PROJECT WEB | J.JK

PART FOUR

"Hey," Jeongguk says quietly as he slips into his seat beside you with his hood up in a stupid attempt to not get called out by the teacher.

Startled by his sudden presence, you blink. "'Hey'?" you hiss under your breath, looking irked. "You disappear for four days and don't answer any of my calls or texts and that's all you have to say?"

"I was," he hesitates for a second, searching for a believable excuse. "I was sick. Yeah, I couldn't answer any calls or get out of bed for days. You didn't wanna see that," he tries for a laugh that withers into nothing when he catches sight of your expression.

"Wait, oh my God, are you better now?" you say, eyes widening in concern as they always do whenever you're worried about him. He doesn't deserve you, he thinks to himself, especially after he just lied to you like that.

"Yeah, see?" he gestures to himself. "Completely fine after all that bedrest."

Bedrest, the word plays again in his mind as the guilt of lying to your face eats at him.

He hadn't had a full night's sleep in the entire four days, not letting his Aunt come into his room by using the excuse of a high and contagious fever. Instead, he found himself falling asleep at his desk every few hours and running on energy drinks and junk food as he researched everything he could find about Arachnids. Matching his newly attainted abilities to those of a spider, Jeongguk was glad to find that none of his human attributes had changed too much and instead he had only gained some abilities which enhanced his physicality and senses- basically he didn't have any sudden urges to consume flies.

Not being able to find any previous cases on radioactive spiders- the only possible explanation being the spider that bit him in the museum- Jeongguk used his own intellect to piece the two together and decided to just accept the fact that he wasn't going to be a normal guy anymore. He examined the webs flying out of his wrists and came to the conclusion of the fluid being the same as a spider's web, just stronger and thicker, probably due to Jeongguk's human size. Once he had enough information about his new self, the question about what he was going to do came to mind.

The second day that he was absent, he snuck out whilst his Aunt was at work and bought two bodysuits- blue and red, along with a pair of red boots. After a long night of sewing pieces of the red spandex onto the blue suit as accents, Jeongguk was satisfied with the base of the suit and the mask. Sketching out a detailed drawing of a web design, pieced together by a sleek, black spider in the middle, Jeongguk was finally satisfied with the final suit. Ordering a silk-screening set, Jeongguk was able to make his final design, perfectly fitting him.

And then came the superhero duties. Jeongguk quickly discovered he could swing from buildings by his webs after another night of sneaking out. The same night he came across a bunch of criminals trying to steal from a jewellery store and managed to stop them all, proceeding to make it onto the news.

The police called after him just before he swung away and asked for a name. Jeongguk hadn't exactly gotten that far and when he blurted out the name 'Spider-Man' without thinking, it happened to stick and that was now his title.

Caught up in these thoughts of the past few days, Jeongguk is slammed back into reality when he hears his name.

"Jeongguk, which days do you want to meet up for the assignment?" you ask, flipping through the notes.

"Huh? What assignment?" he asks, clueless.

"The one we were literally just told about," you deadpan, halted in your movements. "What's going on, this isn't like you at all," you say, brows furrowed.

"I'm still recovering from that fever," he gives you an embarrassed look. "Can't concentrate."

"Well, I'll just explain to you later," you sigh, looking a little annoyed and Jeongguk can't find words to explain how bad he feels for keeping you out of the loop. He just doesn't want you to get into any danger. He isn't an idiot and he knows that although he's been given these abilities, he has to use them responsibly and safely. He'd never do anything to put you at risk.

"Jeongguk, what happened to your face?" your question comes suddenly but quietly from beside him. Your voice is drowned out by the rest of the class and if he didn't have enhanced hearing, he probably wouldn't have heard the pain that laced your words.

"What are you talking about?" he faces you, genuinely perplexed as to why you look so upset.

Then he realises his hood has fallen down and you're staring at his cheek. As you bring a hand up to touch his face, he flinches when you press down softly.

"How did you get this bruise? Did someone do this to you?" you demand.

Jeongguk realises it must be from that one guy who punched him last night as he was trying to stop him from getting into a fight with an innocent teenager on his way home.

"I fell," he curses internally as soon as the words leave his mouth. He can never think straight around you when you're giving him those big, wide eyes that manage to make him weak.

"On your face?" you give him a dubious look and he nods stiffly. "Right. Well, you would tell me if it was something else, wouldn't you?"

Like a knife to his heart, you say this with such trust that he feels like the shittiest person alive.

"Of course I would tell you."