[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

A Family Dinner

"You're late."

That was the greeting Jaemin got when he came down to the basement with a garbage bag behind him. No "hi Nana!" or "oh hey! We missed you!" Just, "you're late."

"I didn't know there was a time I had to show up." He fired back at Jeno, setting the bag down by the stairs.

"Whatcha got?" Chenle asked, already heading over to peek inside and see if there was anything he could throw at someone.

"Nothing fun. Mom made me go through all my clothes that were small today. She wanted me to bring them here so Jisung would have something closer to his size."

"You had to do that too? My dad sent me over with clothes too." Taeyong nodded towards the other garbage bag that was sitting next to him.

"So Jungwoo and WinWin don't have an excuse to steal hoodies anymore?" Johnny asked, eyeing the two. It wasn't helping that WinWin just so happened to be in one of his sweatshirts too.

"They rarely sleep over. Why are you even giving them your hoodies?" Doyoung questioned with all the skepticism he cared to muster.

"Because we're cold and they're comfy." WinWin answered, pulling the sleeves over his hands. Taeil then offered cuddles for warmth, but they were denied.

The boys looked over at the stairs when they heard the basement door open, not expecting anyone else to come. They were all there now, except Renjun, but they didn't actually expect him to come back ever. Unless Haechan took something of his again.

"Now why are my grandbabies down here? Doesn't that seem suspicious that you're making all these kids hang out in a basement?"

"Mom, you already knew Johnny's room was down there."

"Oh I did, didn't I."

"Grandma!" Mark and Johnny went running to the top of the stairs to hug her before she could even get down the rest of them.

"Where's the awkward one?"

"Waiting for you to come down the stairs so you don't get knocked over." Jaehyun answered, getting up from his bed.

"There's no fun in that." But Jaehyun remained at the bottom of the stairs to receive his bone crushing hug there.

"Oh I'm sorry. Did I interrupt your cult meeting?" She genuinely did look apologetic, and WinWin refrained from screaming that it wasn't a cult. Instead, he whispered it under his breath.

"No, we were just hanging out. We're missing one of our members, he specializes in dealing with spirits and the devil." Johnny piped up.

"Is his name Renjun? Because he's talking with your dad upstairs about how goats were considered to be a symbol of the devil. He's a sweet little boy."

"I told you he'd come back!" Haechan flicked Jisung's ear, the younger immediately whining about it.

Kun then took the opportunity to introduce them all so she wouldn't think they were being rude, and Lucas moved from his crate to the floor next to Bella so she could sit.

"I've already heard a lot about you boys, and I'm upset no one ever brought you out to me. But who's going to start telling me everything about everything?"

Mark happily started filling her in on what was new with the others chiming in every time he opened his mouth to talk. They were in the middle of a story about Hendery, Lucas and YangYang almost getting arrested when their grandpa, Renjun, and Mr. and Mrs. Suh came down to join them with dinner.

They all ate together as if it was a normal, casual family dinner, listening to whatever the kids thought of next to tell. When they had finished, their grandpa pulled out a guitar from seemingly nowhere.

"I've got this guitar, but I don't know what song to play. So who wants to learn?"

The rest of the night was then filled with Taeil, Mark, and Xiaojun being taught how to play and more stories. Just a very peaceful night together that just so happened to involve their grandma encouraging them to form an actual cult and claiming them all to be her grandchildren now.