SPIDER-MAN: MARK LEE

42

"Improvise?" Jaehyun quiered. "God, I hate improvising." He mumbled with dissatisfaction.

When Jaehyun and I bid each other our see yous, I surreptitiously swung around the mansion by using only my left web shooter (In which Donghyuck fixed just earlier), and I left the right web shooter with Jaehyun, hoping he'd know how to use it.

When I landed on the roof of the balcony, I crawled to the edge and poked my head down to check if they were present, and they were: Donghyuck, Juliane, Naomi, Jeno, Chenle and Jisung. Fortunately, Donghyuck was the only one facing my way and the rest faced their back on me.

Donghyuck's eyes nearly bulged out when he saw my face suddenly peeking down. Donghyuck vaguely jerked his head towards the entrance of the balcony, and fortunately it was close to my side, so I quietly used one hand to hang from the edge of the roof and jump down to join them. Feigning a few steps, as though I just entered, I made my presence noticed.

"Oh, you're late. Nice of you to show up though." Said Donghyuck, feigning his greet by waving his hands which made everybody else simultaneously turn their heads to wave their hands to me too.

Shy, I merely smiled at all of them, feeling relieved to see them just return to their previous conversations.

It looked like Jisung, Chenle and Jeno were engaged in one, as well as Donghyuck and Naomi which led to one person standing at the side, nodding cluelessly without the thought of chiming in. It wasn't because she was feeling excluded or something, I could tell she had a lot in her mind right now. Hopefully it wasn't about her theories of me being Spiderman.

With the lack of confidence, I adjusted the collar of my sweater. I coughed to stabilize my voice and strutted to Juliane. She could tell I was approaching, probably from her peripheral view, and I saw her trying to adjust her appearance as well myself.

"Hey~"

"Hey."

I could already feel the vague awkwardness hovering above the two of us. I detested it. Why did she have to mention her theory about me being Spiderman? It felt like we were back in Freshman year, where most of our conversations felt forced and awkward.

Even with the awkwardness, like always, I couldn't help but admire her. She was just stunning. Simple as that.

"You've been here long?" I asked, initiating one of those small talks that apparently a lot of people disliked. And she replied with a mere "Yeah~"

Juliane and I stood by the balcony and faced the view of Chenle's lawn. My hands were placed on the metaled barrier, whilst hers held firmly onto the cup of alcohol she had. There was nothing to say. None of us uttered a single word out. I tried to brush off the awkwardness by pretending to look at the lawn, as if inspecting it, and when she noticed that I did, she curiously copied.

Come on. Seriously? After all the effort we put in acquainting each other, we just return back to level zero? And it was all because she suspected that I was Spiderman. Sure, it felt awkward having to face her knowing that I truly was Spiderman. It must be awkward for Juliane too, to think of how she was confident of her theory, but it resulted it me profusely denying it. To me, it felt foolish. There was no way I was gonna let something small like this prevent us.

"Could I ask you something, Juli?"

"Yeah sure. What is it?"

"Do you wanna hang out tomorrow? Just the two of us? Perhaps at the cinema. It's on me."

I could see the eyes of Juliane's soften, where thousands of catchlights reflected in them due to the splattered stars in the black canvas of the evening. And even under the dimness, I could see her heated cheeks turning crimson. "That'll be nice. I'd love to." Juliane said shyly, with a smile so shy and timid, like a timid animal peeking out from behind a tree.