way to right it was to bring the screen to a legal page, and with that logic in mind, she made an educated guess and pressed a few keys.

There was a small scuffle behind her and she turned to see Kouichi with two Russian officers.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” one of them said, in broken English. “But what are you doing?”

Yui smiled on the inside. There was no doubt that Kouichi was her twin. She stepped aside so they could take a look at the ticket machine screen. “I was merely trying to buy a ticket, sir,” she responded innocently in the same language.

The officers stepped closer. “Chto? This machine is in English,” he exclaimed.

“Yessir. I do not see what the problem is, sir.”

His companion drew up. “Our machines do not read English word,” he said with a heavy accent. “How is this possible?”

Yui put on her best mystified face. “Sir, what are you saying?”

“I am saying—” he began, and then Yui realized that she shouldn’t have tried the indirect accusation approach. He was already having enough trouble with the literal meaning of her question. “Our machine—”

“Clearly, this one can read English,” Kouichi broke in from behind. “Sirs, there is no problem here. I think you are merely mistaken.”

The officers had no choice but to give up. Shaking their heads and muttering in Russian, they apologized and walked away. As they left, Yui heard one of them complaining, “—those stupid machines. Since when were they programed to read English? Next thing you know, we’ll have all sorts of weird tourists flocking this part of town…”

“They’re already here,” Kouichi grinned, having evidently heard the same line. Yui punched in the few last keys and two tickets came out: Overnight trip for the 22:00 departure. “Very nice job there. How did you know to speak English?”

Kouichi shrugged. “I didn’t. But I figured the whole English-speaking-lost-tourist-in-Russia approach would buy you more time. I was trying to get them to show me where the bathroom was.” Yui laughed. “But I think something about the machine tipped them off, so they pushed past me to get to you. But everything still worked out fine, right?”

“Sou ne. The only way to turn off the machine’s alarms was to convert the code to something that was acceptable, even if it hadn’t been programmed into its system yet. I decided that since English was already a global language, it would’ve made most sense to add that one to the machine’s settings.” At this, Yui frowned slightly, remembering the tourist from earlier. “Actually, I’m surprised these machines don’t already have the language installed. Maybe I should hack every one. Make some non-Russians’ lives easier.”

Kouichi rolled her eyes and playfully punched her arm. “Let’s just get our tickets and go. We already had enough close calls for the day.”

“So true. Shall we eat?” As if on cue, her stomach let out an audible rumble.

Kouichi’s eyes sparked. “You know, those officers probably have sandwiches or something in their office… They owe us for our troubles.”

Yui laughed again and checked her watch. “It’s about 19:00 now. We have three hours to kill, so why not?”

Three hours later and happy on a fuller stomach, Yui stood waiting on the platform for the train while Kouichi went to the restroom to change out of her wig and costume. In public they kept up with appearances by blending with the crowd, but when left by themselves, Kouichi found greater comfort and easy movement in the looser men’s clothing. Yui, who had only decided to remove her wig, was fiddling with the earpiece when she heard footsteps approaching. Thinking it was Kouichi, she looked up and called out, “I think our batteries are dying—” She caught herself, as the guy approaching her was anybody but her sister.

“Hello,” the young red-haired Korean greeted her. “We meet again!” Now that he was upright and walking towards her, Yui got a better look at the tourist she had helped earlier during the day. He was dressed in a slightly eccentric fashion: A short blue European-styled cap coupled with a blue leather jacket and black dress pants, with a bright orange-and-black checked tie to complement the outfit. Definitely a foreigner, obvious even to Yui with her lack of Russian fashion knowledge. He also wasn’t too tall for a man—especially by Russian standards—though as he reached her, Yui judged him to be about 175cm, just a bit taller than her.

Realizing that he must also be slightly older, she instinctively bowed before returning his greeting. “Hello,” she said nervously, and then mentally groaned for making her rattled state so obvious. After her earlier conversation with Kouichi, she found herself unable to face in him the eye. “Uh, I see you’ve made it.”

“Eung! Are you going to St. Petersburg tonight, too?” Apparently, her lame greeting didn’t faze him.

