Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Several miles to the northeast of Neo City lies a century-old impact crater. It's embedded near the fringes of a forest, making it quite a tourist attraction back in the day. Mark remembered reading articles that said it was made by a small chipped-off piece of asteroid breaking apart as it entered the Earth's atmosphere. The main body had travelled further south and made a big splash in the sea surrounding Neo City's coast, which was, uh, really fortunate for the entire country a hundred years ago. Otherwise the city would have never existed, and Mark would've never been around, maybe. The crater's diameter was only about twenty meters, and its depth barely five meters deep, and with the passage of time the imploded soil had been covered up again with foliage and stuff like that. So it's nothing remarkable to see now.

Honestly that's not the important part. There's nothing about it that's important, really. It used to be a popular attraction site, and people back then used to go camping near the crater, something about being near a divine body from heaven and all that. It's muddled up over time. Ah, but that was in the beginning. The novelty wore off soon enough, until it was just another landform in Neo City's geography, and people would only know about it through school textbooks and nothing more. But of course, that's enough for someone like Yangyang to want to visit it immediately. 

What's really important was that Dejun was visiting that impact crater as well.

On Friday of their school's week-long break, Yangyang, Dejun and a few of Mark's other classmates decided it would be a good idea to go camping inside the belly of that crater. It was Yangyang's idea, and there was something about that group of friends that would do whatever the hell Yangyang wanted. It's sweet, really. Donghyuck is super jealous. 

Mark wasn't jealous of anything. He's rather grateful that he wasn't being dragged to go camping, actually. His own group of friends thought that going to the theme park was a better idea. It really was. The rides were hella fun, and they got to eat Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes. That definitely beats having to trek through the forest, getting bitten by mosquitoes, sweating under the hot sun, right?

And besides, it's best that he stays within the city, should there be a need for his… uh, how else to put it… should there be a need for Spiderman very soon. That's literally the easiest way to say it. He's super fast when he swings from skyscraper A to skyscraper B to skyscraper C, but if out in the wilderness and he has to run on foot… yeah, he's not as fast. Besides, he has a routine here, self-imposed responsibilities as the city's lone superhero. He can't take a vacation. 

But back to the camping thing… unfortunately for him, Yuta didn't freakin' think so. Unfortunately for Mark, Yuta has a massive crush on Dejun. Remember how he said that the important part was that Dejun was camping in that impact crater too? Yeah. It's because Yuta's an insufferable lovesick idiot, and he claims it's agony to be apart from Dejun even if it's only three days. Bruh, they're not even dating yet. 

So when Ten sends, like, updates in their class group chat (how Ten still has phone signal out in the freakin' forest, Mark doesn't know) he has to endure all the embarrassing cooing and gushing Yuta would do everytime he sees Dejun. Like… Ten sends a group picture of them upon arriving to the forest; Mark watches in embarrassment as Yuta zooms in on Dejun's face and forgets to eat his Mickey Mouse pancakes for the next several minutes. Ten sends a video from the back of Dejun slipping on moss and falling on his ass and getting laughed at by all of his friends; Yuta laughs as well but it's soft and fond . Bro, what the fuck they're lining up for the freaking pirate ship swing ride thing and Taeyong's over there looking like he's gonna throw up his Mickey Mouse pancakes from nerves and here is Yuta being cheesy . Unfortunately for Mark, he has to endure all of this as Yuta's best friend until he mans up and just asks Dejun out already. 

"What kind of magic phone does Ten have that he can still send messages in the middle of a forest?" Jaehyun asks as they take a break, standing idly by the railings overlooking the first level of the theme park. Mark shrugs, absolutely no answer to that. The sun has set halfway down to the horizon now. Ten has just sent another video; Mark is made to hold up his phone for Yuta to watch as well because his hands are currently greasy with hotdog oil.

Ten's spinning slowly in a circle to show that they've made it to the centre of the impact crater. It seems the crater was formed somewhere in the middle of a much larger clearing, almost like a small field, and the lack of trees or bushes or whatever in the immediate vicinity showed them a clear view of the sky. Hendery and Yangyang zoom in and out of frame, chasing each other around the circumference of the crater, hooting and hollering, and as Ten comes to a stop the video focuses on Kun and Winwin kneeling down near the center, trying to build a fire. Kun yells something in Chinese to Hendery and Yangyang, and then the camera snaps to the side, and they see Dejun's side profile. Mark can feel Yuta burst into flames. 

Dejun slowly turns his head, fixing Ten's phone camera with his intense as hell gaze, but his smile is soft and serene, and the golden light of the evening sun makes him look ethereal, Mark has to admit. Yuta screams soundlessly next to Mark's ear. 

"Wait, does Ten know?" Mark asks suddenly. 

Johnny scoffs. "Dude. Everyone knows, except Dejun himself."

Mark nods. "Dang. So Yuta's crush is blind as hell."

Yuta doesn't react at all. Maybe because he's busy staring at Dejun's face. 

"Did you, like, rope him into this? I wouldn't be surprised if you managed to bribe him, but like, have some shame, man."

Still no reaction from this lovesick idiot. Mark pans his gaze out to the rest of his friends in defeat. 

Ten asks Dejun in Korean, "Are you not gonna help them with the fire?"

Dejun, still blank faced besides that small smile, suddenly starts singing in Chinese. Ten groans, curses him out, and then the video stops. Yuta slaps the back of his hand over his forehead, sighing. 

"You're embarrassing, man," Mark grumbles, pocketing his phone back. How many times he has called Yuta embarrassing when it comes to Dejun, he doesn't know.

Yuta's still smiley when he finally responds to the jab at his crush from earlier. "Am I that obvious?"

"Embarrassingly obvious," Mark says. 

"Everyone knows?"

"Even Jisung knows, you embarrassment."

"It's amazing that Dejun doesn't know, though," Doyoung says. "When they say love is blind, it can also mean the target of that love, it seems." 

"I didn't say anything to Ten, by the way," Yuta says.  "And… no, I think he knows. He's just… waiting."

"Then don't keep him waiting, you dumbass," Johnny says. "Be a gentleman and ask him out and spare us all this torment."

"But I'm shy."

Mark shoves at him lightly, and Yuta goes stumbling back a few feet. 

Patrol that night went smoothly. Mark swung out of the dorms about half an hour after midnight and was able to make it back not even three hours later. There was only one crook trying to cause trouble; trying to break into a car. Weirdo. Mark hung him from a streetlamp right above that car, if his carjacking clothes didn't already make it obvious what he was gonna do.

The past few days have been uneventful. Mark tries not to feel suspicious about it, but he's also still thankful that he doesn't have to return to the dorms and then go to class covered in bruises and wounds and with, like, blood in his hair or something. That would be difficult to explain. 

He may have super-regenerative abilities, and bones like they're made out of steel, but he's not immune to pain and burst blood vessels. He'll feel it in his muscles for days if he exerts himself too much, and the others have undoubtedly noticed, though they might not really know why. Yuta's asked him once why he'd rather work out in the middle of the night when he should be sleeping. So. Mark's not exactly the most careful or discreet of people, unfortunately.

But strangely, no one's caught on to the fact that he's a superhero. And it'll remain that way for the foreseeable future, it seems. He's been in this business for about three years already, and still he can't seem to find it in him to let someone know. It'd be a bit easier, wouldn't it? When he has to disappear sometimes, people won't think he's flaking out on something, and when he's too tired to join in on most conversations or rough house with Donghyuck and Jeno like he used to, it won't be because he's pushing them away or something. 

But it's so dangerous , in this line of work. After three years of making a name for himself he's undoubtedly made himself a few enemies as well. Most of them are behind bars right now, anyways—but there's still that fuckass company SM Industries that tried to indict him for a bunch of things he didn't do. The slander . Mark didn't even want to cross paths with such big hotshots like them, but he'd been tracking down an illegal shipment that reportedly had smuggled these really dangerous technology that was prohibited by the government. One thing led to another and Mark found himself in the basement of SM Industries' main branch. And then, like… yeah. He's been on their bad side ever since then.

And who knows what could happen to any of his friends if his identity is revealed. They could get kidnapped, held for ransom, maybe even forced to do bad things if they know he can't hurt a hair on any of their heads. Yeah. It's really difficult. 

And… besides. He'd never hear the end of it if he revealed himself to his friends. Yuta's mature usually, only turning into an idiot around Dejun, so while he may get blinded by the fact that he's best friends with Spiderman , the novelty would wear off quickly. And then, like, Doyoung and Jisung and Yangyang and Chenle, they'd keep pestering him asking about his night, what bad guys he defeated, if he got shot at, if they could take a picture of him with his suit. And then… Donghyuck . He'd be the worst of them all. 

No. No way. He won't ever tell anyone.

The next day, Mark and his friends nearly enter a panic as they rush the schoolwork they should've done earlier on in the week. 

Their school has this system where the fourth week of every term is allocated as self-study—no classes, no interference from teachers; a period solely for the purpose of them to resettle their pace, get a firmer grasp on their tasks and stuff like that. But being the dumbass children that they still are, of course Mark and his friends didn't actually do that. 

So here they are, sprawled all over their dorm's living room, using the light of the still rising morning sun streaming through the first level's floor to ceiling windows, papers and books and pencil cases scattered all around as they bounce questions and answers off each other. 

Dejun and his friends could afford to go camping right now of all times because unlike Mark, Yuta and the rest of the class, they had Kun and Ten as voices of authority, and with the prospect of going camping, they had enough motivation to get their work done early. 

As they struggle through the heavy workload ("Doyoung-ah, what's the answer to 17?", "Shotaro, that's wrong.", "Chenle, stop disturbing Jisung."), there's a collective chime from all their phones, and Yuta practically dives across half the room to get to his. 

He's already looking at whatever update Ten has just sent when everyone else reaches their phone, and he groans loudly and annoyingly and like a lovesick fool, "I'm in pain." 

"You're embarrassing," Mark doesn't miss the chance to say, but he's also receiving his phone from Jeno's proffered hand. 

It's another video (r.i.p to Ten's phone? How can he keep doing this); the campsite looks cold—as in, there's a slight mist in the air, and the fire's been reduced to ashes, and as the camera moves about he can see dew all over the grass under Ten's feet. Ten starts singing a Chinese song, purposely off-tune, and then there's Kun walking up from behind him to unzip a tent to their left. Inside, Dejun's already sitting up from his sleeping bag, hair incredibly mussed up but face amazingly not swollen (how the heck?), and he's glaring straight at Ten who's still singing horribly on purpose. 

"You're killing me," Dejun's voice is raspy when he speaks. Mark catches sight of Yuta clutching at his own head when he sees this part.

"Good morning," Ten sings, suddenly in tune. The sleeping bag beside Dejun shifts and moves, and out comes Yangyang's hand flipping Ten off. Dejun slaps his hand down. 

Ten ducks out of Dejun and Yangyang's tent to head for the one with Winwin and Hendery, still singing horribly, but by then Mark isn't allowed to watch anymore because Yuta's draping himself over his shoulders dramatically, crying into his back, "I want to be Yangyang so bad."

"You shouldn't have told him everyone knows about his crush," Taeyong tells Mark, "Now he's shameless." 

Mark side-eyes the embarrassing person hanging off his shoulders, nose screwing up in disgruntlement. "Yeah I fuckin' wish I never said anything, it was already bad before."

"Everyone knows except Dejun," Renjun comments. Then he grins conspiratorially. "Hyung, we can help you if you want."

"No, Yuta says Dejun knows," Johnny says. 

Renjun cocks his head back like he's surprised, but then very quickly he's grinning again like he'd just thought of a joke only he knows. "Ah. So Dejun's like that."

"Like what?" Yuta asks instantly, neck snapping up.

Renjun laughs, shaking his hand. "Nevermind."

"Huh—"

Mark shoves Yuta off, grunting, "Get off. No one enable this guy anymore, please. I'm the one who has to hear it all."

"It's your role as the best friend," Jeno laughs.

"Huh? I thought you're my best friend?" Donghyuck says, off-topic.

"You were wrong," Mark answers.

"You know, since he knows, and everyone knows, and you also know that he knows, you should just do something about it," Chenle says. "He's obviously waiting for you."

"Oh," Yuta says. Mark makes a face; what does he mean 'oh'? "You think so?"

"Yeah, bro," Johnny says supportively. "When they come back, just, y'know, go up to him and ask him out on a date."

"A date?"

"How long have you two been talking, let me ask you," Mark says. "You should know what he likes and doesn't like, right? Take him to a place he really likes, feed him food he really likes, then take him to some romantic looking place and tell him how you feel. Honestly I don't know why you haven't done this already, I feel like you two should've gotten together 35 years ago."

"What—"

"Or if you're too nervous and don't really know what to do, you can ask his friends," Taeyong says, much nicer than Mark. "Actually, I mean Kun. He has the most tact out of all of us."

