[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Too Much Shampoo

Mark was highly annoyed. He was annoyed almost the entire flight; he did watch a movie and forgot why he was annoyed for a few hours, but now he was extremely aware of why he was annoyed.

"Mark, hun, it's fine. Nothing happened. I'm sure it was just a joke." His Mom reassured him, placing her hand on his shoulder as they waited for their luggage to come around on the conveyor belt.

"Most likely done by Haechan." He muttered.

His Dad sighed, stretching out his back. "I thought you two were going to make up before we left."

"Didn't have time? Forgot? All of the above? Besides, when he stops being petty, then I'll apologize."

The parental Lees shared a glance with each other. What Mark had just said was basically the definition of petty.

"Can we just enjoy Canada? Without you two reminding me about the fight?"

His Mom raised an eyebrow, "You're the one who brought him up."

Mark waved her off, using the excuse of their luggage coming around to distract her. After grabbing their bags, they waited for Mr. Lee to call a taxi, and eventually got to the hotel they were staying at for the week.

Mr. Lee's parents had offered to let the three of them use their guest bedroom, but that was very quickly declined.

Entering the hotel room where he had his own bed instead of a bunk bed, Mark really wished they weren't staying in a hotel. Not that he wanted to stay with his ever so boring grandparents who hadn't gotten any more interesting since he was a kid. He just wished their coming back to Canada wasn't dealt with like a vacation.

It was technically a vacation, but he really liked it when it was a coming home sort of trip. When they had their own house here before they sold it because his parents followed him to Korea. 

But that was enough with being moody and sentimental. He had a phone call to make.

Without even thinking about which of his cult members would be more likely to pick up the phone, he called the first one in his contacts. Not that there was really anyone in his contacts other than the residents of the Limitless Cafe.

Chenle pried his eyes open as he recognized the sound of his phone ringing. It could've been his alarm, but that was unlikely considering he almost never set an alarm.

"Who's phone is that?" Jaemin muttered, reaching around blindly in the dark to try and make it stop.

Chenle beat him to it, answering it only because it was Mark. He really wished he put his phone on silent now.

"Time zones, Mark. Time zones."

"Oh, my bad. Forgot."

"Who is it?" Jaemin asked.

"Mark."

Almost everyone started slowly waking up as they heard voices, moving around in the dark and accidentally hitting each other.

"It's two in the morning, isn't it."

Chenle winced as he looked at his bright screen, "Two thirty-four."

"Did I wake everyone up?"

"Markley wants to know if he woke us all up now." Chenle half shouted.

Several grunts went around the cuddle prison they had put Taeyong in.

"I think you're half the problem, Lele." Sungchan responded.

"That's my purpose." He turned his attention back to Mark. "Yeah, most of us."

"Can you put me on speaker then? It's important."

"What part about two thirty-four in the morning did you not get?"

Chenle put him on speaker regardless, setting his phone down on the bed. His phone was technically now on Jaehyun, but he was in too deep of a sleep to notice.

"Can everyone hear me?"

"Sadly." Haechan mumbled groggily.

"We can, what's up?" Johnny responded, a bit more happily.

"Which one of you put 4.1 ounces of shampoo in my bag in a non-sealed container?"

Yuta raised an eyebrow, "That's very specific."

"Isn't that not allowed on a plane?" Kun asked.

Mark sighed, "Yeah, it's just over the amount allowed. I was detained for almost an hour before they decided I wasn't a threat."

Haechan snickered as those awake turned to him. Or at least where they thought he was. If someone had turned the light on they would have seen a bunch of guys all looking in different directions.

"That's funny, but it wasn't me. I swear."

"Then who was it?!"

Renjun sat up, trying to remember what Skip had asked him about when Mark was busy running around the place packing. Something about how much shampoo you could have in your luggage.

"It was Skip. Sorry, I wouldn't have told him the max amount if I knew what it was for."

"The clock demon?"

"Yup."

"I was detained because of a clock demon?"

"Demon possessing the clock." Haechan corrected. "Don't be mean."

Mark sighed an even more defeated sigh than he had before.

"And I'm the one being called mean."

Deciding that was all they needed to hear from Mark at this hour in the morning, Chenle took control.

"Well have fun in Canada! You're off to a great start!"

He hung up before Mark could possibly complain about anything else, collapsing back into his Chenle spaced shape between Jaehyun and Jungwoo. His phone was still on Jaehyun, but that'd be fixed in the morning.

As long as they knew the TSA didn't eat Mark's soul, that's all that mattered at two thirty-four in the morning.