Laptop key feels mushy or "soft" when pressed instead of clicky, and the sticky key keeps coming back even after I clean it even though other cleaned keys are fine.

For context, I spilled coke on my lenovo ideapad's keyboard last week. Was able to turn it off and wipe it in time, but went to get it checked for repair anyways. Was told my motherboard was fine, but the laptop keyboard was built so that you can't really remove the keys to have it cleaned properly, so I was to expect some keys possibly malfunctioning like not typing correctly, but I was told I was free to use my laptop as normal until one of theys start messing up, then they told me to get a complete keyboard replacement.

That wasn't really the problem, though! The coke spillage was small and only a sip's worth around the H J K L area of the keyboard. All of the keys in the spillage area were fine. A day or so after I got home, I noticed the enter and shift button feels soft when pressed. Like if normal keys feel quick and "clicky", enter and shift feels soft and slow to push/spring back up. (Sorry, is this what people call a sticky key? I couldn't figure out what a sticky key felt like from searching it up since they were all cleaning videos.)
I considered the possibility of maybe a drop of soda escaped me. The sensory feeling is a bit odd and it felt like I had to put a little bit more effort into pressing the button, even if the difference is only a bit subtle. I looked up how people usually clean keys and they swab it around with alcohol on a q-tip, so knowing I can't remove my keys I tried to dip a clean cosmetic brush in alcohol and tried to gently wipe the edges under the key. Not sure if that's advised, but it worked and keys feel as clicky as normal again after a few swipes, and remain clicky after a long time after I left the laptop alone (turned off).

However, when I turn the laptop on and start using it for a little bit, the keys turn mushy again! :,( I clean it, leave the laptop alone turned off for hours and find that it's still clicky, turn it on and use it for a bit and it goes back to being soft. This happens about 3 times and it bums me out a lot because I'm at the peak of my workload right now and the softness bothers me. I also don't want to keep swiping the underside with alcohol since I'm not actually sure yet if it's good to keep doing it.

As for why the softness coming back bothers me so much: For more context, there were surrounding keys that also felt soft (left arrow key and the numbers 1 and 4 on the number pad, which were right next to enter and shift). After cleaning it with the brush once the first time I noticed them, they remained clicky and never turned soft even when the laptop is on. It's just enter and shift that keep reverting back to being soft for some reason, and it bugs me that it gets "fixed" but only comes back when the laptop's on.

I'm trying to think if there's something else wrong with my keyboard I don't know about or if it (somehow?) really got damaged? I would get it repaired, but it's possible I can't afford the complete keyboard replacement they'll suggest me, so I'm taking a shot to ask here in case anyone has an explanation/is familiar with what's going on before I run to get it repaired :(

Sorry for the long explanation, I wanted to be as clear as possible, but also couldn't find any solutions (or similar problems) online with the keywords I tried. I'm also sorry if I'm asking for something obvious since I'm not very tech savvy and I've never had a problem like this before :( Thank you so much to anyone that can help!