Chapter Text
Ahn Suho knows Yeon Sieun.
Well, not personally. But he will…soon.
That sounds strange. Let’s start again.
Ahn Suho has been in the same class as Yeon Sieun for a year.
When Yeon Sieun first started, he made no big impact. He was quiet, kept to himself and seemed generally uninterested in getting to know other people. He stayed by himself, probably just trying to blend into the crowd of teenagers.
But it was this exact quietness that attracted the attention of Ahn Suho.
In a classroom full of loud, hyperactive kids, Sieun stood out.
The first thing he noticed was his appearance.
Sieun was pretty.
He had dark brown hair that Suho had mistaken for black, until one day when sunlight shone onto his face from the window when Suho walked past his desk in the morning, the light highlighting his brown hair.
He had pretty lips, although they were constantly dry and chapped, probably from Sieun’s bad habit of forgetting to drink water. Suho had once counted how long he would go without drinking, and once it had reached the end of the day and Sieun had still not drank a sip, Suho had enough and slipped a bottle of water onto his desk on his way out.
But the most striking thing about Sieun was his eyes. Suho’s desk was in the rows way behind him, so it wasn’t like he saw them very often. Even when the other boy was passing by him, he kept his eyes down — either locked into a textbook or just looking at the floor while he walked — which always ended with Suho sighing in disappointment.
The second thing Suho noticed about Sieun was his personality.
That was harder to figure out. Despite his best efforts to stay under the radar, Sieun’s introverted character actually got the attention of quite a few boys. They would often speak behind his back, calling him rude and self-centered for not making an effort to talk to them.
Suho thought that was bullshit, and he laughed at their entitlement for thinking Sieun was obligated to even interact with their annoying asses. Besides, he knew the other boy wasn’t rude, he had seen it for himself. Despite his quiet nature, Sieun was cordial with people who started conversations with him, if only a little dry.
Once, Suho was half asleep at his desk in the early morning when he heard a conversation in the room.
“Yeon Sieun. I was wondering if you could tutor me. I know you have the highest grades out of anyone in our year—“
“No, sorry.”
“Oh—”
“I’m too busy. I know some other people who are willing to tutor if you want their numbers. Or I can recommend the cram school I attend,” Sieun’s voice steady as he explained.
There was a pause that Suho interpreted as the other person thinking through the options.
“Can I…have those numbers?”
“Yeah.”
The sound of pen scraping on paper filled the room, followed by the sound of a page being ripped out of a notebook.
“Thanks.”
Suho heard a small hum before the sound of footsteps walking away and the click of airpods being opened before silence filled the room again.
However, the most interesting thing about Sieun was how closely he stuck to his routine, to the point that Suho knew it off by heart.
Not in a creepy way, but solely because of Sieun’s consistency.
Every morning, Sieun would be the first to show up in the classroom. If Suho had slept there that night, he would notice that he always showed up at the exact same time. Even on days that Suho was late, he was willing to bet money Sieun was still the first person there that day.
Once he came in, Sieun would open the curtains and get his notebooks out, already reading through it and annotating things as his eyes scanned through the paper before beginning to write his own notes. This would go on until the teacher walked in the room, and Sieun’s eyes would drift up to the board.
So, Ahn Suho knew Yeon Sieun. And he wanted to know him better.
So after a few days of gathering his courage, Suho walked into their classroom nice and early, only to be met with emptiness.
He checked the time on his phone, seeing it was 10 minutes past the time Sieun normally showed up.
Well, It’s not like he’s a robot. He probably woke up late, and was on his way. As soon as he walked in, Suho was going to take advantage of the empty classroom and actually go up and talk to him. Yeah.
Except, when the door next opened, it wasn’t the face Suho wanted to see. It wasn’t him.
Well….maybe he was super late? Maybe there was a power outage and his alarm clock didn’t go off. Maybe the bus — because yes, Suho knows Sieun takes the bus (again, not in a creepy way, he had just noticed it) — wasn’t running and Sieun had to find another way here? Or maybe—
A loud voice took him out of his thoughts. Their teacher had just walked in, and he was still not here.
