예쁘게 눌러 쓴 글씨는
친구 이상을 분명히 말하잖아
my effort to write in pretty letters
clearly tells you that I think of you
as more than a friend
- lovelyz
The weeks after the dinner at Peter's place really had a tangible shift. As nerve-wracking as that day was, the conclusion of it left him feeling lighter than he had for months. He ended up cutting back on his patrols considerably, much to the relief of all the adults in his life. May had even told him that she was actually on the verge of staging an intervention, and if he hadn't decided to make the change himself, he probably would have found himself locked in his room at some point.
He just felt more calm, and the quiet of the city didn't leave him quite as restless as it once did.
Immediately following that conversation with Emmy, he imagined that she might be appearing in his life more often, but that didn't really happen. They still would see each other in passing around the apartment building, though that was the extent of their interactions. It was almost like he'd just dreamt up the whole encounter.
It wasn't until three weeks later that they finally, really saw each other again. After a successful decathlon competition that his team had even missed half the school day for for, some of them were heading out to a boba shop that Cindy had found on Instagram to chill. In typical Flash fashion, he spent the entire trip over goading Peter on.
He was able to block most of it out by putting earbuds in. Even though they were actually just walking the distance from the subway, he trusted his enhanced senses to keep him alert (and he'd honestly rather walk into a pole than listen to Flash). But eventually, Flash realized no one was listening to him and pulled one of the buds out of his ear. "Hey Penis Parker! You're still at that Stark internship right?"
"Yes, Flash, I am." He grumbled as he snatched the earbud back.
"Not that I believe you," Flash sent him a look that was more than likely meant to look smug, but really just looked constipated. "But if that's true, then why are you still boring? You've been there for so long, shouldn't you be rich and surrounded by girls or something by now?"
Peter gave him a blank stare. "It's an internship. I work. In a lab."
Not acknowledging his statement, Flash continued on. "I don't think you even know any girls outside of aca-dec. If I had that internship, I'd be dating a model by now. Or the Black Widow."
"Who do you think you are, Flash? Young Leo DiCaprio?" Cindy gave him an incredulous look. "Anyway, if you had that internship, they'd fire you after an hour."
"They wouldn't even hire him." Ned chirped in.
"I'm pretty sure they would just throw his application straight into the trash." MJ deadpanned, not lifting her gaze from the book she was reading.
Abe laughed, "It probably wouldn't even reach them because his email would be flagged as spam!"
This time, Flash wasn't so unaffected, his face turning visibly red, but he kept talking like he hadn't heard any of it. As they entered the shop, he taunted, "I bet Penis Parker can't even talk to girls." He said this loud enough that some of the other patrons actually looked over for a second.
Cindy was embarrassed at the sudden attention given to their group. "Can't you just learn how to shut up?"
"I'll shut up," He started, looking around the shop, before settling his gaze on a group in the corner. "If he talks to one of those girls over there!"
Peter closed his eyes and clenched his fists, trying to hold back his irritation, while the other aca-dec members turned to follow Flash's line of sight. He only opened his eyes when he heard Ned trying to stifle down a snort. Ned's was practically buzzing with excitement as he made eye-contact with Peter, and gestured for him to look behind him. What could he possibly find amusing about this situa— Oh!
Sitting in one of the comfy armchairs, and staring quite intently at a laptop, was Emmy. She was surrounded by a few of her other friends that, judging by the pile of stuff along the side of the coffee table in the middle of their chairs, were in the band with her. There was a lot of space in the area where they were sitting, the five of them only taking three of the six chairs.
Peter didn't know most of them, only recognizing Emmy's best friend, Lily, who was seated next to her and also boring a hole into the laptop with her stare. All of them were distracted and not really talking to each other, though the other members of their party seemed to be occasionally trash talking each other while playing a game on some handheld console. Those three were squished onto one chair, with only one of them actually on the seat of a chair, while the other two were perched on the arms.
"So what Parker?" Flash just never stops, does he? "Are you worried you're going to show off how much of a loser you are?"
Shooting him a glare, Peter steeled his resolve and started to make his way towards Emmy's group. His first step started off fairly confident, but it felt like every ounce of courage was being leeched out of him with the the subsequent ones. Why am I doing this? I don't actually need to prove anything to him? And what if I'm just going to be bothering Emmy? It's not like she came here to be used for something like this…
Before he could sink further into his doubts, Emmy looked up and made eye-contact with him, and he could swear her eyes were almost twinkling. He was only a few feet away from her when she quirked her lips into a small smile, and then pushed herself out of her chair.
Emmy beamed at him. "Peter!" He didn't even have time to ponder her intentions before she set into motion. If he wasn't Spider-Man, he probably would have staggered backwards at the force with which she flew at him, flinging her arms around his neck. He caught her and circled his arms around her waist reflexively, since he practically had to hold her up. The difference in their height was significant enough that she was on her toes. If I was just a little bit taller, she'd probably be hovering off the floor.
"Your friend sounds lovely, Peter." She whispered into his ear. Ah, so she'd heard all of that…
He murmured back, "Not my friend," before letting go of her. She unwound her arms from around him, and settled back down, rocking on her feet. Emmy sent him another small smile while grabbing his wrist and pulling him towards the empty seat next to her.
"Hey Peter," Lily greeted with a wave, from Emmy's other side. "Haven't seen ya in a while."
"Hey." Peter returned, with an awkward smile.
"Ned! Why don't you guys come over here?" Emmy called out, beckoning the rest of his group over with her hands. Peter glanced at them, and was pleased to see Flash looking torn between feeling embarrassed and furious.
"Sure thing Em, we'll just get our drinks first." Ned said, giving her a thumbs up. Peter was about to stand up, but Ned waved him off. "It's fine Peter, you can stay there, I know what you want. Plus I owe you for that coffee last week anyway."
"Oh, thanks Ned." This time, the thumbs up was directed at him. Peter looked back towards Emmy. "So what are you guys doing here?"
She and Lily had turned their attentions back to the laptop in front of them, which was displaying what looked to be a figure skating stream on a Russian website. As the skate came to an end, both of them looked at him and Emmy replied. "Hmm? Ah, well we got out of band practice early today, so we were supposed to study for our upcoming Calculus exam next week."
Peter raised his eyebrow at them, and gestured at the laptop in front of them. "Studying… for Calculus?"
Lily laughed and Emmy gave a sheepish smile. "I said supposed to, not that we were. We got distracted."
"I can see that," Peter chuckled. As the next skater was taking the ice, Lily angled the laptop so Peter could watch as well. "I guess you two are still into figure skating? I remember you guys falling in Emmy's living room trying to do the spins on the hardwood." Wow, it's been years since then.
Lily grimaced, "God, I remember that. I had bruises forever afterwards."
"I know, me too! And the downstairs neighbors even came up to ask if we were okay," Emmy giggled, though her face was turning red. "That was so embarrassing."
All three of them had soft smiles at the memories that had come up, but quieted as the skater started their program. They didn't speak for the next four minutes, the only sounds being made were the anxious squeals whenever the skater jumped. By the time the program had ended, Ned and the others in the decathlon team were already standing next to them, with Ned handing Peter his drink.
"Thanks Ned!"
"Why don't you all sit? We can pull over some more chairs!" Emmy said. They all bustled around, trying to make enough room for everyone to sit. "Oh, I totally forgot, let me introduce you all!"
As everyone settled into their seats and introduced themselves, Peter shuffled around uncomfortably by his previous seat, which he'd given up for Cindy and MJ to share. Ned and Abe has taken the seats near the other three in Emmy's group, and were excitedly watching them play their game— Smash, of course— which they'd propped up on the table so everyone could see. Flash had managed to pull another seat by them, and was just irritatedly scrolling on his phone. There were no other open seats or tables in the shop since it was already around dinner time, and they were especially busy since it was a Friday. Maybe I'll just go over to Ned.
Peter started to move, but before he could even take one step, Emmy piped out, "Peter, why don't you sit?" as she scooted over as much as she could in her chair. The chair was fairly large, MJ and Cindy were both sitting on the actual seat of their own chair and still managed to have some space. Emmy grabbed his wrist and pulled him down next to her.
They, however, did not have it as easy as MJ and Cindy. They had to wiggle around a bit, before realizing that they'd have to angle themselves since both their hips were just not fitting on the chair. They ended up with Peter sitting pretty normally, but Emmy was almost leaning on him so she could sit comfortably.
During the commotion, Lily had taken the laptop and was browsing on her own, so Emmy just shifted her attention to Peter. "I never asked, what are you guys doing here?"
"We're just celebrating." Peter shrugged. "We won our decathlon competition."
"Oh, what kind of questions did you get?"
"I got the final question, it was proving a physics formula," he sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "I got it right."
"Really?" Emmy nudged him with her shoulder. "How awesome! Look at you utilizing your nerd powers!"
"Nerd powers?" Peter scoffed playfully. "It's called intellect. And you're saying all this like you're not a nerd yourself."
Emmy snickered. "They are nerd powers, how else would you know the proof of a formula off the top of your head?" She shook her head. "Powers I tell you! And I may be a nerd, but I don't go to a fancy-schmancy school like you do," she sighed dramatically, "so, alas! My powers were never allowed to come into fruition!"
Shaking his own head with a fond smile, Peter laughed. "You're so lame, Em."
"I'm wonderful, thank you very much!" Emmy replied, as they both smiled at each other. They talked for a while after that, and eventually got sucked into a debate with Cindy about how they thought Game of Thrones was going to end, with MJ chipping in a few of her own opinions every now and then.
As if he had his own version of Spidey Senses—Flash Senses, if you will, which alert him of people that are not him talking, and being praised and liked—Flash let out an obviously fake, loud cough to bring attention to himself. "So how long have you two known each other Pen-Peter?"
Emmy could feel Peter tense at Flash's words, so she replied in his stead. "For a long time." She quirked her brow at him, and put on an uninterested stare. "Why?"
"No reason, really. I just want to know how long Peter has been pretending to be cool around you. Or how long you've been pretending to be his friend."
Peter shut his eyes and let out a shaky breath. "Leave her a—" "You're such a douchebag!" Peter's eyes shot open at Emmy's words, turning to look at her so fast he could have gotten whiplash.
"Wh-why do you say that?" Flash sputtered, not quite used to the confrontation rather than the normal ignorance given to his statements. "I didn't mean anything by what I said, I just wanted to know."
"W- why?" Emmy laughed in disbelief. "You act like a dick, and you can't even own up to it? You've been terrible to Peter since the moment you walked in here, probably before then too! I'm not sure why he just takes it, but I sure as hell won't. I don't like you. If I could, I'd KonMari you because you don't spark joy."
MJ and Cindy laughed, while Lily cackled at the end of her rant. "God, Em, you're so lame."
Emmy smiled at her. "Love you too!"
Flash looked broken at this point, not really processing the fact that someone that he didn't even know stood up to him and for Peter Parker. Peter himself, didn't know how to react to the turn of events.
Emmy could see that the cogs in Flash's head were slowly starting to turn again, and not wanting to deal with him anymore, before he could even get a word out, she was on her feet pulling Peter up by his hands. They were almost uncomfortably close as she looked up at him with a determined gaze.
"Walk me home Peter."
Peter gave her a questioning expression, before looking at the group around them. All the people that were playing Smash had gone back to doing just that, and MJ had also gone back to reading her book. Lily looked amused, and Cindy had her head tilted looking at him. What sealed the deal, however, was how destroyed Flash looked at the situation. He seemed like his world had been flipped and thrown into a garbage can.
Peter glanced back at Emmy with a smile. "Sure."
They gathered all their stuff, and put their coats on. Peter picked up Emmy's instrument case, and she gave him a grateful look. As they were making sure they had everything, Peter could hear Flash squeak out "He's taking her home?!" and Ned reply "They're neighbors you loser!"
