“Konnichiwa, minna-san. Watashi no namae wa Tokudaiji Yui desu,” Yui said, introducing herself to the room’s grand total of three occupants. “Starting from today, I will be your new Japanese language teacher. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.” There was a chorus of yoroshiku onegaishimasu’s.

“Sensei,” one of her students said eagerly, his informal tone contrasting with his words. “Should we call you ‘sensei’? You look younger than us.”

Yui laughed appreciatively.  “No. Please don’t. And I probably am.” She appraised the speaker: Like the other members she had already met earlier, this one also had colored hair, this time brown; though he was wearing casual sweats and a T-shirt and was casually lounging on one of the living room couches, she could tell that he was in his twenties.

It was an interesting scene. Having an informal instructor younger than the students teaching them Japanese in some of the students’ own living room changed the dynamics of their relationship dramatically; the one who had spoken had clearly long given up formalities, the second—Sungmin—had already met her earlier and thus was now giving her a warm grin, and the room’s third student merely shuffled his feet and offered her a shy smile. 

“Let’s go over names and basic greetings,” Yui said pragmatically. “The basic sentence structure is similar to Korean. X wa Y desu. In Korean, that would be the equivalent of X eun/neun Y ieyo/yeyo. So now, if you may introduce yourselves, please, in Japanese.” She nodded her head at the first speaker.

“Lee Donghae desu,” he grinned, unable to resist holding out his palm in a motion similar to the universal stop sign during his introduction. Yui had already learned this to be Super Junior’s standard greeting. “Nice to meet you!” 

“Lee Sungmin desu,” called out the second. He had already changed from earlier and was now dressed comfortably in a different pair of sweats and T-shirt.

“Cho Kyuhyun desu,” said the last member. Out of the three, he appeared to treat her most formally; his legs were uncrossed and he sat on his chair attentively, the image of a good student. Albeit also in sweats.

Yui smiled encouragingly. “Now, some of you already seem to have some prior knowledge of Japanese. So exactly how much do you know?” As they gave their various answers, she put down her book and decided that she didn’t care about formalities anymore, either. “Okay! Forget the textbook, then. Let’s just learn whatever you want. What’s the first thing you want to know how to say?”

“Teach us ‘My darlings, I’ve missed you,’” Donghae called out eagerly, and she grinned. This was going to be a fun class.

“That was kind of nice,” Yui told Kouichi after they exited the 11^th floor of the Super Junior dorm and got into the elevators. Kouichi had met her outside the doors. “One of the guys—Donghae-san—he’s really into those sweet pick-up phrases. And then there was Sungmin-san, whom we met earlier—among all three of them, he knew the most Japanese, so he was already asking me about all sorts of minute grammar rules. And then the last one—Kyuhyun-san—he’s the magnae—he’s really shy, but he has this certain level of intensity about him that’s almost fascinating, I think—and he also really likes Starcraft,” she concluded, laughing.

“Mm,” Kouichi said, indicating she was listening. “So I’m taking the next shift? When was it, again?”

“Not for a few days.” Yui checked the schedules. “I guess in the meantime we can continue looking for a place to live.”

“Stop here,” Kouichi said suddenly, as the doors opened and they entered the lobby. “Go to the benches, over there.”

“We’re staying there tonight?”

“I couldn’t find any other places,” Kouichi shrugged. “I was too busy looking for new clothes for us, now that we’ll be interacting with other people on a regular basis.”

“Yeah, perceived personal hygiene is important,” Yui agreed, nodding thoughtfully, “Even if you’re hanging out with a bunch of guys.”

The person sitting at the lobby desk looked up at them for a second, and then glanced back down.

“We’ll just sit here for a while, presumably waiting for somebody,” Kouichi explained. “After it gets too late, we can just fall asleep here and then hopefully she”—indicating the person at the desk—“will have enough of a heart to not kick us out.”

 “Wonder how long we can pull this off,” Yui asked rhetorically, as the two sat on the benches and pretended to wait.

“Oh, you’re different today,” the member noted as Yui came through the living room. It was a few days later.

