On The Line | Chensung

A Heartbeat Away

"How come you have a reflection, Chenle?"
"Jisung, just cause you have a mouth, doesn't mean you have to use it."
Jisung huffed, looking over to Chenle's screen as the two worked on their essay and plan together. After the drama they had had over the past two days, they barely had any progress and were starting to lag behind in their project. If they didn't at least hand in the plan and the draft of their essay by the end of their double period tomorrow, they'd have to stay in detention and clean the school. Since, of course, neither of them wanted to stay even longer in the godforsaken place longer than they had to, both of them were rushing, typing out whatever they could spew from their tiny minds on to the document. Well, as rushed as they could be with such limited content.

After only an hour or two of typing and plotting out stuff, wracking their brain and Chenle's home desk, they gradually slowed down, trying to pick at thin threads with chopsticks. Jisung didn't know what to add to the plan anymore, he nor Chenle really had anything they would consider comforting that they could put into a scrapbook sort of image. At best, Chenle had his river pictures and Jisung had snapped a few pictures of the clouds. Mr Moon didn't really want pictures of faces either, so both boys had to throw out the photo they had taken of the group the day previous.

He groaned looking at Chenle's half baked essay, glancing over to his own half baked plan. He sighed dramatically, slumping his head on to the table and poking Chenle's shoulder in misery. "Chenleeee", he whined, "answer meeeeee."
Chenle puffed his cheeks, turning to him with a dead expression. One that Jisung was now familiar with of course, and now just a very Chenle thing to witness. The elder boy lifted his sunglasses on to his head, staring Jisung dead in the eyes, "why?"
"Cause," Jisung shrugged, "we don't have anything else, we've explained everything we can, and I have questions."
Chenle sighed, propping his arm up on the table and resting his head on it, "fine." He used his other hand to save the file before shutting the laptop lid. "Fire away."

Jisung smiled, "okay, if all these stories say you don't have a reflection how come you do?"
Chenle furrowed his brows for a second before responding, "Well, for one, not all the stories are true, there's always more to them. But," he took a deep yawn, letting himself relax as he continued, "back during that time, mirrors used polished silver backings, so vampires could not only not see their reflections but they couldn't even touch them since silver is a source of purification and we are the exact opposite. Now we use aluminium backings, so we can use them now."
Jisung dragged an "oh" as he nodded. As useless as the information was to him, he found the whole non-mythical world fascinating now. Learning how the human world affected the vampire world was interesting to him. Though whether it was because his friends were these creatures of the night or just because it was actually interesting was a mystery to him. Maybe it was both. Maybe it was just Chenle.

"Chenle? Why would it be because of Chenle?"

Jisung furrowed his brows, wondering why his brain was leading him astray. Chenle poked him and asked what was wrong. Internally panicking, the young boy quickly searched his useless piece of muscle for a brain for a quick diversion from his actual thoughts. "Uh, nah I was just wondering how you knew that. Cause like if I was a vampire, I wouldn't know that."
"Ah," Chenle nodded, "uh well," he scratched his head awkwardly, "I asked my mum when I was like 8 and for some reason I remember."

Jisung snorted, falling into quiet laughter to try not disturb the quietness of the house. Chenle broke into stifled giggles himself after listening to Jisung laugh for a bit, both of them quietly losing their minds in his darkened bedroom. It was nice that Chenle seemed more comfortable around him. Jisung was happy to call Chenle his friend without worrying about being killed at his hands, or possibly teeth. They had reached a happy understanding, Chenle could be more himself, which to Jisung's surprise was actually quite bubbly, almost like Renjun without the strong attitude.

"Chenle," Jisung spoke, liking the way the boy's name rolled off his tongue naturally, "do you have any stories like Renjun hyung?"
Chenle shook his head, rolling his chair away as he stretched a bit. Jisung glanced at the clock, noticing how the hours had passed by so subtly yet so quickly. He looked back up to Chenle shutting his eyes as he rolled his head around, "I never went outside remember? Renjun hyung has family here but most, if not all, of my relatives live in China. Since I moved when I was three, I don't remember much." he looked down at the floor, swivelling the desk chair from side to side in a slight daze. "My mum taught me to hunt, and I practiced on mice in the household. My dad told me the things to avoid and how to survive in strange conditions." He looked up with a sheepish smile, "I've never seen a fairy, never seen a werewolf, or a mermaid or anything. I only know my family and Renjun hyung and I've only really ever been here, the forest and school." He chuckled to himself, "and now Jeno hyung's house."
"Oh," Jisung nodded, frowning in sympathy. How bland of a life he must've led, Jisung was grateful for the upbringing he had so far, filled with love and warmth from friends and family, not gripped by a cold, dead hand.  

"You've never had a heart beat, yeah?" Jisung asked quietly.
Chenle looked up, chuckling a bit, "obviously, never had one, never needed one. Kinda pathetic to depend on one if you ask me."
Jisung laughed slightly, reaching and taking Chenle's hand into his own. He brought his hand to his chest, sending him a short smile.
The older boy looked up at him, furrowing his eyebrows as Jisung held his hand at his chest, "why are you doing this?"
Jisung shrugged laughing a bit, "just so you know what it feels like in case you don't. This is what you're missing out on, Lele."
Chenle bit his lip, staring at his hand in Jisung's. His eyes seemed to dart around, the boy looking slightly confused as he curled into himself. Jisung tilted his head down, trying to understand what happened to the boy when Chenle looked up, giving him a shaky smile.
"Thank you, Jisung."