Chapter Text
Alright, let’s do this one last time.
My name’s Yoonchae Jeung-Laforteza.
I was bitten by a radioactive spider.
And for the past two years, I’ve been LA’s one and only Spider-Man.
“Yoonch!” a call from downstairs interrupted Yoonchae’s inner monologue, causing her to flush in embarrassment at herself.
‘That was so not plus aura.’
“Yeah?”
Sophia popped her head into her room.
“You ready to go?” she asked, smiling.
Yoonchae hummed in acknowledgment, still flustered from earlier, as she picked up her stuff.
“Aw, were you imagining some cool movie intro again?” Sophia teased, poking at her younger sister’s cheek as they walked out.
“Yah!” Yoonchae whined, swatting Sophia’s hand away—stomping ahead of her to get into Dani’s car quicker, which was waiting outside on their curb.
“You know we can make it happen, Yoonchip!”
Sophia’s voice was blocked out once Yoonchae clambered into Daniela’s car.
“No slamming the doors!” Daniela complained, adjusting the rear-view mirror to try (key word: try) to look at Yoonchae sternly.
“Tell your girlfriend to stop being annoying,” Yoonchae muttered, sulking; arms crossed, slouched over in the backseat.
Sophia arrived just after, closing the door gently and leaning across the console for a kiss.
“Hi, Dani ko,” Sophia murmured, smiling.
“Hi, baby,” Daniela smiled back.
Yoonchae groaned, rolling her eyes at the stupidly specific smile Dani had whenever her sister was around.
As soon as she blinked, she found Daniela handing Sophia a cup of matcha before starting the car. Yoonchae’s exclamation of offense cut through the rumbling of the engine.
“You- what about me?!” she whined, “Where’s my drink?!”
Daniela smirked at her as she turned around to reverse, her hand landing behind Sophia’s seat.
“Maybe if you weren’t such a wimp and manned up, you’d have your own girlfriend to give you a drink every morning,”
Yoonchae’s jaw dropped in shock, stamping her foot and whirling her head around to Sophia, ready to get her sister to defend her—
She rolled her eyes.
“Ew. You’re practically drooling. It’s a hand, it’s not that deep,”
Sophia snapped out from her distracted gaze, which was stuck onto Dani’s hand on her headrest, sticking her tongue out at Yoonchae.
“You’ll see once you get your own girlfriend who owns a car,”
She turned to Dani, an eyebrow raised suggestively.
“Plus, I wouldn’t say it wasn’t deep…”
Daniela almost turned the same shade as her car.
“Sophia!” she shrieked, her hand leaving the headrest and flying back onto the wheel.
“Ew! Keep that to yourself!” Yoonchae screamed, shoving her airpods into her ears.
She was aggressively clicking the volume button, drowning out Sophia’s teasing “Whatever!” before staring out the window.
After a few minutes of driving, getting through a song and a half of her playlist, Yoonchae felt familiar tingles in the back of her head—eyes darting from person to person before she spotted what triggered it: a woman being cornered in an alley, clutching her purse.
She quickly yanked her airpods out.
“You can drop me off here!” she said, cutting short whatever conversation the couple in front of her were having.
Daniela scoffed. “Dramatic, much? Also, we’re in the middle of the road. Just turn your volume up, prude,”
Yoonchae turned to Sophia pleadingly, watching the reason for her desperation click into her older sister’s head in real time.
Sophia turned to Dani, “Let her be, just drop her off,”
She sent an apologetic glance to Yoonchae—‘I’m sorry for what I’m about to do’—before letting her voice drop into a more sultry tone.
“Plus… remember what happened the last time we were alone in this car?”
Daniela suddenly turned the wheel, sharply turning into a random street, eliciting a yelp of shock from the passengers.
Yoonchae, as soon as the car halted (halfway on the sidewalk in front of this random house), bolted out the door as soon as she heard the click of it unlocking.
“Bye Yoonchae!” Sophia sang sweetly, before turning to Dani. This time, her expression wasn’t just an act. “Now, start driving—and take your time,”
Yoonchae couldn’t help but smile as she felt the force of the wind hit her with her swings, breathing in the fresh air as she scanned the streets for the event she saw earlier. There was nothing like swinging through the air in the morning before school.
