i'm awakening a different me inside

“Hey, Jae, heading to Jackson’s party tonight?” Ashley asked as Jae sat down next to her at their assigned lab station.

Jae shrugged. “I don’t know, I mean Joshua mentioned something about a jam session tonight, but you never know with that guy. Are you? Didn’t know you knew Jackson,” he mentioned.

Ashley laughed, “Well I don’t know him, but Peniel knows him so he invited me along. Said Jackson wouldn’t mind,” she added, pulling her notebook out of her backpack.

Jae copied the motion as he spoke. “He’s right, Jackson’s chill,” but he didn’t get to continue as the teacher walked in.

As the teacher lectured on about valence electrons and the periodic table, Jae stared off into space, already knowing everything the teacher was talking about. He occasionally scribbled a random note to show he was paying attention. Still, he knew that nothing the teacher said would actually appear on a test, so he didn’t bother taking careful, highlighted notes like Ashley was next to him.

Once the bell rang, Jae lethargically packed up his stuff. He had lunch next, so there wasn’t any rush for him.

The cafeteria was a rush of people as always, but Jae just ignored them as he went to his table near the back where a couple of his friends were

“Hey guys,” he greeted as he slid in next to Joshua, who was focusing intently on some music theory homework.

“Oh hey Jae,” Chris said, not looking up from his laptop. His hand occasionally reached into a bag of pretzels, but aside from that his hands never left the keyboard.

“What you working on?” Jae asked, munching on some cold noodles. Knowing Chris, it was probably something for the Student Council, but it was fun to hear him rant while his eyes never left his work.

As if on cue, Chris groaned and began ranting. “Once again, Namjoon is too much of a pushover and so we’re holding ANOTHER spirit week because Mark thought it’d be a good idea. So now I have to draft another email to the principal to get permission.”

Before Chris could get going, Vernon interrupted him. “Well, that’s what you get for wanting to be vice president. Which Mark is in the Student Council?”

“What do you mean, which Mark? We all know Tuan only focuses on basketball. So yeah, Lee,” Chris said. “And yes, I know it’s my fault but I am going to complain anyway,” he said annoyed.

Joshua finally paid attention to the conversation, as he added, “Mark is in Stuco too? Isn’t he in Model UN, I’m pretty sure I saw him there at the last meeting.”

Vernon chuckled humorlessly. “Mark is in everything, and I’m still not sure how.”

Nodding solemnly, Joshua asked, “Hey Chris, are you and Daniel hanging out today again? I was thinking of maybe doing a jam session if you were.”

“Nah,” Chris said shaking his head, “He and this guy Hoseok got assigned to work on a project together so he’s busy. Maybe in a couple of days, my younger cousin from Australia, Felix, is transferring here and he’d want to join us.”

“Oh cool, then Jae I guess you’re going to Jackson’s party tonight?” Joshua asked.

“Since Changkyun’s busy, I’ll be there. It’s not a costume party like last time right?”

Snorting, Joshua said, “Course not, you know his costume parties are during the last Friday of the month. What, don’t want to dress up again?”

Jae groaned. “It was annoying enough to have to dress up, but did the DJ really have to dress up as the cookie monster? It was so weird.”

“Hongseok is a legend, and I won’t have you taint his image,” Joshua said firmly. “Now, I really gotta finish this, I have uh… 8 minutes left.”

The rest of the day ended up passing by in a similar vein, with a few of Jae’s friends stopping him asking if he was going to Jackson’s party. With how often the other held parties, Jae often had to wonder why it was such a big deal to his friends he attended every single one.

His biology class was probably the only other highlight in his day, where Namjoon spent most of the class explaining the experimental spiders project the class had the privilege of participating in. Apparently, Namjoon had contacted one of the nearby major universities and they had loaned a couple of the more ‘simple’ experiments to the school.

Honestly, Jae was kind of terrified of spiders, so he was incredibly impressed that Namjoon was willing to carry one of them in his backpack daily for the two-week duration of the project.

Badminton practice was, thankfully, spider-free, and the only interesting point was Mark accidentally hitting a birdie into the rafters (Vernon wasn’t wrong, the guy seemed to participate everything).

Dreading the fact that it was only Thursday, and so, therefore, he had to work on homework before the party, he decided a snack was in order. His mom stopped him on his way to his room.

“So how was school sweetie?” she asked, drying some dishes.

“You know, the usual. We’re doing a cool project for AP Bio, get to take care of experimental spiders.”