Yuta gives all of those who gave him advice a certain look, finally landing on Mark, then seems to ponder over it as he takes his time to sit properly in front of his work again. Mark knows he's only being dramatic. His jaw clenches a few times as he turns over whatever thoughts he has in his head, and then he looks back up and addresses them.

"But I'm shy."

Mark chucks a pen at his forehead.

Ten sends a few more updates throughout the day. Kun supervising while Yangyang tries to build the fire by himself, a six-second clip of Dejun slipping on moss again, a longer clip of him losing his balance out of nowhere and collapsing into a small river, Hendery cradling an incredibly smooth rock like it was a baby and Yangyang and Winwin cooing over it like fellow mothers. A selfie of himself with Dejun in the background, with his back to the camera, wringing out his wet shirt and his bare shoulders exhibit his sulkiness even when his face is not in view. Yuta nearly cried. Chenle sends a response, 'ok, now send the lower half.'

A much longer clip of Kun and Dejun sitting on the ridge of the crater, their silhouettes eclipsed by the sun directly behind them, but the audio barely manages to pick up their voices as they sing part of a Chinese ballad. And then another one of Hendery and Yangyang as they sing and dance to f(x)'s Hot Summer. Winwin makes faces at them and hides out of view of the camera. 

The ones back at the dorm finally get their work done in the evening, and then it's back to everyone doing their usual bullshit. Mark was smart academically, so he was able to finish his work ahead of most of them and could fuck off earlier.

He saw the news article about the carjacker he hung from the lamppost, but such a small thing was uninteresting to bother reading. When Mark first went into this business, he'd been practically invisible for many months. And since he operated majorly at night, the petty criminals he strung up with his webs couldn't identify him, didn't even know what they were looking at. Spiderman was the local cryptid for the longest time, until after about a year and Mark finally showed his… masked face, saving nearly a whole building's worth of occupants in an apartment fire. 

And then his name started making headlines for every little thing he did. Ah, but granted, stringing up crooks from lampposts weren't exactly little things, but Mark has done way bigger things now. Majority of the population was quick to hail him as the resident superhero, which was a good thing, 'cause he didn't want to deal with defamations and accusations while also dealing with school and stuff. Things like that really stress one out. 

His classmates would also get excited all the time whenever Spiderman was on the news, but now after three years, everyone kinda got used to him already.

It was only about an hour later that Donghyuck came to bother Mark for a while before Renjun pulled him away to bother Jeno and Jaemin instead, playing whatever game they had. And then Jungwoo came to bother him, and then Johnny came with Jaehyun to bother him too, and then Mark went to find Yuta so that he himself can bother him and also make sure he isn't suffering too much from Dejun withdrawal symptoms. Gosh. They're not even dating. 

After dinner time, they get another video of Kun scolding the rest for not knowing how to cook instant ramen—he's scolding rapid-fire in Chinese and so only Renjun and Chenle understand what is being said, but they're too busy being judgemental and laughing to let anyone else know. Winwin goes 'oi!' at Ten when he sees that they're being filmed yet again, and then Hendery is also going 'oi!' and flapping his hand in embarrassment. 

Kun notices and quickly turns to Korean: "These guys don't even know how to cook ramen! Who thought this was a good idea? You're lucky I came with you! Huh!? Didn't even know how to set up the tents or make a fire, Yangyang, when we get home ah—!"

"As expected, Kun," Taeyong nods approvingly. 

"As expected, the only reason they're not dead is because of him," Doyoung adds. 

"Give them a lil' credit, please," Mark starts to say, but then bursts out laughing when he sees the really smooth rock sitting in between Hendery and Yangyang, immediately going to show Johnny and Yuta. 

"I feel like… in the event of a zombie apocalypse or something, the first to die would be Dejun," Johnny says conversationally, but Yuta reacts like he's so offended. 

"Yuta, Yuta, don't try to defend him," Chenle calls out, even as Yuta's hand reaches up to grab Johnny's throat. "He's the only one to suffer casualties so far. Don't let your feelings make you deny that your crush is clumsy as fuck. It's okay. It's funny."

"But to the point he'd die?" Yuta asks. "Don't break my heart, man."

Johnny shrugs. "He's just unlucky like that. Oh," he quickly raises a hand to appease Yuta, "I'm not saying your crush is unlucky for him. In fact I think it's probably the best thing to ever happen to him."

"Thank you."

"Anything for you, dude."

"Where is Dejun, by the way?" Mark asks, totally having ignored that conversation. Sometimes it feels like Yuta thinks a bit too highly of Dejun, to the point where admitting that Dejun was anything other than perfect would be blasphemy. Dejun was one unlucky bastard, that's for sure. The type to miss the last step on the stairs in front of other people, the type where taxi drivers forget to unlock the door for him so he's tugging on the handle pathetically, the type to plug in his phone and turn on the switch but later on in the morning realize that the damn wire was spoilt. 

(But to Mark's knowledge, Yuta was there to catch him that time he missed that last step, and who was fortunately not present at all when Dejun embarrassed himself on the side of the road, and who also happened to have a spare power bank to lend him when Dejun woke up to a phone on life support. 

Ah, Johnny was right.)

"Saw his pant leg for like one second," Doyoung said. "I think he's sitting behind Ten."

"Dang," Mark replies, looking up to stare dead straight at Yuta. "That's a bummer." 

Yuta unashamedly agrees. "Lost five minutes of my life I'll never get back."

"Fuckin' mean."

"Listen. We all know why Ten is bothering to send videos at all."

"Alright, alright, I got it." Mark immediately surrenders. 

"They're for me. I'm the main character in this building and Dejun's my love interest. This is how it always goes." 

"Alright, alright, we got it." Mark raises his hand to plead for a truce. 

"To send something without him in it is a bit weird. But. I'll let it pass. Once."

"Alright, alright, we got it."

Three hours later, Mark swings out of the dorms once more, taking another tour through the city. This night was much like yesterday, with a bit too much of inactivity, a bit too much boredom. He takes himself through route number five, flying down southeast through the skyscrapers bracketing Neo Culture and Technology Institute all the way down to the suburbs. Even in such cute and quaint little streets there's still the threat of crime and violence. Break-ins, robberies, the like. As the friendly neighborhood superhero, it's Mark's job to attend to these issues. 

But recently there really hasn't been anything worth his attention. Perhaps occasionally he sees a suspicious man following a woman for far too long, but it's easy enough to protect her simply by webbing him to a lamp post or something. There aren't any, like, discreet meetings under bridges, or black market weapon dealings, or any ties to a much larger, nefarious scheme. It's not like Neo City has a low crime rate either; literally just four months ago, Spiderman's name has been hailed and sung for many nights again because he busted up a drug ring that had ties with two elite schools in the west. Several cases of students overdosing and all that. It was like, serious stuff. 

Not to say that Mark really wants crimes to happen—it's good that there isn't anything happening, actually! But there's also some sort of feeling, some sort of inkling making his Spidey Senses tingle even when there's nothing happening. These past few weeks of inactivity feel like the calm before the storm. That makes sense, right? 

But anyways, there's nothing happening tonight either. Mark swings back to the dorms and through his window at four in the morning, and promptly collapses into bed. 

On Sunday, they receive no morning updates from Ten. 

Yuta tries not to seem disappointed much, but it's clear his mood has taken a swan dive from the balcony of his dorm room to splatter all over the grounds below. Although Mark isn't worried or anything; he's just being dramatic. And it's also fortunate it's a Sunday—he lets Yuta mope around in his room in the dark while he goes off to do his own thing and hang out with people who aren't so dramatic or lovesick.

But they totally do not receive any updates throughout the rest of the day. Does that warrant any concern from any of them? To be very honest… no, absolutely not. Logically, Mark doesn't think so. Maybe it's just Ten not bothering anymore, like, screw you Yuta, you get to see him again on Monday or something like that. Or maybe his battery's finally dead. 

But Mark was still kinda jittery about the whole 'calm before the storm' thing last night. Something about these two coming in consecutive order like this… Not good, not good for his Spidey Senses at all. But it doesn't really make sense, to be honest. The confusion regarding how those two could possibly be linked is also making him jittery. 

By evening Mark doesn't even want to see Yuta for fear of his own ears and sanity. There were some other messages coming from the others; Doyoung asking what they've been up to today, Sungchan asking for them to bring back the rock to be their new classmate, Taeyong straight up asking if something had happened. None of them received any sort of response, though. Not even a blue tick. 

Everyone went to bed early tonight considering they had to go back to school the next day. Mark also went out on patrol earlier than usual, and got back after a few hours of inactivity earlier than usual. The whole time there was this underlying tension in him, thinking about the six of them who went camping. Really, he hoped nothing was wrong. He couldn't really think of any reason for Ten not sending messages suddenly other than 'screw you Yuta' or his battery finally giving out or… hm. Could Ten be careless enough to lose his phone? Unlikely, to be honest. 

Kun had told them before they left that they would return to their parents' home before going back to school on Monday. Yuta was pretty miffed about not getting to see Dejun yet, though of course, he kept silent about it. But not to Mark. Never to Mark. He'd already heard all about Yuta missing him the very second they left, and he would have heard about it too yesterday night about him not being able to wait to reunite with Dejun, but alas, Yuta's sulking had persisted all the way until he slept, which meant he had kept himself in his room the entire day. So. Good for Mark. 

So , imagine Mark's dread and fear when those guys walked back into class together without Dejun. 

Mark doesn't bother turning around to gauge Yuta's expression. He felt his heart stutter like it missed a beat when he counted one, two, three, four, five heads entering the room, and no more, and he started chanting in his head 'calm before the storm, calm before the storm'. 

"Ey, wassuuup!" Donghyuck greets them boisterously.

"Welcome back, losers," Johnny says. 

"Guanheng, where's the rock?" Sungchan asks. 

"Did something happen yesterday?" Taeyong asks. "We were waiting for another video or something." These he says to Ten. 

"Ah," Ten responds. "Battery died. And about the rock—" he snorts.

"We had to leave her behind," Hendery says solemnly. "Really, we wanted to bring her back, introduce her to you all, but ultimately we decided it'd be better if she grew up in an environment she was more comfortable in. Y'know, with all her other rock friends, doing rock stuff, listening to their rock music, getting into rock school."

"It was really hard to leave," Yangyang continues, just as solemnly. "But the thing about love is that… y'know. If you love something, you have to let it go. Or something."

Jaehyun laughs. "Do you hear that, Yuta?"

Yuta takes a while to respond, like he's a little peeved that Jaehyun called him out like that. "The correct phrase is 'if you love someone, let them be. If they come back, then it's meant to be'. Anyways, where's Dejun?"

"Ah," Kun answers, smiling a bit placatingly to calm him down. Mark rolls his eyes. Yuta is being enabled right now, that's the one thing that shouldn't be happening. For Mark's mental state. "He said he's feeling a bit sick."

"Oh?" Doyoung says. "That's weird. And the rest of you aren't?"

"So far, none of us are sick," Ten shrugs. "Don't know why. It's weird, yeah."

If to the point where he can't even come to school, Dejun must be seriously sick. Another thing about this unfortunate guy, he said he used to get sick often when he was younger. Like often often. But, also, because of that, he developed a tolerance for illnesses. When he first transferred here he kept having to wear surgical masks because of whatever sickness he'd get from the change of environment and climate and whatever else. But he still showed up to class, because he said something like a little cough or fever won't stop him from doing what he has to do. So like… he probably isn't a bit sick. More like severely ill. 

And if Dejun is severely ill, that means everyone around him should be infected too. 

"Wah, did he eat a poisonous mushroom or something?" Johnny asks. 

"No," Kun shakes his head. "He said he thinks it's a fever."

"Oh, so just like normal?"

"Just like normal."

"Damn."

"Ah, as long as he gets better," Taeyong says. "Help us tell him we wish him a speedy recovery. He needs to come back soon. 'Cause. Y'know." 

"Huh?" Hendery says. "No, I don't know."

Taeyong gestures to Yuta. Hendery looks like a lightbulb went off in his head.

"OH," he says. "Oh yeah man, totally, he's gonna come back for sure. Don't worry about it. If you ask me he's also probably upset he can't come to school, 'cause, y'know. Ehe. Ehehehe."

Mark looks back only to see Yuta smiling knowingly, chin on hand, eyes shining with glee. It pisses him off already knowing how he's gonna have to endure his best friend gushing later about how he already knows Dejun likes him back—because if only he would do something about his clumsy, injury and sickness-prone crush, then maybe Mark wouldn't have to keep hearing about it. Ah. But then. Maybe he'll end up having to hear about Dejun as a boyfriend. That seems worse, to be honest. Darn it, he hates in love people. 

"Also, y'know, maybe you could—" Donghyuck starts, grinning like he's about to start planning a scheme. 

"I could visit him later, I know, oooh, I'm so smart," but Yuta cuts him off shamelessly, clapping self-satisfactorily as Mark cradles his face in his hand in embarrassment. "And, who said that? I should also bring some food with me? What a good idea. Mint choco ice cream too, he loves mint choco, good idea guys—"

"Oh my god," Ten laughs. 

