[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Termination Plan

Johnny watched as Yuta poured flour into a measuring cup, shrugged, and threw it into the mixing bowl. He'd been watching Yuta do that this whole time- his Mom told him to after Yuta asked to use the kitchen- but it didn't make him any less nervous the more he did it.

"Why do you keep shrugging?"

"It's close enough."

"That's not how- what are you making?"

So far he had only put eggs, brown sugar, flour, and oats into a bowl, and now he was adding honey. This didn't look like a cookie recipe.

"Granola bars for Sungchan's team. I wanted to make a celebration snack for their first game."

"How do you know they'll win?"

Yuta turned and just winked at Johnny, going back to his recipe and adding the next ingredient.

He started off with making snacks for Shotaro's friends at school because he had asked so nicely, and because out of all the older kids who could actually cook he asked him, but then he remembered Shotaro's friends were the 00 liners. It was also a good time to prove to Mrs. Suh that he wasn't going to burn down the kitchen.

"You going to the game?" Yuta asked, Johnny scoffing.

"Of course I'm going. We all are, we just weren't telling you because we were going to pretend we don't know you."

Now it was Yuta's turn to scoff, but he knew they had a good reason for avoiding him. So far he had shown up to every single one of the team's practices and acted as an unofficial assistant coach. The only insight he offered was to Sungchan, but the other boys listened to what he had to say as well.

"Yuta! We've got a defector! He's trying to skip the game!" Taeil entered the kitchen with Jisung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Yuta gasped, setting down the spatula he was using to stir.

"I thought you were better than this, Ji."

"I want to go but Dad wants me home for dinner! He's weird like that!"

"I talked with your Dad earlier. He said you can come." Mrs. Suh announced, coming out of her room dressed in Sungchan's school colors.

"When'd you talk with him?"

"When I talked with Chenle's Mom. I thought I told you boys this."

"You just said you won and then went into your room to change." Johnny corrected, causing her to mockingly stick her tongue out.

"Well Chenle's Mom said we corrupted him too much and we can keep him, and I taught your Dad how to parent. Not sure how you didn't get that from me saying I won." She smiled when she saw Sungchan enter the kitchen looking very confused. "Speaking of winners."

"I can't even figure out how to put my game socks on, so don't get your hopes up." He held up the fresh pair of socks the school had given him, hoping someone would help. He'd just been wearing normal socks the entire time, and he swore they were impossible to get on.

"I'll help once these are in the oven. We going over the game plan now or when we get there?" Yuta threw the last cup of raisins into the bowl, dumping the mixture into a pan without even fully mixing it. Chances are it'd still make granola bars, and he was counting on that chance.

"Can we go over it now? Just so I have time to think about it."

"Thinking is overrated! Just get out there and plow them down!"

"Wrong sport, Mom." Johnny said with a sigh.

"I know what sport I'm talking about, child." She placed a kiss on both Sungchan and Jisung's heads before leaving the kitchen, giving Johnny a quick hand signal to make sure he was still watching Yuta.

"Since it's the first game I was thinking I'd go for the uni-kitty plan-"

"Uni-kitty! Boy, you're undefeated and so are they! I was thinking termination plan!"

Sungchan's eyes widened as his jaw almost dropped.

"Isn't that a bit much?"

"Aren't all the teams undefeated because no one's played each other yet?" Taeil muttered, and Johnny only shrugged.

"What's the termination plan?" Jisung chirped, and Yuta gave him the most serious face he could muster.

"Certain death."

When the game started, they all quickly found out what the termination plan was. Everyone except for Yuta and Taeyong were sitting in the stands, making up at least half the crowd. And by everyone I mean the grandparents were there too, and surprisingly so were Sungchan's parents. But they weren't sitting with the group.

Yuta and Taeyong were standing on the sidelines, as close to the field as the fence would allow them. Taeyong was shouting words of encouragement to literally every player that came by, and Yuta was shouting directions at Sungchan. He never yelled at the refs though, he wasn't one of those annoying people.

The termination plan was probably the greatest thing they had ever seen. Since Sungchan was placed as right wing (offense but on the right side), he had the perfect opportunity to charge at anyone who had the ball. He never touched them or was dangerous, but when you have a beanpole charging at you and occasionally screeching like Yuta taught him, you loose focus pretty quick.

The other part of the termination plan was Sungchan's favorite. It involved him memorizing player's names, or using their jersey numbers, and calling out to them. As soon as they looked over he'd shimmy and wink, making them loose focus enough for one of his teammates to take possession of the ball.

All of this was completely normal for his team to watch, not even batting an eye.

"Is he allowed to keep doing that?" Jaemin whispered to Renjun, but he was too busy muttering under his breath to make one of the players trip to hear him. Jaemin slid a little closer to Jungwoo when the kid face planted.

But the termination plan was an undoubted success for the team and they won 1-0, earning themselves celebratory granola bars that somehow actually tasted good.