As they waited for their food to arrive, the unlikely finally began their long-overdue introductory conversation. Apparently Yui hadn’t been the only one to awkwardly note that the two parties had shared an overnight train compartment without even knowing a thing about the other; now that Ryeowook was conscious and lucid again, he turned to the twins and asked them their first personal question since the beginning of their acquaintanceship. 

“Were you born in Russia?” he asked curiously. “Or perhaps Korea…?”

Yui paused before answering him. “We learned Russian from a young age,” she said carefully. “And we’ve also studied Korean, too.”

“But you’re Japanese, right?” She nodded.

He looked intrigued by this. “So you speak three languages?”

As Yui debated what to tell him, Kouichi said, with an abnormal amount of honesty, “Actually… we speak five.” His eyes got even wider.

“Five?!”

Kouichi was already nodding. “We speak Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, and English.” Then suddenly she seemed to realize what she said and flushed, falling silent.

“But how did you learn so many languages?” Ryeowook asked, unable to contain his astonishment.

“Our father deemed it important for our education,” Yui said quickly, while giving her sister a weird look. It wasn’t like Kouichi to give away any more personal details to strangers than was absolutely necessary. But Ryeowook was still looking at them, interested.

“You know… we could use a Chinese and Japanese teacher,” he said thoughtfully. “Our members, I mean,” he clarified. “When we have activities overseas, we’re always in need of them. No one stays around long enough to teach us.”

“What do you mean by that?” Yui asked.

“Our schedules are always so busy,” he explained. “People who work with us would have to accommodate our calendar and inconsistent hours. Many people can’t stand it.”

Yui said nothing, thinking about it. Having a job that brought in legitimate money did sound nice… She opened to inquire about the pay, and then realizing the shamefulness of the question, closed again. Kouichi remained silent.

“But you two still must be students,” Ryeowook noted. “Are you in school?”

“In a manner of speaking, I suppose,” Yui answered awkwardly. “We’re not enrolled in formal education right now, though.” Not wanting to elaborate any further, she quickly plowed on to the next topic. “So what brings you to Russia?”

Ryeowook smiled, and out of the corner of her eye, Yui noticed Kouichi involuntarily jolt. “I’m on vacation. My first in a while,” he said almost wistfully.

“Yo—you don’t get a lot of vacations? I guess it’s hard if you’re famous,” Yui said, in an attempt to sound knowledgeable; in her head, she was again blankly trying to remember exactly what kind of famous person he was. He said he was part of a group that traveled a lot. Were they actors? Singers? Dancers? 

Ryeowook nodded. “But it’s also a fun job,” he said cheerfully. “I like being able to travel the world and meet new people. Everywhere I go, everyone is always so friendly.” Yui winced guiltily.

“So what are you two doing in Russia?” Ryeowook asked. Yui noticed he also looked at Kouichi for an answer, trying to bring her into the conversation, but for some reason, her sister had taken to staring at her reflection through their water glasses and didn’t notice. Slightly distracted by her worry about her sister’s uncharacteristic silence, Yui didn’t have time to compose a decent explanation for yet another topic she didn’t want to discuss.

“Uh?—oh, um…just some personal business,” she said abstractly. “There is someone we are supposed to meet in Russia, so—yeah…” Reverting the topic of conversation back to Ryeowook, she continued, “What made you choose to go to Russia for vacation?”

His eyes almost seemed to sparkle.  “I’ve never been to Russia before,” he said earnestly. “I’ve heard that it’s a very beautiful country. If you can get past the cold,” he joked.

“Yeah…it’s a very cold place.”

He missed the meaning in her voice and continued talking. “There are a lot of E.L.F.’s here, as well. Every time I go abroad, I’m always surprised and warmed by how many fans recognize us. Visiting their home countries is just one way I can show my gratitude for their love for me.”

Did he just say that elves exist? Choosing not to pursue this curious claim, Yui vaguely nodded and merely said, “I see.”

His phone buzzed. “Excuse me,” he said apologetically, and then picked it up. Yui blinked; she had been expecting a phone call, but as he laughed and started excitedly tapping the screen, she realized that he was texting. Some part of her not focused on the conversation briefly made a mental note to somehow incorporate that feature into their microphone-earpieces, which under certain distances had also been acting as cell phones. Though for that, she would need a touch-screen of some sort—her mind raced a few steps ahead—surely the Tambov gang could help her acquire the necessary pieces—

The waitress chose that moment to return, carrying with her their steaming food. After she placed their orders in the table, she paused for an extra moment. “Is there anything I can help you with?” she asked in heavily accented English.