Mark's spine snaps straight and he turns to pin Ten with a very hard stare. "Don't laugh. I have to deal with him."

"He's so dramatic, they're perfect for each other."

"I know, right!" Yuta grins. 

"Then why are you two not together yet?" Taeil asks. "It's because you're a coward."

"What the fuck—"

But then the door opens once more, and their homeroom teacher steps in. Mark sits up straight, and everyone else settles down as well, and then they greet her when she comes to a stop in front of the whiteboard. Ms Park naturally zeroes in on the empty seat behind him.

"Is something wrong with Dejun?" She asks. 

"He's sick, ma'am," Kun answers. "He's going to the doctor today to get his med cert."

"Ah, is that so?" She gestures for them to take a seat. "Some of you went out camping, didn't you?"

"Over the weekend," Ten answers. "We came back yesterday."

Ms Park tsks. "Next time, plan your time properly. How many times must I say, we're all behind on the syllabus, but the more times I say this the more you guys go ahead and do nonsense things like this."

Ms Park is not a nice woman. There's that saying by Dr Seuss, something along the lines of how one's personality is reflected through their face. Like, no matter how wonky their nose is and if they have a snaggletooth or if they never have a good hair day, if they have the sweetest personality it will still show on their face and make other people feel at ease. Ms Park is on the other side of this spectrum. Mark has a feeling she used to be quite pretty in her youth—her jaw is sharp and angular and her brows are really defined—but she has this really sour personality that just negates it all. She's good at keeping control in her classroom, but more than half the time when she opens her mouth Mark just wants to web it shut. 

"It's not like he planned to get sick, right?" Yuta comments just loud enough for her to hear. 

"But he's always getting sick, isn't he?" She shoots back. See? "How many times does he come into class with a mask, keeps disrupting the lesson because he keeps coughing. Even more, he's putting the rest of you at risk, isn't he?"

"Ah, that's a bit too much, ah?" Ten says. "At least he does his work on time. At least he does come to class."

"And is he here right now?" She asks. "So will he keep getting sick until he eventually can't come to class anymore? And then what? What a waste of his scholarship, ah? As his friends, you all should be looking after him if he doesn't want to look after himself."

Mark feels himself bristling. What a nasty woman. Like it's Dejun's fault he has a weaker immune system. Even if he should be extra careful with himself, it doesn't mean he doesn't get to have fun with his friends. 

Ms Park sighs harshly. "And that means, what? He's not at the dorms, right? He went back to his house?"

Mark sees Kun nod his head out of the corner of his eye. Ms Park sighs harshly another time.

"I already told you all , we are behind the syllabus, didn't I say you need to immediately give me back your homework so I can mark it? Why do you all make your own lives difficult? Everyday is one day closer to your exams, do you all feel ready for it? No? Then why do you keep delaying? I am your teacher, do you know, I am here to help you. So help me help you, okay?"

Crazy lady. No wonder she isn't married. 

"I don't care. I want to see his homework tomorrow. Someone go over to get it from him. And then by the end of today I'm sure there'll be more homework to be done, so someone has to give that to him too. Who's going to his house?"

Mark senses the way Yuta's hand shoots upward. "I'm going." 

Ms Park sniffs. "Of course you are. Whatever, I just want to see his homework tomorrow."

She says nothing more, going over to the teacher's desk to sort out whatever she feels like she needs to sort out. The class sits in silence for the next few minutes until the first bell rings, and then Ms Park immediately launches the first class. And then… yeah, everything else is boring. 

The rest of the school day carries on as usual, and Mark only thinks about Dejun once or twice. Like just in passing. NCTI is an elite all-boys school in Neo City's eastern quarter, though it's by far not the most prestigious or the most academically advanced. Despite that, competition is still rampant, to the point that teachers will keep repeating the words "you're behind syllabus" even though the semester has only just started. Mark is smart academically, but participation marks are a huge factor in this school's overall grades, and unfortunately… Mark can't be bothered to participate. He's just way too tired, mind constantly drifting to other things. 

Maybe he should've given more of a thought to Dejun? It'd be nicer of him, but he's only just ill anyways. Nothing too major, right? Besides… Yuta thinks of him enough for the two of them anyways. 

Ah. In any case, Yuta's still dragging him out to visit the sick lil' dude. 

Neither he nor Mark have ever visited Dejun's house before. Turns out, he lives near to Mark's route number 5, down in the suburbs. Via web-swinging, it took Mark no more than twenty minutes to get to the outskirts of that district, but with Yuta, the travel time took nearly an hour. This lame non-web swinging, constantly needing to take public transport, lovesick idiot of a friend. 

Mark carries with him the homework Dejun didn't get to collect himself, while Yuta has with him a thermos he'd filled with still hot okayu . He said it's what his mom always made for him when he was a kid, when he fell ill. Kinda cute. And according to Kun, Dejun's parents aren't home during the day, and knowing the kind of person he is he'd probably forgo food until they come back home to cook for him. Which is a no go, obviously. Along the way they made a slight detour into a grocery shop, and bought some fruits and a tub of mint choco ice cream. In hindsight the ice cream would probably keep Dejun sick, but Mark didn't register the thought until after they paid.

It takes a while more to locate Dejun's house. The signboard at the beginning of the street read 'Moonlight Avenue'. Mark casts a glance upwards. He supposes with the way the view of the sky is completely unobstructed here, it'd make sense for the place to be named such if it was going to offer a good view of the night sky. He never noticed, honestly. Everytime he went around this area at night he was more preoccupied with the stuff that could happen below. 

Mark can feel Yuta's nervous, jittery energy as they walk past the rows of gates to the third one from the very end. Mark casts a glance around—such a nice, quiet neighborhood. The vibe isn't overly classy nor rustic, and any kind of mess or chaos seemed well-meditated, or on purpose. It was just… enough. Kinda cool. 

They find the gate unlocked, so Mark pushes it open. But as they walk closer to the porch, and the front door… Mark's Spidey Senses start tingling. 

It makes him freeze in place. There's… activity within the house; towards the back—the kitchen, he thinks—his nose picks up the faint smell of food being fried, the almost muted bubbling of the oil. Such… mundane activities, but there's something lurking underneath.

It's just… clear to him, that behind that friendly exterior… There's something wrong in Dejun's house.

Calm before the storm, calm before the storm.

Mark looks to Yuta, about to tell him to wait a moment, but Yuta's already putting his phone to his ear. 

The call goes unanswered at first, but Yuta is undeterred and just calls him one more time. The second time around, Dejun picks up, almost instantly, like he didn’t manage to get to the phone in time the first time round.

“Gege?” Mark can barely hear Dejun’s voice through Yuta’s phone, even with enhanced hearing. He sounds awful —voice croaky and guttural, a complete contrast to his normally smooth, pretty voice. Even with the one word, Mark can hear his blocked nose and his difficulty breathing. Mark catches the way Yuta immediately softens; like expression and stance and everything. 

“Dejunnie, did I disturb you? I’m sorry—”

“No!” Dejun immediately starts hacking up his lungs. “No—sorry, gege—I mean—”

“It’s okay, it’s okay, calm down. Dejunnie, calm down,” Yuta shushes him, glancing up at the closed off window up at the second floor. That’s probably Dejun’s room, now that Mark thinks about it; the curtains must have been drawn to block out the light, because he must be having a headache. “I’m the one calling suddenly like this. Were you sleeping?”

“Uh-uh.” 

“Ah, shit, I really am disturbing—”

“No, it’s gege, of course you’re not disturbing me.”

Yuta, in spite of the situation, giggles . That just makes Dejun laugh in return, as much as he can anyways, with his raspy, uncomfortable throat. But the atmosphere has lightened considerably… to the point Mark isn’t sure if he should be here. He shifts awkwardly, then loudly takes several steps to the side. 

“Because it’s me ?” Yuta teases, glancing at Mark for a moment before stepping to the other side too. Yeah, as he should. Unfortunately no matter how much Yuta thinks the distance is enough, Mark will still always have supernatural hearing. 

“Uh-uh. I always wanna talk to gege.” These two—aiya… and unfortunately for Mark, these two will never realize that Mark can hear every conversation they have even when they whisper or move to some corner in the room. It’s no fault of theirs—purely the fault of the spider that bit him, but he digresses—but it doesn’t mean Mark gets used to hearing his best friend be all sappy and flirty with their classmate. Nah, no way. 

“Dejun’s flirting with me,” Yuta gasps conspiratorially, annoyingly . 

Dejun responds with a giggle again, one that quickly turns into another coughing fit. It sounds terrible .  

“Sorry, Jun.” There’s a few seconds where Yuta says nothing, and he (and Mark, secretly) listen to the sound of Dejun catching his breath. “You okay? It must be really bad if you didn’t want to come to school.”

“No… I mean, yeah … I mean—” he sounds like he’s about to cry. “I'm sorry, gege, it's difficult to talk."

"No, I'm sorry, I'll make this quick, okay?"

"Mm… we can talk more when I come back?"

"Of course. How long did the doctor give you off?"

"Um, I'm coming back on Thursday—"

"Wah."

"—but actually, gege, I… I don't know what's happening—" Dejun suddenly stops. "I just—it doesn't… It… feels different. I don't know."

"I mean, since it's probably something from the forest… your body isn't familiar with it? That's why it feels different?"

"Um… I guess."

"What did the doctor say? Is it just a fever?"

"He says it's a fever, yeah."

"So… ah, whatever it is, it doesn't matter. You'll get better as always." Yuta smiles sweetly even though Dejun isn't here to see it. He looks up at the covered window.

"Kinda sucks that I have to 'get better as always'," Dejun sighs. "I mean, I knew this would happen, I don't know why I agreed to go—"

“Don’t say that… I mean, even if you happen to fall sick more than most people, it doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to have fun, right? And so what if you do fall sick? You’ll always have people to help you, you know, right?”

“I—uh-uh… wait. Gege, are you outside my house?”

Yuta gasps, a bit playfully. “Oh my god, how’d you know?”

“... I can hear you…”

What?

“You can hear me?” Yuta asks, not as… shocked as Mark is. Because what the fuck, what does Dejun mean, he can hear Yuta? Wait, yeah, it’d make sense that he can hear Yuta, they’re literally speaking to each other on the phone right now, but why does it seem as if… that’s not what Dejun means? How did Dejun figure out Yuta’s in front of his house?

“Uh-uh, I can… hear you…” Dejun breaks off into a forced laugh, voice painfully small. “What’s gege doing here, huh?”

Yuta smiles. “Came to deliver some stuff. But… I don’t think you can open the door, right?”

“Actually, my mom took the day off from work today. To look after me. You can just knock.”

“Really? … This isn’t how I imagined meeting your mother.”

Dejun bursts out into laughter again, managing to be amused. “Why not? A handsome guy coming over to see how her son is doing, she'll love you forever.”

Yuta freezes, but his body is trembling violently like he doesn’t know whether to scream or laugh or cry. Mark comes to the realization that flirting is just a back and forth of witty and tastefully suggestive little words like this. Mark can’t fathom having to partake in this with some other person. The whole exchange just seems so exhausting. How would he even know what to say? He supposes flirting just comes naturally to some people. Or maybe one needs to have that feeling of attraction towards someone to unlock their flirting ability… or whatever. What Mark does know is that he's way too tired and preoccupied to find time to fall in love. 

"Gege—?"

"Aiya, Dejunnie, don't start something like this when you're sick. You can't keep up with me," Yuta says hurriedly, still flustered. Dejun seems to have spent more time with Yuta than Mark thought, because he instantly picks up on his shy air. 

"Or maybe gege's just embarrassed and doesn't want me to say anymore. Eh… um, is there someone out there with you?"

Now this causes Yuta to be surprised, and rightfully so. Mark tries so hard to keep his expression under control when Yuta glances at him in shock, because as far as he knew, Mark hasn't made a single sound at all. So… what the fuck ?

"Yeah," Yuta answers. "How did you—"

"Who is it?" If Yuta realizes it was a hasty attempt to not get him to ask that question, he doesn't comment on it.

"Mark." He laughs. "To be honest, I would've gotten lost without him."

"And that's why I said last time I don't wanna go camping with gege. No sense of direction. We'll get lost for sure."

Yuta slaps a hand over his chest dramatically, even though Dejun isn't there to see it. "So mean ! It'll just be because I haven't been there before, of course if I lead we'll get lost." He chuckles. "But, y'know, since Dejunnie is the one who's been camping before, maybe he can be the one to take care of me if we go together."

"Hm," Dejun hums. "We'll see, hm?"

Mark clears his throat. 

"Oh, I hear him again," Dejun says. Now, Mark definitely notices the slight pause before the word 'again'. But he wonders to himself, what sound did he make earlier for Dejun to have heard?

