Work Text:
Seokmin watches Spider-Man swing across the grand buildings of New York, painted by the stars and headlights of police cars, a matching hue of red and blue. The bad guy he’s chasing hasn’t been named by passerby’s yet—the news anchor from the channel describes him as big, tall and teeth sharp like a shark’s. It doesn’t matter anyway, Spider-Man is right on his heels and outsmarting him within the second, catching up and shooting several webs to trap him against the brick building.
“Is this live?” Seokmin asks, “Is Spider-Man still there?”
He’s not. Hansol knows he’s not. He’s been sitting on the couch right next to Seokmin for at least thirty minutes, after all.
The next shot is the same bad guy with his hands in cuffs, dragged to a holding cell where he’ll hopefully be sitting for the next few years. Spider-Man has already fled from the scene, shooting a simple salute at the head of the police force, Agent DeWolff. Then the screen cuts to the news anchor explaining the situation once more for viewers who’ve just tuned in.
“Wow,” Seokmin lets out a noise of bewilderment at the situation. “Just yesterday there was a guy with giant, mechanical tentacles, and today it’s this! Spider-Man must be busy.”
Not really. Hansol has been able to catch them quick enough to be in time for his bi-daily meetups with Seokmin. Had he skipped out on any of their Harry Potter-binge sessions, he wouldn’t hear the end of it from his best friend. And besides that, this amount of work has been normal for him for the past three years. It’s just the first time the news is covering his missions, ever since he started working with the police.
Truth is, Hansol has been saving civilians from guys like Tombstone for years already. Ever since he got bit by that spider and his entire life changed, he’s been working to get used to it. Most of his nights involve swinging from building to building, on the look-out for anything unusual in the streets he’s gotten so familiar with. When he’s not on his side-job, he’ll be at photoshoots—taking pictures of models for ads he’ll see on big billboards the following week.
His life has changed from the formulaic, safe cocoon to a chaotic mess he is trying to juggle within his hands. The only thing that has stayed consistent—is Seokmin. His best friend since middle school, who has been there for him throughout everything. When his uncle and aunt passed, when he nearly lost himself, Seokmin had stayed by his side without ever knowing what the root of all his problems was.
Said Seokmin stands up and walks toward his desk, pushing his drumsticks aside to pull out a small notebook from one of the cabinets. The cover of the notebook is red and blue, a familiar spider logo in the center. A pen with a big, black spider keyring hanging from the top is stacked within the pages, and Seokmin pulls it out as he sits back down on the couch, right next to Hansol. He shows them the last filled-in page as he opens the book, full of clues as to who Spider-Man might be, his feats and turbulations, and silly names for all the people he’s beaten over the weeks.
Seokmin starts writing enthusiastically about today’s victory, about the villain’s conniving exterior, and about how cool Agent DeWolff looked as she locked him up. There’s no update on whoever could be hiding behind the red mask, for which Hansol lets out a relieved sigh. Seokmin smiles at the finished product, especially at the small drawing of today’s bad guy. He shows it to the younger, who for all it’s worth, is impressed by how accurately Seokmin always remembers the faces of the people Spider-Man has fought. He laughs.
“What should we name him? Sharkteeth?” Seokmin asks with a laugh of his own.
“Hm,” Hansol answers, placing a hand underneath his chin in thought. He doesn’t have to think for long, though. “How about… Tombstone?” It’s how he introduced himself to Hansol, after all.
“Tombstone?” Seokmin asks, turning around to face the other in confusion. “What made you think of that?”
“W-well, he was out to kill everybody and, yeah.” Nice one, Hansol.
At least it makes Seokmin smile. “Tombstone,” he says as he writes it underneath the drawing, sealing it in ink.
𓂃۶ৎ
Hansol has told only one person about his secret identity. His aunt, right before she passed away. She had found him in his bedroom, bleeding out from the stomach. His suit had been off until his thighs, no energy left to remove it all the way. She had cleaned him up, gave him advice and supported him with his worries.
And then she died.