She decided to be adventurous, swinging herself a bit lower down—closer to the streets—and, well, in true Yoonchae and Spider-Man fashion, aura farming.
Just because Sophia caught her once (four times, actually) watching edits of herself, it doesn’t mean she won’t stop feeding the editors (she deleted TikTok for a week out of pure shame) clips—despite them thinking she was a man.
Yeah.
When word got around in LA that there was a new superhero in town, the public (in true societal subconsciously misogynistic fashion) started referring to her as Spider-man.
And, well, since she was too shy and scared to even appear (let alone talk) on television—afraid she’d accidentally give her identity away—she never spoke to interviewers. She simply waved and… did aegyo from time to time. Those who did hear her speak were too focused on getting away with their crimes.
So they were never corrected, and now it’s too late.
She is now forever Spider-Man.
Which, okay. It’s pretty cool anyway. Sounds iconic, like, comic book type shit.
Her thoughts were interrupted when, turning the corner, she saw her.
Megan Skiendiel.
Her long time hallway crush since sophomore year.
Don’t get Yoonchae wrong—in public, fighting villains and involving herself in actually dangerous, life or death situations, she was confident. Hell, she even offered little quips and sassy remarks to rage bait the criminals (probably getting this from Sophia or this girl in her class, Lara). Her fight response was always on, the existence of the flight response never even occurring to her.
But in Dream Academy?
If Megan was within five feet of her, her hands would turn clammy, face would turn red, and her heart would beat erratically—freezing up entirely.
Megan wasn’t wearing anything special, a matching grey hoodie and sweatpants set, but Yoonchae still felt a blush creep up her neck. Was her suit always this hot?
Then, it happened.
Megan looked up from her phone, spotted her, and her eyes widened.
For a second, Yoonchae forgot she was in her suit, forgot she was Spider-Man, and time froze.
She swallowed, getting it together—pretending like she didn’t just accidentally bump her toe against a road sign, and waved.
She regretted it immediately.
‘Why would I wave on patrol?’
Yoonchae shot a web at the nearest building, immediately making her way to the alleyway where—luckily—the woman still was. Though, it seemed that she didn’t get herself out of any less trouble.
Upon moving closer, the shouting from the two men closing in on her got louder, Yoonchae realised that they were after money. Strange considering the fact that there was an ATM right there. Outside of the alleyway.
“Why do people say ATM machine?” Yoonchae, or, rather, Spider-Man called out; smirking despite the mask. Hopefully she was giving confident. She still gets butterflies of nervousness in her stomach, even though it’s been two years on the job.
“Who said that?” one of the robbers said, turning around and looking for the source of the voice.
“The M stands for machine.” she continued, making herself visible by hanging off the underside of a landing from stairs attached to the side of the apartment building they were next to.
The two men turned suddenly, one slipping and falling, “Spider-Man!”
Yoonchae didn’t respond, not giving them a chance to do anything more before shooting webs at them—pulling the criminals towards her, away from Lara-
Lara!?
Okay, not now.
Focus first, panic later.
Once she had them closer, she delivered a ‘light’ punch to their faces—just to daze them a little—before wrapping the binding silk around them, back to back.
Wrapping more webs around them and attaching them to a nearby lamp post outside of the alley, she sends a text to the police captain she has contact with (who, funnily enough, is Lara’s father); alerting him of a special delivery, before attending to his daughter—who was in shambles.
The girl was clutching her purse (new, it seemed; Yoonchae will have to brace herself for a fifteen minute yap session about it during fifth period), eyes wide and shaken up.
“Lar—ts… lots of criminals around lately…” Spider-Man started, clearing her throat, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, thank you.” Lara’s voice was slightly wobbly.
“I get you can be shaken up from this experience—“
“No, it’s not that.” her best friend sniffed, tilting her head up and blinking rapidly, “It’s just that… there’s only, like, fifteen fucking minutes left until school starts, and I’ve never been late before.”
Yoonchae was genuinely taken aback. Since when did Lara Raj care about attendance?