“You must be Shindong-san,” Yui greeted him. “My sister told me about you.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Shindong apologized. “I didn’t realize…”

“Huh?”

“Nothing,” Shindong said quickly. “Anyway, so you’re Kouichi-san’s sister?”

“My name is Yui,” she clarified, bowing. “I’m the other Japanese language instructor, in addition to Kouichi-san.”

He gave her a goofy grin and saluted her. “And I’m Super Junior’s local funny man, Shindong. Nice to meet you!” She laughed at his pose. “So are you two switching off or something?”

“Kouichi-san has personal business to take care of today,” Yui told him lightly. “So I’ll be taking over the shifts for now.” Inwardly, she thought back to the conversation she had with her sister earlier that morning. Kouichi had brought up a topic that she knew would inevitably come up…

“Do you think his grave is around here?” she had hesitantly asked as Yui washed her face at the fountain.

She had stiffened, realizing whom Kouichi was referring to.

“Do you want to search for him?” Yui would have offered to do it for her sister, to spare her the unhappy memories, but she knew it was something only Kouichi could do.

Kouichi had shook her head with a small smile, appreciating the gesture. Her hand had reached up, unconsciously brushing against the short strands of her hair. “Thanks. But only I know what the cemetery would look like.”

“Even after eleven years?”

“You just don’t forget those things,” Kouichi had said simply. “No matter how much time passes, you just never forget...”

“What I don’t get is, why are we having lessons in the Super Junior dorms?” Shindong’s question brought her back to the present. He smirked, though not meanly. “Females aren’t supposed to be allowed here. Not to mention it’s inconvenient for me, too.”

She caught the implications of his last statement. “You don’t live here?”

“I moved out a few years back,” he revealed. “But it’s okay. It’s not like I don’t spend a good amount of my time here, anyway.”

Yui glanced over at the hallway where the bedrooms were located, remembering how another member named Eunhyuk had to open the door for her when she initially knocked. She wondered if Shindong had the same problem.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “The location is a bit weird, isn’t it?”

A few hours later, Yui was on her way to the day’s final class with Leeteuk and Eunhyuk when she ran into the aforementioned students outside the elevator of the 12^th floor.

“Leeteuk-sshi, Eunhyuk-sshi,” she greeted them, bowing.

“Yui-san,” Leeteuk returned. He closed the door of the dorm and locked it.

Eunhyuk looked confused about the suffix.

“You have a Japanese lesson now,” Yui reminded him. “Both of you.”

“That’s impossible,” Eunhyuk said, shaking his head, “Because we also have another schedule right now. It’s 10pm.”

“We DJ Sukira,” Leeteuk added, seeing Yui’s mystified expression. Then he sighed and explained, “Super Junior’s ‘Kiss the Radio.’ We host it every night from 10pm-12am.” Her face finally cleared.

“But…” she protested, flipping through several sheets of papers. “It’s noted on your schedules that you’re free during those hours starting… today.”

The two DJs exchanged a look. “We have been thinking about leaving,” Leeteuk said carefully, “but we haven’t made any official announcements yet.”

“The managers should come up with a final decision sometime within the next few weeks,” Eunhyuk added. “So until then, we go on hosting, like we do every night. Some days it’s prerecorded. But tonight’s bora, or viewable radio.”

Yui frowned. “Well then, it appears that your managers made a mistake.”

“Sorry,” Leeteuk apologized.

“It’s not your fault…”

“He’s used to it. Apologizing for other people, I mean,” Eunhyuk said knowingly, casting his leader a side-glance.

Leeteuk merely shrugged. “All part of the job description,” he merely commented. But the thought seemed to bring a warm smile to his face.

Yui sighed. She had expected this coming, but still, it was an annoying blow.

“Kouichi,” she called over to her sister standing a few feet away, “have you seen our suitcases?”

Kouichi came over. “It’s not at any of its usual hiding locations?”

“Nope. I’ve checked all of them.”

“I suppose it was unavoidable,” Kouichi said, shaking her head resignedly, “given how we’ve been hiding them in the dumpsters. But you still have your laptop and tools, at least?”

“Thankfully,” Yui confirmed, indicating the messenger bag she always carried. “But we lost our all changes in clothing.”

