Note: This is a double update. Read chapter 14 if you haven't already.

As I finished the last of the dirty dishes after an hour and put them back in their respective places, Sungmin came back into the kitchen/ living room area, holding a book in his hand. He looked uncertainly at me as I filled up a water glass to quell my shrieking stomach, then flipped a bit through the book. He put a finger on the page and read slowly, “My hovercraft is full of eels.” Then he gazed back up at me hopefully.

I couldn’t help myself. I started to giggle, covering my mouth and setting down my glass. To his credit, he didn’t look offended, rather, a bit… happy? “What?” I asked, scooting out of the kitchen, needing clarification on such a strange statement.

He held the book up to me, and I realized it was a Korean to English common phrase book. Only, he had it open to the miscellaneous section. I snorted and looked at the page, seeing the English phrase below Korean symbols and Romanization of the symbols. “Whoa, this is cool!” I exclaimed, peering closer. I might be able to use this to communicate with them! Sneaking a peek at Sungmin, who looked rather pleased with himself, I slowly asked, “Can I see this for a minute?”

For a second, he seemed confused, but then he was able to translate my words. He nodded briskly. “Yes! Ahnjah!” he said happily, motioning to the table.

My brow furrowed. “Ahn-jah?” I asked. Is that their word for ‘yes’ or something?

He nodded again, beaming, plopping down next to the table and flipping through the book. “Ah! Ahn-jah! Sit!” he said again, laying the book on the table and pointing to an entry.

Oh! So ‘ahn-jah’ means ‘sit.’ I carefully sat next to him and looked where he was pointing. Sure enough, I saw the word ‘Sit’ underneath ‘Anj-a’ and a bunch of symbols. “Oh!” I said. I carefully slid the book away from his eager hands and flipped through it myself. I found the phrase he had said to me earlier, the hovercraft one. I found the Romanization form and said slowly, “Nae ho-beo-keu-la-peu-teu-neun jang-eolo gadeug cha iss-eoyo.” Then I looked at him hopefully.

I could tell he was holding in laughter at my terrible pronunciation, and I started to smile. I said it again, faster this time, and he burst out laughing, covering his adorable cheeks and mouth with his hands. Oh my gosh, I simply couldn’t get over how young and cute he looked!

I started to laugh with him, and it took us a moment to calm down. Both of our cheeks red, he pointed to the hovercraft entry again and said the Korean version much better than I could have done. I repeated it, and he nodded in satisfaction. Then he slid the book back towards himself and rifled through the pages again, stopping on a page titled ‘Necessary Words.’ He pointed to one, angling the book towards me. “Neh,” he pronounced, and I saw the word ‘Nae’ above ‘Yes.’ Easy enough. I nodded, carefully pronouncing the word like he had done, and he beamed, pointing at the next word. “Ah-knee-yo.” In the book, ‘Aniyo’ was above ‘No.’ I repeated it, and he nodded enthusiastically and wrapped his arm around my shoulders briefly, like an older brother congratulating a younger sister.

I smiled. I was starting to get the hang of this!

We practiced words and phrases together for a few more hours, sometimes me teaching him English, and sometimes him teaching me Korean. By nine, I knew how to say things like, “I’m lost,” “I’m hurt,” “Hello,” “I’m sorry,” “I’m hungry,” “I don’t understand,” “My Korean is bad,” and other essential things I’d need if I was roaming Seoul by myself. And of course, I would never be able to forget how to say, “My hovercraft is full of eels.”

It’s times like these when I love being able to grasp the basics of a language quickly. By the time Uki and Alex and the rest of the boys would return, exhausted, around midnight, Sungmin and I would have been practicing for six immensely fun hours and were able to communicate a lot easier with each other. He was quickly becoming my favorite person in all of Super Junior, even over that stupid idiot of a brother.

He and I were still seated at the table, the phrase book open between us, when the apartment door finally opened that night. Of course, we didn’t notice it immediately.

“Where is the bathroom?” I asked Sungmin in Korean.

He replied in English, “Here,” and pointed towards the bathroom door.

I laughed and shook my head. “No, Sungmin,” I said in Korean. “‘There,’ not ‘Here.’”

He smiled that adorable smile of his and corrected himself. “Bathroom…there,” he tried again.

I nodded. “Yes!” I said in Korean, still a bit proud of myself for learning the basics this quickly. Then I pointed at him.

In English, he asked me, “Who are you?” with a much more intelligible accent than when we had first met.

In Korean, I answered, “I am Taryn. Who are you?”

He nodded, pleased at my pronunciation. “I am Sungmin,” he fired back, and this time it was my turn to nod and smile.

