[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Attention Seeker

Taeil finished with his last task for closing up the cafe, looking around the place with a sigh. The only light he had was coming from the street lights outside, giving the place a completely different mood. Normally he would hang out for a minute in the silence, but tonight he had other plans.

Tonight he wanted attention.

Putting away the last of the cleaning supplies, Taeil headed upstairs to see what was going on first. He expected to find someone working on dinner, or at the least Yuta chilling in his usual spot on the window sill, but there was nobody. Remembering that they had already decided on getting takeout because they were all feeling pretty lazy, Taeil turned around and went to the basement.

Except while passing through the cafe once again, he found Taeyong and Jaemin sitting on the floor near the cafe door. Both were looking up expectantly, but he wasn't sure what they were looking at.

Nonetheless, it was worth trying to get attention from them.

"What are you doing?"

Without turning his head Taeyong answered: "Waiting for a package."

Taeil sat down to the left of Taeyong with his body turned so he was facing them more than the street.

"Can I have attention then?"

"We're waiting for a package." Jaemin repeated.

"But the delivery person doesn't come at this time of the night."

"We're waiting for a package."

"When did you order it?"

"Two minutes ago."

Taeil sighed and got up from the floor. It was useless to reason with them at that point, and if they weren't going to give him attention, he wasn't going to stick around.

So Taeil actually headed down to the basement now, just to see that Hendery, Xiaojun, Lucas, Yuta, Shotaro and Jisung playing Riskopoly.

They looked up to see if it was someone coming down with the takeout, but once they saw it was just Taeil their attention went back to the game. WinWin saw him as an opportunity to start ranting again so he could be filled in, though.

"They changed the Riskopoly rules!"

"What do you mean?"

"We just made it so it goes faster. It's not that big of a deal." Yuta drawled.

"He's just upset because we changed the rules so someone other than him could win. It was almost impossible with the old rules, and now it is." Xiaojun explained.

WinWin huffed, "It's just Risk with more math than normal."

When Taeil looked at the board, that's exactly what it looked like. Instead of the usual Monopoly board alongside the Risk board, they only had the Risk board. The Monopoly houses, community chest cards, chance cards and money were the only way you could even tell it was Riskopoly.

"What was wrong with the original Riskopoly?"

Those playing the new version gave each other a glance before looking up at Taeil.

"It took too long." They answered together.

"And it was almost impossible for anyone to win other than WinWin." Jisung added.

"But that's why we always played with him. So it didn't take forever."

The six playing just shook their heads and went back to the game, and that's when Taeil noticed they had six. Not seven or fifteen; six. The maximum number the box told you could play. They were playing legally.

Deciding he had had enough of trying to figure out why they were changing Riskopoly when it was just fine the way it was, especially if they were playing with a legal amount of players (the audacity), Taeil plopped onto the bed next to WinWin.

WinWin, however, had already moved on to a game on his phone which he appeared to be very concentrated on.

"I want attention."

"Sorry, I'm playing a game."

WinWin nudged him slightly with his elbow when he didn't go away fast enough to find someone else to pay attention to him, so Taeil took the hint and got up. He was pretty sure that there was definitely a small group at Moonwalk based on the lack of people in the basement, but the only missing person he could identify at the moment was Johnny.

So he found the next best option; Ten playing with Louis and Leon.

"Hi," he sat down next to Ten, careful not to sit on a tail, "I want attention."

Ten gave Louis a treat for putting his paw on his hand before acknowledging Taeil.

"Hi. I'm training the cats."

"Like dogs?"

"If we can train Chenle to scream at intruders, I can train a cat to play fetch."

Taeil scrunched his eyebrows. He didn't remember fetch on the list of things the cats could do, but then again, it was Ten.

"When did they learn that?"

"That's what I'm working up to."

Ten gave Louis and Leon another treat, almost immediately followed by him asking if they were pigs instead of cats. Taeil refrained from pointing out he was half the problem, but one of these days he was going to have to say it.

"Will no one give me attention?" He asked loudly.

Naturally they all had to not respond just to tease him, but he caught Shotaro beckoning him over in the corner of his eye.

Taeil decided that was all he needed, so he laid down next to Shotaro and put his head in his lap, looking up at him.

"Hi."

Shotaro simply smiled with his eyes, using his free hand to card through Taeil's hair as he continued playing Riskopoly. Taeil noticed how his head was turned slightly in the direction of his good ear though, so he poked his stomach to get his attention again.

"You never got new batteries, did you."

"Hmm?"

Refraining from sighing, Taeil went upstairs to get Shotaro a new battery for his hearing aid, passing Jaemin and Taeyong who didn't look like they had moved. He handed it over to Shotaro when he got back down, which earned him another eye smile.

"Oh thanks. I forgot I needed this."

As soon as the battery was replaced and Shotaro could properly hear again, Taeil's head was back in his lap as he watched them play. He still thought the new rules were trash, but they were starting to grow on him.

Taeil and Shotaro stayed like that for the rest of the night, the older only sitting up once the food came (which was apparently the package Jaemin and Taeyong were waiting for).