Dear Lawyer | Jikook ff

31 - NOC (iv)

During his many years of practice, Jimin had come across all types of clients. It wasn't his first time encountering uncooperative ones, but to come across two that rejected their lawyer back to back was really a patch of bad luck.

After sipping his water, he silently looked at his palm, huffily giving out a short laugh as he said in his head: Not too bad, at least he didn't ask after my eight generations of ancestors like the previous one had.

A dozen light-years away in Wine City, the rebellious teen Joshua Dale sneezed.

"Are you trying to test how strong your body is by exposing your arms in the middle of winter?" His neighbour a few years older than him, Chester Bell, chided from the side. "You've caught a cold, haven't you?"

"Nah, there must be someone talking bad about me behind my back." Joshua furiously rubbed at the tip of its nose until it reddened, then used his knee to press down a metre-high cardboard box, binding it with twine. He impatiently cast Chester a sidelong look. "I'm helping out at this welfare home because I owe them a favour. What are you blocking the space here for?"

Moreover, this guy just had to nag his ears off, chanting a jinx for three days about him soon about to catch a cold; even bees weren't as annoying as him.

Joshua rolled his eyes, habitually mumbling a curse, "Fuck your grandmo—"

Chester raised a finger to his rudolph-red nose, mock seriously reminding him, "I heard that, remember that you're dragging down my old gran with that sentence!"

When it came to Joshua Dale, there were only two people who could counter him—his sister, and the elderly Mdm Bell.

The effect was instantaneous.

"..." Joshua grumbled and swallowed down the latter half of the sentence. He glared at Chester, soundlessly mouthed a few more words before finally restraining himself and tugging at the twine, getting back to work.

And now he wasn't even allowed to swear; however was he going to pass his days?

"You could get beaten up half as many times this year if you just swore a little less." Chester removed the contents from another cardboard box, flattening the now-empty box and piling the items aside.

Joshua, "Fuck off. Which other asshole fights with me apart from you?"

"When have I not let you have your way lately?" Chester pushed the stack towards him. "Here. Move these into the glass cabinet, too."

It was a storeroom in a welfare institution that had been shut down several years ago for some reason. Recently, the former director had returned with the intention to reopen the home and hired some extra hands to organise the years of backlogged storage, moving them out of cardboard boxes into moisture and damage resistant glass cabinets, whilst recycling those cardboard boxes as they did.

Joshua Dale, who had received a little aid from the welfare institution in his childhood, volunteered to come over and lend a hand without monetary compensation.

He took the pile of clutter that Chester had brought out, sorting the paper files and other miscellaneous items into different glass cabinets. When he reached one of the files, he suddenly went "huh?"

"What's wrong?" Chester looked over.

"This photo..." Joshua pointed to an old photo tucked in the file. "Check this guy out. Don't you think he looks like that lawyer had helped me out in court last time? The younger one?"

Chester tried to recall the name. "What's he called?"

"Ruan Ye."

"Let me see." Chester took the photo and looked at the flip side first.