Leave a message after the beep- your friendly neighborhood Spiderman

by nightowl312

Summary:

Don’t get him wrong. Mingyu loved being spiderman.

Just maybe not this week.

Chapter 1: pizza and first love

All units report to Brighton Beach Ave, 10-64 in progress. Standby.

 

Don’t get him wrong. Mingyu loved being spiderman. 

 

Just maybe not this week.  

 

As he dodged a bullet flying towards his head for the second time that night, Mingyu felt the familiar thrum of adrenaline racing through his body; blood roaring, his body moving faster than he could think.

The store was in chaos. Glass shattered to his immediate right as the three gunmen fired aimlessly, abandoning their task of shoveling money into a duffel bag as soon as they saw the blur of red and blue swing through the door.

“You know, believe it or not, the sandman over on 3rd made my job a lot easier,” Mingyu yelled over the noise to the nearest gunmen who was making a frantic break for the door. Mingyu hauled him back with a flick of his wrist, dumping him straight into the candy section on aisle four. He then webbed both the man’s wrists and ankles together for good measure. 

One down two to go.

“No property damage,” he sighed, briefly pausing to check his web fluid levels. Low. Above his head, scraps of produce flew through the air. Red lights danced across the store walls and ceiling. 

“Just came straight at me. One-on-one, out in the street. It’s like we had an understanding,” he added conversationally to the two girls on his right who were clutching a pack of Twizzlers in disbelief. 

“You should get the M&M's too, they’re half-price,” he suggested before launching himself onto the ceiling. 

Mingyu crawled around for a bit before spotting the remaining two thugs cowering next to a banana cart. 

“Harry and Marv, is that you!” he yelled, swinging over in a heartbeat. 

“Don’t come any closer spiderman, or….or I’ll shoot!” The taller and uglier of the two (clearly the Marv of the operation), grasped around for his gun on the floor as the shorter one began pummeling him with bananas.   

“Look buddy-ow, watch the suit it’s just spandex- it’s 10 pm. On a Monday. These people need to get home, and believe it or not, I got homewo-I got things to do.” Mingyu said in exasperation.

His head flooded with the three chemistry quizzes, two lab reports, and a two-page essay he had due the next day, not to mention the pile of other assignments he had to get done before this weekend. 

Minghao’s warning echoed through his mind. “This is why I got you a planner for your birthday. What do I always say, schedule the time in between the crime, I even came up with a catchphrase-”  

Any other week and he would have done what he usually does. Swing around New York as the neighborhood’s friendly Spiderman, all while rushing in and out of class, taking pictures for the school newspaper, helping Aunt May down at the shelter, and eating anything he could get his hands on in between. Then deal with the enormous number of assignments he had shoved off for weekend-Mingyu to deal with, only to start the cycle again. 

 

And again. 

 

And again.

 

Hey, he’d made it through freshman year without failing a class, so it had to be pretty foolproof.

But this weekend was different. Wonwoo hyung was going to be there. 

Wonwoo. Beautiful, smart, incredible Wonwoo hyung, who had mentioned that he was looking forward to seeing him at Jeonghan and Joshua’s birthday party after last week's team meeting. 

And so help him, Mingyu wasn’t going to spend the entire weekend drowning in ramen or dodging half-priced bananas to miss it. 

His spider senses tuned into the police sirens that were growing closer by the second. Better wrap this up. 

“Sir, I’m gonna have to ask you to put the banana down,” he said sternly. After sidestepping one last feebly thrown banana (why do they never listen?) he wrapped each of them in webs before catapulting them onto the ceiling.

Humming, he proceeded to walk to aisle four and drag the last robber back to the produce section, lying him straight on his back directly beneath his two friends.

“Hey look, the gang’s back together,” Mingyu said cheerfully. “Listen, while I’ve got you all here, I personally think this would be a great time to discuss some career changes. Take it from me, some people are just more cut out for this line of work and judging by everyone's performance today-im looking at you Marv-it’s not looking so hot-“

“Get us down from here you fucking piece of shi-” A patch of web covered Harry's mouth, cutting him off.

Mingyu placed his hands on his hips, shaking his head. “This is what I mean man. Poor preparation, sloppy exit strategy, and you blame the spiderman.”

Criminals these days. No sense of decorum.

Mingyu took a quick look around. The police were not going to be happy with this, he thought, taking in the shattered glass, broken lights, and various produce littering the floor. He proceeded to round up all three of the glocks and pinned them to the ceiling.

Just as he was about to head out, his phone pinged. 

 

Seokmin

“Hey.”

we’re out of milk

grab some on the way home??

Plssssssss

;)

“Come on.” he muttered, sending a quick thumbs up and jogging back to the dairy section. Picking through the potato chip trail on aisle 7, he walked back to the cash register with a carton of milk and a pack of m&m’s (look half-price is half-price).

“Oh.” Mingyu said in surprise, noting the cashier who looked pretty bored for a guy who had just been robbed. “you’re still here.” 

“Yoooo, you’re that spider dude,” the man drawled, blinking slowly through bloodshot eyes. “Spider guy. Spider-”.

“Yep, that’s me. I only got ten bucks and this is all…$8.25 so,” Mingyu said, shaking the milk carton. “Keep the change.”

“Sweeeeet.” mumbled the man, who in hindsight might’ve just been high the entire time. 

He shoved the milk into his bag, and set off swinging into the night sky, just as the police rounded the corner.

 

Chemistry quizzes first. 

 

---

 

“Whole milk? You’ve known I’m lactose intolerant for 15 years.” Seokmin poked his head out of the fridge to glare at Mingyu in disdain. 

Mingyu groaned, peeling his face from the kitchen table. Everything felt oddly sticky, as he faintly realized he was still in his suit. He hated when he that happened.

It had been around 11 when he had finally gotten home, and judging from the soreness in his back and neck, he’d fallen asleep in his chair after finally finishing that two-page essay on mathematical physics in everyday life. 

“I was kind of preoccupied,” he replied sleepily, opting to lay his head back on the table. “Getting shot at by bananas and all that.” 

“…Not getting into that.” Seokmin shook his head, leaning forward to remove a blue post-it that had somehow ended up on his forehead. 

“Its my turn to do the laundry so put the rest of your suit in with the load,'' Seokmin reached across the counter to grab the discarded mask that was hanging on the chair next to Mingyu before heading for the laundry room. “And into the mesh bag this time, I don’t need to hear Hao complaining about his stitching coming apart in another tiktok of you, he said it’s bad for his brand.”

“What brand, we’re anonymous,” Mingyu grumbled.

“It's ‘the principle of the thing’. His words, not mine.” 

Mingyu groaned again, flipping his head to the other side.

Keeping spiderman a secret from Seokmin had been impossible from the beginning. He’d only been best friends with the guy since kindergarten, fighting over who got to use the blue swing on the playground and crying to both their mothers when they accidentally smacked foreheads with one another trying to get on at the same time. After sniffling in the sandpit with matching red bumps on their forehead, a couple of popsicles and tentative Pokemon card exchanges had been enough to brand them best friends for life. 

Naturally, the day after he had been bitten during his junior year of high school, Seokmin was right by his side screaming his head off with him as they tried to get Mingyu’s hands unstuck from the school bathroom ceiling. 

Minghao had found out a bit later, halfway through their first semester at uni. Look, it hadn’t been his intention to come swinging into the window of their dorm with his suit on fire, but in Mingyu’s defense, he had been kind of preoccupied at the time. After dousing him from head to toe with a fire extinguisher, Minghao took one long look at the charred Spiderman mask in Mingyu’s hand and left the house before he could even come up with a half-baked excuse. 

He had spent the entire day in paranoia, every possible scenario running through his head. Minghao was great, the two having clicked from the start. He was cool, honest, true to himself from the way he dressed to the way he told it to you how it was, not how you wanted it to be. Mingyu had admired that about him from the start, even if Hao did make him go back to his room to change when he wore his gray sweats too many times in a row. Plus, he wasn’t a slob in the kitchen and he never left his dishes in the shared sink, I mean how could you not like him?

Finding out your roommate was the crime-fighting vigilante the NYPD had thrown out a search warrant for though? Was what he was going to call…uncharted territory.   

This was it. It was bound to happen sooner or later. He’d probably be kicked out of the building. Expelled from school. Forget that, the NYPD would be knocking on his door any second. Mingyu could already see tomorrow's headlines: SPIDERMAN UNMASKED: TURNS OUT HE'S JUST A BROKE ASIAN STUDENT.

Just as he was compiling a list of exit strategies, Minghao burst through the door, spandex fabric in one hand, a tape measure in the other. “I’m not looking at another picture of you in that ugly thing now that I know I can actually do something about it.”

Needless to say, he’d kind of lucked out in the friend department.

Speak of the devil, Minghao opened the front door, already back from his morning designer class. 

“I bring food heathens,” he yelled, waving a bag of bagels while shutting the door with his foot.

“I love you,” Mingyu said, mouth-watering. Seokmin's muffled cheers could be heard from inside his room.

Minghao took a look at the laptop and chemistry notes scattered across the kitchen table, eyes sparkling. “I knew you’d come around to the planner.” 

“Hate to break it to you Hao, but I think Wonwoo hyung is a better motivator than your planner any day,” Seokmin said, making grabby hands at the bagels.

“I can be responsible.” Mingyu protested.

“Fsay’s the guy who fturned the launfrery red and blue the one time we let you near the washfer.” Seokmin replied, cheeks bulging.

Amongst the mess of paper, post-its, and energy drinks, Hao fished out one of the sketches Mingyu had doodled in his chemistry notes sometime around 2 a.m, half-delirious from exhaustion. Hao shook it in his hand, a sly grin plastered on his face. 

“That,” Mingyu started, trying to school his expression. “Is not Wonwoo hyung, if that’s what you were thinking. The base of his nose is rounder, the mole under his right eye is missing, and his eyebrows aren’t even that far apart. Could be anyone….really.” 

“Didn’t say anything, and none of what you just said is helping you,” Hao replied smoothly, seating himself across from him. He clasped his fingers together and leaned forward to look at him.

“...Stop it,” Mingyu said sternly.

“stop what,” Hao replied innocently. 

“You’re doing the thing.”

“What thing?”

“The staring at me till I get uncomfortable and start talking thing.”

“I’m not staring at you.”

“Seok, make him stop.”

“…he brought bagels so. Hao stare harder.”

“You know how I feel about your giant anime alien eyeballs, it’s like they’re digging into my soul, blink why don’t you-”

“Get him Hao, he’s cracking-”

“That’s it, I’m covering my eyes-” Mingyu yelled, throwing his hands over his face.

“Oh for fucksake you wuss,” Hao huffed, leaning back into his seat. ”Are you finally gonna grow some balls and ask him out this Saturday of what?”

Ah. The age-old question that usually resulted in variations of the same answer.

That’s stupid. 

We’re just friends. 

No, you’re in denial. 

Hey look over there!

But Mingyu paused. The question hung in the air, Hao and Seokmin exchanging looks in surprise.

It was no secret that he had been in love with Wonwoo Hyung for nearly a year now. Hao knew. Seokmin knew. His aunt knew. Hell, even Vernon knew and he hadn’t even realized that he’d been dating Seungkwan till their one-month-aversary. Boy had that been a wild conversation to listen to.

At the end of the day, a secret identity was relatively easy to keep. Feelings? Not so much. 

Seokmin and Hao were always pushing him to make a move already. If not for their own sakes of having to witness him look at Wonwoo like he had hung the moon everytime he walked by. Or talked. Or looked his way. 

But it was never going to be that simple. He wasn’t a naive high schooler anymore, where the worst thing could happen was getting told no. Or in Susan Yang's case in the 5th grade, “Ew.” 

He was Spiderman. Crime fighting vigilante, New York’s favorite webslinger. And turns out, when you’re spiderman, the worst thing that could happen is a lot of things. Dangerous, poisonous, genetically altered, psychotic things. With backstories.  

Asking Wonwoo hyung out was the last thing he should do to keep him away from the disaster. 

“Masochist.” Hao had muttered when Mingyu had painstakingly pointed this out.

“...with a heart of gold.” Seokmin added, always softening the blow. 

Mingyu had waited in the beginning. Feelings faded, right? He was in college, everyone was falling in and out of love by the end of the week. 

But a semester had passed. Then two. And after flipping through his sketchbook that summer only to find Wonwoo hyung’s face gracing every couple of pages, he had come to the realization that what he was feeling hadn’t faded at all. Instead they had scouted the area and set up camp with absolutely no intentions of leaving any time soon.

And maybe…maybe the world wouldn’t end if he took the leap. 

For just this once, maybe Spiderman didn’t have to mean sacrificing every corner of his life.

“Gyu.” Seokmin reached out to squish Mingyu’s face between his two hands. He urgently tugged him forward till their faces were only a couple inches apart. 

“You’re both very intense today,” Mingyu commented matter-of-factly. If 15 years had taught him anything, it was that with Seokmin, you just had to go with it. “And your breath smells like onion.” he added wrinkling his nose.

“Don’t change the subject,” Seokmin said, leveling him with a serious look. Or as serious as you could get with bagel crumbs surrounding your mouth. “Asking him out. Yes or no.”

Another long pause filled the room.

“I might…” Mingyu started through squished cheeks, looking off into some far corner. “I might…..be planning on doing….something of the sort-”

“Oh thank god.” Seokmin let out a sigh of relief, shoving Mingyu away before dramatically collapsing to the floor. He took another large, vicious bite out of his bagel in triumph. 

“If I….had to hear another sonnet about how good Wonwoo hyung’s butt looks in black jeans…I might have killed myself. Or you.” he added.

“It’s so small but defined,” Mingyu sighed dreamily from where he was now flopped onto his side. “Did you see how he’s grown the back of his hair now so that it touches his collar? Or how his bangs almost get into his eyes, but just barely, so he’s always sweeping at it with his hands. Speaking of his hands, urmfffff-“ Hao cut him off, shoving a bagel into his mouth. 

“Eat your bagel simp.” he said, plucking a blueberry bagel out of the bag for himself. 

 

---

 

He’d always expected falling in love to be momentous. Fireworks. Erupting butterflies. A huge sweeping affair that hits you right in the guts.  

But all Mingyu knew was that falling in love with Wonwoo hyung hadn’t been any of those things. 

By the end of his first semester, it was just something he had quietly come to terms with. The grass was green. The sky was blue. He needed to stock up on web fluid after class. And he was in love with Wonwoo hyung. 

Though he supposed everything had to start somewhere. 

In his first week of freshman year, only two people had been there on Mingyu’s first day at the school paper, a blond-haired guy who looked like he had fallen straight out of the cover of Vogue, and another guy whose back was turned to him, furiously typing into a computer. 

“Oh," exclaimed the blond, turning his head towards the door. “Mingyu? God, you are tall. I’m Jeonghan, Josh mentioned you would be swinging by today.”

Joshua, a kind, charismatic, sometimes brutally intense upperclassman had taken a freshman Mingyu under his wing after a psych 202 group project had gone south. 

After the rest of the group had completely ghosted the two of them for a presentation worth half their grade in favor of club hopping, Josh had turned in the presentation with only his and MIngyu’s names pinned at the top. To this day, Mingyu still doesn’t know how he had done it. But the next morning Josh had gotten all three of the members to come in on presentation day, clearly hungover as he breezed through the entire 15-minute presentation with grace and confidence, Mingyu stumbling through his half as best he could.

“Thank you all for listening.” Josh finished,  showing the next slide that consisted of the remaining members’ names, an Instagram post of them doing shots, along with the title, “Thanks for nothing:)” 

Mingyu had decided from that day on that Josh was one of the coolest, borderline terrifying guys he’d ever met. 

He also decided to never cross him in good conscience. 

“Yeah, Shua Hyung told me you guys were taking in photography recruits.” Mingyu replied with a smile, shouldering his bag nervously. Finding a club to join had been Seokmin’s idea. A way to, “Get you out of your head when you get too deep into superhero business and start to spiral, then isolate yourself till I have to haul you out kicking and screaming.” 

He looked out for him like that. 

Seokmin had dragged him to the club fair later that week, and after visiting everywhere from the acapella group (sweet group but he could barely carry a tune) to the student council (one intense bunch of handsy extroverts) he had finally settled on applying for a photographer position in the school newspaper that Josh had recommended. Hence why he was standing awkwardly in a dingy basement that smelled a bit like burned rubber and old glue. 

The guy in front of the computer spared him a glance. Or more of a glare really, as he turned his head back to his screen, the click-clack of his keyboard echoing through the air. 

“Come on, I’ll show you around.” Jeonghan said, breaking the silence as he beckoned him forward. 

As chief editor, Jeonghan set him up with everything he needed to know; the password to the equipment closet, the rotation list for assignments every month, his Slack account, and the secret snack drawer for editors only (Mingyu snagged a couple of fruit roll-ups at Jeonghan’s encouragement.) 

They headed back to the newsroom, where the other guy was still at his computer, now stretching in his seat, both hands clasped together and reaching toward the ceiling. An image of a black cat stretching came to mind as the guy leaned back in his chair. For a second, Mingyu was worried he might tip back and fall. 

“Wonwoo.” Jeonghan called out sweetly. Click clack. No response. 

“Wonwooya~” Jeonghan repeated, simultaneously rolling up a ball of paper which he then proceeded to throw straight at the guy’s head. 

Dead accuracy, thought Mingyu, quietly impressed. 

“Ow.” a baritone voice tinged in annoyance replied, as the guy- Wonwoo - whipped his head towards them.

Mingyu regarded Wonwoo with curiosity, taking in the shortly cropped black hair, cupid’s bow, and sharp, pointed features that made him look….kind of intimidating. He wore a simple oversized black t-shirt, gray basketball shorts, and a long silver necklace with a diamond-shaped charm at the end of it. His lips were pressed in a thin line as a pair of angular, dark eyes framed with long lashes drilled a hole into Jeonghan’s face. He kind of looked like a young Joo-jihoon. 

Well if Joo-jihoon looked like he wanted to kick him in the balls and make him sing soprano for a week. 

“Better ways to get my attention.” Wonwoo muttered, patting around his desk before picking up a pair of black framed glasses. He put them on, the wrinkles between his eyebrows easing slightly. 

“Not when you’re in hyperfixation mode.” Jeonghan said dryly, nodding his head towards the two of them, a silent invitation. 

As Wonwoo got out of his seat, Mingyu was taken surprised by how tall he was, just an inch or two shorter than his own height. He was a lot leaner than him though, with broad shoulders that trimmed down to a narrow waist. Narrow wrists, narrower ankles, prominent dark circles, red-rimmed eyes….

He was about one energy drink away from passing out from exhaustion, Mingyu realized as he surveyed the cans of energy drinks and scrap paper scattered across his computer.

The part of him that made sure Hao was eating during dance recital season was briefly triggered as he tapped down the urge to sit this dude down and cook him a couple of solid meals. 

Sure is handsome though. All sharp angles and high cheekbones, from the bridge of his nose to the edge of his jawline. 

Like one of those old time black and white film actors who were all shadows, eyebrows, and middle-aged angst. It would be easy to sketch Wonwoo, Mingyu thought absentmindedly, a couple of broad, unapologetic, sharp lines of charcoal enough to bring him to life.  

“Mingyu Wonwoo, Wonwoo, Mingyu.” Jeonghan said brightly. “Wonwoo here is co-editor with me. He's also filling in as a photographer since Jamie had her mental breakdown last semester.” 

Mingyu hesitated, opting for an awkward wave. “Hey.”

“Hi.” Wonwoo responded curtly, not even sparing him a glance. “I’m not done with edits so-”

“Why don’t you bring him along for your assignment this week?” Jeonghan continued, throwing an arm around Wonwoo’s shoulder. 

“Me?” Wonwoo’s voice cracked, eyes now growing wide. “Why do I have to take him?”

Jeonghan’s eyes narrowed by a fracture. “...You know what, I completely forgot to tell you about that confidential contact for next weeks edition. Excuse us Mingyu, we’ll get this sorted and be right back.” Jeonghan said cheerfully, taking Wonwoo by the arm and dragging him to the corner of the room out of hearing range. 

Mingyu leaned on the table behind him, trying to act like he couldn’t hear everything they were saying through his super hearing.  

“That’s it. How much coffee did you have.” Jeonghan said. 

“None of your business….four cups. Maybe five.” Wonwoo replied petulantly.

“Five?? No wonder you've been biting everyone’s head off, Haneul nearly cried when you barked at her for missing her assignment deadline-“

“Can we stay on topic? I can’t take him.”

“I’d do it if I could, but I’m taking Genevieve to the student council rally tomorrow, and you need a photographer to go with you-” Jeonghan whispered. 

“No, you said that.” Wonwoo whispered back angrily. “Since when do I need a freshman helping me on an assignment-“

“Since you've been sleeping on that disgusting couch in the breakroom trying to bite more than you can chew, don’t try to deny it.”

“It was one night-”

“No. It was one night the first time. This is the fourth time this month....Look. You've been taking on Jamie's workload and it's a lot. Even for you."

"I-"

"and you and I both know that life would go a lot smoother if you realized how I’m usually right from the get go, so let's just cut to the chase hmm?”

“I don’t have time to babysit. Okay?”

“ Mingyu.” Jeonghan emphasized. “Is a great photographer. You’re the one who approved his portfolio, remember? You literally went on about it for days.”

“...well," Wonwoo struggled. "you and shua hyung always take new recruits, you could have told me sooner-”

“And I would have if you’d come home last night instead of staying here, see how that works? look….is this about that email from your dad, cause Cheol-”

“Hyung.” Wonwoo said coldly. "We're not doing this here."

Wonwoo glared at Jeonghan, Jeonghan simply raised an eyebrow at him in return. Mingyu’s eyes darted back and forth between the two, fiddling with his phone for something to do.

“What about Shua hyung,” Wonwoo suggested at a normal volume, apparently having lost whatever staring contest the two had been locked into and opting for an open audience advantage. “Or Haneul might be free, you know what I’m gonna go get her-” As he made for the door, Mingyu wondered whether he should be feeling offended at this point. 

He toed the dirty carpet with his shoe. Maybe he should have gone with the mathletes after all. Or taken up Seokmin’s offer to join the musical theater club. “I could nepobaby you into a role, trust me. Like….tree #5, you already look the part-” Hell. he would even take the nature club at this point, though he still couldn’t see what the point of a nature club was, smack in the middle of Manhattan. 

“You’ll have to forgive Wonwoo.” Jeonghan said with a sigh, smiling apologetically as his hand shot out to grab Wonwoo by the back of his shirt, dragging him back to where Mingyu was. 

“He’s an asshole on caffeine, and he gets shy around new recruits….even if he clearly doesn’t look it. Wonwoo, look it.”

Once caught, all the tension left Wonwoo’s body as he let Jeonghan sit him down in the seat next to Mingyu’s bag. Wonwoo stared dejectedly into space like someone had stolen his bike, or punched his grandma, all in the same day. 

“Okay. Everyone’s here. I’ll leave you two to talk details. This’ll be good, I have a feeling.” Jeonghan said lightly, his hands pressing Wonwoo firmly into the chair as a silent ‘stay’ before gathering his things.

“Mingyu it was nice meeting you. Don't let Won intimidate you, he's all fluff.” he said, squeezing Won's shoulders tightly before heading for the door. “Won.” he added lightly, hovering in front of the exit. “I’m gonna be over at Cheol’s so meet you there for dinner, kay?” 

“Yeah yeah.” Wonwoo replied tiredly, shoo-ing Jeonghan out the door. 

“I mean it. I’m dragging you out myself if you don’t.” Jeonghan warned, giving Mingyu a final friendly wave before leaving. 

“Bully…” Wonwoo mumbled under his breath. 

The door clicked shut. An awkward silence hung in the air, as the two of them glanced at one another back and forth. Wonwoo chewed on his lower lip, looking pretty guilty now that it was just the two of them. 

When their eyes briefly met, he offered Mingyu a thin smile, opening and closing his mouth like he had something to say. He looked even more exhausted up close, the bags under his eyes more pronounced. 

“I’m sorry.” Wonwoo started, fiddling with the chain around his neck. “I didn’t mean to make you feel a type of way,” 

No kidding, he thought. 

“I’ve kinda…been here all night working on the edition because of this huge typo…not that that’s an excuse, but I haven’t slept in like 30 hours and I’m told I’m a bit…sensitive when I'm tired, and then I get stressed, and then I get defensive and...” he cleared his throat. “Jeonghan or Josh usually introduce and train new recruits so it kind of threw me off guard with everything else going on this week.” He pulled up a chair for Mingyu to sit in, a silent apology. 

Mingyu paused for a beat. He sat down, opting to give the weird, good-looking cat guy the benefit of the doubt. “Kind of? You practically face-planted trying to get to the door.”

Wonwoo opened his mouth to protest before seeing the amused smile on Mingyu’s face.

He slowly met Mingyu’s grin with his own, the tension in his shoulders loosening. “All right, I'll take it. In my defense, Jeonghan probably did this to get back at me for missing dinner yesterday.”

“You know I’ve never seen someone use social interaction as a punishment.”

“Oh, he can use pretty much anything as a punishment.” 

“Okay, never getting on his bad side then.”

“Good survival instincts. You might last longer than Jamie.” 

Mingyu found himself laughing. “…You know, it's cool if you want to go alone, really. I don’t want to get in the way-”

“No no,” Wonwoo said hurriedly. “It’s this big protest that’s gonna be the next edition's cover so having a photographer would make my job a lot easier. At this point I’m begging, come.”

“Okay then,” Mingyu replied in relief. 

“...I actually remember your portfolio,” Wonwoo said, peeking at Mingyu’s face. “You did that collage on modern Korea town meets Brooklyn heights, it was really cool.”

“Not too cliche?”

“No, it was good….we actually stopped taking participants after I approved yours. Don’t tell Jeonghan I told you this though.” he frowned. “He’s kind of right about most things and I don’t want to fuel his god complex.”

Mingyu let out another laugh. “Sounds like you two are close…. Brothers?”

Wonwoo raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You think?”

“Just, the way you talk.” Mingyu shrugged.

Wonwoo hummed affirmatively. “We grew up together. Jeonghanie hyung and Josh lived next door and they’re the same age as my older brother. They’ve looked out for me my entire life, so yeah. Brothers.” he replied. “And just as insufferable,” Wonwoo added, as if it was a habit to insult Jeonghan after saying anything remotely nice to cancel things out. 

