[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

A Busy Day

Doyoung sighed as he looked at the watch on his wrist, and then at the clock on the wall. It wasn't like one wasn't working or one was off, he just needed to look at both to fully register what time it was.

And just like it had been when he had last checked, it wasn't lunch time. Almost, but not quite.

He had a stack of resumes to go over so he could choose five of them to call for a second interview, and he had a meeting in an hour to go over the company's graphs with the heads of all the departments. It wasn't like he had to run it, he just already knew it was going to suck.

Now he was upset he was going to have to cut his lunch break short to be there on time. And while he may not despise his job, his lunch break was definitely the best part of the day. Other than going home, of course.

He managed to finish going through the stack of resumes, placing the five applicants he had chosen on the other side of his desk for him to call later. Shutting down his computer and letting the office secretary know he was going out, he left the office and went to his usual spot for lunch.

Lucas was already under the tree they ate lunch under when it was nice out, playing a game on his phone. Doyoung loosened his tie as he sat, careful not to get anything on his nice pants, and leaned against the tree.

Because of his job at a chewing gum factory, Lucas always smelled like bubble gum. It didn't matter how many times he showered or how many days he had off. It just stuck.

"Any idea what Jungwoo's bringing today?" Lucas asked, his attention still on the game.

"No clue."

Jungwoo was always the one to bring them lunch because going somewhere always felt like fraternizing with the enemy and the cafe was too far from their workplaces. Jungwoo also had to start his work day at the animal shelter at one, the shift directly after WinWin's.

They used to work the same time frame, but their boss decided that was a terrible idea after many instances. One of them involving a hamster birthday party.

There are no hamsters at the animal shelter.

WinWin joined the two of them after a minute, half his uniform soaked. Lucas set down his phone and raised an eyebrow at WinWin's seemingly uncomfortable state.

"What happened?"

"I was changing the water in the fish tank when a great dane somehow got loose."

"You have fish there?" Doyoung followed up, WinWin just shrugging.

"In the office. Her name is Lady Gilbert."

"I thought that was the name of the puffball dog."

"No, her name's Lady Gwen."

Lucas shrugged, "Same difference."

Jungwoo then joined them with the addition of Jeno just because he wanted to tag along. Both were holding bags with food and drinks, Lucas was immediately digging through the bags as soon as they were set down.

"Great dane vs. Lady Gilbert again?" Jeno questioned, eyeing WinWin's wet uniform.

He nodded, confusing Doyoung and Lucas how he could've known that. Jungwoo groaned, plopping down next to Doyoung on the grass.

"Am I going to have to clean that up again?"

WinWin only gave him an innocent smile. One no one could ever get mad at.

"Did you bring cookies?!" Lucas held up the baggie clearly containing cookies, a bright smile on his face.

"Double chocolate chip. And by double I mean Shotaro dumped in too many chocolate chips and Jisung decided to roll with it." Jeno explained.

That would explain now why Lucas felt like he was biting into a chunk of chocolate rather than a cookie. It was still sugar and that's all that mattered.

"Oh yeah, I quit my job."

The group paused, trying to judge the situation based off of Lucas' attitude. That was very difficult when he continued to eat like he hadn't said anything.

"What happened? I thought you liked it there." Doyoung said after a few seconds.

"Unless Bob was there. Bob sucked." Jeno corrected, Lucas nodding as he swallowed the last of his cookie.

"I don't know, I just wasn't feeling it. Besides, we've all been going over plans for the second cafe, and I wanted to be around to help for that. You guys will need all the muscle power you can get."

Jungwoo smiled, "As long as you're happy."

"Of course he's going to be happy. He gets to work at the cafe and that feels like playing." WinWin pointed out.

"Speaking of work, when's bring your son to work day?" Jeno asked, looking over at Doyoung expectantly.

"I told you that doesn't happen at my work place."

"That's garbage. Can I just come with you then?"

"Nope, I've got two meetings and a butt ton of phone calls to make."

Jeno groaned, "Can I be an intern you met off the street then? There's nothing to do today."

Both Jungwoo and Doyoung raised an eyebrow.

"There's always a bunch to help with."

Lucas gasped, excited now. "We can bother Sungchan while he's teaching the peewees now that I'll be home!"

"Even better!"

Doyoung checked his watch, annoyed that he had to get going soon even if it felt like he just got there. Eating the last bit of his sandwich, he started fixing his tie as he brushed off his pants and the back of his shirt.

"Bye, loser."

"Have fun torturing yourself."

Doyoung gave them a salute, shaking his head while walking away as he heard WinWin recalling a very in depth battle he had with a turtle today as Lucas and Jeno hyped themselves up for bothering Sungchan was working.

The only thing better than watching Sungchan slowly get more frustrated that night was learning the kids kept asking for Lucas and Jeno every practice after that.

Irrelevant but I was thinking about it and Mark and I are almost the same person. Like irl Mark. Right down to the MBTI. Aside from what we do of course.

So then I was thinking more (bad idea don't let me do that) and my little brother is just like Jeno. My older brother (the one who wrote a chapter for you guys) is like if you mixed Hendery and Johnny but with Jaehyun's competitiveness, while his girlfriend (I love her so much I could rant forever) is identical personality wise to Doyoung.

Probably more than you wanted to know about my family but I thought it was wacked and wanted to share :)