His mom shuddered a bit at his words. “Oh, well, maybe we don’t have to talk about that in particular. Anything going on that I need to know about?”

“Jackson’s having a party tonight, I can go right?” He knew his mom would say yes, but it didn’t hurt to check.

“Sure, just make sure you’re home before 10 PM. It’s a Thursday, so you better do your homework. Maybe bring him some bulgogi, since he invites you over so much,” she fretted.

Jae groaned; no matter how much he tried to explain the concept of high school parties to her, she always assumed them to be more formal events where gifts were wanted. Plus,

“Mom, he’s not even Korean, I don’t think he’d want bulgogi. I told you, I don’t need to bring food to a party.”

She frowned. “Well, if you’re sure. Maybe you can bring his family some rice on a different day then,” she settled, and Jae knew there was no convincing her otherwise.

“Okay mom, I’ll do that. I’ve got to go get ready now.”

Not really seeing a need to change, Jae just ran his fingers through his hair before making sure he had his wallet and phone. He waved to his mom before leaving, once again promising to be back on time.

The actual party was an interesting affair, to say the least. Jae still wasn’t sure how Jackson didn’t get in trouble for essentially holding weekly blowout parties, but he wasn’t complaining.

He could spot the DJ, a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Joshua reminding him his name was Hongseok, who seemed to be… riding a hoverboard? Well, Jae had seen stranger things so he shrugged it off as he headed further into the apartment.

He hadn’t spotted Joshua yet, but he knew that he might pull out his guitar and play some songs later tonight. He spotted a couple of tall guys over in the corner, probably the basketball team; he recognized Mark Tuan, Jaehyun, and Lucas, though he wasn’t sure who anyone else was. As it was, he was only friends with Mark and knew the others through mutual friends.

“Hey Jae, over here!” he turned to see Peniel and Matthew waving to him from where there was karaoke set up. Huh, he didn’t think Jackson’s parties had karaoke. Well, the guy’s parties did seem to cater to everyone.

“What’s up guys?” he said once he had pushed through the small throng of people.

“Nothing much,” Matthew said. “I’ve actually got dance class in like 20 minutes so I’ve got to go, but Peniel spotted you so figured I’d say hi before I left.”

“Ah, sucks you have to go. But hey, you’ve got a solo performance coming up soon right?” Jae asked, raising his voice to be heard over the blasting music. Seriously, why was Hongseok playing TT at absolute full volume?

“Yeah, it’s a small competition but college scouts are going to be there, so want to do my best you know?” Matthew said, straightening his snapback. “Picked up some extra practice slots, hopefully, they’ll pay off.”

Jae nodded encouragingly. “Yeah man, sure you’ll do great. When’s the performance?”

“About a week and a half, you don’t have to go though. It’s not the biggest deal. I mean, Taehyung will be there, so I probably won’t win.”

Jae’s eyes widened. “Taehyung? As in, the famous model Kim Taehyung?”

Matthew rolled his eyes. “No, why would that guy be in a small dance competition anyway? This always happens because they’ve got the same name.”

“What’s next man, you’ve got a new friend named Park Jaehyung?” he said jokingly. “Cause, you know, my Youtube career is taking off.”

“Absolutely,” Matthew deadpanned. “Yellowpostitman going strong, at like 10 subscribers.” Suddenly, he looked up. “Ah, there’s Namjoon and Hoseok, I’ve actually got to talk to them about the next meeting of the BTC, so I’ll see you later then.”

“I swear to god, one of these days I’ll find out what the BTC is,” Peniel mutters, rubbing his head. “You know, I asked Matthew last week again, and he just gave me a card about breast cancer awareness.”

“Well, maybe it’s related to that? But you have to work out to be in it?” Jae suggested. “I have no idea man, but like I’m pretty sure Namjoon doesn’t either. He just goes along with what Matthew says because he’s intimidated by his height.”

“Wait really?” Peniel scoffs. “Matthew’s a big softie, what’s there to be scared of? He gives his coat to Ashley whenever it rains, it’s sickening. But in a cute way,” he admitted.

“Yeah, Chris told me that once during lunch. Anyways, want to go get some drinks or something?” Jae gestured over to where there was a table stockpiled with the most random assortment of food and drink ever.

“Wait, actually, why don’t we do some karaoke? Since we’re here anyway, you know?” Peniel said, quickly pressing a microphone into Jae’s hands. “Oh hey, is that Eric, I’ve been needing to ask him about tutoring, you just sing.”