Wait, Josh and Jeonghan are related?” They did sort of looked alike; big doe eyes, sweet smiles, and a simmering intensity underneath it all that made them slightly unapproachable. 

“Yeah, twins. Personally I think Josh is way more unhinged than Hannie, he just hides it better.” Wonwoo said thoughtfully.

The two of them talked some more. He learned that Wonwoo was a year older than him, majoring in journalism, with a minor in health psych. He was living up in Brighton hill and had joined the paper back in his very first semester, same as Mingyu. For a guy whose first impression had been so cold and aloof, Mingyu could tell that he was a lot warmer than he let on, looking at the tension bleed away from Wonwoo’s face as he told him about his younger brother's graduation next month. 

“-and Channie’s almost graduating high school now, which has Hannie and hyung fighting over who gets to give him his graduation present first,” Wonwoo said with a faint smile. “I swear, they’re both getting law degrees to solely win arguments with each other, drives Josh and me up the wall but Chan’s all for it, he literally has a point board for every dinner debate- “ He suddenly stopped mid-sentence. 

Wonwoo trailed off, a blush dusting his face as his hand sought out his necklace again. A nervous habit, Mingyu realized. “Sorry I’m talking way too much and we haven’t even gotten to the assignment yet.”

“No it’s okay, you’re cute when you talk about your brothers.” he said absentmindedly. He froze upon realizing how that must have sounded.

“I mean it’s cute. not that you're cute.” What???? A thousand Mingyu’s collectively covered their faces and groaned.

“ I mean, you are cute. Very cute. but not in a-”  

Oh yeah just keep digging, that’ll get you to stop. 

Wonwoo’s face flushed. Though if the burning sensation in his ears was any indication, his face was probably looking even redder. “Okay then.” Wonwoo moved on to Mingyu’s relief. “How about we get to that assignment,” he suggested. He hastily got up from his seat, heading to the whiteboard. The table jostled in the process, sending Wonwoo’s phone falling to one side, and his notes to the other, both of which Mingyu caught instinctively in both hands before he could think. 

“Thanks” Wonwoo said, blinking. “Nice reflexes.”

Mingyu shrugged, nonchalantly. Or at least that’s how he hoped it had come off as. Looking to change the subject, he pointed to the board. “So, these are all the assignments?”

“Yeah,” Wonwoo replied, joining him. “I thought you could come along with me to the student protest this Thursday,” gesturing to the top left. “The school’s getting rid of their LGBTQ+ resource center under ‘state laws’ which is complete bullshit. And they already got rid of the women’s resource center last semester due to ‘lack of funding.’”

“The dean says it’s out of his hands, but I’ll grill him for something better.” Wonwoo muttered half to himself as his eyes lit up in a sort of manic glint. A complete 180 from the guy who had bolted for the door 10 minutes ago, Mingyu noticed, partially amused, partially intimidated.

The school’s got another thing coming.” Mingyu tentatively agreed. 

“Yeah, kind of a repeat of last year…who knows? This one might banish us for good.” Wonwoo sighed, ruefully staring at the bucket placed under a hole in the ceiling that was dripping water when it wasn’t even raining. 

“He’s not all that fond of us.” Wonwoo explained as Mingyu looked at him in confusion. “Jeonghanie hyung and I did an expose on the university screwing housing prices to fund their new gymnasium center last semester. It made local news, caught all sorts of traction. Sort of how we ended up in the basement this semester.” He gestured to the stained walls, lack of furniture, and flickering lights.

After a pause, Wonwoo let out a sigh, giving Mingyu a small smile. “Someone’s gotta do it.” he said before continuing with the debrief. 

Mingyu glanced at Wonwoo’s face in surprise as he talked. He used to say the same thing to Seokmin before missions when he was just starting out with the Spiderman gig. As a 16 year old kid with absolutely no idea what he was doing, protecting the neighborhood had started out pretty small. Saving cats from trees, helping old ladies across the street, and getting yelled at by taxi drivers when he stumbled over the roof of their cars practicing his swing. 

He watched intently, Wonwoo now on a roll as he passionately waved his hands up and down while talking more about the protest. He smiled, thinking to himself that this Wonwoo guy wasn't all that bad after all.   

“I think what you guys are doing is really cool,” he mentioned after Wonwoo had finished talking.

“Most school papers just cover fluff pieces, but you guys are actually calling out bullshit. You’re like… the superheroes of undergrad journalism.” gently nudging Wonwoo’s shoulder with his own.

“Really?” Wonwoo glanced back. “We talking ironman level, thor, black widow…cause if you say hawkeye, I dont think your position here is gonna work out-”

“Okay give me a sec.” Mingyu tapped his chin in fake concentration.

“I was thinking more, spiderman.”

“…I'll take it.” Wonwoo slowly nodded in approval, before breaking into a laugh. 

Mingyu smiled, deciding that Wonwoo’s laugh wasn’t all that bad either, noting the way his nose scrunched up and his eyes crinkled.  

“And thanks,” Wonwoo added, nudging him back. He smiled at him again, the fourth time that day. 

 

Not that Mingyu had been counting or anything.    

 

---

 

The next day, he saw Wonwoo again in Psych 102 and later again in Chem 101, comically pointing a finger at one another from across the room in realization. They would later laugh over how many classes they shared without realizing later over lunch in the mess hall. Halfway through his sandwich, Mingyu was telling Wonwoo about his aunt and his plans for the weekend, working at the shelter like he always did. 

“Your aunt runs an animal shelter.” Wonwoo deadpanned, as Mingyu took another ginormous bite.

“….yes?” he answered, lettuce spilling from his mouth.

“So…cats?” Wonwoo asked tentatively, handing Mingyu a napkin.

“Yeah,” Mingyu said, wiping his mouth sheepishly. “Cats, dogs, bunnies, birds…it's this nonprofit she's been working since the 90s.”

He smiled to himself, “Our house is a semi-zoo at this point. There’s max and willow, our dogs. The twin turtles, Franklin and Sardine, a gerbil named cesco. The cats, luna, sally, and fido-"

“Mingyu.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I come with you next weekend?”

He blinked. “To my aunt's place?”

“No!” Wonwoo said, face slightly flushing. “I meant, to the shelter. To volunteer.”

“Oh.” Mingyu said, slightly relieved. Also slightly disappointed. “You want to come to the shelter next weekend?”

“Yeah.”

“At 7am.”

“I can do that.”

“Morning.”

“That's what A.M. tends to imply.”

“On a Saturday?”

“Mingyu.” Wonwoo gave him a pointed look.

“It’s just, not a lot of people like working the shelter on a Saturday morning.”

“I-” Woowoo started.

“My mom’s allergic to cats, hyung’s a dog person, and I’ve been told I need to unwind nowadays… and I kind of love cats. A lot.” Wonwoo said, ears turning red.

“And if you don’t let me go,” he added testily. “I might get petty and make you run the rainman assignment with the twins who will make you tell them your deepest darkest secrets if and when they get bored.”

“You should have started with that.” Mingyu shuddered. “I'll sign you up. 7 am this Saturday?”

“Great.” Wonwoo said relieved.

“…Anyone ever told you you’re kind of pushy?”

“Oh frequently.”

“Just checking.” Mingyu replied, smiling as he got back to his sandwich. 

In the end, Wonwoo actually had ended up going to his aunt's house with him for a late lunch after volunteering. Upon taking one look at him, his aunt had insisted that they stay for lunch, where, upon encouragement, Wonwoo practically inhaled two bowls of tomato soup, four slices of kimchi grilled cheese sandwiches, a plate of apples, and a slice of her homemade cheesecake for dessert.

"Hungry, Hyung?" Mingyu mused, nudging a glass of water towards him.

"No wonder you're so tall," Wonwoo said, shaking his head in astonishment as he took another bite out of his cake. "I love my mom, but this may genuinely be the best thing I've eaten, Mrs. Kim. Ever." Luna, their tabby had taken a particular liking to Wonwoo, opting to sit on his lap the entire time as Wonwoo adoringly fed her his leftover scraps of bread in between head scratches.

"You come by anytime," Aunt May replied with a smile. "and call me May, everyone else does."

"Mingyu," she asked sternly, turning towards him. "Why is this the first time I'm meeting Wonwoo." 

"...May, I just started college-" 

"No excuses, you bring him by more often. You're both too thin, what are they even feeding you in that mess hall-"

"It's actually not half bad-"

"Speak for yourself." Wonwoo protested through bulging cheeks as May plated him another slice.

Mingyu rolled his eyes, watching Wonwoo hyung earnestly answer each of May's questions about school, his major, the paper, how Mingyu was adjusting, whether he was getting to all his classes alright ("I'm right here." he complained). This was nice, he realized. Getting to spend some time home with a new...friend. Huh. Maybe joining a club hadn't been so bad a decision after all, making a note to thank Seokmin later.

After insisting on helping out with the dishes afterward, the time came for Wonwoo to head back to his apartment, May packing him enough home meals to last the next two weeks despite his protests. 

"Thank you so much for lunch today Mrs-, May. And everything else." Wonwoo smiled.

"He's adorable." May whispered to Mingyu as Wonwoo bid all the cats and dogs farewell on his way out. Mingyu shushed her, before grabbing his jacket to follow Wonwoo hyung down the stairs to walk him to the subway.

The sky was a deep-set orange, the air colder in the late afternoon. The city lights flickered into view as Mingyu and Wonwoo walked side by side in comfortable silence, the hustle and bustle of the city wrapping around them. 

"Your aunt is amazing." Wonwoo said after a block with a grin. "I don’t think I've ever eaten more than i have today in my entire life. And I'm not gonna lie, I almost put Luna in my bag before leaving."

"I'm pretty sure she would have gone with you." Mingyu huffed in fake annoyance. "You know I hand-fed her as a kitten? Bathed her when she fell into the toilet bowl last month?" 

Wonwoo shrugged. “Cats are a great judge of character." 

"Hah! Okay next time, you, me, and a tube treat, we'll see who she chooses," Mingyu grumbled, stopping in his tracks as they reached the subway entrance.

"...So..." Wonwoo scuffed the toe of his shoes against the pavement. "There's a next time?"

"May is gonna kill me if I don't bring you here at least once a month for a proper meal." Mingyu laughed. "And I figured Luna might run away if I don't bring her to you anyway."

"....Cool. Cause this was...I had a lot of fun." Wonwoo smiled softly, waving him goodbye before heading down the subway steps. Mingyu hovered in the entrance, watching until he disappeared from his view.

A moment later, a burly-looking man bumped into him from behind, yelling at him for standing in the subway entrance, smiling like an idiot.

He didn't seem to have it in him to stop, the corners of his mouth turned faintly up all the way back home. 

Over the next couple months, he added new things about Wonwoo hyung to the mental list that had taken refuge in his head down the line.  

1. For a guy who was borderline terrifying when it came to journalism, Wonwoo hyung was pretty shy and introverted most of the time. He was a huge gamer, a movie buff, and his humor consisted of 90% truly awful dad jokes that Mingyu found himself laughing at despite his greatest efforts. The other 10% were unintentional one-liners that set everyone around him cracking up to his utter confusion. 
2. It had been his dream to become an investigative journalist ever since he was 11. He’d seen a reporter from his hometown on the news catching a corrupt politician in the act of embezzlement and fraud, and had decided then and there that that was the coolest job in the world. He was already talking about applying for an internship at the Daily Bugle over the summer, to Mingyu’s dismay. 
3. In addition to being co-editor of the daily gazette, he was also president of the school gaming club (“It’s just me, hoshi and a couple other friends,” Wonwoo admitted. “And hoshi can’t play for shit so he’s just there for the free snacks.”) and the vice president of the cat feeding club, dedicated to feeding and housing campus kittens in varying locations that changed every other month to keep up with campus police.
4. He was blind as a bat without his glasses, something Mingyu had learned after seeing Wonwoo hyung slam into a glass door trying to look for said glasses. He also learned that this accounted for nearly all of his intimidating image circulating campus, since Wonwoo ended up squinting his face when he couldn’t see. 
5. He had the palette of a 12-year-old boy, stocking up on buldak ramen, monster, and spam whenever he could, making Mingyu’s stomach feel acidic just by looking sometimes. From someone who had been raised by a nutrition specialist aunt who had taught him how to cook, Mingyu had had it up to his ears trying to get Wonwoo to eat something substantial, mostly ending up with him dragging Wonwoo to May's, Seokmin and Hao tagging along when they could.
6. He was really close with his family, always checking in on them when he got the chance. Mingyu would never pry, but from what he could tell, Wonwoo’s dad had been out of the picture for a while now, leaving him with a feeling of overprotectiveness, especially when it came to his brothers. “Oh don’t you lie to me hyung, Hannie hyung sent me pictures. A bulldog? Really? How’d you even manage to get her up the elevator-” “Channie, you cannot pass out at a friend’s place and not call mom, what did you think was going to happen- No you’re not running away to auntie’s, she’s next door for god sake-”

But above all else, Mingyu found that as distant as he could seem to strangers, Wonwoo hyung had a quiet sensibility to him. Always listening behind seemingly indifferent eyes only to reach out with tentative hands when people needed it most. 

Whether it was leaving a meeting early after hearing that his roommate Jun had twisted his ankle in dance practice to take care of him. Offering to tutor a hyperventilating Seungkwan after he had failed his chemistry final. Coaxing his best friend Hoshi into his car to take him home after finding him passed out in front of the school’s dance studio.

Or leaving a pack of bandaids on top of Mingyu’s bag that fateful day he had come to a meeting with a scratch on his left cheek, courtesy of a pickpocketer from the day before.

Wonwoo cared so quietly, almost invisibly. but he was always watching. And while Wonwoo looked at others, Mingyu found his eyes following Wonwoo. 

On a random Friday night nearing the end of his first semester, Mingyu realized how his admiration, borderline crush for Wonwoo hyung wasn’t as small as he had thought. It had been one of those rare quiet days in New York, all of Mingyu’s radio’s silent, leaving him free to help Wonwoo sort out photos for the next edition. 

“What about this one for the cover?” he asked, handing Wonwoo a photo. 

“I like it. Maybe we could blow up the background a bit more, but this could work.” holding the photo up to the light to get a better look. 

Wonwoo was wearing a blue sweater along with black slacks and gold-rimmed glasses. He’d just had an interview with the Daily Bugle in the morning for his summer internship. Mingyu was waiting for the right moment to ask Wonwoo how his interview had gone, his demeanor giving no indication whatsoever. 

“Okay, so we’ll go with this one for the front page, and now we need a group photo for the dance club’s recital on page 4, a headshot on Professor Nickleson for the popularity survey on page 10…Shit and Elena still hasn’t given me her revisions for the piece on the hospital construction delay.” Wonwoo took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes tiredly. 

MIngyu surveyed the sea of photos and articles scattering the desk. “Or,” he suggested. “We order some pizza and leave this for tomorrow.” 

“I don’t know….” Wonwoo said, hesitating. ‘We’re already behind…’ 

“Hyung, we’re at least a week ahead,” he reminded him, pointing to the board. “And in way better shape than last month. Remember how Rami misquoted that one student about his R.A job in the new chem lab. I swear if you hadn’t caught that we’d probably be writing a retraction on what we meant by “First handjob experience” …

“Oh my god it took forever to reprint that.” Wonwoo said, looking mortified at the mere memory. 

“See! Nowhere near that. So…pizza?”

“Well…”

“Pineapple?” he coaxed, wiggling his eyebrows. “Cheese crust, garlic knots, extra ham, diet pepsi…I’m running out of things to say…”

Wonwoo rolled his eyes, cracking a smile. “One large?”

“Two!” Mingyu said, happily leaning back in his chair and grabbing his phone to order. “With extra cheese… and garlic knots…and brownies…Oh did you want anything else?” 

“...Remind me to introduce you to my older brother, I think you’ll have a lot in common.” said Wonwoo, shaking his head.

30 minutes later, they were munching on pizza, laughing at a photo of Mingyu’s thumb accidentally covering Hoshi’s face in the dance club's group photo. It was nearly 9pm, the building quiet as everyone had left hours ago. It was nice getting to spend time with Wonwoo hyung like this, he thought, as he devoured another slice.

 “So…how’d the interview go?” Mingyu finally asked, his mouth full of cheese, a slice of pineapple dropping onto his lap. 

“It went okay.” Wonwoo smirked as he shoved a napkin into MIngyu’s face. “I mean. They liked my portfolio, said that I was a great fit for the investigative division. Might even let me help out with the Sawyer case, you know the one the Times released last week? It wasn’t a definite yes though….which maybe I should have asked about again,” he frowned.  

“And who knows they might call me back and tell me that they’re putting me in another division. The sports room looked kinda bare, I mean I’ll put in the work but could you imagine me reporting on, on synchronized swimming, or, or zumba whatever that’s supposed to be-“

“Hyung,” Mingyu stopped him, setting a garlic knot onto Wonwoo’s plate. For such an amazing writer, Wonwoo hyung was always pushing himself to the edge when it came to journalism. Like all the experience in the world wouldn’t be enough to prove how perfect and ready he was for the job, leading him to tie himself into knots, overthinking.

“You’re in. No one puts in more work than you, you love this, and it shows in your writing….Plus you guess the ending of every movie we watch halfway through, and if that isn’t investigative journalism I don’t know what is.” he added, throwing his hands up dramatically in hopes of getting him to smile. 

“I knew you were still mad about Zootopia,” Wonwoo said, smiling a little to Mingyu’s delight.  

“I’m just saying, no one thought it was gonna be the nice sheep lady.” 

And now Wonwoo was laughing. A warm feeling spread through his chest as he looked at Wonwoo’s nose scrunch up. 

 “….you really think I’ll get it?” Wonwoo asked tentatively.

“Positive.” he said firmly. Wonwoo hyung deserved that internship. That he knew for sure. He was passionate, always putting everything he had into the paper, and above all, he cared about the people he was writing for .  

Something Jameson could use more of, instead of trying to unveil him to the public every week.

“…well if I do get it, it looks like I’m gonna have to deal with Jameson’s spiderman fixation too.” Wonwoo sighed, reaching for another slice. “I get that it’s the paper’s selling point, but you’d think there’d be other things to talk about.” 

“Huh.” Mingyu said, staring at his pizza like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

“I’m telling you, the guy’s obsessed. I wonder if writing a spiderman hate piece is mandatory for all employees. Any ideas?” 

“Hahaha.” Mingyu chuckled awkwardly. “So….” he started, picking at a piece of thread on his sweatshirt. “Spiderman huh?” 

In all the time they had known each other, Mingyu had never heard of Wonwoo's take on Spiderman. 

Either to his delight or dismay, everyone had their two cents on Spiderman, ranging from the mega-fan with hyper-sexual tendencies, “ God I just know he’s packing under that suit. Imagine what he’s like in bed. I mean the possibilities- ”, to the deadbeat cynics. “So he stopped a couple junkies. Swing around the city without having the balls to show your face? Who does he think he is?” 

Mingyu tried not to think too much into it. These were New Yorkers. The last thing he expected was a nice pat on the back.  

But maybe after a long day of fighting bad guys and getting just as battered in the process…it did bother him that not everyone was okay with having a masked hero fighting for the city. And while it didn’t bother him as much as it had used to, on the really tough days, Mingyu would still wonder. Who was he to make that decision for people anyway?

He tried not to feel like a 10-year-old boy, anxiously waiting for the approval of the older, cooler upperclassman on the playground. But being his close friend and the smartest person he knew, he realized that Wonwoo’s opinion might matter to him a lot more than he was prepared to brace himself for. 

“What’s your take on the guy then?” 

“Oh, are you a...what do they call Spiderman fans, webheads? spider enthusiasts? I should introduce you to Channie, you guys would hit it off.” Wonwoo grinned, reaching for his drink.  

“Nah.” Mingyu replied, trying to control his heart which was beating a little faster than usual. “He’s just always on the news and everything. I’ve never really heard you talk about him.”

He reached for another slice, taking large bite. “Well…..Chan and his friends love him,” Wonwoo said, chewing thoughtfully. “Every time I come home, he’s dissecting some compilation video of him throwing a car, or his suit coming apart. You know he should really do something about that stitching.” Okay. So maybe Hao’s not crazy.

“Go on.”

“He saves people, stops crime. which is….. good. It’s good. The mask thing is kinda suspicious, but hey I wouldn’t want the NYPD knocking on my door either. If you’re going to be selective about who gets to be saved and who doesn’t, then maybe we do need a vigilante to step in every now and then.” All good things… in his head, a thousand little Mingyu’s punched their fists in the air, celebrating. 

“The suit makes me think of that polar bear on icee cups, but to each their own-” Ouch.

“If you ask me though," he continued. "I think people are focusing way too much on the who instead of the why.”

“...How so?” Mingyu said, on the edge of his seat.

“I mean, why did he start doing this? Why work solo? What’s his motivation, his drive?” Wonwoo started. “I get that everyone is defined by their actions, and in that sense, spiderman is a great hero.” He paused for a second, furrowing his eyebrows as if planning on how to word his next thoughts. 

“..But you’ve got all these flashy superhumans out there only in it for the fame or the money or the idolization now. And I’m not saying I need the guy’s life story. But to be saved by someone nobody knows…Nobody. I just wonder where his moral compass is pointing in all of this. He’s New York’s superhero one day, a pariah the next, no one can get a handle on this guy. And I just think knowing the why of it all would make it easier to trust him. Make it easier for the world to give him a little faith instead of trying to pull him apart thread by thread because…. they’re scared. Not knowing scares people.” he finished, taking another bite of pizza. 

Mingyu was quiet, slightly at a loss for words. He hadn’t expected such a serious response, but given that it was Wonwoo hyung, maybe he should have. 

After getting these powers, all he ever focused on was using them for good. Save the civilians. Fight the bad guy. Look out for the underdog. Wasn’t that the point?

With great power, there must also come great responsibility.  

This wasn’t a power play, a hobby, or his claim to fame. It was a duty, a responsibility, a choice he was committed to till the end.

But the Mingyu of it all. That had never been a factor in all of this. Or maybe he didn’t want it to be. Mingyu and Spiderman, Spiderman and Mingyu…the overlap was too much to think about, too many knots to work through.

What do you think it is?” asked Wonwoo suddenly.

“Huh? Me?” he replied, breaking out of his brief existential crisis. 

“Yes you.” Wonwoo said with a laugh. Why do you think he got into all of this? God knows I’ve heard enough of Chan’s theories.”

What do I think?

Wonwoo hyung wasn’t looking for the truth. But at that moment, he felt like he owed it to him. Straight out of the horse’s mouth, even if he’d never realize it. 

“Maybe…" he paused. "...Maybe he's just looking out for the little guy. Yeah.” 

"Huh." Wonwoo hummed. “Looking out for the little guy,” he said slowly, turning each word over. “well if that’s the case, maybe he’s not so bad.”

Wonwoo nudged him gently with his elbow, breaking out into another pretty smile. 

“Yeah.” Mingyu smiled softly in response. His eyes trailed to the corners of Wonwoo’s mouth, hyper-senses fixating on the tiniest of details. How pink and smooth his lips were. The way his two front teeth peeked out from between them. The little crinkles in the corner of his eyes. The smallest of crumbs right below his lower lip. How easy it would be for Mingyu to just lick it off for him since it would be a hassle for him to do it himself….

thump.

thump.

thump.

“Hey, we should start cleaning up.” Wonwoo said, moving to get up, completely oblivious to Mingyu’s quiet realization. 

Maybe that was the night he’d put two and two together. Looking at Wonwoo hyung’s pretty smile. How his nose scrunched while laughing at Mingyu’s awful Seokmin impression. The way he rubbed his hands together as they walked towards his car, because Wonwoo hyung was always running cold no matter what. How he slid the box of leftover pizza for him to take back to his apartment when they had reached Mingyu’s apartment. “Me and Junnie are good, you and the gremlin’s finish this off.” 

Or maybe he was thinking too much in the present. Maybe it was weeks back when Wonwoo hyung left that packet of bandaids on his bag. Or any one of the countless lunches they grabbed after class, nagging him to eat more and grinning like a fool when he actually did. Maybe it had happened while watching him devour his aunts tomato soup after their first time volunteering at the shelter, softly petting Luna in his lap.

"So...there's a next time?" 

No. It was that first day in the newsroom, when he had found himself counting all of hyung’s pretty, pretty smiles.

At the end of the day, the when of it all didn’t quite matter. All he knew was that he would have been perfectly content making Wonwoo smile and laugh that entire night. Maybe even the next day. 

Maybe everyday afterwards. 

 

---

 

“Gyu!” 

Mingyu watched as Josh jogged towards him from the elevators.

“Hey hyung.” he replied bleary eyes. He could still see the imprint of the quantum theory equation floated before his eyes, temporarily imprinted onto the back of his eyeballs.

“Kim Mingyu in a library? What’s gotten into you, you’re never here at this time studying…modern quantum mechanics.” Joshua blanched, carefully placing the book back onto the pile. 

“I just got some stuff I want to finish before this weekend.” Mingyu grinned sheepishly. He had come straight from patrolling the area to the library, already setting up for another all nighter. For once, he was starting to regret not keeping up with his assignments, quietly impressed by how seokmin and hao were always getting stuff done along with the dozen of projects and clubs they were in. “Getting ahead before the party.”

“Ahhhhhh,” Joshua exclaimed, eyes slowly lighting up with that glint he got whenever he was gearing himself up for a little mischief. Or psychological warfare. You could never tell with Josh. 

“You know Wonwoo’s gonna be there too.” he added coyly, leaning back against the top of the table. 

“Wonwoo? Ah Mingyu’s here, excellent.” Jeonghan rounded the corner, plopping himself into the seat on Mingyu's left.

“Where did you even come from?” Mingyu wondered aloud, looking around in confusion. 

“So,” Jeonghan continued, ignoring him. “What’s this about our Wonwoo?” 

“Okay, okay, time out.” Mingyu said, making his arms into a large 'T'. The twins had an odd way of getting him to talk about things he wouldn’t realize why until way later down the line. And with Wonwoo hyung in the conversation, this wasn’t looking great for him. 

“One twin I can deal with, but the two of you together makes me feel like I’m about to be chewed alive.” 

“You know Cheolie says the same thing," Jeonghan said breezily. "I keep telling him it’s not a twin thing, we’re just equally inclined to make fun of the nearest living breathing thing in our vicinity.”

“So,” Josh casually slid to Mingyu’s right. 

It’s two against one Gyu….Well two insanely smart law students against one. But you can do this.  

“Anyone you’re looking forward to seeing?” 

“Shy.”

“Glasses.”

“Hilarious, only when he’s not trying to be.”

“Related to Seungcheol, although I still don’t know how a sweet kid like Wonwoo shares DNA with him.” 

“You mean your boyfriend, hyung? Slapped a label on it yet or what?” Mingyu countered, having heard way too many stories about the famous Seungcheol and his weird sexually charged rivalry with Jeonghan.

Jeonghan smiled sweetly, the picture of innocence. “I’ll give in when he does.”

“Yeah, it's not like he doesn’t spend every day at our apartment,” Josh said dryly. “eating our food, hogging the bathroom. It’s archery camp all over again. And don’t even get me started on the noise coming from your room last nig-“

“I think –“ Jeonghan interrupted. “It’s high time we discuss Wonwoo. Mingyu, I’m gonna be real with you.” he deadpanned. “The pinning is getting you nowhere.” 

Mingyu pursed his lips. “Pining is overkill-” 

“Only in the way I can actually see a tail wagging behind you every time you’re with him, what’s up with that?” Josh chimed.

“I do not-”

“This morning.”

Mingyu paused, mind flashing back to earlier that morning; him bounding towards Wonwoo hyung, a lovesick smile on his face as he offered to walk him to his next class, his own class being on the other side of campus. point taken.

“Don’t worry.” Josh added, patting his shoulder reassuringly. “Wonwoo lacks any romantic awareness when it comes to people liking him so you're in the clear.”

He twiddled his thumbs, pausing. “Is it really that obvious?” Mingyu asked in a small voice, glancing at the two of them back and forth. Everyone knowing before he had even known, he could swallow. Wonwoo hyung finding out was a horror film in of itself.

“…I’m not gonna answer that, Cheol says I’m getting too mean nowadays. Jeonghan?”

“All you gotta know is that you like him, and from what I can tell Wonwoo has a thing for you too.” Jeonghan replied smoothly, taking the baton. “We practically raised the kid, and If he didn’t he’d have given you the cold shoulder wayyyy back. And I mean way back, I’ve seen him jump out of a first floor window just to avoid making small talk back in middle school. Or that one time he pulled the fire alarm to get out of a presentation in the 2nd grade.” 

“Or when he ran across the field when that girl confessed to him in high school.” Joshua added.

“Atleast he’s consistent.” Jeonghan replied with a shrug. “As I was saying. He never stops talking when he’s with you, he’s always mentioning you when we’re home, taking about the shelter, by the way I'm pretty sure he's planning on cat-napping Luna-"

"Come again?"

"-I mean he offered to teach you how to play League Mingyu. One on one. That’s practically a sex invite coming from him-” He paused. “Unless he just likes you as a friend, but I’m honestly banking on a 75% success rate here Gyu. Maybe 68.” 

“Wow 68%. That makes me feel so much better.” 

“Exactly! You’ve got nothing to lose.” Joshua said confidently before rising up from his seat, Jeonghan doing the same.

“9pm at our place tomorrow! And that’s regular time, not Mingyu time.” Jeonghan said sternly. A prick of guilt settled in his chest.

“Ask Hao to raid your closet, okay, I want you looking hot and ready to confess, loverboy.” Josh yelled.

“And no flaking like last year! And the movies last month. And the dinner last week.” Jeonghan added threateningly,  pointing two fingers toward his own eyes and then at Mingyu. “I mean it.” 

He waved them goodbye, nodding in a way that he hoped looked trustworthy. Last year, he had missed the party, stopping a truck filled with Russian mafia members smuggling weapons into the city. The year before? Psycho bionic clowns. Yeah. No other way to put that.

The movies last month…well he wasn’t gonna pass by the group of men harassing two girls coming out of the nearby bar. And the dinner last week?

Look the little girl needed her cat okay? And believe it or not, he had gotten yet another scratch on his cheek that day that had led to Wonwoo gifting him another pack of bandaids, this time to his face. 

Which might have been left unopened in the front pocket of his backpack to take out and look at every now and then. 

This year though, he was prepared. He had been patrolling the streets twice more than he usually did to monitor for any major crime activity. Had gotten all of his homework done for what seemed to be the first time since…. ever. (He’d even used the planner hao had gotten him though he’d never admit it). 

Oh, he was going to this party.

The city would be okay without Spiderman for one night.

…right?

Chapter 2: Rhinos and Vodka should never mix

10:07p.m. Somewhere on 65th street

 

9:34pm: 3 missed calls- Jeonghanie hyung

9:49pm: 4 texts- Seokmin

you okay???

I’m not saying the twins

are gonna kill u

but I am though

9:57pm: 2 missed calls- Shua hyung

 

“Where are you?” Seokmin yelled over the phone. The noise of the party blasted through the speaker as Mingyu struggled to keep his phone from slipping between his ear and shoulder while racing down Lexington Avenue. 

68th street, 69th street, 70th street-  

“Mommy! Mommy look! It’s Spiderman, look!” shouted a little boy in front of Manhattan High. He jumped up and down while raising an eager hand in the air as his mother yelped, dragging him away. 

Mingyu high fived the boy as he passed, giving him a wave before scaling the side of the New York School of Interior Design.  

“Jeonghanie and Shua hyung have been borderline threatening me for the past hour and you know how I cave under Shua hyung’s puppy dog eyes.” Seokmin complained. 

“I’m almost there!” Mingyu yelled, hurriedly hanging up the call with his chin. He hung onto the building with one hand, calculating the pathway for the remaining distance. The honks and sirens of New York filled the night air as he leaped off of the building, making to swing the last few blocks. 

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a bottle of vodka in front of a nearby liquor store and nabbed it with a flick of his wrists. “Yo Spidey, you gonna pay for that-“ started an angry clerk. Before he could finish his sentence, a twenty dollar bill with a post-it, reading “keep change” along with a cartoon drawing of Spiderman holding his thumbs up was webbed onto his name tag.

“Thank you!” Mingyu yelled behind his shoulder, narrowly avoiding a lamppost in the process.  

The twin’s presents and his clothes were inside his backpack, probably wrinkled from the rush he had been in when stuffing them in there. 

After picking up a police signal reporting all units to a robot rhino stampede on 1st Street, Mingyu had leaped out of the window yelling that he’d make it as soon as possible to a disgruntled Hao who had been painstakingly styling his hair.

One long, long hour later, which had involved a red curtain ripped from the plaza lobby, a fire hydrant, and the timely sacrifice of a flock of pigeons (may they rest in peace), he was now hitching a ride on a large FedEx truck that was turning the corner to the twin’s townhouse. 

Mingyu hardly ventured this far out north, greeted by the brownstones, iron fences, and high rises of the Upper East Side. 

It was a nice neighborhood, the streets quiet and brightly lit. He silently made his exit from the truck before the driver noticed, stealthily swinging into an alleyway that was about a block from the twins’ front door. 

Hushed curses echoed off the alleyway walls for the next five minutes as Mingyu struggled to take his suit off and put on the ridiculously tight pair of denim jeans that Hao had insisted on.

After probably managing to scare off every rat in the area, he stuffed his suit to the very bottom of his backpack, taking out the birthday presents and a bottle of ‘I’m sorry for being late by an hour please go easy on me’ vodka.

He raced down the sidewalk, making a sharp turn to bound up the metal stairs and ring the doorbell. 

Made it. 

A wave of nervous energy thrummed up and down his spine as Mingyu flattened his hair, fervently wondering whether he looked as frantic as he felt. He could already hear the party from the other side of the door, multicolored lights shining through the window curtains. He took deep breaths of the cold night air to calm his racing heart.

He pressed the doorbell again. The absence of the suit underneath his clothes was beginning to make him feel odd, like he had forgotten to put on underwear or something.

But tonight wasn’t about that. He’d be fine. The city would be fine. Everything was going to be fine. The rhinos were safe and shut down with the police, what could ever go wrong-

At that moment, the door swung open, revealing a broad shouldered man with wavy black hair, dressed in a simple fitted black shirt and dark slacks. 

“Hey.”  said the man, lazily leaning against the door and looking at him expectantly.  

Mingyu didn’t respond for a beat, having expected one of the twins or Wonwoo instead. The dude was huge. He was shorter than Mingyu, sure, but he looked like he could bench press Hao without breaking a sweat, easy. 

“…you here for anyone?” asked the man, raising a thick eyebrow at the prolonged silence. 

“Oh yeah,” Mingyu said hurriedly. “Um, I’m here for-“ 

“KIM MINGYU.”

Both of them turned their heads, confronted by an annoyed-looking Jeonghan. He was dressed in a white shirt with flowy sleeves tucked gracefully into a pair of dress pants. On his head was a ridiculously large cowboy hat with the words “it’s a boy!” printed on it in big neon letters. Somehow Jeonghan made the ensemble look sophisticated. 

He stormed towards Mingyu, hat and all, with a look in his eye that nearly triggered his Spidey senses. 

Mingyu gulped hard. So much for going easy on him.

“Ohhhhh, so you’re Mingyu.” A statement, not a question. The man at the door was now staring at him in newfound recognition. His expression had morphed into something less threatening, but oddly just as intimidating. And kind of familiar too, though Mingyu couldn’t quite place why…

“Yeah that’s me.” Mingyu replied with a cautious grin. 

“Why are you so sweaty? Why is he so sweaty? What did you do Cheollie?” Jeonghan demanded.

“I didn’t do anything!” the man exclaimed, raising his hands defensively. 

Cheollie….Cheol. Seungcheol. 

 

…Shit. 

 

He could sort of see it in the jaw line. Maybe a bit in the eyebrows. Other than that, Seungcheol didn’t look much like Wonwoo at all, with wide set eyes and a strong, solid build that sharply contrasted with his younger brother’s more lean and wiry frame. 

So this was Wonwoo hyung’s older brother… hot-headed law student, childhood best friends with the twins, and currently the thing out of nightmares as he grinned at Mingyu in a way that made him think of one of those great white sharks marking their prey. 

“So,” Seungcheol continued, setting his gaze back onto Mingyu. There was a glint in his eyes that Mingyu recognized immediately, having seen it too often in the twins. He could suddenly picture the three of them as kids, a trio of terror wreaking havoc on and off the playground.

“You’re the guy in love with my brother huh?”

I’m never telling the twins anything ever again. 

“Well I’m, I’m not-“ Mingyu stammered. “I mean I am but it’s-I- we’re not-“

“So what’s your major?” 

“Its uh, physics-”

“Sophomore? You live on campus or off? Any weird hobbies, criminal charges? Plans after college?” Seungcheol pressed, looking him up and down. “ Jesus you're tall, what are you, like 184, 185cm? Don’t answer that.” 

Mingyu looked pleadingly at Jeonghan who simply shrugged his shoulders, an unspoken ‘this is what you get for being late, I don’t make the rules’.  

“Cheol, you’re gonna scare him off and he’s not even through the front door.” Joshua chided, materializing next to Seungcheol. He was wearing a mesh white short-sleeve paired with denim jeans and the same blue cowboy hat as Jeonghan, only his was covered in neon blue silly string hanging off the edges.

“Hyung!” Mingyu shouted in relief, reaching out to pull off the remaining silly string on Josh’s hat.

“We said regular time, not Mingyu time.” Joshua replied, unmoved.

“I know, I know….” Mingyu said, trying to look apologetic, guilty, bashful, yet just naive enough for them to possibly feel sorry for him, and failing miserably. “I’m really, really sorry…..but Happy Birthday hyungs.” he said, going for a toothy grin as he handed over two, slightly banged-up boxes. 

Jeonghan and Joshua were still glaring. In that moment, Mingyu could kind of appreciate how they were both pulling off ‘menacing’ in baby blue, gender reveal themed cowboy hats. Something that had Seungkwan written all over it.

“….and a peace offering?” Mingyu added, slowly pulling the bottle of vodka out of his backpack.  

“Good man. I say we forgive him guys.” Seungcheol replied immediately, pulling him through the door and patting him solidly on the back. “You’re okay.”

The four of them headed inside. The place was huge, a two-story townhouse packed with what looked to be about 20 people in the main entrance alone. He vaguely recalled Seokmin mentioning that the twins were loaded. Music blasted through the house, some 90s R&B mix.

Behind the front door was a staircase leading to the second floor where some people were sitting on the steps in deep conversation. To his left was the living room where most of the party seemed to be. Woozi hyung was set up in the corner at his DJ booth, Hoshi hyung hanging off of him in a loud tiger print button-up, drink in hand. Upon seeing him, Hoshi gave a big wave which Mingyu returned with a smile.

“Well….Atleast Hao pulled through.” Jeonghan sniffed, surveying Mingyu’s outfit. “The man works miracles.” 

“Heyyy.” Mingyu pouted, fiddling with his collar. He did admit, Hao had pulled of somewhat of a miracle, making him look and feel a lot cooler than his usual baggy gym fit. After two hours of throwing him into 15 different outfits (by the end of which he was sweating profusely) Hao had finally settled on a dark denim fit, with a white tank top underneath and a simple gold chain around his neck to finish the look. “Oh yeah, you’re getting laid tonight.” he said, clasping his hands together in satisfaction once they were finished.

“And what about me?” Seungcheol asked, leveling Jeonghan with a heavy gaze as he leaned his weight against the door. 

Jeonghan paused, scanned him up and down, inch by inch. “…you pass,” he commented lightly, his eyes meeting Seungcheol’s with equal intensity. “Barely.” 

“The things I’m forced to witness...” Joshua muttered, rolling his eyes. He grabbed Mingyu’s arm, dragging him down the hallway as he talked. “You can leave your bag in the closet over there, bathroom’s two lefts down, second floor is off limits cause we didn’t want any creeps in our rooms, and…I think that’s it. Okay. Wonwoo’s been in the kitchen avoiding some creepy basketball player-”

“What basketball player?” Seungcheol frowned. “Was it Chad? It was Chad.” He began scanning the living room intently.   

“See this is why Wonwoo tells me things first. And give me that-” Josh scolded, plucking the vodka bottle from Seungcheol’s hands.  

“Kitchen is through there,” Josh’s head nudged towards their right. “You remember what we talked about? You’ve got nothing to lose, loverboy.” And with that he patted Mingyu’s shoulder’s twice and pushed him forward, a final sendoff.

“I want details later!” Jeonghan added, giving him two thumbs up.

“Better keep it PG,” Seungcheol pointed a stern finger towards him. “You know what, I think I’m gonna go check on Won mrrrmph-” Jeonghan slapped a hand across his mouth, dragging him down the hall before he could finish. 

“It was nice meeting you…” Mingyu shouted back, now alone.  

He put his backpack in the closet Josh had pointed to, mentally making a note of where it was amongst all the coats and purses before taking a deep breath and walking towards the kitchen. Okay, so he was an hour late. But no worries. He was here….an hour late. 

Relax. You still made it. Just find Wonwoo hyung, talk, have a good time. And then figure out a way to tell him how you feel without fucking up. Or sounding like a loser. Or hurling. Preferably all three. 

A laugh came from the kitchen. He’d recognize that sound anywhere. As he stepped closer, he spotted Wonwoo hyung in the kitchen entrance with Jun. 

He had ditched his glasses tonight, wearing a black v-neck sweater that cinched right at his waist, along with a pair of gray pants and silver studs. A mix of silver and black rings adorning his hands. The long silver necklace he always wore hung around his neck swaying slightly as he laughed again at something Junnie hyung had said. 

Nose scrunch….

Wonwoo hyung always looked handsome, whether he was sleep deprived and cranky, pigging out at his aunt's house, shouting at his friends to cover his left flank while gaming, or typing articles into his computer like a mad man. But tonight he was a complete knockout, leaving Mingyu feeling tongue-tied just standing there. He halted at the entrance, an unknown panic settling in his chest. 

For fuck sake, he’d just taken down a herd of metal rhinos. He could scale a 30-floor building in seconds, trash talk the Russian mafia without breaking a sweat. But this was where he choked, 3 meters away from the boy he’d been in love with since freshman year. 

“Gyu! Hao he made it!” ringed a familiar voice. Mingyu let out a sigh of relief, as Seokmin approached him with two red cups in his hands, his cheeks already supporting a nice flush. Minghao followed close behind looking effortlessly chic per usual. “You okay man?” Seokmin asked, eyes scanning him for any immediate injuries, a habit he had gotten into over the past three years. 

“Your hair is ruined.” Hao groaned, reaching out to set everything back into place.

“Yeah, I’m good- Ow-Hao, you’re pulling from the root man- I rounded them up, left the rest to the police.” Mingyu said as he eyed the kitchen door nervously. 

Seokmin gave him a weird look. “Dude what are you-” he started before spotting Wonwoo hyung as well. Understanding settled in his eyes as he nudged Mingyu. “You okay?” he asked again. 

It was as if a huge bubble was growing in the pit of his stomach. No, it was like an unexplainable itch in the back of his throat that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times he swallowed. The anxiety paired with looking at Wonwoo hyung felt weird, foreign even. He wasn’t used to feeling like this with someone he could usually talk hours on end with, not having to worry about sounding stupid or impressive because it was Wonwoo hyung. It was always just…him and Wonwoo hyung.  

“I’m kind of freaking out,” he admitted. 

“Don’t, it ruins the look,” Hao said, roughly straightening out his collar. Looking at Mingyu’s face, he softened, giving him a rare pat on the shoulder. “You’ve only been in love with the man since last year. And Wonwoo hyung notices you a lot more than you think.” 

Seokmin offered Mingyu his cup. “Cheers.” Mingyu took it gratefully, downing it in one go. He grimaced as the alcohol burned down his throat, not as if it would be doing anything else though. Being spiderman had left his alcohol tolerance at borderline nonexistent along with any liquid courage that came with it.  

Screw it, it was the mindset that counts. He shook out his hands and marched towards the kitchen, Hao and Seokmin close behind.  

Wonwoo saw him coming, eyes lighting up. The prettiest of smiles flashed across his face as he walked towards them. 

“You made it!” Wonwoo raised his arms and enveloped Mingyu in a tight hug. Mingyu’s arms automatically circled around Wonwoo’s waist, as he was briefly engulfed in the smell of fresh laundry, vanilla, and just a hint of grape-fruit flavored soju. He could feel the charm of Wonwoo’s necklace press into his chest between them.

Good god. 

“Hey hyung,” Mingyu replied, breaking away from the hug and hoping that his face wasn’t as red as it felt. “I’m sorry for being so late, there was this thing with the taxi, and then there was a bike rider, and lots of massive pigeons…huge, really, it was…and–you know this sounds like its not making any sense but I’m getting there-”

Hao sharply nudged him from behind, cutting him off before he ended up spilling about the plaza concierge screaming at him in French all the way down 6th street.

“Always late, this one.” Hao took over smoothly, offering Wonwoo and Jun a smile. “Hey hyungs.”

“Jun Jun, my man!” Seokmin shouted, launching himself onto Jun and Wonwoo’s backs and giving them a bear hug before throwing an arm around each of them. So a standard Seokmin ‘hello’.

“If I knew you guys were here, I would have come out of the kitchen a lot sooner.” Wonwoo laughed, ruffling Seokmin’s hair. 

“Yeah, Wonwoo’s been hiding in the kitchen ever since that redhead on the basketball team tried to get him to drink with him.” Jun said with a smirk.

“Hiding is a strong word-”

“You yelled ‘What's behind you!’ And threw Hoshi in front of you as a diversion.”

“Soonyoung and I have a system,” Wonwoo insisted. “He saves me from people I don’t want to talk to and I switch his drink out for water when he starts trying to kiss everyone. Hey, do you guys want anything?” he added pointing to his empty cup.

“I'm good hyung,” Hao replied easily, subtly pushing Mingyu forward. “But Mingyu just got here so do you think you could help him out?”

“Sure,” Wonwoo said, giving him a smile that made his stomach flutter. “Seokmin?” 

“Well actually, Ow -” Hao gave Seokmin a sharp pinch. “-you know what, I’m feeling pretty tipsy, should probably hold off.” Seokmin said, ruefully rubbing his elbow. 

“And Junnie, I need to talk to you about that thing, remember?” Hao said, eyes growing comically wide.

“Okay okay, I get it.” Jun said with a grin. “I’m gonna go catch up with Hao, man.”

Mingyu missed the way that Jun wiggled his eyebrows towards Wonwoo on his way out, too focused on hiding Seokmin and his eager thumbs up from Wonwoo’s eyesight. 

After the three of them left, the kitchen seemed too quiet all of a sudden. He tried not to think about whether his hair was sticking up, or if the smell of burnt metal was still lingering on him from earlier.

“So, pigeons?” Wonwoo mentioned with a raise of his eyebrow.

“Oh yeah,” he racked his brain, mentally kicking himself for all the bullshit he had spouted two minutes ago. “Massive ones…and then there was this guy…. on a bike…and….” 

“Uh huh.”  

“…would you believe me if I told you that I really, really tried to make it on time?” he said, peeking at Wonwoo’s face with a guilty smile. 

“If we’re talking Mingyu-time, you’re actually kind of early.” Wonwoo said, now smiling. “Hey, you’re here and that’s all that matters.”  

You’re here and that’s all that matters. The words rang through his head.

He was here. He’d made it, and he wasn’t going to let metal rhinos, redheads, scary older brothers, or anything else get in the way.

“You look really beautiful tonight, hyung.” 

Wonwoo flushed. “Thanks. You clean up nice too.” He gestured to Mingyu’s outfit. 

“Oh.” This time it was Mingyu’s turn to blush. “This was all Hao…he was going to murder me if I showed up in sweats. Hey, I met your brother earlier, Seungcheol?” Mingyu headed for the fridge, grabbing himself and Wonwoo a drink. 

“You met hyung?” Wonwoo repeated, eyebrows raised humorously as he accepted the bottle from Mingyu. 

“Yeah, you know you’d never know how scary he was in real life based on your stories,” Mingyu said, slightly lifting himself up to sit on top of the kitchen counter.

“He did not give you the whole ‘older brother’ spiel.” Wonwoo said in disbelief.

Mingyu grinned. “Considering how the twins blocked me at the door, I owe him for letting me in anyways.”

Wonwoo frowned slightly. “Well…hopefully he was still sober at least. Last I saw he was doing shots with Hoshi…actually remind me to check on him later.” 

After pausing for a beat, Wonwoo fidgeted with his necklace before asking, “Hey, other than the overbearing idiot part, he didn’t…mention anything, right?” 

“No…?” Mingyu replied. Other than clocking me for being in love with you and almost following me to the kitchen to supervise, nothing out of the ordinary at all. “...But I’m pretty sure he only vouched for me because I coughed up a bottle of vodka.”

“...Yeah you definitely met hyung.”  

They both grinned at each other. And with that, the panic that had settled in his chest vanished. 

“The sexual tension between him and Jeonghanie hyung though?”

“I knew it wasn’t just me!” Wonwoo shouted.  

 

---

 

The next hour was a blur. They moved through the party, screaming the lyrics to SZA’s snooze with Seokmin and Seungkwan in the living room one moment, and being destroyed in beer pong by the twins the next (Wonwoo claimed unfair advantage on grounds of twin telepathy). Later they cheered on Hoshi who had somehow organized a makeshift break dance battle in the middle of the living room, and then ended up having a surprisingly intense discussion with Vernon about the new Inside Out movie. “-I’m just saying, anxiety and fear would be completely toxic together, they’re the definition of an emotionally manipulative couple-”. 

And if Mingyu “accidently” spilled his drink all over Chad, the red-headed basketball player, on his way to the bathroom? Then so be it.

Another hour later, they were sitting next to one another on the living room couch, the top of their thighs touching. If Wonwoo was uncomfortable with the proximity, he made no sign of it, rambling about everything and anything in between. Mingyu nodded fondly, holding onto his drink for him as an animated Wonwoo told him all about the new game that Riot Games had released last week, his cheeks tinged pink from the alcohol. Wonwoo was just getting into the game's backstory when Woozi yelled for him across the room. 

“Won!”

The two of them turned their gaze to find a resigned looking Woozi in the arms of Hoshi, who was rhythmically wood-pecking Woozi’s head with kisses like there was no tomorrow. 

“I thought you were gonna watch him this time!” Woozi yelled, his face slightly pink.

“Not again.” Wonwoo grumbled as he made his way towards Woozi, dragging Mingyu along by his sleeve. 

“Wonnnn!” Hoshi slurred as they approached, obviously drunk. “Bro!” His cheeks were a ruddy red as if he’d stained the apple of his cheeks with a pink highlighter. His tiger print button up was now haphazardly tied around his waist, leaving him in a white tank top with a big red stain on it that smelled suspiciously of strawberry vodka.

“Get over here man!” he sniffed, suddenly looking close to tears as he gave Woozi hyung one final wet smooch on the cheek before releasing him, only to immediately wrap Wonwoo in a bear hug. 

“My best friends…wait where’s Junnie-” he mumbled, rubbing his cheek into Wonwoo's shoulder. So Hoshi hyung is that kind of drunk, Mingyu thought, fighting the urge to laugh.

“Hey Jun?” Wonwoo shouted from across the room, patting a now-crying Hoshi hyung on the back. “Little help?”

Mingyu spotted Jun and Hao from across the room in what seemed to be a deep conversation. Upon hearing his name, Jun’s eyes landed on Hoshi hyung now trying to give Wonwoo forehead kisses. “Not my turn!” he yelled back.

“This is why we don’t let him near the tequila anymore.” Woozi hyung sighed, shaking his head. “Like fucking clockwork. 3 shots in and he starts breakdancing, 5 shots in he’s climbing onto tables….then 7 shots and boom. He’s crying and kissing everyone left and right.” Wonwoo was now squishing Hoshi’s face in both hands, keeping him at arm's length. Hoshi’s arms reached for him sluggishly as if they were made of jello.

“Remember…remember this morning, when you gave me the rest of your buldak Won?” Hoshi sniffled through squished cheeks. “Hey, hey remember that Hoonie?”

“No.”

“And, and…he never shares, so you know he means itttt.” he sobbed, reaching his arms out towards Wonwoo in vain. “Okay…uh huh, yeah I know Soon-” Wonwoo said reassuringly, patting both his cheeks and crab walking them towards the couch.

“And you brought Mingyu?!” Hoshi whirled onto Mingyu with surprising speed for someone about 5 minutes away from blacking out. Hoshi pushed Wonwoo away to latch onto his arm.

“Hey hyung.” Mingyu grinned, reaching out to steady him. “You want some water?”