“Guess we’ll have to go back to raiding various stores,” Kouichi said, not appearing too happy with the prospects of the idea. “What’s our schedule look like for today?”

Yui flipped through their packet of papers. “According to today’s schedule, there’s a lesson scheduled for Donghae-san and Siwon-san at 8:00, Ryeowook-san at 12:30, Sungmin-san and Eunhyuk-san at 16:45, Kyuhyun-san, Leeteuk-san, and Yesung-san at 18:30, and lastly Shindong-san at 20:10.” Given the irregularity and randomness of some of the hours, the girls had resorted to military time to keep themselves from confusing some of the morning and afternoon schedules.

Kouichi nodded, converting the times out loud. Then she stopped, seeming to realize how busy their day was going to be. “…Exactly how many people are we teaching today?!”

“Yeah, we haven’t had a full day like this yet,” Yui noted relatively more calmly. “Let’s get going. We’re going to be late.”

“Yui-san is late,” Donghae teased as Yui entered the living room of the apartment building.

“Sorry,” she apologized. “We had to wait until someone opened the door downstairs.”

“Seunghwan-hyung didn’t drive you and let you in?” Siwon asked, frowning.

“I don’t think he knew he had to,” Yui confessed.

Siwon jotted down a note. “We’ll remind him next time. Where do you live? He can pick you up from your house and bring you here along with us; saves you the commute.”

“Uh, that’s not necessary,” Yui stammered.

“Why not?”

“Because—we don’t mind walking.” Yui hastily flipped through some sheets. “We live really close to here, so…”

“I see,” Siwon said skeptically. “But how will you get into the building?”

“Anyway, let’s get started on today’s lesson,” Yui said quickly, choosing to not answer his question. “Since you guys are going to Osaka for your concert soon, I figured we should focus more on the Osaka dialect today.”

“Super Show 4 is going to kick off here at Seoul in less than three days,” Siwon grinned. “And then we’ll move onto Osaka in early December.”

“You’re coming with us, right?” Donghae asked.

“Uh—we are?”

“Oh yeah, come to think of it, I think I heard the managers talking about some mini form of a long-stay after the Osaka performance,” Siwon said thoughtfully. “We might have to go in and out of the country a few times, but in light of Mr. Simple’s Japanese release and our impending official debut in Japan, I think the company wants us to stay for a bit to promote it.”

“Where are you guys going to live?”

“Probably in an apartment complex or something,” Donghae said. “I mean, that’s what we did back when we were promoting ‘Perfection.’ It was Super Junior M’s latest mini album,” he immediately added, upon seeing Yui’s clueless face.

Siwon laughed. “Sometimes, I forget that you didn’t start out as fans. It’s kind of refreshing, actually.”

“Pretty sure Sungmin-san also said the same thing,” Yui muttered, and the other two laughed again.

“Do you know how long we’ll be staying?” Donghae asked his dongsaeng.

“Probably until the end of January,” Siwon mused. “Since the GDA awards are taking place there. And then after that, we’re going to Taiwan for the next stop of Super Show 4…”

“So we’ll be your Mandarin instructors then,” Yui offered.

“With your language skills, having you two around will definitely lessen our need for a translator or another teacher,” Siwon agreed. “So I think the company will ask you to come along. Is that alright with you?”

“No problem,” Yui assured him. “Will housing be provided for us?”

Siwon raised his eyebrows. “Of course. You didn’t think we’d let you live on the streets, did you?”

Yui laughed at his unintentional irony and chose not to answer.

“Today’s lesson was… interesting,” Kouichi said awkwardly after they reunited outside of the S.M. building the next day. Yui had come in to run some errands and file some paperwork while Kouichi had taken the day’s teaching shifts. “During one of the lessons, I spent the first fifteen minutes trying to convince them that I was a girl. It was slightly pathetic.”

Yui snorted before she could help herself. “Those poor guys. You’d think word would spread fast enough and we wouldn’t have to go through this with every new encounter. Who was it today?”

“Donghae-san and Sungmin-san,” Kouichi responded. “It’s like I told them—if they can look like girly guys, why can’t I look like a boyish girl?”