Okay. Now that was weird.
The class quieted down and the teacher began speaking, her voice becoming background noise for Suho’s racing thoughts.
“Does anyone know where Yeon Sieun is?”
Suho looked up, scanning the room. Everyone did the same, looking around at each other as a majority of them shrugged and whispered amongst each other.
The teacher let out a confused hum before sighing.
“Well—”
Suddenly, the door burst open with a force that made the whole class jump in shock. And Suho almost didn’t recognise the boy walking in.
Sieun was frozen at the door, staring at the doorway that now had a piece broken off it because of how hard the door was opened. His hands were trembling, only slightly but enough for Suho to notice and his eyes were wide as he stared up at the room. His overgrown bangs were covering his eyes and his hair was messy, as if he ran straight out of bed that morning.
“Yeon Sieun. Nice of you to join us, although you are late. Please don’t slam the door like that.”
Sieun’s eyes darted around the room before he bowed to apologise as he hurried towards his seat, mumbling something about the bus before he slunk into his seat. The rest of their classmates murmured between each other before their teacher cleared her throat, breaking through the chatter.
“Everyone, focus. Yoday…”
Suho tried to focus on the teacher but his eyes couldn’t leave Sieun. He sat slumped over in his chair, hands slowly moving through his hair in an attempt to fix the mess before he sighed, slowly reaching into his bag and pulling out one textbook.
Suho watched, waiting for him to reach back down and pull out his entire arsenal of notebooks and pens so he could look like himself again.
Sieun never did. He sat there, unmoving and seemingly staring at the notebook, the anxiety practically radiating off him as his leg bounced up as down.
What the fuck?
Suho made up his mind to definitely talk to the other boy today, yet as soon as the bell rang to signal the end of class, Sieun made a dash for the door and was out of sight before Suho could even blink.
Sieun was out of school for two weeks.
Monday morning, Suho walked into the noisy classroom a few minutes before class started. He noticed people talking loudly while passing their phones around, sharing some kind of video, however he had finished work at 3am and was too exhausted to pay attention to what they were saying.
He wanted nothing more than to skip school and get some more sleep, but had been woken that morning by Halmeoni, insisting he at least attends school.
Suho knew she was doing it for his own good and he was glad… just not at that moment.
He groaned as he heard the door open again, expecting to see the teacher.
It was Sieun.
Suho’s head practically whipped up as he tracked his movements, watching as he sat down in his seat and pulled his hoodie off his head. Sieun sighed before pulling out his usual notebooks and staring at the table in front of him.
Suho rubbed his eyes and blinked rapidly, half convinced he had started hallucinating his missing crush. When Sieun didn’t disappear, he felt a smile coming across his face.
Suho tried to talk to him after the class but he was once again evaded, and he let out a sigh.
At least he was alive. Suho was starting to freak out after the last time he had seen Sieun, looking genuinely shaken in that classroom.
Suho drove straight home after school, deciding to text his boss that he wouldn’t be available for his shift. He yawned as he walked into his house, placing his helmet on the table.
“Halmeoni! I’m home,” he announced as the smell of spices filled the room, coming from the kitchen. He shook his jacket off and flopped down onto the sofa, closing his eyes.
Halmeoni appeared from the corner, a pitying smile coming across her face as he ruffled his hair.
“Aegi… you look exhausted.”
Suho nodded, opening his eyes and pouting at her.
“I’ve been so tired all day, especially when I was driving home!”
She sat on the sofa next to him, patting his cheek. “At least you went. Good job.”
Suho’s pout dissolved as a small smile replaced it before he crossed his arms, still pretending to be angry at her. She smirked back, a small giggle escaping her.
“If you were that tired, you should’ve asked Spider-man to take you home.”
The room fell silent as Suho turned to fully look at her, the expression on his face turning to confusion.
“Spider….what? Who?”
“Spider-man,” she repeated, laughing again as if they were sharing an inside joke.
Suho stared at her for a moment before he let out a laugh. “Is that a new friend of yours?”
