“Guilty!”

Luhan only registers the last word he wants to hear as the juries all clap mildly and their chairs scrape against the marble flooring. Luhan picks up his untouched briefcase and makes a headway out through the emergency exit. He trains his eyes on the floor, avoiding enthused reporters praising him for his talent in the courtroom, dubbing him the prodigy prince. The cameras are uncomfortably close to his face, but he maintains a small smile, refusing the reporter’s lure for his comments on the case. It was an easy win, seeing as the defendant made a lot of reliable enemies whom Luhan convinced to testify. He coached them before the session and had them say what they only needed to say.

“Luhan, what do you have to say about the defendant?”

“Luhan, we heard from a source about your celebrity girlfriend-” At this, Luhan jerks his head fervently. No, no, no. What if Hae Lee gets ahold of this false information?! It would be the end of his manga dream! Disastrous!

“Luhan, what do you have to say about your colleague’s case today? Taeyong?”

Luhan swerves out of the tight flock of people, and jogs away. He finds the first corner and hides out of sight.

“Congratulations! Knew I’d find you here,” a smooth know-it-all voice shocks him.

“One of these days, I might die because of you,” Luhan cluthches his chest, still trying to catch his breath, but he smiles at the guy checking for the time.

“Up for dinner?”

“Your treat. Let’s go,” Luhan drags his best friend out of the alley, and shamelessly uses him as cover from the puzzles reporters.

“The usual please,” Yixing raises his arm to catch the chef’s attention. They sit at a table near the kitchen. Luhan raises his arm and points to himself. The old chef nods.

They are sitting in their regular ramen shop, under yellow bulbs and behind fancy paper curtains. The TV is buzzing softly with the news of today’s cases, since Luhan and Taeyong both won theirs. Yixing whistles at the half a minute footage of Luhan hurrying out of the room. Their steaming hot salt ramen with extra Chasiu (pork) sits untouched. Luhan decides to dive in ahead.

The news turn to Taeyong just as Yixing slurps his first spoonful of the soup.

“Just across the Prodigy Prince’s courtroom today, another trial was being held, with the Ace Angel helping the defendant. Not surprisingly, he wins, although it was a very close one.”

“Do you have additional comments for your fans, Taeyong?” His face flashes on the screen, his perfectly aligned teeth and gelled up hair with recently tweezed eyebrows.

“Ace Angel always saves the day,” he winks. Luhan chokes on his Chasiu. Yixing guffaws, performing his rightful duty as Luhan’s only loyal friend. Sort of.

“That’s gross. My ears are bleeding,” Luhan shudders.

“But that’s not fair, you always win the case too.”

“Even I have a secret to my perfect record,” Luhan snorts. Yixing is still laughing, which is getting on Luhan’s nerves. He eyes Yixing’s Chasiu.

“What is it?” Yixing muses, slurping on the noodle.

“Do you really want to know?”

Yixing rolls his eyes, and Luhan leans in, dropping his voice to barely a whisper.

“I pick out the guilty verdicts. If I take the case, the defendant has no way out,” he smiles wickedly. Yixing shakes his head.

“You’re scary sometimes, you know that?”

“I can’t be that bad. I do my job. I put people in places where they belong. Criminals should be behind the bars,” he states morosely, studying the bamboo pattern on the curtain.

“What if I get framed one day?”

“Why would anyone have the idiotic sense to blame a goody two shoes like you?” Luhan breathes. Yixing scrunches his nose, but doesn’t deny it. Between the both of them, he does seem like the goody two shoes.

“Hey, I have big news.”

“Are you pregnant?” Luhan says, unfazed.

“One week old,” Yixing declares, not missing a beat. “No, you shrimp. I’m opening a café.”

“Oh, interesting. Where?” Luhan turns to face Yixing.

“No idea yet. But would you be interested in working there on weekends or on your free time?” Yixing pokes a funny looking Chasiu.

“Yixing, I work full time in a firm that’s starting to enslave me.”

“You’re only in it for that girl. What’s her name? Lee Hi? Lee Min?” Yixing picks up the Chasiu, and squints at it.

“It’s Hae Lee!” Luhan is nearing supersonic frequency pitch when he screeches. Yixing cackles so Luhan quickly adds, “And no, I’m not.”

“Just ask her out already. It’s not like you’ve got all the time in the world.”

“Maybe I do,” Luhan droops like a withering flower. “Anyways, yeah, sure. I’ll help out in your café. As long as I get free drinks every week.”

“Once a week, deal.” Yixing puts the pork in his mouth and spits it out instantly. Luhan’s jaw drops and he howls in laughter.

“That was a nasty trick, you twit. I really hate ginger,” Yixing sniffs sadly.

“Well stop bullying me, or I’ll make you look like a real ginger.”

“You are abusing your heavenly power.”

“I know,” Luhan grins.

“You know you’d get demoted to basically a street vermin if they catch you abusing your powers a million times a week, right?” A cool voice makes Luhan jump fifty feet into the air, dropping his apartment card key. He was about to scan it when his devil of a friend shows up.

“Sehun,” he exhales and rolls his eyes. “What do you need?”

“Nothing,” he shrugs. “Just checking on you,” he grins.

“Why didn’t you join us for dinner?” Luhan thinks Sehun probably saw them in the ramen shop.

“I had errands to run,” he waves it off. “Anyway, just reminding you as Boss says I should…”

“Reminding me to?”

“He says… and I quote… ‘If I catch you turning chickens to gingers again or anything like that, I will turn your into a chicken’,” Sehun ends with a bow.

“That might make life more interesting at least,” Luhan taps his chin thoughtfully.

Sehun smacks his friend’s in response, which makes Luhan yelp.

“Just checking to see if they’re still intact,” Sehun nods and disappears into the shadow.