“Ye-yeah…”

He seemed genuinely happy at the prospect. “Thank you again for this afternoon. By the way, we didn’t get to formally introduce ourselves. What’s your name? I’m—”

“Yui,” said a sharp voice behind her. Both turned. “Who’s that you’re talking t—” Kouichi stood, arms folded, staring suspiciously at them, though her gaze faltered for a moment when they both turned to face her. “Um—” she spluttered.

Yui jumped in. “This is the Korean tourist I mentioned earlier,” she said quickly in Japanese. “The one I helped.”

“Korean?” Kouichi’s eyes narrowed as she viewed him with fresh eyes. “Pangapsumnida. Nice to meet you.”

He turned to Yui. “Your boyfriend…?”

“My—uh, sister,” Yui said awkwardly. Truthfully, though, she couldn’t blame him completely for thinking that way, given Kouichi’s more boyish appearance: Her short messy hair complimented with her baggy jeans and oversized hoodie did make her a passable boy—after all, she had taken to intentionally dressing that way ever since—

“Ah, I—I’m so sorry!” he said, looking extremely flustered. “My deepest apologies! I’d thought—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kouichi said dismissively. “It happens all the time.” But her face remained hard, and for some reason, Yui suddenly found it difficult to read her sister’s emotion.

A loud train whistle suddenly shrieked in the distance, interrupting their thoughts, and they all looked over as the platform speakers announced, rather unnecessarily, “22:00 train to St. Petersburg has arrived, on time.”

An officer walked down the platform, ushering the late night passengers onto the train. “You three, get into this compartment; hurry up,” he ordered dismissively, apparently assuming them to be together. The Korean only looked confused, not understanding the Russian, while Yui shot her sister a meaningful look. She hadn’t anticipated their being grouped together like this.

To her surprise, Kouichi didn’t seem bothered. “Yeah, let’s go,” she said unconcernedly, as they boarded the train and opened the door to the first empty compartment. “How’s this one look?”

It was spacious enough for four people. Two sets of bunk-beds were placed on opposite sides of the wall, with luggage racks strategically located right behind them; in between, the train’s large windows, covered by embroidered curtains, added a feeling of warmth as in the center, a small low table took up most of the floor.

As the young man placed his suitcase in one of the luggage racks and dropped his backpack onto the floor, Kouichi answered Yui’s unspoken question with a slight smirk and a pointed nod in the direction of his backpack—“Gucci. This guy’s rich.”

Yui was troubled. “Kouichi,” she whispered somewhat nervously. “How did we end up sharing a compartment with this guy…”

Kouichi looked nonplussed. “What are you so worried about? This is the clueless illiterate Korean tourist lost in Russia we’re talking about, right? You could probably beat him up with one hand, even if you were sleep-deprived, half-starved—”

“That’s not what I meant! How can we talk freely—”         

“Good night,” the tourist called out cheerfully.

There was a moment of silence as both girls watched him climb into one of the empty four beds and get ready to sleep.

“Seriously?” Kouichi asked.

It wasn’t until an hour had passed that the girls decided it was safe to start speaking again. Sitting on the same bed for conversational purposes, they carried a whispered discussion that would have been comprehensible to very few people.

“How did you not notice”—in Japanese—“that he was”—in English—“filthy rich?” Kouichi asked. “Not to mention”—switching back to Japanese—“completely trusting? You could’ve”—now to Russian—“robbed him so freaking easily!”

Yui quickly glanced over at him before responding in a similar fashion, “Don’t say that here! What if he understands?”

“Does he look multilingual to you? Well, at the very least, he can’t understand Russian…”

“He could’ve been faking. C’mon, Kouichi, normally you’re the paranoid one.”

Kouichi snorted. “Have you been noticing his behavior? He’s completely gullible.”

“Not gullible enough to give out his name,” Yui pointed out.

“He was about to before I arrived.”

“So what are you saying?”

Kouchi gave a short laugh. “I just can’t believe our luck,” she said.

Yui couldn’t interpret whether or not that was a sarcastic statement, and simply said neutrally, “Just watch what you say in front of him.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Both fell silent again as the subject of their conversation shifted in his sleep and mumbled something that sounded eerily like “gotcha.”

Yui sighed. “Let’s just get our story straight for tomorrow. First step: What are our names?”

“You’re taking the wrong approach, Yui-chan. I believe what you mean is ‘First step: How do we make that backpack ours?’”