Chapter Text
“Theoretically, if your roommate was Spider-man, what would you do?”
Renjun looked up from his note scribbling and squinted at Donghyuck. He closed his laptop with a snap, which echoed through the stagnant library.
“You mean Mark?” he scoffed.
“Nooo, it’s a completely hypothetical question. Like I’m just saying, what if, you know, you had a crime-fighting vigilante as a roommate? What what you do? Help them? Keep them out of trouble?” Donghyuck was really regretting opening his mouth now.
“And why are you asking me... these theoretical questions all of a sudden?” Renjun twirled his pencil in his hand. Maybe it was an absentminded habit, but it certainly seemed calculated and intimidating to Donghyuck. You never knew with Renjun.
“Just thought you needed a break from studying,” Donghyuck said easily, though his eyes were nervously trained on Renjun’s rhythmic pencil twirling.
“Huh,” Renjun intoned, still looking deeply suspicious.
Donghyuck took that as the end of that string of conversation. Even though Renjun was frankly terrifying, Donghyuck really wanted his opinion on the subject and tried again. “Okay, still theoretically speaking, what if your roommate was-”
“I’d blackmail them,” Renjun interrupted thoughtfully, with an almost dreamy expression passing over his face. He set down his pencil. “Not many people know about their secret identity, right? So I would threaten to tell the media, with all the evidence I’ve procured, of course, and then make them run errands and do favors for me. It’ll be perfect.”
A beat of silence.
“That’s not very nice,” Donghyuck finally managed.
“I’m not very nice,” Renjun pointed out. Donghyuck pursed his lips, opened his mouth, and decided against it. Who knew what Renjun could do to him if he found out that Donghyuck saw him buying coffee for a hungover Jaemin last week.
“So, you have a crush on West Coast Spidey?” Renjun continued. I’ll be honest with you, it’s a little cliche, falling for the superhero type, but-”
“What the fuck? I’ve never even seen Spider-man!” Donghyuck cut in indignantly.
“Oh, well that’s a shame. I haven’t either, I guess. Maybe someday.” Renjun shrugged, closing his books and thankfully letting go of the topic. “If we’re not going to study anymore, might as well go watch Jeno’s lacrosse game. I’m taking vids for a film project.” Donghyuck groaned but stood up to help Renjun shove all his stuff into his book bag. Donghyuck’s side of the library table had been cleared over fifteen minutes ago.
“Speaking of people I’ve never seen,” Donghyuck said, “I never see my roommate around.”
“Ah, that again. The mysterious Mark Lee, huh? I saw him yesterday morning in class. Don’t worry, he’s still alive.”
“That’s good I guess.” Donghyuck picked up his stuff, and Renjun started talking about lacrosse as they exited the library.
Donghyuck returned to the dorms after ditching Renjun at Jeno’s lacrosse game. Sue him, lacrosse was boring as fuck and Donghyuck was sure (about 65% sure) that Renjun only went because he had a crush on Jeno or something. Because why else would anyone be interested in watching lacrosse?
He strolled down the acid-trip carpets at a leisurely pace. It was the weekend and not many students were around in the dorms, opting for the university shopping center instead. Smart. Better air conditioning, Donghyuck thought. Irvine was still subject to that dry California desert heat, even in mid-autumn. Despite the lack of college student, the air in the place was still musty, saturated with a scent that was smelly feet mixed with laundry detergent. The smell permeated the entirety of the long ass hallway until it seeped into the walls and turned them into a dirty off-white color.
Donghyuck opened the door with a theatrical bang! but of course no one was in the room to greet him. He sighed, dragging himself over to the beanbag chair in the corner and sinking down low into it. He stared at Mark’s side of the room as if that would make the other boy suddenly appear out of nowhere.
Mark’s bed was perfectly made as usual, covers pulled and tucked stiffly into the bed frame, not a single indent on an impeccably fluffed pillow. It was a metaphor, kind of. For Mark. Perfect on the outside, but who knew what he was hiding underneath everything? Even though Mark had excellent grades and was a very nice dude bro, he was a bit of a klutz. He was always covered in bruises or scrapes from tripping and falling. A memorable conversation (and one of the only) Donghyuck had with Mark was when Mark asked if he could “borrow” band-aids from Donghyuck’s first aid kit. Donghyuck said “gross, you keep them if you use them” and enjoyed Mark sputter in embarrassment for a few seconds. His little incidents happened time after time again, and now Donghyuck’s band-aid supply was running dangerously low.
The thing was, Mark disappeared way too often. He didn’t have a job, nor was he anywhere near campus. He wasn’t the party type either. The first week was nice-- Mark had actually made an effort to talk to Donghyuck. They clicked easily, even if after a few weeks Donghyuck didn’t see him around as often. He did Nice Roommate Things, like keeping his stuff in his space, occasionally cleaning the room, taking out the trash, and leaving boxes of Pocky on Donghyuck’s desk with cheer-up notes. But as a month passed, it seemed like Donghyuck only saw Mark when he came around to clean up his wounds from tripping again. So Mark Lee remained largely a mystery.
Donghyuck took it upon himself to find out more about his roommate. He subtly asked around for info and tried stalking Mark on social media. And that was when Donghyuck found out the only social media Mark has was an Instagram with five posts, latest dated back four years ago. In the end, both methods did not bear much fruit.
But here are the facts Donghyuck did know:
1. Mark Lee was born in Canada.
2. He moved around the states a bit, New York and then California.
3. He has black hair, dark brown eyes, pale skin.
4. Is not a vampire.
5. Mark is a chemistry major.
6. Likes hot dogs.
7. Likes the milk tea in boba milk tea but not the boba.
8. Does not play lacrosse.
9. Is kinda cute
10. Okay, this list is getting kinda ridiculous.
Donghyuck groaned. It really said something about how pathetic he was that he would find his barely-there, shady roommate attractive. But there was that theory he had (dubbed SpiderMark), that Mark could be Spider-man. If true, it would explain of things. Why Mark disappeared so often. Why one night he hallucinated Mark’s voice outside the door at 2 AM arguing, “I don’t have a costume kink!” Why the so-called “West Coast Spidey” started patrolling less in Los Angeles around the same time Mark started college in Irvine. Unfortunately, there were some things that didn’t fit the narrative. Mark was clumsy, always tripping over his own feet. Spider-man was graceful, speedy, fast. Brave and almost recklessly so. Not like Mark, who was scared of loud noises and public speaking.
He really did need to talk to someone about the whole SpiderMark thing. Renjun maybe? Renjun liked conspiracies, so maybe Donghyuck could discuss it with Renjun some time. Some time when he could talk about Mark without Renjun being suspicious that he was nursing a huge crush on the other. Because that totally wasn’t true.
Was it?