Work Text:
Kim Seokjin was a good friend.
Heck, you could call him a great friend.
Probably the bestest friend ever.
He let his friends live their lives as he lived his. He went weeks with only scattered texts exchanged between odd hours of the day. He invited his scattered group of co-workers to join him for lunches and brunch whenever he had a spare minute. He even remembered their birthdays.
And yet, somehow, he still found himself stuck in one of the worst situations imaginable.
“Jungkook, where were you last night?” The questioned male looked up from his paperwork, eyes wide with a look Seokjin couldn’t distinguish.
“Drinking, I went with some guys from work.” Seokjin hummed, nodding as he leaned on the doorframe of his roommate’s bedroom.
“You seemed pretty sober this morning though, was it a bad time?” Jungkook had the decency to appear sheepish as he nodded, Seokjin carefully reading the situation. He refused to push more than he should.
“Yeah, wasn’t in the drinking mood so I just talked to them.”
“Talked until 4 am?” Jungkook rubbed his neck, groaning low as Seokjin straightened up. The moment was fading and Seokjin still didn’t have enough to work with.
“Did I miss something last night?”
“No-” Jungkook directed a glare at him, eyebrow quirked.
“Then why am I being interrogated right now?” Seokjin raised his hands in defeat, turning as he walked out.
We aren’t finished here, Jeon. Mark my words.
...
It was a few hours later when Seokjin heard the shatter.
He was seconds away from slumber, now bolting out of his bed to grab the baseball bat he kept near his bed. For safety reasons, he insisted.
His steps were slow and quiet as he moved towards the bedroom door, the knob’s slight creak making him cringe. He inhaled sharply, swinging the door open and holding the bat up.
“Who goes there?!” The refrigerator light shone through the room as Jungkook stood by the door, the small straw of a juice box pressed between his lips.
“Jin? What’s with the bat?” Seokjin exhaled, gripping his chest as he let the bat drop to his side.
“Jungkook, what the heck? It’s-” Cue a glance to the clock hanging on the wall. “3 am, what the heck are you doing up?!”
“I got hungry.” Jungkook closed the door, readjusting his sweater -sweater?- over his shoulders before moving towards his bedroom. “Sorry I woke you, it’s nothing.”
“Okay..” Seokjin walked back into his bedroom, completely missing the broken window in the living room and the bloody cuts on Jungkook’s palms wrapped around the apple juice.
“So, where does Jungkook work?” Seokjin was getting lunch with his co-worker, a man more bite than bark as he watched him think over his coffee.
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever asked.” He watched the man choke over his own beverage, Seokjin taking slow sips as he waited for him to catch his breath. “Don’t die on me yet, Namjoon.”
“You’ve been rooming with him for almost a year, and you never asked where he works?” In theory, it sounded worse than it was.
“It never came up?” Nope, it was just as bad as it sounded.
“Seokjin, you’ve done some questionable stuff in the past, but this? This is crazy, even for you.”
Seokjin moaned into his drink, ignoring his co-worker’s judging gaze. “It’s not that bad, I can ask him at any time.”
“Oh?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then do it.” Namjoon reached across the table, grabbing Seokjin’s phone and placing it in his palm. “Ask him right now.”
“Namjoon, it is 2:20 in the afternoon.” He pocketed his cellphone, never taking his eyes off of the frowning male. “He’s obviously busy right now.”
“You’re a coward.”
“You can pay for your own avocado toast.”
“That’s fair.”
...
Namjoon’s words rang in Seokjin’s head for the remainder of the day, eventually pushing him to send the text.
Seokjin:: hey jk, small question: where do you work?
Seokjin:: not that im gonna stalk you or anything, just curious
Seokjin:: idk why it hasn’t come up sooner but i mean, you know where I work so.. its only fair.
Seokjin:: text me back when you get the chance.
The key scraped the lock as Seokjin opened his empty apartment. He wondered if Jungkook was pulling another nightshift at wherever the heck he worked, mentally crossing off a list of possible locations that offer graveyard shifts as he prepared a small dinner for himself.
‘Malls? No, those started closing in the 1920s. A bar? Maybe, but he’s always busy with paperwork. What kind of bar makes employees fill out paperwork on Tuesday nights?’ He eventually prepared an entire meal mindlessly, merely letting his muscles go through the motions as he let his thoughts wander.
