Chapter Text
Alright, let’s do this one more time. His name is Oh Seungmin, he was bitten by a radioactive spider and for eight months he’s been the one and only friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. I’m pretty sure you know the rest… or maybe not.
Seungmin navigates the streets on his skateboard, hes running late for school but he knows he’ll make it, he always does, if he feels like he needs to hurry he just swings to school and he always makes it, and his best friends hyeongjun and jooyeon can’t seem to figure out how he does it.
He skated into school with headphones on, only getting off at the sight of his principal
“Wheels up!”
“Got it!”
He walked the remaining distance to his class, only to find Jooyeon already waiting for him
“Ugh! You were so close to being late!”
“Jooyeon, were you hoping id be late?”
“Uh… Yes”
But their conversation was cut short by the bell letting them now class was starting, they walked inside and took a seat next to their friend Hyeongjun
The rest of the school day went by pretty fast, some classes, lunch that was always spent with his best friends and occasionally Jooyeon’s boyfriend, Jiseok.
After school they walked together to their usual hang out spot, Seungmin’s garage. They usually spend their evenings talking or messing around with instruments or skateboarding, tonight was one of those days where they just talked about everything and anything
“Yo! Junhan, how’s the hunt going?”
Seungmin suddenly lost interest in the comic he was reading and started to pay attention to the conversation, pretending to still be reading. He took a quick glance to his friend who was typing something in his laptop
“Nothing new really. He never, ever takes his mask off and all the interviews he does reveal little to nothing about himself”
“Well yeah that’s the point of the mask, keeping his identity hidden” Jooyeon replied while hanging upside down on a couch and throwing a ball up and down to keep himself entertained
“Why do you want to know so bad anyway? Its not gonna change anything” Seungmin said, trying to sound uninterested
“I just want to know… why he does what he does, you know?”
“No. You’re a groupie and are in love with him” Jooyeon teased
“Or her…” Seungmin added
“No. Im just interested. And no, his voice is too deep to be a her”
“Well them then”
“No, he’s referred to himself as ‘him’ before”
“Jesus Hyengjun you’ve really done your research. I’m kinda scared for him” Jooyeon teased again
“Well… Maybe he has a reason to keep his identity secret” Seungmin said still trying to sound uninterested. Hyeongjun stopped for a second
“I guess. I still want to know” Seungmin sighed and Jooyeon laughed “I’ll keep looking tomorrow. I have a science project to work on” Hyeongjun stood up to leave
“Boooo! You’re leaving?” Jooyeon threw the ball softly at his friend who threw it back at him as he said goodbye
Seungmin went back to his comic before his spider senses told him there was a pair of eyes staring at him
“What do you want?”
“You didn’t even look at me how the hell…”
“What. Do you want?” He put his comic down and looked at his best friend
“Soo… When are you gonna tell him?”
“Tell him what?”
“Stop playing dumb Osumii! When are you gonna tell him you loveeee him” Jooyeon teased
“Jooyeon, I said he looks good with red hair once!”
“You loveee himm”
Seungmin Sighed “Don’t you have a boyfriend to tend to?”
“Oh Shit!” Jooyeon shot up from his seat, grabbed his bag and sprinted out of the garage
The night passed, after the usual evening patrol where he avoided cops and saved a few people from being robbed or kidnapped he went to bed.
“Morning Kid” His uncle greeted him when he went down to the kitchen to get breakfast
“Morning uncle Gunil”
“Jungsu made you some toast if you want some”
“Thanks! I’ll eat on my way to school”
He grabbed the food his uncle passed to him and said goodbye.
The morning went by as usual, getting in trouble for skateboarding in school, waking jooyeon up in the middle of maths, giving junhan false clues about spiderman and working on his science project. At the end of the day Hyeongjun left to go to work and Jooyeon and Seungmin went to Oscorp, where Jooyeons dad worked since he needed his son to run some errands for him and since his dad liked Seungmin he brought him along.
“Hey dad”
Jooyeon greeted as they entered the office
“Hello Dr. Park”
“Seungmin! it’s nice to see you again!”
“Thanks dad it’s nice to see you too!” Jooyeon said sarcastically
“How’s school boys?”
“Meh, boring as always” Jooyeon replied
“Seungmin?”
“School is fine, Dr.Park”
“Please Seungmin, we know each other, just call me Sungjin”
“No… I couldn’t Dr. Park” Sungjin laughed
“And thats why i like you. Oh! Jooyeon i need you to go down and take these blueprints to Dr.Kang, he needs to review them and then send them back. Also…”
Seungmin zoned out as he looked around the office, Picture frames of him and his son everywhere, some even had Seungmin in them from when Jooyeon and him were kids. He had been there before so he took a seat and worked on his project while Jooyeon talked to his dad and ran the errands.
“Busy are we?” Dr.Park came into the room
“Oh… Yeah, Science project”
Sungjin took a seat in his office
“What is it about?”
“Nothing interesting. Human evolution, but im putting my own twist on it”
“Oh really? What is it?”
“Well… Human Enhancement. My thoughts on this are, if humans can evolve on their own could there possibly be a way to speed up the process? Or find a way to boost the qualities we already have”
Sungjin took a second before responding
“And how do you suggest we ‘enhance’ these qualities?”
