On The Line | Chensung

The Project Cliché

Jisung drummed his fingers on the table as he waited for the teacher with the rest of the class, stifling yawns just in case another teacher entered. The days just kept dragging on with no break and he didn't know whether he was gonna break mentally or physically first. He twisted from side to side, the muscles in his back popping as one of his classmates slid into the desk beside his.
He sighed deeply as the kid beside him let their head hit the table. "Nice to know we're both dying."
"How the hell could I not?" Chaeryeong grumbled, lifting her head up with a deep pout.

Jisung snorted as his teacher bustled through the door, desperately holding the various stray sheets in his disorganised folder. Jisung rolled his eyes, sighing to himself in disappointment as Mr Seo dropped his folder on to the table. As if he couldn't have any more of a disgrace of a cousin.
"Uh, please turn to page 84 of your textbooks," the teacher mumbled somewhat coherently as he fumbled with the sheets in his folder. Jisung internally groaned as he flicked the cover open, flipping through the endless notes of his photography textbook. A strange subject to have a textbook to, but everything can be taught in some way or another.

"Okayyyy," Mr Seo announced at the front of the classroom, trying to gain the majority of the students' attention. "So practical work in groups, well duos that I'm assigning cause I don't like half of you."

The students groaned, Jisung cursing under his breath. And to think, he and Chaeryeong could finally do the fairy garden collage they had been dying to do. He huffed, turning and frowning at the young girl beside him, Chaeryeong giving the same expression back.

"Oh get over it, life just gets worse," Mr Seo waved dismissively at his miserable class, instead clicking and pointing to the book before them. "Now I know it says a family collage, but what is family but a bunch of disappointments related to you by blood, yeah?" Jisung sat up, glaring at the teacher as he continued. "Instead, I'm going to ask you to create a collage of things that make you feel at home, things that bring comfort. You will add things to it of course but you will also need to write an explanation essay with your partner to tell me why these things bring comfort to you, cause I'd rather learn about the things that make you happy than learn about your family stability."
The students nodded, some quickly scrawling in their books and school planners the assignment as Mr Seo explained due dates and compulsory additions. "I don't need your faces in them, I'd rather you not have them actually." He looked up with a bright smile, "but now I think I'll read out the assigned groups."

"Oh please no," Jisung thought to himself as the teacher fished out a piece of paper, pairings scribbled on them in barely legible writing as far as Jisung could see. Not that his writing was much better though.

"Okay Huening Kai and Kim Samuel."

"Oh please no no."

"Park Sunghoon and Noh Hyojung."

"Please don't let this be some cliche."

"Jeo Yetak and Kang Taehyun."

"Please author-nim, not Chenle."

"Park Jisung-"

"Shit," Jisung slipped out accidentally, the teacher quickly shooting him a look before reading out the name of his partner.

"And Lee Chaeryeong."

Jisung's eyes lit up, head shooting toward his friend as the teacher's voice droned out in the background. Chaeryeong also stared at him with bright eyes and an agape mouth. Feeling like he just won the lottery, as soon as he recognised the fact that Johnny had stopped talking he jumped to the girl's seat, clinging on to her arm.
"Ha ha!" Jisung cheered triumphantly, Chaeryeong fist bumping the air.

"Hang on," Mr Seo muttered, catching the students' attention once again, "I've missed Chenle again." Jisung blinked, tightening his arms around Chaeryeong's, sending a petty death glare at the teacher running the numbers again.
"Obviously sir," Chenle muttered quietly at the back of the class, clearly being very used to being forgotten. If Jisung really thought about it, no one apart from Renjun really hung around near him. And if you sit at the back in all black by yourself, he guessed it was only inevitable that you'd be glanced over.

Jisung watched the teacher carefully as he scrunched his nose in contemplation. He glanced back quickly at the boy at the back of the class, seeing him rolling loose thread between his fingers. Nope, nope, no. He refused to work with someone who sat in eerie silence forever, he'd rather take Jeno's extra math class than try to deal with the dementor in his class.

"Okay I need to rework these, uh Chaeryeong I'm gonna actually make you join Jeongin and Daehwi, and Jisung..." the young boy's eyes widened in disbelief. "You don't mind being paired with Chenle, yeah?"

Jisung blinked, his jaw dropping slightly as his eyes darted back and forth. He really couldn't believe such a bullshit cliché really had happened to him. Him, who not even two hours prior had been bitching to his friend about how weird that specific kid was, only to be paired with him for a project. It was ridiculous, how could he share any sort of comforting place or item with Chenle, how could he be paired with a kid who looked like he hadn't felt an emotion since birth on a project that involved the very culmination of his mind's home.

"...yeah, it's fine," he muttered out, the words reluctantly rolling off his tongue. He took a deep breath, looking down to avoid all the sympathetic looks sent his way as he picked up his books and dragged his feet toward the back table. Jisung placed his books on the table beside Chenle's, dragging it so that the tables were almost touching.

He looked up, seeing Chenle gradually turn his head toward him. He nodded toward him, "Hello."
Jisung sucked in his cheeks in awkwardness, nodding back, "wassup."
Chenle looked at him, well he assumed he was looking at him, before clicking his tongue. "So, have any ideas?"
"Uh no not really," Jisung rambled out quickly.
Chenle scoffed in response, "pathetic."

Jisung blinked at him in confusion, glancing down at the older boy's blank page. He looked up to the other side of the classroom, making eye contact with Chaeryeong. The girl gave him a sombre nod even though she was visibly holding back laughter. He itched the back of his head, looking down in confusion. This kid...was...a mess. More than a mess. Jisung couldn't even think of any way of describing him, every sentence fell short.

This.

This was going to be interesting to say the least.