Halmeoni’s laugh faded and it was her turn to look confused, tilting her head at him.
“You haven’t heard?”
He shook his head, his eyebrows furrowing. “No? What are you talking about?”
She looked around for the remote for the tv, turning it on and switching to the news channel, nodding towards the TV.
Suho turned to look at it, his jaw dropping as he watched.
There on the TV, was a news reporter talking. Behind her was a video of a man(?) in a red and black suit, with a spider logo across his chest. He looked…a little ridiculous, but Suho watched in fascination as the camera followed him, capturing him chasing another guy running away and getting a bag out of his grip before returning it to a young girl. The guy’s hand then flew out, a web-looking substance seemingly coming from his wrist before he swung away.
“What….?” Suho muttered as he gently took the remote out of her hands and put the volume up.
“Witnesses say they saw an unidentified person in a suit, swinging through the city on what looked to be spiderwebs, strong enough to hold a person. This person was also seen crawling up the wall of a building before jumping down off the side of it, landing perfectly safely before swinging away.”
Suho turned to Halmeoni, a look of confusion on his face. She shrugged her shoulders before turning around and walking back towards the kitchen.
“One of our reporters managed to catch this person for a small interview. Here it is.”
The background video changed to a woman holding a microphone towards this guy, who had a mask fully covering his face, with a special design for the eyes.
“Who are you?”
“You can call me Spider-man,” the guy replied, his voice muffled from behind the suit.
“So, Spider-man…what are your intentions, and how are you doing the things we’ve seen you do?”
“Well…How I do things is a secret, but I just want to use my talents to help the people of Seoul, and keep them safe.”
The interviewer seemed to contemplate for a minute.
“Why not become a police officer?”
Spider-man turned his head to look directly at her and was silent for a minute.
“Uh…That’s a good question actually,” he admitted, scratching the back of his head.
Suddenly, a shout rang out in the background of the video, and Spider-man’s hand shot out, followed by a web.
“I have to go, thanks Miss! You’re really funny.”
Spider-man then swung away, leaving the reporter with a stunned look on her face.
“Who is this guy?” Suho wondered out loud, letting out a laugh at this Spider-man.
“Authorities have not been able to identify the person behind the mask yet, although based on the clues provided, they are looking for a Korean man, most likely a young adult based on height and build, possibly early 20s. While this Spider-man has not harmed anyone yet and declared to have good intentions, authorities say that he cannot be allowed to operate in this manner with no interference from the law. If you have any information about the person behind the mask, please contact the Seoul police.”
“Suho! Set up the table please!” Halmeoni yelled, making him tear his eyes away from the screen.
He reached for two bowls and some utensils, setting up the table in the way he knew she liked. He sat down as she brought over a pot and carefully set it down in the middle of the table. Suho grabbed two extra bowls and went into the kitchen, filling both of them up with freshly cooked rice while Halmeoni filled up their other bowls with soup.
Suho set down the rice bowls and then sat down himself, thanking her for the meal before he dug in.
“There’s no way—” he started to say, mouth full of rice.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Suho-yah,” Halmeoni interrupted, sipping from her spoon.
Suho nodded and finished his mouthful before speaking.
“There’s no way that spider guy is real, right? It has to be some sort of prank?”
She seemed to contemplate for a moment before replying.
“He was climbing on walls.”
“Well! Normal people can’t do that. So what, is he an alien?”
Halmeoni shook her head.
“I don’t know. Let’s leave it up to the police, hm? I’m sure they can find him and he can explain it to them.”
Suho nodded, finally leaving the conversation behind as he tucked into his food.
For the next few weeks, Suho was ready to forget about Spider-man. His name was the only one he heard constantly, whether it was from his classmates constantly debating about the mysterious superhero or his coworkers saying how they wished they had similar powers so they could complete deliveries faster.
He agreed with the last part, but that wasn’t the point. He was tired of hearing about Spider-man.
As always, he tried to keep an eye on Sieun. There wasn’t much he could do from the back of the classroom, and he had not attempted to go up to him again.
