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“Soobin, are you still there?” Taehyun's voice echoed through the small device hanging from his ear. He had only reached the third floor and still didn't see anything out of the ordinary, just a building with empty corridors. It was almost dark and families could be heard having dinner through the thin walls.
"I'm still here, everything looks normal, are you sure this is the address?" Don’t get this wrong, he trusted Taehyun with his whole life at this point, but he also trusted his spider-sense; inside this building nothing seemed to happen.
He could hear Taehyun again typing on his computer, he was never wrong but it didn't make sense, it didn't make sense that Bang PD had sent them false information either. The message clearly stated “That weird gang that's been causing problems these past weeks is gonna have a meeting Tuesday night, you should go and check, get some information of what's going on and end their fishy business’', and the address was attached to the message as well.
“Are you insinuating that I’m wrong? Do you want me to tell the whole world that Spiderman, also known as Choi Soobin, wears some weird Lightning McQueen crocs and is a furry?”. He gulped. First of all, he wasn't a furry, he just found furry suits really fluffy and cute, but he was not into that. On the other hand, The Lightning McQueen crocs thing was true, but what was he supposed to do if they were so comfortable. “You know what, just clean all the floors and go back home, I can’t check any cameras around, it’s a really old building.”
As he was going through the last floor, he heard a din of voices that didn't sound like they belonged to a family. People gave orders and demanded things to be done. Ok Soobin, you need to focus . The voices came from above but he didn't detect any more stairs inside, so… rooftop perhaps?
“Hey Taehyun, can you find any cameras on this street? Some that point to this building and allow you to see the outside, maybe some rooftop?” He waited for his partner's response, he was focused and could only hear the slight typing of the computer and his breathing; they were both thinking the same thing.
"It seems that there are some fire escape stairs that lead to the roof, be careful please." Soobin smiled at his concern, took a deep breath and released it by stretching out his arms. Let's go fight the bad guys.
He decided to ring the bell of the first door he found, somehow he had to get to the fire escape and what kid wouldn't love to get a visit from his friend and neighbor Spiderman?
Well, it didn't go as planned: the truth is that there was no child waiting for him behind the door. Instead, there was his crush and his former best friend Beomgyu, leaning against the door with a confused frown on his face, bed hair and a really fluffy hoodie with sweats. Soobin was grateful that his costume covered his face, he wasn't ready to deal with him.
He hadn't realized that he was standing in front of the half-open door saying absolutely nothing, until he heard a soft voice. "Do you need something...Spiderman?" He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, as if the words could come out of his mouth at that moment. He cleared his throat, preparing his voice to make some sound that wouldn't embarrass him.
“May I use the fire escape? You know, for Spiderman's duty, gotta save the neighborhood." Beomgyu raised an eyebrow in disbelief, closing the door slowly. “It's true! There's some type of meeting on your rooftop, they might hurt you or anyone in this building, it could be something really dangerous” His voice was agitated and nervous, he didn't want to be discovered but at the same time he couldn't let the suspects escape.
“You know, it's probably the drug dealers on the third floor, you don't have to worry about it, they are not bad people”. His eyes were locked on him, his frown now a little bit more relaxed and the door was opening again, letting him see the interior of the house. His clothes engulfed all his figure while he moved to the side, letting him in. “But who am I to stop the ‘oh magnificent Spiderman’ from doing his job? Come in, I'll guide you”.
The boy let him in and closed the door behind him slowly, Soobin could feel his gaze glued to him, examining, observing, watching, and a wave of nervousness ran through his body as he waited for the boy to start walking, following him with small steps.
"These stairs lead to the roof but the truth is they are not very safe, we don't use them that much so they are unreliable", he explained briefly, leaning his hand on the stairs, his gaze was still strange, you could even see a little sadness in his eyes. His expression changed, a small smile forming on his lips. "Please try not to make too much noise, my little brother is doing his homework, and as much as he likes Spiderman, he would never forgive you for bothering him while he studies".
He said it in a joking tone so it was obvious that it was a joke, there is nothing to worry about, but Soobin could not help a lump forming in his throat when he saw the boy disappear into his house.
