[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Bye Bye Baby

"Mark! Your parents are here!" Jaemin yelled downstairs.

You would think with all the yelling down the stairs that goes on in the cafe, the customers would get annoyed. And some of them probably were. But was anything going to stop them from yelling between levels of the cafe? Nope.

"Mark's with you!" Jungwoo yelled back.

Jaemin sighed as he turned around to check that Mark was indeed in the cafe. Sure enough, he was right there talking to his parents who had just returned from Canada. Finding help for their grandparents was surprisingly a very lengthy process.

"Alright. Mark's parents are here!"

"Why does that matter to us?" Haechan questioned back.

On normal circumstances, it wouldn't. But today they were forgetting something extremely important. Annie was never supposed to stay with them the entire time her parents were being investigated.

"Can you just come up here? And grab Annie's bag too."

Jaemin shut the basement door so he couldn't hear whatever they were going to respond with.

Haechan and Jungwoo both looked up from what they were doing and shared a nervous glance. They then looked to the bag Jaehyun packed that morning which was sitting by Jae's bed.

"If we pull a Shotaro and pretend we couldn't hear him, does she have to go?" Haechan asked.

"Shotaro actually is partially deaf." Jungwoo pointed out, his eyes not leaving the bag.

"I know, but will that stop her from leaving?"

"I don't think so."

Haechan sighed, untangling his feet from his sheets and getting up.

"At least she's not going back to her parents." He reassured himself, grabbing her bag.

Haechan and Jungwoo made their way upstairs to find everyone that wasn't busy in the kitchen or some place else gathered in the cafe. Annie was sitting on the floor in the middle of them all, her eyes trained on the coffee cup in Jaemin's hand.

"Welcome back, Lees." Haechan greeted, handing Mrs. Lee Annie's bag.

"It's good to be back." She responded with a smile.

"Stop saying that like you hate my parents."

"I don't hate your parents."

"They're just not at the same level as the elder Suhs." Jeno whispered to Jaemin.

It earned him an elbow to his side, but it wasn't like he was wrong. The elder Suhs did set a very high bar, though.

When they saw that the Lees looked like they wanted to get going, Jaehyun squatted down in front of Annie and put his hands on her shoulders.

"You've got to be good for them, okay? They're taking care of you now."

Annie frowned, "Why?"

Jaehyun paused. Why was she going with them?

"Because a cafe basement with twenty-three men is no place for a little girl." Johnny butted in with a boop to her nose.

"Why?"

"Well..." Johnny started, but Jaehyun cut him off.

"She's not going to stop asking why."

Annie giggled, confirming Jaehyun's statement.

"Alright little lady, you ready to go now?" Mrs. Lee asked, holding out her hand to Annie.

Annie quickly shook her head, attaching herself to Jaehyun. Jaehyun looked up at the Lees with an almost pleading glance to keep her.

When he was ignored in return because they all knew the Lees would do a better job raising her until the investigation on her parents ended, Jaehyun detached Annie from him and held her in front of him.

"You'll be able to visit us a whole bunch, and we'll come and visit you when we can, okay? This isn't goodbye."

Jaehyun gave her another hug before nudging her to go hug everyone else. They all crouched down to her level to make it easier, and Jaemin slipped her a sip of his coffee when no one was looking. By the time it kicked in, she'd be the Lee's to deal with.

Annie didn't stop with the hugs when she finished with the Limitless residents. She went around to all the customers despite their calls for her not to. With each hug she repeated "one of those days," making the customers laugh.

They all waved as she left when she finally decided to let the Lees take her home with them. Mrs. Lee had her on her hip just so she wouldn't run or get lost because apparently she's very good at that.

"One of those days." She called out as she left with a sad wave.

"I really hope someone teaches her more Korean than that some day." Mark mumbled.

Jaehyun scoffed, "She's stubborn enough to never learn anything else."

"At least she didn't pick up Doyoung's mouth." WinWin pointed out, earning himself a headlock.

The boys went back to what they were doing beforehand, all of them at the least slightly upset Annie couldn't stay with them. They all felt slightly better when they got a call within a few hours asking why Annie refused to wear anything but her oversized hoodies.