Summer Crushes | Jeongchan

six

Turns out that Chan and Jeongin weren't as discreet as they thought they wereㅡ granted, they traipsed passed the school gates like it was nobody's business but they didn't expect to be issued weekend detention in the art room.

Will it stop them from doing it again? Absolutely not. Organizing the art room on a Saturday afternoon can be considered a bonus for them, too.

It doesn't even feel like a punishment for them despite the fact that they were being tasked with cleaning the art room in exchange for their cutting classes days ago. Hyunjin had even teased Jeongin for waking up and getting ready to go to school earlier than he should and stating that he was going out on a breakfast date with Chan instead of doing some-sort of community service. Jeongin simply rolled his eyes, too distracted by the pacing of his heart at the label of 'date'ㅡ which it wasn't, but the thought still made Jeongin feel fuzzy.

Like he had texted Jeongin before the younger left home, Chan had shown up to school with breakfast for them both which they ate on the art room floor because all the tables were still stained with poster paint and watercolour that the art and theatre groups had used until late last night whilst making props.

There also wasn't a teacher to keep track of their progress by the minute but there were teachers making rounds and checking up on all the other students that were given weekend detention (Jeongin saw a group of four or five students raking up the leaves outside and Chan might have heard that a couple of people were re-arranging books in the library), so they had the day to themselves to do whatever they wanted to as long as they left the art room pristine after.

"Oh, wait, I have a question." Jeongin remembers as he and Chan start working on their third art table, the first two already wiped squeaky clean. Instead of cleaning up tables by themselves, they settled on working on everything together, Chan's phone playing music and propped up on the teacher's desk where their half-finished breakfast was.

"Yeah?" Chan asks as he focuses on a rather stubborn blob of orange paint on the edge of his side of the table.

"Did you go to middle school here, too?" Jeongin asks. His elbows are propped on the semi-clean table and sits down on the stool so that he wasn't standing too long. "I asked Hyunjin and he said he didn't notice you around when he was in middle school so he wasn't sure."

It had taken Jeongin some time to realize that Chan and Hyunjin have been going to the same school for a few years now and it's not like Hyunjin never met Chan (Jeongin wouldn't shut up about Chan for months, during and after summer camp so of course Hyunjin knew what Chan looked like); and Jeongin isn't pleased with the theory that Hyunjin had purposely omitted the fact that he and Chan have been going to the same school this whole time. What a traitor.

Chan shakes his head. "No, I moved here for high school, so it makes sense that we didn't see each other until now. Why, you were going to fight him if he knew where I was all this time?"

"Yes." Jeongin deadpans in a serious tone that makes Chan stop attempting to clean the orange paint smudge. He can go back to that later.

Chan scoffs out a surprised laugh and sits down next to Jeongin to look at him properly. "You're joking, right?"

Jeongin shrugs. "Maybe."

"What made you ask, though?" Chan asks him.

Jeongin purses his lips in thought. "I just wondered about it suddenly. I wonder what would have happened if we didn't lose contact with each other for the past years."

"Does it matter?" Chan isn't mocking or ridiculing him. He's genuinely curious if Jeongin thinks it would be better or worse that they have met again after not talking for so long.