[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Library Fun Night

Taeyong walked up to one of the elementary schools, just coming from the high school where he ended up helping one of the kids in his class with an essay. That wasn't his original goal for his time in the library since he also had that essay to work on, but that was probably fine. Besides, the elementary was having a library fun night and he had volunteered to help.

He knew none of his friends that actually went here would be coming to the event, but he kept looking for them anyways. It was the school Jaehyun, Mark, YangYang and Chenle went to so there was a really big chance all of them were at the cafe.

Heading straight to the library, he set his backpack down in the librarian's office after greeting her, going straight into setting up the decorations and activities. There were only a couple of things to do, like scavenger hunts and bookmark crafts, those sorts of things, but they always drew in a crowd of little kids and parents.

If Taeyong was lucky he'd be put in charge of reading books to the little kids in a corner of the library.

"Oh! Hey, Jaemin!"

The younger boy with pink hair turned around with a smile, recognizing Taeyong's voice. The two had run into each other a lot at school events since Jaemin always volunteered instead of actually participating. Even if they were for his age group.

"Hey, hyung! I was hoping you'd show up when I saw I was the only one here."

Taeyong then noticed they were indeed the only kids there that had volunteered. It was going to be a busy night then, so that meant no reading to the kids.

"Did the librarian give you any assignments? Or are we just winging it like last time?" Last time they also had two extra seniors to help them out, and they took over a lot of the work just so the librarian would sign off on their mandatory volunteer hours.

"I think we're winging it. Though I thought it might be easier to split up the stations." Taeyong nodded, taking the stack of the scavenger hunt lists that had been printed out and moving them over to their designated table.

The two continued to set up the few crafts and activities while the librarian finished up her work from the school day, splitting up the stations as they did. Jaemin ended up with a lot of the ones geared towards crafts, and Taeyong got the activities. They both knew the librarian would float around and talk with all the parents and students, so it was better not to rely on her running a station.

"So how's the middle school, hyung? Any fun activities up there?"

"Other than the clubs, not really. All the volunteer stuff is left for the high school kids."

"I hate it when they do that."

Jaemin would be spending all of his time volunteering at events across all of the schools in the area if he could, but the only ones he was allowed to help at were the elementary ones. And that only extended to a couple of them because the adults weren't very trusting of a seven year old.

"One day we'll get to do everything. One day."

"That's the day my coffee addiction will be justified." The two laughed, but it was true.

"I wondered what was missing. Where's the usual cup of coffee?"

Jaemin rolled his eyes. "My teacher won't let me bring it in this year, so I have to drink my coffee before school. It stinks."

"You boys ready for library fun night?" The librarian asked enthusiastically, cutting them off.

"Yup!"

"Everything's set up!"

They called back, so she opened the door to the library and let in the few parents and students that had been waiting. More came in within the next ten minutes, keeping the two volunteers completely occupied on their stations.

By the end of the three hour event, the boys were exhausted. Jaemin's face hurt from smiling so much, and his hands were covered in marker and sticky from glue. Taeyong was just plain tired from giving directions for the scavenger hunt and stopping a foam ball from going all over the place. Knocking down books in a bowling style wasn't the best game for a library, but it kept the kids very entertained.

"Thank you so much for all of your help! I couldn't have done it without you!" The librarian gave them each a piece of candy when the last family had left. "I'll clean up, you boys can go home."

That wasn't happening, though, so the two helped her clean up so she wasn't stuck there for another half hour. It did get them another piece of candy, but that wasn't the point.

"All I want to do is crash, but I also want coffee." Jaemin shared as they walked out of the school together, the street lights now on.

"I feel you."

The thought of bringing Jaemin to the Limitless cafe for coffee crossed his mind, but he knew the caffeine would keep the younger up for hours. He was not about to be responsible for that chaos.

"Well, bye, hyung."

"Bye, Nana."

They split ways at a corner, Jaemin heading home while Taeyon decided to pop into the café for a bit. Just because he hadn't been there in a few days.

"Was that a friend?"

Taeyong jumped, startled by Haechan's sudden appearance.

"Yeah. What're you doing out here?"

"Going home before I get in trouble. They're on four hours of Mario Kart if you want to join."

The only reason Haechan wasn't still down there pushing his luck with time on another race was because YangYang and Jaehyun had teamed up and knocked him from first to eighth, but then WinWin came out of nowhere and won. Like always. So he rage quit and it just happened to line up with when he needed to go home.

"I'll walk you home then." Taeyong ruffled the younger's purple hair, switching directions.

He knew better than to get involved in that mess.