Hansol had sworn to himself to never tell anyone about Spider-Man ever again. Because who knows about Spider-Man, is in danger. Whoever knows about Spider-Man, could die. And Hansol has lost more than enough people in his life. He cannot afford losing anyone else, and especially not Seokmin.
The people in the café are loud as he tries to shut out their voices enough to focus on editing the pictures he just took. Yoon Jeonghan, the model he has been tasked with shooting for this advertisement, is beautiful as it is, but his agency had asked for something unearthly. And apparently, it takes a lot of time to create an angel.
“Hansol!” He looks up at the familiar voice, met with Seungcheol waving to him. He returns it with a small salute, smiling toward his friend as he sits down in front of him. “What are you doing here?”
“Just working. Wanted to get out of the apartment for a bit.” He takes a sip of his hot coffee as Seungcheol smiles at him. “And you?”
The elder scratches his neck abashedly. “Actually, I’m meeting someone here. For a date.”
“A date?” Hansol’s eyes widen. He puts his cup down. “Since when do you date, hyung?”
Seungcheol waves his hands in denial. “I didn’t plan on it!” he defends. “He asked me out and, he was cute, so I thought ‘why not’?” He shrugs his shoulders to emphasize how casual he is about the whole thing, but his red ears are a dead giveaway.
“Well, I hope it works out, hyung. You deserve someone good for you,” Hansol smiles, taking another sip of his coffee before returning to the picture he’s editing.
“Thank you, Hansollie.” The bell sounds from the entry door, indicating that someone’s walked inside the café. “Ah! There he is.”
Hansol looks up at the newcomer, eyes wide as he recognizes the long, black hair covering the beautiful, sculpted face. “Jeonghan-ssi?”
“Chwe Hansol!” Jeonghan calls back, pointing at the photographer with the same wide eyes. Seungcheol looks between the two of them, confused. “You two know each other?”
“I took pictures of him yesterday!” Hansol answers at the same time as Jeonghan says, “I modeled for him yesterday!”
“You’re a model?!” Seungcheol asks back incredulously, shock clear on his face as he turns to his date. Jeonghan simply shrugs.
As Seungcheol sputters a response because, why didn’t you tell me that?, Hansol hears commotion from outside of the café. Civilians are running the streets, away from the store that Hansol recognizes as the bank. He scrunches his eyes to get a better look, spotting what seems like a huge man in a suit made of… metal. Something like a giant horn on his head.
“I, uh, I have to go,” he tells the other two, who are still arguing about whether or not careers should be discussed before a date. Hansol packs up his stuff as quickly as he can, throwing it over his shoulder when he’s finished. He pats Seungcheol on the back. “I’ll see you, hyung. Have fun on your date.” Then he bows. “Goodbye, Jeonghan-ssi.”
Seungcheol waves him off before going back to his conversation, and Jeonghan gives him a small salute as he leaves the café. He’s in a secluded alleyway before he knows it, throwing on his suit as fast as he can. He mentally thanks himself for always packing it in his backpack for emergencies.
When he first started out as Spider-Man, there was a definite change in his mindset whenever he threw on the red-blue garment. Now however, he knows it’s not the suit which makes the hero. The confidence he felt only when he put it on is now always within him, which makes it easier when confronting big, bad guys who are trying to cause havoc upon his city.
“Yo Rhino, haven’t seen you in a long time!” Spider-Man says as he arrives at the scene—thankfully no civilians are hurt yet as they’ve all ran away in time, but if Rhino manages to break through the door of the bank, all of its workers are in danger.
“Spider-Man,” Rhino calls in delight as the hero lands in front of him, squatting on the floor right between him and the bank. He can’t let him pass.
“Listen, I’m kinda busy today so let’s make it quick, okay?” He truly is busy; the pictures he was editing have to be handed in by today. He hasn’t managed to make the model look otherworldly just yet. Rhino ignores his request, instead launching at him with a scream. Spider-Man slouches his shoulders, sighing in annoyance before coming back up and shooting a web towards the Rhino’s face. He then pulls the web to the left, causing Rhino to go off-course and smacking against the building next to the bank.
