clingy • chengstin

clingy | fin

"Justin isn't that... attached to me as he is with the others," Chengcheng began cautiously, eyes trained on Zhengting's reaction. "Don't you think it's kind of weird, ge?"

The elder blinked, holding a neutral expression, but eventually gave up and snorted as he bit back a chuckle.

"Chengcheng, don't you think you're overthinking?"

Chengcheng raised an eyebrow at the other and crossed his arms. "But I'm not!" he insisted. He looked so visually frustrated and it fueled Zhengting's amusement to no end.

At that moment, Chengcheng swore Zhengting knew something he didn't, just by the look on the older's face. If he's hiding something, he's doing a terrible job.

"He's always so comfortable around the other geges. To everyone! I'm literally the only person who he doesn't treat that way, ge."

"Maybe it's because he sees you more like his friend than an older figure," Zhengting tried to help, doing a terrible job at biting back a smile. It seems like Justin isn't the only baby around here.

"But how? He treats Linong like that too, and I'm older than him! He and Xukun-ge just met a few months ago, and they're already that close. I've known him for years and he's never treated me that way!" Chengcheng expressed exasperatedly, flopping himself back onto the bed as he (unpleasantly) groaned.

"Fan Chengcheng, why is this such a big deal to you in the first place?" Zhengting asked him, brushing Chengcheng's fringe away from his eyes, trying his best to keep his calm composure. "It's just Justin. He's a kid, he shouldn't be taken seriously. We all know he loves you as much as everyone else."

Having no other option, Chengcheng just sighed in defeat. "So... I'm overthinking, huh?"

Just before Zhengting could reply, a loud and rather rude disturbance flung their dorm room open, revealing Justin, Zeren, Zhenghao, Xingjie and Yanchen entering the room noisily.

"Hey, Zhengting-ge!" the talk of the town, Justin, beamed, swinging an arm around Zhengting but the latter just shoved him off. "Get off me, you smell like sweat and have popsicle juice all over your mouth! Get changed!"

"Hey," Yanchen said, handing Chengcheng and Zhengting a popsicle each. "We worked hard today. Have a popsicle!"

"Hey, Chengcheng! Huba-ge might have payed for all of that but I picked your favorite flavor," Justin told Chengcheng, hopping on the spot next to him on the bed- not before noticing the sharp glare Xingjie directed at him after the mention of the infamous nickname.

"Get off my bed, you have your own," Chengcheng whined, attempting to shoo Justin away with his (oh-so-threatening) cold strawberry popsicle.

"Don't wave that thing around, ew, the popsicle juice is dripping all over," Justin whined back, shoving Chengcheng's arm away from him, the latter snickering in response.

"We really shouldn't be eating in here, let's head out," Zhengting told the others, who proceeded to walk out of the room as they noisily chatted.

"Cheng, you coming?" Justin asked, noticing that his best friend was unmoving from his spot on the bed.

Chengcheng simply nodded, Justin replying with a blinding smile before he skipped outside, looping his arm with Zhenghao's as he happily consumed his popsicle.

"I'm probably just overthinking," Chengcheng told no one in particular once the dorm room was empty of the other members. He sighed for the nth time that day and and followed the others outside, choosing to enjoy his popsicle instead of thinking too much.