[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Paying it Back

Jisung lay awake in bed, just staring at the bunk bed above him in the dark. He had woken up from a bad dream that had scared him awake, but he couldn't remember what it was about. He was pretty sure if he did remember it it would either end up being ridiculous that he was even scared or legitimately scary.

Regardless, he was still awake and it didn't feel like he was going to be going back to sleep any time soon.

So he did the only reasonable thing to do and decided to quietly leave the basement and go find a midnight snack. Only to find it was actually around four in the morning and not midnight, but it still had the same effect.

As he was pulling out a box of cereal and locating wherever someone last put the milk, Taeyong joined him in the kitchen, his arms crossed in front of his chest as if he was cold.

"I thought I heard you come up here."

Jisung jumped at the unexpected voice, accidentally spilling milk on the counter. Taeyong laughed softly as he grabbed the dish cloth to help Jisung clean it up.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"I should be apologizing for waking you. I was trying to be quiet."

"Sounds like we're even then."

Jisung raised an eyebrow skeptically as Taeyong put the dish cloth back in its usual place. "It doesn't sound like we're even."

Taeyong shrugged and stopped Jisung from putting the milk back, pouring himself a glass and leaning against the counter.

"So why are you up?"

"Bad dream, couldn't fall back asleep."

Taeyong nodded slightly, "What was it about?"

"No clue."

Taeyong nodded again as Jisung continued eating his Fruity Pebbles, the only cereal Johnny allowed in the cafe other than Frosted Flakes. If anyone wanted something different they had to hide it where Johnny couldn't find it. Which wasn't very hard to do if they hid it down low.

"Do you ever get the urge to just make pancakes super early in the morning?"

Jisung went for a concerned look, but it ended up a bit more judgmental than he planned for. Instead he went for a soft, "I thought we talked about this."

"We did, but we're already up so why not?"

Jisung spooned the last bit of cereal into his mouth with a shrug.

"What if we made some for the Suhs?"

Taeyong smiled and instantly went to start getting out the ingredients. He had the recipe memorized, except he always remembered the quadrupled measurements first. That was generally enough to feed everyone, but now they'd only have to make a regular single batch.

Jisung put his bowl in the sink and started helping him get out the mixing bowl and mixer, which Taeyong directed him to put back and get out a whisk. The electric mixer would be too noisy for this time of the morning, so they'd just have to be the mixer themselves.

"What are you doing?" Xiaojun asked sleepily from the top of the stairs, rubbing his eyes.

Both Taeyong and Jisung froze, sheepishly apologetic smiles on their faces.

"Did we wake you?" Taeyong asked.

"I don't think so?"

Taeyong and Jisung continued with what they were doing, throwing in the last ingredients into the bowl. Xiaojun approached and sat on the counter, peering around Jisung to see what they were doing.

"Pancakes?"

"We thought we'd make breakfast for the Suhs." Jisung explained.

"Single batch?"

"Yup."

"Why not make a double so we can have some before we go to them?"

Jisung and Taeyong shared a shrug before starting to double the recipe. Since Xiaojun had inserted himself into the project, they made him be the mixer because their arms were tired.

While cooking the pancakes the three switched between manning the pan and eating a few, making sure there was definitely enough for the Suhs. The only actual problem was getting them to the Suhs warm, especially since it was almost an hour drive.

They weren't sure how it worked, but they did manage to get the pancakes to the Suhs still warm. At least the container they were in was, they didn't actually know about the pancakes.

"Do we just walk in?" Xiaojun asked, the three of them standing in front of the door.

They may have still been in their pajamas, but it wasn't like that mattered or they cared.

"That's what they do to us." Jisung reasoned, reaching for the hidden spare key.

Jisung unlocked the front door and they casually and cautiously walked in. Taeyong set the container of pancakes on the table as Xiaojun and Jisung poked around to see if anyone was awake.

It was unfortunate that they were all still sleeping, but that's apparently what happens when you arrive unannounced at almost seven in the morning.

"Leave a note and head back to Limitless?" Xiaojun whispered.

"Or we could just leave them without a note and see what happens." Jisung suggested.

Deciding that would be the more entertaining of options, they left the pancakes there with no indication how they got there, locked the place back up and put the spare key back.

Halfway through their drive back to Limitless cafe Taeyong received a text with a single heart emoji from Mrs. Suh.