“Maybe later…man seeing you guys together though-” Hoshi began to tear up again as he banged his head into Mingyu’s shoulder, nuzzling his cheek like a disgruntled cat. “You know, I never thought I’d find someone who can put up with our Won’s grumpiness…..and gaming addiction…and terrible eating habits…and workaholic-”

“I’m right here buddy.” 

“But then…you come along.” Hoshi sniffled again. “My little boy’s all ready to leave the nest and fall in l-”

Wonwoo slapped a hand over Hoshi’s mouth. “Okay, enough of that,” he grimaced. “No you can't give Mingyu a kiss Soonyoung, he’s new to this-”, pulling Hoshi back and sitting him down on a nearby couch where Seungkwan and Seokmin were locked in an intense game of Mario Kart.

“Kwannieeee,” Hoshi yelled in delight, latching onto Seungkwan’s head and giving him a smooch on his ear. 

“Hah!” Seokmin yelled, as his donkey kong character crossed the finish line. “Okay you're leading warmups tomorrow.” 

“No way, drunk disadvantage!” Seungkwan yelled in outrage. “Who let Hoshi hyung near the tequila?” he exclaimed accusingly, sniffing Hoshi’s face to confirm his suspicions. “How many fingers am I holding up?” 

Hoshi crossed his eyes, concentrating for a second only to slowly lift a tiger hand up in response.

“Oh yeah he’s gone gone.” Seungkwan confirmed.

“We’re getting you to bed.” Wonwoo sighed, scanning the room. Behind him Woozi held Hoshi in a headlock, covering his mouth as he tried to give Seokmin a smooch next. 

“Hyung!” Wonwoo suddenly yelled. Mingyu followed his gaze, spotting a drunk Seungcheol and Joshua yelling 90s k-pop ballads into the karaoke machine. Jeonghan flung popcorn at them from behind the screen, booing them with a ginormous smile on his face. 

“How many shots did you guys have?” Wonwoo yelled again, glaring accusingly. Seungcheol flashed him a guilty smile, fingers hovering around 6…7? 

“Bingo.” Woozi muttered.

Jeonghan rolled his eyes, walking over to smack the back of Seungcheol’s head in Wonwoo’s place. “Won, go ahead and put him in my room, it’s closed off anyways.”

Wonwoo nodded. “Mingyu, could you give me a sec, I’m gonna toss him upstairs. C’mon Jihoon-”

“Actually,” replied Woozi hyung, arms still holding Hoshi hyung in a headlock, who was looking perfectly content nuzzling his cheek into Woozi hyung’s left hand. “Gyu, could you help Wonwoo? I got to man the booth before Seungkwan gets a hold of it and turns on some Wonder Girls playlist.” Seungkwan made an affronted squawking noise from the couch. 

“Sure hyung, no problem.….you take his right, I take his left?” Mingyu suggested. Wonwoo gave Woozi an odd look before slowly nodding back. He took Hoshi’s right arm and threw it across his shoulder as they made their way out of the living room and up the stairs.  

On the second floor, Wonwoo struggled to get the door to Jeonghan’s room open. Hoshi hyung deemed it the perfect moment for his legs to give out beneath him, bringing all three of them toppling onto the floor.

“You know I feel like I’m having a quintessential college experience right now,” Mingyu noted cheerfully, helping Wonwoo up before plucking Hoshi hyung onto his feet. He ducked his head to avoid the door frame as they entered Jeonghan’s room. 

“Uh huh, trust me, the whole taking care of your drunk friends gets old after the first couple times-” Wonwoo grunted, grabbing both of Hoshi’s flailing arms. “Why are you always heavier when you’re drunk-”

“Hater…” Hoshi slurred. 

“Lightweight. Oh gross-” Wonwoo wiped off the huge smooch Hoshi had landed on his cheek. “I love you too now get off- God I’m about to give you so much shit for this tomorrow.” he muttered.

“Here let me.” Mingyu replied, lifting Hoshi hyung by his armpits in one smooth motion before laying him down on the bed. 

“Sure, just lift a grown man….like it’s nothing…” Wonwoo muttered under his breath. 

“You say something hyung?” Mingyu asked absentmindedly, too busy maneuvering Hoshi hyung’s legs so that they laid down straight. 

“No! Nothing. Hey, could you pass me that water bottle?”

As Hoshi’s head reached for the pillow, Wonwoo lunged forward, heaving him up again by his shoulders. “No no, water first.” he reprimanded, taking the bottle of water from Mingyu’s hands and shoving it in front of Hoshi’s face. 

Hoshi chugged the entire thing, smacking his lips once he was done. His hazy eyes landed on Mingyu, growing wide in recognition like he hadn’t just talked to him downstairs 5 minutes ago. “Hey Won….Won look! It's Mingyu! Right next to you. Right there….the Gyu-man…hey…man…” he mumbled before promptly passing out.

“Too bad Jihoon’s not here.” Wonwoo whispered after confirming that Hoshi was finally asleep. “He’s like a drunk Soonyoung whisperer. Climbs right into bed on his own.” he sighed, throwing a blanket over him. After making sure he was securely rolled onto his side, the two of them exited the room.

“Remind me to never leave him unsupervised. Like, ever.” Wonwoo whispered, shaking his head as he softly shut the door. 

“Supervision makes a difference then?” Mingyu whispered back with a grin.

“Eh.” Wonwoo shrugged.

With the background noise of the party absent, Wonwoo hyung’s voice rang clear. The twin’s cutting this area off had left the second floor relatively quiet, almost cozy, with a small hallway lamp dimly lighting the floor. The music was muffled, and faint sounds of laughter and shouting echoed from the staircase, making the party and everyone else seem so far away. 

 

An island for two.  

 

It occurred to him then that this would be the first time, and quite possibly the only time tonight that he and Wonwoo hyung would be left completely alone.

Hyung.” he blurted out impulsively.

“Yeah?” Wonwoo turned around, his foot already on the first step. Under the dim hallway light, he looked even more angular than usual, as the shadow from the light emphasized the bridge of his nose, the curve of his eyebrow… Wonwoo looked at him patiently, waiting for a response. 

“I…” Mingyu gulped hard, his mouth suddenly bone dry. The balloon in the pit of his stomach began to reinflate.   

He had a plan. This was the plan. Right? 

 

Right?

 

A million scenarios raced through his head. What was the plan anyway? Wonwoo hyung was an amazing friend. One of his closest friends.

What if he said no and they stopped hanging out. What if he stopped coming over? Luna would never forgive him. 

Or what if he laughed at him. Or walked away. What if he- No. No, no, no, he wasn’t going to do this. Wonwoo hyung wasn’t that kind of person. He was amazing. Kind, honest, fair, caring, sarcastic to an adoring fault. And above all else…he trusted Mingyu. Something he knew Wonwoo hyung didn’t give out easily, if at all.

“I wanted to…to um…”

But if this all ended up miraculously working out….then where would that leave them? Where would that leave Wonwoo hyung? With a boyfriend by day, a vigilante by night? 

He could never know. I could never tell him. 

“Okay, you’ve gone green,” Wonwoo rushed forward in alarm. “We’re sitting down.”

“No, I’m good. So good.” Mingyu replied faintly, flushing more as Wonwoo’s hand rested on his forehead. His hand felt refreshingly cool against his skin, or maybe Mingyu really was burning up. 

“You sure?” Wonwoo asked again, eyebrows furrowing. Mingyu choked down the urge to reach out and smooth them over. “It could have been the punch….” He slowly guided Mingyu to sit on the top of the stairs, before joining him. 

Mingyu tried to expel some of the nervous energy settling deep in his bones. “Thanks.” he said after a while. “I’m good now, swear. If I do end up passing out though, tell Hao first? Seokmin’s probably gonna be too busy laughing to be of any help.”  

Wonwoo laughed, music to his ears. “Don’t go passing out on me.” he said lightly, dabbing away at the thin layer of sweat on Mingyu’s forehead with his sleeve. “I might get bored and then who’ll listen to me talk about T1.”

That pretty smile. 

“Oh so that’s why you keep me around. I thought it was because I’m tall enough to reach all the shelves.” he joked, meeting Wonwoo’s eyes with a grin. 

“God, that was awful. Truly, if you weren’t about to throw up right now I’d throw you to the twins for how bad that was.” Wonwoo rolled his eyes playfully, shoving his shoulder.  

Comfortable silence filled the air. The two of them sat next to one another, just listening to the sounds of people from below the stairs. 

“Feeling better?” Wonwoo mused after a while.

“Mhm.” Mingyu replied. He really did, the balloon in his chest dying down a bit. “Some party.” 

Wonwoo hummed affirmatively. “A lot tamer than last year. Cops came to shut it down after Soonyoung and Cheol decided it’d be a good idea to light fireworks in the backyard. Trust me, the last thing you want to do is leave those two alone in a dick measuring contest. Then Soonyoung tried to give the officer a kiss on the cheek after they let them off with a warning…it was this whole thing.”

“Now that I would’ve paid to see.” 

“Yeah, show up more often, why don’t you,” Wonwoo chided. “You’re the busiest person I know, always flying in and out. Some people actually miss having you around. Occasionally.”

“Oh yeah, like who?” he teased, peering into Wonwoo’s face. 

“...See this is why I don’t compliment you, your head is big as it is.”

“Avoiding the question I see.”

“It’s an interview tactic, you should try it Mr. ‘massive pigeons’”.

“Shutting up now.”

“Uh huh.”

Mingyu hesitated, wanting to get something off his chest that had been bothering him the whole night. “I hate that I was late. Again. I swear I tried to make it on time, really on time, and then…something got in the way and-”

“Hey.” Wonwoo cut him off with a frown. “I was kidding. Knowing you, it was probably for a good reason.” 

“I just don’t want you to think that I had better things to do,” Mingyu said firmly. If he was going to get one thing across, it would be how important this night had been to him, how important Wonwoo hyung’s time was to him. 

“-or a better place to be because, believe me this was…like the one thing I was looking forward to all week and that prick at the plaza had another thing coming for him if he thought I was going-

“Gyu.” Wonwoo interrupted. 

“He was french, did I mention he was french-”

“Gyu!” Wonwoo shouted, now laughing. “Gyu, it’s okay. Look. You’re the most selfless person I’ve met. Ridiculously so- yes you are.” he repeated, glaring as Mingyu made to interrupt him.

“You can’t even pass by that homeless guy Benny on Southeast without throwing out your pockets. You go home to visit May whenever you can because you didn’t want her feeling lonely after you came to college. You work the animal shelter on weekends, you prep meals for the dance club so they don’t have to go on crappy diets during recital season, you stay back to help me, me, work on the edition when everyones gone, keep me from drinking caffeine cause you know it makes me act like a bitch to anyone and anything under the sun-” 

“Okay, okay! I thought you didn’t want me getting a big head geez.” he smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“So if you say that something happened, that something came up? Then something came up. I trust you.” Wonwoo finished, like it was the simplest conclusion in the world. 

The anxiety began to bleed out from his body. Or no. It was still there, simmering in the back of his head. Maybe it was always going to be there, so long as he kept this in. But next to Wonwoo hyung? Next to the way he makes the most complicated things so simple, so…easy.

He was an idiot. If Wonwoo hyung could be this honest, then so could he.

“...You know even if I did end up being late, at least I finally got to hang out with you for the rest of the night.” he said quietly with a shaky smile. “worth every shitty thing that’s happened today.” 

A gap of silence followed. “….Just ask for a ride next time.” Wonwoo finally replied, ears growing red as he fiddled with his necklace. “Then we can do this longer…and I liked this too.”

Wonwoo opened and closed his mouth in hesitation before continuing. “…I know most of the people here, which makes it easier. I’m not exactly the conversationalist you know? But then time passes and I end up either talking too much or too little. Or not at all, because knowing how much you’re supposed to give never gets easier, but… ”

“But you’re like… the easiest person to talk to Gyu.” 

Mingyu could hear his heart hammering in his chest, like helicopter blades. Or was it hummingbird wings? He could hear Wonwoo hyung’s too, thumping just as quickly. Their heartbeats trembled in his ears, the suspense building up in his chest. It felt like he was hearing everything, everywhere, all at once. 

Just this one thing. Mingyu thought. Just this once. 

“Hyung, I’ve been wanting to tell you something.” 

Wonwoo shifted his body towards his, a silent ‘I’m listening’.

Maybe it was Mingyu’s imagination, but Wonwoo leaned towards him slightly, eyes fixing him with a look he couldn’t quite describe.  

“Hyung…you’re my favorite person to talk to.”

“Oh yeah?” 

Mingyu tilted his head down to match Wonwoo’s gaze.

“Yeah…you make it feel like the easiest thing in the world.” he exhaled, leaning towards Wonwoo like a planet pulling into orbit. He hitched his breath, feeling Wonwoo’s hand softly settle on top of his knee, his own hand finding purchase on the carpet behind Wonwoo’s back. One of his knuckles barely grazed the fuzz on Wonwoo’s sweater. 

He could see all of Hyung's freckles. His eyelashes. The brown hues in his eyes, the warmth radiating from his hand, the cherry-scented alcohol of his breath that was fanning over Mingyu’s lips, getting closer and closer and closer…

 

“Wonwoo!” shouted Jun from below the stairs. 

The two jumped, startled by the sudden interruption. 

“Oh shit-sorry. It’s just, Cheolie hyung’s been looking for you, something about the cakes….” Jun trailed off apologetically.

 “Shit.” Wonwoo muttered, slipping his hand off of his knee. Mingyu resisted the urge to pick Wonwoo’s hand up and put it right back where it belonged. “Shit, I promised Jeonghanie hyung I’d help Cheol bring the cakes out after he dropped them last year…” 

Wonwoo’s face was bright red, and Mingyu knew that he wasn’t looking any different. They had almost…they had right? The image was so recent, burned into his mind as cherry-scented vodka flooded his head like an intense craving. They looked at eachother, the air heavy with words unspoken. 

“Wonwoo!” Seungcheol’s voice boomed from somewhere on the first floor. “Where’d you go?”

What had felt so secluded just a few moments ago now felt crowded, hazy, as Mingyu tried and failed to ignore how there had been an entire party going on just a few meters away from them. The music suddenly sounded a lot louder than it had before, the private bubble encapsulating the two of them bursting. 

“…Maybe we should head down first.” Mingyu said, as he chickened out. Way to go Spiderman. “The twins’ll really kill me if I’m late for this too.” he added, trying for a smile.

“Oh…okay.” Wonwoo replied, looking…was it disappointment? Mingyu wished he could tell. “And…and then we can talk about that thing you were going to say?” 

Definitely.” he replied, heart still hammering.

Wonwoo nodded, satisfied with the response as he flashed Mingyu one last beautiful smile before heading downstairs. 

After standing numb for a beat, only to start punching and kicking the air in complete silence for a solid minute, Mingyu joined Seokmin in the living room where the twins were opening presents.  

“Okay, you’re forgiven.” Josh waved the baseball cap that he had been talking about wanting a couple weeks back towards him. Mingyu grinned in response, hoping he didn’t look as pathetic as he felt. 

Seokmin nudged Mingyu, a question hanging in the air.

“I started…then I stopped.” he mumbled, slumping deeper into the couch in misery. “He was right there, and… I chickened out.” 

Seokmin threw an arm around his shoulder, 15 years’ of best friend status left unsaid as he rubbed Mingyu’s arm up and down. 

“Okay, everyone, time to sing!” Seungcheol bellowed, emerging from the living room entrance with a  large white cake in hand. Wonwoo followed close behind with the same cake in butter-yellow. Everyone began to draw in close, the living room at max capacity. 

“Happy birthday you two. May you both drive me up the wall for many more years to come.” With that, Seungcheol plopped his cake in front of Jeonghan who stuck his tongue out in response. He presumed to lean his head onto Seungcheol’s hip, Seungcheol’s hand coming up to wrap around Jeonghan’s shoulders with a squeeze.

“Happy Birthday to you~ Happy Birthday to you~”  

Seungkwan and Seokmin led the crowd, adding in harmonies and dramatic adlibs to everyone's amusement. Laughter peppered the room, filling it with warmth as candle light danced on the walls. Mingyu watched Wonwoo perched on Josh’s armrest, looking at the twin’s with soft, unguarded fondness. He temporarily put his own misery on hold as he looked around, each of his friends scattered across the room, singing and laughing. Everyone seemed so happy.

 

Rumble. 

 

The hairs on the back of Mingyu’s neck and arms stood up straight. His spidey senses were dialed to an eleven, as he tensed, feeling a subtle vibration coming from the ground that no one seemed to be detecting yet. 

Mingyu tuned out the song, isolating his senses towards the slow rhythmic stomping that was getting stronger. 

No. No. I’m not that unlucky.

There was no way. No fucking way. he thought miserably. In between each stomp, he could now hear a faint roar that sounded like a cross between a velociraptor and a million forks being blended together. 

A sound he had thought he’d heard the last of 3 hours ago.

The one time he leaves it to the police. One time! He’d left them wrapped up and everything. 

 

Damn rhinos.

 

“Min, you got to get everyone out the back door,” Mingyu whispered, the gears in his head turning furiously as he calculated how he was going to do this. 

 “What?” Seokmin whispered back, eyes going wide.

“What’s going on?” Hao asked, leaning in between them. The room erupted in applause as the twin’s blew out their candles.  

“No time. Rhinos. Escaped. Headed down this street, we got to get everyone out-” 

“Hey, does anyone feel that?” Jeonghan asked. The smoke from the candles lingered in the air. “Yeah..it’s like a mini earthquake or something.” Josh replied, frowning. 

“Min.” Mingyu urged.  

“Oh. Oh Lord. Look at this everyone!” Seokmin sprung to his feet, waving his phone like a maniac, too fast for anyone to get a proper look at the screen. You know for someone that was head of the drama club, you’d think he’d be better at improv, Mingyu thought with a silent groan. 

“Guys, it says robot rhino charging down 76th. Police urge everyone to evacuate immediately. Says so right here on Twitter. Right. there.” Seokmin finished, tapping his black phone screen sharply for dramatic effect.

“Shit that’s here.” Seungcheol said in realization. The crowd began to stir, an uneasiness settling in the air.

“Okay everyone, head towards the back entrance,” Hao shouted, jumping into action. “Get going.” he muttered to Mingyu who was already headed for the closet near the front door. 

“Guys slow down,” Jeonghan shouted as the crowd of 60, 70 people began to scream, running all at once. It was chaos in seconds. “Wonwoo come on!” Mingyu heard Seungcheol yell right before grabbing his backpack and slipping outside.

The street was empty, well past 1am. He swung lamp post to lamp post, barreling into the alleyway, as he ripped off hao’s tank top in his haste to get his suit on. 

I guess the city couldn’t last one night without spiderman.

 

Notes:

Chapter 2!

Don't hate Junnie too much, he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, but the happy ending (maybe even an upside down kiss) is happening guys.

If you couldn't tell, I am a sucker for the 96 line friendship. I love how they play off of one another in real life, and it was even more fun writing out their dynamic here. Also had to find some way to write in a Hoshi drunk scene after watching the lee yeongji video on YouTube (please watch it if you haven't, you won't be sorry).

Thanks to everyone who read and liked chapter 1. Comments, and especially feedback is much much much appreciated. Stay tuned for the Rhino (I have dubbed her Ella) vs Spider Gyu fight scene, and see ya'll soon for chapter 3

(Hopefully I can get it out before Jeonghan enlists this Friday...no promises...)

Mingyu's party look: what he wore in Going Seventeen Episode 107 (Class President Election)

Chapter 3: Island for two, please

1:13 a.m. 

10-33, I repeat 10-33. All units report to 96th street, radio traffic is being monitored—stand by.

Mingyu swung fast towards the sounds of damage as he continued to yell at the remaining people on the street to evacuate. 

“Rhino, big scary metal rhinos people! Up and at em guys-yeah, I’m talking to you ma’am, you and your dog-” 

He landed in the middle of the street, which was about 20 feet wide, with thick iron lamp posts marking either edge. The street had grown quiet now, but Mingyu could pick up the sounds of screaming from the twins’s townhouse along with the faint sound of sirens heading their way. Beneath his feet, a deep-seated rumble vibrated from the soles of his shoes to the top of his skull, growing stronger and stronger. 

He squinted his eyes, tilting his head in concentration.

There. A single rhino rampaging down New York, about 500 meters away and closing in fast.  

Only one. Okay. It’s just the one. 

Mingyu flung out a strand of web to wrench the nearest mailbox out of the ground, throwing it in front of him. 

He dialed his web settings to high density. He then proceeded to shoot web after web, connecting two lamp posts on his immediate left and right together to create a sort of makeshift barrier between him and the first block behind him. His mind was working a hundred miles per hour. All his friends were back there, just two blocks away. 

Wonwoo hyung is back there. 

After finishing his makeshift web shield, he faced the incoming rhino who was making fast progress. It zigzagged down the street only to ram itself into other houses, stopping to tear out anything metal. 

Once it was close enough, Mingyu picked up the mailbox.

”HEY.” he shouted.

The rhino abruptly screech to a stop 10 meters away from him. 

Smoke billowed out of its nostrils as it sniffed the air twice. This one was perhaps smaller than the rest of the herd back on 1st- about the size of a large chevy truck. Like the rest of the herd however, this one was also covered in impenetrable metal plates with blunted edges, along with a killer 50-inch bronze horn and razor-sharp tail to match. 

Its glowing red eyes dialed exactly onto where Mingyu was standing before letting out an ear-bleeding roar. 

“Hi!” Mingyu yelled over the noise, crouching low to the ground. “Remember me buddy? I’m that guy who…put the rest of your family to sleep but never mind that.” The rhino creaked its head to the left. Possibly in confusion. Possibly in deep contemplation on how he was going to shishkebab this red and blue freak.  

“You look nicer than the others though!” Mingyu resumed, inching toward with the mailbox in hand. The rhino, for some reason, continued to stay surprisingly still. 

“That’s it…who’s a nice girl. Who’s a nice-Ella? Yeah, I’m gonna call you Ella. Ella you’re gonna stay still while I shut down your entire mainframe, yes I am-” he said, shaking the mailbox in his hand as if it were a giant dog bone. Ella followed the mailbox with its mechanical eyes curiously, back and forth.

Once close enough, Mingyu tossed it towards her head. The sound of screeching metal filled the air as Ella grinded open her mechanical jaw, clamping onto the mailbox in one fell swoop. She chewed fiercely while shaking her metal tail, occupied for now. 

Mingyu began circling towards Ella’s left. “There’s a good girl…. I’m just gonna…. scooch over here, don’t mind me…” he murmured, arms reaching for the circuit board lying right above her left temple.

Maybe the mailbox hadn’t tasted as good as the fire hydrant. Maybe Ella had suddenly realized right then and there that she, in fact, was not happy with the walking spandex who had shut down the rest of her siblings, treat or not. 

Or maybe Ella was just having a bad day, it couldn’t only be Mingyu right? 

But she stopped chewing, raising her head to meet Mingyu’s. A mess of blue metal dropped from her mouth with a clang as she veered the rest of her body towards him, eyes glowing red once more. 

A pillar of steam emitted from her nostrils as Ella began to screech, scraping her hind foot against the ground. 

You didn’t need to have superpowers to know what was going to happen next. 

“Okay.” Mingyu commented, slipping behind Ella before breaking off into a sprint. If this thing was moving, then it was going to be as far away from the party as possible.

It seemed to have worked at first, as Ella tried to change directions to follow Mingyu. But these things didn’t have the best motor control as her right flank ended up getting caught in the makeshift web Mingyu had made. Ella roared in frustration, spearing its horn into the web, tearing through it in one, two, three! And she was trampling down the avenue, straight towards the twin’s apartment building. 

Ella rammed into the twin’s front door, tearing it off its hinges before crashing right into the staircase leading to the second floor. She shook her head furiously, panels of wood and metal falling off as she did. Ella roared, this time turning her body towards the living room. She charged straight through the flat screen TV and karaoke machine. Abandoned red cups went flying left and right. The tables holding the twins’s cake flipped over, as the living room now rested in shambles.   

Dust began to fall from the ceiling as Ella stomped her feet, rearing her head towards a large pillar connecting the first floor to the ceiling. 

At this rate, she would bring the house down.

“No!” Mingyu shouted, quickly swinging towards the robot. He stood infront of the entrance, waving his hands like a mad man. “I’m right here girl, look at me!” 

Ella roared, as she shifted her head to charge straight towards him. Mingyu struggled to stay completely still, waiting until the last second to side step to the right, shooting webs at Ella’s horn and using the momentum of her movement to haul her straight into the alleyway he had changed in earlier. 

Ella slammed straight into the brick wall, her horn now stuck in between a mess of pipes and rubble. She screeched and roared in what he imagined to be highly colorful remarks against red and blue spiders everywhere. 

Mingyu shot webs to bind her hind legs together, then shot some more towards the mess of pipes that were now holding her horn to the wall. It was now or never, he thought as he used the distraction to jump straight onto her back. 

“Sit. Still. You stupid. Rhino.” he grimaced, holding on for dear life as Ella bucked underneath him. He faintly thought about how appropriate the twin’s cowboy hats would be at this very moment. 

Mingyu managed to rip open the metal plate on the left side of Ella’s head without chopping his tongue in two, tearing apart the blue wire that should have turned her off right then. But Ella just bucked even harder. She began swinging her tail into the brick walls of the alley way, sending debris flying everywhere.

“Shit shit shit shit shit shit” Mingyu yelled, now pulling wires at random in hopes that one would lead to a system shutdown. 

This thing is fried, he realized as ripping out wires only seemed to make her angrier. Ella’s movements grew more frenzied and wilder with each second. That was why she had escaped in the first place. 

Got to think got to think got to think… The bricks were shifting now. There was only so much time before she got loose. Who even made robot rhinos in the first place? What demented, crazy scientist with too much time on their hands does that, and then doesn’t even show up to watch, it’s sick, it’s twisted, it’s kind of perverted if you think about it- 

WEE-oww-WEE-oww

Half a dozen police cars pulled up next to the alleyway. Officers poured out in seconds, guns drawn. 

“Perfect timing guys, just-real great!” Mingyu shouted over the noise. 

“Spiderman get off the rhino and put your hands in the air!” yelled an officer.

“You mean Ella?” Mingyu shouted back. “Gotta be more specific, cause I swear I wrapped a herd of her siblings for you! Three hours ago! You guys have no appreciation for gift-giving and you know what, it really hurts.” He somersaulted off the robot, landing solidly on the ground where he proceeded to pour web fluid through the pipes again.