Spider-Man uses the small break-time to his advantage and goes inside the bank, ordering the workers to get to safety before it’s too late. Thankfully, because of his recently formed good reputation, everybody does as he asks without any questions asked. They’re right out the street when he senses Rhino behind him again, charging not at him, but somewhere on his left.
He looks to his line of vision and finds a group of people standing on the corner of the street with their phones held high, hoping to get the best video of Spider-Man fighting off yet another bad guy. And within the group of people stands a tall man, dressed in a long brown jacket with a tartan-printed scarf, dark brown hair falling over his eyes just a bit, sharp nose red from the cold. Seokmin.
What the hell is Seokmin doing here?
Spider-Man rushes toward the group of people, speeding up to hopefully get to them before the Rhino can. He slings a web across from them onto a wall and pulls it tightly, then swings toward the other side of the street, pulling the entire group with him. They all fall onto the pavement, away from the Rhino who charges straight ahead into the wall. Most of the people run away to safety, but Seokmin just stands there, starstruck. He has stars in his eyes when Spider-Man lands in front of him, mouth wide open.
“It’s best you get to safety, young man,” Spider-Man says with a comically deep voice as he tries to hide his identity from somebody that knows him so well he could probably recognize him by his eyelashes. Thankfully Seokmin is too shocked to notice anything, eyes and mouth still wide open in surprise.
“T-thank you, Spider-Man! For saving me,” he merely says, blissfully unaware of the impending danger if he doesn’t get out of the way in time. The Rhino is already standing back up after getting smashed into yet another wall just now.
“Listen, you have to get out of here, okay?” Spider-Man is starting to get desperate. He can’t let anyone get hurt, but especially not Seokmin. “Just go straight on ahead and run as fast as you can, then I’ll take care of the rest. As easy as playing the drums, alright?” He beckons toward the direction of Seokmin’s apartment, one hand on the elder’s shoulders as he guides him. As he looks to his right, he sees Seokmin nod in understanding, clutching his booklet tightly. Hansol notices the red-blue cover of the notebook, pen in Seokmin’s other hand.
“Thank you,” Seokmin whispers before he runs away. Spider-Man turns around just as he hears sirens of the police cars approaching, relief overtaking him as Agent DeWolff steps out of the front door. With a couple of web shoots, the Rhino is safely tied up to the building he was trying to steal from, and the police have him in handcuffs before the sun sets.
“I should thank you, Spider-Man,” Agent DeWolff tells him as the Rhino gets loaded into the police car. “You’re saving us a whole lot of work.”
Spider-Man shrugs his shoulders, already stepping away from the scene. “No problem, officer! I’m just a happy volunteer!” And with that, he swings away.
𓂃۶ৎ
Hansol arrives at Seokmin’s apartment right in time for their usual dinner plans. Thankfully he didn’t have any wounds to heal, or bruises to cover, and his suit had remained perfectly spotless throughout today’s battle.
The door opens to an overly excited Seokmin—jumping up and down like a puppy would. He pulls Hansol inside by his wrist, sits him down on the couch and stands right in front of him, hands on his hips as he leans forward.
“Guess what!” he yells out enthusiastically. Hansol doesn’t miss his famous notebook being splayed out on the coffee table, full of new notes—particularly, ones about Spider-Man’s identity. He tries to take a peek at what might be written, but can’t make out any of the words.
“What?” Hansol asks back rather tactlessly, not really understanding where this excited Seokmin is coming from.
“I met Spider-Man today!” A-ha. So that’s why he’s so hyper.
“Where… where did you meet him?” he asks, because he kind of has to act curious. Spider-Man is Seokmin’s recent obsession, the thing he’s talking about 24/7. It’d be weird if Hansol wasn’t the least bit curious as to how Seokmin met him all of a sudden.