"Oh, yeah, uh," Yuta laughs. "Right, we, uh… right, we came here to drop off some things. Uh… I'll hang up first?"

"Okay." There's a smile in Dejun's voice. 

"Talk again in a bit." With that, they hang up. Mark follows Yuta to the front door, and it takes a while after Yuta rings the doorbell for Dejun's mother to open it. Her sleeves and the hem of her shirt are wet, and Mark sees a fresh welt on the back of her hand that she belatedly tries to hide behind her back.

"Hello," she greets, a bit questioningly. Mark wonders if Dejun's other friends come over often. His critical eye is telling him they don't get visitors often, especially not those around their age. Ten did let it slip once on accident that Dejun didn't have much of a social life when he was younger. 

"Hello," Yuta responds… very nervously. "You're—uh, you must be Dejun's mother, right? I'm Nakamoto Yuta—I mean, we're Dejun's friends, and… Uh, yeah, I'm Yuta, this is Mark, I… we came to see how he's doing, and also to give this." He hands over the bags he's holding, and Mark does the same. "We hope he's okay…?"

Dejun's mother smiles with a raised eyebrow. "Thank you for your concern. Unfortunately Dejun's too unwell to see anyone right now, and he's probably sleeping upstairs anyways. What's this?"

" Okayu ," Yuta answers. "Uh, porridge, I mean. And some fruits and, we also brought his homework. If it were up to me I wouldn't want to bother him with school actually but our teacher told us to give it to him so I can't do anything about that…" he trails off with an awkward laugh. Mark resists the urge to slap his forehead. 

"That's really nice of you. Thank you," Dejun's mother says. 

"Um, we got to know from Kun that it may be a fever?" Mark asks this time. Since she thinks her son is sleeping, he'll just let her think that. "Do you know what it is exactly?"

"Well, the doctor confirmed it's just a fever," she says. "This time around it seems more intense than usual, though, which is why he didn't go to school. In fact, the doctor gave him until Thursday to stay home."

"Dang, it's that bad?" Mark saw Yuta's face originally drop upon being reminded that he has to wait until Thursday to see Dejun again, but very quickly shifts to  give him a sharp look at the word choice. 

She nods. "It must've been something he caught from the forest. He was so adamant on going, but still… he should've known better by now."

Now it's her turn to get a look from Yuta, but she doesn't seem to recognize it for what it is. Dangerous game he's playing, wanting to scold his crush's mom.

"Anyways, thank you for this," she gestures to the bags in her hands. "I'll get him to eat once he wakes up. You two should head back now, before peak hour comes and the trains get full."

Yuta nods hesitantly. "Yes. It was nice meeting you."

She simply smiles back, and only when the two of them take a step back does she close the door. 

They walk back a bit more, back out into the yard, and Mark turns to Yuta, "That could've gone less awkwardly."

"I didn't want to meet her like that," Yuta groans. "Suddenly I didn't know how to speak."

"I guess that's just what happens when you meet your crush's mom, man," Mark shrugs. "If you weren't awkward with her now, you'd be awkward with her some time later when Dejun does decide to finally introduce you to them. It's inevitable."

"You think Dejun would want to introduce me to his parents?" 

Mark sighs, but chooses to indulge him anyways. "Is Dejun, like, talking to anyone else?"

Yuta giggles. Gross. 

Mark shakes his head. "Go call him quickly, say your goodbyes and whatever. His mom's right, the peak hour in this part of the city is brutal."

"Right." Dejun picks up the phone on the second ring. "Dejunnie… we've pa—"

"Gege, look up."

Yuta's head whips up so fast Mark worries for his neck, and when he turns to look up as well he sees that window on the second level with a curtain pulled aside slightly, and peeking through the glass is none other than Dejun. His hair is mussed up the same way it was like in the video Ten had sent, and his already pale skin is paler now from illness. Mark's enhanced eyesight shows him the beads of sweat lining Dejun's forehead, down the sides of his face. Dejun's squinting even though the evening light can't be that severe, but still he insists on pressing his face as close to the window as he can so that he can look at Yuta. 

"Wah…" Yuta proceeds to blubber something incomprehensible in embarrassment. Behind the glass, Dejun's eyes crinkle into crescents, and his head bobs as he laughs. He casts his eyes to the side momentarily and greets Mark with a small wave. 

"Ah… we passed the stuff to your mom," Yuta continues. "Uh… actually we didn't know she'd be home. My food's a bit useless now."

"Aiya, don't say that. Mama's probably cooking too much anyways, and I won't have the appetite. I bet gege's okayu is easier for me to eat."

"Of course… back in Japan we make that all the time for sick kids like you." Then Yuta cocks his head, the exact same time as Mark. "I don't remember telling you I brought okayu , though."

Mark watches a small nervous smile break out on Dejun's face. 

"I don't need gege to tell me, don't I know you?" 

Mark then watches Yuta turn pink. 

"Ah, seriously, you two, even just saying goodbye you need to flirt," Mark grumbles loud enough for him to hear. 

"If you don't like it then leave," Yuta shoots back without hesitation, grinning. 

Mark flips him off. "I have your metro card. Bye then," and promptly walks off. At the growing distance Mark can't really hear Dejun's crackly laughter through the phone, but there's the faint hum of Yuta's voice as he says something to him, and a short while later Yuta's catching up to him. 

"We good?" Mark asks after a few minutes of walking in silence, letting Yuta simper giddily to himself. Get his remaining energy out and whatever. 

"Mhm," Yuta answers. "Let's come back tomorrow." 

"Both of us?" Mark asks, appalled. "You want me to stick around to watch you guys flirt again?"

"Gotta learn something for when you finally get a crush, right?"

"I'd learn better from watching bird mating dance documentaries." And then, "Did you tell him?"

"Tell him what?"

"Your feelings, man, god dang—"

" What , Mark, obviously not?" Now it's Yuta's turn to be appalled; he jerks away from Mark on the sidewalk and makes a face so aghast like Mark just said the dumbest shit in the world. 

"Oh, I just thought, you know, might as well—"

" No , Mark, nooo, confessions are—confessing feelings is all about the time, the place, the atmosphere . It has to be special. Standing in his front yard, talking through the phone, and like, he just found out he's sick and stuff, the doctor said it's a fever but he suspects that it isn't , y'know. So… inopportune, I can't say suddenly I like him."

 "Ah, is it?" Well, that makes sense. Mark has never had a crush develop so much to the point he wanted to confess to them, so he wouldn't really know. 

"Yeah. Little Markie," Yuta sighs, patting his head. "You'll know one day when you're older."

"Fuck off." He swats his hand off his head. And then he passes Yuta his metro card. "What can make you sick in the forest?"

"Hell if I know? A lot probably. And Dejun's more fragile than most, so I guess… a lot more than a lot." Yuta cocks his head to the side. "Bug bites, spores… hell, the water, I wouldn't know."

"Maybe it's that smooth rock."

"Revenge for leaving it behind?"

"Right, that's right. Get at the weak link first."

"Don't say that, man—"

"Once the weak link's down, then it's much easier to get at everyone else."

"Who'd be next then?"

"Bro, you. Duh." 

"I wouldn't mind that, actually. A life where I don't get to stare at him isn't a life I want to live. But personally I think it could be… I mean, in general, talking about the whole class, not just those who went camping… could be Taeyong. Almost just as fragile as Dejun."

"I'm thinking Jisung." 

"Jisung doesn't even want to step near a tree. Five foot eleven and scared of everything under the sun. Just by virtue of… avoiding everything, he'll be fine. Shotaro, though, is another story."

"Ha, remember that time we found out he let himself get punched for $40?"

"Right, we were so mad. I remember Ten saying $40 was too low. Could've asked for more."

"I remember him getting hit for saying that."

"It was Doyoung."

"Then… would Sungchan also?"

"Also no. Sungchan doesn't go out. Needs to be invited, like a vampire. He'd just stay inside and game all day, and he'd survive like that." 

"How did… he know we were outside?" Mark cuts the topic off. He just remembered it all of a sudden, and it's something he can't shake off. "His curtain was closed the entire time."

"I… don't know," Yuta replies. "He sounded kinda scared when I talked to him too. I could be wrong, but… I don't know, I really could be wrong… I mean, he also doesn't believe that it's a fever actually. He said he doesn't know what's happening. I don't think that's a normal thing to say, y'know what I mean?"

"Yeah," Mark nods. What better person would know what's going on with themselves than the person themselves? So the doctor might conclude it to be something, something believable, but the body… the body would know better. Unfortunately, no matter how much the body tries to tell the brain that something is wrong, the person would never know what it is without the knowledge and information. It's understandable that Dejun sounded scared. 

"But… you didn't say anything right?" Yuta continues. "How could he hear you?"

"That's what I've been thinking about too." Mark huffs a laugh, but his heart is thudding. Calm before the storm, calm before the storm. "Man, what did he bring back from the forest?"

Calm before the storm. 

Yuta doesn't answer him, probably because there is no answer to that yet. Yuta probably doesn't have the concerns that Mark is harboring either. It's natural. Yuta has never been exposed to flying bullets, wanted posters all over the city with his face on them, a cunning organization that has hired professionals just to exterminate him like some common bug. Yuta thinks simply, and he's lucky for that. 

Mark's mind churns with all the possibilities, from the most basic to the most outlandish. It's natural for him to think about it all. He's the one this responsibility falls onto, anyways. 

As they board the train back to the dorms, Yuta suddenly says for the first time since they left the neighborhood.

"Mark. Oh my God."

Mark looks up at him in alarm. "Why, what happened?"

"We forgot to get his homework."

The doors close on them, and Mark says, "Oh, holy fuck."

Mark lets Yuta take the fall for that one. Ms Park throws her words like spears at him, but she's been their homeroom teacher for the better part of a year now, so Yuta's probably just letting her words go in one ear and out the other. 

The rest of the day went as usual, and after school Yuta went by himself to Dejun's house. Dejun's mother was still home, so Yuta didn't dare ask to go in. Then at night Mark went out on patrol again, swinging up north this time around towards the dense shopping districts. He broke up a street fight between some drunk uncles, and escorted a young woman towards her neighbourhood. 

Wednesday was same-old, same-old, Yuta went to visit again, and at night Mark veered west while on patrol. This time nothing happened, so he returned to the dorm with pent up energy and nerves. Enhanced senses tend to do that. Everything is taking a slight curve down into paranoia. 

On Thursday morning, he was awoken by an electric zing down his spine. His eyes first take in the way the hair on his arm is standing on end in front of his face, and then they refocus slightly behind it, to his alarm clock that's half an hour away from ringing. His eyes then dart to his window, panning south, looking through the building walls. 

What an insane reaction. 

He hasn't felt this way before. 

Something's terribly wrong. 

He looks at his clock again. Then out the window. His mind is screaming 'south, suburbs, Dejun', but he knows that's only anxiety making him think of the worst case scenario. He doesn't, in fact, know what the thing is and where it is, because he's still in bed just freshly woken up from sleep.

He needs to investigate. 

He looks at his clock again. 27 minutes until he's supposed to be awake. An hour and a half until he's supposed to be in class. He can make it. Probably. 

He quickly pulls on his suit and jumps out the window. 

While Spiderman's face is well-known throughout the city, he still only operates mostly at night, so actual sightings of him during the day are few and far between. Like a proper cryptid. Because of this, when he swings through the streets at morning peak hour, there's an understandable clamour, and he catches sight of fingers being pointed and phones being pulled out. His moniker is called out a few times, some people wanting to take a picture with him, but he can only say sorry and that he's in a rush and continues swinging down towards the suburbs where Dejun lives. 

Gosh, he hopes nothing's happened to him. 

In the suburbs, it isn't as busy as the city, but there are still people walking down the pavements, driving their cars down the road. Mark lands lightly on a rooftop near the entrance of Moonlight Avenue, waves casually at two or so kids, then begins hopping down the row, towards Dejun's house. At the same time, he keeps an eye below him, and around him. He doesn't know what he's looking for, but he's confident that he'll know once he sees it. 

But there's nothing. It's getting frustrating. Especially after that electric shock of an alarm from his Spidey Senses, how can there be nothing ? Calm before the storm, but the anticipation is killing him.

Mark circles around Dejun's house, then stops on the roof of the house directly across the street from it. 

Dejun's window is still covered, and the front door remains closed, and Mark senses no activity within the house. Where previously, he could tell that there was someone doing something at the back of the house—it had been Dejun's mom cooking—now the house was still like a graveyard. 

Not the greatest comparison for his paranoia. Yikes.

"Hey, Spiderman!" 

Mark feels his attention snap, and he looks down to where a kid no older than fourteen stands on the pavement waving enthusiastically up at him. Mark stutters, glancing at Dejun's house, and then immediately lifts off to land in front of the kid. 

"Uh, hey to you too," Mark says, crouching down. Does the kid want to say something to him?

"Can I take a picture with you?"

