[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Cult Rules

"Wait so do you guys just bring random kids home?" Haechan asked skeptically, quickly snatching back his sunglasses from Mark and putting them back on.

"Trust me, this is all new." Johnny turned to the kids who were behind Jaehyun. "What are your names?"

"This is Sicheng, and we don't know who that kid is. Does your Mom have medicine or something? He's sick."

"Sit. Mark, come help me carry stuff down." Johnny jumped up from his bed, motioning for Sicheng to sit where he was.

"But Mr. Johnny-"

"Just Johnny."

"Yeah that. I have to hug Haechan until he heals."

"Okay, YangYang, come on." YangYang followed Johnny up the stairs to go get water, crackers, ibuprofen, cough drops, and vitamin c. The only things he knew worked for colds, assuming that's what he had.

While Johnny and YangYang were doing that, the kids started asking Sicheng questions. Jeno thought he had recognized him from the hallways at school, and it turns out they did go to the same school. They had forgotten that Jaehyun had brought another kid with him until he sat down on the floor next to Mark and just started staring at him.

"I'm Mark, this is Haechan, Jeno, my cousin Jaehyun and-"

"I'm YangYang!"

"And I'm Johnny." Mark burst into laughter at the confusion of everyone else when Johnny and YangYang returned to the basement with the supplies they gathered.

"Ignore him. What's your name?"

Once again the kid didn't respond and just sat there. They shrugged, deciding not to push it and just take care of Sicheng. He wasn't used to this much attention, and he looked to Jaehyun for help when it was getting overwhelming.

"Guys, don't crowd him. Give him some space." Johnny and YangYang backed up a bit, sitting down on Mark's bed with Jeno. The other kid stayed where he was on the floor despite invitations to join them on a bed, and Jaehyun stayed standing by Sicheng in case he needed something else.

Jaehyun started telling them about how he found the two of them, and explained Sicheng's situation with the occasional input from Sicheng himself. Needless to say everyone was livid at how his parents treated him, but switched to properly introducing themselves when they saw he was getting uncomfortable.

"Birthdays! That's what we need!" Mark jumped up from Jaehyun's bed and ran to the whiteboard, uncapping the marker. Haechan whined at the sudden loss of cuddles, but they ignored him.

"Why?" Sicheng asked, and Mark practically deflated.

"Because we all have our birthdays up here so they're not forgotten..." After a nod from Jaehyun, Sicheng told them his birthday and Mark dutifully wrote it on the board. Turns out Jaehyun and Sicheng were the same age, but Mark didn't really care because he was trying to figure out a way to get the other kid to tell him his birthday.

"You wanna write your birthday on the board?" Mark held out the marker, and to his surprise the kid got up and wrote his birthday in the same format they had been using, meaning his name was also up there.

"Jungwoo. Cute." The kid- Jungwoo just shrugged, sitting back down on the floor where he was as Mark went back to hugging Haechan.

"With our growing cult, we should have ground rules."

"Like no sunglasses?" Haechan shot a glare at Jeno through his glasses, but Johnny raised his eyebrow at him.

"Um, I think you've forgotten who's room this is."

"Ours, and I want to know what his two brain cells come up with." Jaehyun countered, and Haechan scoffed.

"I'll ignore that. Anyways, I was thinking we could all just talk comfortably?"

"You're just saying that because you don't use honorifics anyways and you don't want to get in trouble."

"No, I like this." YangYang backed Haechan up, and Johnny just looked at Jaehyun with a sigh.

"Alright, what were you thinking then?"

"We're brothers. Nothing more. Nothing less." The boys smiled at Johnny's rule suggestion.

"Cool, so I can do this now." Haechan tilted his head to kiss Mark's cheek, and the victim of playful love started screaming and tried to stop him.

"Sure."

"Wednesdays, Sundays and Saturday nights are for forced serious time. So if you don't want to talk about something serious going on, your name goes on the whiteboard and you have to talk about it one of those days." Jaehyun added in, but that one didn't receive the smiles Johnny's did.

"So, talking comfortably, we're brothers, and grandpa's serious time. Anything else?" Haechan asked, but they all shook their heads. Except Sicheng, he looked kind of fidgety.

"Mom says I can't join cults."

"This isn't a cult. Trust me." Jeno reassured him, but he didn't seem to trust that very much.

"So besides Sicheng, is anyone else sleeping over?" YangYang and Mark's hands shot up in the air at Johnny's question.

"Just Sicheng? Perfect." Both Mark and YangYang glared at Johnny, even though Mark was a now permanent resident.

The boys did a good job taking care of Sicheng that night, though, and it became their personal mission to make Jungwoo smile. It didn't turn out to be that hard, but it was all they were going to get from him. And when Jeno and Haechan left the group to walk back home for the night, Jungwoo just got up, walked out with them and went home.