Ryeowook looked like he still didn’t quite understand what she said. Before Yui could translate, Kouichi, who appeared to have woken up from her stupor, finally spoke up. “No,” she said dismissively in Russian. “You can go.” Still the waitress lingered, looking at the other two.

“Would the mister like a drink…?” she asked hopefully. “We serve vodka—”

“We’re good, thanks,” Kouichi said a bit louder, barely concealing her annoyance. Somehow the waitress’ presence seemed to have stirred something in her, and now she sat upright in her chair, visibly willing the girl to go away.

“Then,”—with another look at Ryeowook—“if you don’t need anything…”

He smiled blankly and murmured a quick grateful “thank you,” while Yui raised her eyebrows at Kouichi and tried to read her sister’s weird behavior.

“What’s up with you?” she asked in a low voice, briefly switching over to Japanese as the waitress walked away sulkily. “You’re not controlling your emotion very well.” For after the waitress left, Kouichi had returned to being unsociable and staring at random objects.

Kouichi shook her head. “I—” Then her eyebrows shot up and she sprang up from the table, surprising the other two. In anger she walked over past a few tables, where the flustered waitress was hurriedly trying to put her camera away.

“What’s your problem?” she yelled angrily. “Can’t you let us eat in peace?”

“I—I’m sorry,” the waitress was apologizing. “I—I just wanted to take a picture of—”

“Hand me your camera,” Kouichi said threateningly. Even with the distance, Yui sensed the cold chill that radiated from her sister’s figure, and knew that she had her dangerous face on. The one she always wore right before a street-fight. The one she had on when dealing with clueless thugs who didn’t know that they were messing with the daughter of—

“R-Right away, right away,” the waitress stammered, cowed by the glint Yui knew she saw in Kouichi’s eyes. With shaking hands, she handed over her camera to Kouichi, who promptly smashed it to the ground.

“There,” she said through gritted teeth, as Yui and Ryeowook both got up from the table and came running over in alarm, “That should teach you not to take paparazzi shots of complete strangers.”

“Kouichi!” Yui exclaimed as she grabbed her sister, her cool exterior shot, “What are you thinking?!” Ryeowook echoed something similar. Upon seeing the two of them, Kouichi seemed realize what she had just done and visibly deflated.

“Excuse me,” she said, pushing Yui’s arms away. “I need to go to the bathroom.” She then turned and ran, not seeming to realize that she had entered the wrong gender’s restroom; as she left, the silence that had followed her outburst was suddenly broken and the space all around Yui and Ryeowook was filled with buzzing from the other restaurant patrons.

Yui looked helplessly at Ryeowook. “I’ll go talk to her,” she said, and ignoring Ryeowook’s cry of dissent, ran into the men’s bathroom after her twin.

She confronted Kouichi standing over the sink, staring into the mirror with a miserable look on her face.

“Yui,” she said as Yui walked in, “what’s wrong with me?”

“That was what I wanted to ask you!” Yui then tried to collect herself. “You completely created a scene,” she said in a slightly more composed voice. “Did you forget about us trying to keep a low profile?”

Kouichi shook her head. “She was secretly taking pictures of us—” she mumbled.

“That’s no excuse!” Yui groaned and waved her armed in frustration. “Kouichi, where’s your sense of professionalism? Even before that scene, you were acting all weird. When Ryeowook-san was talking to us—” At the mention of the Korean’s name, Kouichi seemed to flush a few deeper shades of red. “What’s with you? Ever since you’ve met him—”

“Yui,” Kouichi said in a choked voice. “I think I like him.”

Yui stopped waving her arms. “You WHAT?”

“I don’t know!” Kouichi exclaimed, grabbing her head and shaking it vigorously. “But ever since I saw him—”

“Kouichi,” Yui said, in a voice of fake calm, “Are you telling me you’re in love with this tourist? The one, if I’m not mistaken, you had pegged as stupid and had wanted to steal from—”

“I know, I know! And yes,” Kouichi cried, banging her head against the wall.

Was this was fate’s way of punishing them for all their previous crimes? Shaking her head, Yui slowly sank to the floor in shock and cluelessness as Kouichi continued hitting her forehead in frustration.

When the girls finally exited from the bathroom (probably to the relief of more than one male), they found the waitress and her manager already standing at the table, attempting to communicate with Ryeowook. If it weren’t for the gravity of the situation, the sight of the two Russians trying to talk to the Korean would have almost been comical. Nonetheless, all three looked relieved, if not a bit cold, to see the girls return.

The twins bowed low, instinctively using the East Asian cultural way of apologizing. “We’re extremely sorry,” Yui said, speaking for her sister. Kouichi was too mortified to say anything, and kept her gaze trained on her shoes in shame. “We’ll pay for the damages.” At the moment, she had temporarily forgotten that they had no legal ways of raising the money; luckily for her inability to tell a convincing lie, she had also conveniently forgotten that they were penniless.

