[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Limitless Cafe

Johnny carefully placed the fondant sunflower he had created on the last cupcake he had been put in charge of decorating, using the tongs to pick it up and put the cupcake into the display case. 

His parents had left the twelve year old in control of the cafe for an hour while they went out to do something. Under normal circumstances that would've been a dangerous decision, but it was their least busy hour of the day and he had been helping in his parent's cafe ever since he could be trusted not to eat the treats. They had even allowed him to name the cafe and a lot of the drinks and desserts sold, and the customers found it adorable.

The Limitless cafe was run by the three of them with the bare minimum of outside staff that always ended up being college students needing summer jobs. So Johnny being left in charge for an hour in the middle of the week was not going to be the end of the world.

He started to clean up his work station and inspect if anything else needed to be done when the bell above the door rang.

"Welcome to Limitless- oh, it's you guys." He went back to what he was doing when he saw it was just his parents walking in, but his Dad drew his attention to him when he cleared his throat.

"Johnny, I'm sure you remember your cousins, Jaehyun and Mark." He just now noticed the two others standing next to his parents, the older of the two looking exhausted while the younger seemed ready to bounce off a wall at any second. 

Johnny shrugged in response, recalling having heard their names but nothing past that. They might've met as kids before his Mom's sisters split up over the world, that was probably it. Seeing them without their parents was strange and raised suspicion in his mind.

"We've been talking with their parents a lot more recently, and both your aunts decided they wanted Jaehyun and Mark to learn some responsibility and come work in the cafe. So from now on, they're under your watch and instruction." 

If Johnny had been drinking water at that point, it would've been sprayed everywhere. He stared at his parents with wide eyes, waiting for either one of them to crack a smile, say they're joking and the two were just staying for a week or so to visit. That never happened.

"What?"

"Why don't you go take them to your room and get them settled in? You boys can spend the day getting to know each other and tomorrow you can start teaching them." His Mom instructed, nudging the two closer to Johnny who was just noticing the suitcases they had next to them and the backpacks they were wearing.

"How long are they staying?"

"They're living with us now, so I suggest you let them get settled in. Your Mom and I can handle the cafe for today." Johnny sighed and hung his apron on the hook behind the counter, walking towards his room with the other two trailing behind him.

By room, his parents meant the basement. The cafe was on the ground floor while his parents had their bedroom, office and other house rooms above it, leaving him with the basement of the cafe all to himself. Eight year old him had thought it was the coolest place to have his bedroom when they moved from Chicago to Korea, and he still stood by that. It was a lot bigger of a space than most had to themselves, and part of it was storage crates for supplies, but he thought that made it even cooler.

And now he had to share that.

"Hi! I'm Mark! I'm eight years old and I've lived in Canada all my life. I can play the flute! Wanna hear?" The hyperactive one spoke up in English, causing Johnny to question if he even knew Korean. He was not about to be his babysitter and teacher.

"He's been like that the whole plane ride." The tired one whispered to Johnny in Korean as they walked down the stairs, but Mark was struggling under the weight of his belongings.

"Jaehyun, right?" He nodded. "Can he speak Korean?"

"Yes! Sort of!" Mark responded just to prove he could, and Johnny took a deep breath as he turned on the light.

The basement was mainly empty aside from his bed, dresser, and whiteboard he had on the far end. The majority of his toys had been donated when they moved from Chicago, and it's not like he did much of anything else than help at the cafe.

"You can put your stuff anywhere. I'm sure the parents will get you guys a bed or something later on." Jaehyun placed his suitcase and backpack near the wall in a neat pile while Mark threw his down by the stairs in a heap.

"This is your room?!"

"Yeah, it's nothing much." Johnny shrugged as he watched Mark look around the open space and Jaehyun went up to the whiteboard to write something down.

"When's everyone's birthdays?" He asked, and the other two responded at the same time so they had to repeat what they had said for him. Johnny could see he had wrote down all three of their birthdays at the top left of the board, making Jaehyun ten years old.

"There, so no one forgets." Jaehyun then threw himself onto Johnny's bed and took a nap without even getting into the blankets, leaving Johnny at the mercy of Mark's incessant energy.

It was safe to say he knew a lot about Mark within a few hours.