“I can't believe I just experienced that, isn't that Beomgyu? Wasn't he like your best friend or something like that a year ago?" The annoying voice was again ringing in his ears, reminding him AGAIN that he lost his best friend and it's his own. “You should be thankful I installed that voice filter man, you don’t know how to go undercover”
He likes to think that Beomgyu is also to blame, but he knew he was lying to himself. He had completely pushed him out of his life, avoiding him in the halls, not answering his calls or messages, and it seemed he got the hint. The last thing he wrote to him replayed in his head every time he saw him at school.
‘So that's how it is huh? I guess people just leave you hanging until you drop from their lives.’
Soobin knew that he couldn't hold into that friendship with Beomgyu, he was a person too close to him and if someone wanted to hurt him it was quite obvious where to attack, they spent the vast majority of their time together and it's not like they had a large group of friends either. He did it to protect him, not to lose him forever.
"Shut up Taehyun, you are being a little bit too annoying today, do you know that?" He climbed the stairs in silence, beginning to hear the voices getting louder and clearer. With a slight movement he placed a micro camera on the ledge, leaving a clear view of the roof. “Would you look in that camera for me? Tell me what you can see”.
He became silent, he knew that Taehyun was still there watching the scene and analyzing which was the best plan. This silence also allowed him to hear some single words of the conversation they were having.
"They have their backs to you, about 10 meters from you, 5 men, medium height, they do not seem armed." The keys were heard again and a sigh filled his ears. “I can't see anything else, they seem to be next to some boxes, probably some goods, there are also a couple of bags on the floor. You can stick your head out but be careful, okay?”
Following his friend's advice he poked his head over the ledge and this gave him a clearer view of the situation. As Beomgyu had told him, they looked like drug dealers, but not neighborhood drug dealers, surely they had a good set up in their apartment.
“Yeah, those are the drug dealers of the 3rd floor, I told you”. Those words took him by surprise, the whisper came from behind him and he knew perfectly well whose voice it was. He quickly spun around and covered his mouth with his hands, dragging both of them to the ground so he could cover themselves from being discovered.
"Beomgyu, what are you doing here, you shouldn't be here!" Silence again, he opens his mouth slightly and shuts it again, he used the hands that were covering Beomgyu's mouth to cover his own. You’ve messed up, big time.
His face was an enigma, he couldn't guess what he was thinking, he could never do it before anyway. The feeling his face portrayed was a mix of shock, confusion, dread, madness. He didn't know how he was going to fix this, but he had to do it, there was no option.
“How do you know my name? Who are you? Why?” He started to raise his voice from him, word after word and at this point they were gonna get caught. "Don't you dare lie to me, how do you know my name?"
He stared into his eyes, back to the rooftop, then back to his eyes. He needed to explain everything to him but duty called. “Listen, I will explain it to you, I promise, but I need to stop those guys first, understood?”
He didn't wait for an answer, he could see how upset Beomgyu was at that moment, he tapped him on the head a couple of times before separating from him and getting up little by little. “Stay here, please”
With a jump, supporting himself with one hand, he reached the roof and began to walk towards the men who were still with their backs to him, still talking, tossing things from inside the boxes to the travel bags, filling them with what seemed like some kind of packages. When he was close enough to them he placed his hands on the shoulders of two of them and held them tight.
“Hey guys, what is this, a party? I think I have also received the invitation!” Quickly, the two men turned and with a surprised expression they dropped everything they had in their hands.
The fight started, and while he dodged blows he could see how two of them continued with the goods, changing it quickly, while the other three attacked him. His attacks were strong but vague, making dodging them that much easier. He moved his body with agility, knowing that if he landed one of those punches it was going to hurt.
"You told me they didn’t have weapons!" His breathing was beginning to shake, he didn't want to hurt them, but with so much disadvantage he couldn't use his web to catch them. "Soobin, they have no weapons!" That was quite obvious, the men were not armed but you only needed to see their hands. “Have you seen those fists? If they punch me with one of those in the stomach I won't be able to eat for 5 days."
With forceful movements he managed to push one of them to the ground, now being able to move more easily he began to use his cobwebs, trapping their hands with it and immobilizing them for a short period of time. Long enough to watch Beomgyu in the distance with a metal bar in his hands landing a blow to one of the trader guys in the back.