“Well, there was this huge metal man near the bank today,” the elder paces around as he recalls the story. “Spider-Man was fighting him and saved us from him! He wanted to run into us and, like, probably kill us, but of course Spider-Man was too quick for him and pulled us out of the way in time!”
“Seokmin, you almost died?!” It’s ridiculous how casual he is about skipping that part of the story. The other waves his hand in dismissal.
“Not the point. The point is, Spider-Man came to me and guided me to safety!” He claps his hands together as he stares at the ceiling, the same stars in his eyes as before. Total fanboy-mode. “And you know what’s funny?”
“What?”
“He told me specifically, ‘easy as playing the drums’!” Seokmin answers as he squeals. “It’s like he knows I’m a drummer!”
Oh. Hansol forgot about that. Of course he knows that his best friend has played the drums for over ten years now, but Spider-Man doesn’t. Rookie mistake.
But who can blame him when Seokmin, who has never been anywhere near danger, suddenly appears right in front of him as he’s about to get killed? He just hopes the elder doesn’t connect the dots he has laid out for him.
“So uh, what’d you write down?” he asks to hopefully get a clue on what path his best friend is. And to steer him away if he ever gets too close.
Seokmin gets his notebook from the coffee table, sitting beside Hansol just like he always does when talking about Spider-Man. The warmth from his body radiates right through Hansol’s, heating him up inside and causing his heartbeat to quicken. The elder always smells so nice, the scent of cinnamon filling his nostrils, trying to even out his breathing before Seokmin notices him spacing out.
“Well, the man in the metal suit is obviously called Hippo. He had a giant horn on the front of his suit,” Seokmin explains as he shows Hansol the, once again accurate, drawing.
The younger scoffs at the name. “What?”
“Rhino. You mean Rhino,” Hansol answers. “Hippos don’t have horns.”
Seokmin turns to him with a barely held-back smile in embarrassment. He’s so close now, their noses are nearly touching. The elder doesn’t seem to care, though, turning away again and scribbling out the name before replacing it with Rhino.
“Okay, so he’s obviously called Rhino,” he corrects himself. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that now that I’ve seen Spider-Man up close, I have all the deets!” He holds his pen up at the newfound revelation.
“Which are?” Hansol sits around awkwardly, throwing one arm around Seokmin’s shoulder to hopefully get into a more comfortable position.
“Well for one, Spider-Man’s voice is really deep.” Hansol chokes on his own spit, coughing to regain his balance. Seokmin doesn’t even seem to notice. “And second, he’s a tad bit shorter than I am. Just a bit.” He squeezes his thumb and pointer finger together to show Hansol the difference.
“He seems fit, which of course he is because, duh. And I tried to look into his eyes, but the goggles made me unable to see them,” he finishes with a pout, looking right into Hansol’s eyes. The younger stares back at him, hoping he doesn’t notice.
“So did you narrow it down?” he asks as he looks away from Seokmin, not wanting to give himself away any more than necessary.
Seokmin shakes his head. “All I got were some more clues. There’s millions of people in Queens, no way I can find him!”
Hansol doesn’t know if he should be glad that Seokmin doesn’t see what’s right in front of him.
𓂃۶ৎ
One thing that Hansol has learned in his time as Spider-Man, is that even superheroes have off-seasons.
For example, during the winter, there’s significantly less evil to defeat than in the summer. Hansol thinks that even these guys have families to meet during Christmas time, or are simply bad with the cold. He’s not complaining.
Which is why he’s extra annoyed that Scorpion has decided to pull up on him on a day where the streets are filled with snow, cold seeping through his suit even with a bodywarmer and beanie on.
He defeats Scropion easily, yes, but because of his hands freezing up it takes a bit longer than usual. He texts Seokmin right as Agent DeWolff shows up, letting him know that he’s going to be late to their meet-up. If it were to be summer right now, sun shining brightly upon him, this would have never happened. He would have been at Seokmin’s doorstep right on time.
