#playingthatbeat

# notes: please tell me what you thought of this!! I'm not sure about the title of this series, so I'd love ideas for that. also, requests are currently open.

< prev | next >

masked masterlist (under construction)

Truthfully, Martin was bored out of his skull.

The crime rate in Seoul had been suspiciously low lately, almost as if it knew The Amazing Spider-Man was on patrol. For the past few nights, he'd spent more time being the city's overly enthusiastic friendly neighborhood Spider-Man than its vigilante.

He could count the number of actual crimes he'd stopped on one hand.

The rest of his patrols had consisted of helping an elderly woman cross the street, posing for approximately eighty-seven selfies, letting a little kid swing through the city with him (after getting permission from the kid's horrified mother), and somehow acquiring three free churros.

Yes, being Spider-Man came with weird perks.

Tonight's churro was cinnamon sugar.

His favorite.

Martin perched on an old apartment rooftop overlooking the city, legs dangling over the ledge as he enjoyed the view and ate his churro. Martin was in the middle of vagueposting on Twitter when his heightened senses picked up on the sound of a window opening, followed by footsteps. Then: a quiet sniffle.

He swallowed the last bite of his churro, tugged his mask fully into place, and stood. As quietly as he could, he rounded the rooftop water tank. He was met with the sight of a girl sat curled into herself near the edge of the roof, knees hugged to her chest, shoulders trembling with quiet sobs. His heart clenched. "Hey."

"AHHHHH!" you jump back. "What the actual fuck!?"

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. I- I'm Spider-Man." Martin finally got a good look at your face. "Oh," he inhaled sharply. Of course, it just had to be you. Just his luck. He can't help but wonder why you're upset, though, and a part of him is really nosy. Hell, all of him is.

"Yeah, I know. What are you doing on my rooftop?" You said, eyes red and puffy. Martin couldn't help but frown under his mask.

"Um, I was eating a churro." You blink at him. He felt aggressively judged. "I thought it was a good spot, I guess."

A beat.

"Are you going to jump?" he blurts.

"What?"

"I've already talked one person down this week," Martin said a little too quickly. "So if you need me to call the loony bin, let's just get it over w-"

"No, no," you cut him off. "I'm not- no. Just- don't you have somewhere else to be, dude? Aren't you supposed to be saving Seoul? Go help someone who needs it."

Martin thought for a moment. "Well, you do need help," he walked over to you, plopping down beside you. "You're upset."

You look up at him, taken aback by the masked man's kindness. It made you cry harder as fresh tears spilled down your cheeks.

"Shit, uh-" Martin pats your back awkwardly. "Are you okay? Wait, that was a stupid question. You're clearly not okay. What's wrong? I mean, do you wanna talk about it?"

"I'm just- I'm so tired and upset. I had a terrible day. It's a lot of things." you sniffled.

"Yeah?"

"I got a C on my math test, for one."

Martin resisted the urge to wince.

He knew.

He'd been sitting right next to you when the tests were handed back earlier that day. He also knew exactly what he'd said afterward.

"Only a C?" he'd teased, resting his chin in his hand as he looked at you. "You're making it really hard for me to justify having a crush on you, pretty."

Before you could even process that sentence, he'd flashed his own test.

"Ninety-eight. As always," he said, flashing his perfect pearly whites in a smug grin. "The fall off needs to be studied. Tell me this isn't your way of trying to get my attention."

Keonho laughs from his desk. "She's spending too much time looking at you and not enough time studying."

At that, you left the class, holding your test so tightly that the edges crumpled. Martin didn't see the way you fought to hold back tears.

"And there's this guy," you sighed. "His name is Martin."

Martin perked up at the mention of his own name. "Yeah? What about him?"

"He's a little shit," you said. Martin's shoulders slumped.

"He teased me earlier today because he passed with flying colours, and now he has the top position in the class. I was so upset."

Martin gulps. "I mean- I'm sure he meant it playfully," he says weakly.

"I guess bro."

Martin stared very intently at the skyline.

"But I feel like he's really mean to me and I don't know why. I've always thought he was really cool, and I wanted to be friends with him at first."

"At first?" Martin prompts.

"Even now, I still think he'd be a cool friend. But he doesn't like me. I don't know what I did to him."

"What makes you think that he doesn't like you?"

"It's obvious." You laughed, but it sounded more tired than amused.

"He's always flirting with me. But not, like..." You waved a hand dismissively. "Actually flirting. It's the kind of fake flirting middle school boys do."

"'Ohhh, I like you~.'" You pitched your voice lower in a mocking imitation. "But then they tell you that they were just joking. Then all their friends laugh because it's one big joke."

You looked down at your hands.

"It kind of feels like that."

"...Like I'm the punchline."

Martin felt his stomach drop. That was never his intention. He remembered James saying almost the exact same thing just a few hours ago.

He suddenly understood why you've been so hostile to him.

In all honesty, Martin's 'flirting' happened because his brain completely short-circuited around you. Every normal sentence evaporated. Every intelligent thought vanished. Apparently what remained was whatever embarrassing nonsense came out of his mouth first. He wasn't sure why his brain resorted to flirting. All he knew is that he liked flirting with you. He liked seeing you flustered. But what he thought was you being flustured was actually you being embarassed and sad. You thought he was intentionally bullying you and trying to hurt you. And that, for some reason, made Martin feel sick.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "On Martin's behalf. I'm sorry he makes you feel like this."

You looked at him for a long moment before giving a small shrug. "It's whatever."

Martin knew it wasn't.

You sniffled again.

"On top of that, my mom is upset with me for not getting a better mark. I'm just... I've never been mathematically inclined. I work so hard, just to get a C." Your laugh was devoid of any humour.

"She wants to get me a tutor, but the only tutor we found is fucking Keonho."

"Keonho?" Martin laughed. "I didn't know that Keonho tutors."

"You know Keonho?" you asked. "You go to Midtown?"

"Shit. Ummm, no? I just-" He pointed vaguely into the distance. "He's my cousin!"

You looked at him, unimpressed with his answer.

"Fuck. No he isn't. I go to Midtown, yeah."

"Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. Midtown is a big ass school anyway," you reassure him. "Your identity is safe, for now. It's nice to know that someone around my age is literally saving Seoul. Although, that does make me feel kinda shitty. You're a high school student, and you're Spider-Man? How? Like damn, how do your grades look?"

"They're incredibly bad. Like, Keonho's Chemistry abilities level of ass," he lies, and you laugh. Somehow, hearing you laugh felt better than stopping any supervillain ever had.

"I should get going. I have to patrol tomorrow morning. Will you be alright?" When you nod, he nods. "Okay. Good. Again, I'm sorry that you had such a bad day. Go inside and rest for me, yeah?"

"I will. It was nice talking with you, Spider-Man."

"What's your name, by the way?"

"Y/n," you reply. "What's yours?"

"I'm M-" he coughs. "I'm mad that you even asked. Nice try though."

You giggle. "It was worth a shot."

#notes: what did we think about this one guys? 👅👅 just ask via comments or dm if you want to be added to my permanent taglist or the taglist for this series!!

< prev | next >

masked masterlist (under construction)

main masterlist (under construction)

masked tl 🕸: