[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Actual Parent Meeting

Mrs. Suh paced the length of the kitchen with her fingers running through her hair, waiting for a knock on the door. Her husband simply sat at the table and worked on a Sudoku on his phone.

"What if we mess this up? What if we hit it off wrong? We could really mess things up for these kids. This was a bad idea. A very bad idea." 

"It's not going to go awful. Take a deep breath and sit down, you're making me anxious." Mr. Suh didn't look away from his screen, needing something logical to focus on.

When his wife proposed the idea of meeting the kids' parents, he thought it was a great idea. He didn't know much about them other than the few snippets he had heard in passing, but those were mainly from Taeyong and Jaemin. It wasn't until after he agreed that he remembered YangYang and Haechan having come to them instead of their own parents, and when WinWin wasn't allowed in his own house.

Mrs. Suh had always loved meeting the parents of the other kids' in Johnny's classes and the random people she'd start talking to at the playground when Johnny was little. When she had proposed the idea of meeting the kids' parents, Kun and Chenle had just arrived in the friend group. Now there was a lot more, and that meant more parents.

She only properly sat down when the other parents had all made their way up to the kitchen where snacks and drinks were set out. Several extra chairs had to be brought up from the cafe, but they made it work.

Both of Taeil's parents, Taeyong's dad, Kun and Chenle's grandma, Doyoung's dad, Ten's dad, Jungwoo's mom, both of Sicheng's parents, Lucas's mom, Hendery's dad, both of Jeno's parents, Haechan's mom, YangYang's mom, and both of Jaemin's parents had come. Only Renjun's parents had said they couldn't make it, and it was given that Yuta, Jaehyun, Mark, Jisung, and Xiaojun didn't have anyone who could come.

Nineteen adults in one room. The most the majority of them knew about each other was that the two people that invited them kept their kids almost every day.

"Thank you all for agreeing to meet us here. It's so great that we finally get to meet the parents of these wonderful kids our son has become friends with." 

Even if I want to slap most of you and one of you smells like smoke. She wanted to add, but she figured she'd control herself today.

"My son makes it a game to see how long he can go without coming home. What kind of operation are you running here?" YangYang's mom immediately asked, catching pretty much everyone off-guard.

"We try to encourage the kids to go back home if we noticed they haven't in awhile. We aren't keeping them here against their will."

"Jeno mentioned you have pets. Don't you know he's allergic to cats?"

Mrs. Suh sighed. This was not the nice friendly discussion she had been hoping for.

"Yes, but we know we can't stop him."

"Have you been watching the kids closely to stop them from touching the same surfaces or each other? Are they six feet apart at all times and washing constantly? Is where they play cleaner than this room?" 

All the parents turned to Sicheng's mom in various levels of confusion. Mrs. Suh had thought she had done a great job at cleaning the kitchen. She had known Sicheng's parents were strict, but this level hadn't crossed her mind.

"We just let the kids play. We can't run the cafe and sanitize everything they touch. But we do make sure they wash after coming home from school and before they eat." Mr. Suh butted in. It was a partial lie, but that wasn't the biggest deal.

"I don't know why you all have so many questions and complaints. My grandsons have been doing so much better since they started hanging out with these kids. Chenle finally stops freaking out over everything, and Kun has gained so much responsibility."

"I agree, Taeil made friends and doesn't spend all day in his room anymore."

"And they got Doyoung to stop smoking. I thought I'd doomed him with my addiction."

That shut up any of the other parents who were going to question the Suhs and what they were doing. It took every fiber of Mrs. Suhs being to not smirk.

The hostile tension slowly started to disappear, and by the end of the night they had all come to a mutual understanding. Some of them even thanked the Suhs for being so kind. Others were still being petty.

Mrs. Suh's main goal was accomplished by the end of the night, though. Those who weren't previously allowed could now sleep over whenever they wanted.