the minute siwoo stepped foot into her house after getting home from school, she practically ran upstairs and into the chair at her small desk. mark watched as she eagerly began typing at her laptop.
"what's the occasion?" he asked, lifting his upper body off her bed.
"i'm supposed to know if i got hired at one of the places i applied for," she replied, not moving her eyes from the screen. "it's a pizza place just a few blocks away. not ideal but, who cares."
mark hummed and nodded as she opened a tab for her emails, clicking on the first one sent just that morning. long story short, she did in fact get the job, and she felt a breath of relief escape her lips along with a fall of her tense shoulders.
"i got it," she said to mark.
the boy smiled and began clapping way too loud. "dude congrats!"
"pizza delivery girl by day, spider-girl by night," she half-joked, the corners of her lips pulling upwards. mark flung his head back in laughter.
"that was good. speaking of, we haven't practiced in a while. should we?"
"tonight? it will be dark by then and i'm supposed to be hanging out with jeno and sohee in a bit." the girl replied, taking a quick look at the time.
mark scrunched his nose in the slightest bit at the response. siwoo hardly spoke about jeno, but whenever she did, mark could sense a change in her energy. he could sense the way her heartrate sped up just the smallest bit whenever she said anything about him.
"isn't that the one you're in love with?" he asked, not in curiosity, just to see if she'd be honest. it was so obvious to him how she felt about jeno.
siwoos slowly turned her head in his direction, her cheeks turning red at the question. a small smirk formed on his lips, one good enough to tell her he was definitely just teasing her. "why? you jealous?" she teased back.
mark scoffed, "i'm literally spider-man. spider. man. i have absolutely nothing to be jealous of."
siwoo laughed, "right. i'm gonna head out now."
"can i come?"
the girl stopped in her tracks as she was about to put her hand on the door knob. "...why?"
"i'm... bored, and, i've been stuck in this house for weeks and i'm starting to get tired of it."
"how am i gonna explain you to them?"
"...we met at summer camp?"
"mark, i didn't go to summer camp."
"i'm a friend from a different school, then." mark crossed his arms with a nod, looking proud of the idea, but siwoo wasn't so fond of it. her friends knew she didn't really have any other friends to begin with, especially from other schools, and they'd for sure get suspicious.
"please? i'm starting to get convinced i'm gonna be stuck in your world forever. i might as well make the best of it." he pleaded.
siwoo felt a little bad, because that may have been true. there was no real way of telling. "fine. but don't act suspicious."
"i would never."
siwoo left out the front door, mark meeting her having going out from her window seeing as her aunt was home early. this was marks first time really getting to take in siwoos reality, and it tripped him out how similar everything was compared to his own reality.
"my house!" he suddenly said, pointing to a building not too far from siwoos house. "that's my home. well—not here."
"really? some boy from my school lives there. his name is donghyuck."
mark stopped fully in his tracks. siwoo walked a few feet before realizing mark wasn't next to her anymore, so she stopped and turned around. she watched as he stared at nothing, confused, the name not having registered in her brain yet.
"you okay?" she asked worriedly.
the sound of her voice shook mark out of his thoughts. "yeah, sorry. that was... that was my best friends name."
it finally clicked for siwoo. "shit, i'm so sorry, i completely forgot."
"no, it's okay. that was just... weird, i don't know. i haven't heard someone say his name so casually in so long. it was kind of refreshing."
he placed a hand on her shoulder, telling her it was really okay, as she sent him a sad smile. just as they were about to walk away, the door to the boys home opened, and there walking out was none other than lee donghyuck.
marks face dropped as he watched the boy walk down the street, minding his business. siwoo was only looking at mark, and couldn't help but wonder exactly what he was thinking. she hoped the same name could have been a coincidence, and it wasn't the same person, but the look on marks face said otherwise.
he didn't pull his eyes away until donghyuck was completely out of their sight, then he turned back to siwoo. "that was him. like, that was literally him. holy shit."
surprisingly mark did actually seem more refreshed than upset. she couldn't imagine how crazy it felt to see someone who died in your world, walking happily in another.
"he looked... happy. normal."
"he is a pretty happy guy. i don't really know anything about him, but every time i walk past him in school, he's laughing up a storm. his friends say he's like the sun." siwoo then said.
mark laughed lightly. "that's what i used to call him."
pang. there goes the shattering of siwoos heart. as if the situation couldn't get anymore depressing. she couldn't ever in her life imagine losing her best friend like that, and she genuinely wondered how mark was so okay.
"you good to keep going?" she asked.
"absolutely. you ain't getting rid of me that easy, lets go." now it was marks turn to walk ahead of siwoo, the girl having to jog to catch up to him.
the pair walked and talked until they reached the local park. siwoo spotted jeno and sohee, and another person she wasn't expecting to see, but she wasn't really surprised. sohee watched as the two figures approached her, her face twisting into confusion at the boy.
"hi?" she greeted as they got closer.
siwoo also noticed jenos confusion, and chaseul, who mostly seemed not to care. "hi, uh, this is mark. he's a friend from... somewhere else..."
mark fought the urge to narrow his eyes at how suspicious she sounded, just after telling him not to be suspicious.
"mark, this is jeno, sohee, and um, chaseul."
"nice to meet you," mark beamed.
"what's up man," jeno greeted back. the three were still clearly lost, but didn't question it as it would seem impolite. they stood in silence before mark cleared his throat awkwardly.
"so, i was thinking we could go out to eat," sohee then suggested, her eyes flickering between the group.
"sounds good! lets go!" desperate to clear the tension in the air, siwoo quickly agreed to the idea and they wasted no time getting to walking.
sohee walked in front, jeno and chaseul in the middle, and mark and siwoo just behind the three of them. mark could easily see the difference in siwoos energy after seeing chaseul.
"are they together?" he whisper-asked siwoo.
she looked at him, then looking at the pair. "something like that."
marks lips puckered out slightly at the tone in her voice. she tried to make it seem like it didn't bother her, but she was more obvious than she thought she was. "damn. his loss."
the comment made siwoo snicker, then a snort coming out which left her covering her mouth in embarrassment while mark pushed his lips in between his teeth to hold in laughter. when the trio in front of them turned around in confusion, siwoo disguised the snort as slight coughs.
"throat tickles." she then said, them finally turning around. mark couldn't further hold in his laughter so he let out a few quiet chuckles, earning a slap on the chest from siwoo.