Sieun had returned back to normal...somewhat. He looked normal enough, back to studying and paying attention in class again. Although he had seemingly abandoned his routine of coming in early, as most days he showed up right before class started or a few minutes late.
He had developed a new habit of disappearing. Sometimes he would ask to go to the bathroom and not come back until an hour later, or just not show back up at all. And sometimes he just didn’t show up to school.
The most worrying thing, however, is that Suho had noticed that Sieun would sometimes be injured. It started small, just small cuts or scrapes on his face and hands. Small enough to not be worried, and not be noticed by most people.
Since then, Suho had paid more attention to Sieun and had noticed a few instances of him wincing or suddenly pausing when moving, almost like he was experiencing pain.
One time though, Sieun had yawned and stretched his arm up, which led to his hoodie falling down his arm and revealing a bandage around his forearm. Suho had been walking by and he hid out of sight just as this happened, watching as Sieun pulled his hoodie back down his arm before checking to see if anyone was paying attention to him.
What the hell is going on?
-
Suho awoke, startled by a poke on his pillow. His head jumped up and he slowly looked around, rubbing his face. “Is it lunchtime already?”
He froze when he realised everyone in the room was staring at him, then a voice from a group of boys wearing striped uniforms got his attention.
“Did you hit on Naeun?” one of the boys asked, looking offended.
Suho thought for a moment before he guessed a couple names, infuriating the boy who yelled out a different Naeun.
“Oh, she kept dming me, but she’s not my type,” Suho explained, causally leaning back in his chair. “We went out to eat, like one time, but I’m not into her.”
It was true. Suho was only into one person, and he was in this room. Well, hopefully.
Suho glanced around the room, wondering if Sieun had actually shown up today. Through the crowd, he saw him at his desk, Yeongbin sitting opposite him and getting a little too close.
He frowned, wondering what he had missed before he realised Sieun was actually looking between him and the uniformed boys.
“What’s for lunch today?” he questioned the boy who had poked him, getting an idea. If he had Sieun’s attention, he might as well try talking to him today, maybe even ask him to have lunch together.
“Jaeyuk.”
He nodded to himself. “Sounds good. Protein is good.”
As Suho contemplated his lunch plans, he saw the group of boys approaching his desk and barely got a warning out to them before a bat was swung next to his head. He shot up, chair legs screeching against the floor as he backed away from the boys and dodged their swings with the metal bats. He waited until he was cornered to duck, expertly making his way through the boys as he grabbed their arms and moved them out of the way, hitting one of them with the other’s body.
He grabbed a bat from one of their hands and swung it above his head towards two of the other guys, pretending like he was going to swing. When they ducked, he smirked and threw the bat onto the floor.
“You got scared,” he teased, laughing at the ridiculousness of the guys being scared of getting hit with the very bat they were comfortable swinging at his head two seconds ago.
Another guy came at him, pinning him to the wall with a bat straight to his chest. Suho groaned, and when he saw another bat heading towards his face, he used his other hand to push the bat on his chest up, blocking the attack. He kicked them both between the legs and grabbed a book from the closest desk.
Suho again smirked, repeatedly hitting one of the guys on the head with the book.
“Hey, hey, hey, come here,” he teased as the guy tried to step away from him. Suho turned and raised the book over his head, throwing it at the group of guys watching him. He smirked when they dodged, winking at the guy who seemed to be their leader.
“Asshole!”
He dodged a punch from the leader, grabbing him by the ear instead and using him to shield himself from the rest of the guys.
“Should you guys be doing this, as athletes?” he questioned, pulling the guy with him as he walked away. Another guy tried to get behind him, and he saw him out of the corner of his eye, kicking a desk into him and pushing him onto the floor.
“Fine, fuck!” the guy shouted, surrendering when Suho pulled harder.
Suho let him go and wiped his hands, only to see that same guy grab a bat and turn towards him, swinging it again while yelling insults at him.
The leader swung wildly, making Suho back up until he lost his temper, throwing the bat hard in Suho’s direction, barely going past Suho’s head as he quickly dodged, knocking something off the desk he was standing next to.
