[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Another One

Leaving Taeil and Kun in charge of the cafe while they were gone, Johnny and Taeyong left to check out the second cafe location they had found the other day online. It would take a few hours to drive there, so they were already planning on making a day out of it.

"Shotgun!"

Taeyong sighed as he watched Johnny run to the passenger side, hopping into the car. He opened the driver side door, just to see Yuta sitting there. Shutting the door, Taeyong climbed into the back seat.

"You could've just said you didn't want to drive." 

"Yeah, but that wouldn't have been fun."

"We ready to go?" Yuta asked, starting the car regardless.

Johnny nodded, albeit skeptical. "Do you even know where we're going?"

"Nope, but you can tell me on the way. I've been waiting for twenty minutes."

That would explain why he suddenly walked out of the cafe when they mentioned leaving, but they didn't think they took twenty minutes to get around. Alright, maybe they did.

Johnny took over the radio while Taeyong set up the gps on his phone to direct Yuta. Even with the gps they got lost a few times because Jaehyun had thought it would be hysterical to teach Yuta the Korean directional words opposite of what they were years ago.

So when Yuta was told to go left, he went right. It was a whole mess.

But they did get there within three hours, only a few minutes longer than if they didn't get lost. No one knew how that worked, but it did.

The cafe location they were checking out was in Daegu on a side street in the middle of the city. Not a bad location at all, considering the nearest coffee shop was two streets away.

A realtor was already waiting for them outside of the recently closed building, clipboard and paperwork in hand. They were really hoping that they weren't going to have to buy the lot today since they wanted to bring out everyone to check it out first.

"Hello, I hope you weren't waiting for us long."

The realtor stuck out his hand which Johnny shook.

"Not at all, I just got here myself. Would you like to head in?"

"Sure!"

Pulling out a key from his suit jacket pocket, he unlocked the front door and motioned for them to come in.

"The family living above the cafe just moved out last week, so I've been authorized to give them both to you at a lower price if you're interested. Kind of like a bundle."

Johnny nodded, too busy checking out the place to talk.

It was around the same size as the original Limitless Cafe, just a little bigger. The kitchen set up was in the back left corner, similar to how their cafe was arranged before the parents moved out and they changed it.

Overall, it would need some work to fit their vibe, but at least there was a giant wall for Renjun to paint his mural on. If there wasn't, Johnny wouldn't have even considered the place.

"Is there a basement?" Yuta asked, surprising the realtor who was talking about the renovations the last owners had done to the place.

"Yeah, there's a basement. Would you like to see it?"

Johnny stopped in his inspection and the three of them watched as the man pulled up a hatch in the floor. Using their phone flashlights, they climbed down the metal rungs of the ladder and switched on the overhead lights.

It was a lot more grungy than their basement, and there appeared to be some water damage, but nothing too bad. With a bit of sprucing up, it'd be just fine.

"We'll have to check with Jisung on the ladder if that's okay for him," Taeyong pointed out, "and you know they're going to create ghost stories just to spook each other out."

"If they won't, I will." Yuta offered.

"Oh, you guys have kids?"

"Nope."

"Lots."

"Sort of?"

"They're not biologically or legally ours and it's very confusing." Johnny wrapped up.

The realtor nodded skeptically, bringing the three of them to the apartment above the cafe after they finished checking out the basement.

In conclusion, it would serve their purposes after a bit of work, and it was too good of a deal to pass up. Unfortunately, they did have to sign off on it right there and then because there were other offers on the place (whether or not that was made up so the realtor could move on was unclear).

It was nice, though. They liked it.

They sat down for lunch at a nearby restaurant before they were going to head back, almost all of them finding it strange to have someone else wait on them. Yuta didn't think it was that different from normal.

"Do you think the others realize a second cafe means splitting up?" Johnny asked.

Taeyong took a bite of his sandwich to avoid answering, and Yuta shrugged.

"If they haven't gotten suspicious of how everyone is being trained now, I don't think they will until we mention it."

"Or we could actually hire people and then we wouldn't have to split up." Taeyong suggested.

Johnny sighed deeply. This is exactly why he wanted everyone to look at the second location before they bought it.

"Let's cross that bridge when we get there."