He swings home as quickly as humanly (or, spiderly) possible, swinging through buildings before arriving at his apartment’s slightly dirty window, opening it carefully before sliding right through. He closes it with his foot before crawling over the ceiling, trying not to get the carpet wet as he lands right in front of the bathroom door, taking off his mask as he looks in the mirror. But what he sees is not just him in the room, but Seokmin right behind him, sitting on his bed, looking at him with wide eyes.
He turns around abruptly to his best friend dropping his phone on the floor, shaky hand coming up to point at him as he looks him up and down. Hansol’s suit is still on, bodywarmer and all, but his mask is off. There’s no way he can hide this. Seokmin’s mouth opens wide and Hansol gets to him, ruining his perfectly clean carpet with his snowy feet, clasping a hand over his mouth to prevent the scream he was about to let out.
“You’re Spider-Man?!” he blurts out in a muffled scream, shaky finger still pointing at him.
“Seokmin, just let me explain—” Hansol tries to say, but truly, what even is there to explain? He is Spider-Man, clearly, and Seokmin knows it. There’s nothing more to explain, or to excuse, or to try to cover up. “How did you even get in?”
“You said you were late so I thought… I’d use the key you gave me for emergencies so I could meet you here. Don’t try to change the subject!” Seokmin removes the hand over his mouth with surprising strength, holding onto Hansol’s wrist. The shaky finger has now turned into a stern one, and it’s still pointing at the younger in blame. “You’re Spider-Man, and you never told me!”
“I—I am, I…” Hansol starts, but Seokmin stands up and paces around the room before he can finish. Hansol follows him as best as he can in the small space, his mask clutched in his right hand. “I’m sorry, okay! I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“So you just didn’t. You saw me trying to figure out just who the hell Spider-Man is, while sitting right beside me! This is unbelievable.”
Seokmin and he rarely ever fight. Hansol doesn’t have many things that get him worked up and Seokmin is simply too pure to ever start a fight with anyone. But from the few times they have, Hansol knows that there is nothing scarier than an angry Seokmin. His best friend is the best at holding grudges, and he refuses to be on the receiving end of that.
He sighs. Sits down on his bed, the same place where the elder had just discovered him. “Listen, hyung…” he starts. Thankfully, Seokmin shuts up and stops pacing around, facing him with sincerity. “I didn’t tell you because, well, I’ve lost some people. People who would still be here if it weren’t for me. And I don’t want to lose anyone else.”
“Your aunt,” Seokmin instantly connects. Hansol nods. “And your uncle.” Hansol nods again. “They knew about you? About this?” He beckons to all of Hansol, soaking his bedsheets with his wet suit.
“My aunt did. She found out and… died, shortly after,” he admits.
“Hansol, I… I’m so sorry.” Seokmin comes to sit next to him again, laying a hand on his shoulder. He sighs. “I shouldn’t have lashed out at you. I’m just shocked.”
“You never suspected me, did you?” Hansol asks with a smirk, and thankfully, Seokmin laughs at the silly joke. The mood in the room instantly lightens up.
“No, I didn’t. Though I should have!” he calls out. “You’re the exact same height as Spider-Man, same build, too. You always came up with the best names for the bad guys and… Wait, the drumming! You messed up, didn’t you?”
“I was hoping you didn’t notice,” Hansol snickers.
Seokmin looks at him, nearly offended. “Well, I definitely didn’t up until now. Didn’t even think twice about it.”
He sighs. “Wow. So you’re… Spider-Man.”
“Yup.”
“Does anyone else know?” Seokmin asks. “I mean, do I need to keep it a secret?”
Hansol looks at him with pleading eyes, nods. “You’re the only one that knows, hyung. I need to keep it that way.”
And maybe it’s because of the cold, but Seokmin’s cheeks heat up the slightest bit, tinted in a light pink. “O-of course, Hansol. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”
He nods. Guess the cat’s out of the bag, now. “So,” he starts. “Don’t you have anything you want to ask me?”
“Huh?”
“Well, you just found out that your best friend is also your favorite superhero,” Hansol shrugs like it’s the most normal thing in the world. “I thought you’d have some questions.”