“Hands in the air!” a scrawny looking officer yelped, while aiming a gun towards his head with shaky hands.  He was relatively new to the job by the sound of it. 

Mingyu didn’t even bother glancing back. “Look, I get it,” he yelled. “You, me, we’re all in a weird stalemate relationship where I work freelance in your jurisdiction pro bono, then you get mad at me when I do a good job instead of giving me a gold star. But civilians were having a party two blocks down,” he pointed with his left hand. “They’ve probably all evacuated by now, but someone should check the entire street-”

“And what about this thing!” yelled the captain who Mingyu was familiar with, having met a couple times. “Guns down, unidentified machinery is first priority.” he barked, signaling his men down the road.  

“I’m working on it!” Mingyu yelled back, his mind going a mile a minute as he worked on connecting Ella’s flank to the alley walls with several strings of web. The strength of the webs lifted Ella about 10cm into the air. She finally began to settle, as if realizing how struggling wasn’t getting her anywhere. Water trickling down from the burst pipes soaked Mingyu’s boots as he stepped straight into a puddle trying to avoid Ella’s tail. 

 

Water.

 

“Water. Where’s the nearest source of water?” Mingyu demanded. “There’s no fire hydrants around here, and this thing isn’t going to sit still long enough for a truck.”

“There’s a pond two streets down-” piped the new-timer. 

“Pond! Okay then. She’s settled for now-”

“Who’s she?!” 

“Ella, pay attention rookie! I’m gonna release her and take her to the pond then, but we need to evacuate everyone out before I do-” 

Sounds of commotion drifted from their right near the twin’s townhouse. It sounded as if a fight was breaking out. He groaned in frustration. This was the last thing he needed to deal with. 

“Sir, sir you can’t go back in, we’re evacuating everyone on this street-“ shouted a police officer.

You don’t understand, our friend is passed out on the second floor, I need to get him out of here!” a familiar voice shouted back. Woozi hyung. Mingyu stumbled forward. 

He was met with two policemen who were holding Woozi back as he struggled in their arms, hands pointing furiously at the gaping hole where the twin’s front door used to be. Behind him, Jun hyung pulled at the policeman on Woozi hyung’s right. “Let him go man!” he yelled.

“Wonwoo wait!” Jun suddenly shouted at the running figure, who, in the midst of the confusion, chose then to duck past the yellow tape and dart across the lawn. He scrambled over the rubble and into the building before anyone could grab him. Jun tried to follow, only to be immediately held back by the two remaining officers. 

Mingyu swung over in a heartbeat landing right in front of Woozi hyung, who was busy chewing each and every policeman there alive. Jun came to his aid, cursing rapidly in Mandarin while struggling to break free.

“Okay-hey-that’s it, everyone SHUT UP!” Mingyu bellowed. Woozi, Jun, and the policeman looked at him like he’d grown a third foot, which was a pretty standard reaction to the suit. 

He turned to Woozi and Jun. “Woo-Sirs, I’m gonna get them both out okay, him and your friend, but right now you need to evacuate with the police,” 

“Everyone else, get them in a car and clear the rest of the street, everyone out now-” Mingyu shouted, charging after Wonwoo.

He coughed as a cloud of brick dust entered his airway. The entrance was in shambles. Specks of broken brick and chunks of wood that had been ripped from floorboards were scattered all across the main entrance. The bottom half of the stairs had been destroyed, collapsed into a mess of wood and metal underneath, as the remaining top half creaked and groaned from its last few metal hinges, threatening to collapse along with the rest of the stairs. 

Where are you, where are you, you just ran in-

He rushed forward and rummaged through the debris frantically. No Wonwoo. He rushed to the living room. Music still played from the shattered speakers, eerie in the absence of the crowd. Both cakes were thoroughly smashed into the carpet, an uncanny repeat of last year’s party. 

“HEY! Wonwoo! Anyone!” Mingyu shouted, panic hammering against his heart. He breathed, focusing his senses for the sound of anyone. 

thud thud thud.

Mingyu’s head snapped up, following the faint sound of footsteps. He rushed back to the entrance, finally spotting a sweaty, tired, but otherwise unharmed Wonwoo hyung at the top of the stairs, both his arms struggling to drag a drunk Hoshi down the hallway. 

“Hey!” Mingyu shouted. 

Wonwoo’s head snapped towards him. Their eyes locked, staring at each other in complete silence. 

Mingyu offered him a short wave. 

“You’re Spiderman.” Wonwoo replied, his voice surprisingly calm amidst the chaos. 

Mingyu faltered for a moment. “Yeah…it tends to come with the suit.”

Time slowed down. With everything that had happened over the past half hour, the scene before him felt jarringly out of place, as if someone had cut out a part of Mingyu’s life and stuck it into the middle of a parallel universe. It was almost comedic-him in his suit at the bottom of the steps, staring at Wonwoo holding Hoshi up by the armpits. Standing exactly where they had almost kissed a couple minutes ago. 

A gaping chasm in between them. 

“I’m gonna need some help.” Wonwoo mentioned, snapping him out of his daze.

“Yes. Yes, okay stay right there, don’t move.” With that, Mingyu sprung into action, shooting webs onto the top banister and launching himself to the top step. He immediately took Hoshi out of Wonwoo’s arms, moving him onto his left shoulder. 

“How’d you even get up here?” he asked incredulously, scanning for another exit. The staircase had been hanging by a thread long before Wonwoo had made his way back in. 

“There’s another staircase down the hall that leads to the first floor,” Wonwoo replied, pointing down the hallway behind them. 

“Okay, go go go-” The two of them raced down the hall, Wonwoo leading as Mingyu followed, adjusting his hold on Hoshi to a fireman’s carry.

They raced down the stairs, weaving left. After making one more turn, Wonwoo flung open a door that led to the backyard. A wave of fresh air greeted his lungs as they ran out into the middle of the lawn. 

Wonwoo leaned forward, already out of breath. Mingyu bit back the urge to nag. Hyung, would it kill you to go to the gym with me every once and a while, you wouldn’t need coffee if you would just increase your stamina, do a little cardio-.

Mingyu shook his head twice. Plan.

“Okay we’re gonna get him on my back. Grab his arms.” Wonwoo helped position Hoshi onto Mingyu. Mingyu presumed to wrap Hoshi’s entire torso and legs to his body in webs till he was nice and secure. 

“hmrp….Tiger….time….” Hoshi mumbled before passing out again. 

“Okay, now you.” Mingyu said, razor-focused. Wonwoo yelped as a string of web shot out of his wrist and onto Wonwoo’s belt. 

He flicked his wrist forward, pulling Wonwoo into his right hip before wrapping an arm securely around his waist. 

“Arms around my neck-actually just one arm around my neck, use the other arm to hold your friends head in place,” he instructed. He then slightly lifted Wonwoo hyung off of his feet, encouraging him to wrap his legs around his left thigh. 

“You good? Okay. Now hold on tight and try not to lift your head, you’ll get whiplash.” he added, softly pushing the back of Wonwoo’s head into the crook of his neck.

“Whiplash?” Wonwoo repeated in alarm, his voice muffled against the fabric of his suit.

“Whiplash,” Mingyu confirmed, as he shot a web securely onto the nearest lamp post. He shuffled his feet, distributing the extra weight on his as best he could before crouching down and leaping into the air. 

Wonwoo’s garbled screams echoed through the evening sky. 

Mingyu hauled the three of them up, gritting his teeth at the extra weight. He swung them lamppost to lamppost, building to building, the mechanical rhythm long worn into his muscles. He could still hear Ella’s frustrated roars from afar. Gripped by the sudden need to put as much distance between Wonwoo and that awful roar, he put more momentum behind his swings, finding higher buildings to maximize the distance.

New York unfolded below them in a blink of an eye. “Oh my god. Oh my god, oh fuck this, fuck this so bad, fuck fuck fuck-” Wonwoo whispered into Mingyu’s neck, his hand frantically clawing at Mingyu’s back in panic. Mingyu tightened his grip on Wonwoo’s waist, a gesture he hoped was comforting as it could be 100 feet in the air.

“You’re okay, I swear,” he shouted over the wind, trying to sound calm, yet reassuring. “I’ve never dropped anyone….Well, there was that one time, but it was more of a fumble really-“

“You tell me this now!” Wonwoo gasped, hanging on for dear life.”Oh god I’m gonna throw up-”

“You do not want to throw up at this height, trust me.” 

Mingyu made it a couple more blocks until he felt it was safe to land. Maybe he was overdoing it by setting the both of them down across from the nearest police station, but considering his luck today, he wasn’t risking anything. 

He ripped off the webs connecting him to Hoshi hyung, before carefully lying him on a nearby bench. Hoshi presumed to roll onto his side, mumbling something about Woozi hyung and tigers... Mingyu shook his head in amazement before turning his attention to Wonwoo.

Mingyu found him with his head facing the ground, both hands propped up on his knees, making garbled noises that varied from dry heaving to curses.

“Why….on earth…do you do that…. everyday….” Wonwoo got out in the end between deep breaths. 

“Sort of comes naturally.” Mingyu offered, the tension washing out of his body for now. Wonwoo was safe. Hoshi was safe. Everyone was out. 

“It helps if you put your head between your legs,” he suggested, guiding Wonwoo to sit down next to Hoshi.

For a moment, all that was heard was the sound of Mingyu rhythmically patting Wonwoo’s back as he took huge gulps of air in an attempt to calm himself.

After a while, his breathing began to level out to Mingyu’s relief. He slowly retreated his hand, letting it hang dejectedly along his side.

Wonwoo’s head snapped up to glare at him accusingly. 

“Fumble?!”

“It was just the one time!” Mingyu threw his hands up in defense. “I caught her right after, swear-”

“That just happened.” Wonwoo ignored him, putting his hands on his head in disbelief, his eyes darting left and right in bewilderment.

Wonwoo’s eyes found his, looking at him in a way that felt… weird.  

It dawned on him. Kim Mingyu was spiderman. 

Jeon Wonwoo doesn’t know spiderman, and Spiderman doesn’t know Jeon Wonwoo.  

“That just happened,” Mingyu confirmed, steeling himself. “You okay man, I know the swinging takes some getting used to.” he chatted lightheartedly. “I wouldn’t hold it against you if you had barfed.” 

Spiderman jokes. Spiderman plays it cool. “You should have seen this poor lady last week, neon green barf all over the back of my suit-“

“That just happened.” Wonwoo repeated, more assertively.

“You just saved me. And my friend. From a metal rhino.” Wonwoo listed them off one by one, getting out of his seat to pace now as if he was trying to make sense of the past couple minutes for his own sake as much as Mingyu’s. 

“Yeah…” replied Mingyu, trying to keep up as Wonwoo hyung walked up and down the sidewalk, clearly in distress.

“Believe it or not, I had old Rhinestone wrapped and ready for the police on third,” Mingyu said cheerfully, trying to lighten the situation. “but they just couldn’t handle my early Christmas present, could you believe it-”

“None of this makes sense.” Wonwoo stopped in his tracks.

“...yeah.” Mingyu followed suit, lifting his hand to rub the back of his neck. “But hey, you and your friend made it out alright.”

“Friend…Oh shit Soonyoung!” Wonwoo rushed past him in a flash, kneeling next to where Hoshi was lying down. Mingyu was about to get whiplash himself from the sheer speed of Wonwoo hyung’s reactions. 

“Soon-ah. Soon! Dude, wake up!” Wonwoo yelled, slapping Hoshi’s cheeks. He leaned forward, pressing his ear to Hoshi hyung’s nose, while reaching for his wrists at the same time. “Are you okay?! Oh my god, we need to call an ambulance, we need to, are you….?” 

Wonwoo trailed off then, slowly moving back until he was sitting on his ankles. “You’re…asleep. You’re fucking asleep. You’re- you’re actually sleeping through this.” he breathed out, slapping a hand across his forehead. 

After a string of silence, Wonwoo hyung began to laugh. Sporadic, breathless laughs from what Mingyu hoped was from relief and not a mental breakdown, but the odds weren’t looking too hot.  

“...Okay, you’re in shock,” Mingyu said calmly. “I’m gonna go swing over to the police station and get someone and then I really need to go now-” 

“No wait!” Wonwoo’s hands shot out, grabbing onto his frantically. His hands felt ice cold, even through Mingyu’s gloves. 

“I’ll be right back,” Mingyu said reassuringly, placing his free hand above Wonwoo’s. “I’m gonna get you some help-”

“I’m fine! I’m, I’m…disoriented, but I’m fine, don’t leave yet.” replied Wonwoo imploringly.

“...okay. You should still go in and get someone to pick you guys up, I really need to go now.” It had already been almost 10 minutes, and he didn’t want to push the limit of his restraints on Ella. 

Still, he struggled to find it in him to break from Wonwoo’s grasp, staring at their joined hands. Just until his hands warm up.  

“Spiderman?”

“...Yeah?” his voice cracked up an octave. “I mean, yeah.” he repeated, clearing his throat and raising his gaze to meet Wonwoo’s.  

“Thank you.”

Wonwoo’s hair was a tousled mess, his forehead plastered in sweat as he stared at Mingyu with those eyes he knew all too well. Scared, panicked, but also stubbornly determined. Wonwoo hyung was an open book, a beacon of transparency, something he couldn’t help but emulate in everything he did. Including this. 

In the silence that followed, Wonwoo doubled down, unconsciously squeezing Mingyu’s hand like a vice in the process.  “Seriously. Thank you. It was complete chaos, by the time me and my friends got ourselves through the crowd, the police wouldn’t even let us in, and that… thing would have brought the whole house down,  and….then we were in the air and I was busy panicking, but just…thank you. You really saved us back there.” he finished, finally letting go of Mingyu’s hand. 

Mingyu thought of a billion things he would usually say when people bothered to thank him (He didn’t take it too personally, coming close to dying tends to make for weak conversation.) 

It was nothing. You should see the other guy. All in a day’s work. My pleasure, saving someone as pretty as you.  

It was a mask. He was the mask. But it went beyond being the physical barrier between him and the world. It was what Mingyu held onto when it got to be too much. Spiderman is suave. Aloof. Cool. Always prepared with the one liners, always keeping things light. 

Don’t make anything seem as big as it is, or else it’ll catch up with you.

But looking at Wonwoo, fidgeting with his necklace, skin covered in a thin layer of sweat, none of those responses seemed to fit. This was Wonwoo hyung, looking scared and nervous, but just as hell bent on making sure Spiderman knew how grateful he was, wholeheartedly, like Wonwoo hyung could ever mean it any differently. 

And the more he looked at him, the more he found the line between him and Spiderman start to blur blur. 

 

and blur. 

 

and blur.

 

And what came out?

 

“I was just…looking out for the little guy.” Mingyu replied, lifting the curtain up, just for a second. 

Wonwoo’s eyes widened slightly. “What did you say?” 

“I mean-” he cleared his throat and pitched his voice way down into a thick, albeit awful Boston accent. I mean yeah, the little guy, I’m there for them underdogs…we look out for eachother my man. So…. yeah, you should check on that other dude, he’s looking a little green.” 

Mingyu walked away briskly. “I gotta ride a rhino into a pond before she gets out of the wall and eats up the rest of the fire hydrants in the city. In that order. So. bye.” he finished lamely, as he took off swinging into the night sky. 

 

Stupid, stupid, stupid-

 

---

 

Behind him, Wonwoo sat across from the 55th precinct, his best friend's head in his lap, staring intently at the little red and blue figure growing further and further away.

“Ughhhh….” Hoshi mumbled, slowly coming to his senses. “Wonwoo?” 

“Yeah man.”

“I just had….the weirdest dream. I was on Spiderman’s back…..”

“Really?”

“There was….a lot of wind…he smelled nice.” 

“Noted. How you feeling?”

“Kinda like throwing up…I’ll let you know…later….” he mumbled before promptly passing out for the third time that night. 

Wonwoo sighed, stroking Hoshi’s hair absentmindedly as he fished out his phone that had miraculously stayed in his pocket throughout all of this. 30 missed calls from Cheol. 10 from Jeonghan, 15 from Josh… He quickly texted the group chat, telling Woozi and Jun that they were fine at the 55th precinct before dialing his brother. 

As he was met with frantic shouts of worry on the other line, Wonwoo’s eyes stood fixated on the retreating figure in the sky. 

Even after Spiderman disappeared altogether, his eyes stayed there until Cheol ran out from his car towards them.  

---

 

3:02 a.m. 10-4 down on Madison Ave. Metal robot has been apprehended, I repeat metal robot has been apprehended. Spiderman is still on the loose.  

 

Much later that night, Mingyu landed on the fire escape outside his room, drenched head to toe, too tired to even take off his suit. 

Thankfully the webs had held, just barely. After releasing Ella, who immediately began pigging out on the rest of the mailboxes down the street, Mingyu ripped out a red mailbox, using it as bait, before getting on her back to guide her down the blocks and straight into the pond where she had shut down for good. 

He thumped his head on the window twice. Seokmin and Hao jumped up from his bed where they had been waiting, quickly opening the latch to haul him in. 

Seokmin looked for the zipper of his suit, Hao already rummaging for the first aid kit in his drawer. Their routine was practiced and worn. 

“Everyone okay?” he mumbled, lifting his arms half-heartedly to help Seokmin slip his arm out, as Hao exited the room to go look for the disinfectant.

“Yeah, everyone made it out fine…” Seokmin said, brows furrowed at the state of Mingyu’s bruised torso. 

“Wonwoo’s brother and the twins went ballistic, him, Woozi hyung and Jun hyung just disappeared in the middle of it all. They were halfway to the house but got a call from Wonwoo hyung saying they ended up in the 55th precinct. Said Spiderman saved them.” he added, looking at Mingyu to gauge his reaction. 

“Everyone asked where you were.” Hao re-entered the room with a bottle of disinfectant in hand. He began applying it to Mingu’s left arm where one of Ella’s metal plates had left a nasty gash. Mingyu let out a hiss of pain in response. “But we told them you had gotten out with us.”

“Good. That’s all good,” he replied through clenched teeth. “Hao, I lost your clothes.” he added, his body weighing like a ton of bricks as a wave of exhaustion enveloped him. 

“They were stretched out anyway.” Hao replied, uncharacteristically gentle. 

Don’t get him wrong. Mingyu loved being Spiderman. There were heavier days than others, but knowing he was saving lives…bringing some good into a world that could be so…hard. Fighting for people who couldn’t fight for themselves. It made it all worth it at the end of the day.

But today…today had been intense. He had never been in a fight so close to home, with so much at stake. The millions of ways tonight could have ended badly left a bitter taste in his mouth, as he realized how hilariously naïve he had been at the beginning of the night. 

Love wasn’t…possession, or a relationship status. 

Hell maybe it wasn’t even honesty if all it led to  was something infinitely worse.

No. Love was wanting more for a person, better for a person. For them to be safe. Happy. Protected.

And Mingyu…there was nothing safe or protected about his life, since the moment he’d been bitten by that spider. His eyes flickered to Seokmin who was helping Hao wrap his torso, both of their eyes narrowed in concentration. A stab of guilt pierced his heart. His two best friends being exposed to this was bad enough.

He didn’t want to lie. He couldn’t lie to Wonwoo, not to his face, not when he did nothing but trust him. 

He imagined the alternative. Wonwoo hyung on the other end of that rhino. Running towards him in the fight instead of away. Finding him bleeding under the hallway light. Having to watch him swing away to god knows what just to see him on the news, gritting his teeth with sweaty palms as spiderman dodged bullets, or cars, or electric volts on a screen. 

Constantly being left to watch. Constantly being forced to wait.

‘If you say something happened…then I trust you.’

And for what? A chance for Mingyu to live out some silly fantasy? Of a life where he could have a stable relationship, get the guy, save the world, all while telling himself that he could have it all, over and over again.

Giving him his trust, wholeheartedly, when Mingyu didn’t even know how to hold it in his two hands. 

No. No, the safest way to protect Wonwoo…was to keep things as they were. 

A friend. A hyung. A strong, thick, lonely line in between them. 

There was no such thing as a two-person island anyway. 

“…Hey min.”

“yeah.” 

“I really like him.”

“I know buddy.”

“I might even love him.”

“...I know.”

“But today…look this stuff is dangerous enough to you two as it is.”

“This again...” tutted Hao as he reached to swab Mingyu’s cheek. 

“No I’m serious.” he said, gently pushing Hao’s hand away. “When I saw him run into that house? I was halfway across the city by the time I even thought about landing. And next time, cause there’s always going to be a next time…I can’t have him so close to all of this if there’s even a chance of him getting caught in the crossfire, cause it would…it wouldn’t be spiderman running towards him, it’d be me.”

“Gyu-” Seokmin started. 

“And,” Mingyu gulped. “And the scary thing is. I don’t know what I would or wouldn’t do to save him in a room full of people. I can’t…I can’t make that choice, cause I don’t know how.” 

“He doesn’t deserve all of this. Any of it. I’m not gonna do that to him, when all he ever does… is trust me.” Mingyu’s eyes screwed shut. This was how it was going to be and he was going to deal. This was his line drawn in the sand. 

He was Spiderman. And the city can’t last without spiderman. Not even for a night.   

Seokmin silently wrapped his arm around Mingyu’s shoulder for the second time that night, holding him tight. Hao rested his head on his other shoulder, hands finding Mingyu’s as he squeezed twice. 

 

They stayed that way for a while. 

Notes:

Chapter three:) And baby's first action scene. Kind of a shorter chapter, but it felt right to cut it here.

I think what put me onto Spiderman Mingyu in the first place was how quick-witted Mingyu is. He's just constantly on this rhythm that instantly has him going into problem solving mode when he's pushed into a corner, always connecting two and two together, something I think a lot of people miss sometimes cause they're too caught up with his appearance.

Again, comments, kudos, and feedback are so so so appreciated and thanks for reading!

ps: unrelated, but can't believe seventeen is starting their enlistment period:(

Chapter 4: Chickenpox and lawn chairs

Wonwoo always prided himself on his level headedness. He was the calm one. Collected, easy going. Never one to judge, not quick to anger.

His younger brother, of course, was the one exception to this.

“What did he look like?”  

“Eat your riceballs.”

“What did he smell like.”

“Chan, I swear to god-”

“Hyung, focus. Did his suit feel like spandex or was it more of a condensed material with high-density polyethylene-”

“I’m gonna spit in your water. I’m gonna spit in your water, then I’m gonna make you drink it.”

“Chan, eat.” Seungcheol said, sternly pointing his spoon at Chan who slumped back into his seat.

“You ask one question...” he grumbled, loosening his uniform tie. Xavier High was only a 15-minute walk from Seungcheol’s apartment, and as a result, Chan would occasionally stop by before school to grab some breakfast. Or torment his brothers if he got there early enough. 

Across the table, Seungcheol downed his second cup of coffee in an attempt to wake himself up after driving them back so early in the morning. Jeonghan made a wild grab for the last slice of toast that was in front of him, sticking his tongue out at a disgruntled Joshua who slowly retreated his hand.  

It was the type of morning Wonwoo had grown up with; the table loud, bathroom occupied, everyone in a rush so they could get out the door in time. Crazy, hectic, but oddly one of the things he had missed the most ever since starting uni.

But instead of teasing Chan, or upping the ante in whatever the twin’s were arguing about per usual, Wonwoo simply stabbed at his mother’s homemade rice balls that she’d packed for the road, quietly keeping to himself. 

He had a lot on his mind, to say the least.

After Friday’s events, Woozi and Jun had driven to the precinct, where they were all forced to stay for another two hours, giving statements on the robot rhino, along with descriptions of Spiderman’s appearance. The twins and hyung had watched intently through the window, eyes narrowed. 

“What did his voice sound like? Was Spiderman armed in any way? Did he force you to leave, maybe tamper with the robot itself?” inquired an officious officer, scribbling furiously in her notepad. 

“Tamper--look, the guy saved my life. And he was covered head to toe in a full-skin suit, kinda hard to notice anything don’t you think?” Wonwoo had replied, irritated that these people seemed more invested in catching spiderman than the person responsible for the robot rhino that had nearly killed him and dozens of others at the party.

Afterwards, the twins, himself, and Hyung drove back home to spend the weekend in Brooklyn with their family. Mostly because there was now a rhino-sized hole in the twins’ front door, leaving them temporarily homeless. But Wonwoo’s mother and Auntie Yoon had also half-insisted, half-ordered that everyone (mostly him) stay home for a few days to recover and rest from what had turned out to be an ‘exciting’ evening.  

Soon enough, the weekend had come to an end and the four of them had piled into Seungcheol’s Hyundai Tucsan this morning to head back to his place, along with a trunk full of the twins' belongings, and enough home meals to feed the four of them combined for at least two weeks.

“Considering how Won spent most of the night almost dying and the rest of it in a police station, I think you should give the questions about a week to marinate Channie,” Jeonghan suggested, while pouring half of his rice balls onto Chan’s plate. “All yours.”

“I’m full, and you hate rice balls.” 

“And you’re still growing, see how beneficial this is for the both of us?” Jeonghan replied, pinching Chan’s cheek fondly. 

Josh snorted, before reaching out to spear a couple of rice balls off of Chan’s plate and onto his. Always the mediator. 

“C’mon Won, split these with me.” asked Josh without looking. Wonwoo continued to poke at his breakfast absentmindedly, head filled to the brim with rhino’s, spandex, and the five unanswered texts he’d sent Mingyu yesterday. Yesterday. Mingyu always texted him back.

“...Won?”

Maybe he should give text Seokmin and ask if Mingyu had made it home alright, doing god knows what-

“Won!” Josh repeated, nudging him with his elbow. 

“Huh?” Wonwoo replied, turning towards Josh whose eyebrows were now furrowed in concern. “What?” 

“You gonna eat those or just stab them to death?” Jeonghan chimed in with a frown.  “Are you not hungry? You’ve been spacing out all morning.”

“More like all weekend.” Chan mumbled. 

Wonwoo scoffed. “Well not everyone has to get up at 7am to still go to highschool…. I just didn’t get much sleep yesterday, no big deal.” 

The table fell silent. Everyone continued to stare at Wonwoo, silent concern permeating the air. He could practically hear what they were thinking. What they had been thinking all weekend.

“So…how come you didn’t get any sleep?” Jeonghan asked carefully.

“Yeah, was it assignments, the paper…something else on your mind that you want to talk about?” Joshua probed with about as much subtly as an elephant on a tightrope. 