He was almost through with his meal when his phone rang, Namjoon’s caller ID blaring on his screen. “Namjoon? What is it-”
“Please tell me you aren’t downtown.” Seokjin blinked, assuring Namjoon he was at home before following his directions to turn on the tv for pete’s sake.
And then he saw him.
“We’re live in Downtown Seoul where a mysterious figure has opened fire on the city, taking hostages into a helicopter with him. Officials are now trying to negotiate with the mysterious figure- what? Oh, it looks like Arachnid Kid has just arrived on the scene!”
Seokjin watched a red blur fly across the screen, frowning as the red outfitted man swung back to the woman, correcting her bluntly in an accent he recognized too quickly.
“Excuse me, lady. It’s Spiderman.”
Seokjin didn’t even realize he had dropped the phone, Namjoon shouting for ears that wouldn’t hear.
‘What the heck.’
It was two weeks before Seokjin found the nerves to ask Jungkook for the truth.
“Seokjin, I’m telling you, I’m not doing anything out of the ordinary.” Seokjin knew this wasn’t true.
“I go to work every morning.” Seokjin saw his shoes still at the doorway twice last week, long past the time when Jungkook told him he would be gone.
“I work until 7 pm every day.” He got out at 7:30, and if Jungkook’s known bus route was anything to consider, they should’ve taken the same one home every day. Which, newsflash, they didn’t.
“And then I come home. Unless I go out with the guys -which is something I like doing.” Seokjin has yet to see the face of one of these ‘guys’ Jungkook insisted on hanging out with almost every day. But after watching the younger man’s expression shift to one of discomfort, decided to postpone the questioning.
And when he heard the bathroom window slide open, and Jungkook’s footsteps disappear from the apartment, Seokjin didn’t make a sound.
A question for another day.
...
“Namjoon, I need help.” Namjoon was mid-bite when Seokjin halted him, his avocado toast inches from his mouth.
“Okay, can it wait until I eat my lunch?” Seokjin’s downward pointing face insisted otherwise. “Fine, what is it?”
“How do I bond with someone?” Namjoon bit down on his toast, chewing as he hummed in thought. “To get to know them, of course.”
“Well, have you tried doing something they enjoy? Like, joining in on their hobbies.” Seokjin didn’t know what kinds of hobbies Jungkook might have, but he couldn’t tell Namjoon that.
“Who has hobbies in 2018, Joon?”
“Maybe the person you’re trying to get to know?”
Seokjin groaned, leaning back in his chair. “Okay, what if their hobbies aren’t really.. obvious?”
“Like they keep to themselves a lot?” Seokjin nodded, Namjoon biting down on his toast once more before shaking his head.
“Everyone has something they like. Everyone’s got a weak spot. You just gotta find it and get them to open up.”
...
Seokjin:: JK are you gonna be home tonight?
Jungkook:: nah, going drinking with the guys
Seokjin:: can I come with? I’m in the drinking mood
Jungkook:: they’re guys from work, jin, I don’t think you’ll feel comfortable
Seokjin:: oh, right
Jungkook:: maybe next time, okay?
Seokjin:: sure, next time then
“Two more reports of a mysterious figure kidnapping people in Downtown Seoul has citizens fearing for their safety. But an equally mysterious vigilante has once again rescued them without any casualties. The question remains: who is this Spiderman, and what did Seoul do to deserve him?”
Seokjin doesn’t say a word when the door clicks open not long after a police report flashes on tv, doesn’t even blink at the sound of the first aid kit he bought popping open or when the aspirin bottle clicks open. He slides into his bed, preparing for another excuse, another reason, another mystery as he lets his mind drain him into a dream.
Seokjin is exhausted by the month’s end, run dry of ‘maybe next time’ rain checks and missed calls never really going through, and all because of his roommate.
Maybe Seokjin should have listened to Namjoon and done a proper background check on the guy.
“Too late now,” Namjoon had chuckled over lunch yesterday, “He’s already under your roof. Worst he can do is kill ya.”
Seokjin did not want to wait until he was rolling in his grave to start going something. So he did the most illogical thing he could think of: track him down.
It was easier than he expected if he was being honest -and Seokjin prided himself on his honesty. It did, after all, make him plenty of enemies.
And who didn’t love having enemies?
So when Jungkook walked out of the apartment for work at 7 am, Seokjin was right behind him. He didn’t let himself be seen -which was harder done than said- and boarded the same bus as Jungkook.