What the- but Jae had no time to object as Peniel ran off into the crowd, leaving Jae with a microphone in his hands. Well, at least no one was really paying attention to him.

He brings the microphone to his lips and starts mouthing the words to some country song he’s never heard of, but no sound comes out. The microphone was broken. What the fuck Peniel?

Jae sighed, and dropped the microphone on the nearest flat surface. Typical Peniel. He decided to get some punch, even if just to have something to do with his hands.

He was pouring himself a drink from the bowl, when he noticed Namjoon standing next to him. The guy was carrying his backpack; did he ever stop working?

“Oh hey Jae, I was wondering if you’ve seen Johnny anywhere?” Namjoon asked, also pouring himself some punch.

“Uh, no I haven’t sorry. Why do you ask?” Johnny was pretty well known for his photography around the school, participating in the yearbook and the newspaper, as well as running the school radio. Namjoon could just bump into him there, why not wait til Monday?

“Ah, nothing really, it’s kind of funny actually,” Namjoon said laughing. “I borrowed his camera for the Bio project, but forgot to give it back today. Heard he’d be here, so thought I’d see if I could bump into him.”

“Explains the backpack,” Jae said, nodding towards the said object.

“Yep. Plus I’ve got to carry this stupid spider with me everywhere,” Namjoon said. “It’s kind of a pain, I can’t zip the backpack all the way close, or else it can’t breathe so now I have to carry it on my arm.”

“Ah, well that sucks,” Jae said, backing up ever so slightly. He and a spider did not need to be anywhere within ten feet of each other, preferably further if Jae had anything to do with it.

“Hm, yeah. Oh hey, think that’s Johnny,” Namjoon said, and Jae could see a tall figure in the crowd that Namjoon was staring at. “Gotta go, talk to you later.”

“Yeah sure,” Jae said. He sipped at his punch, grimacing at it’s weird taste. God, what was it spiked with today?

Suddenly, he felt a weird sensation up his leg, a weird, crawly sort of feeling. He shook out his leg a little, hoping to alleviate it a bit, but to no avail. Suddenly, the feeling was on his arm, and Jae looked down to see-

HOLY FUCK, that was a giant spider. Jae immediately hit at it, and it quickly fell off his arm. He felt a slight pinch of pain at his arm but quickly dismissed it.

God, his heart was racing. Not wanting to have an interaction with the bug again, he speed-walked to the entryway of the apartment. Sure, he was going to miss some more of Joshua’s guitar playing, but he really didn’t want to deal with a possible giant bug on loose.

He quickly finished off his punch, grimacing slightly at the taste, before throwing the cup in the trash. Heading back home, he realized it was barely 8 PM. Well, at least he’d have more time to finish his homework now.

However, halfway through his American History essay, he felt dryness in the back of his throat. He tried drinking some water, hoping it’d help, but the feeling persisted. Hoping it’d go away on its own, Jae tried to focus on his reading, but the words seem to swim on the page.

Shaking his head slightly, he tried to clear his vision, but it was almost as if he had a bad migraine. He wasn’t sure how he missed it, since he probably would’ve noticed it earlier.

Well, it wasn’t like school could take a sick day; he grabbed some Advil from the bathroom and got back to work. Hopefully, it’d go away by the morning.

––

It did not go away tomorrow morning; if anything, it got worse. The light seemed to pierce his head, and he felt like he was going to fall over any minute. It took him twice as long to get ready, and he had no time to get any food.

At least nausea meant that he wasn’t hungry. He was thankful his mom worked the early morning shift so he wouldn’t have to deal with her comments.

Walking to school was never Jae’s favorite activity. The cold wind of New York, the one that never seemed to leave no matter the time of year, made him shiver despite his heavy sweatshirt and he felt as though the weight of his backpack would make him tip over any moment.

It was some miracle that he made into the science hall in one piece, all things considered. He met Joshua outside the classroom like he always did in the mornings.

“Hey man, you look like shit,” Joshua greeted him.

“Thanks,” Jae said drily.

“Seriously, you okay?” Joshua asked, concern coloring his voice. He put his pencil down from where he was working on some math assignment, so he could really look at Jae. “You look terrible man.”

“Well, I’ve got an English test, and you know how the teacher is about makeup,” he said, groaning internally. He wished he could at least have English early in the day so he could leave after, but of course, it had to be his last period of the day.