Mark freezes for a moment, but immediately collects himself. "Yeah, sure, man, no prob, uh—" The kid immediately spins on his heel and holds his phone out at arm's length, and for all of Mark's Spidey Senses, he falters at deciding what to do. By the time he has his arm raised halfway up for a peace sign, the shutter sounds, and the kid is turning back to look at him. 

"Thanks, man, this is so cool. D'ya mind if you pull up your mask for a bit, so I can prove to my friends it's really you?"

"What—that doesn't—that kinda beats the purpose of having a mask," Mark shrugs weakly. 

The kid just laughs. "You're cool, man." He holds his hand up for a fist bump, so Mark gives him one. "See you around!"

"Yeah…" Mark waves lamely at him, because the kid is already walking away, fingers tapping on his phone. He sighs. Kids these days. 

Since he's been spotted like this, there's no point in maintaining discretion. He crosses the street straight for Dejun's front door, but when he tries it he finds that it's locked. The back door also turns out to be locked, and any window he peers in shows no sign of activity. It's a concerning type of concern that Mark is feeling, like is there really something to be worried about? He sees nothing . He hears nothing . He smells nothing . He can only do something if there is something to be done about. Like if he breaks down the door based on a hunch it'll be breaking and entering. Some people will finally have a reason to blacklist him and stuff like that. 

So with that, with the final result of nothing found, he goes on his way, doing one more sweep down the neighbourhood just in case before returning to the dorms and getting ready for school. He makes it back just in time too, just in time to shower and get to class before Ms Park enters. 

And he pauses. And waits. And waits. And waits. He watches the door, focusing his attention all in his ear for the set of footsteps that should be approaching any time now. None comes. 

Dejun isn't coming. 

Ms Park voices out the question in his head. "Where's Dejun? Isn't he supposed to come back today?"

"He's supposed to," Kun answers. "He told us yesterday he's feeling better."

Taeyong pipes up. "We can give him a call. Maybe the fever has relapsed, or he overslept—"

But Ms Park waves him off. "Don't bother. If he's late, he's late. If he doesn't come, then that's on his record. Focus on yourselves." 

Mark frowns. Nasty woman. 

He turns to look at Yuta over his shoulder, who meets his eyes with a conflicted, upset look, and then over his other shoulder to look for Ten. He's communicating silently with Kun, and Mark really doesn't know what they're saying to each other, but it looks like it's something along the lines of 'what the fuck is happening?' and 'I don't fucking know, why are you mad?'. 

Dejun doesn't show up for the entire first half of the day. When the bell rings for recess and the class slowly starts to filter out, Mark overhears Kun and Ten talking about Dejun. 

"—but he told me last night he's feeling better, that automatically means he's coming to school," Kun says. 

"Then where the heck is he?" Ten responds. 

"Fuck if I know?" Kun shoots back. 

Hendery quickly waves his hands like he's trying to dispel the tension. "Aiya, just call him, see if he picks up." 

"I've been calling him throughout class," Yangyang says, suddenly appearing beside Mark. "He didn't pick up at all."

"Yangyang," Ten says sharply.

"Safer me than anyone else, I'm at the corner."

"Did something happen to him?" Winwin asks. "Did he fall down and hit his head or something? Should we go check?"

"We'll never make it back in time," Kun says. "Best we can do right now is just wait until after school, then go to his house." 

Ten sighs heavily. Then he calls out, "Yuta! You went again yesterday, right?"

Approaching Mark and his desk, Yuta nods in answer. "He's recovered already yesterday. He didn't say anything about not coming."

Mark has a dark thought, but he doesn't say it. He doesn't even know what to make sense of it. He saw nothing , he heard nothing . And that's a problem. By now, it'd be too late to do anything. 

He meets Yuta's eyes once again. 

"Don't worry about it," he says in a bid to calm Yuta's worries. Uncharacteristically, Yuta doesn't say anything in response. 

There's really nothing any of them can do now anyways. Mark himself won't be able to do anything in time for the next class, and what's more, sneaking out right now is impossible. All he can do is wait and hope nothing is wrong. 

But isn't it that whenever someone says "I hope nothing is wrong", it turns out to be very, very wrong?

It's when they're returning to their dorm building. Mark's walking behind Donghyuck and Renjun, each of them eating a steamed bun. He's just minding his own business, only half-listening as Donghyuck chatters about nonsense. Yuta had gone back already because he wasn't hungry, and Doyoung had also wanted his and Johnny's help for something. At some point Doyoung has to learn that Yuta will only ever show up to give moral support, but not actually offer help. At some point, it'll stick in his brain. 

And slightly up ahead are Kun and Chenle. Chenle's chattering as much as Donghyuck, and has his hand on Kun's arm guiding him down the walkway because Kun's scrolling down his social media. They're like a father and child, which is weird because aren't they the same age?

That's when Kun's phone rings, and surprise overtakes him so clearly because he halts in place. Chenle comes to a stop with him, and when he takes a look at Kun's phone screen he looks surprised as well. Kun answers the phone.

Donghyuck and Rejun meander past them without much thought, but Mark takes a pause on Kun's other side. It's just the Spiderman part of him, the part that wants to poke his nose into everybody's business just in case it was also a superhero kind of business. He's learnt how to be discreet by now, anyways. 

"... Good afternoon… no, I haven't seen him… no, I'm pretty sure… he didn't come by at all… oh? Is that… really? Okay, yes… yes, I will… okay… goodbye…"

"What did she ask?" Chenle asks once Kun hangs up. 

"Who is it?" Mark asks as well.

"Woah—" Kun yelps, startled at his presence, but recollects himself pretty quickly. "That was Dejun's mom. She was just asking if… we'd seen him." 

"What, did he run away?" Chenle asks, incredulous. 

"Um. He's not at home, apparently."

Mark doesn't want to think too hard on it. "So… he just went to the store?"

"Uh… his window was smashed open," Kun says, his eyes quivering noticeably. He scratches the back of his head and looks around like he's still processing the conversation he had. 

"Ah, what the fuck?"

"Ah, what the fuck?" Chenle echoes.

"Uh huh. She said they've already called the police, but just called me in case he came through the school."

"Ah… maybe he is?" Mark says, even though he doesn't quite believe it himself. "Maybe he's back in the dorm?"

"Ten or Hendery would've called me if he was, since they're back already."

"And Yuta would've called Mark, since he's also back—" Chenle begins.

"No, he absolutely would not bother to," Mark corrects him immediately. He flaps his hands. "I think we're forgetting something. His window is broken? Like, a rock thrown from outside broken or did he fall out of it broken?"

"Uh… that wasn't clarified to me," Kun answers. "Uh… how do I break the news to them…" 

Mark shakes his head. "No, no, don't. I suggest not yet. Until we have further information, don't tell anyone. Chenle, we are not telling anyone yet." 

Chenle opens his mouth to argue, but quickly closes it shut when Mark glares at him. 

"You should speak with Ten, maybe, at most, but as of now, we can't assume that he's missing. It takes 24 hours for a person to be declared missing, let's remember that," Mark says. "Did she say when she found out Dejun was missing?"

"She found his room empty when she came back from shopping two hours ago," Kun explains. "She left the house four hours ago, and as far as she knew Dejun was still sleeping at that time. So whatever happened, it was between then."

"Hm." Mark looks up the path. Donghyuck and Renjun have long disappeared; they're probably back in the dorm with everyone else. "That's too recent. He won't be declared missing yet. So… let's not cause unnecessary panic. If he's still not found tomorrow, then we'll tell them. But for now…"

"Wait, didn't Yangyang say he was calling him during class just now?" Chenle points out. "So…"

"No, we still don't know anything for sure," Mark shakes his head. "Let's not assume anything too drastic. For now…"

"Mm," Kun nods. "I'll keep in contact with his mom. I have some uncle friends around the area, I'll ask if they've seen him."

"I know of a faster way," Chenle says. "Let's call Spiderman."

"Do you have his phone number?" Kun asks dryly. 

"Of course I do," Chenle answers with a straight face, but he doesn't even bother pulling out his phone. 

Mark rolls his eyes. "Right. In the meantime… Let's just keep quiet about this. If you wanna tell your friends," he says to Kun, "then you'll know the best way to break it to them, but absolutely, under no circumstances, will we tell Yuta. Please." 

"If you say so," Chenle shrugs. "What happens if he is declared missing?"

"That's something to think about tomorrow," Mark says firmly. 

"You're awfully calm about this," Kun comments. "I don't know, maybe it's just… after everything… my heart's beating too fast, I—"

"What do you mean, after everything?" Mark asks. "Did something happen in the forest?"

"Uh—" Kun stops himself. Then he sighs, and says, "The thing is, I don't even know what happened. The last night, we found him passed out for a while within the trees. Hendery found him, I mean. He woke up like ten minutes later, and he doesn't remember anything about it. He seemed fine, so we just let it go for the time being. But… how do I say this, I just felt that—I knew something was off with him."

"How?" Mark prods further. "Did he do anything, behave strangely?"

"No, he didn't," Kun answers. "And that's the thing. He didn't behave strangely, he didn't do anything weird, and yet… whenever I looked at him after we found him like that, I just could feel that there was something so wrong.

"And then, now this," he sighs. "I just don't know what's happening."

"That's not your fault," Mark says, shaking his head. He thumps a heavy hand on Kun's back. "Not your fault, bro."

"I'm sure Dejun's fine," Chenle says. "He's one unlucky bastard, isn't he? But he always somehow manages to come back. It'll be fine."

Is it really? 

It's some time past midnight, and he's back at Dejun's house. His bedroom window hasn't been repaired yet, and only the curtains have been drawn to block out the inside, so it's really nothing for Mark to just slip in. 

At first glance, it looks like any normal teenage boy bedroom. As normal as Dejun gets, anyways. There's a wall of CDs; the whole Twilight franchise, Harry Potter, Ice Age, and damn , is that Beowulf? He hasn't seen that movie since he was a kid. 

His bed is unmade, and his laundry basket is full, and strewn all over his desk are chocolate wrappers, and there's one half-eaten on his bed. Mark cocks his head to the side; some type of coping mechanism? 

He doesn't know what he's looking for. If there was even a clue, he doesn't know what it would look like. 

He looks down at the floor below the window, then at the chocolate wrappers strewn all over the desk. There aren't any glass shards on the floor. Logically if Dejun's parents had cleaned them up, they would've also thrown away all the wrappers as well. They're probably leaving the room as is in the case of an impending investigation, if Dejun isn't found by tomorrow. 

So… Dejun jumped out the window. But why? 

Mark leaps back out of the room, sticking himself to the wall outside. The walkway outside is clear of glass, which means that if there were any blood splatter, they would've been washed away as well. Ideally, he'd use that blood splatter to track down Dejun, establish a direction or something along those lines, but, well, he can't have everything he wants. 

He supposes the next best thing is to make use of his knowledge of the city. He hauls himself up onto the roof and takes another survey of the area. He can't exactly see it right now, but he knows that somewhere down in the south is a cluster of ghost towns. The previous mayor five years ago had the residents relocated for some developmental plans involving the nearby coastline that never ended up happening, and then three years ago the new mayor was elected and he's currently focusing on different things, so those ghost towns stay abandoned. 

Those ghost towns are a hotspot for things like illegal gatherings, illegal happenings, illegal whatever. He's cleaned through that place more times than he cares to remember, and honestly it's also because that place is off the police's radar. No people living there to protect, why would they bother, right? So it's just another responsibility for Spiderman to bear. 

And it just so happens that's directly where he's facing, perched on the roof above Dejun's window. Mark frowns, weighing the possibilities for a moment, before he launches himself off the wall and goes swinging for those ghost towns. It's a far-fetched theory, but it's still possible. 

But it's only a while before he comes across something unexpected. 

In a dirty alleyway, lying on their stomach, is a person. Mark would've said face-down, only… the person didn't have a head. His heart lurches up to his throat as he lands next to the body, and then he calms down a little when he realizes it's far too old to be Dejun's body. 

But still… it's a frickin' headless person. 

The longer Mark stares at the body, the more he feels his dinner rushing up his throat. 

Mark has never come across this situation before. In all his three years as a vigilante, he's never come across something like this. Yeah, he's come across dead bodies; that is a given in his line of business, just… they've always had their heads still attached. And this one…

Mark crouches down, balancing his weight on his fingertips as he takes a closer look at the body. His face scrunches up in disgust behind his mask. The cut was… brutal, for lack of a better word. Gruesome, unclean, jagged where the wound opened up and the skin was torn unevenly, as if… as if the head was bitten off. 

Mark straightens up, bewildered as he stumbles back a few steps, and he looks around him at a loss for what to do. Well… the guy's dead. And he's not Dejun. 

Out near the main road, he finds a payphone. He calls the police. This process is normal by now—he never uses devices that can expose his identity, and the police never pressure him about it when he's the one who leads them to tasks and cases to solve. He waits by the body as the police cars and ambulance pull up, and then goes along with their police protocol, giving his statement and whatever else. 