Seokmin’s eyes widen up again, the red from his cheeks now climbing up to his ears, as well. “Ah!” He mules over the question for a moment, thumb and index finger placed on his chin. “What if… what if you need to pee? Do you have to get all the way out of the suit? Or do you just ring the bell somewhere and say: Hey, I’m Spider-Man, please let me use your bathroom? Or, or do you find the nearest rooftop to use?”
Of all questions that Hansol was prepared to answer, this was the least one he expected to get asked. He thinks it over for a moment. “Uh, well, I guess I just hold it in until I get home.”
“Fascinating,” Seokmin answers. “And the suit itself, isn’t it super high-tech? It makes sense now, with all your computers and such. You build your own webshooters up here, who knew!”
“Yeah, I make them out of—”
“No no,” Seokmin interrupts him. “I mean, if it’s so high-tech, then why are you freezing?”
Hansol doesn’t have an answer to that. He guesses he didn’t take into account just how cold New York can get in the winter months. Or that he’d have to fight Scorpion today. He just shrugs.
“You really should look into that. Add a heater in there or something.” Seokmin rubs Hansol’s arms in hope of getting him a little warmer, but all it does is make Hansol’s heartbeat quicken up again. The elder really has no clue what kind of effect he has on him.
𓂃۶ৎ
Things, surprisingly enough, go back to normal quickly. Seokmin bombarded Hansol with a bunch of questions the first few days, but they simmered down as every time Hansol explain anything about his suit or his powers, he was speaking a bunch of ‘mumbo-jumbo’ according to the elder, and he lost interest.
The notebook, which previously contained all sorts of clues on Spider-Man’s secret identity, has turned into a catalog for all his opponents. Seokmin keeps drawing them and adds their correct name underneath, after asking Hansol about it.
For all the worries Hansol had about sharing his identity, Seokmin is still here and breathing, so he considers it a win. He is back to fighting bad guys once or twice a week—again, off-season—and Seokmin is back to reminding him of their movie marathons rather than Spider-Man’s latest updates. It’s almost like before he got his powers. Almost.
Not so much when Spider-Man gets slammed onto the ground by Scorpion, feeling his ribs break as he coughs for air. He spits out a mouthful of blood onto the cement, barely having time to get back up as he gets thrown into the wall.
He’s lost against his opponents plenty of times in the three years he has been active as Spider-Man. Not hard to, when they keep coming back for round twos or threes with better weapons or new inventions. He knows what it feels like to lose. He also knows what it feels like to come back and win. And as Scorpion launches his metasoma at him, Spider-Man feeling it stab his abdomen before pushing it back with all the strength within him, he knows he’ll get back up soon. He almost has him. That is, until the sirens of the police car sound throughout the night, shocking Scorpion into retreating.
The pain in his abdomen is finally gone, but so is Scorpion as he hurries away from the crime scene. Spider-Man tries to chase after him, but feels he can’t as he coughs out blood in pain. The police are by his side in no-time, but too late to catch Scorpion who is long gone.
“Get home and rest, Spider-Man,” Agent DeWolff tells him as they finish up talking. “He will come back, I can feel it.”
“Just call me when you need me,” Spider-Man replies, already feeling better from the short break he’s had from fighting. His quick healing-factors really come in handy, sometimes. He is already feeling fit enough to swing away as he throws his famous salute at the agent in a goodbye.
When he gets home, it’s already the middle of the night. He climbs through the window and turns on the bathroom light, not shocked to see Seokmin on his bed just like that one evening weeks ago. This time, there’s no shock as Hansol takes his mask off, replaced by concern as he stands up and holds his face in his hands.
“You’re in pain,” he says, voice nearly a whisper. His thumbs trace the number of cuts and bruises painting Hansol’s features.
“It doesn’t hurt, hyung,” Hansol says bravely, only to feel a sharp pain in his abdomen where Scorpion had stabbed him. He falls forward right into Seokmin’s chest.