“You guys are worse than mom,” Wonwoo groaned, popping a rice ball into his mouth. The chair creaked as he got out of his seat. “See there, I ate. Now. I’m going to get some coffee-”

“No!” the four of them shouted in unison.

Wonwoo rolled his eyes. “ Decaf. And before you ask, none of you are getting any.”

He gathered his plate, determined to ignore the prickling stares on his back as he made his way towards the kitchen. 

Once inside he closed his eyes, taking a large, calming breath. He loved his family. Truly. But with his mother’s frequent attempts to take him to the hospital all weekend (he didn’t have a scratch on him), Chan’s constant Spiderman interrogations, and the twin’s noticeable hovering, all the extra attention and concern was beginning to get a tad overwhelming.

He surveyed Seungcheol’s kitchen, noting the surprising lack of dirty dishes and paper towels thrown about. There was even a bunch of bananas hanging next to the microwave, which he could have sworn he’d seen in mom’s kitchen just yesterday. 

Seungcheol’s version of a hasty clean up, now that the twins were going to be jumping back and forth between his place and Auntie Yoon’s until their townhouse was rebuilt. 

He made his way to the cupboards, opening and closing doors in search of the brand of coffee powder he’d bullied his brother into buying last month.

A moment later, low and behold, Seungcheol came pushing through the door. 

Wonwoo glanced at him, raising an eyebrow but saying nothing, as he continued to rummage through expired cereal boxes and protein powder.

Seungcheol just stood there awkwardly for a beat, eyebrows furrowed as if he had forgotten why he’d come in the first place. Wonwoo inwardly braced himself, already having a good idea as to why he was there. 

Amidst the fretting and the fussing, his older brother had been surprisingly chill about the entire spiderman incident. Even playing defense for him all weekend by keeping Chan from pestering him with Spiderman trivia, holding off the twins, who had been ready to ambush him with a good talk down, and gently persuading their wonderful mother that no, Wonwoo didn’t need to go to the hospital for an immediate fMRI scan to check for possible head trauma or spider poisoning (don’t ask, she read an article).

But if Wonwoo knew his older brother, he knew that Seungcheol wasn't going to leave Friday night on a finishing note. He was going to give his older brother speech sooner or later. ‘Sooner’, looking a lot like now.

“…Top left.” Seungcheol finally said, nodding towards the far end of the kitchen. 

Wonwoo walked over, opening said cupboard. There, behind the granola bars, was the instant coffee he’d been looking for.

“Thanks.” he muttered.

The sounds of the kettle hissing filled the room, as he continued to shuffle around, grabbing a mug from the dishwasher and fishing through the box till he found the decaf version.

“So.” Seungcheol cleared his throat, balling his fists in his hands a couple times before lightly knocking them on the kitchen counter awkwardly. Sigh. Preemptive chit-chat had never been hyung’s strong suit.

Wonwoo hummed affirmatively, his eyes purposefully fixed on his cup, as if shaking coffee powder out of a packet was the most important task in the world at this moment. 

Seungcheol took a deep breath from somewhere behind him. “...Look, I know you’re sick of hearing this, but are you oka-” 

“Hyung,” Wonwoo replied tiredly. “I think we’re past the ‘you okays’ or the ‘how you feeling’....so why don’t we fast forward to the ‘you want to talk about it’ part?” he glanced back at his older brother. 

“Because I’m pretty sure you’re going to force me to talk about it anyhow.” 

“...smart ass.” Seungcheol muttered, lightly shoving Wonwoo out of the way to reach for his own mug.

They stood side by side in easy silence, Wonwoo handing Seungcheol a coffee packet, Seungcheol pouring his own powder in. Wonwoo handled the hot water, while Seungcheol collected all the plastic remains, disposing of it in the nearby trash can.

The only sound that could be heard was Wonwoo’s spoon tinkling against the glass as he stirred his and Seungcheol’s coffee, one by one. He handed Seungcheol his mug, which he took carefully, eyes gauging Wonwoo’s face for a reaction. 

“So?” Seungcheol asked, tapping his thumb impatiently against the rim of his cup.

“...So what?” Wonwoo replied innocently, leaning down to take a sip, even though he hated drinking coffee while it was still piping hot. 

Seungcheol set down his mug and crossed his arms. Here we go.

“Won, I’m worried about you. You’ve been out of it all weekend, holded up in your room, not talking. And I don’t know whether you should be going right back to school, not until I know you’re okay.” He shifted his torso towards him, settling him with a look. “Out with it.” 

Wonwoo fidgeted with his hands. He was beginning to miss Chan’s Spiderman questions, even if it did make him want to throw his backpack out the window. 

“I just didn’t get much sleep, you see me like this every other week trying to get the paper out.” he lied casually. “Ask the twins, they'd know.”

“Yeah, but this isn’t just any week, is it?” Seungcheol argued, not buying it. “You were almost killed, Won. You ran headfirst into a collapsing building, which, I can’t even begin to tell you how reckless that was. And whatever this is-” gesturing to Wonwoo. “Goes way beyond average Wonwoo silence, so don’t even try.” 

“It wasn't collapsing.” Wonwoo retorted stubbornly. “It was semi-collapsing, there's a difference.”

Seungcheol pressed his lips into a thin line.

A prick of guilt settled in the back of Wonwoo’s head. It’s not like he was trying to be difficult.

But ever since that Friday night, a suspicion had begun to take place in the back of his head, spreading its roots till it was all he could think about. 

Contrary to everyone’s belief, the only thing that had truly shaken him was what Spiderman had said, right before he swung away. 

Just looking out for the little guy.

There was no way. Absolutely no way. He would have known. He would have been able to tell. From his height, to his mannerisms, to the adorable lisp he got when his thoughts spilled out faster than he could keep up with.

But then…it had all been so terribly familiar that night. So him.

His head had been reeling all weekend, locking himself in his room, looking at articles, papers, text message history, social media. Just trying to piece together a hurricane of confusion between spiderman and a certain 6ft 1 giant in his life. 

So what if he’d been a bit distracted and distant all weekend? Wonwoo wasn’t even one to talk about his worries during a normal week. Let alone this one. 

“I’m just saying,” Seungcheol continued. “None of your professors would blame you if you took a couple days off. I’ll write you the damn email myself-”

“Hyung.” Wonwoo groaned. 

“I’m not…” He paused. “I’m not saying it wasn’t scary. Soonyoung almost got killed, I nearly vomited all over Manhattan, the police station was a nightmare, but we were safe. I felt safe the entire time, really. The spacing out, the clamming up, that’s…” he wet his lips. “That’s about something else,” his mind already flitting to a specific person. Or people. Gah.  “Like, before the rhino even came, something else.”

“Before the rhino? Like during the party? But you were with your friends the entire time...” Seungcheol asked in confusion, as if he was wracking his brain trying to trace back his steps.

His eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“This…” Seungcheol started. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with that giant physics major who follows you around like a puppy? Damn what was the name…Min-something-”

“No!” Wonwoo yelled, a good couple decibels higher than his usual voice. Seungcheol’s face began to betray a hint of a smile. Maybe even exasperation.

“Look the point is!” Wonwoo emphasized, attempting to move on from this topic as quickly as possible. You give Seungcheol an inch of teasing material, he’d take the whole damn football field. 

“The point is, Spiderman got us out. No reason for me to feel traumatized.” Wonwoo insisted. “And if you just have to know….all of this gave me a lead for something I want to work on.” 

Seungcheol raised a thick eyebrow. “Work on what?”

“Just…an article on spiderman. I mean I’m the co-editor, it’d be stupid for me not to write one after everything that happened.” Wonwoo replied. Seungcheol wasn’t going to stop pressing, so might as well tell him the truth. Or, as much of the truth as he was willing to admit as of right now. 

“...Spiderman.”

“Yeah.” Wonwoo replied, fiddling with his necklace. “That’s why I didn’t get much sleep yesterday, okay? Or all weekend. I was up gathering articles…I didn’t mean to worry everyone, and I’m sorry-but you know how I get when I fixate on something.” 

Seungcheol pinched the bridge of his nose, as if trying to wrap his head around all this.

“......So you’re telling me, that from your near death experience, you’ve been holed up in your room, all spaced out… trying to figure out how to write a story on Spiderman .”

“....Yes.” 

Seungcheol shook his head. What am I going to do with this kid. “Only you Won. Only you.” 

Wonwoo rolled his eyes. “I’m fine. I’ll come over more often this week, facetime mom…maybe we can head home next weekend to help her and auntie with the garage sale.”

“...Yeah.” Seungcheol said, grudgingly convinced.

“So…that’s it?” Wonwoo asked hopefully. “Older brother spiel over?”

“Well…” Seungcheol mused. “I guess a superhero crush is better than potential head trauma. Then again, not by much.”

“I do not have a crush on spiderman.”

“Channie’s going to be over the moon with this-”

“I do not have a crush on spiderman!”

Seungcheol grinned, a look of satisfaction crossing his face, one that only someone with a younger sibling could truly understand.

“Come up for air every once and a while during your celebrity deep dive, yeah? Give me less to worry about for once.” 

Wonwoo rolled his eyes, batting Cheol’s hand away. “It’s an article. I really think there’s a story here. Something…different then all the other media coverage.”

Seungcheol tilted his head at that, a slight frown beginning to form on his face as if something were bugging him. “Won, you’re not going to be an idiot about this right? This is just going to be one of those, personal experience pieces, or an editorial note?”

“...Sure.”

“Are you?” Seungcheol repeated more strongly, staring him down. “Cause I do know how wrapped up you get in this stuff. School protests and administrative fraud is one thing, but digging into spiderman? You could get hurt…and judging from last week your self preservation skills are low as it is.”

“Again, semi collapsing building-”

“ Just-” Seungcheol said, an unexpected hint of desperation in his voice now. “-say you won’t do anything dangerous? You scared the crap out of me last Friday.” 

Wonwoo paused, peering at his older brother’s face, all tense and pinched up in discomfort. He softened, knowing under the tough, nonchalant exterior…well Seungcheol was always worrying. About mom, Chan, the twins…him. His prerogative of being the firstborn turned man of the house for so long now. 

“I won’t do anything dumb.” Wonwoo replied earnestly. “I’m the smart one, remember?”

Seungcheol smiled at that, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “A smart pain in my ass, more like it.” 

They stood in silence, the air less tense than it had been before. Wonwoo carefully jostled Seungcheol’s shoulder with his own. Seungcheol slowly smiled, reaching out to ruffle Wonwoo’s hair only to immediately throw him into a headlock. 

Classic hyung, diffusing the tension the way he knew best. 

“Get off, you dick.” Wonwoo complained, smacking at his arm. 

“Yeah you’re fine.” Seungcheol grinned brazenly, arm still wrapped around Wonwoo’s head. “So you’re not into that kid anymore then? What was his name, minseok, mingi-”

“Out.” Wonwoo demanded, throwing a well aimed kick at Seungcheol’s shin. Seungcheol cackled, letting go, as Wonwoo gruffly pushed him towards the exit. 

As they pushed open the kitchen door, a large thump could be heard from the other side, followed by a startled “ow!”

Wonwoo pulled the door inward, revealing a guilty-looking Chan who, by the looks of it, had been eavesdropping the entire time. 

“...Hi.” Chan replied meekly, waving at his two older brothers from the floor. Beside him, Seungcheol tsked in disapproval. 

“Next time, listen for the footsteps Channie, that’s how you know when to book it.” Jeonghan encouraged. 

“He’ll get it next time, good effort Chan.” Joshua clapped approvingly. 

Seungcheol shook his head, muttering, “...why mom left you guys to babysit him as kids, I’ll never know.” 

Wonwoo snickered before reaching down and hauling Chan to his feet. He surveyed his younger brother, who was currently getting his left cheek pinched by Seungcheol within an inch of his life. Amidst tapping Seungcheol’s hand frantically, he caught Wonwoo staring at him. 

“What?” Chan asked warily, eyeing Wonwoo’s hands as if he was going to go for his right cheek any second.

Wonwoo hesitated before continuing. “He smelled… kind of woody. Think pine.” 

Chan broke into a toothy grin, practically vibrating with unasked questions. “Cool! So did you talk? Did he sound British, cause there’s this conspiracy going on-Oh! What about his web shooters, did you get to see them up close! What sort of-” 

“Ah ah ah-” Wonwoo stopped him. “Only if you send me copies of everything you have on spiderman.” 

Chan nodded eagerly, eyes shining as he rubbed his left cheek. “Sure! Me and Benny have been working on a new compilation video, and Ethan hooked me up with some actual footage from his patrol last night, he swung by his house and everything. Hey, do you think Spiderman lives in Manhattan, maybe that’s why he doesn’t show up in Brooklyn as much-” Chan gasped. “What if he goes to school here! Think, spiderman taking classes with you guys, eating lunch at the same table-” 

“Yeah yeah yeah, you can fan boy on the way out, get your bag you’re gonna be late.” chided Cheol. He shepherded his two younger brothers out the door, watching with amusement as Chan continued chattering at a million words per minute, Wonwoo listening intently for once.

“Hey lock the door later!” he yelled back at the twins.

“No promises!” they chimed back cheerfully.

 

---

 

3:32 p.m. Somewhere on 12th street

 

Mingyu was running late for his afternoon chemistry quiz. And his essay deadline for mechanical physics. And his photography assignment for the school gymnastics competition. 

Then again, he always believed in living in the present, as he dodged an apple flying towards his head. 

Civilians screamed, rushing out of the way as he raced down 12th street, in hot pursuit of two low life’s who had held a sweet old lady at gunpoint on the corner of 6th. 

Mingyu had seen her around before; Mrs. Palutski, always walking her dog up and down the street  in a pink laced baby cart before heading back home for dinner. After stealing her purse, grocery bag, and car keys, she had been left sobbing in front of the flower store. The clerk had been trying to console her with a bouquet of daffodils when he had swung over.

Mingyu had kindly told her to wait in front of the flower shop with her shih tzu (who he swore had given him the dirtiest look known to man or dog) before booking after them. 

Crash!

Mingyu let out an undignified yelp, narrowly jumping over a trash can one of the thieves had knocked down. Next, a can of sweet corn missed his face by an inch as the contents in the rest of the grocery bag continued to fly at him, one produce item at a time.  

“What’s the fucking point-” yelled Mingyu, ducking to avoid a bunch of carrots. “-in stealing something if you’re just going to throw it at me, Einstein!”

“Screw you!” yelled the taller of the two.They made a sharp right down Canningway street. Mingyu, now slightly pissed, brushed a piece of carrot root off of his mask and hurried after them. 

Just when Mingyu was in webbing range, the two of them split ways; the thief carrying the baby pink purse chose to run across the street straight into blaring traffic, his buddy continuing down the sidewalk. 

Which way now? He faltered, hesitating a beat too long before shaking his head and sprinting after the purse.  

The purse guy weaved through traffic, slapping cars and yelling profanity at all the angry drivers who honked at him for jumping on their hoods.

“Well pink’s not your fucking color!” screamed back a new york taxi driver, as if that was what was really ticking him off about this entire situation.

Mingyu shot a web onto the stop light and landed on the opposite sidewalk in a matter of seconds. He tapped his foot, waiting impatiently for the thief to finally make it through. Finally, the idiot squeezed his way through the last two cars, having the gall to look surprised once spotting him already there.

Enough was enough. Mingyu shot web after web, binding the thief's arms and legs before hanging him by his feet under a nearby lamppost. 

He walked over, plucking the purse out of his grubby hands. “So, you want to apologize to the lady before or after I drop you in front of the station?” 

The thief guffawed, revealing a set of yellow crooked teeth. “Either way, it looks like the geezer’s going home without her keys.” he jeered.

Mingyu grimaced. The other one must have the car keys then. He hurriedly scanned the opposite side of the road. There were a million alleyways and corners along the sidewalk he could have weaseled himself into, far gone at this point. 

The loser continued to cackle, hard and mocking. Mingyu shot a ball of web over the thief's mouth, giving him a solid push so that he swung around the lamp post like a kickball.  

10 meters to their right, two cops came sprinting towards them.

“Stop! HEY! Don’t move Spiderman!” 

He could already hear the sirens.

“You’re fuckin welcome”, he muttered before crawling up the nearest building and hurriedly made his way back to the flower shop. After dropping the purse into Mrs. Pulutski’s lap he began to make his way back to campus.

A wave of frustration settled in Mingyu’s chest. The cold air cut through his suit like a headache as he swung down Brooklyn Bridge.  

He should have webbed them both when he had the chance. Split decisions was his entire thing, what he did best in a crutch.

Until this week apparently. 

His mind flitted to yesterday, when he had let a pickpocketer get away in front of the Chrysler building after forgetting to lock the door shut. Then the day before when a group of car thieves had broken free of his web restraints because he forgot to change the settings from dry web to ultra sticky. Then the day before when his suit had gotten covered with pigeon feathers and excrement in a stake out near central park (he wasn’t even going to explain that one). 

And now he had let a fucking purse thief get the best of him.

It would sting less if the two of them hadn’t been absolute morons. 

For the entire week now, everything had been backwards. He was careless where he should be playing it safe, playing by the rules where he should just go with his gut…as if he’d fallen out of step with a well worn routine, his heart just not in the process. 

And while he didn’t want to think about it, he knew exactly why. 

Seven whole days since Jeonghan and Joshua’s birthday party, the Rhino attack, and his almost kiss with Wonwoo hyung.

And despite his stark resolution to choke down his feelings for Wonwoo so that they could remain friends and nothing more, that didn’t stop him from going to immeasurable lengths to avoid the conversation.

His plan had started out relatively easy. With the help of Vernon, who had an uncanny ability of forging signatures that Mingyu probably shouldn’t be encouraging, he had turned in a doctor's note to all his professors who, as far as they knew, thought Mingyu was going through an awful case of the chicken pox.

The calls and texts had been harder. He wasn’t trying to faze Wonwoo hyung out of his life-if anything remaining friends was the most he was willing to settle for. But after sending a couple robotic messages that sounded painfully awkward, even to him, he’d decided to stay away from his phone for a while, throwing a flimsy excuse of not feeling too well before doing so.  

Now, the paper had been downright tricky. He couldn’t let his lack of balls hinder the paper, not when it meant putting more on Wonwoo’s already full plate. 

His solution? Hack into the school website to gain access to and download Wonwoo hyung’s class schedule so that he could stop by the basement when he was in class. 

Was all of this a complete overkill?….Probably. 

Was he going to keep this up as long as he could get away with it?...Probably.

Of course, stopping by the newsroom automatically meant running into Jeonghanie hyung who, despite Mingyu’s quick exits, had known something was up for a while now.

Two days ago, Mingyu had flown into the newsroom to turn in his assignment for the midfield football team’s home game yesterday. He pushed his baseball cap low over his forehead, eyes darting nervously to Wonwoo hyung’s desk, as he slid the usb containing the photos across Jeonghan’s desk without looking.  

“Here’s that team photo of yesterday’s game hyung, the coach wanted me to let you know that he loved last week's profile and wants to do another for the assistant coach some time next month,but not the 7th cause his daughter’s turning seven and he’s booked an entire arcade for her that day, apparently she has the cutest obsession with pacman, it’s this whole thing, and you know what I can just email you the rest, bye-“ he rambled, already backtracking to the door.

“Kim Mingyu, get your ass in this chair if you know what’s good for you.” Jeonghan said sternly. 

Mingyu froze, hand hovering over the doorknob. He quickly calculated his chances of making an escape- which all seemed to lead to Jeonghanie hyung dialing things to 900 and beyond. 

He quietly shuffled back to Jeonghan’s desk in defeat, trying not to feel like he was getting called to the principal’s office. 

“What’s up.” Mingyu asked lightly, drumming his fingers against the desk.

“What’s up? Oh, I don’t know,” Jeonghan shrugged, carelessly shuffling around a stack of files. “I guess I'm just trying to figure out why a guy who, according to Seungkwan, is supposedly bedridden by chicken pox…can’t even get himself to class…somehow has the energy to submit his weekly assignments in person.”

“...that immune system of mine-”

“And how the same guy has been darting into the newsroom only to leave like he’s being chased by an ancestral ghost. You’d almost think he was avoiding someone on the team.”

“I wouldn’t say avoiding- ”

Mingyu slightly jumped, as Jeonghan banged a green file onto his desk, leaning towards him ominously.

“So I thought to myself, well it’s got to be an editor. Nobody else is here as often, which narrows it down to two…and it’s not going to be me, angel on earth that I am. And since you only seem to be stopping by during the few times that Wonwoo -you know the co-editor, man of your dreams, my little brother, Wonwoo- is out because of classes, well …what’s a guy gonna think?” Jeonghan finished, flopping into his seat and kicking his feet onto the desk. 

“Spill. Why are you avoiding Wonwoo?” he demanded. 

Mingyu paused. “...you ever think of going into detective work, cause I think you just found your calling-”

“Come on Gyu.” Jeonghan complained, taking his feet off the desk and scooting his chair up. “He's been asking about you all week, and I know you two are texting so it can’t have been that bad, whatever happened. Did you fight? Was it the rhino thing? Did he-” Jeonghan stopped, looking uncharacteristically uncertain.  

“Look I know we gave you a lot of shit for not telling him how you feel, but we wouldn’t have done so if we weren’t 100% sure, and trust me? I’m sure. So if he… rejected you, then it’s got to be a misunderstanding-”

“What! No,” Mingyu shook his hands. “It wasn’t that hyung. I didn’t even get to that part.”

“Oh.” Jeonghan frowned, now perplexed. “Okay then. ‘Fess up, what’s got you acting like a ghost.”

Mingyu swallowed. “It’s nothing! Really…. just maybe….there’s some tension from where we left off last week.”

Jeonghan’s eyebrows shot up in interest. “What kind of tension?”

“Just…tension.” Mingyu’s ears began to turn red. “Because nothing happened, but the thing that could potentially lead to something happening did happen, so I’ve just…” he trailed off miserably. “I’ve been trying to figure out how, okay?”

“And you thought faking chickenpox and avoiding him like the plague was the best way to do that?”

“...It seemed like a good idea at the time, I’m not going to lie.”

Jeonghan just looked at him, slightly shaking his head in disbelief. “You and Wonwoo both, I swear….okay. Here’s what we’re going to do.” Jeonghan patted his desk twice. “You two are working this out. Today. He’ll be here any second now so just sit tight and-”

“No he won’t,” Mingyu argued. “He’s got psych 3010 at 10am and another chemistry course 15 minutes later on the other side of campus and that building’s not even near the school shuttles so there’s no way he could make it back here and then get to the chem building on time, not unless he could swing his way there, and even then he’d be pushing it.”

Jeonghan raised his eyebrow.

“I mean-“ coughed Mingyu. “I’m just assuming here.”

“...His class got canceled, so sit .” 

Right then, Jeonghan’s eyes landed somewhere above Mingyu’s head in recognition. 

“There he comes now, hey Won! Won? Other door—where are your glasses—Mingyu go help...” Jeonghan trailed off, looking around in utter confusion. “Where’d you go?”

By the time Jeonghan had called Wonwoo hyung’s name, Mingyu had smoothly slid himself off the chair and onto the floor, carefully shooting a web towards a nearby book cart the team used to move camera equipment with. Without even a squeak, he yanked the cart towards him, flipping it so that he was concealed from Jeonghan’s view, only to grab onto the top shelf firmly, rolling himself out the back entrance; all of which took about five seconds tops. 

The book cart event had been the closest he’d been to Wonwoo hyung all week. And if his spiderman performance for the past few days was anything to go by, all of this hiding and sneaking around was going to have to stop, sooner or later, as he thought back to poor Mrs. Palutski’s car.

Mingyu swung towards his favorite changing spot on campus; behind the giant pine tree on the other side of the fence separating the dining hall from the student gym. After quickly pulling on a giant green hoodie and a pair of washed blue jeans over his suit, he grabbed his backpack and ran towards the chemistry building for his 4:30pm class.

Maybe if he asked nicely, the professor would let him at least try to take the quiz in the remaining time. I mean it was only….

5 minutes away from class ending. 

….. hah.

He stumbled to a stop, a string of curse words rising and leaving his head. There’s got to be a record for this, how many things could possibly go so wrong in just one week. 

He hung his head back and closed his eyes as a week’s worth of frustration and stress rolled over him.  

Hey professor, this is Mingyu. Yeah, I was just wondering whether you could let me take a make-up quiz. You see, I was stopping these two bums trying to harass this sweet old lady with the meanest looking dog alive, and I lost one of them because I haven’t been on the top of my game recently-did I mention I was spiderman? I’d say you’d be doing the city a service even, we can work out the details- 

“Mingyu?” 

His eyes shot open. He’d know that voice anywhere.

Mingyu whirled around, coming face-to-face with a faintly annoyed looking Wonwoo hyung.  

“ There you are.” Wonwoo grumbled.

Wonwoo was dressed in a simple white long sleeve and blue jeans, his trusty pair of headphones dangling around his neck, a stack of books in his hands. 

As he briskly walked towards him, Mingyu tensed, biting back the urge to step a few steps back. His hands self-consciously flew to the back of his hoodie to tug it back a smidge, just in case his suit was peaking out.

This was stupid. It’s not like Wonwoo hyung knew he was Spiderman. As far as he knew, Friday night between the two of them had ended with an almost kiss, one that had been frequenting his dreams ever since.

Wonwoo planted himself right in front of Mingyu, staring up at him accusing through his round rimmed glasses.

“I’ve been looking for you all week! Vernon said you were ‘scheduled for a chicken pox diagnosis’, whatever that’s supposed to mean. But Jeonghan said you’ve been coming in for all your assignments-then you didn’t show up at today’s meeting, you didn’t go to the shelter this weekend, Imean seriously Gyu,” Wonwoo frowned. “I’ve been worried.

Great, look what you did.

“Hi hyung.” Mingyu started, going for a smile which may or may not have come off as some form of constipation. 

Should I run? We should run. Come on Gyu, on your feet. 

“I’m sorry,” Mingyu nervously tugged down his hoodie again. “I didn’t mean to make you worry, I was um sick for a while. And then I wasn’t! And then…it’s…” he swallowed.

“It’s been a weird week. Which now that I’m saying this out loud, sounds really fucking lame.” 

“I’ll say.” Wonwoo huffed, shifting the books in his arms. 

And if it was absolutely out of line for Mingyu to hone in on how adorable Wonwoo hyung looked when he was annoyed, with his cheeks slightly puffed and his lower lip pushed out?

