"Awful 12 hours, but I've had worse," said Richardis "It was a plane flight, what do you expect?" Ayame-chan¹ laughed and wrapped her arms around Richardis. "Good to have you back," she said, after she had let go. She offered to pull Richardis’s trolley and the two young women headed in direction of the next exit.

Richardis couldn’t stop looking at her former host sister. Ayame-chan had grown more beautiful than ever, her long black hair falling perfectly on her shoulders, her eyes still sparkling with the same wit she had known from her 3½ years ago. Ayame-chan was again the only person around whom she actually knew and trusted.

“I was responsible for you having to leave, it’s only right I get you set up in this crazy place again, don’t you think?” asked Ayame with a trace of guilt in her voice when they reached one of the numerous exit doors. “It was just as much my fault.” said Richardis and put her hand on the handle of the door that separated her from the beginning of her new life. “There’s no going back once we’re on the bus” said Ayame, raising an eyebrow when Richardis paused with her hand on the handle. “Maybe you want to reconsider,” reflected Richardis “Back in Germany I stuck to the rules and social norms like a model-citizen. I’ll get on your nerves with my conformity.” “I’m not worried,” laughed Ayame and together they pushed open the door.

On the bus Ayame began telling Richardis about her current life and how it it come to be. They had e-mailed each other after the exchange year had been cut short, but once back in Germany Richardis’s entire life in Japan seemed so surreal in retrospective, that most of Ayame's reports seemed hard to imagine.

Ayame had successfully completed high school and her marks had been sufficient for a decent university, but she had always dreaded the prospect of becoming an office lady and going the conventional career road – so she had done the exact opposite of what society expected of her, worked a variety of part time jobs, until she could afford her own small apartment and finally succeeded in being scouted for a hostess club.

“It’s not forever though,” said Ayame. “Obviously there’s an age line, which if you cross it you are left jobless, unless you have some Plan B. For example if you have saved enough to open your own establishment like my Mama-san².” “Mama-san… that’s basically a hostess’s boss, right?” asked Richardis. She had informed herself and weighed the risks of joining the Water trade³, but she was still unsure about lots of details.

“In my case yes!” answered Ayame. “My Mama-san looks after all the hostesses in her establishment and she is the owner and boss of the whole place. But that’s not always the case. The owner might be someone completely different, who just put the Mama-san in charge of anything concerning the girls. Some places you have no idea who owns them – those I recommend you do not sign a work contract with. Most decent places the owner is publically visible and still does accounting and checks on the staff now and then. That’s the kind of place you’ll want to be working at.”

“Do you think I’m qualified?” asked Richardis, feeling slightly insecure. “Are you kidding me? You babble Japanese like you were born to do it and you are the cutest Gaijin⁴ I know!” said Ayame earnestly. “I’m not cute!” complained Richardis purposely frowning. “Not if you put on that face,” laughed Ayame, playfully nudging Richardis, who giggled and nudged right back, causing a passenger in the row behind them to shush them.

“You’re gonna need a cute nickname!” continued Ayame in a low voice. Richardis nodded. No Japanese person had ever been able to pronounce her name – the German “ch” sound just didn’t exist in most languages. When she had first come to Japan, she had asked everyone to call her “Richi”, which was her nickname back home. That however had turned out to sound more like the Japanese pronunciation of “leech”, which meant when someone called her full name they’d call for “Leech Herutsusuprungu-san”.

Richardis thought for a bit. “I know,” she finally said. “I’ll go with Rie.”  “Oooooh, Rie-chan!” exclaimed Ayame. “Adorable!!” “Shh… not that loud!” Richardis hushed Ayame with a smile. “Sorry!” Ayame whispered, then she turned around to the lady, who had shushed her before and told her very politely: “My little sister here is having a baby! I apologize for our loudly expressed excitement.” The lady looked at Ayame a little astonished, then she smiled. “Oh, Congratulations. Oh, of course.” The lady stood up and exclaimed to the entire bus: “This young lady is having a baby daughter and she will be called Rie-chan!” The whole back of the bus, in which a traveling group of elderly people was seated applauded and cheered heartily. Ayame cheered with them loudly.

It was neither cold nor particularly sunny, still Junsu was wearing both a scarf and sunglasses as he arrived at Narita airport. He had been impatient for the entire flight’s time and was one of the first people to exit the plane, get his minimal luggage and reach the exit portal. Wistfully he remembered the times when he could call up a SM Ent. private jet for the journey. Not only had it been faster, it hadn’t required any costuming. On the other hand there had been a lot of nasty memories in connection with those jet flights, which had let to him surrendering to public 1^st class flights instead.

He cursed himself. What a f**king luxury problem. Private jet or 1^st class. Other people never even left their hometown, others spend every week making long uncomfortable flights – what was he complaining about. He hurried through the exit portal hastily. He needed to get away from those last few weeks in Seoul. They had made him feel like a bitter old man, even though he and the company had finally managed to get their foot in the door of the Japanese music business.

