It's just her luck, really, that she would get a cold right after meeting that Peter Parker.
The timing of it just made her even more suspicious, and she's starting to think that maybe, just maybe, Michelle's theories about him were correct. Childishly, there is some part of her that thought the theory of boys having cooties had some truth to it, and Min-Jun has proven that theory multiple times when they were growing up, especially since she and her brother have the tendency to share colds.
Min-Ji's stuck in her bed with a pounding headache, and covers over her head of the clanking metal going on in her brother's room across the hall. She can't complain because Min-Jun would occasionally stop by to check up on her in worry, giving her chicken noodle soup and room temperature water.
In reality, she couldn't get that meeting out of her head. She couldn't figure out what she's seen. Images of that battle are flashing through her mind, almost like a call for help. Min-ji tries to lift her head up, to get out of bed, but a wave of dizziness stops her, and she loses her footing and falls to her side on the floor.
"Min-Jun!"
She doesn't hear her brother's voice right away, but she does hear the clanking in the other room stop as soon as she calls for him. She can see his outline, a red glow appear out of nowhere surrounding him. She calls out for him again, and this time she sees his shadow shuffle out of his room, and a door opens. Min-Jun calls out for her in a calm voice, but she can somehow sense his panic as he approaches her room and finds her on the floor, curled up.
At the same time Min-Jun calls for their parents and picks her up from the floor, Min-Ji sees a vision of Peter Parker falling out of bed in the same panic that she'd been in. He's searching around the room, as if he were looking for something attacking him. His arms are raised, and have goosebumps all over them. He has a strange, flickering, red glow around his body.
Peter lowers his arms and stares right at her. Can he actually see her? Min-Ji opens her mouth to call out to him, and he does the same movement as her like he's about to call her out her name, but a dizzy spell overcomers her before she says anything and she shuts her eyes. She opens them back up again to find Peter gone, like it never happened or it might have been her imagination. But, somehow, someway, she knew that it did. Her parents are standing where Peter was, both of them talking in a rush.
The next thing she knows the harsh movement is back, and her family is already out of the house, rushing to the blue mini-van parked in the driveway, still arguing over each other. Her brother carefully places her on the backseat, and the last thing she sees before passing out is him holding on to her tensely, and the red glow around him.
She's staring at herself. Her hair is shorter, but she's standing with a group of people in some sort of futuristic spaceship. It's dark, but glowing neon green and blue around her as lights flashed from the control panels. She glances around at the aliens, turns back, and sees Spiderman being held at gun point by a human man wearing a gas mask around his head. Spiderman arms raised in surrender, crying out in panic for them not to kill them.
Min-Ji's worn out, tense, and has her arms folded across her chest, wearing some sort of black suit she never pictured herself wearing. They were standing near a lake, watching a pretty, redheaded woman place amemorial on the water. It's a strange crowd, full of creatures, and aliens alike. She's near the back, near a log home, and standing with Peter who's brown eyes are puffy, and tinted red from crying. She doesn't say anything. She merely places her hand on his shoulder, and he tenses at the touch, but doesn't move away. It's all she can offer.
They weren't at home in New York. They were on a bridge, suspended in the air, with boats being wiped out by giant waves caused by the dozens of drones flying around them. Spiderman is throwing web slingers on the drones flying around the bridge, swinging, and she's following him. She's calling for Spiderman, warning him. A man with a weird crystal ball covering his head, wearing gold plated armor, and a red cape fights Spiderman, and Spiderman's distracted by her call, giving him an advantage. The man in gold armor turns towards her, as do a few drones. All she can see is a sudden flash of bright light aimed at her.
She's falling. Spiderman screams out her name in panic. She hits the water.
The waters are calm once more.
Min-Ji's eyes flutter open. She winces at the bright, florescent lighting and has to shut them again as they adjust to the room. She's lying in a hospital bed, with an IV stuck to her arm. The beeping of the heart monitors are loud in her ears, and so is the talking nearby, although a bit muffled by the door. She raises her hand slightly, and sees a red glow. The same glow that had been around her brother and Peter. She tilts her head to get a better glimpse of it. Her parents are sleeping on a few white chairs on her left side with their heads on each other's shoulders, a rare sight she never thought she'd see, and Min-Jun is on her right with his arms and legs crossed and his head pressed against the white walls. Why were hospitals so bright?