Suho stood still for a minute, heart pounding as the bang of the bat hitting the board reached his ears. He looked down, seeing he was standing next to Sieun’s desk.
Anger finally filled his body. This idiot had a problem with him, not anyone else, so why the fuck was he throwing a metal bat around hard enough to kill someone? He could’ve hurt anyone unlucky enough to be near Suho.
He could’ve hurt Sieun.
Suho turned around, smirk long gone as he clenched his hand into a fist, ready to strike.
“You went too far.”
The leader made his way over in quick strides, and Suho expertly punched him in the face, striking exactly where he needed to in order to knock the guy out, ending the fight.
Silence filled the room as Suho caught his breath. He then turned to look at the rest of the attacker group, holding their sides after their defeat.
“Take him to the nurse,” he ordered, pointing to their friend on the floor.
“I’ll kill you if you tell them hyung did it.”
The group scrambled to pick up their friend as the rest of the room filled with murmurs, some people sitting back down in their seats while still staring at Suho.
Suho turned, meeting Sieun’s eyes.
The sight was new for Suho, and he froze under the other boy’s gaze, thinking of what to say. He took the opportunity to really adore Sieun’s face, his brown eyes focused on Suho while slightly covered by his bangs. Suho glanced down at his lips, noticing a cut on them, the area red and the wound recent.
Before he could come up with something, Sieun looked down at the floor and Suho followed his gaze to see a pencil case knocked onto the floor.
Sieun’s. That he had presumably knocked over during the fight.
“Oh,” Suho said, rubbing his chest. “Was that my fault?”
“Yeah,” Sieun answered, staring back up at him.
Suho bent down, carefully gathering Sieun’s things before he put them back on his desk.
“Sorry, man. It’s my bad,” Suho apologised, nodding his head down to Sieun with a smile.
Sieun hummed before turning back around.
More noise filled the classroom as people started moving back to their seats and picking up the things scattered on the floor, but Suho stood still, looking Sieun up and down before he smirked and slowly walked back to his seat, feeling giddy inside.
Lunch date plan was off, but having an actual conversation with Sieun right after looking super cool in front of him?
Best day ever!
At lunchtime, Suho (to his annoyance) was very popular, with anyone who was brave enough to come up to him constantly bombarding him with questions about the fight.
He answered the questions to the best of his ability before he got tired and sighed, asking the sixth person who was questioning him if there was a reason everyone was so interested in the fight.
“People think you’re Spider-man,” the boy answered, apparently completely serious.
Suho stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to reveal he was joking. He finally burst out into laughter, practically doubling over as he clutched his stomach.
Once he could catch his breath, he answered through giggles.
“That’s the funniest fucking thing ever. Trust me, if I was, I wouldn’t hide it!”
The boy shrugged and walked away, leaving Suho to laugh to himself for the rest of the day.
-
Suho sat down, catching his breath after being the first person to finish their running training…again. He rolled up his sleeves, leaning back on the steps as he looked out onto the running track.
A white shirt caught his eye. What poor guy forgot their gym clothes and now had to run in their uniform?
He took a closer look.
Sieun…?
Did he seriously forget his clothes? He really doesn’t seem like the type of person to do that, even recently.
Suho’s suspicions got confirmed when he heard a laugh from a few steps down.
“Look at him.”
Yeongbin was laughing, an ugly smirk across his face as he stared at Sieun.
“Poor fucker. That was a good idea, hiding his clothes.”
The rest of his friends giggled around him, and Suho turned his head to look at them. He watched as the guys — whose names he did not know because, frankly, they were irrelevant to his life — snickered at Sieun.
“He’s actually pretty fucking fast. How the fuck is he doing that?”
Suho looked back at Sieun, who had actually finished and was walking away, presumably to get some water.
The whole group’s heads followed him, with disbelief on their faces.
“Last month he was the slowest fucker here! Remember when he would run like a fucking zombie?” one of the guys joked, getting up and slouching over while pretending to run, mocking Sieun.
Suho's jaw tightened as the group got louder.