…fuck, was he a lost cause. 

Wonwoo’s eyes flitted over Mingyu’s body, his face still tinged with worry. “Are you okay now?”

Mingyu couldn’t help but smile fondly as Wonwoo began scanning him up and down anxiously, as if he’d been hit by a car instead of the flu.

Which, oddly enough, is true on both occasions-though he felt like that information wouldn’t exactly ease Wonwoo hyung’s mind at the moment.

“I’m good, all better.” Mingyu opened his arms, gesturing to himself. See?

Wonwoo slowly nodded, looking entirely unconvinced. For a moment, he simply regarded Mingyu with an air of nonchalance.

He then, unceremoniously reached out to smack him in the arm.

“Ow.” Mingyu complained. 

“Don’t do that again.” Wonwoo glared, defiantly holding up his left fist. 

Mingyu rubbed his arm, pouting guiltily. “I won’t.” 

Wonwoo’s eyes remained narrow as he lowered his arm. “What are you doing here anyways?”

“I have- well I had a chemistry quiz.”

“Overslept?”

“...Something like that. Thought I’d get here early enough, but it’s just about over.” he sighed, pointing his left thumb to the Curie building behind them. Mingyu paused to look around, dialing onto a nearby bench. “You want to sit?” he asked hesitantly. 

Wonwoo rolled his eyes at the sudden formalities. “Park it, Kim.” he ordered, walking towards the bench and dumping his books next to his feet. 

Mingyu carefully sat down next to him, lowering his book bag to the floor. He glanced at Wonwoo hyung, grasping for something to say that would make up for how unlike himself he’d been acting for the past two weeks. 

Before he could though, he noticed something. 

“You cut your hair.” Mingyu realized, zero-ing in on the shortened length. 

Wonwoo’s hand reached back to the nape of his neck. “Just a trim.” he replied, almost shy. “I was home last weekend and my mom pounced at the chance.”

“It looks nice,” Mingyu commented distractedly. “...I didn’t even know.” 

His eyes trailed over the rest of Wonwoo hyung, silently looking for any other changes in appearance that might have occurred in the past week or so. He still looked the same. Just as beautiful. Maybe a bit more tired than usual, noting the dark smudges under his eyes.  

It bothered him, he realized. Not knowing.

Being away from Wonwoo hyung’s life to the point where anything could change, and he wouldn’t be there to even notice. To be a part of it.

He mentally shook his head and pulled himself back to focus. “So Brooklyn then? That’s nice, you deserved to be around family after last Friday…I know we texted, but are you okay? You’re not hurt?” he asked, his eyes slightly wavering. 

He’d spent all week replaying last Friday’s events in his head, over and over. Sure, metal rhinos may have just been another Tuesday for Mingyu. But to Wonwoo, everything must have been so overwhelming at that moment, and Spiderman whisking him out of there without a second to process things probably hadn’t helped.

“I’m okay.” Wonwoo smiled reassuringly. “No one seems to believe me, but I was fine. Safe even…thanks to Spiderman.” 

“Huh, really.” Mingyu replied lightly. “Well that’s…that’s great. Great that he got there in time.”

The side doors to the Curie building burst open behind them. Students began to pile out after class, a string of senseless chatter buzzing through the crowd. Mingyu tuned into the conversation, as a group of students began talking about the quiz he had just missed. He sighed. There’s no way he’d be getting that make-up test now that class was out.

He glanced back at Wonwoo hyung, who’s eyebrows were furrowed, looking completely lost in his thoughts.

“Hyung? What’s wrong?” Mingyu asked, turning towards him.

“Hmm? Oh,” Wonwoo smiled tiredly. “Nothing, I just didn’t sleep much yesterday.”

“How come?” Mingyu frowned. “You want to head to the newsroom, I can cover for you if you need a quick nap, or we can grab some coffee-scratch that, we can grab some tea-“

”No, no-“ Wonwoo shook his head good-naturedly. “It’s fine, I’m just…I guess it’s been a weird week for me too.“

He did look more tired than usual, Mingyu thought worryingly. Was it classes? The paper? An article not working out, his crappy supervisor at the bugle…Him?

“…penny for your thoughts?” Mingyu asked gently.

Wonwoo rolled his eyes. “Not you too.”

”Can’t help it, I’m unoriginal.” he shrugged. “And all ears.”

Wonwoo stayed quiet, simply looking at everyone rush to and from class.

“Gyu?” He asked slowly. “do you remember that time we ate pizza in the newsroom? You were helping me look at photos?”

Mingyu tilted his head, the scenario vaguely familiar. “Yeah….I think so? That was the day you’d finished your interview for the bugle, right?”

Wonwoo nodded. “And we talked about spiderman? You asked me what I thought about him.”

Disengage, disengage-

“Hahaha,” he laughed nervously. “Come to think of it, that was so far back…I mean, I barely remember what I ate for breakfast this morning, let alone last year-”

“Gyu?” 

“...Yeah I remember.” 

Wonwoo’s eyes aimed downwards, chewing his lower lip. “Before Friday…I don’t know, maybe it’s because I automatically have to make fun of everything Chan likes. Or maybe I just couldn’t get past the all spandex thing going on-” 

Everyone’s a critic when it comes to the suit-

“But…” Wonwoo fidgeted with his hands. “I don’t think I gave Spiderman enough credit before. I went in there that night, running after Soonyoung, no plan, no anything. I wish I could say different, but I can’t. And who knows what would have happened. But then spiderman came crashing in, putting everything back in place.” 

Wonwoo swallowed before continuing. “Anyone can write a story, take a picture. Anyone can talk. But he’s out there, swinging around like a human shield for the city, standing up for people who can’t stand up for themselves. No one thanks him, the media couldn’t care less about showing it….but he still does it.”

Mingyu faltered, a myriad of emotions swirling through him. “...I wouldn’t say anyone can write a story.” he suggested quietly.  

Wonwoo rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“...Sounds like it was some rescue, huh.”

“It was…” Wonwoo began fiddling with his necklace, slightly smiling to himself. “He wasn’t…what I expected, I guess is what I’m trying to say.” 

They sat in silence. Was it possible to be jealous of yourself, Mingyu wondered, failing to miss the affectionate smile gracing Wonwoo hyung’s face. 

“And Hoshi hyung? How’s he holding up?”

Wonwoo chuckled. “Soon’s too busy feeling butthurt on missing his one-on-one encounter with Spiderman. You know he’s gonna lay off drinking for the next few parties? Says he wants to be prepared for a possible next time. I need to write this guy a thank you card at this point, he’s just saved me from my watch duties for the time being.”

Mingyu grinned.  “Well I’m happy everyone made it out safe. Can’t say the same for the twins karaoke machine. Or their staircase, god, I hope nothing else got ruined.”

“...I think they’ll be okay,” Wonwoo replied neatly, leaning back against the bench. “The second floor was spared, there’s a lot of debris to work through but they’ll be back in by next month if it doesn’t rain too much.  

“So they find a place to stay in the meantime?” 

“Yeah they're going back and forth between Brooklyn and Hyung’s place for now. Which, he’s absolutely ecstatic about, by the way.”

“Sounds like it. He was…really cool at the party. I couldn’t quite place my finger on it but you guys get this similar look in your eye when you’re locked into something? it’s like…Christmas morning but almost violent.” 

Wonwoo laughed. “Law and journalism…maybe you’re onto something. Too bad the party got cut short, I would have reintroduced you two….” Wonwoo trailed off. 

“Then again a lot of things seemed to get cut short that night.” He said the last part slowly, drawing each word out. 

Fuck.

“Yeah…” Mingyu managed. He vaguely realized how he’d been asking question after question, subliminally trying to fend off the one topic he’d been hell bent on running away from all week. 

One they’d clearly reached. Again, that foreign sense of anxiety began building up in his chest. Or maybe it was panic. Despite the open space and green lawn sprawled in front of them, he couldn’t help but feel slightly trapped. 

Nowhere else to run. 

Wonwoo fiddled with his chain, leaning forward and placing his elbows on both his knees. “Speaking of the party…. we were kind of interrupted, huh?”

Wonwoo slightly smiled, turning his head to glance up at Mingyu’s. They locked eyes. Wonwoo’s eyes flitted ever so briefly to Mingyu’s lips letting him know that they were thinking about the exact same thing.

“Mingyu?”

“What?” he replied faintly, too busy staring at the way Wonwoo hyung’s lips said his name.

“You’re panicking.”

”A-am not.”

”Are too, you got that look in your eyes, like when Luna gets caught sneaking into the dishwasher mid shimmy.”

Mingyu floundered for a bit, Wonwoo watching him, unimpressed.

“...is that why you’ve been avoiding me?” Wonwoo asked hesitantly after a beat.

The look on Wonwoo hyung’s face as he quietly asked Mingyu sent a wave of shame throughout his head. 

“No, no, no” Mingyu frantically shook his head, at the insinuation. “I would never avoid you hyung.” Not because I wanted to atleast.

“But you have.” Wonwoo accused, squinting towards him. “Don’t deny it, I saw you dipping out of the newsroom a couple days ago right before I came in. You bang your head against the door frame twice a week, Gyu, I could spot you from a mile away.”

Damn you, medium sized book cart.

“I…” he swallowed. “I wasn’t running per say…just- and the bookcart-so I could..I-”

Ah fuck it. Mingyu let out a sigh of defeat. “…I was being an idiot, wasn’t I.”

“Too true.” 

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t know how to bring it back up.” he confessed quietly. “I got…scared, and then I started to overthink, and then I...” his face pinched up, trying to find the words. 

Wonwoo sighed in fond exasperation. What am I going to do with this idiot, it seemed to mean. He scooted closer, turning his torso towards Mingyu’s. He gave him a stern look.

“Gyu, it’s me. I’ve seen you fall flat on your ass on an electric scooter trying to get to the frozen yogurt shop before it closed. Or that time you literally blew out dog hair into a kleenex when that samoyed came to the shelter for a bath. Or that time you broke the swing trying to teach that five year old how to land mid jump and she cried? Hell, I’ve seen that baby picture of you getting pummeled by Seokmin with a pool noodle-”

“You and May need to spend less time together.”

“The point is,” Wonwoo lightly patted him on the knee, lingering before he pulled back. 

“What’s there to be scared of when it’s just me?” He gave him a soft smile.

Mingyu’s throat closed up. A lot. Maybe not for the reasons you're thinking of….but a lot.  

This was it. An entire week of dodging calls, malingering, and bending himself left and right all over campus, just to avoid what he knew was an unavoidable conversation. 

He looked at Wonwoo hyung, who simply gave him a small encouraging smile. 

He had never been good at hiding his emotions. ‘You wear your heart on your sleeve baby’ was what May had always told him, ever since he was a kid. Every past crush, friendship, relationship…he’d never held anything back, unfamiliar with the very concept. Like he could help it.

And all the love, the care, the beholden affection he had for the person sitting right in front of him…there was no way Wonwoo hyung couldn’t see it. Couldn’t hear it, couldn’t feel it, couldn’t reach out and simply know. Not when it vibrated through his head, so loud that he was scared that everyone could hear.

Not when he could feel it diligently knocking against his chest, constantly reminding him of its presence. It's him. This is all his.

The slightest waver, the smallest nudge feeling more than enough to bring everything tumbling out. Maybe it was even spilling out now, through the cracks, over the edges. 

 

He imagined the alternative. Wonwoo hyung…Constantly being left to watch. Constantly being forced to wait.

 

He swallowed it all down. Built bricks over stones, filled the cracks in the wall, sealed every hole shut.

He wasn’t going to do this again. He’d made up his mind, and he knew this was the right thing to do. This time, he wasn’t going to let his own selfish hesitancy get in the way of what was truly important. 

Which was Wonwoo hyung. It was always going to be Wonwoo hyung.

Today, tomorrow….everyday afterwards.

“Hyung,” Mingyu started, his voice sounding surprisingly steady. “I meant what I said. About you being my favorite person to talk to in the world.” A mix of sadness, fondness, love, and maybe even anger crested and crashed inside of him. Yet despite everything he couldn’t help but smile as he said his next few words.

“When we talk, it’s just…you and me. Me and you, I don’t have to double guess it, or try so hard. It’s just, simple.” 

Wonwoo gently jostled his knee against Mingyu’s.

He took a breath. “Coming to uni was… a fresh start for me in a lot of ways. I wasn’t expecting to meet someone that I could instantly click with, no pauses, no faltering….Like there was always a place set for you, and now you were there and things could continue to move on.” Mingyu’s eyes found Wonwoo’s, who was looking back at him, his expression hard to read. 

“And hyung…I don’t want to lose that.”

 This was the line in the sand. This was how it had to be. 

“You’re one of my best friends, and I…I don’t want that to ever change. For you to ever think of me as someone you couldn’t trust…couldn’t depend on, because we crossed a line we couldn’t come back from.” 

“I always want to be there for you. To keep you from overdosing on caffeine, to let you know when you’ve been doing too much at the paper, to get you a cat, all your own, from the shelter when you become this huge, famous journalist living in your own apartment…doing everything you ever wanted to do. I’m going to be there for all of that.”

He paused, gathering himself together, the words spilling from his mouth so fast. Maybe too fast.  

“I want to be a person in your life that makes you feel safe. Solid.” he stumbled. “and-and happy. Safe, and happy. And for that to happen…” 

Line in the sand.

 

“I think we should just stay friends.” 

 

The words had felt heavy and brittle once they left his mouth. As if they didn’t belong in existence in the first place. Mingyu bit back the apology brimming in his throat, afraid of giving away too much if he said anything else. Or worse, taking it back. Taking it all back. 

The silence following was unbearable. Wonwoo looked down at his hands, saying nothing for a long time. Mingyu desperately looked at the side of Wonwoo hyung’s face, looking for some sort of hint, a faint line, anything. Was he pissed? 

Of course he was pissed, who wouldn’t be. Probably angry too, sad, hurt, betrayed, all because Mingyu just had to have been selfish for once-

Wonwoo lifted his head, finally revealing an expression that was…fine. Maybe slightly confused. He tilted his head to the left, looking at him curiously as if he was trying to solve a puzzle or unlock a new game level on Mingyu’s face. Mingyu’s eyes flitted across Wonwoo’s face, holding his breath for what would eventually come next. 

Wonwoo slowly leaned forward towards Mingyu. He lifted both of his hands….

Mingyu squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for…a slap, a shove, a punch in the face? Knowing Wonwoo hyung, he’d probably go for a slap, less energy to waste.
Whatever it was, he deserved it, well past deserved it, and he was going to take it like a man, or spider- human he was, fuck fuck fuck -

Cold hands enveloped his own.

Mingyu’s eyes blinked open, as Wonwoo hyung pulled both of Mingyu’s hands into his own lap. Wonwoo paused, taking a moment to just hold them, turning his hands over one by one. 

He then slowly, carefully, slid his left hand in between Mingyu’s, peering at them attentively. His glasses slipped down his nose in concentration.   

Mingyu stared back, at a loss for words. Yet his fingers still managed to automatically curl around Wonwoo’s. (He was in love and there is only so much a guy can withstand alright?)

Wonwoo scrunched his nose, wiggling his fingers experimentally in between Mingyu’s palms. His other hand came up to trace across Mingyu’s knuckles, one by one. 

Mingyu’s brain short circuited, the sudden turn of events leaving him at a loss on how he should be feeling right now. 

Although there was a definite sense of happiness milling around there somewhere.

Fuck it.

He pressed Wonwoo’s cold hand in between his own, slightly rubbing heat into them like he had wanted to do so much that Friday night in front of the precinct.  

They spent a while like that. Wonwoo hyung critically staring at their conjoined hands like a scientist, almost mechanical in his movements, while Mingyu tried not to gape at the feeling of Wonwoo hyung fiddling with his thumb.

A couple of students walked by, oblivious to the blaring alarms going off in Mingyu’s head right now. It probably looked like they were a couple of some sort, he thought hazily. Holding hands, leaning into each other's space without a word said in between.

Wonwoo slowly lifted his head and gave him a small, knowing smile. Possibly sad. Achingly affectionate. 

“So that’s why.” after what felt like an eternity.

“...Huh?” replied Mingyu dumbfoundedly, his mental fortitude having crumbled a good while ago.  

“Just friends? That’s what you want?” Wonwoo asked him quietly.

No. Not in a million years. Mingyu cleared his throat, slightly shaking his head to break free of whatever daze he’d been trapped in. 

“Yeah…friends. Just…friends.”

Wonwoo tapped on the back of Mingyu’s hand with his index finger absentmindedly, as if he were mulling something over.  “Friends…” he repeated, more to himself than to Mingyu. 

After a beat Wonwoo continued. “That’s great and all….but do you think you can put a pin in that decision of yours?” he asked lightly, as if he was asking to raincheck a study session, or a movie. Wonwoo’s pinkie hooked onto his, tugging slightly, almost playfully.

“I’ve got this new assignment I’ve been deep diving into all week, and I don’t think I want to move on from… this .” Wonwoo emphasized, looking straight at him. “until I’ve got all my ducks in a row.”

….What?

“You think you can wait till then Gyu?” Wonwoo asked, peering up at him with that goddamn smile of his. 

A sort of garbled sound hit the back of Mingyu’s throat that even he didn’t know meant yes or no.

“Hmm?” Wonwoo asked again, leaning slightly forward. The apples of his cheeks lifted as he tilted his head to the side adoringly. His eyebrows knitted into a sympathetic smile. Please? For me?

…..

What could he say? 

 

Mingyu folded like the lawn chair he was. 

 

“S-sure.” he managed. 

With that, Wonwoo hyung released his hands, leaving a painstaking emptiness in between Mingyu’s palms. 

Wonwoo got out of his seat briskly, leaning down to collect his books. He gave Mingyu another smile, reaching out to gently pull his green hood over his head. 

“I’ll see you next Monday.” he said, making his way to leave. “Maybe even sooner, I have a feeling.” 

Not that it needed to be said, but Mingyu sat on that bench for a while.

Notes:

Wonwoo really said “no thank you.”

Chapter four;) And longest one yet🫨
Really wanted to post it with the next chapter but 15000 words is insane, even for me.

Sorry for the wait, I've been applying to grad school programs and would have killed to write this instead of my statement of purpose (if only). Updates might be slower, but I'm finishing this one way or another so bear with me.

I thought this when I was coming up with the prompt and stand by it even now- Wonwoo’s just too smart and perceptive not to know after meeting Spiderman once.

Comments, kudos are so so so appreciated and hope you all like it<333

PS: please tell me I'm not the only one that screamed after watching the love, money, fame music video.

Chapter 5: Pillows and Romeos

 

“Ipss been die dis ull week.”

“What?”

“Its bween like dis all-“

“Is that even English- oh-.” Hao realized, taking out the fabric he had asked Mingyu to hold in his mouth while he re-pinned the suit's neckline.

“Sorry, continue.”

“I said it's been like this all week!” Mingyu complained, fidgeting where he stood. They were in Hao’s room doing their monthly touch ups on his suit. Mingyu stood tall with his arms lifted up to his shoulders. Hao continued to make adjustments on a small stool, marking areas that needed to be hemmed, fixed, or body armored (don’t ask how) with pins. A Yerin baek song played in the background, Hao absentmindedly humming along. 

“He’s just….so normal about it. It’s as if the party, the talk on the bench never even happened!”

Hao tapped his elbow. “Arms.”

Mingyu obediently lifted his left arm a bit higher. “We text, grab lunch, he asks me to tag along on his assignments, sits next to me at student meetings-Hao, he came to May’s house for Thursday dinner. Unannounced!” 

“I know doofus, I was there. And since when has Wonwoo hyung ever had to announce himself for May’s Thursday dinner?” Hao smirked. “Don’t slouch.” he added, lightly slapping Mingyu’s back.

“I mean-” Mingyu fixed his posture, spreading his legs out so that Hao could reach the top of the suit more comfortably. “Yes, he’s welcome no matter what, he knows that… but I just…I mean he just-”

“Gyu.” Hao chided shrewdly, adjusting his sewing glasses before they slipped down his nose.

“This is what you wanted, isn’t it? For things to be the way they always were? No changes, staying friends, and all that sweet but stupid heroic bullshit-”

“What was that last part?”

“You heard me the first time.” 

Mingyu huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of his face as he tried to figure out why he was so frustrated.  

Since that day on the bench, Wonwoo hyung had gone back to being friends with Mingyu so seamlessly, it almost made him question whether their conversation had even happened in the first place. He was completely himself on the outside; teasing Mingyu when he would drone off during poli sci, walking to the mess hall with him to join Seungkwan and Seokmin after drama club, driving him home after today’s friday meeting.

Giving no indication whatsoever that their relationship had cleared the line of platonic a good long while ago. The only thing he had to go on was the way Wonwoo hyung's gaze would linger on him a few seconds longer than usual. 

And even that could be all in his head at this point.

On top of that, Mingyu had been looking for clues of this supposed assignment that was keeping his rejection on hold all week.

Skulking around Wonwoo hyung's desk (nothing but notes on the next editorial page with Dean Wilkins, which was already done by the next day), pestering the twins about all the current assignments, even going as far as trying and failing to casually ask Wonwoo hyung how his assignment was going.

"It's coming along." Wonwoo had simply smiled. "Not nearly finished though." he had replied cryptically before patting Mingyu's back and leaving. 

Desperate, he resorted to Phase two.

Operation tiger. 

"You're asking me?" Hoshi hyung had said in confusion over lunch. "Dude, if you don't know, there's no way the rest of us do." 

"C'mon hyung." Mingyu had urged, pushing forward the plate of nachos he'd bought for him. "Nothing out of the ordinary?"

Hoshi munched on his nachos. "Not really. I mean-" he contemplated, a bit of cheese sticking to the corner of his mouth. "He has been stuck in room more often I guess. Last time I tried dragging him out to go bowling he clubbed me with a pillow. Then again that's a pretty standard Won reaction."

"So...that's it. He's been in his room more." 

"Yeah. Sure, he burns himself out sometimes...but this isn't that," Hoshi shook his head. "I know the signs."

"So nothing new...unusual?"

"Seems like it. I just had dinner with him yesterday at Coup's place." 

Mingyu nodded, trying not to deflate a little. 

Hoshi eyed him carefully. "This about anything in particular?"

Mingyu hesitated. "No. not really. I just...I've been wondering what he's been up to that's all."

"Didn't he just have dinner at your aunt's place last week? You guys fight?" 

"No! No, he just told me he was really busy with an assignment and...he won't tell me, so I was curious." 

"Mhmm." Hoshi nodded knowingly, leaning forward to take a long, judgmental sip from his Pepsi.

“What?” Mingyu said defensively. "A guy can't be curious about what his friend has been up to?"

Hoshi set down his nacho before dramatically throwing an arm around Mingyu's shoulders. "Listen Mingyu, your fat crush on Won and the nacho bribe put aside-" 

"C'mon hyung you love nachos." Mingyu whined. 

"And Won’s my best friend, I'm sure he's got his reasons." Hoshi shrugged. "But I did eat this entire plate...so take it from someone who's known Won since the 4th grade.” Hoshi pointed a thumb towards himself.

”Try to force Won into talking about something, or do something, or not do something, and he'll just end up digging his little heels in even deeper….Like until he hits water, deeper. Honest to god if he put the same energy into any form of exercise, I swear he'd be an athlete at this point." Hoshi shook his head wistfully.
"Then again he's chronically tired most of the time so maybe not." 

Mingyu paused, mulling over what he'd just heard. 

"...not that I'm trying to force him to talk about anything...But I'm listening." he shuffled forward. 

Hoshi nodded approvingly, offering him a nacho which Mingyu devoured, half giving up at this point.

"Okay, young Padawan.” Hoshi began brazenly.

“I love the guy to death, but Won's the most stubborn person I've ever met. Once he sets his mind to shit, he's getting it done one way or another, and that goes for what he wants to talk about too." 

"So unless this is about anything potentially dangerous or life threatening..." Hoshi shrugged. "Wait it out. He'll talk when he's ready, trust me."

life threatening…debatable.

"And if he doesn't? Then you call me. You don't get to be friends with Jeon Wonwoo without being stubborn as fuck too." Hoshi grinned with his teeth.

Mingyu shook his head. "Yeah, fighting fire with fire seems like a shitty idea hyung."

"Nonsense, how'd you think we became friends in the first place? So 3rd grade, Ms. Millers class, I'm trying to get him to play cops and robbers cause we were short a player and the dude looked like he needed the exercise anyway. And this little shit literally jumped out of the first story window trying to get away from me! Now I'm pissed cause first of all, rude. I was a fucking delight as a kid. And second of all, we were still short a robber and Won's a really fast runner when he wants to be, so obviously, I jump out the window and book after him! We end up running out of the school gates and into the street, three teachers and the school caretaker had to chase us down-" 

"What's this about teachers?" Wonwoo asked, plopping himself next to Mingyu.

Mingyu tried not to tense up as Wonwoo rested his hand on the back of his chair. 

"Just telling him about how we became best friends."

"You get to the part where they called our moms and forced us sign up for little league?"

"Oh shit, I forgot about that! This is good cause it ties in to how we met Jihoon-now that's a story-"

Wonwoo hyung grinned as Hoshi continued to chatter away. He turned towards Mingyu. "For the record, he was a little shit in elementary school, so don't let him fool you."

Mingyu grinned, "Eh, sounds like you gave him a run for his money." 

Wonwoo simply rolled his eyes before reaching out to wipe a spot of cheese on Mingyu's cheek with his thumb before flicking it away. The gesture so natural, so normal between the two of them. 

He hated it. He loved it. 

He didn't know what to feel anymore.  

Sure, nothing seemed out of place between them.

Yet, for the love of god, Mingyu couldn’t put his finger on why it felt like Wonwoo hyung was playing chess while he was still trying to figure out how checkers worked.

"Stay still." Hao quipped, bringing him back to focus. He was now moving on to the sleeve of his suit, measuring the size of the tear on his upper left sleeve.  

Mingyu tried to calm his thoughts. “I wanted a clean line, not some weird in-between.” he struggled. “Who rejects a rejection? ‘Postpone’ staying friends, what does that even mean? And why the fuck did I say yes?!” 

“You’re a self-proclaimed masochist?” Hao suggested, holding a pin in between his teeth as he focused on sewing up the tear on the suit's forearm. “A dumbass when it comes to relationships, bit of an anxious attachment style too now that I think about it-”

“That’s it,” Mingyu pouted. “I want Seokmin.” 