He hangs around as the coroner checks the body, and he hears him tell his colleagues, "Time of death estimated to be ten hours ago."

Ten hours ago? When was ten hours ago… It happened during the last two class periods. 

And then, he hears a police officer say to another, "This makes the third body. And if it's ten hours ago… it's quite similar in timing isn't it?"

Mark whips his head around and closes the distance towards that police officer. "Hey, man, did I hear you wrong? There are two other bodies?"

The second officer nods, frowning judgmentally at him. "Yeah. Where the hell have you been? It's been the talk of the town."

Even though his tone wasn't accusing him of not doing his job, more like wondering noncommittally why he didn't happen to know, Mark still reddens under the mask in embarrassment. "Sorry, man, it's just that, y'know, I got other responsibilities during the day too."

The officer nods. "Right, I should've thought about that. Anyways, yeah, this is the third body. If the modus operandi were any more normal, then this is a spree killing. But, seeing as…" They look over to where the headless body is, now being zipped up in a body bag in preparation to be transported off to the morgue. Mark turns back to the officer. "Yeah. I don't even know what to call this."

The first officer nods as well. "Yeah. All three bodies so far have been found in the same state. Headless. It's barbaric, who would do such a thing? And look at the neck. It wasn't even hacked off, the bastard who did this tore the head off."

"Is that even possible?" The second officer frowns. 

"Can you think of any other way they ended up like that?"

Such were occupational hazards. Some careers will lead one into this kind of macabre nonchalance. They all have to learn how to cope. Mark is still not used to it—but maybe it's because he's still young. 

"Where were the other two bodies found?" Mark asks, steering the conversation another way. 

The first officer points over his shoulder. "The second one just a few streets down from here, actually, and the other one further south, on the roadside by Miracle Zone. Don't know how no one saw anything, it was smack in the middle of the day."

Mark didn't listen to that last bit. He was staring into the distance, far past any normal eye could see. Further south? The ghost towns ? 

Calm before the storm, calm before the storm.

By the time there's nothing else to see, it's nearing two, and Mark feels drained. But still, he swings himself up onto the roof of a high-rise, eyes forever fixed south. He takes a difficult moment to weigh his options. It's still a school night, and like he said earlier to the officer, he has responsibilities during the day, when he's a school kid. He's not invincible; he needs sleep to regain energy to make it through the day. And this unexpected issue—the spree killing—the police are already aware of it, for far longer than he has. They're not completely incompetent, anyways. 

He glances back in the direction of the dorms, and for that action alone, he winces, feeling a pang of guilt. 

Isn't he Dejun's friend? Haven't they known each other for so long already, how could Mark think about resting knowing that Dejun is somewhere out there, in the cold, dangerous night, possibly still sick and out of his mind and alone and vulnerable. What the hell? How could he turn back? And now, there's the risk of a madman descending upon him, killing him for no reason—gosh. 

Gosh . Isn't he Spiderman?

He takes a running start before leaping off the side of the building, swinging the way to the southern ghost towns. He doesn't feel the pressure of the rushing wind against his mask because all he's thinking about is Dejun, Dejun, Dejun, what state he would find him in, if he would even find him at all. Why would he leave the house at all anyways, and why did he choose the window? 

He only remembers that, ultimately, it's only just a hunch when he arrives at the outskirts of the aforementioned ghost towns. The streets are, expectedly, barren of life, and the street lamps weren't lit, and the ground was covered with unswept leaf litter. Mark knows, however, that despite the lifeless appearance, there are countless people hiding inside the abandoned houses—squatters, small-time gangsters and the like. 

But when he touches down on a street, he finds that… the houses all around him are dead. 

He smells blood. 

Dejun is wiped from his mind instantly, and he darts into a house on his right. To his horror, he finds a body almost exactly the same as the one he found two hours earlier. Except, this one was a woman, and she was laying on her back, and it appeared as though her head and neck had been chewed on like a chicken bone leaving a grinded mess of a spine left. 

Before he feels the urge to throw up again, Mark runs out of the house and into the next one, and into the next, and the next, and he finds the same thing in every one of them. Bodies piled together, missing their heads, in 15 of the houses.

Very clearly, the one who'd killed the body in the alley is the same as the one who'd done the same to these people. Yes, this was a killing spree. A fucking killing spree, holy shit…

Oh god, what if Dejun was here? 

The fear turns Mark into a chicken running around with his own head missing, crashing through front doors and combing through each and every house just to prove himself wrong that he isn't here . He's in the middle of vaulting over a house to get to the next section when he feels it again.

The white-hot, lightning pain lancing up his spine, into his neck and down to his toes. He loses his momentum and crashes down the slope of the roof and nearly tumbles off onto the ground, but his fingertips catch the eave and he hangs on just barely. He swiftly pulls himself up to crouch low over the roof, and his head swivels around as he surveys the area around him. 

There's something here. 

Crawling up to the ridge of the roof, he makes a slow turn in all directions. 

His gaze lands in one particular section of the town, and his Senses spike, so he hurtles himself in that direction, careening off roof and ridge and chimney—and that's when he hears it. 

The crunch of bone. 

The tearing of muscle and sinew, flesh. 

A guttural breath. 

Mark lands with a powerful bang in front of the house he heard it from, announcing his presence. 

The front door was cracked open; just wide enough for one person to slide through. Mark doesn't know what he's dealing with. 

Despite that, he steels himself, and with a deep inhale, he bellows, "Come out!"

The chewing continues, but Mark senses he's being perceived from whoever—whatever—is in the house. 

And then there's the thud, thud, thudding of heavy footsteps—too heavy to be a regular human—and the door is being pulled open, and what comes out is unlike anything Mark has ever seen or expected. 

It is a monster . 

A monstrous image of a human with all its features and appendages, but its skin was blacker than the night sky and pockmarked with lichtenberg figures, and it had a lipless mouth stretched into a wide, painful grin, dripping and stained red. It was taller than Mark, the crown of its head almost brushing the door frame. Its body wasn't quite wide or stocky, but its shoulders were well-built, like they could hurtle Mark several hundred feet without an effort. And its eyes . Pupil-less and milky white like a blind man's, but nevertheless all-seeing and with such an intensity in its gaze. Like Yuta when he gets unnaturally focused during sports and games, like Taeyong when he becomes the class leader and has to scold them. Like Dejun's eyes, all the time, every time. 

Mark takes a step back in fright. 

The creature scoffs . 

It licks its bloody teeth clean as if mocking him, and the grin pulls just a little bit wider. Then it cocks its head to the side, and speaks . 

"Oh, so we've never trusted this guy?" 

Mark stumbles backwards even more, inhaling sharply through his nose. 

"It was implied," the creature continues, unbothered with Mark. It seems to be talking to itself. It sighs. "I am you, and you are me, and so we are we."

"Uh, hey man," Mark calls out nervously. Even though the creature lacked pupils, it still feels as though its eyes snapped back to focus on him. He gulps. "Uh… wassup?"

It seemed unimpressed. 

"Is this what this planet regards as a… superhero?" The creature ponders out loud, still conversing with itself. Mark watches the way it hums and nods at whatever thought came up to answer that question. But still… what the fuck. 

"Who're you talking to, buddy?" He takes a venture. 

He didn't expect to be answered at all, so he was taken aback when the creature does respond.

"My host," was the simple reply. That does not explain anything to Mark, however. 

"Is that so?" He chuckles awkwardly. "Uh, so… what are you?"

"What an incredibly rude thing to ask." 

"No offense! It's just that… y'know?"

"No, I do not, Spiderman ," it hisses his moniker like an insult. "You should explain yourself."

" You should explain yourself," Mark counters. "Are you the one who's been killing these people? Biting their heads off?"

"Is that a crime?"

"What the—yes!" Mark makes a face under his mask. "Yes, it's not only a crime! It's murder. It's a sin!"

The creature sniffs. "Perhaps, to you humans. To me, it is simply eating ."

"Wha—Okay, what the hell are you?" Mark demands. "Where did you come from? What are you doing here?"

"I am exactly what you see before you," the creature replies. "Before this host, I came out from the body of a ursid. And I am here, feasting ." It throws its head back and its arms out wide, and its jaw falls open to reveal a long, prehensile tongue. "This place is an all-you-can-eat buffet! Far better than the undeveloped brains of the creatures in the forest."

Brains? It's eating brains. 

"Aw… hell nah, man," Mark shakes his head. "Nah, no, nope. No, I won't allow this. You know my name. You know who I am, yes?"

The creature faces him again, and if anything, its teeth grows sharper, like it knows what he's gonna say next. He says it anyways.

"Then you'll understand why I have to stop you."

The creature's maw drops open, and Mark is answered with the most terrifying snarl he'll probably ever hear in his life. Like voices, layered on top of each other, scratchy and guttural, piercing and rough, a warning and a provocation all at the same time. 

Mark lunges at the creature, and belatedly realizes his mistake when it doesn't move to block or evade him and wholly accepts his feet planted square in its face, because then he's instantly grabbed. It's with such speed that not even he becomes too surprised to react, and he's hurled to the side to crash into an unlit lamp post. The metal snaps against his body, and he lands on his fingertips and toes to immediately spring away from that spot, because then the road was cratered by the creature's feet, directly where Mark's own head had been. 

It devolves into a game of hit and evade for both of them. In all of his three years, Mark has never come across anyone or anything that can match his speed, not even flying bullets. But this, this creature, this monster … as Mark launches a manhole cover at the thing's neck, only for it to be caught mid-air and thrown back at him, he suddenly comes to the realization that he can't beat it. 

Mark vaults himself around another lamp post to land on a roof, and the creature follows without missing a beat. The roof cracks under its feet, and it swipes up the displaced tiles to propel them at Mark. He can't completely evade such a close cluster of projectiles, and he can't bite back a curse when one of them grazes his cheek.

"Not used to getting hurt?" the creature sneers with its overlapping voice. 

Mark glares at it under his mask. "Screw yourself." He wants to finish this now, but he knows sure as hell he can't possibly beat it. His brain is telling him that, his Spidey Sense is telling that. If Yuta were here he'd scream at Mark to get the fuck away, recollect and reassess. 

… But he was the one who lunged first. It'd be embarrassing to suddenly retreat. 

He shoots a web straight at the thing's sternum, and yanks himself towards it feet-first, but he's caught and punted back onto the roof, flat on his back. And then he's picked back up, and slammed back down, and then up once more by his legs before he's punted into the building across the street. 

He's quick enough to regain his senses and evade an incoming pounce, skidding through debris, and the creature follows through without a wasted breath. Mark looks up only enough to see a giant maw wide open aiming for his head, and he reacts by shooting a dollop of webbing into the back of its throat. It reacts the way anyone with a throat would react at getting spiderwebs shot down it. 

Mark zooms himself out of the house, skin prickling at the enraged scream echoing behind him, the grunting and the coughing as it hacks up the webbing out of its mouth. Just as quickly, he swings himself down the street, back to the outskirts, the fastest he's ever shot through the sky. Landing on a roof, he takes a moment just to look back. 

The creature is gone. 

Mark lets out a terrified breath, pressing a hand against the chimney to steady himself, and he peers through the darkness to look for that monstrous shape. There's nothing; no movement, no sounds, nothing. Even his Spidey Senses isn't picking up anything, which very likely means the creature had moved away from the location as well. 

His body moves on autopilot as he swings back into the town, towards the house he had crashed into. Casting a single glance inside is enough to tell him that the creature is well and truly gone. 

But that raises the question; where did it go? Will it continue eating people? 

Now, after detaching himself from the situation, Mark is seriously at a loss of what to do. 

He jumps up onto a roof, then pulls his mask up enough just so he can heave the heaviest sigh he'd ever sighed. His eyes roam the perimeter of the town, but he still sees nothing, and he hears nothing. His Senses still aren't picking up anything, and now he's got no direction to go. 

And, after all this, still no Dejun. 

What's he gonna do now?

In the end, he decides to comb through the remaining houses anyway, even if Dejun might not be here. When he comes up with only a handful more headless bodies, the rest of the houses completely vacated, and no Dejun, he turns on his heels and heads back to the dorm. 

(Listen, don't ask him how he knew none of the headless bodies were Dejun. He'd know his own friend, okay?)

He slips back through his room window at a quarter to five, chucks his suit into his wardrobe and promptly collapses in bed.

He misses his alarm. By a long shot. 

When he opens his eyes it's 11 in the morning, and Mark groans, flopping over onto his other side. There's no point in even attempting to get to class at this point, so he takes his time in getting up. He's got like about a bajillion missed calls from Taeyong, Doyoung and Jisung, aww bless his heart, and two messages from Yuta that said 'idiot, i said not to work out at night' and 'haha u gonna die'. Bastard. 

