[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Basement Soccer

"The score is currently 7 to 25. Foreign Swaggers in the lead. Things aren't looking so good for the Don't Need Your Love or Chewing Gum, Superhuman Cherry Bomb Chain Bosses, but who knows. It's anyone's game."

"Hen! Stop commentating and help us out here!" Jaemin complained, struggling to keep the ball in his possession to get closer to the goal.

"I'm not on your team!"

"Oh yeah. Well can someone help me out then?!"

Haechan came from the side at Jaemin's request, slide tackling Jaemin to the floor and giving the ball to the Foreign Swaggers. Which was an accident, but those types of accidents had been going on the entire game.

"Haechan!"

"I was trying!"

Yuta received the ball from Lucas and weaved his way the rest of the distance to the goal, chipping it over Jisung's head and into the laundry basket behind him. 26 to 7.

By Foreign Swaggers, they really didn't have all the foreigners. With Mark gone there was thirteen of them against nine, throwing the teams uneven. So Renjun and Kun were on the Don't Need Your Love or Chewing Gum, Superhuman Cherry Bomb Chain Bosses team.

And when Jisung and Hendery were told to play goalie, they were just sitting in front of a laundry basket while the defenders kept them from getting kicked. Except Hendery had switched positions with Chenle and was now running into almost everyone who wasn't paying attention.

Cheers erupted as Sungchan helped Taeil out of a rough situation, guarding him up to the goal. Jungwoo then laid on top of Ten and Jaehyun who had gotten knocked down, stopping them from getting up until Johnny pulled him off. 

Sungchan then passed the ball to Doyoung who had given up a long time ago and was just standing there, giving him the perfect chance to score. Sungchan had been setting up all of the goals that the Don't Need Your Love or Chewing Gum, Superhuman Cherry Bomb Chain Bosses had gotten, but even then there were a couple of goals that had been thrown away because someone kicked it wrong.

"26 to 8! The Don't Need Your Love or Chewing Gum, Superhuman Cherry Bomb Chain Bosses are really catching up now!"

"I feel like the child is mocking us." Taeyong muttered, an idea coming to mind.

He whispered the plan to Doyoung, Taeil, Kun and Jungwoo, just now noticing half the Foreign Swaggers was older kids and that was probably why they were winning. If he had mentioned it to the younger part of the team, most of which was the 00 line, they would've spoiled it before it could even be put in place.

Just as YangYang and Xiaojun were about to score the 27th goal, the two of them having tied themselves together earlier in the game thinking that would give them double the soccer playing ability, Kun and Doyoung advanced on either side, tickling them.

They instantly dropped to the ground in an attempt to get away from the attack, laughing uncontrollably. Jungwoo, Taeil and Taeyong then started picking off the other younger players of the Foreign Swaggers, avoiding Chenle so they would all have their hearing.

Unfortunately, this also meant the older kids on the Foreign Swaggers caught on pretty quickly and launched a counterattack by tickling the defenseless Don't Need Your Love or Chewing Gum, Superhuman Cherry Bomb Chain Bosses. They didn't realize when Mrs. Suh came down to tell them her husband was going to get Mark, and she let them continue for a bit longer as she watched.

"Alright my lovely kiddos and Johnny, Mark's going to be here soon if you want to help me get all the watermelon out." Her goal was totally not to outdo her sister's welcome home for her own son just to make sure he knew the Limitless cafe was better.

"Mark?!" Jungwoo and Yuta shouted at the same time, standing up straight.

"Who Mark?" Shotaro asked now that he was capable of breathing.

"We've been Markless for so long the kids have forgotten who he is." Johnny wiped a fake tear away, Ten punching him on the shoulder.

"Shotaro and Sungchan never met Mark, dumb dumb."

"I'll help you, Mrs. Suh." WinWin offered, taking Jeno with him.

Of course, the other kids eventually made their way upstairs to help her out, probably lowering the productivity a lot less than she was expecting. Twenty-two kids has a tendency to do that.

"We should hide around the cafe and see how long it takes for him to find us." Lucas suggested, already trying to figure out how many kids could fit under a cafe table. He was thinking maybe four if they really tried.

"Or we could not."

"Jinx! Dead arm!" Renjun punched Jaehyun in the shoulder as hard as he could.

"Ow! What the heck?!"

"That's what you get for copying me."

"But I didn't..."

"Guys, Mark's here." Jisung mentioned, the Canadian standing in the doorway watching them with a smile on his face despite his tired eyes.

No one heard him though, too preoccupied with all of their side conversations.

"Mark's here!"

"No need to shout, Ji, we're all right here." Taeil patted his head, ignoring what he had actually said.

"But Mark's here-"

"He can't be here, we haven't hidden yet." YangYang protested.

"Mark!" Chenle then screeched, bolting to the door where he was still standing and hugging him tightly.

"Mark's here, guys." Doyoung announced, as if anyone could've missed Chenle's shouting.

"Welcome home, cheater." Haechan attempted to kiss him on the cheek, but he was pushed away like always.

"Chenle kidnapped two new people while you were gone." Xiaojun motioned to Sungchan and Shotaro who were awkwardly standing to the side.

"I thought they looked new."

"Yeah, like they haven't seen too much or they're not high off apple juice." Kun commented, making Sungchan's eyes widen.

"Alright, stop scaring the kid and let me hug Mark. Was my sister nice to you? She didn't try feeding you lies? Did she feed you?"

"She's my Mom..." Mark whispered, his words muffled now that he was being smothered by Mrs. Suh.

"Oh yeah."

"Wanna play soccer with us? The Don't Need Your Love or Chewing Gum, Superhuman Cherry Bomb Chain Bosses need some help." Jeno, Sungchan laughing.

"Only a little."

"Oh come on, Mark's part of the Foreign Swaggers! You can't put him with the Don't Need Your Love or Chewing Gum, Superhuman Cherry Bomb Chain Bosses!" Johnny protested.

"Can I sleep? I'm pretty tired."

"You had a whole plane ride to sleep." Haechan sassed.

But they did end up letting him sleep. He just had to do so while ignoring their shouting from the game they decided to restart after watermelon was consumed.