“Sure sounds like it does,” the elder answers sarcastically, but the genuine concern laced in his voice is evident. He sits Hansol down on the bed as he takes the suit off, grounding the younger with a stern look as he tries to stop the elder. “I need to help you. You can’t do this all on your own.”
“I—I have. I have been.” Hansol hates how it sounds. Ever since Seokmin found out about him, things have gotten so much easier. He can finally talk with someone about this part of his life, instead of having to keep it inside. Seokmin, like he does everything, makes it easy.
Said Seokmin looks up at him again, offended. “I want to help you. Is that so hard to believe?” he asks, anger replacing the concern for a moment. “I watch you as Spider-Man, every day, seeing you get thrown around and being hurt. You don’t know how much that breaks my heart, Hansol.”
He takes the suit off all the way with a gasp as he sees the intense wound on Hansol’s stomach. And though it is unnecessary, because Hansol will be healed by sunrise, Seokmin grabs the first-aid kit from the bathroom and sinks down on his knees in front of the bed to treat him.
It is dead silent in the room, save for the sound of bandages getting cut and alcohol getting poured onto cotton rounds. And for the boys’ shared breaths. Hansol finds himself staring at Seokmin’s every expression—how it goes from concerned, to upset, to angry, and to concerned again. He can’t say he doesn’t understand. His aunt had worried over him the exact same when she was still alive.
“You have to look out, Hansol,” Seokmin breaks through the quiet. “I know you’re a superhero and all, and you just… have to do this. I get it. But if you end up getting severely hurt, I…” He stops, suddenly.
“What? What is it?”
Seokmin is seemingly finished with the treatment, bandages splayed on a now clean wound. He gathers all the leftover materials into the kit before setting it on the side, sitting down onto the floor again and pulling his knees onto his face, laying his chin on top.
“You told me your secret, right? Your biggest secret?” he asks suddenly, daring to look into Hansol’s eyes again. The younger nods, holding his breath. “It’s only fair I tell you mine.”
The elder sighs, closing his eyes shut. Hansol doesn’t understand what’s happening.
“Well the truth is, Hansol, even before I found out about Spider-Man or before I knew you were Spider-Man, I…” He leans his head onto his arms, voice muffled.
“I like you, Hansol. Always have.”
This can’t be real. “What?”
This makes Seokmin look up again. “I like you, okay! I always have, and I still do, and it has nothing to do with Spider-Man or whatever else. I just do.” He shrugs his shoulders as he looks away outside of the window, the moonlight shining onto his face. He looks so beautiful. Hansol is at a loss for words.
So he asks, “you do?” as if he didn’t hear him clear enough. Seokmin just nods.
“Cool.”
The elder scoffs, turning to him once again. “Really, cool? That’s all you have to say?” He looks offended again, maybe even hurt.
Hansol guesses he wasn’t as obvious about his feelings as he always thought he was. “Well, I—I like you too, hyung. I have for years. I thought you always knew.”
Seokmin’s eyes might turn even wider than they did when he found out Hansol was Spider-Man. The smile on his face is much brighter, for sure. He launches himself at Hansol, who grunts in the bit of pain he’s still feeling, but wraps his arms around the elder regardless, because finally he can.
“You like me too?” Hansol nods in response. “I never knew! Gosh, I really am clueless.”
Seokmin laughs loudly and with so much genuine happiness it’s like the sun has risen. There’s definite sunshine radiating from his entire being. He holds Hansol’s face like it’s something precious and brings their foreheads together, closing his eyes in bliss. When he opens them again, he strokes his thumbs across Hansol’s cheeks, examining every feature.
“Just make sure you don’t get hurt too badly, okay?” Hansol nods, sure to follow Seokmin’s every command. It seems like the right thing to do, because the elder smiles before kissing every single one of Hansol’s bruises and scratches, before finally putting his lips on his.
The kiss heals every part of Hansol’s wounds, feeling like he can take on all of his past opponents at once if he really needs to. Because even if he loses, even if he ends up getting hurt, Seokmin will be here to treat him. And he won’t be doing this alone, anymore.