He rolls back over again and catches the red of his suit through the open door of his wardrobe. He blinks once, twice and then gets up, pulling the suit on. He gets his little fanny pack to put in his phone, headphones, wallet and keys, and then jumps out the window. 

His first objective is breakfast, of course, so he gets himself bungeoppang to eat while lounging on the arm of a construction crane somewhere. 

After eating, he resumes his journey. His destination is south once again—he intends to search through the other few ghost towns there, just to clear up any suspicion that Dejun could be there. Today, if there's still no sign of Dejun, he'll be officially declared missing, and then there'll be an article about him published. No matter if people will actually actively look for him or not, because it's been announced, the chance of him being found will definitely still be higher. 

But it'll be tedious if he's officially declared missing. 

Ah, whatever, he doesn't want to think about that yet. 

The vibe in the ghost towns during daytime is a lot different from the night. He sweeps through the first town quickly—no sight of Dejun—and about a mile away, the second town—still nothing—veering to the north, a few kilometers away—nothing. It's late afternoon when he's finally done with the fifth and final town, and still Dejun is nowhere to be found. So he heads back upstate, finds himself a tteokbokki store for lunch, and eats it atop a skyscraper. Don't worry, he went back down to ground level to throw it in a trash can properly. 

From that place, he walks the streets, waving casually at the other pedestrians, performing little tricks for people who want to upload videos on social media. 

Ground surveillance. It's as good a plan as any. If Mark were to jump out his window and run away to who knows where, he'd hide himself in plain sight in a highly populated area. It's not like Dejun would know, but even with Mark's enhanced eyesight, it's still a common occurrence to accidentally gloss over a friend in a sea of people. Things like that are just natural. 

But as to which part of the populated area Dejun would be in… how the hell would Mark know? 

It's been a while since he'd walked the streets like this, though. Even if he's in his Spidey Suit, it's a nice change from the usual night patrols and the gruelling hours in school. In any other circumstance, it'd be so chill.

He walks the streets from one section to the other, until the sun has long set and the streets buzz with the night life. He gets himself two more servings of bungeoppang, and then when he passes by a waffle shop the young server offers him one, so of course he accepts. 

But in the end, all this still amounts to is another round of fruitless searching. It seriously feels like the last few weeks of that whole 'calm before the storm' thing has stacked all on top of one another and he's feeling the whole weight of it today. Gosh dang, how could one kid attract so much trouble? 

He checks his phone as he takes a break, lounging on a street bench comfortably. He's gotten a bunch more missed phone calls and messages from the rest. Yuta's ones read : 

'are you seriously playing truant'

'that's unlike you friend'

'dejun still didnt come im so fucking sad idk what happened to him'

'where the FUCk did you go taeyongs gonna scold you like hell'

'wtf why did i just get scolded too?? I hate you'

'why tf did i just learn that dejuns missing??'

'hello??'

'officially declared missing? What the fcking hell'

'did you know??'

'you piece of shit you KNEW'

'dont you dare fucjing ignore me mark its 8 where the hell are you'

'dont come back then ill kill you im fukcing pissed'

'mark im really sad pls come back'

Mark just shakes his head. Dramatic ass. 

He continues his ground surveillance, and only two hours later does he think it's time to return. By this time the class should've retired already, but who knows anymore, what with two students now being missing. The fact that Yuta spelled out Taeyong's name correctly means Taeyong is royally pissed, but Mark's encountered scarier things already. 

Alright, whatever then. 

He'll sneak in to change into civilian clothes, re-enter through the front door and apologize to Taeyong if he sees him and endure the lecture, then find Yuta and pick up whatever broken mess he's catastrophized himself into. Tomorrow, he'll sneak out again when no one's looking and continue the search. 

Yeah. Good plan. 

Just as he expected, there's a couple of people still down in the living room, deep in conversation with each other. There's Taeyong and Kun, expectedly, and Doyoung, Ten, and Jeno and Jaemin. Those two are frequently recruited for jury duty, they're reliably objective when class arguments happen.

Sitting slightly apart from the rest and not partaking in the discussion is Yuta, but his focus looks no less divided. 

Dejun had confessed to Mark once that Yuta's stare terrified him. Back when both weren't friends but only looking at each other, and Yuta's stare was just naturally intense and deep when something had his whole attention. Mark has never felt that kind of intimidation when looking at Yuta, but maybe there's a nervousness now, knowing he's gonna be scolded. 

Oh, he's kinda fearing the confrontation now. 

He climbs up to his third story window and finds some acceptable looking clothes, then jumps back out and takes a wide detour to circle back to the front door. Ten is the first to notice him as he walks up the pathway, and the conversation stops as they wait for him to enter the door. 

The air is thick with tension such that Mark almost chokes on it, but he only gives a small smile and a wave and says, "Hi."

For that, Yuta punches him across the face. 

"What the fuck were you doing?" He yells. "How could you just leave without saying anything? You think people wouldn't worry?"

The punch didn't faze him, but Mark feigns hurt to not provoke Yuta anymore than he already is. 

"Especially now that we know that not only Dejun's missing, there's a spree killer on the loose," Taeyong stands up, and that does make Mark flinch. "Mark, that was stupid. I can ignore that you didn't come to class, but when you ignore my calls, that fucking crosses a line. What if something happened to you?"

Mark wouldn't know what to say anyway…

"How do I explain this to the teachers? Your phone was with you, so why didn't you answer? Where did you go?" 

Mark shifts on his feet. "I just… I woke up at 11, so there was no point in going to class. I decided to just take a walk around the city, like… just a breather." 

"The fuck do you mean , just a breather," Yuta laughs incredulously, running a hand through hair. "Didn't you read the news this morning? Dejun's missing, and there's a serial killer, so you decided to take a walk through the city for a breather ? What the fuck?"

"But… but I'm fine," Mark says weakly. "I… I'm fine, I'm sure Dejun's… fine too actually—"

"How would we know that?" Yuta explodes. "Does that mean it's okay to just go out and do whatever by yourself? I didn't know where you went, you didn't answer me, Mark what the fuck is wrong with you?"

Doyoung grabs Yuta by the shoulders, pulling him back to the couch. "Okay, sit down, Yuta, sit down."

Yuta jerks his hand off. "Okay, y'know what, I don't give a shit about you. You never listen to me anyways, I keep telling you to sleep early, but fucking look, you wake up at 11 and then disappear. I give up on you. But why the fuck didn't you say anything when you know about Dejun? Mark? I had to find out through a fucking news article!"

"Because it'd cause unnecessary panic," Kun answers for him instead. "We'd agreed yesterday that until we have more information, nothing should be said."

"Well now we have more information. Now what? What do we do?"

"What do you think we can do, Yuta?" Kun glares. "What can we do, as students, powerless as we are?" Then he stops abruptly, sighing harshly. "No, Yuta, I need you to calm down. Sit down . Don't let your feelings get in the way of your head."

"My feelings—" Yuta scoffs. "What about your own head, huh? Why did you choose to ignore that he fucking passed out on the last day? You think I wouldn't find out about that?" 

"We didn't , we got him to go to the doctor," Ten hisses. "And then we found out it's just another fucking fever, so we let it go. This has nothing to do with why he decided to jump out his window and run."

"That's not what he fucking thinks! He's scared! He's been scared this whole week! Did you guys not know? You want me to calm down?"

"Yuta, sit down," Taeyong says. Yuta doesn't sit down, but he does shut up, directing his angry gaze at Taeyong now. 

"At least Mark has returned. That's one worry less," he continues. "The main concern now is Dejun." He looks at Mark. "We were discussing what we knew. Kun told us Dejun's mother called yesterday." He looks at Kun. "You mentioned getting your friends in the neighbourhood to look out for him. Did any get back to you?"

Kun shakes his head. "None yet. The uncles went all the way to central. One of them saw Spiderman on the street, but nothing else."

Yuta scoffs again. "Spiderman—let's just fucking get him to look for us, since we're powerless little students, huh?" He throws his hands out. "Fuck. Of all times for there to be a serial killer…"

Mark winces slightly. If only they knew what was really going on. He toys with the idea of coming out to them, then realizes it's probably not the best time.

"Right," Jaemin pipes up suddenly. "Yuta-ya, what did you mean when you said he was scared? What did Dejun tell you?" 

Yuta casts a long, hard look at Kun and Ten, frowning as he thinks, before finally saying, "He doesn't think it's a fever. He said something happened when he encountered that bear in the forest."

"What? What bear?" Ten jumps up to his feet, alarmed. 

" Bear ?" Doyoung echoes. "I didn't know there were bears in that area."

"What, he didn't tell you?" Yuta says, then rolls his eyes. "Of course he didn't tell any of you, we know what he's like. That idiot. Would he have fainted for no reason otherwise, anyways?"

"Why didn't he tell us?" Ten whirls to Kun. "Something like that, why didn't he tell us?"

But Kun doesn't acknowledge Ten, and snaps at Yuta, "Can you hurry up? What happened?" 

"It fucking sneaked up on him is what happened! It was too late to run, so he just froze, and he said it started fucking smelling him like, I don't know, but then it toppled over for no reason like it fainted so he ran, but then he felt something crawl up his legs, and he fell over and fainted too. And then you guys found him and he woke up in his tent." 

"What the fuck…?" Ten whispers, hands fisting his hair. 

"I didn't know either there were bears in that forest," Taeyong says, looking carefully at Kun. 

"I didn't either," Kun follows, but then his eyebrows pinch together. "Like I fucking wanted this to happen to him. Shut the fuck up. When did he tell you this?"

"Wednesday. He brought me up to his room and said this isn't something that should be put into writing. It's probably why he didn't text or call you guys. He's scared ."

"Of what ?" Ten asks. "Did he see what crawled up his legs?"

Yuta shook his head. "He thinks it's in his body. Like a parasite." 

Mark thinks back to yesterday, when they realized Dejun wasn't coming in. The look on Yuta's face… he'd known about this since then. And thinking further back, he realized he'd never gone to see Yuta after the two times he came back from Dejun. Maybe he'd have noticed the expression on his face, maybe he'd have noticed something was wrong.  "Then what do you think?"

Yuta looks at him.

"Why do you think he ran off?" 

He watches the muscles in Yuta's jaw jump as he clenches, and his eyes dart this way and that while he looks like he's struggling to form a sentence. Finally he throws his hands out again, groaning. "I don't know. I didn't notice anything while I was over those two times. Dejun isn't a good liar, you all know that, so it can't be that he was pretending all that while. He told me himself he was scared, but I never got the assumption that he'd run away ."

"So you're saying something other than Dejun compelled him to jump out the window and run," Jeno says slowly. "We can rule out a break-in, Dejun's mother didn't mention any of that, right?" He looks at Kun.

"Right, there was no break-in," Kun nods. "The front door was still locked, so was the back. The only window smashed was Dejun's on the second level."

Doyoung shrugs. "The parasite, then? Whatever the hell it is?"

Such a thing was hard to believe. Everyone had various levels of disbelief on their faces. But if it was really true, that something had entered Dejun, then it could have controlled him and made him jump out and run. 

"Or a possession?" Ten suggests. "What came out of the bear, it went into him? Like a fucking spirit?"

"C'mon," Yuta just says. " C'mon ."

"It's more believable than a germ controlling his brain, isn't it?"

"There are amoebas that can control the brain," Jaemin says. "But to this extent, I'm not sure. Maybe it's something that came out of SM. Y'know they're making radioactive spiders, right?"

"That's just a cult theory, who cares about that company?" Kun waves him down. "Guys, this isn't the point. What's important right now is what we are gonna do. Are we going out to find him? For how long? What if we don't like what we find? What if we have to give up?"

" Give up—? " Yuta begins to exclaim, but Taeyong quickly shuts any other word down. 

"Let's," he says the first word firmly, strongly, "take a break. We can't come up with an answer right away. Anyways, Mark needs to catch up on sleep." He fixes Mark with a stern, still disappointed look, and Mark looks away in embarrassment. "Tomorrow when we've had time to think over everything we've talked about today, then we can decide what to do. Not everyone might be happy with the conclusion. Be prepared for that." He looks at Yuta. Then he reclines tiredly into the back of the sofa, sighing. "This will be a class discussion tomorrow. The others deserve to know and contribute, and Dejun deserves all our worry." 

When no one objects or brings up any other suggestion, he fully slumps back, and lifts a hand. "Go to bed. No talk about any of this until tomorrow."

Yuta is the first to leave. He whirls around on his heel and takes giant strides towards the elevator, and Mark is forced to scurry after him. 

"Yuta!" Yuta levels him with a dark stare, and Mark skids to a stop. "Hey. Hey, bud, I'm really sorry."

"For what?" Yuta asks. "List them all out."

"Oh… " Mark scratches the back of his head embarrassedly. "Uh, sorry for not saying anything about Dejun. I didn't want you to know because I didn't want you to panic, or stress yourself out just in case it wasn't something big. I mean, I didn't know too until just now that he's actually really missing."

