The Web Slinger.

210424

synopsis // jimin's married?!

Perhaps he doesn't bring him up much. Park Jimin is truly one of kind and Jeongguk is extremely blessed to have a friend like him around. In all honesty, their entire group is. Jimin is the glue that keeps them all together, starts most of the conversations, and is the peacemaker. There had been many instances where Jeongguk was trying to figure out whether he liked him; platonic or more.

It was the first.

Jimin is the kind of guy who people just gravitate towards liking. He's really sweet on the eyes, has that edge to him which he often refers to as the 'bad boy facade'. He's even an active member of the school environmental club. Makes sense why he's just the general crush of the grade, not only is he handsome, he is genuine, funny, and overall has a great heart.

If only Jeongguk could be like him. Jimin hardly makes mistakes and always knows exactly what to say. Almost everyday Jeongguk messes up in some form.

And he is sitting next to the said boy when Kitanna Jung walks into class, yet another reminder of how much he has been messing up lately. Thank stars that Jimin made that dumb decision of sitting in between the two of them, he doesn't have to deal with any awkward small talk with her.

Kitanna doesn't pay either of the boys attention, she drags her seat out before slouching into her desk. Her head turns away from both of them. Pretty clear that she's hung up over something. Jeongguk would have expected her to just give him the silent treatment rather than this, Kit usually isn't the type to be dramatic.

"Is she good?" Jimin whispers.

"You're asking the wrong guy." Jeongguk mutters back, still staring at the mop of black hair sitting on the desk. Park pulls out his phone, then omits a sigh.

"I asked Bibi. Apparently Kit's been giving them the cold shoulder all morning."

"Bibi?" Jeongguk hisses. "Since when did you like pet names?"

"She likes pet names!" Jimin responds, rolling his eyes. "Happy wife makes a happy life."

"Dude you're not married! She's not even dating you!"

"Besides the point." The two are careful to lower their voices so they don't disturb Kit. "I don't think this...thing that she's doing is about you. Why would she ignore them? They're basically the ones who urged her to call you out."

"What?" Jeongguk gapes at him. "And you let them?"

"It was Katie's idea!" He raises his hands in a surrender motion. "You know I never try to pick an argument with Katie. She will chew me up and spit me out like a bird."

He winces. "Gross metaphor man."

"You get my jive. Maybe talk to her?"

"Pretty sure I am the last person to do be in the position of doing that." He scoffs. "She literally just chewed me up and spit me out last week, if you remember that."

"Oh yeah. How did that go?"

"The lab thing?" Jeongguk sighs. "Brutal as hell, man. He clocked me straight in the jaw with one of his metal tentacles."

"Sounds brutal." The other agrees. "You good? Katie tells me that her dad said Spiderman saved him."

"Yeah." He shrugs. "Just part of the job. Still couldn't stop the bomb from going off."

"Cut yourself some slack." Jimin thwacks the back of his hand to Jeongguk's shoulder. "You saved everyone there! Isn't that what your job is? Making sure everyone is safe?"

"I guess."

"There aren't a whole lot of people in the world who can handle what you do." Jimin looks at him pointedly. "Just remember that. You're only seventeen, and already doing so good. It's something you should be proud of."

He looks like he might say more, but that is interrupted when Kitanna abruptly gets up from her chair and leaves the room. Jeongguk frowns as she exits, she's headed in the direction of the bathrooms.

Jimin lets out a breath. "Anyways. I think you should go check in on her. You and Kit fight over things like this all the time, and almost every time Kit always comes around. It's because she still wants you there."

Maybe he's right. Deciding not to overthink it much longer, Jeongguk gets up to head after her.

The entry to the girls' bathroom is open, but rather than walk inside Jeongguk plants his back to the wall, and knocks on the cracked open wooden door.

"Kit? You okay?"

He's sure she can hear him. Hopefully there's no one else in the stalls, otherwise this would be extremely embarrassing for the both of them.

A couple seconds before a small no resounds from inside. He sighs, shifting to rest his head against the tiled walls. "What's wrong?"

"This morning I found out that my mom's remarrying." She responds dully. He's used to her cycle of emotional processing. Now that she's shifted to the dead tone, Kit probably was crying prior to him interrupting. And that hurts, because Jeongguk personally doesn't like it when she cries. She's really tough, so it has to be extreme where it punches straight through her walls.

And he's also not very good at comforting crying girls. Or crying people in general.

"And it's not like I found out through a formal message from her to me and Dad. I found out through Facebook. She posted an update on Facebook, as if us not knowing wasn't even a concern to her." Kit's family history is just as rocky as Jeongguk's, if not more. Her parents split shortly after she entered middle school, since then Kitanna hasn't harbored a positive relationship with her mother. Jeongguk took her side for that one, her Dad from his perspective had always been better at watching out for her.

Kit never explained the reasons to their split, not like he needed to know. But he can understand why she's so upset that her mother is remarrying without a single word to those from her previous life. It's cold.

"I'm sorry Kit." He musters. Jeongguk isn't sure what else to say to her without sounding like he's overstepping. "If you need someone to listen to you, I'm here."

He adds in a small 'always', then looks at the door once before leaving.