He couldn't believe it. How could he have forgotten his money in the apartment? And at such a crucial time of his life too! Onew groaned, convinced that he must be the unluckiest fool in the world.

The girl eyed him for a moment, and then went back to her work.

Could he run back really quickly, through the paparazzi and the bear and the fangirls? Perhaps he could make it in time, before the managers woke and ushered him off to rehearsal. It was only two streets away, after all, and Onew was...well, not as athletic as Minho or as agile as Taemin. But he could run. Especially if his life depended on it.

Then he remembered the balloon, and groaned. No way was he going back to see something as weird as that. Nope, apartment was out. What other options did he have?

If this was Korea, perhaps he could have just flashed his teeth and then asked for some chicken. He was the leader of SHINee after all. He would've been recognized sooner or later. But this was Japan, and the Korean customs didn't apply...

Except...

Onew jumped up eagerly, "Oujou-san?" He made sure to use the correct title this time. "Miss? Would you give me food if I perform a service for you?"

The girl turned around, wiping her hands, and gave him another quizzical look. "A service?" She repeated. "You don't...look like a priest to me."

"No," Onew had only seen Jonghyun do it before. It was a pretty shameless thing to do, but hey, Onew was desperate here. He took a deep breath, stepped backwards a little, and arranged the stools in front of him like drums. It took him a while to figure out the beat, but the song was more familiar to him than the back of his hands.

God, who thought the first time he sang publicly in Japan would be in a street like this? The managers might get angry at him. Onew glanced at the girl, who was watching him with apprehension and expectation. She wouldn't tell, would she?

Oh well, all for the sake of chicken.

Onew began to sing.

"A-yo, when it’s tough
Doong tah dak, lean on the rhythm, oh
With our song for you
Everyone a-yo, everyone a-yo..."

Why was the girl ducking behind the counter? But Onew was too professional to stop now, and besides, a small crowd on their way to work had gathered.

"A-yo, when you can’t sleep
Tap brush it off, leave it to the rhythm, oh
With the anticipation of the unfolding tomorrow
Everyone a-yo, everyone a-yo"

Technically, Taemin was supposed to sing the next line. But given that the kid was snoring his nose off back in the apartment, Onew had no choice but to cover for him.

He got to the end, stopped, and got a smattering of applause from the crowd. Onew smiled widely, putting on his best idol face, and bowed to them all. Then he turned anxiously to the one person who's opinion mattered.

"Can I please have some chicken?" He clasped his hands together, unconciously using his aegyo. Good lord, he was going all out this morning. "It's very important."

"Are the demons gone?" She looked around at the crowd and then back at him, eyes wide. "You don't look like a priest but you sound like one."

'Akuma?' Onew thought, bewildered. What was that? This girl was getting stranger and stranger by the moment. Not knowing what else to do, he nodded.

"Here," she handed him the entire pot. "I'll go now and leave you to do your own work. And I'm sorry I can't pay you for your services." She ducked behind the back door hurriedly, muttering to herself. "I know grandpa gave me those warding charms...they've got to be here somewhere..."

---------

Not that Onew heard anything she said after that, of course.

Heaven!

Slowly, he opened the lid of the pot, and the delicious smell of chicken mixed together with something else bomboarded his senses. He looked around, found two chopsticks in a cup on the side of the table, politely said "Itadakimasu~", and then dug in.

There were no words to describe his quiet joy. Normally, Onew wasn't that expressive of a person, unless he was singing. But now he could hardly hold back the grin that split his face in two.

'Oh, chicken.' He thought. 'How did I survive so long without you?'

----------

The girl came back loaded with paper charms, which she set about pasting onto all the wooden surfaces of the shop. Onew watched her carefully, before venturing to say: "Thank you for the meal."

The pile of paper charms dropped from her arms in a flurry of chaos. She froze for a moment, before turning on him with the face of a severely ticked off monster.

"You WHAT?"

Onew jumped up from his seat, frightened. He gestured to the empty pot and the two chopsticks laid out neatly beside it. "I - I was..."

"You ATE IT? Even though it was for the DEMON? What kind of priest are you?"

This time Onew thought he could understand her words a little better, and the blood drained away from his face. "I'm not a priest! Where did you get that idea?"

"Then what were all the rituals for?" She gestured wildly, panicked. "What was the singing for? Weren't you performing an exorcism?!?"

Onew groaned, putting his face in his hands. 'Why does it always work out for Jonghyun and not for me?' he thought bitterly.

------------

Five minutes later, Onew was helping Ikki clean up the kitchen. Ikki was the girl's name. She had come from the countryside by herself five months ago, in order to attend Tokyo University. Unfortunately, the price had been too high for her family, and so she had dropped out and was now working to earn a living. Her chicken came from her family farm, and she sent her grandparents nearly all of her monthly wages in exchange for the chicken.

Onew thought that was very sweet.

"No wonder you're the only chicken vendor in all of Japan." He commented, stacking the last of the paper charms onto the table. "Now that I think about it, Japan has to import a lot of its food, especially since the mountains aren't good for raisinig livestock. And since chicken are troublesome to ship overseas, even KFC doesn't sell chicken anymore."

Ikki gave him a sidelong look. "You're a little obsessed with chicken, aren't you?"

Onew shut up.

The deal had been this. Actually, the chicken he had eaten was worth around 700 yen, and the minimum wage for a Japanese worker was also 700 yen an hour. However, Ikki was from a poor family and couldn't afford to pay him nearly that much. So, Onew, as a foreigner and a law-breaker, would have to work for 100 yen an hour. That turned out to be 7 days of helping Ikki clean and cook and serve the customers. And to sing.

"You have a good face," she had said, inspecting him carefully with a scowl. "And you can sing. So if you're going to get any forgiveness from me, you better attract some new customers."

And so, since Onew could hardly change the schedule that his managers had set for him, he would have to wake up every morning one hour earlier to work in a chicken shop.

Personally, he didn't quite mind that.

The chicken had been delicious.