That was when I heard the intake of breath. Sungmin and I both glanced over our shoulders and saw pretty much the entirety of Super Junior, plus Alex and Uki, staring at us with open mouths from the doorway and the shoe hall. I felt my cheeks heat up, and I exchanged a nervous glance with Sungmin. “Um, hi?” I said meekly in Korean.

That’s when the mayhem erupted. Uki and Alex rushed forward and captured me in a sandwiching, bone-crushing hug, yelling excitedly in my ear. Sungmin received a wink and a light punch on the shoulder from Alex’s boyfriend, whose name I still don’t remember. Henry just stared at me as the rest of his band surrounded us, some sitting on the table, all either talking to me or Sungmin or both. Questions in both English and Korean were flying everywhere. I giggled a bit. Who knew the exchange of language could bring such a response?

Then I felt myself being shaken roughly, and a harsh screech silenced the boys. I had just barely realized it was Uki doing both before she and Alex said simultaneously in English, “You learned Korean in six hours? With Sungmin?!”

I shook my head, flustered a bit. I couldn’t speak. I could feel Sungmin’s hand squeeze my wrist reassuringly under the table, prompting me to say something. “N-no, I learned thebasics of Korean with Sungmin in six hours,” I replied. “He learned some things from me too.”

“Well, like what?” they shouted.

I giggled nervously, then said in Korean, “My hovercraft is full of eels.”

Instantly the noise level was through the roof with screeches and hysterical laughter from the boys. Eunhyuk fell of the table from where he was sitting, landing on Yesung. Leeteuk had a weird high-pitched sound emitting from his mouth as he lay breathlessly on the floor, a dimple in his left cheek clearly evident. Sungmin just squeezed my wrist tighter as my cheeks went redder. “Ryn, you do know what that means, right?” Alex asked me, tears in her eyes.

I nodded, then repeated it in English. Alex threw her head back in laughter. “Oh my gosh, you really do know! Where the heck did you learn that?” she gasped. Uki wasn’t even able to speak, she was laughing so hard.

I started to giggle a bit too. “Sungmin told me, when we first greeted each other.” I looked at him and saw his mouth open in silent laughter, grinning at me with his eyes.

After we had all calmed down, the boys wolfed down some rice and myeolchi (that’s what the brown crunchy things were; for some reason, the boys were teasing Eunhyuk incessantly about it) before separated into their two dorm groups for the night. Leeteuk led his group upstairs, and I learned that my mattress had been placed in Alex’s and Uki’s room. Alex was apparently panda-person, and Uki was the one with all of the piles of clothes. They both changed into pajamas and wiped off their makeup while I sat on my mattress in the corner, reviewing the Korean I had learned that day. I didn’t want to forget it since I had had such a breakthrough.

After the two returned from brushing their teeth, I asked them casually, “Uki? Alex? Is there any way for me to learn how to read Korean sometime?”

I could feel their gazes on me as I looked at the pages in the phrase book. “I mean,” I added hastily, “I think I would just be able to pronounce these words better, and be able to find my way around better.” I looked up at them; Alex had thick glasses her eyes, and Uki was nearly unrecognizable without makeup and in pajamas. “Would that be okay?” I asked again.

Alex casually nodded, sliding down under her comforter. “Yeah, I think we would be able to find you a book somewhere,” she said, closing her eyes and taking her glasses off.

Uki nodded in agreement. “By the way Ryn, you’re coming with us tomorrow,” she said sleepily. “We leave around… seven I think. Or was it eight? Alex, was it seven or eight?”

“I don’t know, I think seven,” Alex muttered, pulling the comforter over her head. “That requires five-thirty for breakfast. Ryn, wanna help us again?”

“Sure,” I said, surprised. Breakfast this morning seemed so far away now.

“Okay, be sure to set an alarm, or else you won’t wake up,” Uki muttered, now just a small lump on the bed. “Do you mind getting the light?”

I stood and flicked off the light, making my way back to my mattress in darkness. Only after I laid down, and just before I fell asleep, did I realize 1. Henry hadn't congratulated me; 2. I had let a guy voluntarily touch me; and 3. the man still had a promise to keep.

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Day one done, finally! And Sungmin bonding time, yay! :) Okay, I’m going to need some major proofreading in this chapter, I feel like I messed up every single bit of Korean, especially the eels part. But I couldn’t let that go to waste. :) Anyway, you guys are too hilarious! There have been eighteen or so additional guesses on Mary’s identity, and you STILL aren’t right! :D Anyway, I felt like you guys deserved a mellower, longer and more fun chapter this time around. Please comment! 

Korean notes from this chapter are in a blog post here. I'd check it out :)