Joshua frowned. “I get that,” he started, “but if you want to go home early I can drive you back during lunch okay?”

“Thanks, hopefully, it’s just one of those one-day things,” Jae says, though his voice held no optimism.

It seemed as though the entire day dragged on. Jae just wanted to get to his English class already, but the world had other plans.

Once Matthew saw him during their Cooking class, he told Jae to just “stir the food and don’t mess up.” Seemed easy enough, except Matthew gave him a used pot lid to cover the food. That was just unnecessarily annoying.

He bumped into Amber too, apparently, she was trying to sell Eric Nam’s mixtape to the highest buyer. She was the only one left with a copy of the music since Eric had taken it all off of Soundcloud after some other students found it when he was running for Student Council president.

“I’m even throwing in one of his campaign posters,” she said, holding up a signed poster. Seriously, a signed poster. What, did Eric think he was some kind of pop star?

“I think I’m good,” Jae said, hurrying off to the cafeteria. He used the too-short lunch period to take a nap on Joshua’s shoulder, the other for once not shoving him off.

He waved off Vernon and Chris’ concerns, saying that he was just tired and it was no big deal.

Except, well, it was increasingly becoming a bigger deal. As the day had gone on, he felt like his insides were burning. Twice now he had run to the bathroom to throw up. It felt as though his body was revolting against him, and it was worse than any flu Jae had ever had.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have drank so much punch yesterday,” Namjoon said during biology. “The punch had glitter in it. Literal glitter. Who else knows what was in there?”

Jae glared, though it probably felt completely short with how shitty he was feeling. “Well, you drank some too, you can’t act all high and mighty.”

“No, I took like one sip. You actually finished your cup,” Namjoon said.

He wanted to argue, but honestly, Namjoon was probably right. The chance of the punch being spiked was incredibly high, considering the type of wild parties Jackson held. He knew it tasted off. He should’ve just left it.

Oh well, at least this was probably some terrible hangover–or bad food poisoning, depending on what was in the punch–so hopefully it’d be gone by that night. Chris said that Felix was arriving that night, so Joshua said they could meet up at his house.

But that night, things were definitely not better. His mom had taken one look at him and made him go to his room. She gave him some rice and water and told him to rest.

It felt as though the next couple of days were a complete blur. He could barely remember what happened.

He felt as though he was burning hot one second, his entire body on fire. The next second, he was freezing cold, and he could hear faint yelling in the background.

Words were being spoken to him but he could barely understand a thing. He wanted to yell out in pain, except that sounded like way too much effort.

Eventually, he became coherent enough to understand what was going on Sunday morning. His mom had been slightly frantic, saying he had a high fever and she was about to take him to the hospital.

Except-

Jae felt fine. He felt absolutely, completely fine. There wasn’t even a lingering headache or a bad taste in his mouth. Honestly, it felt as if he was brand new.

But that wasn’t right; he was sick, he should be feeling gross and sweaty and hungry. Okay, that last one was still true but everything else wasn’t normal.

His mom asked him how he was feeling, and if he needed anything. Not wanting to shock her, he just told her he wanted a shower. She fussed for a few more minutes before getting up to make some food for him afterward.

Jae could definitely eat, he was ravenous.

However, when he took off his t-shirt in the bathroom, he noticed something strange about himself. He had muscles, and not just slightly muscular arms because of badminton, but actual muscles.

What the hell? Did he start sleep working out or something?

Nothing was making any sense.

Suddenly, a wave of dizziness washed over him and he had to clutch onto the counter for support. Okay, a quick shower and then he definitely needed something to eat.

Except as he tried to pull open the shower curtain, he found that he couldn’t; as in, his hand was stuck to the curtain. Okay, not the time to panic, he just had to calmly remove his hand.

He pulled gently, and then the entire curtain rod had fallen off. Jae barely moved out of the way quick enough to avoid being draped in the curtain, but somehow his hand was still stuck.

It took minutes of tugging, but he finally got it unstuck. He flexed his hands carefully; they didn’t feel any different, so what on Earth had just happened?

Thankfully, the plastic curtain rod didn’t make enough noise to attract anyone else’s attention, so he gingerly picked it up to put it back in place. He kept willing in his head for it not to stick, and apparently that was working.

Maybe whatever was sticky had rubbed off? That had to be it, there couldn’t be any other explanation.

Taking the quickest shower possible, Jae carefully got dressed again, and so far, his hands hadn’t stuck to anything else.

