[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Ignored Phone Call

Mark had just got off his daily video call with his Mom when it rang. Recognizing it as his Aunt, but not the one he was living with, he bolted from the upstairs kitchen to the basement.

"Jaehyun! It's your Mom!"

Jaehyun moved his piece forward in the chess game he was playing with Yuta, pretending like he couldn't hear him.

"Jae. Jaehyun. Hyung. Jaerista. Jeffery. Jung Jaehyun." Mark sighed, not understanding why he wasn't super excited to hear from her. "Dude it's your Mom."

Mark watched sadly as the screen went black, but then it lit up again and started ringing once more. Hardly any hesitation in calling again on her part.

Yuta just held out his hand, breaking his concentration from the chess game. Mark handed over the phone and went back upstairs to finish what he had been doing before his own Mom called.

"Hello?"

"You're not my sister."

Yuta checked to make sure it was indeed a regular call and not a video call. She really was wasting no time in calling him out over his voice.

"No, but I live with her."

"Johnny?"

"I'm Yuta. One of Johnny's friends."

Jaehyun moved one of his rooks forward, taking out Yuta's knight, but leaving it in direct line of fire of a pawn. Even though he was ignoring the fact that she was on the phone, he was slipping.

"Oh. Can I talk to Jaehyun, then? It's kind of important."

Yuta managed to catch Jaehyun's eyes, and the younger immediately started shaking his head. Suddenly looking more like a kicked puppy than a defiant kid.

"He's busy with the cafe. Want me to give him a message?"

"Um..."  

Yuta felt bad for lying when he heard how upset she sounded now, but this was the only time he'd cover for Jaehyun like this. Bros before hoes. Sort of. Not really, but that was the only analogy Yuta could think of at the moment.

"Can you just tell him to call me when he's done?"

"Sure."

"Thanks."

With that she hung up and Yuta took out Jaehyun's rook with his pawn, letting the phone slip out of his hand onto the mattress.

"It's been two and a half months. Are you really going to ignore her?"

"That's the point. It took her that long to even try to talk to me."

Jaehyun moved a pawn forward, exposing his bishop and allowing Yuta to take it with no cost. He was better than this.

"I'd love it if my Mom tried to talk to me. She sounded really upset."

"That's different. She didn't ship you to a different country."

"No, but she did kick me out on the streets. Very different."

Yuta took another of his attack pieces with a pawn, watching Jaehyun grow a little more frustrated.

"What do I do then?"

"I wouldn't move that bishop. Or that pawn-"

"I meant about my Mom."

Jaehyun still didn't take his advice about the pawn, though, giving Yuta the perfect gap to take his queen with a rook.

"I'd listen. At the least. Checkmate."

"When'd you get so good?"

"When you stopped thinking." Yuta tossed Mrs. Suh's phone into Jaehyun's lap, the younger just staring at it. "If you don't call before Haechan gets here you know he's going to do something stupid."

"Too late! What am I messing up?"

Haechan, Jungwoo, Jeno, YangYang and WinWin came down at once, giving Jaehyun the perfect opportunity to avoid his Mom for a little longer.

"You've already done it."

"Awesome! That's twice this morning!"

Yuta and Jaehyun started putting away their chess game before anyone could come up with some ridiculous new way to play it that would take hours, Haechan and YangYang now loudly arguing over little details in the event they both witnessed walking to the cafe.

When no one was paying attention, which was almost always, Yuta wrote Jaehyun's name at the bottom of the white board. Now no one will let him escape calling his Mom when they find that there.