[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Unintentional Consequence

Warning: a flashback does happen, so if you skipped the chapter with the gun usage warning, this includes the same topic

If it hadn't been for seeing Shotaro at school, someone would've gone to kidnap him even though it would most definitely result in him getting in more trouble. That didn't mean the 00 line and younger wasn't still moping around at the loss of their final piece.

They started bringing him food from the cafe or leftovers from dinner when they learned his parents only got takeout, occasionally having a fun note from one of the older kids for him just because. That alone was making his jail sentence all the better. That plus the occasional tug on his bracelet Renjun created so he'd know they were thinking of him.

So now Yuta and Kun were heading downstairs with a new movie in hand, hoping to get them to stop moping around. Especially since Haechan would most likely write an essay on it, so at least he would start doing something.

"Who's ready for movie night?" Yuta asked, tossing the DVD case to Kun for him to set it up.

"Movie night means I have to write an essay. I'll pass." Haechan muttered, his face red from hanging off his bed.

"Well too bad because that's half the point. Sit up before you kill your last two braincells." Kun instructed, Haechan sticking his tongue out at him as he continued to hang upside down.

"What's the movie?" WinWin asked, already moving to sit in front of the computer.

"Halo 4: The Fall of Reach. Yuta won't tell me where he found it."

"It doesn't matter where it came from."

"Isn't Halo a video game? Did you download footage of people playing it?" Xiaojun asked skeptically, Yuta scoffing.

"No, it's an actual movie. Live action too."

"Halo is a video game series, though. It's about spartans fighting off the covenant, an alien species. Except for the one game where you're an ODST. And then there's Halo Wars, but I haven't figured out what those are about. They're kind of like Clash of Clans, I think." WinWin explained, having played a few on his phone over the years.

He never appreciated Halo Reach because the final mission was just seeing how long you lasted until you died. He considered that to be losing, so he never did it.

"Why are we randomly watching a movie?" YangYang asked, wanting to join in on giving Kun a hard time.

"Because watching you guys not be chaotic is depressing, so we're watching this."

"I also have another Halo movie called Nightfall if we want to watch that after this."

"Seriously, where did you find these?" Jeno asked, Yuta just pressing a finger to his lips in a silencing gesture with a wink.

"I'll get popcorn!" Sungchan announced, running upstairs with Jaemin trailing behind him to help.

Eventually everyone but Taeil, Johnny, Ten, Taeyong, Doyoung, and Jaehyun were situated around the computer for the movie, WinWin pushing Hendery and Mark away from himself when they tried cuddling him.

The movie overall was so far pretty good. No one could deny that. Even if Jungwoo was jumping at almost all the loud noises until Louis curled up in his lap and Lucas kept trying to guess what was happening next.

Those finishing up in the cafe tried to hurry up with the clean up knowing they were watching a movie downstairs. It would've been going faster if Johnny and Ten would stop flicking soapy water at each other, but the others managed to pull their weight.

Then Jaehyun made them make their own popcorn knowing they would've already ate whatever they brought down with them (he was right, there was nothing left), so by the time they got down there, the movie was halfway done.

No one flinched when they heard a gunshot coming from the movie audio, but Taeyong squatted down on the stairs and put his hands on his head, shaking as an image of watching himself and Shotaro sit in the store played over and over in his head, accompanied by the sound of a gun firing repeatedly.

"Taeyong?" Doyoung asked, crouching down next to him after almost tripping over him.

Taeyong was unable to hear him, and Doyoung repeated his name a few times before realizing what was going on.

"Pause the movie!"

"But we're at such a good part!" Chenle whined, not able to see what was going on with the lights off.

"I don't care! Pause the movie!"

Jaehyun switched on the light as Jaemin got up to pause it, almost everyone getting up to check on Taeyong when they saw him.

"Give him space, don't crowd him." Kun instructed, pulling Jisung close to him when the youngest started panicking while asking what was going on.

Taeyong started whispering Shotaro's name under his breath, shaking uncontrollably.

"Shotaro's at his house. He's okay." Doyoung reassured him, unsure if he was even heard at his point.

"I just tugged his bracelet. I can feel he's fine." Renjun reported, Mark putting an arm around his shoulder.

"Hear that? He's okay. You're okay."

Taeyong flinched when Doyoung put a hand lightly on his shoulder, eventually coming out of his head after another minute just to see everyone huddled together and looking at his with scared eyes. They weren't scared of him, just scared for him.

"I'm so sorry. You can go back to your movie, I'll just suck it up."

"You're completely fine. We can put on a different one for you." Jaemin offered, Yuta already moving to change the DVD.

"Actually, I had a movie I wanted to watch without the kids. We can go upstairs and watch that." Jaehyun suggested as Doyoung pulled Taeyong up and directed him back upstairs.

Taeil checked a parent's guide for the movie Jaehyun had wanted to watch just to make sure there would be nothing triggering for Taeyong as they set it up in the living room above the cafe.

At that point, no one was really interested in watching their movie anymore. Jungwoo even wanted to switch so he could protectively cuddle Taeyong, but Kun advised otherwise.

No one watched an action movie for a long time after that.