What kind of wild fever dream was this? First, he woke up at the peak of health, then his appendicitis scar had completely disappeared, and now his hands were sticking to everything.

God, what could possibly be next?

Choosing to ignore that thought for the moment, Jae spotted his cell phone lying innocently on his nightstand. Oh shit-

He totally forgot about his plans last night.

Practically lunging for the phone, he quickly turned it on and began scrolling through the notifications.

There were messages from seemingly fifteen different people, what the heck?

Apparently Joshua’s mother-hen tendencies led him to messaging every single one of their mutual friends to see if he was okay, which led to them messaging him. Everyone from Vernon to Ten, who Jae only knew because he was on the dance team with Matthew.

He quickly scrolled through Joshua’s messages, which started with “I guess you’re feeling too sick to show?” and ended with “JAE WHAT’S GOING ON” with way too many question marks.

Jae quickly replied, saying he had just passed out last night but was fine now, and told him to pass on the message. It was too much work to respond to everyone individually, so he was just about clear all his notifications when Namjoon’s message caught his eye.

Namjoon 7:30
Hey Jae, was wondering if you’ve somehow seen the experimental spider for the Bio project? I’ve been looking since Friday, and I can’t find it

Namjoon 9:08
So apparently you’re sick. Or missing, if Joshua is to believe. Please respond to him, he’s blowing up my phone

Namjoon 11:12
Nvm about the spider, Jackson found it on the floor of his apartment. Kinda unfortunate, but what can you do? My fault. Anyways, hope you’re doing okay.

The spider was found at Jackson’s? Could that have been the spider that had been crawling on Jae? It had looked a peculiar blue color, which Jae hadn’t really cared about at the time, but maybe that’s why he was so sick. It made some sort of weird sense, at least in Jae’s head.

Jae 9:04
Sorry to hear about it. What kinda experiments were done on the spider anyway? Also, yeah feeling much better today

Namjoon 9:04
Glad to hear it. I’m pretty sure it was radioactive. Don’t worry, it would only hurt you if it had bit you. Which obviously couldn’t have happened since it died at Jackson’s.

Well, Namjoon was nothing if not prompt. Should he tell him the spider bit him? Nah, it would probably cause unneeded panic from everyone, it was probably better to keep it to himself for now.

For now, he better be careful. Who knew what other things the spider could’ve done to him?

He could hear his mom cooking down the hall in the kitchen, and his stomach grumbled, reminding him of his extreme hunger just a few minutes ago.

But when he went to open the door, it ended up on the floor. Literally. He had somehow flung the door completely off of his hinges.

“Jae, what was that noise?” he heard his mom’s footsteps coming toward his bedroom. Knowing there was no way he could hide it, Jae tried his best to look dumbfounded, which wasn’t that hard.

“Oh my god, your door! What happened?” his mom said incredulously, staring at the splintered door on the ground. Flakes of paint were lying on the ground around it, and the hinges were almost completely bent. Jae had no idea how he had done that.

“I’m- I’m not sure, I just opened the door and it somehow fell.” There, not a total lie. And it wasn’t as if he meant to break the door from the wall.

His mom looked skeptical, but thankfully didn’t press. “Well, the hinges were getting rusted so maybe that’s why. I’ll have it fixed while you’re in school tomorrow, now come eat something.”

Handing him a bowl of bulgogi, Jae’s mom fretted for a few minutes before letting him sit at the table and eat in peace. He finished the first bowl within minutes, and then asked his shocked mom for a second serving.

As he was digging into the food again, his mom commented, “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you eat that much before.”

She was right. Jae was a picky eater at best, often eating only three-quarters of a bowl of food before becoming full. “Must just be because I haven’t eaten a full meal in a couple days.”

Pursing her lips, his mom nodded. “Just make sure you don’t eat too much, okay? You don’t want an upset stomach so soon after being sick. Actually, I’ve got to go now, I have a shift at the hospital, just call if you need me okay.”

She kissed the top of his gently as he continued eating before leaving. Jae was still fairly hungry after the second bowl, though it was nothing like the ravenous hunger from earlier. He also didn’t feel as though he’d pass out any second now.

Not wanting to worry his mom, he opted not to grab anymore bulgogi, instead grabbing a few granola bars from the cabinet before walking back into his room.

Sidestepping around his door, Jae sat down on his bed. He pulled the wrapper off one of the bars, lost in thought.