“It’s quite alright,” the manager said practically, though it was hard to judge from his facial expression what he truly thought of the situation. “I was told that our waitress had been spying on you with her camera.”

Like Kouichi, the waitress also kept her eyes lowered. Yui noticed both were steadily avoiding Ryeowook’s gaze. For his part, he merely glanced back and forth between the only two speakers, his expression alternating between confusion and apprehension. Yui tried to give him a reassuring smile, but somehow she sensed that it would take more than that to regain his opinion of them.

“—so we’ll call it even,” the manager was saying. “There will be no need for you to compensate for the camera damages, if you agree to finish your meal and quietly leave without pressing charges.” Kouichi and the waitress both nodded silently. The manager turned to leave, and then paused, looking at the party of foreigners.

“Please eat quickly,” he said, and this time Yui knew that there was no mistaking the coldness in his voice.

There was no way they could finish their meal, which had remained untouched throughout the whole incident. There was also no way they could ask Ryeowook to pay for it; Yui was debating on whether to tell Kouichi to go out and fetch money or if she should do it herself when Ryeowook suggested hesitantly, “Shall we pack it, then?”

After they left the restaurant, the two parties turned to face each other as they prepared to part. Out of politeness, Ryeowook offered to share the food he paid for with them, and likewise, Yui declined the invitation. The two girls then bowed deeply from the waist again, in both shame and gratitude, whereas Ryeowook, being senior, merely acknowledged his head and offered a small smile.

“I’m really sorry about everything, again.” Yui said, her upper body bobbing up and down repeatedly as she bowed over and over again. He raised his palms to stop her and shook his head. But he didn’t say it was okay.

“She was my fan,” he responded instead. “I apologize for the inconvenience she caused you and your sister.”

“No,” Yui insisted, her Japanese heritage kicking up. “It’s our fault. We can never repay—”

“It’s fine,” he sighed. “What’s done is done.” He glanced over at Kouichi, who refused, or perhaps couldn’t, lift her head.

“I—…okay. Then I hope you enjoy your stay in Russia,” Yui said with finality.

“You, too,” he returned politely, though as he said that, Yui realized that he still had no idea why they were even there in the first place. For all he knew, they could have been regular citizens. At least, ultimately, they didn’t end up giving away too much information about themselves, she supposed, watching him walk away.

But starting from the beginning of their restaurant conversation till now, nothing she told him had been a lie.

Yui found herself feeling strangely sad. She looked sideways at Kouichi, who hadn’t raised her head since they left the bathroom, and wondered if the feelings that suddenly washed over her were in fact her sister’s.

The two walked quietly side by side again, meandering without direction through the streets of St. Petersburg. After a few minutes, Kouichi finally spoke again.

“That conversation we had in the bathroom,” she said emotionlessly, “never happened.” Yui looked straight ahead. “We still have a job to do, and I’m determined to do it right. That was the last incident. There won’t be another.”

“I know,” Yui said heavily, her understanding transcending beyond her words. “I know.”

The two came to the entrance of the Russian National Library. For a moment, its majestic size and architecture struck the girls speechless in awe, and they stood at its gates, feeling very small and inadequate in comparison.

“Let’s go in,” Kouichi finally muttered, to which Yui nodded. “We can probably borrow their Wi-Fi.”

“Yeah…I should check up on our accounts.”

They found a private conference room on the fifth floor. Kouichi walked around, aimlessly brushing her hands on the walls as she admired the paintings that lined them, while Yui powered up her laptop and connected to the Internet. Kouichi gave her a few minutes before asking, “So what’s our progress like?”

Yui was scanning their accounts. “We just need to acquire another $20,000 before we can approach the Tambov gang. This city is pretty rich; I’m sure we won’t have trouble looking for another kid to kidnap—”

Kouichi glanced at her as she walked around the room. “So strange,” she murmured. “When did you become the professional one and I the mess?”

Yui smiled, despite herself. “That’s not fair,” she said lightly. “I can act like a cruel villain when I have to, too, you know.”

 Kouichi snorted, but she was smiling now. “I guess I’m in no position to judge, huh?” she said. Yui was about to comment on her reference to the nonexistent past when something caught her eye.

“Ah—” she said, and closed. Noticing her facial expression, Kouichi came walked over quickly. “What’s wrong?” Then she saw the screen and paled a few shades, too.

In a darkened room, sitting in a black leather chair draped with expensive furs, a man with steal-rimmed glasses wearing a black suit was staring at them through the computer screen. On his face was an expression that made even Kouichi’s fiercest look pusillanimous.

“Ch—Chichi-ue…”

Father.