“I need to make a good first impression this year!” she whined, “There’s apparently this cute british guy who moved to my class as a transfer student, and-“
Lara paused, eyes widening in realisation, before narrowing suspiciously. She looked the superhero up and down, before dropping her tone of voice a little.
“Could you do me a little… favor?” she asked, batting her eyelashes. She started tracing a line around the logo on Yoonchae’s suit, “Save my day again?”
Yoonchae genuinely cringed—thank God for the mask—stepping away before clearing her throat.
“Well, I, uh…”
Lara looked up at her pleadingly. Well, Yoonchae ignored the seduction tactic, choosing to instead focus on the desperation this girl had not to be late.
Yoonchae sighed, dragging a hand down her masked face.
“Hop on.”
Yoonchae usually loved swinging around the city, breathing in the fresh air, all that stuff she said in her earlier internal monologue.
However, she couldn’t quite enjoy it the same—considering the fact that this girl, who she already is forced to listen to at school, was shrieking in her ear.
“This is so fucking awesome!” Lara screamed, tightening her hold around the superhero.
“You’re literally squeezing the life out of me right now.” Yoonchae muttered, “Look, maybe I should just drop you off at the station? You’ve just suffered an attack.”
“Wha—but—!” Lara tried to protest, but Yoonchae cut her off.
“Yeah, I’m taking you to the police station.” she said, readjusting her grip on her classmate as she rerouted.
“No!” Lara whined, “The cute british boy!”
“You’ll live.”
“Are you ever gonna stop being such a damn pussy and talk to her?” Karlee, Yoonchae’s best friend, rolled her eyes as she stole another fry off Yoonchae’s tray.
“Hands off!” Yoonchae snapped, swatting her hand away—not breaking her gaze away from Megan, who was sitting across the lunch hall, “And yes, yes I will. Eventually.”
“Eventually… when, exactly? Because from what I’m seeing, and from what Ezrela’s been telling me…”
“Ezrela?” Yoonchae whipped her head around to face Karlee, “What’s Ezrela been telling you? Wait, how is Ezrela even aware of this situation?”
“Well, Ezrela got it from Dani, who got it from Sophia-“
“That gossipy little…” Yoonchae grumbled, shoving her tray away.
And right on time, too. At that moment, her phone got buzzed with a certain alert.
Karlee pouted, glancing at the phone then back at Yoonchae, “Duty calls?”
Yoonchae sighed, nodding. “Duty calls.”
Megan sat at her desk, zoned out, staring at the clock ticking as she counted down the seconds until she finally got to escape this class.
‘That son of a bitch.’ she rolled her eyes, checking her phone.
Lara never came into school, and she couldn’t even text her because she got a new phone and a new number. What was it again?
The bell ringing interrupted her thoughts, eliciting a sigh of relief from the girl as she stood up.
Walking home, she was scrolling through her playlist when she remembered something.
“Oh! Wait…”
Megan rummaged through her bag, opening various pockets to find what she was looking for. A certain song came on in her queue, which was the song that she remembered faintly playing through the speakers as Lara wrote her new number down on a piece of paper.
Exclaiming in triumph as she found it, her excitement was immediately crushed when she found that one of the numbers was smudged, barely beyond comprehension.
“Okay… it’s fine, I can remember what this said.” she whispered to herself, putting the song on shuffle as she walked the rest of the way home.
After listening to the song a few more times, she came to the conclusion that the number was either a 4 or a 9, and by going with her gut, she decided it was a 4. Pulling out her phone, she immediately made the contact card and started texting her best friend about today’s earlier encounter with her favourite superhero—Spider-Man.
She grinned recounting the memory.
Yoonchae just got back from her extra patrol session, climbing in through her bedroom window, when her phone chimed.
Megan? How did Megan get her number?
Yoonchae stared at the messages flooding in, unsure of what to do. Clearly, Megan wasn’t aware that this wasn’t the right number. She should inform her, right?
But yet again…
This is probably the only way she’d ever get Megan’s number. So, a win is a win—right?
