Yuki smiled. She downloaded the file, opened page one, and read the first dialogue:

For the next seven weeks, that PDF lived on her tablet. She studied it on the Yamanote line, in a quiet corner of a Don Quijote café, and during lunch at her office—while the real blue books sat untouched on her desk, three floors above.

And whenever a junior asked her, “Can you help me find minna no nihongo pdf n4 ?” she’d smile, shake her head gently, and say: