Archive of Our Own ^beta

Taesan takes a deep breath from the air, filling his lungs with it as much as he can. The Seoul he comes from has long since stopped having clean oxygen to breathe, let alone a sky where you can see the blueness of the day and the stars at night. Back in his Seoul, the sky had become dark from pollution, the air made to kill any humanity left on the planet. 2210 Seoul looks like Taesan's Seoul used to be in the past before he was born, a dream from a hopeful child to grow in a better place.

He should know by now that dreams never lead anywhere, and he stopped being a child a long time ago.

2210 Seoul is by far his favorite one from all the multi-verse traveling he made these years, but he doesn’t have time to dwell on how much he misses the sun and the blue skies, his spider-senses blare in his body and bring him back to reality.

The responsibility of being Spider-Man is one that Taesan never thought he’d have. When he was younger, he used to think that superheroes were kinda stupid since they couldn’t prevent his Earth from ending up the way it did – if anything, they were the ones that made that happen in the first place. When he was given the chance to become a superhero, as much as he despised it, he accepted it right away. Since anyone did something for his Earth, he was going to do it. It was an easy choice given that Taesan didn’t have anything in life to give it a meaning.

If he died while saving the world, then it shall be it. At least he made something instead of being another burden to that Earth.

He leans over the rooftop, the goggles in his suit giving him a wider view of the city, numbers in his periphery with coordinates to where he nets to get and which routes to follow. Taesan stretches his arms up lazily. The black and red suit etches on his body like a second skin, protecting him with the nano-tech shields and all the technological bullshit Leehan likes to gush about while he pretends to understand for the sake of not having his best friend sulking. Taesan takes a glance at his heart rate on the screen’s left – a precaution, to make sure that it doesn’t collapse with all the inter-dimensional travels he does daily. He rarely pays attention to his vitals while on missions, leaving that to Leehan back on the headquarters.

Taesan jumps from the rooftop and free falls on the street, shooting a web before anyone can see him. He goes from building to building, trying to go unnoticed by wandering eyes in the sky as he follows the coordinates on the screen. A dead-end street is his destination, where he can see something that resembles a lion and a snake attacking someone in a pink and white suit. It looks exactly like his one, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man from this universe.

It’s not unusual for him to cross paths with Spider-Men along the way in his daily missions. Every Earth has a Spider-Man, that’s the balance in the universe. Taesan has seen a bunch of styles and colors, always impressed by how creative his fellow spiders can be. This one makes Spider-Man stand out like a sore thumb, but Taesan liked the design a lot.

“Watch out!” he yells at the pink Spider-Man’s direction when he realizes the monster is about to throw him away, but it’s too late.

The small dude is thrown at the same building Taesan is, fast reflexes preventing both to get hurt in the process as the guy comes straight at him. Taesan mentally thanks Leehan and all the modifications he did on his suit because it sure handled the force of the monster’s attack. He makes a note to bring a pack of those shark jellies from this Earth that Leehan likes.

“You’re okay there, tiny?” Taesan asks, being met with an angry huff coming from the guy before he pushes him away and goes back to fighting the monster. Taesan stays in place, watching the smaller hero throw a good kick on the monster’s chest. “Guess he’s not the talking type.”

Taesan shrugs, not about to leave all the fun to someone else. He takes a step back to get momentum and leaps to a nearby wall, landing a double-heeled kick at the monster’s chest in the same place tiny Spider-Man did. His goggles alert him of a wormhole opening right at that very moment, the sole reason for him to be on this Earth and traveling through dimensions. He doesn’t need to look out for it, the dark and large hole surges a little far behind the monster.

He changes the fight tactics, aiming for kicks to push the monster closer to the hole and lead it to oblivion – hopefully, for another Spider-Man to finish it off because these creatures never cease to show up everywhere. Tiny Spider-Man seems to catch the drill, legs swifting back and forth as he takes advantage of the momentum to push the monster in the wormhole with a full-force kick that makes Taesan wonder how a body as lithe as his could have this much strength.

The monster stumbles but doesn’t fall, not giving up as easily as Taesan thought he would. He sighs and takes out one of the compact vortex closing discs, throwing it at the beast’s fur-clad torso, the light at its center glowing a bright red before exploding, making the creature stumble backwards the same time the wormhole starts to shrink. Taesan watches the monster be taken along with it, disappearing and leaving behind a fluffy tail on the cement.

The leftover of another anomaly that won’t bother this Earth anything soon. Taesan tries not to barf at the greenish blood and the butchered tail in front of him.

“Never saw one of these before. Have you, tiny?” Taesan asks the guy as he puts a hand over his shoulder, both panting heavily.

It takes a second for the other guy to realize Taesan’s presence and touch, answering it with a swift punch on his cheek. Taesan stumbles back in both surprise and pain from the impact. Leehan’s nano-tech shields are unable to protect him from the nice right-hook this dude has. Taesan puts a hand over his cheek, a little shocked as he looks back at the tiny Spider-Man.

“That’s a genetic anomaly from HybeLabs, it’s what happens when you decide to be a subject for their magical treatments,” pink Spider-Man says, with a hint of annoyance in his voice. “And my name is not tiny. It’s Spider-Man, douchebag.”

“I kinda knew that. And the punch was unnecessary.” Taesan rubs his right cheek in pain. He stretches a hand at the other and smiles as friendly as he can under the mask – even if the other can’t see it. “I’m Spider-Man too, by the way.”

“Huh?” Pink Spider-Man blurts, probably frowning under the mask. Taesan had the same reaction the first time he saw another like him in a different dimension. By now, he’s used to having others reacting this way when they see him. “How can you–”

The obnoxious sound of his inter-dimensional watch interrupts the other. Taesan takes a look at it and knows his job on this Earth is done for the day and Leehan is calling back to him. He sighs deeply, a little down that he won’t be able to have a better conversation with this fellow spider, but work is work. This Seoul isn’t the only one Taesan has to help in the company’s long mission of stopping the imbalance of dimensions.

“I’m sorry, Spider-Man, but my curfew is right around the corner.” Taesan taps at the watch fastened on his wrist, grinning under the mask. He makes a two-fingered salute and shoots one spiderweb to the dark sky before looking one last time at this universe’s hero. “Guess I’ll see you around, tiny.”

“Wait!” The man calls, but Taesan has already disappeared into the sky.

“Guess what?” Taesan says as he sits on one of the vacant wheel-chairs in the corner of the lab. “Fought next to another Spider-Man.”

Taesan schools his face into something nonchalant and playful, something he learned to do after coming back from his inter-dimensional trips. It usually fools some of the interns checking on his suit and the compact vortex-closing discs. He doesn’t let his annoyance at being punched on the face by a stranger noticeable, well-blended under the way he talks. It goes unnoticed by everyone, except for Leehan.

He takes one glance at Taesan and knows that he’s pretending to be this nonchalant person that everyone in the company came to know. Leehan runs a scanner along his entire height as he complies easily to all commands. It's a common procedure by now, to scan his body in search of anything different whenever he comes back. A way to keep track in case Taesan brings some disease to add to the long list that this Earth already has. Raise arms, put them down, open legs, raise head. Taesan does it without Leehan having to say it, keeping his eyes on the name-tag on the white lab coat.

KLH. Kim Leehan, head scientist of this mission and Taesan’s Spider-Man’s suit engineer.

“You do know that I can hear everything that happens when you travel, right?” Leehan snorts as he ends the scanning procedure.

“How would you know it was another spidey?” Taesan fires back, looking at the holographic notepad where Leehan checks a few boxes before putting it aside. “It could’ve been anyone else. What if it was a villain helping me?”

“That person was very adamant on making sure they’re not tiny and that their name is Spider-Man,” he says, one brow raised as he looks back to the notepad.

“Oh, yeah. Forgot that,” Taesan lets out an embarrassed chuckle, scratching his neck. Leehan shakes his head, smiling affectionately. “But that punch hurted like hell. He has a right-hook that would make me envious if I wasn’t a good fighter.”

“I too would punch you in the face if you called me tiny when I’m a hero covering a big ass city,” Leehan scoffs, moving back to his assortment of computers and screens. “The guy probably wasn’t even that small. It’s not his fault that you decided to go against God’s height standard.”

Taesan never paid much attention to Leehan’s workplace. Not that he was stupid or anything, but his intelligence could be considered medium. Far from the technology genius that Leehan is. He’s constantly glad that Leehan decided to be his friend and engineer, otherwise Taesan fears that he would be dead long ago without the almost flawless suit Leehan made for him.

“But you’re a little tiny yourself too,” Taesan points out, lips jutting out.

The words earn him a glare that Taesan knows all too well by now. Is the you’re-crossing-the-line type of glare, the one that Leehan saves for moments when Taesan is talking about something that he doesn’t like. It’s not difficult to know when Leehan is about to get annoyed. With time spent together, Taesan has mastered all the looks and faces Leehan has shown to him in these twelve years. Leehan is the closest to a best friend Taesan ever had in this life.

“Okay, not talking about that,” he says, raising his hands in surrender. “Let’s talk about something else then.”

Leehan huffs and swirls back to his computer. Taesan’s suit stands inside the re-calibration booth in front of the screens. Leehan types fast on the keyboards, making the machine work and filing papers with collected data from the mission. He doesn’t seem inclined on starting a new conversation with how focused he is on the job, but the silence is slowly killing Taesan. He never liked the quietness that comes from Leehan’s lab, it leaves him antsy and brings back memories that he wishes to keep buried in his head.

“What’s the mission this time?” Taesan asks, fingers drumming on the chair. “I didn’t get the memo before I was thrown on that dimension.”

“We don’t know much yet,” Leehan answers with a deep exhale, sounding tired as his fingers keep flying over the keyboard. Taesan sees codes, numbers and words flashing on the screen, but doesn’t make an effort to understand. “We gathered that his name is Woonhak and he’s acting from the Earth we sent you today. He’s messing around with wormholes, going to multiple dimensions in a single day. To me, it feels like he’s chasing something and coming empty-handed every time, like he can’t find it. We can’t afford to keep waiting around for him to come to us and explain what he’s doing.”

Taesan had his theories that it was something like this, coming from the amount of time-space anomalies that keep popping out of nowhere in all Earths. He knows that his field trips are the reason Leehan and the other scientists could gather such information about this guy. Black holes made by people are more dangerous than natural ones, and that’s where the company comes in.

It’s a tricky thing to travel back and forth between dimensions, but Taesan doesn’t mind it. While a few other spiders from the company refuse to go on these trips, he is always ready to get on his suit and have his ass blasted to another Earth. The only thing that annoys him is the weight of keeping the universe stable, but he’s getting the gist of it after years working with this.

“So I have to do the dirty job?” he jokes, but the dash of sincerity in the words are easy to hear by the ones that know him well. Leehan swirls back to him and takes in his friend’s face for a whole minute. Taesan takes a deep breath, getting up from the chair and standing in the middle of the lab. “Why me, though?”

Leehan narrows his eyes. “Why are you asking?”

“Don’t get me wrong, Leehanie. I do want to help and I don’t mind the trips, but I’m not the only one that’s part of this mission,” Taesan says, pushing once again for an answer that he already has. Still, he asks in the hopes of having something different said for once. “Why am I the only one traveling to this Earth?”

“Because you’re the chosen one,” Leehan answers with finality, going back to his screens and codes.

End of conversation. Once again, Taesan gets the same answer to that same question. He should stop asking by now and accept once and for all that he’s the chosen one like everyone keeps saying. But something doesn’t sit right on that, being the chosen one can’t be the real reason to why he’s the only one being sent to this almost suicidal mission.

By the sixth time visiting 2210 Seoul in a week, Taesan is officially tired of seeing a better skyline and an assortment of ugly creatures that he has to kill or push through black holes over and over. His legs are aching and his head runs in circles without a break, his routine getting tougher over the days.

The amount of wormholes he needs to close in the expanse of a week it’s becoming ridiculous, not to mention the few black holes he had to deal with and the countless animal-like anomalies. Taesan is glad the experiments his body was submitted to made him sort of immune to the side effects of dimensional traveling, or else he’d have headaches for days and an eternal nosebleed like he heard happening to other spiders.

Today marks the seventh day in a row that Taesan lands on Seoul, not batting an eye to the vortex close to him. Another genetic anomaly that reminds him of a lizard pops out of it, attacking Spider-Man on the field. Pink Spider-Man from this Earth doesn’t seem to be all that inclined to get help – nor does he need it, Taesan has watched him kick and punch the hell out of twelve creatures all alone in the span of a few minutes.

Sometimes, he lands at the end of the fight, when he needs to push the creatures past the wormholes and send them away. The discs project themselves from a compartment on his suit, throwing and attaching themselves to any piece of the monsters’ bodies. Taesan shoots a web in the closest building, kicking the beast to another wormhole, doing the same to all the others while pink Spider-Man leaves them with lower guards.

It’s a strange teamwork, the one they developed with the days together. Taesan knows absolutely nothing about his spider partner, but he can’t deny that the guy does an awesome job being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man of this Earth.

“Another one!” Taesan exclaims as he successfully kicks the last beast into a wormhole. The metal disc on its chest beeps loud before growling fills his ears and the vortex closes permanently. “That’s what I call teamwork!” he adds, turning back to the other Spider-Man.

“If I have to be honest, you did almost nothing.” Pink Spider-Man scoffs, walking close to Taesan in tired steps. The pink and white suit added to the sassy attitude this guy has is turning into a permanent figure in the mission, but this one doesn’t bother him. Taesan is mostly intrigued by him – it reminds him of someone that he lost long ago, but he pushes the thought away in order to not be haunted by ghosts. “Is that all the wormholes for today?”

There’s paperwork and agreements signed before Taesan was assigned to the mission that he was forbidden from telling any information about it, but this guy seems to pick up everything quite fast compared to other Spider-Men from other Earths that Taesan fought side by side. He doesn’t have to say there were wormholes for the guy to understand, nor say what is happening for the guy to know that something is wrong.

It’s interesting. Taesan has never been side by side with someone like this guy before.

“I guess,” he shrugs, not seeing any other alerts of wormholes being open nearby.

“You guess?” Small guy scoffs, shaking his head. Taesan has the feeling that the guy is ready to throw another punch for the lack of surety in his reply.

“Look, I’m not the one controlling these things. I can’t give you a sure answer, tin–” Taesan stops before the word comes out, sensing the glare the other Spider-Man is sending him through his disguise. “Fellow spider.”

Pink Spider-Man moves closer until he’s standing face to face with Taesan. The height difference between them is blatant, but he’s not as small as Taesan thought he was. Maybe Leehan was right after all, he’s the one that decided to grow more than necessary.

“Since you’re not so sure, let’s have a chat in the meantime.”

Taesan frowns under the disguise, tilting his head to the side in confusion. “Aren’t we already talking?”

“About serious matters, idiot,” the guy hisses, unamused by Taesan’s confusion. “I’m not here to have a real chit-chat with you.”

“Oh, okay,” Taesan says, a little bothered by the barrier the dude keeps putting between them. As it seems, he won’t leave this Earth when the mission is done with another Spider-Man friend. “Where do you wanna–”

Pink Spider-Man gives him no time to finish his sentence, left arm surging forward and attaching itself on Taesan’s waist in a vice grip, shooting a web at the ledge of the tallest building a few meters ahead. It takes less than five seconds for them to land on the rooftop, the grip on his waist disappearing as fast as it appeared, but he can still feel it. Taesan knows that tiny spidey was strong because it’s ingrained in their modified DNAs, but he didn’t think it’d be to this extent. The touch leaves the same sensation of being burned. Taesan fears that something happened, but he has no time to ponder over it as he takes a look at the sky. 

The sunset is something his Earth lost decades ago, so he always gets awed by it whenever he sees it on other Earths. The way the skies get filled with watercolors in shades of pinks, purples and oranges leave him breathless. Taesan is mesmerized to the point of never wanting to look at anything else for the rest of his life.

“Spit it out, Spider.” The guy is quick to go straight to the point, putting a hand on Taesan’s shoulder so he can focus back on him. Taesan tears his eyes away from the sunset and looks back at the man by his side. “What’s happening? I thought these things were anomalies from HybeLabs but it’s clearly not only that. Why do these hideous monsters keep popping out of nowhere? Why are there wormholes everywhere?”

Taesan isn’t surprised by the flood of questions, taking his time to sort between what he can share and what will get him in trouble when he comes back to his Earth. Leehan is monitoring all his conversations in this dimension, it wouldn’t be impossible for the higher-ups to be doing the same. He bites on his lower lip before licking them, contemplating if letting out a little more than what his contract allows will be that harmful. Taesan decides to tell the basics – the guy will probably understand everything without needing words.

“We’re still not sure, but some dude on this Earth is looking for something in other dimensions and making a whole mess while doing it,” he explains, staring at the mask to look for reactions that won’t be visible. “These wormholes are opening everywhere, not only him. All Earths are getting attacked by these anomalies, not only the HybeLabs ones that you know.”

“So you’re not from here.” Pink Spider-Man chuckles to himself, seemingly satisfied with something.

“Nope,” Taesan shakes his head, amused by the reaction. “My Seoul looks nothing like this one. It’s destroyed beyond repair,” he adds as an afterthought, something not meant to be heard.

He doesn’t seem to pay attention to these last words, taking the hand on his shoulder and holding his wrist, analyzing the watch securely wrapped around it. “This is a dimensional portal activator, right?”

“You’re very smart,” he muses, eyes widened in surprise at how fast this guy seems to catch up with everything.

“Isn’t that a requirement for us spiderpeople?” Pink Spider-Man asserts, crossing his arms over the black spider over his chest.

“You’d be quite surprised by the bunch of blockheads that are spiderpeople back in my home,” Taesan snorts, lips jutting out as he ponders if he should say more. After a few seconds of inner battle, he decides that he’ll deal with the consequences later. “These anomalies are hitchhiking with the wormholes, going to my Earth and a bunch of others. If we don’t stop this soon, it’ll cause a catastrophic imbalance in the universe. All universes, massive trouble, unfixable shit level.”

Pink Spider-Man whistles. “That bad?”

“That bad,” he echoes, putting a reassuring hand on the smaller shoulder and flashing a smile that he can’t see. “But there’s no need to worry your little head, fellow spider. I’m here to put an end on it for good, and my little friends here will help me.”

“Your little friends?”

“Fellow spider, meet the Compact Vortex-Closing Discs,” Taesan says giddily, fetching a disc from one of the hidden compartments in his wrist. The size of a mayo lid, easy to hold and throw around, strong enough to close the biggest wormhole and even a black hole. Pink Spider-Man’s head follows the object under the setting sun. “I call them pumpkins, it’s too tiring to say their name all the time. You saw one of these in action the first time we met.”

“I’m supposed to believe that these little things are going to save the world?” he blurts out, sounding almost offended instead of impressed.

“I’m the one who’s gonna save the world,” Taesan laughs, the sound despite quiet almost blasting in the silent evening. “Pumpkins are just a helping hand.”

Silence settles around after that. Pink Spider-Man nods and hums to himself, a little wary about the salvation of the world being in the hands of a bunch of small discs called pumpkins and a tall and somewhat smug Spider-Man from another dimension. Taesan is glad that he doesn’t have to dwell on the mechanics and explanations about how they work because he knows close to nothing about it except that it closes the wormholes. Leehan is the one that created them, and Taesan trusts him with his whole life to not ask meaningless questions or try to understand the things he makes to aid in the missions.

“Take off your mask,” Spider-Man orders after a whole minute of silence between them.

“What?” Taesan asks, hand leaving the other’s shoulder as he takes a step back. The goggles of his suit blinks to show his surprise and confusion at the command.

“I said, take off your mask,” he repeats, slightly annoyed.

“I’m sorry, but are you not aware of the secret identity rule?” Taesan jokes. “That’s superhero one-oh-one, dude.”

“I know about the secret identity rule, idiot,” he huffs, getting more annoyed with each word that comes out of Taesan’s lips. “But if this dude is from my Earth and you’re the one that will end this for good, we’ll be seeing each other often. It’s getting annoying to call you giant Spider-Man in my head.”

“Giant Spider-Man?” Taesan echoes, baffled. “And you punched me in the face that day because I called you tiny?”

“Suck it up, dude” he says, pointing a finger at Taesan’s head. “The mask, off. Now.”

Taesan isn’t stupid, he knows that showing his face to someone in another dimension can cause in a reality where he already exists. It doesn’t take a genius to know that a Taesan exists on this Earth and it has the same face as him, and that alone could cause problems to him. Dimensional traveling is all about being cautious, to prevent people from knowing about your identity in order to not cause a massive change in another dimension. He isn’t ready to test his luck and have a whole dimension crumble to pieces just because some Spider-Man wants to see his face for the sake of no longer calling him giant Spider-Man in his own head.

“Why am I the only one that has to take the mask?” he complains, crossing his arms in front of his spider logo. It looks different from the guy in front of him, Taesan’s is red and a full spider design; meanwhile, pink Spider-Man’s black and it seems to be only half a spider before it becomes the rest of his suit.

Pink Spider-Man shrugs. “You’re the odd one here, dude.”

“Take yours off too, then. You know, spider equality and all,” Taesan reasons. “I can’t be the only one revealing my identity to a complete stranger.”

There’s a contemplative pause in their discussion as pink Spider-Man thinks about it. It takes only a second for him to sigh in defeat and accept that he’ll have to show his face too.

“Sounds fair,” he says, fingers moving to the hem of his mask. “On the count of three?”

“I’ll give you the honors of starting the countdown,” Taesan says in agreement, hand hovering above the button on his neck that will make his mask retract.

“Okay,” he says in a whisper, sounding unsure for a moment before cleaning his throat and starting. “One.”

“Two,” Taesan chants right after.

“Three,” they say in unison, voices mingling together, masks coming off in synchrony.

The last hues of the sunset are the only thing Taesan sees for a moment, his bare eyes not used to seeing things without the goggles of his suit. He blinks until the dark spots in the middle start to move to the corners of his vision, pulling back some strands of the long fringe he's been sporting since the start of the missions. He didn’t have time to cut it, and as annoying as the height is, Leehan keeps saying he looks nice so Taesan never goes out of his way to change.

It takes a while for his vision to adapt. All he can see in the beginning is the dark blue swallowing the colors of the sunset and engulfing 2210 Seoul at nighttime. Once the sight clears, a mop of messy silver hair that leaves him confused for a moment. As he lowers his gaze, he almost chokes upon seeing the face that greets him.

A face he saw so many years ago that he almost thinks he’s imagining it at first. Maybe it’s a dream. Maybe he’s already back in Leehan’s lab, taking a nap on the medical bed while they do check-ups on him because this can’t be real.

There’s no way that Taesan is staring at…

“Sanghyeok?” Taesan blurts out in shock, blinking and almost rubbing his eyes to stop his vision from tricking him. This can’t be the real identity of his partner on this Earth. But it doesn’t matter how hard he closes and opens his eyes, the face staring back at him is still Sanghyeok’s.

“Dongmin…” Pink Spider-Man – his Sanghyeok – says the name in a weak whisper, face mirroring the same shock that it’s plastered in Taesan’s.

Taesan doesn’t recognize the name, but he recognizes the emotion going through Sanghyeok’s face. Despite the distinct color and very short haircut he sports, it’s undeniable that the man standing in front of him is the same one that Taesan fell in love with years ago, that he still dreams of seeing again. It feels like a trick, one meant to have Taesan failing the mission.

Sanghyeok takes a step forward, Taesan takes one back, and both freeze on their spot.

“Dongmin, is it really–”

Right in that moment, his watch blasts with a loud beep on the space between them, interrupting whatever Sanghyeok was about to ask him. Taesan has never been more thankful to the timer Leehan implanted on that watch than in that moment. He doesn’t know what he’d do if he spent one more minute with Sanghyeok this close to him. Maybe cry, or hug him, or kiss him and beg for forgiveness for not being able to save him back on his Earth – maybe ask his hand in marriage like he had planned in the past. Or maybe, he wouldn’t do any of these things because he’s too stunned to react in any way.

“I’m sorry. I– I gotta go,” he says weakly, looking apologetic and unsure of what to say.

Taesan walks backwards from Sanghyeok, deciding that leaving is better than staying. He presses his mask button and allows the nano-tech shield to hide the emotions going through his face. Taesan leaps off the building and into the designated wormhole the watch opened for him, not once looking back to see if Sanghyeok would come after him.

Taesan finds himself in one of the empty, glass balconies of the lab, staring at the never rising sun. After some time visiting 2210 Seoul, he can’t help but mull over the fact that his Earth is complete trash compared to that one. He misses the sun, misses the colors the sunset brings, misses the soft blue of the sky, misses being able to breathe oxygen and feel the sun on his face. It’s a never-ending longing, one that Taesan never thought he’d feel since he was born and raised in the darkness of his Earth.

While looking at the vast darkness of the morning and his tired reflection on the glass, his mind goes back to what happened the afternoon before. When he accepted the mission, he knew the possibility of seeing another Sanghyeok was real – he’s visiting a completely different dimension, of course there would be another Sanghyeok there. He just never imagined that his past lover would be so close, so within his grasp and real enough for Taesan to touch him whenever he wants. Still, he knows that Sanghyeok isn’t the same one that he fell for, one that he had plans and built a life in this post-apocalyptic and deadly Seoul.

Familiarity is a dangerous thing because as much as he knows that Sanghyeok isn’t the one he’s still in love with, his heart pounds faster whenever he thinks about him. That silver-haired Sanghyeok that has spider powers in his DNA and saves the world daily, completely different from the one Taesan used to live with. Brown-haired and who worked as a researcher in the company. How come they could be so different from each other but still make his heartbeat speed the same way?

Taesan doesn’t tell anyone about seeing Sanghyeok, not because he wants that to be a secret but rather he has no idea how to talk about it.

How is he supposed to bring up the news that his deceased lover is alive and safe on that Earth, that he is a Spider-Man? He’s a little thankful that after that day when he got punched in the face, Leehan decided to disconnect the program that made him able to hear everything in order to give Taesan a little more privacy in his interactions. Another thing that holds him back is that he doesn’t want to be scolded for showing his face to someone in another dimension. Leehan would be the first to tell him how this meaningless act could mess with time and space and all that scientific talk that he rarely pays attention to.

He doesn’t know what to do with the fact that Sanghyeok is at an arms reach again, and he’s not ready to talk about it yet – not even with Leehan. For now, he’ll keep it a secret until he has to come back to 2210 Seoul and deal with Spider-Man Sanghyeok.

Taesan is so deep in his inner turmoil that he barely notices when someone walks in, stopping right next to him and pulling a cigarette out of nowhere, lighter in the other hand. Taesan only acknowledges the person’s presence when he sees the flicker of flames in his peripheral, turning to the side. He knows it’s not dangerous, his spider-senses would’ve tingled and bothered him until he reacted. He’s also not surprised to see Jaehyun by his side, still in his blue and red suit and smoking the only-god-knows cigarette of the day.

“Hyung,” he greets weary, lacking any of the usual joy he feels upon seeing the older. Jaehyun doesn’t seem to mind, he lost his joy long ago when he signed up to be part of the Spider Project.

“Hey,” Jaehyun greets back, word muffled by the cigarette. He takes a long drag, smoke coming out from his open lips and nostrils. He stretches the cig close to Taesan, the smoke coming from it not looking as inviting as it used to in the past. “Want one?”

“No,” Taesan shakes his head. “I don’t smoke anymore, hyung.”

It’s not something he is proud of admitting but when Sanghyeok passed away, he got down a hole that almost cost his life. From smoking a pack of cigarettes a day and drinking to the point of passing out, Taesan found himself in the worst state a human – or a superhuman, in his case – could find himself in. Grieve can make even the sanest and healthiest human go down the drain in the span of a month. Ever since the company started this new mission, Taesan stopped all his bad habits and decided to go back to what he used to be before losing his boyfriend. It’s the least he could do for Sanghyeok, even if he wasn’t there to see Taesan getting better each day.

The same thing can be said about Jaehyun, who still smokes and drinks himself to sleep every night. Taesan doesn’t judge him, he’d never do it. Their ruthless Earth doesn’t give him space to keep hope, always draining it whenever they come back from other dimensions.

“Good for you, Taesanie,” Jaehyun says, bringing the cig back to his lips and taking another drag. He looks at the dark sky, leaning on the steel bar. A deep sigh comes out of him, smoke clouding their visions for a second. “Lung cancer shouldn’t be another shitty thing to add to your life in this fucked up place.”

“Not like we can have it since we’re technically genetic anomalies with regeneration factors,” he jokes, leaning on the bar too.

Jaehyun chuckles, but it lacks honesty. “Good point.”

“How’s the mission going for you?” Taesan asks, just because he’s not ready to deal with silence. 

To be alone in silence is something he learned to live with, but to be with someone and in silence leaves him itching to the core. It reminds him of the house that it’s waiting for him, a house full of memories and ghosts and unfinished business. Silence it’s an enemy that Taesan has been fighting for years, never able to beat.

“Same, same,” he shrugs, nonchalantly. “Dude’s not in my assigned Earth, I only have a few monsters to blast before I get ported back.”

As a fellow Spider-Man, Jaehyun has an assigned Earth to look out for tracks of the unknown traveler that is messing with dimensions and wormholes. Jaehyun spends more time in the labs than actually traveling, but he still has to fight a few anomalies and make sure that 2005 Earth is safe. According to what he told once, it’s the only Earth that seems to not have a Spider-Man to protect it. Taesan thinks that Jaehyun lucked out on this one despite the circumstances.

“How’s the other Jaehyun?” Taesan asks, trying to get his mind out of the ghost of Sanghyeok’s silver hair and surprised face and the name he spoke.

“You wanna know if he’s still in love with Leehan?” Jaehyun snorts bitterly.

And here’s the circumstances that Taesan talked about it. It’s a secret to everyone except him that Jaehyun is madly and desperately in love with Leehan in this reality. Jaehyun got himself in this project just because he had nothing to lose and fell in love with Leehan at first sight, submitted himself to all the procedures and DNA changes only because that meant seeing Leehan and staying close to him. But different from other realities, in this one, Leehan is happily engaged and in love with Sungho, another Spider-Man that went through the same process as them. In their Earth, Jaehyun has to deal with a one-sided feeling that will never become something mutual.

In every other universe, Kim Leehan falls for Myung Jaehyun. But in this universe, it doesn’t happen. 

It’s a sad reality, but there’s nothing Taesan can do because he knows that Leehan is happy whenever he sees Sungho coming back from the dimensional trips undamaged. Love is this bitter and sweet emotion. Sometimes sweeter and bitter, and other times, more bitter than sweet. Both Taesan and Jaehyun had the misfortune of getting the bitter end of love.

“Still the same too,” Jaehyun says, looking down at the cigarette burning away in between his fingers. Taesan can hear the sadness slowly blooming in his voice, but Jaehyun still likes to talk about his persona in that other universe. “Jaehyun is keeping an engagement ring in his drawer now. Tells his friends that he’s gonna ask for Donghyun’s hand in marriage after college, but went ahead and bought the ring because he was anxious.”

“It sounds like something you would do, hyung.” Taesan smiles weakly, bumping his shoulder on Jaehyun’s.

“It does,” he laughs humorlessly, lighting off his cig and playing with the butt. “He’s way better than me, actually,” Jaehyun adds as an afterthought, it comes off as a whisper.

Taesan tilts his head. “How come?”

“He can marry the guy he’s in love with,” Jaehyun replies. It’s undeniable the pain behind those words, but he seems to like it. “I can’t do that, not even in my deepest dreams.”

Jaehyun looks at him, and Taesan can see that the pain doesn’t stick only to his voice. His eyes bear a sadness that could shatter a million hearts. Taesan wishes he could do something to help him, but he comes empty handed. He can’t make Leehan love Jaehyun back and can’t bring Jaehyun to move on because he’s been in love with the younger for almost years now. It’s out of his reach to help his friend, and he’ll have to live with it. The same way he learned to live without Sanghyeok by his side, one day at a time.

The name alone floods back memories of what happened yesterday. Something about the way Sanghyeok looked surprised, hurt and hopeful, emotions that probably were mirrored in Taesan’s face, can’t stop playing over and over in his head. Despite the name from his lips not being his, why did he somehow recognize Taesan? Why did he look like that? Why did he say that name with such pain and hope? It’s an itch that he can’t scratch, and it’s making him crazy.

“I saw Sanghyeok today.” The words fly out of his mouth in a whisper that sounds more like a shout with the silence around them.

“Really?” Jaehyun asks, looking at Taesan through the glass reflection.

“In my assigned Earth. He’s a Spider-Man there, but he has silver hair,” Taesan says, blurting whatever comes into his head. “I never thought I’d see Sanghyeok-hyung with silver hair someday in my life.”

Taesan has never been good at keeping secrets from Jaehyun – or any other of his friends, no matter how hard he tried to. Some time he’ll have to talk about his encounter with the other Sanghyeok, and what better time than now that Jaehyun is there to listen and maybe share some light on the questions in his head.

“Wow,” Jaehyun whistles after what feels like hours of a strange silence in the balcony.

“Yeah,” he hums, gnawing on his lower lip. “Wow.”

The same way Taesan suffered when Sanghyeok died, Jaehyun went through grief in his own way. Pretending that he wasn’t suffering, but going through it alone in his apartment with empty packs of cigarettes and half-full bottles of vodka. Sanghyeok was his childhood best friend, Jaehyun knew him before they could even say each other’s names properly. Everyone always thought they would probably date in the future and spend eternity together until Sanghyeok met Taesan through the Spider Project.

Love at first sight, the feeling of finding someone when you had nothing, all that romantic stuff that would make anyone else barf, but that gave Taesan a reason to fight in a reality where he could give up at any time.

Jaehyun used to have everything, and now he has absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s the reason behind their friendship working so well – they understand that feeling better than anyone.

“Why do you sound so down after seeing him?” Jaehyun asks. “I thought you wanted to see him one last time.”

“Because he’s not my Sanghyeok, hyung.” Taesan breathes out, pushing his hair back in frustration. “He’s twenty-two-ten Sanghyeok. Spider-Man Sanghyeok. He probably goes by another name and has a whole different life, even has someone he’s in love with. I’m seeing him, but it’s not him.”

Now that the words are spoken and have turned into something real, Taesan understands why he can’t stop thinking about that silver-haired Sanghyeok. He’s more than happy to see him again, but this is not his Sanghyeok. Taesan can’t hug him, can’t kiss him, can’t say how much he missed him because that Sanghyeok doesn’t even know him, doesn’t know his name, never experienced the things they did together, never heard the promises for the future and the love confessions. That Sanghyeok doesn’t know him and it makes Taesan’s heart beat and break simultaneously.

He has Sanghyeok again, but it’s not the same.

“Any chance is a chance, right?” Jaehyun says, trying to uplift Taesan’s mood but it’s in vain.

“I don’t know,” he whispers, taking a deep breath and stopping the tears that slowly burn his eyes. “I don’t know what to do, hyung.”

Jaehyun puts a hand on his shoulder, pulling him close until Taesan can wrap his arms on the older’s torso, allowing himself to find the comfort he has been lacking ever since Sanghyeok disappeared from his life.

“Is there anything else to do other than finish the mission and rejoice on the fact that you got the chance to see Sanghyeok alive and healthy again?” Jaehyun says as his fingers brush Taesan’s hair.

“What would you do?” Taesan asks against his shoulder, words coming out muffled. “If you got the chance to see that alternate Leehan face to face. What would you do?”

“I…” 

Jaehyun stops completely, whole body freezing as he thinks about an answer. Taesan waits for it, never one to rush – he learned how to wait for things since he was a child. Jaehyun takes a deep breath, Taesan can hear the loud beating of his heart on the place his head is leaning on.

“I would probably confess to him,” he says after a long beat. “Maybe kiss him, if he wanted me to. Hell, I think I’d even kill my alternate self if that meant having Leehan all to myself. I would do anything to be on the receiving end of all the affection and love he has for that Jaehyun.”

The answer makes him more restless than reassured. It doesn’t make sense to Taesan. How can Jaehyun ignore the fact that the Leehan on that Earth isn’t the same as the Leehan he has feelings for on this Earth? It’s impossible for alternates of other dimensions to have the same personality and opinions, they’re completely different people. Taesan can’t understand how Jaehyun can ignore that for the sake of having a chance of being loved in that reality.

“But he’s not the one you’re in love with,” Taesan says, sounding more judgemental than confused. “Just because he has the same face as Leehanie, doesn’t mean he’s exactly the same.”

“Does it matter?” Jaehyun laughs bitterly, going back to run his fingers through Taesan’s long hair. “I think I’ll love Leehan in every universe, Taesan-ah. I love him here, and I love him in 2005 Earth, and I probably love him in the Earth you were assigned to. I love Leehan, no matter which one.”

It’s heartful, hopeless, romantic. It’s everything that Jaehyun would probably say and do, it brings some sort of comfort to Taesan. He always thought Jaehyun lost a big part of himself along with the years, the child-like giddiness and the sweet smiles locked away in a place to never be found, but the romanticism is still strong on him despite his doomed love. It’s good to know that something in Jaehyun is still unscattered.

“What do I do, hyung?” Taesan asks, vulnerable like he never shows in front of the others. “I know nothing about that Sanghyeok, yet I’m dying to see his face again.”

“Do what your heart wants, Taesan-ah.” Jaehyun kisses the top of his head. Usually Taesan would grimace and push him away, but this time he accepts the tenderness in it and lets it soak his body. It feels good to be treated like he’s fragile – Taesan has been pretending to be strong since he was left alone in this world.

“My heart wants to be next to him, but my mind knows he’s not the one that belonged in my heart once,” he admits. “He’s not the Sanghyeok I love.”

It’s a painful admission, one that needs to be said out loud in order to become real. Maybe if he keeps saying it enough times, his heart will finally understand and settle down once and for all. He doubts it, but Taesan is adamant on trying it until he can’t anymore. It makes him wonder for how long he’ll have to live fighting his heart and mind.

“Why don’t you ask for a day off?” Jaehyun suggests. “You’ve been working for months without a break. Maybe a day to put his head in place will help you figure it out what to do.”

Jaehyun is right after all. Taesan has been working non-stop for months, tiring himself for the sake of never finding that dude that’s messing with dimensions. A day off would help him rest his head so it can connect itself back to his heart, function properly and harmoniously once again. Taesan will do that as soon as he’s away from Jaehyun’s embrace. Now, he wants to enjoy the warmth of another body for a little longer. It’s been months since he got a comforting hug, Jaehyun always gives the best hugs between them.

“Since when have you become this wise, hyung?” Taesan teases, pushing himself away from Jaehyun’s warm hug. His body complains about it, but he knows that he can’t stay like this forever.

“Have some respect, Taesan-ah,” Jaehyun rolls his eyes, flicking his forehead.

Taesan grimaces this time, brushing a hand on the place Jaehyun flicked. In the meantime, the older materializes another cigarette from nowhere, lighting it and smoking once again. Taesan’s face sours for a moment, he can’t do much except watch and hope that someday Jaehyun will stop it the same way he did. Smoking the pain won’t make it go away like the smoke does, Taesan learned it with time. But, one thing at a time. Taesan can’t salvage everything all at once.

“You should really tone down with the cigarettes, hyung,” he points out, turning back to the balcony and watching another dark morning that will never see the sun. It feels a lot like their hopes for a better future – an endless darkness.

“I don’t care, Taesan-ah.” Jaehyun shrugs, exhaling bitter smoke. “I won’t die because of this, you said so yourself. Besides, I have nothing to lose here.”

Taesan wishes those last words didn’t hit so deep – wishes that the both of them didn’t know what the feeling of having nothing to lose is like.

He goes back a day after his break, wearing his suit and ignoring the glances Leehan throws his way. It’s filled with worry, and Taesan knows that he won’t be able to keep the truth hidden from him for too long. He’ll tell everything once he gets back from today’s mission, it’s a promise.

The day off was more unhelpful than helping. Taesan tossed and turned on what used to be his and Sanghyeok’s bed, the scent long dulled and nothing in there tells that two people used to sleep together there. His mind flies back to the other dimension’s Sanghyeok, how he could be selfish and pretend that that one is the same he met here, indulge in his heart's desire to feel something again. Jaehyun said he could do it with 2005 Leehan, Taesan could do it with 2210 Sanghyeok. And he tried to be reasonable, but somewhere between the shift of night to day, his mind and heart decided to fight against him. Both longing to see Sanghyeok.

Taesan can fight beasts and monsters every single day, but he can’t fight against his heart and mind when they decide to work together.

2210 Earth is still the same, nothing new about Woonhak’s whereabouts or what is it that he’s looking for in other dimensions. Taesan is getting a little tired from never seeing the end of it, but a part of him is glad that not finishing the mission means that he’ll be able to see Sanghyeok again.

“Watch it!” 

Sanghyeok yells as a beast charges towards Taesan’s direction, his spider reflexes acting on their own as he deflects the attack. Taesan shakes his head as he almost loses balance, pushing his thoughts away and focusing back on the battle at hand. From the corner of his vision, he can see Sanghyeok chuckling to himself, shooting a web to pull one of the shark-like beasts close to one of the wormholes around.

Taesan takes five discs from the compartment in his suit, throwing them at the beasts and watching as they groan before disappearing along with the five vortexes. He wouldn’t say he missed doing this, but fighting is the only thing left for him. Taesan feels ten times better right here than tossing and turning on his bed, stuck in a place that feels like a nightmare. 

Once the creatures are gone and the only thing left is the damage on the street and a weird, blue-ish goo that Taesan thinks is blood, he turns back to Sanghyeok and watches as the other Spider-Man crosses his arms.

“Sorry, my head was somewhere else,” he offers sheepishly.

“Then bring it back to Earth, darling,” Sanghyeok whacks him in the head. Taesan squeaks from the strength and the petname, holding back a whine as he watches Sanghyeok laugh to himself. “Are we done for today?”

“Looks like it,” Taesan says between rubs to his head, surveying the place using the map scanner on the screen, coming back with a signal that the area is clean of anomalies and wormholes. “Guess the guy got tired of coming empty-handed for today.”

Sanghyeok points at the device in Taesan’s wrist with his head. “Your watch only strikes at seven, right?”

“Uh, yeah?” he replies, looking at the watch. He’s surprised at how soon they ended today, he usually has only a few minutes or an hour at max of spare time. Today, he has two hours – weird, that never happened before. “Why do you–”

“We gotta talk,” Sanghyeok cuts him off, voice full of a seriousness that feels foreign. “But I’m hungry now. Let’s get something to eat first.”

“I don’t know any good places here,” Taesan says. He has no space to disagree, but he has no idea what this Sanghyeok likes to eat. It’s impossible to not think that in the end, he knows absolutely nothing about this Sanghyeok.

“I know that, dummy,” Sanghyeok chuckles, sounding strangely affectionate. He laces his hand around Taesan’s wrist before pulling the man along with him. “Just follow me. It’ll be on me this time.”

Sanghyeok guides them through alleyways so no one can see and recognize them while wearing their spider-suits. He doesn’t comment anything about changing clothes and Taesan imagines that he wants him to stay in his suit for the sake of no one recognizing him – or worse, Taesan accidentally coming face to face with his counterpart in this dimension. That would be a catastrophe that will have Leehan biting his ear off when he goes back.

There’s a gray backpack on Sanghyeok’s back, he picked up in one of the alleyways, hidden behind a big trash can. Taesan looks closely at all the keychains on it, finding it adorable. Back on his Earth, he used to give keychains to his Sanghyeok too. What stands out to him the most is the assortment of otters and cats, something that his past boyfriend liked too.

Maybe Jaehyun likes twenty-oh-five Leehan because it reminds him of the Leehan he’s in love with. The same way this Sanghyeok is to Taesan.

They stop in front of a green back door of some place. Taking from the trash cans filled with discarded food and the rotten smell coming from it, Taesan dares saying that it’s a restaurant. Sanghyeok pushes the door open and pulls Taesan to walk inside with him, the grip on his wrist never faltering. He can almost fool himself and pretend that the touch is coming from the man he’s still in love with – it seems to please both his heart and mind. Taesan allows them the taste of victory for once.

Taesan was right about it, the place is indeed a restaurant. Some North-American style diner. He doesn’t pay much attention to it, eyes fixed on the man cleaning behind the counter while putting desserts on display. The blonde, curly hair could’ve made him look away, but that face was recognizable anywhere. Leehan from this dimension stands right in front of him, a man with blonde hair and a bunch of earrings in his ears, dangling while he moves his head to a song that only he can hear.

It’s a completely different Leehan, but he gives off the same friendly and comforting vibe to Taesan. It makes him wonder how different Jaehyun and Sungho and him are in this dimension too.

“Hey, Donghyunie!” Sanghyeok calls, letting go of his wrist and moving closer to the counter. 

Sanghyeok takes off his mask and smiles at the man, taking Taesan’s breath away. He blinks behind his own mask, almost falling to his knees at the sight of a smile that he only sees in his memories. A smile that was starting to fade until he was reminded of it by seeing it again. Taesan realizes at that moment how much he still misses Sanghyeok – how much this Sanghyeok resembles his deceased boyfriend.

“Hyung! Where have you been?” Leehan greets back, smiling so big that it makes his eyes almost disappear. Taesan is too awestruck by Sanghyeok’s smile to notice that Leehan has his head turned back to him, clearly confused as he points a finger at him. “Who’s the Spider-Man guy?”

“Oh, a dude from another dimension. I’ll tell you all about it when I have time.” Sanghyeok brushes the topic off, hands on the counter as he leans on it. “I’m so hungry I could eat a fucking pig by myself.”

“Language, hyung,” Leehan pouts.

Sanghyeok laughs, a happy sound that makes Taesan’s heart clench on his chest. It travels in his ears and gets stuck in his head, he never thought that he’d hear it again someday. “I’ll get two burgers with extra mayo, fries, a large coke and that strawberry-jam donut you know I like. You want something?”

“Anything is fine,” Taesan replies in a soft voice, still too dumb-founded by Sanghyeok’s laugh and smile.

“Just choose something,” he huffs, rolling his eyes. “We don’t have the whole day, spidey.”

Taesan looks at the big standee behind Leehan where the menu is on display. He chooses the first thing his eyes lay on, the most simple and boring burger the place has to offer. It’s cheaper too, since he doesn’t want to bother Sanghyeok and make him spend too much money. “I’ll get the hamburger, without–”

“Without pickles,” Sanghyeok says, cutting him off. His whole body tenses, probably saying it out of habit. Maybe the Taesan of this dimension isn’t fond of pickles too and that’s why he said it. An uncomfortable silence settles, Leehan looks from Taesan to Sanghyeok, confusion plastered on his face. “That will be all, Donghyunie.”

“Okay,” Leehan says, lengthening the word before clapping his hands together and walking to the kitchen door. He turns back to Sanghyeok before entering, adding, “You can wait in the backroom. This place will be packed in a few minutes, and I’m sure you and your spider friend are looking for somewhere more private.”

“Thanks, Donghyunie,” Sanghyeok smiles.

In the end, they don’t wait in the backroom because Leehan seems to have superpowers in the kitchen, having their order ready with minutes to spare before the restaurant opens. Sanghyeok picks the paper bag with their food with an open smile and a mumbled thanks, leaving crumpled bills on the counter before walking through the same door they entered. Taesan lingers for a moment, taking one last look at Leehan from this dimension before following Sanghyeok.

Once back in the alley, Sanghyeok stuffs the paper bag inside his backpack and starts climbing the brick wall, walking up until he’s on the rooftop of the restaurant. Like he’s been doing it since the beginning, Taesan follows him without questioning. It’s something he always did back on his Earth, it’s not a surprise that he does the same thing on this Earth.

The autumnal sunset greets him as soon as his feet land on the top. Scalding orange, soft pink and lavender colors the sky behind Sanghyeok’s waiting figure, leaving him mesmerized. Something about Sanghyeok and the colors behind him makes Taesan wonder how it’d be if his Earth still had a sun to make the sky produce such colors. It’s a daydream, just like the one of having Sanghyeok back in his arms.

The two Spider-Men sit on the ledge of the building, legs dangling in the air. Without their masks, the breeze pushes their hairs back as they bask in the beauty of the ongoing sunset. They eat in complete silence. Sanghyeok swallows his two burgers in less than twenty minutes while Taesan takes his time with his pitiful one, savoring a food that he hasn’t had in a long time. Sanghyeok shares the fries and coke for no reason at all, but Taesan is grateful and shows it by saying in a low whisper in the silence between them.

It isn’t uncomfortable as he thought silence could be, but Sanghyeok looks like he’s dying to say something, taken by the way he keeps looking at him while eating.

“Why are you looking at me?” Taesan asks after a minute of eating with a pair of brown eyes watching his every chew.

“You look so much like Dongmin,” Sanghyeok says, leaning forth in Taesan’s personal space to take a better look at him. Instinctively, Taesan pulls away. One thing is to have Sanghyeok at arms reach, another is to have him so close to his face – he fears the things he’d do out of habit. “How is that possible?”

“Well, my name’s not Dongmin,” he states in a choked tone, coughing to hide how Sanghyeok’s closeness affects him. “I’m Han Taesan.”

“Dongmin had the same surname, and the same face, the same way of speaking, the same habits,” Sanghyeok furrows his brows. “It makes no sense.”

As it seems, he won’t be able to run away from this conversation. Taesan sighs deeply, taking a sip of the shared coke. “I believe this Dongmin guy of yours must be the equivalent of me in this Earth and I know it must be quite a shock to have two people with the same–”

“Dongmin is no longer here,” Sanghyeok interrupts him, features darkening with sorrows. He takes a deep inhale and looks away at the horizon. “You’re no longer here, since you’re indeed the Dongmin I know but with another name and hair. You died three years ago, right in front of me, and I couldn’t save you.”

The information is enough to make Taesan forget whatever he was about to say. He’s dead here, a corpse rotting under the ground and only a memory in the minds of the ones that loved him – like the Sanghyeok in his dimension. By the pain in Sanghyeok’s face and the way he keeps his eyes on the horizon, he must’ve experienced the same grief that Taesan went through.

Dongmin is dead here. There’s no Taesan equivalent on this Earth anymore, and Sanghyeok suffers because of that. He should’ve thought that possibility from the get-go, considering the way Sanghyeok looked and sounded when he first saw him without the mask. It wasn’t a surprise to see Taesan as Spider-Man, but at seeing his deceased lover alive.

“If it makes you feel better, I also had you in my universe and I couldn’t save you either,” Taesan says, lips in a thin line as he clears his throat. “Your name was Sanghyeok.”

“My name is Riwoo,” Sanghyeok provides. 

The name feels foreign, but Taesan feels the same warmth upon hearing it as he feels with Sanghyeok. He could get used to calling him Riwoo – he could get used to seeing this person that looks similar but completely different from his past boyfriend. 

“And knowing that I’m dead in another dimension doesn’t make me feel any better but thanks for the effort,” he snorts.

Silence fills the space again, a perpetual presence clinging on them like a leech. Taesan picks on the paper around his burger, legs moving back and forth in the air. The atmosphere is heavy and suffocating, it reminds him of the months following Sanghyeok’s death in their lonely apartment. Taesan almost regrets staying for this conversation, he should’ve ran or made up some excuse to go back to his Earth earlier. Riwoo doesn’t seem to have anything else to add, and the silence is making Taesan slowly go crazy.

“I assume this Dongmin was someone special to you,” Taesan says in a weak whisper, unsure if he should be the one to break the silence or wait for Riwoo to say something.

“He was,” he sighs, closing his eyes before looking at Taesan with a weak smile. “And I assume that this Sanghyeok dude was also someone important to you.”

“He was very special,” Taesan says without missing a beat. He wishes there was some other word that could convey how much Sanghyeok meant to him, but there’s still not one. “I–”

“Where have you been the past day?” Riwoo interrupts him, changing topics before Taesan can ask whatever pitiful thing that was on the tip of his tongue – he’s partially grateful, it’d be way too awkward to accidentally cry in front of this alternate Sanghyeok. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me and it’s not like I care about you, but that white Spider-Man was a pain in the ass to handle. Between the both of you, you’re way better to work with. You know when to shut up.”

Taesan can’t help the smile that shows up on his face at the thought of Riwoo working with Sungho, the white Spider-Man that he’s complaining about. Sungho isn’t difficult to work with, the only problem is that he likes to talk and asks questions and can’t handle silence for too long. Taesan can only imagine how annoyed Riwoo must’ve felt while Sungho went through monologues and questions about this Earth.

“I took the day off,” he says with a grin.

“Heroes can do that in your dimension?” Riwoo frowns.

“When the hero has been working for almost a year without a break and going through interdimensional trips, he can afford a day off,” Taesan deadpans, biting the last piece of his burger.

“So…” A pause. Riwoo bites his lower lip, unsure if he should say the next words. Taesan waits patiently, the same way he used to do when Sanghyeok wanted to talk. It’s strange to be next to Riwoo, the lines easily blur together no matter how much he tries to keep them separated. “You’re back?”

It blurs again this time, and Taesan almost puts his hands around Riwoo’s face and kisses him gently the same way he would do. It’s adorable the way the older keeps gnawing on his lower lip, looking back at him with sparkling eyes, the slightest hint of hope in them. A hope that Taesan will be back for as long as the mission takes, that he’ll be the only Spider-Man to come to this dimension, that they will still work together.

It’s like having Sanghyeok back again, making Taesan promise that he’d come back safe after every mission.

“I was too stunned when I saw you that day. That’s why I haven’t shown up yesterday,” he confesses, looking down at his hands in embarrassment. “I’m back now. I’m not going anywhere until I find that dude and finish the mission.”

“Sanghyeok must’ve been everything to you,” Riwoo says thoughtfully. The atmosphere lightens for a moment, but it doesn’t stay for too long as the older picks up a handful of fries and says, “Can I ask you something personal?”

Taesan ponders, but surrenders easily. “Depends on how personal we’re talking about.”

“Very, very personal.”

“Go on,” he shrugs. It’s not like Leehan is listening and Taesan has already spoken too much to this familiar stranger. What more can go wrong? “We still have a few minutes until I get ported back.”

“Taesan-ssi, how did I die in your universe?”

Taesan sucks in a breath, taken aback by the hushed question. An ache tugs at his chest at the thought of Sanghyeok’s death, even with the years passed since the accident. Sanghyeok’s death is a memory that Taesan has kept buried for the longest of times in order to cease his grief, or else he’d still be mourning someone that will never come back. He never brings it to the surface, working his ass off ever since so his mind couldn’t have time to relive it. Taesan only thinks about it when he’s at his lowest – as a way of punishment for not being able to save the only person in this life that loved him unconditionally and gave him a reason to live.

“You fell from the tallest building on my Earth during an attack,” Taesan lets out, a lump in his throat getting lodged. His eyes stay glued to the orange skyline, never straying from it. “I’ve tried to save you by shooting a web, but I was too late. I watched you fall to the ground before the web could reach you. I was so angry with myself for not saving you in time, but I’m getting better at forgiving myself.”

He closes his eyes as the scene plays over again in his head, like it usually does when he wants to put the blame on himself. The look on Sanghyeok’s face, the screams in his ears before everything became white noise, the blood on Sanghyeok’s nose as he laid lifeless on Taesan’s arms. Taesan refused to let go of his body even after the creature was defeated, holding close and screaming, crying and begging for Sanghyeok to come back to him. It took Jaehyun, Sungho and Leehan to hold him down so the paramedics could take Sanghyeok away. Taesan couldn’t speak for a whole month, falling into addictions as an escape.

Nevertheless, he’s doing way better now. Of course, it will forever be a wound that can’t heal and will constantly come back to haunt him, but Taesan is learning to live with it rather than trying to extinguish it from his mind.

“What about me?” Taesan says, swallowing down his tears. “How did I die, Riwoo-ssi?”

“You took a bullet for me during a bank robbery,” Riwoo says, letting out a bitter chuckle. “You were so stupid back then, always wanting to protect me even though you knew I was Spider-Man.”

Taesan tries not to think about how he’d probably do the same thing his alternate did if Sanghyeok was the one about to get shot. Maybe he and that Dongmin guy are more similar than he thought at first.

“I decided to do this on my own after a while. I didn’t want more important people knowing about my identity and having them in danger,” Riwoo continues, picking at one of the last fries. “Donghyunie knows, but he found it of his own accord and I couldn’t lie to him. But he has Jaehyun to protect him if something happens, so he’s gonna be alright.”

Like expected, Jaehyun and Leehan are together in every dimension except for the one that Jaehyun wants the most. Taesan feels like telling the older about that, but he knows it’ll do nothing except make him suffer even more. It doesn’t matter how many dimensions they are together and happily in love, it’ll never happen in the one that matters to Jaehyun. In the dimension they live, it will always be Sungho and Leehan, not Leehan and Jaehyun.

“Do you ever wonder what would’ve happened if I wasn’t in that place?” Taesan asks, not wanting the silence to swallow them again. Back then, uncomfortable silence was never something he experienced when he was with Sanghyeok. He doesn’t want that to change just because it’s Riwoo next to him now.

“Every single day,” Riwoo admits, sighing. “I wish I could punch you in the face for doing that, but I want to punch myself even more for not being able to save you.”

“For the record, punching yourself won’t help, speaking from experience. Putting the blame on yourself won’t bring Dongmin back,” he offers in an attempt to comfort the other, one hand reaching to steadily grip Riwoo’s shoulder. “Besides, I know that I wouldn’t regret taking a bullet for you.”

“Don’t.” Riwoo shuts his eyes, swallowing drily. Taesan can see the pain on his face, it feels like a heavy weight pressed on his chest. “Just… Please, don’t do this.”

“I’m sorry,” Taesan says, ready to pull his hand away. Riwoo prevents him by leaning his face on it, nuzzling it like a comforting motion from the past. Blurred lines, he fears it’ll be impossible to put them straight again at the end of the mission. “It’s just–”

“It hurts, and you know the feeling better than anyone,” Riwoo says in a small voice, almost inaudible. “Let’s just work together and have each other’s back until this whole thing is over. Let’s protect each other like we couldn’t do in the past.”

“Yeah, let’s protect each other,” Taesan nods.

“Promise?”

“I promise, Riwoo.”

If he wasn’t able to save Sanghyeok in the past, he’ll do everything in his power to save Riwoo in the present.

It takes three more trips to 2210 Seoul for Taesan to finally talk to Leehan about everything. He’s been stalling all this time because he wanted to think better on the things he wants to say. His plan was to start with the news of Sanghyeok having an alive alternate version on that Earth by the name of Lee Riwoo. Somewhere between the lines he got reminded of his death in that place and that this is probably the only reason he was assigned to that Earth. He wasn’t thrown in the mission because he has nothing to lose compared to other spiders, it’s because of a lack of other Taesan in that Earth.

Taesan isn’t the chosen one, isn’t as special as Leehan said. He’s nothing on that Earth, and he’s starting to think that he’s nothing on this Earth too.

What was supposed to be a calm conversation in his head, suddenly turned into Taesan storming through the hallways of the research facility, footsteps echoing heavily in the white space. He’s not sure why he’s angry to begin with. Maybe it’s a mix of all the emotions bottling up since he was assigned to this mission. Stress from it, anger for getting reminded that he couldn’t save Sanghyeok, confusion at seeing Riwoo and having these weird feelings he can’t put a name on, betrayal because Leehan didn’t tell him the truth.

He’s on edge as he storms into Leehan’s lab, all his peers scattering away from the place, leaving the two and all the tech paraphernalia beeping. Leehan is in the center of it, sitting on a chair while holding a blowtorch, the mask obstructing his vision. Taesan’s suit lays on a table in front of him, Leehan once again doing modifications that only he understands.

“Why haven’t you told me the truth?”

Taesan’s tone drips with the anger he feels, a stark difference from how he thought this conversation would start when he thought about it three days ago.

Leehan takes the mask away, his damp brown hair stuck to his sweaty forehead. His lips are pursed and his eyebrows are furrowed as he says, “Taesanie, what are you talking about?”

“About the mission. Twenty-two-ten Earth,” he replies, words ringing loud in the space between them. “Because you’re the chosen one, that’s bullshit.”

“Language,” Leehan reprimands, leaving the blowtorch on the table – Taesan has a deja-vu of the Leehan of 2210 Earth saying the same thing to Riwoo back in the diner.

“It’s because I’m dead there, isn't it?” Taesan spits out, adding an emotionless laugh next. “That’s why I was assigned to that Earth.”

Leehan sighs profoundly, getting up from the chair and walking in his direction. “Taesan–”

“Just tell me the truth,” he cuts him off, tired of being kept in the dark. “I can handle it.”

That’s one of the problems he’s been facing with Leehan ever since Sanghyeok passed away. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been, Leehan keeps acting like he can’t handle things, like everything needs to be sugar-coated or omitted. He’s thankful for his worry and utmost care, Leehan has been one of the pillars for him to overcome his grief, but sometimes it gets insufferable. Why couldn’t he tell the truth from the start? It makes his frustration double in size.

“Yes and no,” Leehan says in defeat, wrapping an arm around Taesan’s shoulder and walking out of the lab, leading them to the examination room. He clears his throat before continuing, “You are indeed the chosen one, the company chose you to be the focus on this mission. Woonhak comes from and acts exclusively on that Earth, you’re one of the best spiders here and one of the few that can handle the side effects of interdimensional travel.”

Taesan already knew that, since the beginning of the genetic modifications and combat training. Even Sanghyeok told him that when they started to go out. Everyone makes sure to leave Taesan up to the fact that he has the whole world on his back and that he has expectations thrusted upon him from the moment his DNA was changed. Before Sanghyeok passed away, he was the only one that took that weight from him and gave him love and a perspective of a bright future.

Now all that’s left is broken dreams and the same expectations weighing a ton on his shoulders. Leehan’s words only add to that, and they both know it.

“It’s just a coincidence and a convenience that you’re dead on that Earth,” Leehan continues, typing the passcode to his private examination room, making space for Taesan.

Inside, Sungho lays peacefully in the small bed by the corner. Taesan scans him to check for any injuries, but Sungho seems fine on the outside. Considering they’re in the private room, this is probably another one of Leehan’s attempts to make the older rest a little more. Leehan always worries when it comes to Sungho – just like Sanghyeok used to do, something they bonded over back then.

“Your alternate self not existing means zero glitching, which means complete success because we won’t have to worry about Woonhak accidentally being the you of that dimension and causing an interference in the universe,” he explains in a soft tone as to not wake Sungho up. He sits in a chair near the bed, running a hand on Sungho’s blonde locks.

It’s domestic in a way that makes Taesan look away, like he’s interrupting on something private. It makes his heart clench because he remembers Sanghyeok doing the same to him when he got back from another trip, beaten and tired.

“Your mission isn’t the same as Jaehyun-hyung and Sungho-hyung,” Leehan says, eyes zeroed on him. “Taesan, you have something big in your hands.”

“The universe and everyone lives depends on me and all that. Yeah, I know. The weight of all universes on my back,” he huffs, eyes on the floor. “Still, a heads up would be nice. You could’ve said that I was dead in that dimension and that I shouldn’t worry about bumping into myself there.”

“It was completely unnecessary to point it out, it’s not part of the protocol,” Leehan says, a little annoyed by the way he rolls his eyes. “Besides, you’ve read and signed everything that was on those papers. Why are you suddenly so angry when we’ve been on this mission for years now?”

“I’m not angry, Leehan.” Taesan exhales deeply. “I’m stressed.”

“Did something happen in twenty-two-ten Earth?” Leehan asks, the worry in his voice is impossible to ignore.

Expecting Kim Leehan to not worry about him is the same as expecting the sun to rise on this Earth of theirs – an impossible feature.

“He’s there,” Taesan whispers.

Leehan frowns. “He?”

“Sanghyeok-hyung,” he answers, almost choking out the name. How can he say it so easily in his head but always feel a lump on his throat whenever he has to speak it out loud? Taesan feels pathetic. “He’s on that Earth, but with another name. He’s called Riwoo, and he’s the Spider-Man that punched me in the face that day.

“Oh.” Leehan freezes, his hand stops for a moment above Sungho’s hair. A sleepy groan comes from him as the lack of contact. Leehan snorts to himself at this, his hand going back to play with the soft locks. “That’s fucked up.”

Taesan sighs. “Yeah.”

“At least that explains why you took a day off and was spacing out all day after coming back.”

“I don’t know what to do, Leehanie,” he admits defeatedly, hands on his forehead as he tugs the hair back with too much strength.

“Taesan-ah…”

“He’s there. He’s right there,” Taesan says, face scrunched in pain. All he ever feels lately is pain, but this one seems to hurt to the same extent as when he finally realized that Sanghyeok was gone forever. “I can touch him, I can see his smiles and hear his voice from somewhere beyond those stupid voice notes that I have in my phone. And I know he’s not Sanghyeok, they don’t even have the same name but…”

“I know you miss him a lot. I can only imagine how all of this must be taking a toll on you.” Leehan pushes another chair close and motions for Taesan to sit down. “But you need to remember that this is a chance in a million.”

Taesan narrows his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“What I’m saying is, who cares if that person isn’t the Sanghyeok you know. If your heart longs for it, you should indulge in it for as long as you can,” he explains. There’s a silent exasperation in the way he speaks, leaving Sungho’s hair behind so he can hold both of Taesan’s hands. It’s warm and clammy, but he lets himself be held tight and reassuringly. “I won’t tell you what you can and can’t do, that isn’t my place. But think about it, Taesan, would you rather spend more time with this Riwoo, skin and flesh even if it’s from another dimension, or run away from it and keep longing because he’s not the Sanghyeok-hyung that we know?”

A beat of silence, one that Taesan would say it’s more contemplative than him being left speechless. Why does it seem like everyone is ready to hop into situations in other dimensions rather than thinking wisely? Jaehyun said he’d drop everything behind for 2005 Earth, and now Leehan is telling him to go back to Riwoo’s arms even if he’s not Sanghyeok.

“I can’t do that, Leehan.” The crease in Taesan’s forehead doesn’t soften as he speaks, it only hardens.

Leehan takes a deep breath, hands leaving Taesan’s to cradle the man’s face instead. It’s still warm and clammy, Taesan instinctively closes his eyes at the gentleness of the touch.

“Listen, Dr. Woo and the rest of this place don’t give a single fuck to who is in that universe. All they want is to find Woonhak and stop the quantum destruction that little shit is trying to make.” Leehan brushes his thumbs on Taesan’s cheeks, tender like a feather. His eyes are full of honesty, little beacons of hope that acts like a light in the darkness of Taesan’s thoughts. “All they want is for you to finish this mission. After that, you can figure out what to do with this alternate Sanghyeok-hyung.”

“You’re right,” he nods. “I have to finish this mission.”

“Don’t forget to spend time with him.” Leehan offers a soft smile, bringing him close so he can kiss the top of his head, only then letting Taesan go and going back to playing with Sungho’s hair. “You don’t speak about it, but I can see how much you miss him. Who knows, maybe there’s a reason why you’re dead on that Earth and was sent specifically there.”

“But you told me–”

“Taesanie, you used to be more romantic in the past,” he huffs. “Can’t you be a little like Jaehyun-hyung?”

“I’m not sure I want to be like Jaehyun-hyung,” Taesan says playfully – but underneath it, there’s a truth that Leehan doesn’t catch. Being like Jaehyun, in his perspective, means getting stuck in a one-sided love that will never end. Endless pain and suffering, Taesan already had his fair share of the feeling to know that he doesn’t want to go back.

“Someday, hyung will be the best boyfriend to someone,” Leehan says.

“Yeah, he will,” Taesan hums.

He wants to tell Leehan that Jaehyun will never be someone’s boyfriend because he’s madly in love with him but this is not the moment nor the place and Taesan is not the person to talk about it. He catches a glimpse of the engagement ring in Leehan’s finger, and he wonders if Jaehyun has already seen it rather than only knowing about the engagement through the talks in the company. Taesan can only hope that someday Jaehyun will be the best boyfriend to someone else, because no one deserves to only feel pain.

“You know, Taesan-ah, a writer once said that all is fair in love and war.”

“And what does that mean?”

“That you should stop playing fair and play by your own rules,” Leehan replies, a glint of mischievousness in his gentle eyes. “Good luck, Taesanie.”

There’s a hundred things happening at the same time. Monsters at every corner of the abandoned building, Taesan has the feeling that he punched at least ten in the guts and face but they keep coming. More wormholes open than he’s able to keep tags on, always forgetting to close them because he has no time to think between stunning the monsters and keeping up with all the wormholes. Taesan is highly aware that he’ll run out of discs if all the beasts and wormholes don’t stop eventually.

Hectic, chaotic and relentless – that’s how the world feels right now. It’s also strangely exciting, to be side by side with Riwoo and fighting together. This is something that he couldn’t do with Sanghyeok, his past boyfriend wasn’t genetically modified like them. It’s a new dynamic that makes a smile tug at the corners of his lips. Taesan can’t say why he feels that way, he doesn’t have time to think about it.

“Why do they keep coming?” Riwoo yells, backflipping on a lizard’s head, pushing it back into the wormhole. He shoots one of the discs Taesan gave him, directly into the beast’s chest, closing the wormhole.

It’s a cycle that’s been going on for quite some minutes now.

“I don’t know!” Taesan shouts back, jumping on the back of a wolf-like creature and putting his arms around its neck to choke it. The creature stumbles back and tries to shake him off, but Taesan is quicker to finish it off and send it back to the place it came from. “Maybe the source is somewhere near.”

“You’re right,” Riwoo agrees, breathlessly as he punches another rabid wolf-beast that comes dashing at him. “We need to–”

All of it happens in a blink. Riwoo finishes off the rabid wolf, but a crocodile-like creature comes charging at him from a freshly open wormhole while he’s distracted, pushing Riwoo out of the building. Taesan reacts immediately thanks to his spider-senses, leaving behind whatever creatures were fighting against him, surging forward to the place Riwoo was pushed. His mind is running as he leans on the ledge, sighing in relief when he sees Riwoo holding tight on a part that won’t hold him for too long.

“Sanghyeok!” Taesan calls, a mix of relief and despair, reaching out a hand. They’re both tired and their bodies aren’t in their best shape, but he still reaches out and grips the older’s wrist. Riwoo looks at him, and Taesan doesn’t need to see his face to know that he’s relieved that Taesan came to the rescue. “Hold tight!”

“It’s alright,” Riwoo reassures him, but it lacks the feeling since his voice comes out shaky. If anything, it leaves Taesan even more restless. “I won’t fall, you can let go.”

“No, I–” he shakes his head, distressed. How can Riwoo expect him to let go when he knows he can save him. Taesan needs to save him. “I won’t let you go again.”

“Stop being an idiot! Those shitty things will catch you if you don’t let go,” Riwoo shouts, probably rolling his eyes inside the mask. “Stop playing the hero, Dongmin! I’m not weak like you think I am, I can take care of myself!”

“No!” Taesan shouts back, tightening his slippery grip on Riwoo’s wrist. 

He can hear the monsters behind him, slowly approaching and ready to take him by surprise. Taesan can do it, he can pull Riwoo back and they can fight together, they can end this once and for all. He doesn’t have to lose him again, he doesn’t have to watch him fall again. Taesan can save him, he knows he can. He just needs to be stronger, he knows he can.

“I’ve lost you once,” he breathes out. “I’m not going to lose you again, not when I just got you back, hyung.”

“Taesan-ah,” Riwoo calls him softly. It brings memories that aren’t related to him but still matches because the voice is the same. Sanghyeok comforted him after Taesan couldn’t save everyone, Sanghyeok kissing his bruises, Sanghyeok hugging him tight every time he came back from another dimension. He needs to save Riwoo, he’s not ready to say goodbye to his voice once again. “It’s okay, I promise. You can let me go.”

“Riwoo, please…” Taesan closes his eyes. The pain is as fresh as the day he lost Sanghyeok. The images flood back into his head and he can’t push them away this time. He’s going to lose another person he loves because he’s weak. It’s infuriating, Taesan’s hand clenches harder around Riwoo’s wrist.

“I’ll be fine, trust me,” he says, still softly, still reassuring – still painful, still heartbreaking. “You have a mission to finish.”

“I don’t want to do it without you, hyung,” Taesan argues, looking behind in time to see one of the lizard creatures rubbing his foot on the ground to take momentum to charge at him. He has to do something, he has to think fast. “I can’t do it without you, I–”

“If you won’t let me go, then I’ll do it for you.”

It’s the last thing Riwoo says before using his other hand to push Taesan’s away, falling in the empty street. A vortex opens right under him, sucking Riwoo into the unknown abyss. Taesan freezes, mind and body completely shutting down as everything around him turns into white noise.

He lost him, he lost Riwoo like he did with Sanghyeok, he did nothing to save him again. He was useless and weak, failed Riwoo the same way he failed Sanghyeok years ago.

Taesan acts almost on auto-pilot when the lizard charges forward, pushing the creature into the same open vortex that swallowed Riwoo. Riwoo, who’s now lost in another dimension or even died from lack of oxygen in whatever place he got pulled into. When his body finally comes back to him, Taesan feels the anger pushing its way in, making him see red and act with murderous intent. He takes out the six creatures still above the building, finishing them off by himself and closing the remaining open vortexes. Even when it’s over, Taesan still can’t stop the aggression inside him.

A few days ago, they discovered a building that Woonhak is using as a hideout. Yesterday, they came together to this building and found the underground destroyed facility that Woonhak is using as the main spot for his inter-dimensional trips, the source of the wormholes that are bringing all these monsters. They came to the conclusion that the monsters aren’t inherently the guy’s fault, rather a consequence of him messing with something that he has no control over.

Taensa kicks down the hidden trapdoor that leads down, standing in the sewers, moving solely on the anger he feels at losing Riwoo because of the same stupid reason – someone that has no idea what they’re doing in the first place. Working by himself is a thing he never thought he’d despise after years doing it. The sound of his heartbeat and heavy breathing it’s getting annoying like it never did before. Taesan shakes his head before his head is filled with Sanghyeok and Riwoo, before he loses focus and crumbles down.

He’s going to finish this mission today. For Riwoo, that he lost here and Sanghyeok that he lost on his Earth.

In a dark corner of the large room, away from a gigantic cylinder that has been causing all this trouble, a scrawny and tall figure stands. A face covered by a black mask that Taesan can’t see, but he has the inkling feeling this is the guy that they’re all looking for. He measures his courses of action in that between Woonhak not seeing him and his anger still simmering inside him. Taesan could destroy the cylinder first, not leaving an alternative to the guy except surrender and have the local police deal with the rest. Or he could punch the guy until he passes out and have the blood of someone supposedly innocent in his hands because of his anger.

Taesan chooses the first option, the second won’t do anything but give him more reasons to hate himself.

Sparks fly from the joints of the cylinder, probably filled with electricity enough to be able to open countless wormholes in less than a minute. Taesan acts silently, taking advantage of the guy’s distraction to intercept his options to run away. It’s simple to turn down this thing, all thanks to Taesan being a genetic anomaly.

The Spider Project wasn’t only an experiment to make superheroes on an Earth that couldn’t be saved anymore, they’re all far from being like the other dimensions’ Spider-Men that got bitten and went through the mutation naturally. Taesan, Jaehyun, Sungho and a few others that survived haven’t been bitten by radioactive spiders. The scientists pumped them with all types of radioactive components to create a better brand of heroes. That being said, the Spider-Men made in the labs of the Spider Project developed a selection of additional powers to make them more useful beyond their spider abilities. Sungho developed mind-reading and controlling, while Jaehyun got invisibility.

And Taesan got what some thought was useless, electrical manipulation. Now, he thinks that all those mouths would be hanging open at how useful his power becomes to save all worlds.

He stares at the blue sparks coming from the cylinder before putting his hands on it, feeling the tickles it gives while rushing from his fingertips to his whole body, nerves alight with the surge of electricity. The panel short-circuits as soon as Taesan touches it, de-powering the vortexes and stopping whatever the shadowy figure was doing. Taesan watches as his special suit lights up in blue, illuminating the whole room and getting the figure’s attention.

“Who are you?” The person, who sounds a lot like a boy in his late teens, asks in confusion. Taesan still can’t see his face, but he doesn’t care.

It doesn’t matter who’s behind that mask as long as he gets stopped once and for all.

“You’re Woonhak?” Taesan asks back, ignoring the shake and dust that flies down from the ceiling.

Perhaps de-powering a powerful object in the underground of an abandoned building wasn’t the smartest decision, but Taesan will make do with the time he still has. Considering that nothing crumbled yet, maybe he has a few minutes to spare.

“That’s my name,” the shadowy figure replies, crossing his arms. “And I assume you’re not from here. Our Spider-Man doesn’t have a suit like this.”

“Bingo, kiddo.”

“Are you here to kill me?” Woonhak asks. It doesn’t sound like he’s worried, not a reaction one would have at being on the verge of death.

The question sounds strange to Taesan, it takes him by surprise. He has never killed someone purposefully. All the deaths on his back were accidental, and it still haunts him to this day. Taesan could never kill another human being, even if that human being is the reason why he lost all things he considered precious in his life.

“I’m no murderer,” Taesan replies, hands closing in fists as anger rushes back to him. “But you are.”

“Me?”

“My boss told me to finish this without questions, but I need to know. I need to know why Riw–” I need to know why I lost Riwoo, again. Taesan doesn’t finish, doesn’t want to give something that this guy could use against him if things went bad – not like he can do anything without his wormholes. Still, Taesan doesn’t let his guards down. “Why are you doing all this? There’s gotta be a reason other than wanting to start a multiverse imbalance. You don’t look like a villain, kiddo.”

“Have you ever lost someone, Spider-Man?” Woonhak asks instead of answering, voice taking a more tired tone that doesn’t go unnoticed. Taesan sympathizes because he’s equally tired. He wants to end this once and for all, but he can’t do it until he knows.

There’s got to be a reason for him to lose Riwoo in a similar way to how he lost Sanghyeok.

“Does it matter?” Taesan scoffs.

“If you had, wouldn’t you do anything in your power to have this person back?” The amount of questions is starting to get on Taesan’s nerves, so he keeps his mouth shut in order to have the guy finish his monologue. “That’s my reason. I’m not a villain, as you said. I just want to bring someone important to me back.”

“You’re doing all this because you can’t move on?” Taesan says, baffled.

A massive dimensional crisis caused because a person can’t move on from losing someone? It makes absolutely no sense for Taesan. Even when he lost Sanghyeok, he never felt like causing such a hassle. It seems that his reaction isn’t what Woonhak is hoping for because he explodes, dropping whatever the hell he was holding.

“You don’t understand!” Woonhak shouts, voice echoing in the emptiness of the place. Taesan can see him trembling from head to toe, but his spider-senses don't tingle so he doesn’t think this guy is a threat. “He was all I had in this world. I can’t move on because he wasn’t supposed to be gone in the first place. He was supposed to be here, by my side.”

The last words are spoken in a lower tone, almost as if they were thoughts not meant to be heard. Taesan sympathizes with him, he really does. Only God and Leehan knew how much he wanted to travel to a hundred other dimensions so he could find Sanghyeok, one where he was the same and loved him the same way. It’s something that will never exist, even if his grief-clouded mind told him otherwise. There’s only one Sanghyeok that loves him, and he’s a memory he keeps dearly.

Taesan sympathizes but can’t agree with Woonhak’s actions.

“You’re messing with the whole universe, kid,” he scolds, like a parent would to their children.

“I don’t care about stupid universes!” Woonhak says, opening a vortex right behind him. Taesan should’ve known that the cylinder was only for him to create more wormholes, he probably can only conjure up one once at a time. “I just want him back. I will get him back, no matter what it takes. If I have to destroy the world in the process, I’ll do it.”

He can almost hear those same words coming from his own lips, years ago when the doctors told him that they couldn’t save Sanghyeok because he was already dead when he was brought to the hospital. It’s like a hundred needles piercing his open wound, never allowing him to heal it completely. Taesan wants to scream and cry and thrash around, like a tantruming child.

“That won’t bring him back, Woonhak,” Taesan lets out with a shuddering sigh. “No matter how many dimensions you look for him in, you will never find someone exactly like him. You will find similar faces, the same names, but it won’t be the one you’re looking for.”

That’s the bitter truth that no one ever told him. No matter how many dimensions, universes, Earths, people are never the same. Sanghyeok isn’t Riwoo, and probably won’t be like any other person with the same face as his lover that he crosses paths with. As different as Riwoo was, Taesan still thought about him and felt the strange fluttering that he used to feel next to Sanghyeok.

But it’s all gone. He’ll never have the chance to know what that feeling was. He can already give it a name now, but he’s too scared to do it. Taesan doesn’t know if he has the guts to go through another grief for someone he loves.

“I just miss him,” Woonhak sniffs, probably tearing up under the mask. “You don’t understand, I miss him so much. I miss my Jaehy–”

“Hey, Spider-Man!” A voice calls from the far corner of the large space, both turning their heads to the figure walking. “For someone that needs to end this as quickly as possible, you spend too much time sympathizing with the villain.”

Taesan is too stunned to react, but Riwoo is more focused. He shoots a web the moment Woonhak feels threatened by his appearance, making it impossible for his hands to conjure another wormhole. More webs are shot and Woonhak is completely covered in white, except for the face, still covered with the mask.

Right at that moment, the building decides Taesan’s few minutes to spare are officially over. The whole foundation falters, crumbling down slowly. Taesan comes to his senses, shooting two webs in Woonhak’s direction and pulling his heavy body close to his chest, propping him in his shoulders and running away before the whole construction falls on their heads. Riwoo runs at the exact time a big chunk of the ceiling is about to fall above him, narrowly escaping with a nervous laugh. They shoot webs to the empty spots on the ceiling, the smoke of the building foundation making it difficult to see anything except gray dust.

When they reach the streets, Taesan carefully drops Woonhak’s body on the ground and makes sure that he’s still alive. The guy probably passed out when they were fleeing the place, his chest going up and down makes Taesan sigh in relief. He leaves him behind, not caring enough to take off the mask and see the face that’s been causing him trouble for a long time now. Taesan has better things to think about – like the Spider-Man close to him.