"Are you crazy? I told you to stay there and wait!” As he was walking to him something pulled him back; he could tell that it was a big hand, they had probably managed to free themselves and now it was their turn to take revenge on him.
“Just knock them out or something, would you? I'm okay!" His words came out of his mouth in a dry scream to be heard as he hit the other boy with the bar, knocking him to the ground. “See? I already got rid of this two”
He barely dodged one of the blows that went straight to his face, and using his flexibility he kicked the man on top of him with his legs. “And now what? Since you are done, are you gonna help me or what?”
“What do you want me to do? Throw some punches at those bad guys? No thank you, I'm good, this is your job anyway, you deal with them, weirdo." He took advantage of the break to sit on top of one of the boxes, swinging his legs as he still held onto the metal bar.
Soobin was struggling with one of the men, and watched as the other started to get up. He really could handle them but he didn't want to hurt them, Beomgyu had said that he didn't have to worry so he didn't want to hurt his neighbors. One of them lunged at his back, grabbing him hard enough to make it difficult for him to move.
“I can't believe this… You are Spiderman but you can't even fight these guys? I’ve seen you fight ugly aliens on TV, are you even the real Spiderman?” He raised his voice at the same time as his eyebrow, questioning him with his eyes.
“Well…” Reaching out his hand as he could, he released one of his webs to reach the metal bar that Beomgyu was holding with his hands and pulled it quickly and hit one of the attackers with that movement. Out of the corner of his eye he could see how the boy had been pulled from the box and was looking at him with a frown. "I guess I'm the real Spiderman, right?"
With a flick of the bar he hit the last man in the stomach, knocking him to the ground. They were all lying on the ground so Soobin was about to catch their hands and legs in the spider webs, but he had to stop when he saw a slightly smaller figure in front of him.
“Now, spit it out, who are you? How do you know me? His arms were crossed in front of his chest, hiding his hands under them surely to ward off the cold air. "And I want the truth, I don't think it's fair that you lie to me."
Breath.
He took a big breath, closed his eyes, and breathed again, he knew he needed to tell him, he couldn't hide it from him anymore after this. He had been in danger and Soobin couldn't focus and take care of the drug dealers, it was time.
“Taehyun, are you there?” A murmur confirmed the answer and he immediately listened to the keyboard. “Could you turn off the voice modifier, please?” Silence again. Sometimes he hated talking with Taehyun like this, he could not see his face, he could not know what kind of expression he had on his face. Another sound, affirmative, that's the only thing he could hear before a long beep.
“Voice modifier disabled”
The robotic voice filled his head from him, and after another long breath he moved closer to Beomgyu, grabbing one of his hands and pressing his fingers slightly. “Please let me explain…”
“Soobin? No, you are fucking kidding me, right?” He pushed away his hand from him, anger was reflecting through his face, he had move away a little bit. “Why? Why didn’t you tell me? You are a fucking coward man, now everything makes sense”. His eyes were teary, with a gleam of sadness in them. Soobin came closer to him again, grabbing his hand this time stronger.
"Trust me, I did it for you, I didn't want to put you in danger." His words were weak but he did not stop looking at his eyes while his hand continued to caress the other’s palm.
“You did it for me? For me my ass. You should have told me and let me choose, don't you think?" Beomgyu realized the tone he was using from Soobin's expression. It was obvious that this conversation was going to hurt but he was more down than he expected. “Hey, I'm the one in danger, right? So I should be the one choosing if I want to stay by your side or not, you idiot.”
"Yeah, you are absolutely right, I'm sorry." They both smiled at each other, Soobin's fingers moving slowly across his palm, gently lacing his fingers together and caressing his thumb with his hand. “Does that mean that you want to stay by my side?”
“I never wanted to leave in the first place.” He was still looking at him deeply, pressing his fingers against his hand and smiling. He slowly began to approach him, slightly letting his hand go and surrounding his waist with his arms. Soobin's arms followed suit and merged into a hug. "Oh wow, this is how it feels to hug Spiderman, oh my god, this is the dream!"