Suddenly, Yeongbin spoke up again.
“He’s probably fucking doping or some shit. Anyone else remember that one day he showed up looking like shit and high as fuck? And that fucker still thinks he’s better than us, hm?”
Suho had heard enough. He slipped his shoe off his foot, aiming it before he threw it at the head of the guy who was laughing the loudest, seemingly finding the conversation hilarious.
Everyone froze. The boy whipped his head around in the direction of where the shoe came from, and Suho caught a glimpse of anger in his expression, which immediately mellowed out once he saw who'd thrown it.
Suho felt more and more eyes on him, switching focus between him and Yeongbin’s group. He would never admit it out loud, but he loved his reputation. He knew everyone was aware of his past and his abilities, and he loved the way people didn’t talk back to him. He hid a smile as he leaned forward, meeting the guy’s eyes.
“Get that,” he ordered.
The guy clenched his jaw, yet he listened to the order and picked up his shoe, climbing the steps to give the shoe back.
Suho barely acknowledged him as he took his shoe back, then looked him up and down.
“What’s your name again?”
“Lee Jeongchan.”
Suho barely nodded and gave a dismissive “Uh-huh,” before he waved him away. He saw Yeongbin stare in his direction out of the corner of his eye, but paid him no mind as he put his shoe back on.
So these were the fuckers that were bothering Sieun.
He had a suspicion the other day that something had been going on before his fight, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.
-
Suho unzipped his trousers, hearing the bathroom door swing open as he did his business. He sighed as he zoned out, only paying attention again as he breathed in and a chemical smell hit his nose. He rolled his eyes as he recognised the smell as the vapes that a majority of his classmates had started using recently.
He then heard laughter, and the familiar voices of Yeongbin and his gang that he was tired of hearing. He rolled his eyes harder than before and prepared himself to deal with their bullshit again when the door opened once more.
The room was silent for a moment before a sink was turned on and he could hear the sound of someone washing their hands.
“Hey, Yeon Sieun!”
You gotta be kidding me.
There was no response.
“Hey, who do you think you—”
Suho fixed his trousers and turned around, pushing open the cubicle door. He stifled a laugh as Jeong…whatever his name was, walked straight into the door and banged his face.
“Sorry,” he said insincerely, making sure his zipper was up before he looked around at the group, seeing their dirty looks. He put his hands in his pockets, staring back at them.
“Better be careful next time, hm?”
Yeongbin rolled his eyes as his friend held his head, wincing. They scowled before turning to walk out of the bathroom.
Suho smirked, turning around to face Sieun. He was washing his hands still, looking down.
Suho walked over to the sink, casually standing next to him.
“He’s annoying,” he muttered, trying to start a conversation, maybe even possibly… get a ‘thank you’. Sieun didn’t reply, although he looked up and met his eyes through the mirror.
Suho looked back, taking in a short breath when he noticed a bruise around Sieun’s right eye. It was only slightly bruised, purple in a small section closest to his eye, the rest mixed with green and yellow.
He bit the inside of his cheek, wondering if he should say anything.
“Did they do that?” he questioned, nodding over to the door.
Sieun’s gaze dropped back down to his hands, shaking them.
Suho was undeterred, fully turning to face Sieun.
“I can show you how to fight them,” he offered. “You saw me the other day, right?”
He got into a fighting stance, pretending to punch the air while smiling.
“Hm?” he held a hand out to Sieun.
Sieun looked down at Suho’s outstretched hand with a blank expression.
“You haven’t washed your hands.”
Suho took his hand back and turned to the sink, quickly rinsing his hands while muttering.
“Obviously I was going to wash my hands…”
Sieun turned around and grabbed a few pieces of tissue to dry his hands and Suho watched as the tiniest smirk flashed across his face for a second. He grabbed another tissue and held it out to Suho, waiting for him to finish.
“And I don’t need your help,” he said as soon as Suho took the tissue, walking away and out of the bathroom.
Suho turned to the mirror, smiling to himself as he wondered if he had really just made the Yeon Sieun smile, or if he had hallucinated it.