Before he can reach Riwoo, police sirens blast in the background. An armed policeman goes straight to them, asking a bunch of questions that Riwoo earnestly answers. Kim Woonhak turns out to be a young genius in this dimension that never forgave himself for accidentally sending his best friend to another dimension in one of their experiments. If Taesan wasn’t more curious about Riwoo being alive, he’d pay more attention to Woonhak’s story.

As the policeman moves to Woonhak’s passed out body, Taesan turns to Riwoo, still astonished. He reaches forward before he can stop, hands cradling the older’s face through the mask. Taesan knows he should be paying more attention to the police taking Woonhak away to who-knows-where, but he can deal with that later. He has more important matters at hand.

“How?” he breathes out.

“A wormhole opened the moment I fell and I was transported back here,” Riwoo explains, pointing with his head to the destroyed building. Taesan can hear the smile on his face, and he doesn’t need to see it to know that it looks beautiful. “Sorry for butting in, but that kid’s monologue was too much of a pity cry for me.”

“Riwoo,” Taesan calls, pulling him to his chest and hugging him tight. He engulfs the smaller frame with almost his whole body to sooth his aching heart. “You’re alive.”

“‘course I am,” he chuckles, arms curling around Taesan. They share a longing that none of them can explain. “I told you to trust me, Taesan.”

“I–”

The words die on his tongue, the lump lodged in his throat hindering him speechless. Taesan wants to say so many things, wants to speak about the feelings he’s been nurturing for Riwoo and the confusion and worries he had over these same feelings. He wants to hug Riwoo like his life depends on it, wants to keep him close so nothing can happen again, wants to kiss him breathless until those lips are the only thing in his mind.

Taesan craves Riwoo. The same way he used to feel it around Sanghyeok.

“Mission officially accomplished,” Riwoo says proudly, pulling away before Taesan can do or say anything. He leans his weight on the soles of his foot, moving back and forth in a display of nervousness. “I guess you can–”

“Take off your mask,” Taesan cuts him off. A command that has Riwoo abruptly stopping, confusion probably plastered on his face. Taesan presses the button that retreats his own mask, showing his face so that Riwoo can see everything that his mouth cannot speak.

“What?”

“Take off your mask,” he says, moving forward and hoping that Riwoo won’t step backwards. “I need to see your face, Riwoo.”

Riwoo doesn’t move away, but he doesn’t move forward either. He puts one hand on his head and pulls off the mask, short hair sticking to all directions before he brushes a hand over it and messies it more. Riwoo is sweaty and flushed, cheeks in a pink color that makes Taesan reminisce of the past. It’s a pretty sight, he wants to see it more times.

“Happy now?” Riwoo asks, shyly looking away.

Taesan doesn’t waste time. Hands on the soft skin of Riwoo’s cheeks as he coaxes the older to look at him. The world stops for the time they lose themselves in each other’s eyes. The sun slowly sets in the horizon, painting Riwoo in a bewitching shade of orange. Taesan can’t take his eyes away, nor does he want to.

It doesn’t matter if Riwoo isn’t Sanghyeok. Taesan understands now what Jaehyun and Leehan were trying to tell him. He’ll always love Sanghyeok, no matter what dimension, universe, Earth, face or name he has. Doesn’t matter if Riwoo wasn’t there when Taesan went through the early stages of the body modifications in the Spider Project, or when he went to his first mission in another universe, or when he cried because he couldn’t save everyone, or when Taesan promised the world and beyond to Sanghyeok. He can create memories with Riwoo, and that’s what matters.

He can love Riwoo, and the admission doesn’t take him by surprise. It feels natural – just like it felt natural to love Sanghyeok.

“I’m going to kiss you, but I won’t do it unless you want this too,” Taesan says, voice ringing in his ears amidst the loud beating of his heart. Riwoo looks back at him, dazed, waiting. “I know I’m not the Dongmin you fell in love with and you’re not my Sanghyeok, but I still want to kiss you, Riwoo.”

“Then do it,” Riwoo whispers, not looking away. “Kiss me, Taesan. The same way you used to kiss Sanghyeok on your Earth.”

That’s all he needs to hear, surging forward and ceasing the distance between their lips. It starts as a soft kiss. Taesan is still unsure if Riwoo wants this as much as he does. Riwoo, on the other hand, seems to understand exactly the questions Taesan’s lips are inquiring, pressing harder as an answer. I want this too, just as much as you do, it’s spoken in the way they kiss.

Taesan hasn’t kissed anyone ever since Sanghyeok died, but it’s muscle memory. His body knows exactly what to do, how to act upon having Riwoo in his arms, lips sealed together in a passionate and less hesitant kiss. Riwoo throws his arms around Taesan’s neck and gently plays with the long strands sticking to his neck. Taesan’s hand hovers over his small waist before holding it tight.

A lifeline, a proof that this is real and not a figment of his mind.

It gets heated before they can prevent it, both far too gone with longing and the discovery of feelings to pull away. Riwoo gasps into his mouth as their tongues entangle, tasting each other in the desired way they used to do with their respective lovers. It’s borderline scorching, intimate and relieving to be kissing one another after so many years. Riwoo’s mouth wakes in him the same sensation Sanghyeok used to give – it’s like reliving the past while living in the future.

Taesan pulls Riwoo off the pavement, lifting him until he’s flushed against his taller form, legs around his waist with Taesan’s hands on his thighs. Maybe this isn’t the best place to have what is quickly starting to turn into a heavy make-out session, but Taesan wants to be reckless at least once in his life. His mind it’s too drunk on Riwoo’s lips to think about the possible depravity of their kiss in a street.

His watch beeps, signaling the end of the dream. Taesan pulls away before things can go any further than it already did. Riwoo whines in annoyance, trying to bring him back by the grip he has on his neck, a pout on his lips from being interrupted.

“I have to go,” Taesan says, voice hoarse and slightly breathy. Despite saying such, he doesn’t make a move to let Riwoo go.

“No,” Riwoo asserts, eyes still closed.

Taesan snorts. “No?”

“You’re not going anywhere, Han Taesan,” he says, licking the corner of Taesan’s mouth and smiling mischievously. “You’re all mine now.”

“Riwoo…” Taesan tries to argue, which turns out to be an impossible feature when he has Riwoo all over him, kissing every spot on his face before going back to his lips, repeating it until he gives up and forgets about the damned beeping coming from his watch. “I really have to go.”

“I’ve spent years without you, they can wait a few more minutes,” Riwoo complains, pulling away so he can look at Taesan. “I’m not letting you go again.”

Riwoo’s brown eyes are blown-out, his cheeks are painted in a perpetual shade of pink, lips in the same tone and slightly glistening. It’s a dream come true. Taesan couldn’t take his eyes off him even if it was a life-or-death situation. He almost wants to completely ignore his curfew and the mission that still needs to be finished, staying in 2210 Earth for a little longer to see more of this Riwoo in his arms. But he can’t, and his responsibility speaks loud.

“I have to finish the mission, hyung,” he reasons again, even with his body screaming for him to stop and forget everything that isn’t Riwoo related. “I promise I’ll be back.”

“How can you be so sure of that?” Riwoo huffs, letting himself be put back on his feet. “For all I know, you can go into your little portals and never come back here.”

“You really think I won’t come back after getting the best kiss I had in years?” Taesan smiles, leaning into the space between them to leave a sweet kiss on the annoyed pout in Riwoo’s lips. It seems to work for now. His facade crumbles as he smiles to himself before pulling Taesan for another quick kiss before finally letting him go for good.

“Just like your Sanghyeok used to kiss you?”

“You are my Sanghyeok,” he replies, honestly. Nothing but the truth, after all – it took him some time to realize that, but never too late. “Just from another dimension and with another name, and with silver hair.”

“I can say the same about you, Taesan,” Riwoo says, a smile perpetually etched on his pink-kissed lips.

“I’ll see you soon, hyung,” Taesan says before opening the vortex. “Don’t miss me too much.”

And despite going back to his Earth, Taesan doesn’t feel like calling it his anymore. Not when Riwoo belongs in this one. Taesan longs to be in 2210 Seoul like he never did for something ever since Sanghyeok died. It feels strange but nice to long for something again – for someone.

It’s an understatement how content the company higher-ups were when Taesan came back from 2210 Seoul. Scientists and other staff gather up in the hallways, clapping and smiling at him for ending the madness once and for all. It makes him feel important, but his mind tunes out whatever they speak to him, head stuck on the kiss Riwoo gave him and how possessive he sounded. The boss shakes his hand and congratulates him, Taesan smiles in respect but doesn’t pay attention to words spoken about him. He’ll be seen as a hero for eternity – not that he cares about the title or how people in the company will treat him from that day on.

In his head, all that matters is Riwoo and how much he craves to go back to 2210 Seoul to kiss him until his lips feel numb.

Taesan runs away from the celebration and hides in the room with the dimensional portal. It’s the only one that can’t be controlled by the monsters since it’s extremely taken care of by the scientists. Looking at the empty void under his feet, Taesan can’t help wishing to jump into it and get taken to Riwoo. It’s only been a few hours since he got back, but he doesn’t feel like he belongs here anymore.

His heart longs for Riwoo, but he’ll never be here because he’s from somewhere else. Still, as much as he wants to leave everything behind, Taesan feels bound to this Earth too. He was born and raised here, he has friends that care for him, he met the love of his life here and had a whole life lived before he was gone. Taesan can’t overlook that and act like Riwoo is the Sanghyeok that he fell for because that’s not true. Although sharing the same face, body and voice, Riwoo’s personality will never match Sanghyeok’s – the same way that Taesan will never be Dongmin.

It’s complicated, and it’s eating him away like a parasite feeding on his brain.

“You did it.” 

Leehan’s voice echoes in the large room. The sound of the open portal doesn’t stop the voice from reaching Taesan’s ears. Leehan has his hands inside the pockets of his lab coat, walking the platform until he’s next to Taesan’s slouched figure. He puts a hand above his head and messes his long hair affectionately, like a father proud of their child.

“I’m proud of you, Taesanie,” he says with a smile.

“Thanks,” Taesan says, looking up at him. 

Leehan has always been the person he looked up to, someone that was an inspiration to him and gave him the support he needed. Even if he had no supernatural powers, Taesan knows that he wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Leehan. It feels comforting to know that Leehan is still proud of him even if he was unable to save his best friend all those years ago – Leehan never told him, but Taesan knew that Sanghyeok’s death took a toll on him too. 

“Do you think he’s proud of me too?” he adds in a whisper, eyes watering and throat tightening around the lump that always shows up whenever he thinks about Sanghyeok.

“You don’t even have to ask that. Hyung would be more than proud,” Leehan says, hand running gently in Taesan’s hair in a comforting gesture. “And I’m sure that Riwoo must be proud too.”

Taesan looks down at the massive portal under them. “Yeah, he probably is.”

Silence swallows them, but none of them makes an effort to fight it. It’s like a breath of fresh air after all the noises and the hectic schedules they had in the past years. The silence is welcoming for the first time, despite Taesan’s aversion to it. For once in his life, he’s glad to have a minute of silence while someone is beside him. Leehan’s hand keeps petting his head and Taesan wonders how he can go back to 2210 Seoul while Leehan is still here. What would he even do without his best friend’s care and guidance?

But then, once Leehan retires from the company to live a calmer life with Sungho, who’s going to be by Taesan’s side?

“Have you made up your mind?” Leehan asks out of the blue. 

It takes Taesan by surprise. He hasn’t spoken to anyone about his plans of going back to Riwoo or staying there. It’s not a concrete plan, so he didn’t feel like talking about it to anyone. Still, we’re talking about Kim Leehan and he seems to have a seventh sense to know exactly when Taesan is conflicted with something.

“About what?” Taesan asks in what he hopes is a convincing display of confusion.

“We’ve been best friends for years now, and you still think you can fool me,” he snorts, looking down at Taesan with round eyes. “Taesan-ah, you have that look in your face. The one when you’re thinking too much. It makes you look constipated.”

“Fuck off,” Taesan rolls his eyes in faux annoyance.

“Language,” Leehan reprimands, lightly pulling at a few strands of hair. “You do know that I’ll support you no matter what you choose, right?”

Taesan knows that. It doesn’t matter how stupid his idea is, Leehan will always show him unconditional support. And if things don’t work out in the end, Leehan will also be there to hug him and be a shoulder for Taesan to cry on. Their friendship has been like this since day one, it won’t change overnight just because they will be a dimension away from each other. 

Still, Taesan wonders what Leehan would say about the crazy idea that has been roaming his head ever since he came back.

“What if I’m wrong?” Taesan says in distress, fidgeting. “What if he doesn’t like me back? When I think about it, I don’t even know if I like him like that. I know I feel something, especially when I’m close to him but that could mean nothing. Maybe I’m–”

“Taesanie, you’re rambling,” Leehan interrupts, pointing out a habit that only shows up when Taesan is anxious and stuck in his head. He mentally thanks Leehan for that – he always tends to lose himself when he starts to think too much. “It’s like getting a flashback of when you realized that you had feelings for Sanghyeok-hyung.”

“I feel like I’m betraying him,” Taesan admits. The words weigh a ton on his tongue as he pushes them out. This is his biggest concern when it comes to leaving everything behind and jumping in that portal. “We had plans and a whole future together, Leehan. How can I leave that behind and make new plans and have a future together with someone else?”

“You really think Sanghyeok-hyung wouldn’t want you to move on?” he reasons, crouching down next to Taesan and throwing an arm around his shoulders. “Taesan, there’s nothing wrong with moving on. It’s part of life, and you shouldn’t blame yourself for doing it.”

Taesan bites his lips, eyes stinging with tears. “I–”

“Don’t you like being with Riwoo?” Leehan asks, cutting him off. 

Taesan nods. He can’t lie, not to himself and not to Leehan. He likes to be around Riwoo, just like he liked to be around Sanghyeok. It’s muscle memory for him to like the feeling of having someone that he likes so much around him.