So, apparently being bitten a radioactive spider gave him ridiculously strong strength. He could probably lift as much as Matthew, maybe even more, considering how easily he pulled off the door.

Weren’t spiders known for being strong? Maybe that’s why he had the strength. Jae hadn’t seen any web fluid coming out of him, thankfully, but maybe he had some other new abilities?

Spiders could climb on walls right? And he knew they were easily able to stick to things. Jae had already proven that fact. Climbing walls was going to take a little more maneuvering however…

Within minutes, he had pushed his bed away from the wall, leaving him an empty area that would be easy for him to scale (if he was even able to). He placed his phone on the bed, with Joshua’s contact information if he needed someone to rescue him should this totally fail.

Which it shouldn’t.

Hopefully.

Jae inhaled deeply, motivating himself to move. He carefully placed his hand flat on the wall above his head, and then placed his other hand next to it, a bit higher.

And suddenly, he was climbing. It defied all laws of physics, but somehow he was climbing the walls. He made it all the way to the top of the room, and was about to crawl down, when he had a thought.

Would he be able to climb his ceiling? Jae didn’t weigh exactly nothing, no matter how many times Jimin made fun of him for looking like a twig. So technically that should be impossible, but hey, he’d been doing the impossible all morning, what was one more thing?

Carefully reaching out, Jae began moving on all fours onto the ceiling, and suddenly, the whole world seemed upside down. There wasn’t a single care in the world from up here it seemed.

Though it was much dustier here than he expected. Well, it wasn’t as if he could clean all the way up here.

Although-

Achoo! As if right on cue, his dust allergy began acting up, and Jae was losing his grip on the ceiling

Unable to properly maneuver himself with the tears in his eyes, he just let go and prayed he’d make it.

As if by magic, however, he landed on his feet. Completely intact. That was over a 10 foot drop, and he was alive.

Woah.

Okay, this was a lot. In less than two hours, Jae discovered that he could climb on walls, break down doors, and was apparently endlessly hungry.

He wondered what on Earth he was going to do with this newfound information as he munched on yet another protein bar. Having spider abilities had to be useful in some way besides just breaking doors right?

Maybe he could do some cool stunts in public for money? That was always an option. He had a nice camera, if he sent out some footage, he was bound to get at least a couple of bucks from it. Who knew, maybe he’d go viral.

Obviously, since Jae was a high schooler and didn’t exactly understand the greater picture, he went with his plan.

Though…he couldn’t just go out and act like a spider. He’d be treated like a freak, and who knew what his mom would say? He’d need some sort of disguise, like a costume.

Except, his entire closet was filled with neutral colored hoodies and jeans, give or take a couple of dress shirts. It wasn’t like he had costume making material just lying around.

He hated to do it, but he might have to involve someone else with his endeavor. He just wished it could be anyone but her.

–-

“So let me get this straight,” Jimin said over the phone, “you want me to make you a spider costume? So you can go out on the streets and get money? Am I hearing this right?”

Jae rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’ve told you already. You know what my closet looks like, I need something that could be a new identity. Come on, I already told you I’d help you with your music if you did this for me.”

For over two years now Jimin had been trying to produce some music to send to different companies in hopes that she’d be auditioned somewhere. In her own words, “I’m a singer! I need to sing!” She had asked Jae several times if he’d help, and while Jae wasn’t against it, he didn’t exactly fancy having to create music for someone else.

But, if it’d get Jimin to help him out and keep his secret, he’d make her a hundred songs.

“Okay fine,” Jimin said exasperated. “I can give you something on Tuesday okay? I’ll need a bit of time to get materials.”

“Sounds great. Thanks for this. Send me your music concepts, I’ll work on those too,” he promised.

“Yeah yeah, whatever,” and with that, Jimin hung up. Well, she was always straightforward.

Tuesday. That meant he had a little under two days to perfect his spider skills. He needed some way to get around New York, especially since if he was caught walking on the street or taking the subway, there’d definitely be some raised eyebrows.

Maybe something with spider webs?

After several hours of research, and many trips to the kitchen, Jae had finally created some sort of… well he wasn’t sure what it was, but he figured calling it web fluid was his best bet. There wasn’t exactly any “How to Build Webshooters” tutorial on WikiHow, but with some finagling and a few awkward Google searches, he was able to make something that would probably work.

Jae had never been more thankful for the fact he hadn’t thrown out his at-home chemistry set his mom had gotten him. It didn’t exactly have lab grade chemicals, but it was better than just using flour to stabilize web fluid.