He watched the male stop for a bagel in a coffee shop and take a cab at a bus stop before reaching a… club?
Seokjin glanced at the location once more, careful to not be spotted as he caught Jungkook easily slipping around the back.
‘Why is he going through the alley when he could just as easily walk through the front door?’ Seokjin paced himself, slipping into a small doorway as he pulled his phone out.
Seokjin:: hey jk you busy rn? I have a few minutes we could grab an early lunch
He waited a moment, poking around the corner as he spotted Jungkook glancing at his phone momentarily. His own buzzed seconds later, Jungkook now ducked out of sight.
Jungkook:: can’t, maybe some other time?
Seokjin frowned, locking his phone as he turned to glance back into the alley.
And there was no sign of the male anymore.
Seokjin swore under his breath, moving closer to where he had last spotted his roommate. He found Jungkook’s backpack, tangled in a small web behind a trashcan, but no Jungkook.
‘Where the heck did that kid go?’ No sooner than the thought slipped through his mind, a woman screamed from the main road. Seokjin spun, running towards the shouts as he saw-
“S-S-S-Spiderman, look, we were just-”
“Oh, save it, you big bully! We all know you’re not here for the ham sandwiches at brunch!”
Seokjin saw the web-slinging masked man dangle a very scared businessman from the club’s doorway, the man’s associates already tangled in their own cocoon on the sidelines. He’s certain the man was intimidating in daylight hours, should’ve had no problem scarring everyday people like Seokjin himself, but hanging in midair he seemed the only one scarred in sight. Seokjin blinked, the words failing him as he watched the red-masked hero poke the man, causing him to sway as he yelped.
“S-Spiderman, please, we can make a deal!”
“Mmmm, nah. The cops will be here in a minute, you better behave until they get here, mister.” In seconds, the red vigilante was gone, swinging overhead as Seokjin watched him vanish over the city’s skylines.
It took him a moment to get out of his reverie before he stepped towards the hanging man. “Excuse me, what did you do to get him to show up?”
The man stared at Seokjin as though he had grown a new set of limbs before crying out, “I didn’t know he would find me! If I did, I would’ve done business elsewhere!”
Seokjin poked him, sending him swinging once more as he yelped out weakly. “You’re just a douche, you’re of no help.”
“Namjoon, I need a costume.” Namjoon was starting to think he was never going to be allowed to eat his lunch in peace as long as Seokjin stared at him like that from across the table, the most ridiculous requests always slipping from his lips.
“What the hell do you need a costume for? It’s July.” Seokjin sipped on the tea he hoped would calm his system a bit. It didn’t.
“Don’t judge me. What if I was going to part-time for children’s birthday parties? Would you still judge me?”
“Yes because you hate kids.” Seokjin groaned. Namjoon barely raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t hate them, I just prefer them 20 feet away at all times.” Namjoon smiled, shaking his head as he bit into his sandwich.
“So, why do you need a costume anyway?”
“Because I am going to be,” Seokjin leaned in, voice lowering to a whisper as Namjoon finally raising an eyebrow. “A villain.”
“A villain? Like, the Green Goblin?” Seokjin nodded, recalling the man who tore apart half of Midtown a few weeks ago. He barely saw Jungkook when the event occurred, which only solidified his theories.
“Yeah, except without the super.”
“Super what?”
“Super everything.” Namjoon looked like he was waiting for a punchline that would never come. Seokjin looked like he needed something stronger than matcha.
“I feel like I’m missing something, run it by me once more.” Seokjin lifted his drink, chugging it down as Namjoon waited for an explanation. Any explanation, really.
“Jungkook seems to only respond to people who are evil or in danger. And I can’t put myself in danger, so I’m going to be evil.” The waiter dropped off their check, Namjoon picking it up as Seokjin rubbed his hands maniacally.
“How exactly does one become evil?” Seokjin grinned in a way that had Namjoon wishing he could backspace and erase the words before they left his mouth.
“I am very glad you asked, Joonie.”
“I already regret everything.”
...
Turns out, being a villain was more than just a couple of costumes from a local party store and a will. But Seokjin was determined to make things work.
“Namjoon, do you know any chemists?” Namjoon looked at him from his spot on the couch, a needle dangling from his lips as he froze from his current assignment: sewing some adjustments onto their ‘uniforms’.
“Real chemists? Like, for the government? No.” Seokjin sighed, snipping off the thread he finished knotting off before reaching for the spool between them. “But I know someone who is studying chemistry at the local university, if that helps.”
