[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Markless

Chenle stared directly at the cafe door, not allowing his eyes to leave it for a second. Taeil had mentioned to the others that two new cult members would be hopefully coming over soon, but they were still surprised he was so excited over it.

"Where's Mark?" Jeno asked, looking over the area just in case he had missed him.

Mrs. Suh sighed and gave her husband a tired glance. "He didn't tell them."

"Tell us what?"

"Since you kids have Monday off from school, he's in Canada for the weekend. He was supposed to tell you when we made plans a week ago." Mr. Suh explained.

"Mark's gone?!" Jungwoo shouted, catching the attention of a few customers and throwing everyone off guard.

"It's just for the weekend. You can call him when he lands if you really want."

"But new cult members! Now he won't meet them!" Chenle whined, pretty upset about this.

Everyone was pretty upset Mark had left without telling them before hand, but they were extra upset he wouldn't be there to meet their two new friends. Jungwoo crossed his arms and pouted while Haechan slipped on his sunglasses to keep his cool. Renjun pretended he wasn't upset over Mark leaving, but that was just for his image he was still trying to keep up.

"Sorry, kiddos. We thought he told you."

"Now we can put Renjun's birthday on the board and make him an unofficial cult member without Mark complaining." Hendery pointed out, so they ran downstairs to fix that.

"Aren't you supposed to be yelling at us or smacking us for calling it a cult?" Jaemin asked WinWin, and the older shrugged.

"There's no point in stopping it if even grandma says we're a cult. My Mom's already disappointed in me, so why not add that to the list."

"They're here!" Chenle screeched, jumping up from his stool when he saw Sungchan and Shotaro coming towards the cafe.

He then switched between sitting down and acting cool and wiggling around while they struggled with whether they had to push or pull the door. Chenle ended up hiding behind WinWin and giggling instead of giving Sungchan some sort of sign that they were in the right place.

"How can we help you kiddos?" Mrs. Suh asked with a smile, even though she already had an idea that these were the two Chenle had recruited today.

"I don't know. Some kid named Jaehyun said to come here, but Shotaro keeps mentioning a Chenle and Taeil. Am I in the right place?"

"If you need to be at the Limitless cafe, then you're in the right place. Chenle's hiding behind WinWin over there, but the rest of the kids are in the basement." Mrs. Suh motioned to both WinWin and the basement door with Renjun's sign.

Chenle peeked out from behind WinWin slightly with a shy wave. "Hi."

"Hey! I told my Mom I'm at the library studying, so I've got a good four hours."

"Why would you be studying? Aren't you like four?" WinWin asked.

"No, I'm six, he's seven. My parents like to prepare me for my future, so if I'm not studying I'm in trouble."

"I'm six!" Chenle exclaimed, extra happy he really wasn't the youngest anymore. Even if Jisung had taken that role awhile ago.

"What are you guys still doing up there? Get down here!" Lucas protested.

Jungwoo was the first to head down to the basement because he knew the new kids would be skeptical and would want to see someone go down first to know it was safe. The other four followed, Chenle vibrating his way down the stairs.

"Ah cool! You're here. Welcome to the cult!" Haechan greeted with open arms.

"Cult? Awesome! I'm Sungchan and this is Shotaro."

"Birthday!" Lucas demanded, marker poised over the board and ready to write. Renjun's had already been added in his sloppy handwriting, making him an official member finally.

"We all put our birthdays on the board so they're never forgotten." Doyoung explained, and Sungchan happily reported both dates and years for the two of them.

"Why are we here again?" Sungchan asked after their birthdays were written down, and the group shrugged.

"No one knows why we're here. There's just a lot of us and we roll with it." Taeil spoke up.

"I was told you're here because one of you speaks Japanese." Yuta mentioned from his top bunk he had no intention of getting down from. It was a nice view to judge everyone from.

"Shotaro does! He's a spy for Santa!"

Sungchan titled his head and scrunched his eyebrows. "No... he's part deaf in that ear and has a hearing aid."

"Oh."

Yuta then said something in Japanese that made Shotaro smile and walk over to him. He was going to stay standing and just crane his neck up to talk with him, but then Yuta invited him up and they talked up there.

"So who's taking these kids?" Johnny whispered to Taeyong, Kun and Doyoung.

"I'm gonna pass."

"Same."

Taeyong sighed, already knowing what that meant for him. "That makes six."

"What makes six?" Xiaojun asked.

"Three plus three. Math." YangYang answered, followed by Ten claiming that four plus two was the better way to make six. They did agree that Renjun's one plus five was the worst, but Jisung's zero plus six topped the cake.

And because Jaehyun mentioned they were being too weird and would scare them away, they got out Riskopoly and started up a game. Because that was the most normal thing they could think of doing.