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“It’s not that big of a deal, but I’m still bothered by it” Jeno admitted. Earlier when he was heading to the closet, he did not expect anyone to be there, especially not him. The air around them was slightly awkward, he could hear every breath being taken in between the short conversation they had going on.

“Here take these” the boy gave Jeno all his cleaning supplies, which was an action that startled him. He tried his best to hold onto every item, even though the composition was messy, and he was balancing the bucket with his pinky finger.

            “Let’s help each other out”

Jeno kept on becoming surprised for each sentence let out by the other boy.

                        “We’ll finish faster that way”

Jeno nodded. The boy walked out of the closet and Jeno followed his footsteps, trying his best to balance every item he had hold of. He was too focused on the male in front of him, that he didn’t notice which direction they were heading at, nor the last sentence to come out of the boy’s mouth.

He snapped back to reality when the boy in front of him abruptly stopped. He turned around and looked at Jeno before sticking his hand out, signaling Jeno to shake it, even though it was hard since he was holding all the stuff. He moved his body to the side and managed to get a hold of the other boy’s hand, shaking it slightly before moving his arm back into himself, getting a good hold of the rags and other stuff again.

“I’m Jaemin by the way, nice to meet you” the boy showed off a smile, almost blinding Jeno.

“I’m Jeno, nice to meet you too” he gave Jaemin a small smile back, not able to compete with the youngers blinding smile.

After their short exchange of greetings, both boys headed into the first classroom, dropping off their items at the entrance. Jeno grabbed the bucket and notified Jaemin that he was going to go fill it up with water.

“Okay, I’ll begin sweeping the floors then”

Jeno took quick steps over to the toilets. His face was hot, and he was beginning to sweat, almost as if he was sick.

Are fevers supposed to occur so fast?

He was determined that he was getting ill. That was the only logical reason. He inhaled and exhaled to keep his breathing intact.

Now is not the time.

His steps became slower and he had reached the toilets. Walking over to the sink, he placed the bucket under the faucet and both the hot and the cold water, wanting to achieve the perfect temperature. Jeno looked up and examined his face. His cheeks could be compared to the color of a cherry, droplets of sweat were forming on each side of his forehead. He had to calm himself down. The degrees were rising to a max.

He looked down when he felt a liquid touching his shirt. He had leaned himself over the sink, his clothes having contact with the now almost flooded bucket. Panicked, he hurried to close the water, having trouble closing the one for cold water, causing the water to overflow out of the bucket and onto the rest of his clothes.

Jeno began laughing, it was bitter. 

What do I do?

He walked over to the paper dispenser and began taking handfuls of tissue, trying his best to dry off all the excess water covering the floor before beginning to focus on his own clothes. Dabbing the tissue carefully, letting the water get absorbed into the tissue and out of his clothes. It didn’t really help. Jeno’s clothes were still wet, but luckily the floor was dry.

What do I do?

Jeno stood in the middle of the room, frustrated and wet when he began hearing footsteps coming closer to the room.

What to do?

He began pacing the room, from one end to the other. Inhaling, exhaling. Repeating. The sound of the footsteps got louder.

“Jeno, what is taking you so long?”

He stopped. Now standing near the entrance. The bucket was still in the sink, filled up till it’s rim with water and the trashcan to Jeno’s right was stuffed with tissue. Jaemin looked confused. Jeno was embarrassed by the scene appearing in front of the other male.

“I-” Jeno stuttered.

            “I can explain”

“Why are you drenched in water?” Jaemin walked over and grabbed Jeno’s shoulders. He glanced at Jeno’s clothes.

“I got water on me”

Jaemin let out a small laugh.

“Well, no Sherlock” he locked eyes with Jeno.

            “We gotta get you dried”

He turned Jeno around and grabbed his shoulders from behind. Jeno got pushed out of the bathroom.

“Where are we going?”

-“To my locker, I have extra clothes”

--

Jeno was changing into the clothes Jaemin had lent him. He took it slow, feeling the dry, soft material on his still damp skin. The clothes had a flowery scent to them as if they were newly washed. Wearing Jaemin’s t-shirt and jogging pants, he put his damp clothes into a plastic bag, also given by Jaemin, and headed out of the stall.

There stood Jaemin with his back faced to Jeno. He was carefully emptying the bucket for water and was starting to add soap to create a mixture. Jeno coughed which made Jaemin look up and see Jeno through the mirror. He turned around and smiled.

Pretty.

“It looks like a nice fit, I’m glad”

Jeno blushed and walked over to the sink, hiding his face by looking down. He picked up the bucket and pointed at the exit.

“We should probably start doing something” Jeno nodded at Jaemin’s suggestion. He needed some distraction. From what? He didn’t know. But the feeling inside of him was different, it was new. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

A feeling of a feeling.

He laughed softly at his own realization.

How stupid.

--

“I’m pretty sure this is as clean as it can get” Jaemin informed Jeno.

            “We should begin cleaning your classroom as well”

Jeno nodded at Jaemin and they both exited the classroom.

                        “Which way is your class?”

Jeno looked around, but the place seemed more familiar than he expected. SR15. That was the name of his classroom, and what was written on the sign near the room at the end of the hallway. How come he had never noticed before?  They were already halfway through the school year, but not once had he noticed Jaemin, until now. How was that possible? He pointed at his classroom and signaled Jaemin to follow him.

“Your class is so close” Jaemin gasped.

            “How come I didn’t know that”

I didn’t know either.

They walked into Jeno’s classroom and began cleaning, the same way they did in Jaemin’s class. Both had taken the responsibility of different tasks. One had to sweep the floor, the other had to dust off the shelves and so on. They didn’t agree on anything, but both just copied their actions from earlier.

Jeno kept on eyeing Jaemin as he was wiping off the tables. Jaemin was energetically sweeping the floor. It was April and the weather was looking great. More people left their classes and spent their time outside during breaks, this made them unknowingly carry tons of dirt inside each and every classroom, making it harder to sweep the floor.

The dirt was piled up in small piles here and there from Jaemin’s thorough cleaning. When it looked like he was done, he turned around and looked at Jeno. Jeno looked at how Jaemin took a deep breath before parting his lips.

“I’m sorry for what happened on the bus”

            “The driver drove so suddenly”

                        “I wasn’t prepared” he looked embarrassed.

“I didn’t expect you to still remember” Jeno laughed at the flustered boy.

“It’s no big deal” he smiled at Jaemin, giving him a look of forgiveness. The boy began smiling again.

Please don’t stop.

Jeno shook his head of his thoughts.

“This is the first full sentence you’ve said to me since the toilets”

Jeno didn’t know why he wasn’t able to get any words out of his mouth back then. It was like someone was turning his confidence on and off, and it annoyed him as hell. His embarrassment didn’t help it either.

“Sorry for that” Jeno stated nervously, quite fazed by his own thoughts. He couldn’t stop thinking of his earlier actions.

“What are you apologizing for?”

-“Sorry”

“If you say sorry one more time, I’m leaving this entire room for yourself”

Jeno remained silent.