“Some kind of booster… Like an injection of some kind”
“I’ts very interesting that you say that… Oscorp has been working on something similar actually, we are looking to enhance strength, intelligence and endurance in humans but the tests so far haven’t been very positive, we tried different methods on different species but nothing seems to really work”
A thought crossed Seungmin’s mind, maybe he was giving out too much information, but it’s jooyeon’s dad he’s talking to, THE Park Sungjin, Owner and Director of Oscorp, if he gave him anything that could help maybe that’ll earn him some points for the future
“Have they tried altering genetics instead of chemically infusing the subject? Like a biologically enhanced… something”
They spoke for a long while, Seungmin writing something on the board in the office to explain himself better, and Sungjin listened, it seemed like this highschool kid knew more about the subject than a team of experienced and educated scientists
“Wow…. You really are something else Oh Seungmin”
“Thank you Dr. Park, means a lot coming from you”
“You mind if i pass this on to my team?”
“Please, by all means”
Their conversation was cut short by Sungjin’s secretary coming into the room
“Dr. Park? The board of directors are here. They want to talk to you”
“Apologies Seungmin, duty calls” Was the last thing he said before he disappeared into the hallway.
He walked to the meeting room to find several men already sitting, waiting for him
“I want to see the progress report on human performance enhancer” The man said the moment Sungjin entered the room, he gave a short speech about the progress before the questions started to come in
“And what about the side effects?”
“Side effects include violence, aggression and insanity” Another scientist said before Sungjin could answer
“And what do you recommend?” The man replied
“That was only one test, our entire staff certifies the product ready for human testing and-” Sungjin responded
“We need to take the whole line back to formula sir” The scientist interrupted
“I give you two weeks and if your performance and answers have not had a successful human trial by that day I’m gonna pull your funding” Was the last thing the man said before getting up and leaving the room
Sungjin left the room in a rush and headed down to the lab, he walked in and started preparing his experiment
“Dr. Park? The performances aren’t ready. It doesn’t justify this test, you can’t do this!”
“Risk is a part of laboratory science and sometimes you gotta do things yourself…”
After Jooyeon came back with the blueprints, Seungmin and him collected Jiseok along the way and went back to their hangout spot to meet Hyeongjun, who was already there, talking to Gunil and Jungsu
“Oh hey kids, fun day?”
“It was fine, i talked to Mr. Park and he approved of my science project”
“Nerd”
Jooyeon said before saying hello to his boyfriend grabbing his bass and sitting on the floor next to him
“What are you guys up to?” Seungmin said sitting in his usual spot and grabbing a comic
“Helping Hyeungjun with his research” Jungsu replied
“Research? For the science project? What do you guys know about science” Jiseok laughed at jooyeon’s response
“Spiderman research, not science research”
“Oh my god you’re still on that?”
“Yes! Now either shut up or give some insight”
Everyone laughed at his antics, it was amusing to everyone how invested he was in finding out spiderman’s identity but Seungmin was intrigued, he saved Hyeongjun once.
It was the middle of the night and he was doing his usual night patrol when he spotted a redhead getting ambushed by a thieve. As always he swinged down to help when he noticed it was his friend who was in trouble, he turned to the thieve and knocked a gun he had just pulled out of his hand and took the criminal down and three simple moves to then turn to Hyeongjun, he saw the terror and amazement in his face and the slight temblor in his hands, he took his hand and spoke in a deeper voice to avoid being recognised
“Its okay, im here”
“Thank you..” Hyeongjun said softly, words barely coming out of his mouth
Seungmin wondered for a second ‘what if i take off my mask right now and show him who i am? would he jump into my arms and thank me? maybe get a kiss out of him perhaps?’ then stopped to think for a second why was he even having this thoughts, maybe seeing him that scared woke something up in him, a need to protect him from this ever happening again. Then he realised they had been staring at each other for a few seconds too long, still holding his hand
“Uh… Don’t walk around at midnight on your own next time?”
“Oh. Sorry”
“No! Sorry, that was a joke. It wasn’t your fault”
The stood in silence for a second
“Do you live close? I’ll… Swing? You home?” Hyeongjun laughed slightly
“Yeah, a few streets away”
Seungmin offered him his arm and the moment his friend took it he pulled him towards himself and swinged him all the way home, following his directions even though he already knows where his friend lives, but he couldn’t reveal that. When they got to their destination Hyeongjun thanked him again
“Do you do this for every person you save?”
“No. Not really”
And without another word the masked man left
The next morning at school Hyeongjun told his best friends about what had happened and Seungmin listened like he had never heard anything of the sort before
Back in the garage the evening progressed slowly with friendly banter, Hyeongjun didn’t talk much unless he had something to say, and every single time Seungmin listened like a devoted catholic at church, without noticing he stared at him like he was the only man in the world. Then the time came for all of them to leave
“I like him” Gunil said while helping Jungsu bring the dirty dishes and cups they used to eat back to the house
“Who? Jiseok?” Seungmin asked confused
“No. Hyeongjun”
“But you know Hyeongjun, you’re just getting to that conclusion now?”
“No i’ve always liked him, but now that you like him i like him in a different way”
“Uncle Gunil! Where did you even get that information from?”
“Come On! Everyone can see you stare at him when he talks”
“Uh- Not… No! Not true!”
“Yes! Its the same way your uncle used to look at me when we were in high school” Jungsu said giving Gunil a kiss on the cheek
“Ugh get a room” Seungmin stormed into his room closing the door behind him only for Gunil to open it and walk in behind him
“You know about the shoulder touch?”
“What?”
“Tomorrow, you walk up to him, grab his shoulder and say… Hey”
Seungmin chocked back a laugh
“Seriously?”
“Yes! How do you think i bagged your uncle?”
“Get out!” Both of them laughed as they said goodnight