They both started to laugh, still holding each other. Soobin had missed him, his voice, his irony, his hugs, all of him. If only he had told him the truth before, none of this would have happened, they would continue to be friends, to see each other and talk every day, sharing entire afternoons playing video games or just talking.
But obviously something had to go wrong; one of the men was behind Beomgyu, holding one of the metal bars and ready to attack. Thanks to his reflexes, Soobin was able to react quickly and dodge the blow, pulling Beomgyu along with him.
He had caught them completely off guard, and they had nothing to defend themselves with, so the first thing Soobin did was throw a spider web to prevent the man from using the metal bar, leaving it stuck to the ground. This gave them enough time to start running to the other side of the rooftop, Soobin still scanning the scene looking for a way to confuse them.
"Taehyun, I need you to call BangPD so his men can come get them, I can keep them entertained with my webs for a while but I can't take care of this right now, ok?" Another of the men was starting to get up as well and he threw a couple of cobwebs into the boxes and bags so they couldn't get to them while reinforcements arrived.
“I was already on it, don't worry. I think this is enough they will take care of it. Now please, go get yourself a boyfriend and stop being dumb, would you? Talk to you later, loser.” The call ended with a long beep, and he found himself being really close to the edge of the building.
“Soobin, we need to jump, they are coming for us!” Beomgyu's voice was unstable, he was obviously scared and he didn't know what to do, his hand was still holding the other’s tightly, and he could see the fear in his eyes.
Soobin grabbed his face and with his spare hand caressed it, trying to convey reassurance. He remembered that heights had never been Beomgyu's favorite thing. “Are you sure? It's pretty high and you have never done this before".
"I've never been so fucking sure of anything in my life, just jump!" And that's the only thing Soobin needed to tightly grab his waist and jump, noticing how the boy was holding on to his neck very tightly, probably with his eyes closed and wrapping his legs around Soobin's waist with a jump.
He started shooting his webs from building to building so he could get far away from the city center to a quieter area. His hand continued to firmly grasp the boy's waist to convey security and at the same time he tried not to make sudden movements so as not to scare him.
“Hey, open your eyes, you're missing the view”, he said with a wide smile, even though the boy couldn't see his face. Beomgyu slowly opened his eyes, but his grip on his neck remained strong, Soobin caressed his waist to relax him. "You don't have to worry, I got you."
He could see the boy's half-open mouth, the truth is that Soobin considered himself lucky to be able to see the city from the sky, the sun had practically disappeared and the lights began to illuminate all the streets and buildings. Both remained silent enjoying the views, Beomgyu had relaxed and had managed to loosen his grip on his neck a little, exchanging it for some caresses, running much of it with his fingers, despite the suit.
After jumping between buildings for a while, Soobin found a rooftop where he could sit and rest. Carefully, landed on top of it, letting Beomgyu loosen up and put his feet on the roof, never letting go of his waist.
“Well, how was it?” His faces were really close to each other, and he could see how Beomgyu's gaze was fixed on his mask, where his eyes were supposed to be. Soobin took the hint and pulled the edge of the fabric up, revealing his face and his slightly messy hair.
“It wasn't bad for the first time,” his hands trailed slowly over Soobin's shoulders, joining behind his neck and slowly pulling him down to be even closer to him. "It could have been better if I could have seen your face too, not to be petty about it but that mask doesn't flatter you at all."
The two burst out laughing without separating from the other, joining their foreheads in a simple move and looking into each other's eyes. Beomgyu's hands slowly moved up into his hair, running his fingers through his locks, gently caressing his skin.
"You know what, today I did totally unexpected and crazy things so I think I'm going to do one last dumb thing". And that was it, that's where Soobin lost it all, that's where their lips met, messy, needy and desperate. He was still out of breath from the short trip and this was absolutely unexpected.
This was all he wanted, to have Beomgyu in his arms, kissing him, holding him. They slowly parted, resting their foreheads again; Soobin took his hands, caressing them and giving them a little squeeze. "I'm sorry, I love you Beomgyu."
"I should've done this way earlier honestly, love you too idiot". Beomgyu grabbed one of his hands, bringing them to his lips for a short kiss before wrapping his arms around him again in a hug.