𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙡𝙤𝙦𝙪𝙮 | chensung

Ch.24

"Sweepity-sweep," Donghyuck sang, sweeping the dirt pile into the corner. "Swoopity-swoop. Swippity-swip."

"Shushity-shush," Renjun complained. He knelt down and caught the dirt in a dustpan and held it out towards him threateningly, Jisung and Chenle watching quietly from the other end of the room (also sweeping but opting to observe the cat-and-dog duo).

Donghyuck exasperatedly shoved his brush forward and jabbed it at Renjun to take. "Just try to sweepity-sweep without a rhythm. I dare you."

"I'll 'sweepity-sweep' your ass into the bin if you don't stop warbling. So pitchy," he tsked.

Donghyuck hmphed and spun around to continue the job, but he was smiling outwardly - he clearly found their little spats amusing.

Jisung turned to Chenle and nudged his head in the direction of the door. "Different room?" He mouthed.

Chenle nodded and followed him out happily. If he had a tail, it'd be wagging. The rest of the school was deserted and it was the four of them only, left to pick away at the rooms to clean.

"Library?"

"Sure!"

They headed up to the library and breathed out a sigh of relief. "It always feels like I'm third-wheeling," Jisung chuckled. "For both them and Jeno and the guy he likes."

Chenle was already making his way over to the bookshelf to start dusting it down. He turned back around and smiled warmly. "I know the feeling."

Jisung warmed at the sight and felt his eyes soften, feet taking him to follow. Starting with dusting... "I'll take this shelf then."

Chenle leaned the sweeping brush against his shelf and rummaged through the box of cleaning items to find a rag. A purple and green-patterned one caught his eye so he grabbed it and looked up at the tall shelf, laden with dusty encyclopaedias that no one seemed to ever use. Hand reaching up, he began to wipe the books' spines and the wooden steps of the shelf.

"Ack!"

The older boy turned around to see Jisung frantically batting the air in front of his face. "You okay?"

"Just- atchOO- dusty," he wheezed and coughed a bit. "Ugh."

Chenle chuckled and wandered over to him, helping to swipe the dust out of the air. "Better?"

"Thanks," he uttered, sniffling a bit and taking a few steps back. "It's a thankless job, dusting, but someone's gotta do it."

They could agree on that.

"This actually reminds of that time when you dropped the book on your foot."

Chenle's upper lip twitched and his face slowly turned redder, while he himself cleared his throat in embarrassment. "How could I forget? That..."

Jisung chuckled and patted his back soothingly, wanting to hug him and tell him that he was adorable, but his head told him that they weren't quite there yet. They were, without a doubt, friends. But the line between being friendly and being romantic was looming over Jisung's mind. "It was cute," was all he said, settling on this. He swiped at the air again to rid the dust particles and then turned back to Chenle, smiling.

Chenle noticed that he had suddenly gone quiet for a moment. He shook the redness away and gently hit his cheeks. "W-Well it was sore at the time, but my foot is back to normal."

"That's good."

"...Yeah." His eyes lingered on Jisung as he readied his rag to resume dusting, but he struggled to move back to where he had been working. He liked standing next to Jisung. He liked talking with him and being able to see him. He looked down at his shoes with thoughts that he had been thinking daftly. He shouldn't get his hopes up. He had already decided with himself that this was love, that he wanted to be able to tell him about his feelings without considering the aftermath, that he wasn't quite content with just being his friend. But it was intimidating to actually put his thoughts to actions. He wanted to make it clear, but he didn't know how.