(and, let’s face it, he was too chicken to steal from the school’s chem labs).

Now to test it.

He knew of some pretty clean but empty alleyways near a club where Joshua played guitar sometimes. Honestly, he was pretty sure it was hiding an entrance to an underground rap scene or something, but hey, he wasn’t going to judge.

Sending a text to his mom, he threw on a hoodie before heading out, making sure that both webshooters were securely fastened.

The alleyway wasn’t just an alleyway, technically. There were three alleyways intersected by small side streets that no one seemed to use.

Psyching himself up, Jae aimed the webshooters and used his two middle fingers to press down on the button, and then bam. He was literally in the air, heading straight for a building. Just before the collision, he made sure to turn his body so he landed feet first. He made sure not to detach the web, otherwise he’d be free fall at the moment.

He spotted a metal door on the side of a building in the next alleyway. Well, that was as good of a goal as any to aim for right?

On the third try, he ended up landing on the door feet first. However, it apparently wasn’t locked as he initially thought it was, but instead it burst open.

Thankfully, there seemed to be loud music playing from somewhere inside, so no one seemed to notice his unusual entrance. He looked up to see… was that Namjoon rapping on the stage? And what was that hairstyle?

Deciding to pretend he saw nothing, Jae slowly backed out of the room, shutting the door in front of him.

Well then.

Seeing as he pretty much got the hang of his new powers, it was just a matter of waiting for his costume before he could go out and impress the public.

–-

“Why the hell is it so… bright?” Jae asked, grimacing. He held the fabric delicately between two fingers.

Jimin placed her hands on her hips. “Well, you didn’t exactly tell me a color scheme, Mr. Spider. And anyways, you don’t grab attention if you don’t wear bright clothing. Isn’t that your whole point.”

“My name is not Mr. Spider,” Jae grumbled. “But yeah, I guess you’ve got a point. Well, at least it’s got a mask.”

“If not Mr. Spider then what? You’re going to need some sort of name if you want to get famous.”

Jae hadn’t really thought about it before, so he just said the first thing that came to mind. “My name is Spider-man.”

“Oh my god, that’s so corny,” Jimin said, reaching into a bag of chips next to her.

Eyeing the chips, Jae asked, “Thought you were on a diet?” though it was more out of curiosity than any actual judgement.

“Nah, Baekhyun said something the other day that made me rethink it.”

“Oh really? What did he say?” Baekhyun was always known for his interesting lines.

“Oh, he literally just shouted to everyone ‘Eat! Everyone, don’t diet! Eat!’ and it felt inspiring.”

“Wow, you miss one lunch and you apparently miss everything,” Jae remarked. Wasn’t his fault he decided to go and annoy Taemin, Ten, and Matthew during their dance practice.

“Oh yeah for sure. You missed Hwanwoong’s unicorn hair, it was pretty epic.”

“Dang really? Well, I’ll be sure to be there tomorrow. Anyways, I’ve got to go, but thanks for this. I’ll get your songs to you by tomorrow.”

–-

Friday night, Jae told his mom that Jackson was having another party that night he was invited to.

“Really? Wow, so soon after his last one too. Well, here I made some extra rice you should take it to him,” and before Jae could protest, she was pushing a bowl into his hands. “You know, I’m pretty sure Mrs. Wang and I are in the same bridge club, I should ask her about having Jackson over sometime too.”

“Sure mom, whatever you want,” because really, what else was he supposed to say? It wasn’t like he was actually going to a party tonight. He just… told everyone he was. Hopefully Jackson would just assume he was there, since everyone was at his parties anyway.

His plan for the night was basically changing into the costume in the same alley as before, then finding a semi-public area to do some tricks and hopefully catch some attention. After that-

Well, who said winging it was always a bad idea.

(Him. He said it was a bad idea).

The walk there was quiet, but that was probably just because Jae wasn’t using the streets. No, instead he was swinging through random alleys. It wasn’t exactly ever quiet in New York, especially not on a Friday night, but somehow, in the air everything seemed to fall away.

It was just him, the buildings, and a bunch of random trash cans. Go figure.

Once he got to a semi-open area that seemed like it’d work, he quickly ducked behind a dumpster and pulled on his suit. Then he left his backpack there, hiding both his regular clothes and Jackson’s rice.

Just as he was walking onto the sidewalk, he heard a yelp from across the street. Now, again, New York streets weren’t really ever empty but the street was mostly an intersection, no buildings and such which would involve large crowds.