The most frustrating thing about waking up, she could never remember what she'd been dreaming about, but she knows the images were still there fresh in her mind. It's not the first time she's ever been in a hospital, unfortunately. Hospitals shouldn't feel familiar to her.
"Hey, sis," Min-Jun's voice startles her, and she tilts her head to look over at him. He smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes. The smile looks wrong on his face.
She smiles at him, mostly to reassure him that she's fine.
"Hey, bro," she says hoarsely.
Min-Jun nods at her, gets up, and shakes their mother awake, calling softly to her.
"Min-Ji," her mother breathes, tears in her eyes. She rarely sees her mother cry. Her mother smacks their father repeatedly until he's wide awake and sitting straight, fumbling for his square glasses that had fallen off his face.
Her parents, especially her mother were talking to them both fast in Korean, and she could only make out few words like "grounded, Park Min-Jun!" and hearing that, she throws a smug grin at Min-Jun's way, who catches it and merely rolls his eyes. Min-Ji offers her hand, and Min-Jun reluctantly digs into his pocket to grab some money for her. Unfortunately, this interaction grabs their mother's attention and she finds herself also grounded for two weeks, which is completely unfair as she is the one who'd gotten sick out of nowhere.
After a couple of checkups with the doctor, and her vigorously saying that she was fine multiple times even though she still had a pounding headache and still sees red glows around certain people in the hospital around them. Thankfully, several hours later, she's out of the godforsaken hospital, and away from the sick people crowding around them trying to get their annual checkups. It's quiet and stuffy the entire car ride home, as it usually was between them. Min-Ji and Min-Jun usually never rode in the car with their parents unless for special occasions like trips to the hospital. And as soon as they were home, everyone quietly goes off their separate ways, though a little hesitant at first, she notices.
"You okay?" Min-Jun asks softly after entering her room, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. She's starting to really hate the phrase after hearing it so many times at the doctor's office.
"Fine," she sighs heavily.
"Minnie," Min-Jun stresses in a singsong voice. "You were in the hospital for a few days."
That she didn't know. Min-Ji frowns, and sets down the Time magazine she'd been mindlessly skimming through. A Few days? No wonder she'd been so exhausted.
"What the hell's going on, Minnie? I felt the pain you were in."
Sometimes being a twin is both a blessing and a curse. Min-Ji presses her lips in a thin line as she thinks of what to say. She honestly has no idea what to tell him. She couldn't figure out what was going on with her herself.
"You know I hate when that nickname, Min," she dodges his question.
"Minnie," he mocks.
"I'll tell you when I figure it out," Min-Ji says, and she can tell that he didn't like the reply by the way his face scrunches up.
Min-Jun sighs heavily, and gets up to leave, but hesitates. He turns back towards her.
"You know I'm always here right?" Min-Jun asks.
Min-Ji smiles genuinely for the first time they'd been home.
"Get out of here, little bro," Min-Ji tells him fondly, tossing one of her pink satin pillows at his head.
"I'm only younger by five minutes!" Min-Jun peaks his head through the door to argue with her and then shuts it.
"I'm still older and you're still grounded!"
"Go to hell, Minnie!"
Min-Ji's laugh dies down as she hears her brother's door slam, and she's staring at the spot in her room where she swears she's seen Peter standing before they'd gone to the hospital. She hesitates, before getting up from her bed slowly, and walking towards the spot, and places her hand against her fluffy white rug she'd placed in the middle of her room. The image of his soft brown eyes staring at her is still fresh in her mind, and goosebumps prick her arms, and she finds herself stumbling away from the sudden flash of heat.
No. There's no way that moment between the two of them had been real. She's imagining things. With that, she goes back to her bed, now fully exhausted from her own mind. Not real. And yet, despite her brushing it off, something deep down inside her keeps telling her that it really was real.
And that scared her the most.
~*~
Done4evrr - Thank you so much for your review! I'm so glad you're enjoying it so far!
There's many more Min-Ji and Peter interactions to come!
~*~