She bounded back towards Lily, and gave her a hug, and then said bye to her group of friends. "Bye guys, I'll see you on Monday!" She waved towards the decathlon members, "And it was nice meeting you all!" When her gaze passed over Flash, she schooled her face into a blank expression and said "Not you." before stepping a little further away from the chairs.
Peter gave an awkward wave to the group, still a little in a daze at the situation. "Ah, bye guys. It was nice meeting you." He glanced at Ned. "And I'll see you tomorrow Ned, just text me when you're on your way."
"Will do!" Ned said with a grin.
Feeling a hand grasp his own, Peter turned in time to see Emmy tugging his hand and pulling him to the door. "Come on Peter, let's go! The bakery might still have some cookies."
Peter laughed and allowed himself to be dragged out. "Alright, let's go."
They got off the subway one stop earlier than the one they usually took to get home so they could pass by the bakery and take a look at what they still had in stock. Luckily for Emmy, a few of the cookies that she wanted were still there. Since the bakery was about to close when they got there, she bought everything that was left. Peter also cleared out a huge amount of the pastries. Like an almost obscene amount.
When they got out of the store, she asked him, "Can you really eat all that?"
Peter just replied, "Spider."
"Ah."
And they continued walking towards their apartment building. She was moving a little slowly because of the harsh, cold wind that was going against them, and he was keeping pace with her. They were basically alone on the street since it was so chilly, and it was already well into the evening.
"Hey Peter," she started, "Sorry if I came on a little strong earlier."
"It's good." He paused, "Thanks for standing up for me. I honestly got surprised at how worked up you got."
They were still quite a ways away from their building, but she stopped walking, getting him to stop as well and look at her.
"I couldn't just watch someone talk to you like that!" Emmy huffed, "I don't understand why you didn't stop him yourself. Why would you let him treat you like that?"
Peter looked down at his feet. "I don't really know. I guess it just doesn't seem as important compared to the other things going on in my life."
Emmy walked up right next to him and hooked her arm around his free arm, which wasn't holding her instrument case and his food, forcing him to shift his gaze from the ground to her. "Peter Parker! I know that the other things about the other person in your life are really important, and that you might think they're your only priorities. But just Peter Parker is important too." She bumped him with her hip. "You're important too, Peter, you gotta remember that."
He was quiet for a few seconds, not really knowing how to respond. He ended up mustering up a soft smile. "Thanks, Emmy, I'll try to remember that…"
"You better!" She grinned, her dimple coming out in full force. "Now, let's get home! It's super cold." She tugged on his arm.
"Haha, alright!" Once again, Peter let himself be pulled along by her. "By the way, I wanted to ask you…"
"Yeah?"
"Why didn't you get scared when I showed up in your room that night?"
"Oh," Emmy laughed. "I was terrified! But I could kind of make you out even without my glasses, your clothes are very prominent."
"But even if you knew it was… me, " he pushed. "It still could have been a stranger."
"Welllllll," Emmy drawled. "Thing is, I kind of already knew that that was you . Or suspected at least."
Peter looked at her, startled. "You did? How?!"
She started skipping, dragging him. "Your voice!" She chirped.
"You're just messing with me, aren't you?" He pulled away from her.
"No! I'm telling you, your voice is so distinct." At the end of the her statement, her voice twisted into a exaggerated impersonation of his.
"I don't sound like that!"
"Yeah, you do!" Emmy giggled, approaching him and grabbing his hand with her ridiculously cold one. "Now, let's hurry! I'm not kidding, I'm so cold right now."
"I can tell, your hand feels like ice." Peter chuckled, as they quickened their pace. "Hey, Em?"
"Mm?"
"It's been nice talking to you again. We should hang out more often."
"I'd love that Peter!" She beamed. "But first, let's get home. Or all that's left of me will be a block of ice."
a/n: lost n found (찾아가세요) by lovelyz is what I listened to while writing this chapter
I meant to post this a while ago since it's already up on ao3, but it kept slipping my mind! thanks for the reviews, follows and favorites~ I'll keep on writing when I can! (: Please let me know what you think about the story so far as well!