It was when he had nothing much to do, when all sorts of thoughts came to him that he preferred not to have. How he was only 3 years away from turning 30, how he still wasn’t satisfied with his musical legacy, how on the other hand if he never got out of the business he was never going to have a normal time out on the street, unrecognized in the public eye, finally one of many. “There should be a switch,” he thought. “One should be able to switch from special to ordinary… from attention to no attention,” he sighed. “But that’s still only possible in comics and movies.”

Junsu found himself standing outside the exit gate, eyes fixed on the gigantic airport clock, while other passengers streamed past him. There was one other way to fight off the nagging questions he didn’t want to ask himself. A few unique people were able to get his mind off his troubles. His twin brother Junho⁵ included. Junho was late.

20 minutes past their agreed meeting time Junsu decided to take a seat in the adjacent waiting area.

He slumped his backpack on a seat, shoved his suitcase under it and sat down in an entirely empty row. “How about some positive thoughts?” he started a conversation with himself. “King Records-daughter Pearl Station⁶ has agreed to work with us. That’s good. They manage a number of decent artists, they have a big studio. There’s only paperwork separating us from recording now.” He sighed. Only paperwork? Really? He knew from experience that Japanese bureaucracy didn’t work fast and that it could be weeks before anything really interesting would start happening. He’d call his Japanese lawyer, Toma-san. She was good. Maybe she’d be able to speed up the process.

He told his phone to remind him to call Toma-san. In front of him the head of a boy who had been leaning over his game console before spun around suddenly. Junsu had looked up at the sudden movement and now he wasn’t sure whether the boy could see him through he’s sunglasses. “Don’t recognize me!” he pleaded silently. “You are too young to know me. Go back to your Pokémon! God, please don’t let him recognize me.” The boy continued to stare at Junsu intently and with increasing interest.

At the same moment two girls passed in front of the boy, laughing loudly, which caught his attention and he spun around to look. Junsu sighed with relief and sent a silent “thank you” to the two young women who were heading for the exit doors. He caught a bit of their conversation and was surprised to hear a foreign woman say in flawless Japanese: “I’ll get on your nerves with my conformity”. And then she was gone through the door with her friend already, before his memory could get hold of anything but her voice.

“If we don’t watch out, they’ll invade our very homes someday” said a familiar voice somewhere right of Junsu and he turned with a smile to see his twin Junho stride towards him. Junsu jumped up from his seat, met his brother halfway and engulfed him in a warm embrace. “Technically… we are foreign aliens, too, remember?” “Been living here for two long. And really – you, my dear brother are the invader! Here I was having the Japanese market all to myself for a few years and back you are, ready to outshine me.” For a moment Junsu wasn’t sure whether the bitterness in Junho’s voice was real or not.

“I was expecting a warmer welcome!” he said turning back to get his backpack and suitcase. “You know me,” shrugged Junho. “I say exactly what comes into my head around you. You are never going to get anything but the honest me. Let me help you with that!” Junho took Junsu's suitcase and began pulling it towards the exit.

Through the door they found themselves standing bathed in sunlight by the spring sky of Chiba prefecture⁷. “The sky is beautiful,” Junsu commented, finally finding some use for his sunglasses as looked up directly towards the sun. “Yeah, let’s get a taxi and get out of here,” said Junho.

^{1 -chan is a Japanese suffix that shows affection between friends, it may be added to a girl's or women's name, theoretically also to a men's, but unless he's 3 years old he is being trolled if someone calls him -chan}

^{2 -san is a Japanese honorific suffix that is the equivalent if "Mr." or "Ms." in English}

^{3 "Water trade" translation of the Japanese term for "night-time entertainment business"}

^{4 "Gaijin" is the Japanese word for foreigner, literally means "outside person"}

^{5 "King Records" is a real Japanese entertainment company, the daughter-firm "Pearl Station" is fictitious}

^{6 Junsu really does have a twin brother called Kim Junho! Not kidding! You Xiatics out there - I don't need to tell you :D}

^{7 The big Tokyo airport is actually not in Tokyo, it's in the neighbour prefecture Chiba.}

Thank you for reading all the way until now! :D Let me know if anything is confusing! I like to throw around Japanese words (learning since 4 years). I try to keep things realistic, so the facts about the hosting world that come up are well researched or guess work based on research (if not otherwise stated). I've been to Japan (9 months exchange programme) so I do my best to paint a realistic picture of the place and people. The Japanese characters will be a mix of what I have experienced and what my mind will spin further from that.

Finally I adore Kim Junsu - so no wonder he is featured in this story - but I have never done a detailed character study of him. I don't think that even if I watch dozens of variety shows and interviews and whatnot that I'll actually be able to portray him the way he his. Maybe he is douche - a gorgoueus and talented one ... but maybe he is still a douche. And maybe he really is as wonderful, quirky and good-hearted as I like to think he is. Point is: I don't actually know what he's truly like - so don't rely on me if you are trying to figure out the Junsu. :D :D