[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Home Alone

Mr. and Mrs. Suh rushed around as they tried to get themselves ready for the night. They had a meeting they had to attend for a few of hours, but they had forgotten about it. Meaning there was no one around to watch the kids and they knew there was no way the kids that didn't live there weren't leaving.

"You boys will be okay, right? Don't open the door for anyone, and don't go outside to play. And don't burn the building down, please." Mrs. Suh instructed, fixing her hair using her phone screen reflection.

"Yes, we'll be just fine." Johnny reassured her, giving her and his Dad a hug. This wasn't the first time he had been home alone, but it would most certainly be the longest.

"Kun's in charge."

"What?"

"Listen to him. And don't bring home any new friends. Got it?" Johnny nodded, but he was still sulking that Kun was put in charge even though he was the oldest.

"Bye!"

"Bye, Mark! There's watermelon in the fridge upstairs for you." She blew him a kiss, grabbing her purse and leaving the cafe.

"I swear, she loves playing favorites."

Mark just shrugged, heading down to the basement. Johnny had hoped he wouldn't say that Kun had been put in charge so he could say he was, but that was one of the first things he shouted down the stairs.

"They're gone! And Kun's in charge!"

"I really don't think your Mom likes you anymore." Snickered Jaehyun.

"Yeah, she always gets me strawberries now."

"No, that's Doyoung." Yuta corrected, having caught him restocking the fridge one day.

Jeno smiled across the room brightly at him, but Doyoung just kept his eyes trained on the page he was reading for school. He heard them though, and was now trying to disappear.

"Yeah, yeah. Johnny's Mom doesn't like him and those two are sappy. Now what are we going to do?" Haechan asked, having been waiting for the adults to leave so they could do whatever they wanted.

"How about homework? I know you haven't done it in a week." Kun gave him a pointed look.

"Week and a half."

"That doesn't help your case."

"We're not going to waste our night because Haechan didn't do his homework, right?" YangYang asked, looking to Jaehyun for help.

"Absolutely no way. We're getting music going and we're doing something fun. Haechan can fail if he wants."

"Thank you."

"There's no dinner, though." Johnny pointed out, surprised his parents didn't leave them at least something.

"That's why I'm in charge."

"What do you mean there's no dinner? She said there's watermelon."

"It's a good thing Mark's not in charge." Haechan mumbled, YangYang laughing as the only one who heard him.

"In a little bit I can start dinner with some help. Does anyone know how to cook?" The kids just looked at Kun blankly.

"I can help." Doyoung offered, knowing enough from all the nights he's had to cook for himself or his parents.

"We should all help! That'd be fun!"

"Mark, you can't even cook eggs. Are you trying to burn the place down?" Jaehyun teased, prompting Jungwoo to hug Mark as consolation.

Within a couple of minutes, Sicheng and above were heading to the upstairs portion of the cafe to make dinner. Yuta and Sicheng were more like assistants who had no idea what they were doing, but they probably sped up the process.

The younger half of the kids stayed in the basement and started a game of twister and zombie. Basically one person stood off to the side and called out random yoga poses or whatever they could think of that everyone else had to do, while someone went blind folded around the basement to find them.

Chenle somehow won every time despite having just sat there in the middle of the floor because YangYang forgot to explain what was going on.

"Dinner!" Yuta shouted down the stairs, and the kids came running up. Chenle was going to just sit there, but then Jungwoo ended up pulling him to his feet and bringing him upstairs.

With only six chairs at the Suh dinner table, the messy eaters sat there while everyone else either stood, sat on the floor, or on the counter. It looked chaotic, especially since dinner was omelets, tteokbokki, ramen, and watermelon.

"So what now?" Sicheng asked, but before he could get a response the adults could be heard coming in.

"Now we go back to hiding in the basement."