[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Missing The Childhood

Sungchan rolled over in bed, locking eyes with Jeno across from him. The two stared at each other until Sungchan's eyes got tired and he closed them. He was about to consider going back to sleep and let Lucas and Jeno take over his soccer practices, but Jeno had a different thought.

"You okay?"

Sungchan opened one eye lazily, "I feel awful."

"Like sick awful or just random awful?"

"Random."

Without any hesitation, Jeno lifted his covers as an invitation to join him for cuddles. Sungchan managed to drag himself over, joining Jeno in his bed.

They assumed what used to be their regular position. Their sides pressed together enough to not be uncomfortable and their heads titled towards each other so they touched as they lay on their backs.

"Remember when we used to do this?" Jeno whispered, and Sungchan nodded.

"Why'd we stop?"

"Because I stopped dreaming about gorillas coming and ripping our heads off."

Sungchan laughed softly, "Yeah, that would do it."

For some reason, Sungchan and Jeno always used to wake up in the night at the same time. They'd lock eyes with each other just as they had done, and then Sungchan found himself laying next to Jeno. Sometimes he'd try to go back to his own bed in the night, but that almost always resulted in Sungchan sleeping on the floor.

Sungchan scrunched his eyebrows when he felt Jeno's hand on his forehead, so he tried to see if he could lick his hand.

"Don't try to lick me!"

"Don't try to check my temperature then." Sungchan playfully fired back.

Jeno huffed, putting his hand back under the covers.

"Just making sure you weren't going to infect me."

They both sighed when they heard someone coming down the stairs, but they perked up when they recognized who it was just by sound.

"Ji!" Jeno exclaimed, reaching out a hand towards him.

"Hello," he dragged out his 'o' until he saw the two of them. Then he pouted. "Cuddle party without me?"

"It's cuddles without a lot of people, but I don't think it's a party." Sungchan corrected.

Jeno ignored him, making space between himself and Sungchan for Jisung to join. After carefully climbing over Sungchan, Jisung found himself in the middle of the two.

Now they were squished.

"So how's our favorite Jisung?" Jeno asked.

"Much happier now that I'm back here. Staying with my Dad just made me feel guilty for not knowing her."

"Not that it's your fault." Sungchan added.

Jisung sighed, "I know it's just... Can we not, actually? I just got done being interrogated by the parent line."

Jeno and Sungchan both nodded.

"Fair enough."

The three laid there in comfortable silence, just enjoying being in each other's company until Jisung broke the silence.

"I don't get why we stopped with all the cuddle parties."

Sungchan made a noise of agreement, "They were the best."

"Nah, you know what was the best?" Jeno started.

"I don't know what was better than cuddle parties." Jisung muttered.

"Mr. Suh's random breakfast surprises."

The breakfast surprises ranged from anywhere between putting sprinkles on toast and waffles with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Most of the surprises had enough sugar to get them wound up for a few hours, but that was the whole point.

"Those were good." Sungchan mused.

At that moment Louis decided they needed a cat to go with their cuddles, resulting in Leon and Bella jumping up too. Daegal was with Chenle's granny, but they were glad at that moment. Especially when Louis started batting away Leon.

But at least now they had a proper cuddle party. Plus, Sungchan did feel a lot better afterwards.