Yui raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think I’d call Donghae ‘girly’… he has muscles,” she pointed out, albeit somewhat awkwardly.

“I was talking about Sungmin-san,” Kouichi said meaningfully, with equal awkwardness, and both girls laughed. It was a twin bonding moment.

“Maybe it’s time you let your hair grow long again,” Yui suggested nostalgically. “Just like old times.”

Kouichi shook her head adamantly. “You know I can’t.”

“Well, in any case, at least we know you’re succeeding in keeping up appearances. Almost everybody you meet thinks you’re a guy,” Yui said, dropping the suggestion.

“I think I’ve practiced speaking in a lower pitch for so long, my voice has actually changed,” Kouichi confessed, with just a small hint of regret in her voice.

“It’s okay; Ryeowook-san’s voice and looks will make it up completely for you,” Yui teased, and then ducked to avoid her sister’s punch. “But in all seriousness, have you noticed that practically half of the guys of that band are really feminine and pretty, and the other half could pass for girls?”

“So what’s the difference?” Kouichi asked, and then they laughed again, shoving each other lightheartedly as both left the office.

It was only later that evening as she settled down on the bus stop bench did Yui realize that they had had—unintentionally on her part—a completely frivolous conversation about boys. She frowned, as a tiny part of her heart shut down into darkness.

“Never allow this to happen to you. You mustn’t fall—”

“I want you to meet my family,” Yesung said quite seriously, during their first lesson.

Yui blinked. “Uh, okay.”

Chuckling slightly, Yesung opened the door for her and told her to wait in the living room while he went into one of the bedrooms.

Yui sat on the couch and stretched. She was getting comfortable with the 11^th floor living room, having already been teaching there somewhat consistently for the last two weeks. Ever since Kouichi had brought up her suggestion, she had been spending a lot of hours in the city, occasionally returning once every few days. As a result, Yui had been taking on some of the extra shifts.

Not that she minded, she thought vaguely, as she glanced at the photos framed on the one of the shelves. Each picture depicted a full scene, overflowing with happy boys wearing too much make-up that somehow only highlighted their energetic smiles. She supposed this must be the complete Super Junior band. In some pictures, as many as fifteen young faces beamed up at her through the glossy glass, faces that were too close in age to be siblings, yet to close to each other to be anything but brothers.

 “Blood really doesn’t determine your family, doesn’t it?” she mused out loud.

“Nope, not at all,” a voice replied, and she turned around. Yesung had come back with another photo album of his own.

He flipped to the first page. “Meet Kkoming and Ddangkoma, Ddangkkoming, and Ddangkkomaeng,” he said proudly. “The cutest members of our family. And the most expensive.”

She genuinely laughed. “They’re a dog and three turtles?”

“Kkoming is the dog. Ddangkoma is the land turtle; the last two are the smaller ones,” he clarified, pointing. “I had actually bought Ddangkoma to ease my boredom,” he explained. Then he paused. “Except he didn’t do that.”

She laughed again, appreciating his style. “So then where are they now?”

He looked remorseful for a second. “I had to give Ddangkoma away,” he admitted sheepishly. “Not because he was boring!” he protested, upon seeing her raised eyebrows. “It was because he got too big. Honest.”

“Uh-huh,” she . Her eyes fell upon the photos again. Despite her outward attitude, she could see how obviously he treasured his animals.

She was faintly envious.

“He really was!” Yesung was insisting earnestly. “He got thiiiiiiiis big,” he said, throwing his arms wide to indicate the size of his turtle. Despite herself, Yui laughed again at his childish gesture.

“So why are you telling me about your pets?”

Yesung looked confused. “Because you’re family now, too,” he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “And family has to meet family, right?”

She fell silent, contemplating his words.

“Everybody who comes into our lives joins our family,” Yesung continued, and Yui saw him glance over at the photos on the shelves. “And they don’t leave. No matter where they end up going or what they end up doing, they’ll always be our family.”

She could only smile wistfully and said nothing in reply.

 “I found something interesting,” Kouichi whispered as they huddled together on the benches again. The boys had been given a mini break from their sporadic lessons due to the commencement of their world tour, and the twins had decided to use the resulting extra time to focus more on their own business, as well.