He looked across to see-

Was that Joshua and Daniel??

Holy shit, it actually was. By the looks of it, they were being mugged.

(Seriously, was his life like some sort of movie or something?)

Jae seriously had to do something, he couldn’t just let someone hurt his friends. But what the fuck could he do, he was just a guy in a spider suit who had special powers.

Wait.

Special powers…

Okay, he could do this. Let’s see, there was a lamp post above them and if he aimed just right, he could kick the three guys onto the floor, letting Joshua and Daniel escape!

It was the perfect plan.

As it was, the best laid plans always go awry.

Joshua and Daniel did not run away, as Jae had planned, but instead the third guy had snuck away and was now holding them away from Jae, as if taunting. Darn his friends for not being able to read his mind and figure out his plan.

“Hey freak, what are you going to do about this,” third guy said.

This was bad. This was very bad.

Jae quickly shot webs at the first guy, pinned him to the wall behind him. He might have broken his ribs in the process, but he’d still live. He could sense the second guy coming up behind him (huh, Spidey sense, who knew), and instinctively shot out his leg like he would catch a stray birdie from falling on the floor.

Maybe not joining Namjoon in taking Taekwondo as a child wasn’t the best decision in hindsight. However, Jae did know a thing or two about flexibility, with how much Ten showed off to him and Matthew.

As the guy tripped, Jae did some weird partial flip, landing on his feet behind the second guy and pinned his arms behind his back. He tied them together before sending him flying to the wall with the second guy.

The third guy stood there, stunned, but still holding Joshua and Daniel tight in his grasp. The two looked petrified, staring at Jae with wide eyes, their eyes flickering between the man holding them and him.

“You’re next,” Jae said, his voice going unnaturally deep with anger. Latching onto the corner above the man’s head, Jae swings his legs and hits the man directly in the face. In his shock, he let his friends go as his hands grasped for his face.

Then Jae wrapped him up with webs, making him join the others.

“T-thank you,” Daniel said, voice shaking as he stared wide-eyed in… fear? Amazement? Shock? Or maybe some messed up combination of the three.

“It was nothing, I’m just glad you guys are safe,” and maybe he should do something about his voice but at least the mask somewhat muffled his words.

“Who are you?” Joshua asked, eyes squinted though not in anger, but curiosity.

“Who am I? I’m–,” and maybe this is why people actually planned things instead of winging it, “Spider-Man.”

“Well, thank you Spider-Man. Wish we could do something to repay you,” Joshua said, either not noticing his slight hesitation or choosing not to comment on it.

“You two don’t need to repay anything. Now I’m sure you have somewhere to be, you should get on your way and I’ll call the police.” He pulled out his phone out of a small pocket Jimin had made for him (he had found a bathroom sign in there, and he still wasn’t sure why that was there but he hadn’t gotten rid of it yet).

Joshua eyed him for a few more minutes before nodding. “Okay, thank you again. We were actually heading to a party, so we should be going.” Oh, Joshua and Daniel must be playing at Jackson’s party.

Jae nodded as he dialed the emergency number, waving goodbye to his friends as he described to the officer on the other side what happened. Well, obviously not that he had been involved but had been a bystander. Before the officers showed up, Jae was already back in the alleyway with his backpack.

He hadn’t planned on retiring the costume so soon in the night, but today… today he just needed to go be with Joshua for a bit. Maybe he’ll strike up a conversation with Daniel about producing.

But maybe tomorrow night, he’d pull on the costume again. And see if there was anyone who needed help.

He needed to be there for the little people. If not him, then who else?

Even if he couldn’t do anything else, he could help as the friendly-neighborhood Spider-Man, right?

(Too bad he couldn’t write that on a college application)

Who knew what could’ve happened if he hadn’t been there?

It was in a somber mood that he walked into Jackson’s party, rice bowl firmly in his hands.

He opted to place that in the kitchen, but as he was walking he noticed something different. The music playing was certainly guitar music, so it had to be Joshua playing.

But, what was this song? He’d never heard it before.

“Hey thanks everyone. That was just a new song called ‘Sunday Morning.’ Just came up with it after being rescued by a good friend. Anyways, back to Hongseok!”

Hongseok, still on his hoverboard, grabbed the microphone from Joshua and started up his music again.

A good friend? But, Joshua had no idea he was Spider-Man. Right?

Well, this could take some explaining.