Yuta continues staring at him, unblinking. The lift doors open, and from around the corner, Ten, Jeno and Jaemin quickly pile in. Mark and Yuta stay out in the lobby. 

"And uh, also… sorry about not listening, and still sleeping late and stuff. And then about earlier, uh, leaving to go walk around the city. I just needed to see something different, y'know? It's been a while since I went out like that. But I should've told you first. I don't know why I didn't, um, I just… sorry. I'm really sorry."

Yuta's eyebrows pinch together. "You're so bad at saying sorry," he bites out. "What about that one other thing?"

Mark frowns. "What thing?"

Yuta grabs his face, turning his head to the side. " This . I didn't punch you here, yet you have a bruise. You got into a fight, you piece of shit?"

He can just barely get his face under control. A bruise? God, that must've been from yesterday, fighting that creature. Shit, he needs to be more careful. 

"No, no fight," he answers. "Was opening a snack too hard, hit myself in the face. Kinda stupid."

Yuta's eyes narrow like he doesn't believe him, and honestly, understandable. That's the lamest excuse he'd ever made. 

"Yeah… fucking stupid."

"Listen, man, I'm sorry," Mark says again. "There's just been… a lot on my mind."

"Something you can tell me, or nah?" Yuta asks, pressing the button for the lift again. 

"Uh… not yet. Maybe. I need to sort this part out by myself first. I promise when it all blows over, and things… calm down, I'll find a good time to tell you everything."

Yuta's eyes set like he's ready to be disappointed. "Right." Then he sighs, shaking his head. "I'm sorry I hit you. I was really angry."

"No, I deserved it." 

"Yeah, you fucking did. I can't believe you! Playing truant like that. I got scolded 'cause of you!" 

"I'm sorry, man," Mark says again, wincing. "I didn't think that would happen."

"No fucking shit." The lift doors open, and they step in. "I just—what the fuck. What the fuck, man. How much trouble can one kid get in?"

That's the same question Mark asked himself. Naturally, he has no answer, so nothing is said for the rest of the ride to their respective floors. 

Mark doesn't meet the others for that aforementioned class discussion. In fact, he wakes up earlier than he would on a Saturday to don his suit again and swing out his window. He sends a quick message when his mind fully wakes up and he remembers Yuta again, telling him he's lost one of his debit cards and it must've dropped somewhere while he was out walking. He's going out real quick to find it and then come back, don't worry. He's left on read in return. 

In truth, he has no intention of sitting in that discussion. As Mark, he can do nothing about the situation, but as Spiderman, he's much more capable of doing literally anything. If he wants to do field work instead of tossing around hypothetical questions, he will. 

He'll be damned if he doesn't find Dejun today. 

He eats instant ramen at a convenience store for breakfast, then spends the morning swinging around the city, keeping his eyes peeled. He stops for lunch at around 12, and this time he stops at a Japanese restaurant, sending a few snaps of his food to Yuta to appease his angry texts asking where he is now and if he found his card yet. From this restaurant back to the dorms, factoring in the travel time in public transport and all the walking he'd have to do as a civilian, he'll only be back in 2 hours anyways, so after finishing his food he quickly steps out to resume his swinging. 

It's kinda anticlimactic the way he found him. To Mark, at least.

He was skipping across buildings when he saw a commotion on the streets below. A group of men harassing some poor kid. That already got Mark's Spiderman instincts flaring, and he was about to go down to break it up anyways, but then he took a better look at the kid that was being harrassed, and—

Dejun?

Holy shit, it's Dejun. 

He's pressed to the wall of a building, and even though Mark's still airborne and quickly descending, he can see very well the surly furrow between his already angry-looking eyebrows, and his lips are pressed tight into a thin line. His hands are clenching around the material of his pants as if to stop them from lashing out and hitting one of them. 

Mark hits the ground at the same time one of the men cuffs Dejun by the ear, and he sees Dejun snarl in return. Teeth bared, eyes blazing, and his fist strikes the wall behind him in warning. 

It's enough to surprise Mark into non-reaction for a while. Since when was Dejun like this?

But he quickly gets back his bearings, and clears his throat to get their attention. 

"What do we have here, gentlemen?" He announces, deepening his voice so Dejun won't recognize him. 

The man cuffing Dejun scrambles to let go, retreating back a few steps. 

"Harassing a little kid in broad daylight? That's unbecoming of you, lads," Mark tuts at them. 

Another man holds his hands up in a truce. "No need for a fight, Spiderman. We just thought he stole something from us."

"Stealing?" Mark raises his eyebrows behind his mask. That's very unlike Dejun. "Is he telling the truth, kid? Did you steal something from them?"

"No!" Dejun scowls. "They're liars! I was just walking by myself, they're the ones who came onto me!"

The men start to bite back and respond, but Mark holds up a hand for silence. Then he brings that hand to his chin in a show of contemplation. "Aren't you that missing kid?" Like, Mark already knows , but it's just making conversation.

"What?" Dejun says. 

"You are! Your mother reported you missing, d'you know? What are you doing, kid, out by yourself so far from home?"

It makes Dejun speechless, which is good. Mark faces the group of men, then declares ominously. "If you're not interested in getting strung up by that lamp post over there for the police to find, then I suggest you scram. They know that whoever I've strung up always deserves it."

Some of them scoff and huff in annoyance, but they leave anyway. Once they're a good distance away, Mark turns back to Dejun again. He finally takes a good look at him. 

He's in his ratty, stretched out home clothes, and they look gross and sweaty, absolutely dirty, but what's to be expected after spending nearly two days out in public doing who knows what. And he's barefoot too, and that lines up with the fact that he'd crashed out of his window to run off. In such a state, Mark didn't think anyone would stop to wear their shoes first. 

But actually… how did he even get so far out here? It's all the way up north, did he seriously walk all the way here? And for what ?

"What's up, bro?" Mark asks. "Why'd you run off from home?"

To that, he gets an irritated glower in return, and seriously , Mark is not used to seeing this side of Dejun. Has his friends ever seen him like this? Has Yuta?

"That's none of your business." Venomous. His voice is like venom. It's so… strange.

Mark just waves his hands placatingly. "You're right, you're right. But… y'know. I gotta take you back now, since I've found you. I'm sure there's a lot of people worried about you—you're still in school, right? Your friends are probably as worried sick as your parents."

Mark's relieved to see a guilty look cross Dejun's face—it means he hasn't totally changed. At least it tells him this really is Dejun. But then that look is washed away quickly and completely. 

"No. No, I can't—I don't want to go back. I get that you've found me, thanks for your worry, but I'm telling you now I don't want to go back. Leave me alone."

"Why not?" Mark asks, even though Dejun has turned and starts walking away. He follows suit. "Hey, kid." 

"It's none of your business. Leave me alone."

"I can't do that, dude, it's literally part of my job scope. Listen, hey." Dejun refuses to look at him. "Whatever you're going through, I promise it'll pass. Most problems are like that, y'know? They seem big at the moment, but a few months down the road and you'll be like 'why did I even worry so much?'. Y'know?"

Dejun doesn't acknowledge him. His strides turn longer, until he's just shy of jogging away from Mark. 

"Is it something at home? You don't have to tell me the details, but I can still help with that, get someone to look into your situation. Or is it, uh, health related? I really don't think running away is the solution, it won't give anyone closure, y'know? Or is it… are you planning to—?"

Dejun directs a hostile look at him, not unlike how Yuta did last night. He stops suddenly, and when Mark does as well he shoves his face close. Mark is taller than him, but he suddenly feels small under the weight of Dejun's intense glare. Ah, he may have messed up. He wouldn't have spoken so much with any other stranger, but because this is his friend, he let his mouth run. But Dejun doesn't know it's Mark.

"You can't possibly know what I'm going through, Spiderman ," Dejun hisses, voice still as venomous as before, and Mark feels electricity lance up his spine. "Some things aren't so simple. Some things you can't solve." He backs away. "So just. Leave me. Alone."

Mark is left staring, and he doesn't know what to do. Of all the scenarios he'd thought would happen when he found Dejun, this was not one of them. What the heck? Dejun didn't wanna come back?

That's kinda… just saying it like that without an explanation is kinda… unacceptable. Like, it makes it invalid, kinda like that. And Mark isn't the smartest person ever. He's smart academically, but he doesn't know how to apologize, and he doesn't know how to break it to his friends that he's Spiderman even though that'll resolve so many underlying tensions between them all. So he does what he thinks is the best thing to do. 

He cocoons Dejun in his spiderweb before hauling him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Dejun can hate Spiderman. It's inconsequential, because there's undoubtedly a lot of other people who hate Spiderman, way more powerful and influential than Dejun wikl ever be, enough that they can do something about it. But his parents, and everyone back at the dorms; they'll want him back. 

Actually, Mark said something wrong earlier. While Spiderman can accomplish a wider range of things than Mark can in any type of situation, Mark is still able to do something that Spiderman can't. Dejun seems hostile to Spiderman, but surely he isn't towards Mark. And Yuta. And Hendery and Yangyang and the rest. He'll bring him back, and Dejun will be able to talk it out, for sure. 

But as per protocol, he first brings Dejun to the hospital. Over there, it's only nothing for the police to then be informed, and when they arrive they grill Dejun with the standard questions. Mark hangs around to make sure they don't get too aggressive, because Dejun's being mutinous, and the doctors are perplexed when, other than exhaustion and dehydration, they find nothing wrong with Dejun. He stays until Dejun's parents arrive about half an hour later, dishevelled and in mismatched clothes. Mark leaves out of respect for what would be an emotional reunion, because his mom's already crying as they rush in. 

And then it's back to the dorm. 

He arrives at the expected time, just around two hours after he'd finished lunch at that Japanese restaurant. He does the same as last night; he swings up to his room first to change into civilian clothes, then detours around to walk through the front door. 

When he does, it's to walk in on a deathly silent room, and all of his classmates' eyes are fixated on Kun facing the corner, talking into his phone. Or, more like, he's just listening very intently to the person on the other side, not breathing, not moving. 

Oh. He already knows what it is. 

He takes two steps into the dorm in silence before Kun gulps, thanks Dejun's mother, hangs up, and then turns around with the biggest smile on his face. 

"He's been found!" 

The class erupts in joy. Johnny gives a whoop in celebration, and Hendery and Jungwoo collapse back into the sofa, hands over their chests as they sigh loudly in relief. Ten lurches forward to envelope Kun in a hug. Taeyong sits down, clasps a hand over his eyes and takes a deep, shuddering breath, and then he smiles in relief and pats Yangyang's head, who's pinching the area between his eyes as he struggles not to cry. Yuta steps forward to punch Mark square across the jaw. Again.

"Fucker! You went missing again!" But he's grinning as well, and he pulls Mark up off the ground and into a hug as well. Mark pats his back consolingly. "Shit. Mark, he's okay. He's okay …"

Mark nods. "Didn't I tell you not to worry about it?" 

Yuta nods as well, sniffling, and Mark reakizes he's started crying as well. "You did, yeah…"

"Spiderman found him," Kun starts explaining, and Yuta pulls away to pay attention. 

"Spiderman?" Donghyuck exclaims. "My best friend."

"He was brought to the hospital, and his parents are now taking him home. We'll be able to see him on Monday." 

"Why did he run away?" Taeyong asks.

"His mom said he had a psychotic episode."

"Shit," Renjun winces. 

"The fever likely brought it along. They said Spiderman found him up near Neo Seoul—"

"All the way up north?" Doyoung exclaims. "How did he even get there by himself?"

Kun shrugs.

"But… There's nothing wrong with him?" Yuta asks. "The doctors, they didn't find anything? What about the—the thing, the… the parasite?"

Kun shrugs again. "His mother didn't say anything about that. It's either the doctors really didn't find anything, or Dejun's just not saying it." 

Yuta's face pinches in anger. "Idiot."

"Of course he's not gonna say anything about that," Ten says. "Who knows what would happen if they take him seriously. He'll probably get driven straight to SM."

"And besides… no offense, Yuta, but I think it's better if we hear it straight from his mouth," Taeyong says, "what he thinks it is. And if he wants to, why he ran away at all." 

"Right, that's right…" Kun says, a bit absentmindedly. "Let's not bother him in the meantime… Hendery, Yangyang, don't call him. Yuta, you too. He needs to settle back on his own."

Taeyong nods. Then he sighs in finality, looking around at everyone before clapping once. "Alright. We can break up now; matter's… kinda resolved. Let's have a good weekend, guys, and next week, let's welcome him back properly."

The class murmurs their assent, and everyone starts getting up to leave. Taeyong pats Yangyang on the head one more time before making eye contact with Mark, and simply says, 

"Mark."

before pointing to the spot in front of him forebodingly.

Mark's eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets as he gulps, and he feels a prickling coldness run through his stomach at the look on Taeyong's face. 

"Oooh, someone's in trouble!" Donghyuck sings amidst the jeering from the others, while Yuta quickly flees the scene.