“Then you should cherish it, enjoy it for as long as you can,” he says, smiling reassuringly. It quiets down Taesan’s anxieties, giving him space to breathe and think. “You deserve good things after everything you went through. Don’t miss this chance because you’re overthinking.”

Taesan looks at Leehan, feeling like a young boy, unsure of what step to take next. “Do you think I’m making the right choice?”

“Well, if I was in your place and had the chance to fall in love again with Sungho-hyung in another dimension, I’d do it without thinking twice,” Leehan replies, not shying away from the admission of how much he loves Sungho and would do anything to be with him. “But that’s me, and just because I’d do it, doesn’t mean you have to. I can’t tell you what’s wrong or right, Taesan. It’s all up to you.”

He knows what’s right for him, even if he’s still uncertain. Taesan decides to take a leap of faith, one that only he can do. Deep down, he knows that now that he had a taste of Riwoo, he won’t be able to live on this Earth anymore with only memories of how it feels to be loved and cared for like that. The universe gave him a chance to fall for Sanghyeok again – he would be a fool to let it slip through his fingers.

“I want to stay there,” he states, looking from the open portal to his dear friend. “I want to get to know him, I want to fall in love with him. Not because he looks and sounds like Sanghyeok-hyung, but because he’s Riwoo.”

“And I’ll support you,” Leehan says, but he avoids eye-contact. Maybe it dawns on him that there’s a high possibility of him never seeing Taesan again. In a few years, they’ll look back to moments shared together and cherish them like they do with Sanghyeok. “Even if a part of me will miss you a lot.”

“I’ll miss you too, Leehanie,” Taesan says, moving closer, resting his head on Leehan’s chest. It smells like flowers that no longer exist on this Earth – it smells like a home that Taesan eventually has to leave behind. “I’m sorry I won’t be able to be the best man in your wedding.”

“Who said you were going to be the best man?” Leehan scoffs, kissing the top of Taesan’s head right next. “Seek your own happiness, Taesan-ah. You’re the only one that can do it for yourself.”

“Thanks, Leehanie.”

Taesan doesn’t make a move, listening to the soothing heartbeat of his precious best friend. He’ll miss Leehan every single day, but he’ll learn to live with that. It’s a matter of time, and despite loving his best friend with all his heart, he knows that when it comes to spending time with him and Riwoo, he’ll choose the latter. Leehan has Sungho, Taesan knows that he’ll be in good hands.

He pulls away and looks at the younger, committing his tired but pretty features to memory. Taesan knows that Leehan exists in 2210 Seoul, with blonde and curly hair and probably a similar personality, but he knows it won’t be his Leehan. It’ll never be the same, but it’s alright. Taesan will get used to not seeing brown hair and hearing long rants about tech stuff that he barely understands.

Changes are inevitable in life – Taesan will learn how to live with this.

“You will always be my best friend in all dimensions, even the ones that we don’t know each other,” he confesses, shifting around until he can wrap his arms around Leehan and hug him as tight as he can. “I love you, Leehan.”

“I love you too, Taesan.” Leehan hugs him back as tight as his human body allows. “I’ll tell the others about your choice.”

“I hope your life with Sungho-hyung will be filled with happiness. And tell Jaehyun-hyung to choose what’s best for him too, he deserves to be happy more than anyone else.” Taesan gets up and stands face to face with Leehan. They share one last handshake like professionals before he pulls the younger into another hug, whispering against his body, “Goodbye, Leehanie.” 

“Don’t lose the chance to have Riwoo,” he says, voice coming out a little watery. “Goodbye, Taesanie.”

And Taesan has no intentions of losing Riwoo anytime soon.

2210 Seoul is by far Taesan’s favorite, but he doesn’t dwell on how much he misses the sun and the blue skies because they’ll become a common occurrence in his life from today on. 

Taesan came back a few hours after bidding farewell to Leehan, wearing his suit and letting the younger mull over the fact that his best creation will be out of reach forever. Taesan reassured him by saying that he’ll take good care of the suit by never using it again – he has no plans of becoming 2210 Spider-Man.

His feet lands on the building rooftop, and he recognizes the place the moment the portal behind him closes and leaves him forever on this Earth. Taesan squints at the lights that color the horizon, suddenly having flashbacks to the first conversation he had with Riwoo on the ledge of that same building, two days after discovering their real identities. He almost believes he’s hallucinating when he sees Riwoo, clad in his Spider-Man suit and maskless, sitting on the ledge while watching the sunset.

Taesan realizes it’s a real sight when Riwoo turns his head back, standing up and leaping at him. Arms wrap around his torso as Riwoo hugs him with strength enough to break his bones – not that he’s complaining, especially when that hug latches him back to reality.

“You’re back,” he says against his chest, voice filled with excitement.

“I told you I’d be back,” Taesan says against the top of his head. The scent of soap and flowers are unknown to him, but he welcomes it. “You gave me the best kiss of my life.”

“You came back just because I kissed you?” Riwoo pulls his head to look back at him, with eyebrows furrowed and a pout on his lips. Taesan feels the urge to kiss him for hours. “Should I be flattered or dejected that you only came back because of my lips?”

“I think flattering would be better,” he suggests, flashing a smile. His heartbeat speeds and Riwoo is the one to put the blame on. He wonders how he can feel so much for Riwoo when he barely knows him. “I missed you.”

A truth, one that cannot be denied or pretended. The whole time he spent away, all Taesan could think about was Riwoo. How he wouldn’t hesitate to leave everything behind the way he did for a chance to see his face again. Taesan has an answer to the question he just made, he knows why he fell so fast for Riwoo. It’s a love at first sight sort of thing – or love at first punch in the face, in their case.

Taesan fell for Sanghyeok at first sight back on his Earth. History repeats itself again. It’s muscle memory for his heart to fall for a face like Riwoo and Sanghyeok’s.

“It’s only been a day at most, you big baby,” he mocks affectionately, arms safely wrapped around Taesan’s middle.

“I’ve missed the other you for years, actually. But it feels like I missed you to the same extent,” Taesan confesses.

“I’ve missed you too,” Riwoo whispers, nuzzling his face into his chest. Taesan wants to kiss him so much, but he holds back. “You’re late today. How much time do we have?”

“There’s no such thing anymore,” he answers, a ghost of a smile creeping on the corner of his lips.

Riwoo pulls away, looking up at him with furrowed eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“I’m staying here,” Taesan explains, letting the smile take over his face. He can’t control it. He spent years without feeling this much happiness flooding his body and mind, he doesn’t want to hold it back even for a second. “That is, if you want me to.”

“Of course I want you to stay! It’s just…” Riwoo stops, looking a little more hesitant.

Taesan can’t take his eyes off him. He never realized until that point how beautiful Riwoo actually is. Small eyelashes, bleached eyebrows, a little mole under his right eye, brown eyes filled with happiness and hesitance, bitten-pink lips that make him look even more attractive. He looks exactly like Sanghyeok, but not the same. Taesan can’t explain, but something in Riwoo makes him different from Sanghyeok. It’s not the different hair-color or bleached eyebrows or even the spider DNA in his body. There’s something different that only Taesan can see, even if he can’t name it.

“What about your world?” Riwoo finally asks.

“This one looks way better,” he shrugs. Any other Earth would be better than the one he comes from, but he doesn’t feel like saying that – he knows that he wouldn’t leave his Earth behind if it wasn’t for Riwoo, no matter how ugly it is. “There’s no sun anymore on my Earth, so I can’t see a beautiful sunset like I do here. Also, I could use a normal life after everything I went through the past years.”

Riwoo tilts his head, still processing the fact that Taesan wants to stay. “What about your friends? Your family?”

“All my friends are aware of my decision to stay here, and I never had a family to begin with.”

“Taesan–”

“Sanghyeok was the only one I had back there,” Taesan says, all the sorrow and pain from the past years spilling from his eyes as he stares at Riwoo. “Now, you’re the only thing I have. I want to be where you are.”

There’s a long pause after those words. Taesan keeps his eyes on Riwoo’s face, watching closely the emotions coursing through it. It’s nerve-wracking, and the prolonged silence only spurs his anxiety. Even if Taesan is sure of his choice to stay by now, he doesn’t know how Riwoo feels about the idea of him staying and loving him. There’s no turning back anyways, and if Riwoo doesn’t want it, Taesan will just move forward on this Earth.

He lets Riwoo have a moment to gather his thoughts – he can’t imagine how overwhelming it must be for him to have someone with the same face of his deceased lover coming to say that he’s staying because he wants to be in the same place as you. Taesan wasn’t even coping well with his feelings until Leehan came to the rescue. He can be a little sympathetic with Riwoo for the lack of quick answers.

“But I’m not Sanghyeok. I…” Riwoo turns his face so Taesan can’t see it. “I can’t be him, Taesan. I can’t love you the same way he did because I’ll never be him.”

His words are a whisper, weak and heartbreaking. Taesan wants to cradle his face and make sure that Riwoo doesn’t doubt himself anymore. He doesn’t want to be loved like Sanghyeok did in the past. He’s no longer on this Earth just because Riwoo shares the same face as the one he lost, he realizes that now. Taesan feels a strong pull towards Riwoo, he wants to fall for him.

A new love, a new beginning. For both of them.

“I’m not asking you to be him or to love me the same way,” Taesan says, hands doing what he wanted. He gently touches Riwoo’s face and turns it back to him. Taesan wants to look at him, wants Riwoo to see all that’s hidden in his eyes. “I want you to be yourself and to like me in your own way. I know you probably don’t feel the same and it’s alright with me, I just–”

“Don’t say that,” Riwoo interrupts, the crease in his forehead deepening. “I feel something for you, I know I do. I can’t give it a name yet, but if you give me time, I’ll find it.”

“I don’t care how long it takes. A week, a month, the whole eternity,” he says, leaning into Riwoo so he can touch their foreheads together. “I will wait for you, Riwoo.”

Taesan will wait a hundred years or more if it means having Riwoo by his side, that’s the only truth he knows in this world.

“It’s ridiculous how much you sound like him,” Riwoo says as an afterthought, chuckling in disbelief.

“I can’t be him, and I’m really sor–”

“Don’t you dare apologize,” he scolds, hands around Taesan’s nape to prevent him from pulling away. “I don’t want you to be Dongmin. I want you to be yourself, and I’ll fall for Han Taesan. I can see myself doing it anyway.”

“You can see the future?” Taesan jokes, unable to mask his smile. He can almost feel how sore his cheeks will be at the end of the day, but he doesn’t mind. This is the first time he’s been smiling so honestly in a very long time.

“With you? Perfectly,” Riwoo says matter-of-factly, not even worrying about the weight those words have in Taesan’s heart.

The desire to kiss Riwoo grows, and Taesan can’t keep it at bay anymore. He leans down and leaves a lingering peck on Riwoo’s soft lips, tasting nothing and everything. It’s a sweet and gentle press of lips, the early stages of a puppy love that doesn’t seem to match them. Taesan doesn’t care how it comes across because it makes his heart soar to the sky, he welcomes the feeling that he thought he’d never feel again. Riwoo has his eyes fluttered shut and a lazy smile on his lips.

Just the idea of being in love and having Riwoo feeling the same is enough to make Taesan forget about any second thought he was holding onto. His hands are open exclusively to hold Riwoo’s hands and body like it belongs to him – and maybe in a few years, it will belong to him.

Taesan is looking forward to it.

“You do know you’ll have a lot of explaining to do to my friends, right?” Riwoo says. They’re coming down from the building, the sun is long gone. Riwoo holds his hands tight, as if scared that Taesan will disappear inside a portal again. “Since you’re dead and all.”

“I could say that I’m his twin brother that came from overseas,” he says, looking at their clasped hands, smiling harder at the sight.

“It took this long for them to know about Dongmin’s mysterious twin brother that didn’t exist before?” Riwoo snorts. “Leehanie won’t fall for that.”

“Would the truth be better?” Taesan thinks for a beat, bringing their joined hands close to his lips, leaving a soft kiss on the back. “Hey, I’m from another dimension and I used to date someone that looks exactly like Riwoo so I decided to stick around because I fell for him once again. How does it sound?”

“Way better than being Dongmin’s twin brother that no one knew about,” he giggles with his eyes closed. “Besides, Leehan is a little nerdy so he’ll probably ask you lots of questions.”

“I’ll gladly answer all of them,” Taesan hums.

He walks without a destination, following Riwoo – like he always did and always will do. Taesan feels safe, wanted, desired. All things that he thought he’d never feel again. It’s exhilarating to have these feelings back in his life, especially with someone like Riwoo. Taesan feels like he’s daydreaming, about to live a new life that he never pictured for himself when Sanghyeok passed away.

“You’re too crazy, you know that?” Riwoo points out as they stop at the front gate of a condo. Taesan doesn’t pay much attention to the place, bewitched by the sight of Riwoo under the moonlight.

“Why?”

“Because you left everything behind to stay here with me,” he replies.

“What’s so difficult about sacrificing stuff for someone I love?” Taesan uses their intertwined hands to pull Riwoo close to him, holding him safely. “There’s no love without sacrifices, don’t you think?”

Riwoo pretends to gag. “You’re a hopeless romantic too, dammit.”

Taesan laughs unabashedly, licking his lips right next. The desire to kiss Riwoo comes back in full force again, and he fears that it’s something that will never soothe down. It’ll become a monster that they will have to fight together, and he has the feeling that Riwoo would be more than satisfied to get his reward by kissing Taesan all the time. Riwoo is the one that ceases the distance between them this time, kissing Taesan without a care that they’re dressed in spider-suits while standing in the entrance of his apartment.

In every other universe, Lee Riwoo falls for Han Dongmin. And in every other universe, Han Taesan falls for Lee Sanghyeok. But in all those universes, it never ends well. 

In this universe, Lee Riwoo falls for Han Taesan, and Han Taesan falls for Lee Riwoo – and it ends well, as it should from the start.