Chapter Text
“What do you think they’re talking about?”
Changbin leans over the porch railing, watching the five kids standing in a circle on the sidewalk, talking amongst themselves, surrounded by an array of skateboards, bikes, and roller skates.
“World domination, probably,” Minho says, taking a sip of the lemonade Chan had made, leaning back in the rocking chair. “I raised my children well.”
Changbin snorts, leaving the railing to go sit in the third and final rocking chair on Chan’s porch, right next to the homeowner himself.
In recent years, their collection of five kids had become a close-knit, tightly bonded group. Houses were cycled through as if it was their own and every once in awhile sometimes Chan, Minho, or Changbin would wake up with an extra kid at their breakfast table, only to be missing them all at dinner.
For the kids, growing up into the gangly pre-teens they were becoming hadn’t been easy. Jisung sometimes still catches himself scratching his arms and Felix has days where he has to be glued to Jisung’s side. Seungmin doesn’t lose control of his emotions very often but some days he has to drag the board out of the kitchen drawer and sort through the colours to figure out what he’s feeling. Jeongin’s hair has grown back and his bright smile lights up the room wherever he goes, and Hyunjin? Well, he’s the best tree climber in their neighborhood and has a Swedish god-free loft bed in his own bedroom.
“I say we aim for the cafeteria. No one would see us coming there.”
“But there’s more people, more teachers to have to sneak past.”
“What about the classrooms?”
“Too small scale, you gotta thing big, Hyunjin.”
Felix turns towards the porch, four sets of eyes following him. “Hey, Dad! How do you take over a school?”
Chan chokes on his lemonade, Changbin patting him on the back while Minho wheezes. “See, I told you they were planning world domination!”