“And I want you to stop wiggling around."

"Hao I'm serious-"

"And you are seriously going to get poked if you don't stop moving."

"I-"

"Moving, needle, stop, now."

Mingyu grumbled under his breath, consciously forcing himself to stay still as Hao continued work at the tear. 

After a minute or two, Hao took a step back to survey his work, nodding in satisfaction. "Good."

He jumped off of the stool and tapped Mingyu on his shoulder to signal that he could put his arms down.

"Was that so hard you big baby?"

Refraining from answering, Mingyu immediately headed towards Hao’s twin bed, flopping down dramatically with a loud thump.

He pushed his face into one of Hao’s fancy green pillows, letting out a long, cathartic groan.  

Hao watched in disdain, muttering something in Mandarin that didn’t sound very complimentary.

“Look,” Hao continued, carefully putting all his tools back into their color coded containers. One learns to never play around with Hao's design equipment. “You and I both know that your feelings aren’t going anywhere. And even though I know you don’t want to hear what I think-”

“Depends on how much it's gonna hurt.” Mingyu mumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow.

“You want the truth or for someone to baby you?” Hao asked sternly, sitting himself lightly on a nearby swivel chair.  

“...truth. With a little babying.”

“I think that Wonwoo hyung makes you happy.” Hao stated, ignoring that. “Really happy. And all this restraint over something that hasn’t or might not ever happen is only going to keep on eating at you from the inside out. All 6 feet everything of you. Limb from limb, knee cap to knee cap-”

Mingyu flipped himself over to glare at Hao, the front of hair now a mess. “Graphic. And ‘might not’ isn’t good enough for me. That’s why I got myself into this mess in the first place.”  

Hao huffed. “You know what, fine. Let’s say Wonwoo hyung might potentially be put in more danger if you were to tell him. There was always going to be a risk like that Gyu, whether he knows you’re spiderman or not, so why-”

“ Knowing is the half of it.” Mingyu argued, his hold on the pillow tightening. “ Knowing is being exposed-I don’t want him anywhere near those kinds of people, that kind of environment. He’s too good for that…. And that goes for you and Seok too if I had my way.” 

“Well you don’t.” Hao deadpanned. “Tough luck, cause not everything is going to go your way. It’s been impossible from the very beginning, cause believe it or not, you are spiderman. And you’re loved by a lot of people in your life that are going to care about you whether they know or not. Probably more once they do.”

Hao paused. “Besides…did it ever occur to you that the reason you can be spiderman in the first place is because you even have the capacity to love Wonwoo hyung so much?”

Mingyu peeked at Hao from under the pillow in confusion, temporarily forgetting how he was supposed to be upset with him.

“ Anyone could have been bitten by that spider.” Hao continued, pointing a ruler at his face. “Anyone. But not everyone could have done what you did. Not the way you do it, with complete anonymity, no credit, no anything . And contrary to what all those bullies at the NYPD think-” Hao slammed the sewing container shut. “You have too much heart in you to have done anything but help people with your powers.”  

Mingyu stayed silent, staring at the ceiling as he tried to digest what Hao had just said. 

Hao walked towards the bed, flopping himself next to Mingyu. 

“Move over.” he grumbled, pushing Mingyu with his shoulder. The two of them stared at the ceiling together for a while. Bye Bye My Blue continued to play in the background. 

‘I know you feel the same, am I just being selfish?’

"You tell me Yerin, you tell me" thought Mingyu. 

Hao propped himself on his elbow then, looking down at him. “What I'm trying to say is that you care, Gyu. And not just normal, sympathetic, save the turtles, boycott everything care, but care. You can’t help it. It’s why you love being Spiderman so much. Protecting the city, being there for people who really need it….it means something to you.”

Mingyu scrunched up his nose, not knowing how to respond to a surprisingly touching moment, coming from Hao of all people.  

“Some people might even say you care too much.” Hao said.

Ah, there it is.  

“I might have too. If I didn't see how much the city needs Spiderman. So just-just don’t run away from that.” he said exasperatingly. “From the one thing you do more easily than anyone else I know. As far as I know, that’s what makes you spiderman in the first place. Not the fucking mask, not the powers, not my amazing suit-”

“Your suit?”

“Our suit- but you. Keeping yourself miserable like this, it’s…like denying the strongest thing about you. And makes me want to fucking kill myself watching you and Wonwoo hyung play star crossed idiots.”

Mingyu glanced at Hao, lowering the pillow so that it only covered his chin. “So…walk me through this, but the strongest thing about me isn't my super strength, sticky skin, killer reflexes, eight pack-”

Hao threw his arm on top of the pillow right where Mingyu’s stomach was, resulting in a groan of pain on Mingyu’s end.

“Just trust your gut. Cause I know it’s only telling you one thing.” 

Mingyu slowly lifted the pillow from his head, letting out a sigh. He hated when Hao was right. Which was most of the time, not that it made him any less annoying. 

“You love him. And that means respecting him enough to let him make his own choice, not trying to protect him from a worst case scenario that you can’t accept.”

Ouch. 

“You think Seok and I do this because we have to? We wanted to, because we care about you, you idiot. So let people care. Free will and all that.”  

Mingyu pulled himself up to sit on the bed. Hao followed suit, the two of them sitting side by side.

“…I wouldn't have been able to do this as long as I have without you two knowing, you know that right?” Mingyu asked quietly, glancing at Hao.

“An stubborn idealist like you, duh.” he replied smoothly. “And with Wonwoo hyung in on the secret, you’ll be all the more stronger.”

“...it’s a lot to ask.”

“It’s a lot to gain. Nothing great happens without the risk. And if you ask me? Wonwoo hyung thinks the same thing.” 

With that, Hao clamped him on the shoulder. 

“Okay big guy. We got to do your boots next.” 

 

_______________________________

 

10:05 AM Saturday Somewhere on 9th street

 

He loved mornings like this.

It had been a relatively easy Saturday patrol. Mingyu swung towards one of his favorite break spots, a concrete awning, right where Lafayette Street began. It was just one of those days where everything left him buzzing with satisfaction. Patrol had gone well, all the way from 1st street to the Bronx. The air was crisp and light, resulting in perfect swinging conditions. It was his favorite kind of weather too, the sky so blue that it almost hurt to look at. 

He sat crossed legged, and simply closed his eyes to the sound of new yorkers walking up and down the street, as he enjoyed his 15 minute break before heading back out.  

His mind couldn’t help but flit back to yesterday’s conversation with Hao. 

Nothing great happens without the risk. And if you ask me? Wonwoo hyung thinks the same thing.

What he felt for Wonwoo hyung went deep. There was never going to be any doubt in that statement, not now, not ever. And Hao was right; this was making him miserable. It was as if his brain knew how wrong it felt. This constant uphill battle, denying the one thing that just made sense to him, no matter how many angles he tried to view it from. 

He could love Wonwoo hyung with as much ease as breathing.

And he could do it so right, if given the chance.

The craziest part? A huge part of him wanted to tell Wonwoo hyung. He couldn’t count how many times he would be talking with Wonwoo, texting him from home, chatting with him over lunch….just to barely stop himself from talking about how he'd gotten away from the cops by fully convincing them he was just wearing a Spiderman costume for a party. Or about the cute tuxedo kitten he'd rescued on 3rd. Or the drunk robber over in Queens who had been fully convinced that he was the reincarnation of John Lennon, singing imagine at the top of his lungs the entire trip to the precinct. 

This entire life that he wanted to share because that’s what you want to do when you love someone.

He knew in his gut that Wonwoo hyung would at least be able to understand his why behind all of this, better than anyone. Sure, maybe he was a bit radical. Maybe he didn’t have all the credentials, or the background, or the training, or the right to be doing this everyday.

But the alternative? Having bad things happen everyday when he knew he could do something about it. That would always be worse. Every. Single. Time. And while Hao had spoken of his ability to care in such rarity, he knew Wonwoo hyung was cut from the same cloth.

It was one of the reasons he was so goddamn head over heels for him in the first place.

Mingyu groaned, repeatedly thumped his head against the brick wall behind his back. This was fucking impossible. This was supposed to be simple. Don’t tell him. Shut it all out, it’s for his own good, for his safety. What else was more important than that? 

Besides, even the idea of telling Wonwoo hyung scared him shitless, whether he wanted it or not. He’d never outrightly told anyone his secret identity before, not even Seokmin and Hao, who had stumbled upon it accidentally. 

He continued to thump his head slowly against the wall, the rhythm feeling soothing against his nerves. 

What would Wonwoo hyung do? Then again. Wonwoo hyung was way too smart to get himself stuck in such a dilemma in the first place.

“Hey!” a voice rang in the air. 

God it was almost as if he could hear him right now. 

“Hey- Spiderman? Mr--nah that doesn’t sound right.” 

Mingyu looked around, frowning. Had he thumped his head too hard? He could’ve sworn that that was Wonwoo hyung just now-

But that was impossible. Why would he even be here of all places- 

“Down here!”

Mingyu’s eyes grew wide. 

He immediately crawled forward, peering over the edge.

And there he was.

Wonwoo hyung. Standing in the middle of the sidewalk, looking up, and smiling at him like some sort of windswept Romeo. 

“Hi.” Wonwoo greeted him cheerfully. He was dressed in black slacks and a bomber jacket. Underneath it revealed a crisp white button up and a blue tie. He must have walked here from his internship.  

A gust of wind blew through Wonwoo’s hair. He lifted a hand to adjust his glasses. 

“I’m sorry, were you taking a nap or…having a mental breakdown? I didn’t mean to disturb you.” 

Mingyu tried not to gape, closing his mouth hurriedly. Then he realized he was wearing a fucking mask, so I guess it didn’t matter anyhow. 

“....No. I mean- kinda.” 

He gripped the edge of the concrete hard, feeling just about ready to fall off the awning and onto the sidewalk any time now. 

“Good.” Wonwoo smiled. “My…um…wow this feels a bit silly, but my name’s Wonwoo? You saved me and my friend from that Rhino attack two weeks ago? Upper East side, 55th-” 

“Yeah, I-I remember. You were…you were memorable.” 

“Oh.” Wonwoo smiled sheepishly. “Cool, that’s…cool. So,” Wonwoo shoved his hands in his pockets. “How’ve you been?” 

Mingyu could only stare in disbelief, barely comprehending what the hell was going on right now. How has he been ?? As if they were the best of friends checking in on one another on a random Saturday morning. Which…technically they were- but not in this-

Mingyu squeezed his eyes shut, already feeling the headache inch towards his temples.

Line in the sand, line in the motherfucking sand Gyu.

Mingyu stood up from his spot, looking down at Wonwoo with a forced air of indifference. “Look, it was nice seeing you, but I’m actually busy with patrol-” 

“Are you though?” Wonwoo inquired kindly, with all the patience and sympathy of a kindergarten teacher trying to correct a student’s wrong answer without making him feel to bad about it.   

“Im not-…What?” 

“You just finished your round on 6th street.” Wonwoo said simply. “You always go from 1st all the way to Manhattan before taking a break here, for at least a couple minutes-which I'm assuming changes if someone radios in ... .and then you do the entire thing again backwards. Good thing I caught you now actually, I thought I was going to have to take the bus to 1st and wait another hour.”

Mingyu stared in disbelief. “….Dude, are you stalking me?” 

Wonwoo looked upward thoughtfully, as if asking himself the same question. 

“In the meaning of the word…Yes.” 

“But not in a creepy way-” he quickly corrected. “I just, really needed to meet you in person. I’m a reporter-” Wonwoo lifted the ID card still hanging from his chest. “From the daily bugle. Well, undergraduate intern-”

“Okay listen kid-” Mingyu started sternly. 

“Kid huh?” Wonwoo smiled. God that smile was going to be the end of him one day. “Could have sworn we were the same age.” 

“Well I’m obviously older than you.” Mingyu replied firmly, leaving nothing to chance. “I mean you look like you're still in college-“ 

“And you’re not?” Wonwoo blinked up at him innocently. “You sound pretty young, probably 22, 23-”

“Time out!” Mingyu interrupted hurriedly, slightly frazzled as he tried to grasp at a semblance of control in the conversation. He was the superhero in this situation, right? So why did it feel like Wonwoo hyung was running laps around him?

A million alarms began to blare in the base of his skull. While he knew Wonwoo was beyond persistent when it came to journalism, it was another thing entirely to have him tug around the conversation and him along with it. Something he couldn’t really afford right now, in front of one of the few people who already knew him inside out. 

Mingyu steeled himself. No, he couldn’t give away anything. Not like last time.

“I don’t know what your game is here, trying to get all this information out of me. But the Bugle and I don’t exactly see eye to eye. So if you’re looking for some Spiderman hate piece to fuel the media-well you're going to have to find some other chump okay?” he replied firmly, making to swing away.

Wonwoo surged forward, his eyes finally betraying his masked urgency, maybe even de speration. “No wait! Please!” he shouted. Bikes whooshed past Wonwoo, narrowly missing him. His eyes remained firmly planted on Mingyu’s.

Mingyu grit his teeth before sighing. He knew that look. At this rate, Wonwoo hyung would be climbing up the building before having the good sense to leave while he should. 

Mingyu walked over to the ledge, plopping himself down so that his legs were dangling on the side. “Well?” he asked cockily, gesturing towards Wonwoo to continue.  

“....Look, it’s not that at all.” Wonwoo replied slowly, his eyes still not leaving him.

“Oh yeah, how so sweetheart?”

“ Sweetheart– look I’m not a part of Jameson’s spiderman rhetoric-”

“That a daily bugle ID card?”

“...yes-”

“You work there?”

“Again, unpaid intern-”

“You work there, you write there, you’re a part of the company, so it’s kind of hard for me to believe any other reason as to why you’re here to see me right now.” Mingyu leaned back on his hands, swinging his legs apathetically. 

Wonwoo’s face narrowed. Two can fucking play at this game, it seemed to mean.

“Any other reason huh? What if I came all this way just to thank you and your paranoid ass for saving me and my friend from being killed then?” he stared up at him in annoyance.

Oh. Mingyu stood up straighter, feeling like an asshole. “Well that-that would…potentially be a valid reason…”

“Course, I didn’t expect having to argue my way towards it…are you nocturnal?” Wonwoo mused, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. 

“Wha-Why on earth would I be nocturnal?”

“Well most spiders are from what I’ve researched, and I remember you being a lot nicer that night. Sweeter too.”

Mingyu sputtered. “I’m–spiderman is not sweet, I just took down a seven foot arsonist yesterday for christ sake-”

“Okay,” Wonwoo interrupted, placing his hands on his waist and tilting his head to the side. “My neck’s starting to cramp looking up at you in all your glory there, so could you just…get down here so we can continue this lovely conversation on the ground? Let me clear things up?”

He almost budged. Right then and there.

“...Why should I?” he replied instead. “Point is, I don't know you. You dont know me. And what makes you think I would want to talk to someone who’s not even an actual reporter yet?” he added tauntingly, hitting Wonwoo right where it hurts. It needed to hurt, if that was what it took to get him to walk away from this. Hopefully once and never again.

“Come on hyung.” he whispered to himself. Leave. Anyone else would at this point.

Wonwoo looked at his shoes, hesitation radiating off his body. “No…” he muttered. “I guess you don’t.” He stayed quiet for a while, the silence breaking Mingyu’s heart. 

“But-” he lifted his head up, staring at him with fierce determination.  “You did save me. And I promise I'm not the kind of person who takes something like that lightly. You don’t know me, I get that. But….could you just hear me out? Just once, and I won’t bother you again.” 

Mingyu hesitated, the gears in his head turning at full speed.

“...please?” Wonwoo added nervously, his hand already fiddling with his necklace. 

Screw it. Mingyu pressed a string of web onto the building, slowly descending down until he was face to face with Wonwoo.

Wonwoo’s eyes widened slightly, as if he hadn’t expected Mingyu to land this close to him. His eyes flitted across Mingyu’s mask, from his eyes to his shoulders. 

“...Well?” Mingyu asked roughly. 

“...Thank you. For that night.”

“...You're welcome. That it then?”

“Afraid not.”  

“You got a minute ace, then I'm leaving.”

Wonwoo pursed his lips. “Anyone ever tell you you’re kind of pushy?”

Mingyu paused, genuinely considering it for a moment. “Between all the criminals, police officers, and mutated psychopaths…no, not a lot of room for critical feedback.”

Wonwoo sniffed. “Noted.” 

Wonwoo took a deep determined breath. "Look, after you saved me and my friend that night…well it got me thinking. You do this every day, saving lives, protecting the city?”

Mingyu shrugged. “I sometimes slack off for a day or two, keep everyone on their toes. The captain at the NYPD doesn’t know it yet, but he loves me, keeps the tension going for the baby recruits-”

“So most nights then.” Wonwoo cut him off. “And for someone to do that, no questions asked…it should have been way bigger than what it is now. More coverage, more spotlight, more discourse on all of the good instead of the bad. Instead every case you work gets censored, taken down, and I’d bet my right hand that it's intentional.” Wonwoo said firmly.

Mingyu shook his head. “I’m flattered, I really am, but I’m not really the entertainment, media type, you know? I’ll do a flip for kids every now and then, maybe throw in a back handspring, but that’s as far as this circus act goes buddy-”

“Would you just-” Wonwoo closed his eyes briefly. Mingyu almost grinned. It was the exact look he’d given Mingyu that one time he’d hidden all his energy drinks from him without leaving a trace, even though he knew it had been him. 

“I just think you deserve a more even playing field. The NYPD hasn’t recalled your search warrant, even after everything you’ve been doing for the city these past few years. You’ve never killed anyone, you provide a public service, crime rates in Manhattan have been down since you showed up… and no one fucking talks about it.”

Mingyu made to interrupt him, but Wonwoo was on a roll now. 

“It's wrong, okay.” he stared at him defiantly. “Everything, from every media outlet being too deep in the NYPD’s pockets to do honest coverage, to the bullshit stories they post on the front page every morning twisting your every move….and most people believe it, wholeheartedly. Hell, it almost had me too. And I…I thought I was smarter than that.” Wonwoo avoided his eyes, dipping his head down.

Mingyu hesitated. It wasn’t as if he didn’t agree with some of Wonwoo’s points. But the politics pushed aside, none of this explained why he was here. Talking to him.   

“Look-Wonwoo, right?- If I cared about everything the media said about me I couldn't do this. And while no one hates a little appreciation…I can’t do it for that or else it doesn’t work in the end. Besides, like you said. It's not like anyone in power is going to care enough to get my side of anything-” 

“So why don’t I do it for you?” Wonwoo suggested.

“…Why don't you do what?”

“I want to do it. Get your side. Be your voice.” Wonwoo shouldered his bag looking utterly determined. 

“I want to write your story. Nothing about your identity. I’ll make it untraceable to you, I won’t put anything in that’s off the record or hey, even on the record if you don’t want to.” Wonwoo shoved a consent form into Mingyu’s hand. “Read that over, it’s just something stating that you have the right to make cuts. I draw the line at edits or tweaking writing though, it should be authentic if we’re going to make this work. Just….just let me be the one to write it.”

“Okay.” Mingyu laughed nervously. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding here, I’m not-

“One interview. Just one exclusive, I-” Wonwoo caught his breath. “-as a reporter, as someone who lives here…I think the city deserves to know why you do this. I really do spiderman-and you’d be surprised how many people feel the same.” 

And with that Wonwoo began to rummage with his satchel, bringing out color coded files filled to the brim with documents of…

“Are those-?”

Him. Blurred photos of spiderman. His lizard triumph last year in the Times that the city credited to a freak gas leak despite video evidence. His five mile speed chase with the police when they’d attempted to circle him around Mayfield before he managed to slip away. Articles, social media posts, video clippings, tweets…all on him and his cases so far. 

“This-” Wonwoo said, struggling to juggle all the files in one hand. A purple coded one slipped from beneath his fingers. Mingyu’s hands were already reaching out, catching it neatly. 

“Oh, thank you,” Wonwoo replied gratefully, tucking a green folder underneath his chin. “Actually, you hold onto that. And this too while you're at it-” Wonwoo shoved a bunch of files straight into his hands, making him stumble slightly. Mingyu stared dumbfoundedly at all the files, each with hand written notes, color coded post its, labeled photos....this was at least a couple weeks worth of research.

“How many files-”

“Ah hah! Found it. So this is an interview with a little boy on 9th street, he said you saved his puppy from a burning building when the firefighters couldn’t get the window open-” Wonwoo placed the clipping into his hand. 

“And this is another interview, an elderly couple that you rescued from auto theft. Without their car the husband would have lost his job, since it takes him two hours to get to work by car every morning. A teenage girl from brooklyn, said you walked her home when a group of men were harassing her on the street after her night shift-”

“How is all of this fitting in your bag-” Mingyu wondered aloud, stumbling as Wonwoo plonked a gigantic green folder onto the pile.

“That’s you from in 2021-- real busy year by the way, good for you –- And oh, where was that interview, the more recent…ah! Mrs. Pulutzki on 6th street, said you stopped two men from stealing her purse! She got her car back too by the way incase you were wondering-”

“Hey-”

“And those are only the interviews,” Wonwoo said, eyes sparkling as he took out his phone. “you go onto social media and there’s a whole different subset of people coming out with their own spiderman stories-”

“Could you-”

“I mean it’s going to be harder to verify everything, cause who actually believes anything on twitter, but I’m willing to put in the work-”

“Wonwoo.” 

Wonwoo freezed, lifting his head up slowly to peer at him at the sound of his name. “But I’m not even done yet.” he replied, in a small voice. 

Mingyu stood still, quietly surveying the stacks of papers, newspaper clippings, and interviews. All of this just for him…he didn’t know whether to feel touched, worried, slightly impressed-

And largely nervous at the sheer amount of information Wonwoo had managed to gather on him within just a week's worth of research. Probably more. 

“Look, this is…” Mingyu sighed, placing a hand on his forehead, not even knowing where to start. “I know it must have taken a long time for you to get this together, and I’m grateful for that, really.” 

He paused.

“But I’m sorry. I don’t do interviews, I don’t do media contact, I just…I don’t. Final answer.” he replied, gently placing the files back into Wonwoo’s hands.

Wonwoo bit his lower lip, eyes cast down in disappointment. “Don’t you think this is unfair?” he asked, almost pleadingly.

“You do all of this, only for them to go after you like you're-even though you might be the only guy doing this for the right reasons?” Wonwoo’s eyebrows furrowed in frustration. 

“I don’t like....unfairness." he managed.  

Under his mask, Mingyu broke out into a soft, desperately fond smile. “I can tell.” 

"Well that’s what this is. It’s not right, and I want to help you make it so that it is.” he stared at Mingyu.

"Is it-is it because of the intern thing, I can bring my portfolio next time and you can decide for yourself-"

“No," Mingyu stopped him gently. "It's not that okay? Look, if I wanted everything to work out perfectly I couldn’t do this in the first place,” he continued. “It's a slippery slope. Whether I like it or not, I’m not...licensed to do anything here, I just...am. And sure, it doesn’t feel great to be chased by the police after a job…or ridiculed by the press-” Mingyu took a deep, calming breath under his mask. He was okay. Really. He’d made peace with the paradox of his job a long, long time ago. 

“But I’m okay. Thank you for coming all this way…but I’m okay with how things are. So don’t sweat it.” he replied, giving him a good natured shrug. 

Wonwoo pressed his lips into a thin line. Mingyu knew that look. He could practically see the thoughts piling in his head, one after another. Mingyu raised his gloved hand, hovering over Wonwoo’s shoulder, uncertainty. 

“...Well I’m not.” 

huh?

“...huh?” His hand fell to his side.

“I’m not. I’m not okay with it.” Wonwoo replied, more assertively this time. He tilted his head up, brown eyes meeting Mingyu’s. “It’s okay, I figured you might say no the first time. That's on me.” 

oh no. 

A mad glint began forming in Wonwoo’s eyes, the type he got before a particularly tough assignment that only drove him even harder trying to crack. “I'll come up with better talking points tomorrow.”

“Wha-Tomorrow?” Mingyu yelped.

“Shit, I’m late for the bus.” Wonwoo muttered, checking his watch. “Okay, good luck with the rest of your patrol,” he began hurriedly shoving the rest of the files back into his bag, walking away while doing so.

“and hey, feel free to give it some thought, no pressure. Not while you’re fighting or chasing someone of course ... .definitely not when someones shooting at you- you know what, any time other than immediate danger and death seems pretty safe, huh?”

“Now wait a minute- what do you mean tomorrow, I’m not-”

“See you tomorrow then!” Wonwoo shouted. He flashed him a brilliant smile, before clasping his bag shut and jogging down the street.

"For the love of-" Mingyu gripped his head in confusion.

“Well-well what happened to not bothering me if I heard you out!”

“I lied! Bye!” 

Mingyu almost ran after him, only to stop after taking a couple of steps. His head was reeling.

That just happened.

That just happened.

His hands reached for the back of his neck, as he fervently paced back and forth on the sidewalk.

no no no no no no no.

"This is not good, this is not good.." he mumbled to himself. 

What on earth had gotten into Wonwoo hyung…for him to do this, to land on him of all things! Wonwoo had never invested any interest in the superhuman scene, and judging from the size of files he’d gathered and the look on his face just now, this was at least a couple days worth of research that he wasn’t letting up on anytime soon…I mean what-

Mingyu froze.

“No. There’s no fucking way.” he muttered.

I’ve got this new assignment I’ve been deep-diving into all week… and I don’t think I want to move on from…this……until I’ve got all my ducks in a row.

Realization dawned on his face, the horror settling soon after. 

He was the new assignment that was keeping his rejection on hold. 

“Shit.” he whispered. 

 

…Shit. 

Notes:

Wonwoo knows what he's doing and I couldn't be happier about it.

Chapter 5!

Spiderman and Wonwoo finally meet (under non life threatening circumstances for once).

The Hao scene has my heart. Right now, Mingyu is probably the most confused he's going to be at this point in the story (my boi is fighting for his life). He's so built to love and to be loved, yet he's also so set upon his responsibilities as Spiderman, that it's almost like going to war within himself that he can't win either way. And there was literally no other character than Hao to set that confusion to rest (or attempt to at least, cause Mingyu's stubborn as fuck too).

Comments and kudos are so so so appreciated and I hope you all like it:)

Notes:

Spiderman Mingyu meets MJ Wonwoo, it was always meant to be guys.

This is my first fic. ever. so.

hope you like it.

(=✪ᆽ✪=)