Due to a perhaps developed affinity for the places they frequented the most often, the main floor lobby had become one of the twins’ regular meeting spots. By this point, they had gotten a good idea of the apartment door guards’ schedules and rotations, and knew that the current one on duty hadn’t seen them camping out there just yet. Though to be safe, they only stayed overnight at most twice a week.

“About—?”

“I’ve visited all the largest cemeteries around the area. So far, I haven’t found anything yet.” Yui dropped her gaze and touched her sister’s arm in comfort. “But there were quite a few burials linked to the Japanese yakuza, so I thought I’d switch gears and check some of those out, instead.”

Here, Kouichi paused for a moment.

“Do you ever think about the fact that… our father is a mass-murderer?”

Yui avoided her eyes and shrugged. Of course she knew that. One couldn’t just rise to the top ranks of a yakuza subgroup without having committed at least a few unforgivable crimes.

“Most of the gravestones listed his name,” Kouichi said quietly, “as their cause of death.”

“Why is that so surprising?” Yui asked in a slightly shaky voice. “You remember the Yong-Daiji War, don’t you?” It had been the reason why they couldn’t come back to Korea sooner.

“Someday, it would have been our turn…” Yui stared hard at the floor. “Would you have been ready?”

“I don’t know,” Yui replied truthfully. “No, probably not.” She sighed. “Incompatible from the start, huh?”

 “Guess that’s why chichi-ue has another successor now,” Kouichi said darkly, and Yui looked up. Her sister was holding a small sheet of paper in her hands. Yui took it.

“Takoda, Nobuo.” There was no picture attached to the name, but that was to protect his future, she knew. “Joined the Tokudaiji-gumi in 2011 November 4^th; from the Osaka prefecture; currently in trials under the current head—” She threw it down, disgusted. “He’s our replacement?”

“Looks like it, doesn’t it?” Kouichi said dryly. “Wonder how he got promoted so fast.”

“The reasons aren’t listed?”

“That’s the interesting part,” Kouichi frowned. “Normally, more information on his background and history would have been posted under his profile, but for him, there’s no comment.”

“This was from the underground networks, right?” Kouichi nodded. “Huh. I’m surprised they haven’t revoked our access to the systems yet, then.”

“Now that you mention it…” Kouichi mused.

Yui was still staring at the paper. “I wonder if this was the guy behind the two attempted murders.”

“But the second person was Russian,” Kouichi pointed out. “Unless she also spoke Japanese, there’s no way she would have…”

Both girls stared at each other. “It’s possible,” Yui said slowly. “In fact, if she was sent by someone working under our clan, then it’s actually very likely.” The twins were living proof of the Tokudaiji belief in the necessity of multilingualism.

“But first, we have to prove that he was the one who’s been following us,” Yui continued. “And nothing on this document links him to anything.”

 “That’s also where I got stuck,” Kouichi sighed. “But if you use simply inductive reasoning, he’s the most likely explanation. No one else could’ve known about the incident with Ryeowook-san, and even if they did, why would they care?”

Yui thought back to her last encounter with anyone directly related to the mafia. “That’s true,” she said, acquiescing. “The Tambov gang wouldn’t have cared enough about us to follow up.”

“And look at the date he began his trial period—November 4^th. That was around the same time we met Ryeowook-san in Russia. It’s too much to be a coincidence.”

Yui was nodding thoughtfully. “So he sends people after Ryeowook-san. Why? Simply because we messed up?”

“What’s a life to the yakuza?” Kouichi asked dully. It was a rhetorical question, but Yui answered anyway.

“Money.” A life was worth nothing, if money was involved. “And power. I guess this was probably his first assignment. He understandably didn’t want to mess things up.”

“Wonder what that says about us?” Kouichi asked hollowly.

“We have morals,” Yui reminded her. “We came all the way here to protect him, didn’t we?” Though somehow the claim now seemed stretch to all of the members of his band.

“We have morals?” Kouichi laughed. “That’s news to me. We’re the daughters of a yakuza boss, aren’t we?”