It did, turn out to help, as they would later find out. And while Jimin was shorter and quieter than they expected, Seokjin found he made an excellent chemist for their haphazard planning.
“Potassium nitrate? Yeah, I can get some, but what do you need it for?” Seokjin didn’t know just how to lie quite yet but apparently, Namjoon did.
“We’re making bath bombs. You know, the instagram ones?”
Jimin had heard of the pretty colored crafts, but didn’t know enough about making them to be able to argue with them about the process.
In a matter of days they had an assortment of ingredients, Namjoon’s apartment the building place of their large-scale crafting quickly filling with boxes of different things he was sure were putting him on some national watch list.
“Firecrackers? Smoke bombs? Seokjin, just what the hell are we planning here?”
“We are planning to catch someone’s attention.” Seokjin smiled, tugging on his outfit for a final dress rehearsal. “Now, tell me if you think I look threatening.”
“You look like something out of a clown factory.” Seokjin frowned, his tight-spandex clinging to his body nicely.
“Excuse you, I feel like I just burst out of my chrysalis.”
“Well, you sure do seem the part.” Seokjin raised his arms, the butterfly wings shining in the room’s yellow lighting. “Tell me again why you’re a butterfly but I had to be a moth?”
“You’re taller, and moths are vaguely more threatening, so you’re my muscle.” Seokjin ignored Namjoon’s rebuttal about how he wasn’t the one who went to the gym every Tuesday, but instead moved to tug on his mask. “Can you recognize me?”
“Not really. But that’s the point, right?”
“Yes it is.” Namjoon cringed, highly displeased with the threatening tone Seokjin was adapting.
“I can’t take you seriously with that accent.”
“What accent?” Seokjin said, with a clear accent.
“That one.”
“What are you-”
“Stop, Seokjin, oh my god, I’m going to ditch you out in the rain with your toys.”
After a moment of back and forth - ‘They are not toys, Namjoon!’ ‘They might as well be.’- the two settled into the living room, insistent on finishing their preparations that night.
“Are you sure about this?” Seokjin thought back to his unanswered calls, his ignored texts, and knew what had to be done.
“Absolutely. Besides, I already made a powerpoint.”
“Of course you did. Not surprised at all, Seokjin.”
“This is why you’re the moth.”
“We are live in Downtown Seoul where a new pair of villains have made their presence known by blowing up half of the National Bank! There are no hostages, only slight reports of injuries have been made, but a large sum of money has been stolen as police have begun a city-wide chase to stop them.”
Seokjin didn’t think a mediocre plan thought up in a coffee shop on a Thursday would work, but it did. The pair had managed to steal over half a million dollars before cops were alerted, but there was no sign of the swinging vigilante. Namjoon had tripped on a wiring they set up -firecrackers were too close to the smoke bombs- which resulted in an explosion that tore up half of the banks interior. Way more than either of the duo signed up for.
“We’re dead! We are so dead!” Namjoon ran in front of Seokjin, tossing bags of cash into their designated getaway car -an old ice cream truck they spray painted and got for half price- but it was clear his mind was already trapped by the approaching cop cars.
“Not yet we’re not, come on!” Seokjin jumped into the driver’s seat, Namjoon barely climbing in back with the money before they tore off into the streets, a rehearsed route already cleared for them.
It was almost too easy, and Seokjin started to wonder why no one else had ever tried it before.
And then a red-suited web-slinger slammed onto the windshield, and Seokjin shrieked.
“WHAT THE HECK!” He swerved on the road, the figure looking at him strangely before tapping on the glass as though he wasn’t in the way of a vehicle moving 75 mph on a service road.
“Excuse me, can you pull over? I think you have some extra cargo you didn’t mean to grab.” Seokjin’s head is spinning because he knows that voice, it’s the same voice that taunted him when he grabbed the wrong cereal and the one that actively ignored him every day of the week.
It’s the voice that got him into this mess and now it’s the same voice that he really wants to ram into a streetlight.
“No thanks!” He chooses to break, which was not what the vigilante was expecting as he slams into the windshield, Seokjin flipping on the wipers as he watches the figure swat at them uselessly. He turns on the spray function and even grins when the figure is now a sputtering mess staring back at him.
“Jin, we okay?” Namjoon pipes up, finally seeming to regain a sense of self from the backseat as Seokjin remembers they have half a million dollars in the trunk of their car and decides to slam on the gas, startling the vigilante as he swings off the front of the car.