She continued reading.
so i’m walking to erewhon right
SUE ME let me spend irresponsibly
anyway so i’m craving that one smoothie
and i see my GOAT
in the distance
Yoonchae paused mid change, one hand out of her suit, the rest of her body still in it. Was Megan talking about this morning? Does Megan like Spider-Man?
like
fucking SOARING
No way. There is absolutely no way.
Megan was a Spider-Man fanatic.
Megan Skiendiel, the girl she’s been crushing on for the past 3 years, liked her superhero persona.
he must be fucking ripped i swear
like 🤤
i wanna coat his fingers with another typa fluid iykwim
ANYWAY
Yoonchae’s face flamed.
Maybe a bit more than like…
But she couldn’t help but be annoyed at one detail.
Megan thinks Spider-Man is a guy.
Well, of course she does. The whole of LA thinks she’s a guy. Usually, she wouldn’t care. Clearly she doesn’t, considering the fact that she has never corrected anyone ever.
Now is different though.
Looking back down at her phone, she realises that Megan has sent more messages.
ANYWAY
so i’m staring in awe right
and then
spider-man fucking
WAVED
at me.
Yoonchae felt a blush creep up her neck. She started sweating, and it was not from the patrol she just finished.
She took a deep breath in. ‘Okay, Yoonchae. You got this.’
hey i don’t think you have the right number lol
but that was… interesting
so, spiderman, huh?
omg im so sorry😭
but YES like dude have you SEEN him
also dont forget the hyphen. the hyphen is very important. spider-man, not spiderman
Yoonchae scoffed. People really cared that much? If only Megan knew, maybe that’ll get her to shut up. Spider-Man will spell her name however she wants to over message, thank you.
She corrects herself anyway.
okay yeah fine. spider-man
happy?
yes.
Yoonchae stared at her screen. She really didn’t want the conversation to end—and plus, why was Megan continuing to text this random stranger she didn’t know?
are you not even gonna ask who i am?
i mean
i could
but also ive always wanted to experience those
like
wrong number stories
like… those reddit ones?
ew reddit
but yeah pretty much
anyway, back to spider-man
there’s no way you dont agree.
like that man is FINE ASF.
he’s a SUPERHERO for goodness sake
and also, the way he shoots his webs
🤘🤘🤘
LIKE HELLOO??
unless you’re a guy in that case you can’t really enjoy that can you
Yoonchae’s face was flaming red.
She didn’t… think of it that way.
im not a guy megan
The typing bubble showed for around thirty seconds, and within those thirty seconds, Yoonchae started panicking. What was taking her so long to reply?
how do you know my name
Yoonchae let out a shaky exhale which she did not know she was holding in. Why did she care that much?
Actually, she knew the answer to that question and she did not want to think about it—but in Sophia’s words, or, rather, word, she was whipped.
it says your name
“unknown contact: megan skiendiel”
oh dude i thought
you like
hacked me
or something
i dont have that skill lol
Yoonchae glanced at her work station in which she was working on the technology to advance her suit.
phew ok good
how sure are you that spider-man is a guy?
WHY THE FUCK DID SHE SAY THAT?
‘Oh, good job Yoonchae. Great. Just because you hate the idea of the girl you like thinking that you’re a guy, you start revealing parts of Spider-Man’s identity? Great job, dumbass.’
hello what are you saying
his name is spider-MAN mind u
have you ever actually heard spider-man speak
assuming that the superhero is a man
okay misogyny
get more woke
‘Get more woke?????? Who the fuck says ‘get more woke’???????
wait wtf
you’ve lowkey enlightened me
the concept of spider-man being a spider-WOMAN
what do you think of that
Yoonchae’s heart was racing.
HELLO? that would make them even hotter
please im actually praying for this possibility
thank you mysterious woke stranger for opening my eyes
the spider-woman agenda OH MY GOD
“Yoonchae! I’m home!”
The sound of the door closing downstairs snapped Yoonchae out of her Megan-pilled trance.
“Coming!” Yoonchae called out, deciding that she was not mentally able to reply to that message.
She knew Megan was openly bisexual, but knowing she liked the concept of Spider-Man being a girl more?
Yeah, no, if she wasn’t able to function with Megan in the vicinity before, knowing about Megan’s infatuation with her superhero persona certainly wouldn’t help that.