Seokjin panics for a moment, believing they might have accidentally run him over, but is reassured when he hears him clamoring on the roof of the car.
“What the heck is on the roof?!” Seokjin shakes his head, checking his rearview mirror for any sign of the patrol cars.
“A man is on the roof,” Namjoon screams, looking at the roof as though expecting it to collapse inward at any second from the weight of an entire person.
“WHAT?” Seokjin makes a sharp turn, the entire car shifting as the man on the roof physically pulls them to the side before Seokjin can regain control of the wheel. He maneuvers them to safety, the vehicle roaring as they get off the main road and head to a dirt path.
Namjoon is speaking but Seokjin doesn’t hear him until there’s a tapping on the window, Seokjin shrieking when the vigilante’s masked face is now staring at him from his window. He clicks the button, rolling down the window ever so slightly as he continues driving down the bumpy path.
“Where are we going?” Seokjin feels a remark climbing up his throat, the anger in knowing just who is under the mask and how they have never asked him that until this very moment burning inside of him.
“I don’t know, Jungkook, where are we going?”
The window is quickly rolled up, Seokjin catching the slight widening of the vigilante’s eye.. uh.. parts in the mask before his mind is overrun with Namjoon’s shrieks.
“THAT’S JUNGKOOK?!” Seokjin sighs, slowing down as they reach a small abandoned house on a field.
“I think so, I guess we’re gonna find out.”
...
“So you mean to tell me, that you blew up a bank and stole half a million dollars, just because I didn’t text you back?!” Jungkook was in fact, under the mask, as he now sat across from the pair, Seokjin and Namjoon both staring sadly at the money they were certain would have to be returned.
“More or less.”
Namjoon lifted a finger, finally turning to get a good look of the vigilante without his mask. “I did it for the thrill.”
Jungkook looked appalled by him, and Namjoon quickly lowered his finger.
“You could’ve cornered me at home?” Seokjin shook his head.
“Tried that, didn’t work.”
“Called me after hours?”
“Went straight to voicemail half the time. Didn’t pick up the other half.”
“...I’m sorry.” Seokjin sighed, letting himself take in the younger man’s face. His eyes were downward, but Seokjin could see the tint of guilt peeking through the lashes. His face looked weary, way too tired and suddenly Seokjin was the one feeling guilty.
“No, don’t be. I shouldn’t have been so quick to upset about being ignored.” Jungkook shook his head, a small smile peeking through.
“I shouldn’t have ignored you, though. You were just trying to be there for me, and I pushed you away. It’s not your fault I have to be the protector for the city.”
Seokjin laughed, and Namjoon eased into his spot on the small chair, content at the sound he hadn’t heard in a few weeks.
“You? Protector of the city? Yeah right!”
“What’s that supposed to mean? I caught you two didn’t I?”
“We let ourselves get caught, don’t get it twisted you twerp.”
“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A TWERP?”
“THE ONLY TWERP IN THE ROOM!”
“Ah,” Namjoon sighed, slipping a wad of bills into his pocket, “I love happy endings.”
“Namjoon, would you ever consider being a villain again?” Seokjin was lounging on the couch, a half-melted ice cream cone in his hand as he let his friend flip through channels aimlessly. The memory of the last month’s activities plucking at his mind like the sprinkles jammed between his molars.
“Again? I don’t think we even did it right the first time.” Seokjin frowned, poking his free-hand into the man’s side.
“Excuse you, we did a great job for a first attempt. And there weren’t even any casualties.”
“Thankfully.” They both looked up at the half-dressed vigilante, Jungkook smiling as he tugged his mask off of his face, a mess of brown hair shining in the yellowing apartment lighting.
“Is our residential hero gracing us with his presence?” Jungkook laughed, tugging at his suit as he stepped away from the window where he swung in from and marching to his bedroom.
“In a second, I have to shower first.” Namjoon threw a pillow at his retreating figure, Jungkook barely ducking as Seokjin snorted. “Hey, you’re already engaging in villainous behavior, you’re attacking a hero in his own home!”
Namjoon laughed, Seokjin joining in as they watched Jungkook scramble to get behind the safety of his bedroom door.
“Man, we can scare a whole Spiderman.” Namjoon lifted his hand, Seokjin meeting him halfway for a solid high-five.
“Yeah, and we didn’t even need the costumes.”