"Chapter four"
Liz's home has always been nice, a whole lot nicer than her parents' home anyway. Min-Ji is standing on the front porch awkwardly with her arms crossed, wearing a pink turtle neck sweater, and beige skirt. She just rang the doorbell, hoping around to keep warm from the cold air, and secretly hopes that it is not one of Liz's parents who answer the door. And much to relief, Liz apears through the doorway when she answers the bell, and there is no red glow surrounding her.
"Hi, Minnie," Liz greets her with a bright smile, and a signature bear hug that nearly sends them both tripping and falling down the stairs. "MJ's not with you?"
"She doesn't like arriving early, too awkward for her," Min-Ji replies, returning the smile. Liz nods in understanding with a quiet "Ah" as she opens the door wider to let her through.
"Well, come on in! You're a bit early!" Liz gestures towards the inside of the house, and Min-Ji gratefully steps inside.
It isn't the first time she's ever been in Liz's house. She'd once been invited back in freshman year, and the living room is still the same as she remembered it being. She remembers their group of mutual friends sitting on that couch, gossping about the latest fashion and which boys were the cutest. She and Michelle were not fond of parties, so when Michelle agreed to go, she'd been fairly surprised, even more surprised at herself for even wanting to go with her because they have never assoisated themselves with being popular.
"You can help yourself to the snacks if you want," Liz says politely.
Min-Ji glances over to the long table at the corner of the living room, that's filled with all sorts of chips and dip, and a glass bowl that's most likely filled with fruit punch. She's not sure if she's even hungry at the moment, and she'd always felt awkward for eating other people's snacks when visiting.
"You might as well get some punch before Flash fills it up with alchohol."
"Why'd you really invite me?" Min-ji asks after filling her cup with punch.
"Can't I just chat with an old friend?" Liz asks, smiling. Min-Ji raises her brow, and Liz's smile falters lightly as she sighs. "I saw you talking to Peter Parker the other day."
Peter Parker. This the same Peter Parker that sat in the back of their science class? The same one her best friend and brother may or may have not had a crush on in the past? Seriously what is the big deal with him? He is not that impressive. Besides the whole red glow and a weird encounter that may or may not have happened, he doesn't even seem remotely interesting.
"Peter Parker?" Min-Ji asks with hesitance, and maybe a little annoyed. Liz nods, and sheepishly rubs the back of her curls, now shy as she pats the seat next to her, and Min-ji sits beside her. "I didn't even know you were interested in him."
"Not at first," Liz admits, "but he joined the debate team recently, and he's really intelligent, and I have this weird feeling that he might have a crush on me."
Liz isn't wrong. She's also seen the way Peter stares at her like a puppy.
"He's a bit boring," Min-Ji says bluntly. "And I'm pretty sure that he likes Star Wars or Star Treck. One of those popular franchises that causes debates on the internet."
"That doesn't seem so bad so far," Liz hesitates. "and there's a lot of stuff that causes debates on the internet, have you seen those youtube comments?"
"Fair enough," Min-Ji agrees. "All I'm saying is that I don't know him that well enough to be considered friends. You should talk to that friend he always hangs out with. The cute one that wears the fedora sometimes."
"Oh, the cute one, huh?" Liz teases her with a gentle nudge, and Min-Ji can feel her own face warm up in embarrassment. After laughing at her expense, Liz quiets as she stares off into space, probably having one of those flashbacks or in deep thought. "Weren't you two friends in middle school?"
Min-Ji frowns as she too tries to remember. She's blocked off most of her childhood memories, everything after she shattered her leg. She vaguely remembers him watching her and her dance team for a pep rally one day with those nerdy glasses of hiis, but that's about it, and her brother always sitting next to him. Now that she thinks about it, she doesn't even remember why they stopped being friends, and when Min-Jun started getting fixated on Flash (she still doesn't understand what her brother sees in him.)
The doorbell rings, interrupting their quiet reminiscing, and Liz answers enthustiastically as more groups of people shows up. People that she's seen in their classes, and always hung around Liz, but she's never spoken too herself. Min-Ji manages to greet them back when they say hi to her, but she's still lost in those memories since Liz has mentioned them. As more and more people show up, Min-Ji greets her brother when he appears with Flash, who starts up the loud music by the turntables. Min-Ji is starting to lose hope in her friend ever showing up, as it was getting darker and darker outside, and the living room is at full capacity. She's starting to get a bit of a headache, and had said to Liz that she was going to go to the pool in the backyard to cool off from the body heat.
"Hi, Min-Ji!" Peter's shy voice greets her, much to her relief. His bright face is a pleasure to see amongst the crowd of fake people. His best friend, she can't remember his name, is staring between the two of them with suspicion.
And now, ever since meeting Peter Parker, she couldn't seem to stay away from him. Or something always seemed to bring them together.
It was her idea to join the party, so she really couldn't complain.
"Hi," Min-Ji smiles at them both. She clears her throat awkwardly, gesturing over to his best friend, and Peter quickly catches on.
"Oh, right, right, Ned this is Min-Ji, Min-Ji this is Ned," Peter introduces them.
"Hi," Ned says, smiling.
"Hi," Min-Ji repeats herself. Now Peter is glancing between them both with a small, knowing smile, which she catches and glares at him. "I can't believe you both are here."
"You saw us get invited," Ned says slowly. "Liz invited us."
"Right, right," she says, and her cheeks are heating up again.
Flash's loud voice fills the room over the crowd, introducing the next song. His music choices were surprisingly good, ranging from K-Pop (she wonders if Min-Jun had any influence over that descision) and whatever was the newest popular artist that people couldn't stop raving over, like Arianna Grande, or Billie Elish.
Her mind, however, isn't on the music or the fact that she's standing in the same room as Ned or Peter. The red glow she'd seen around Peter is back, filling her ears with a loud hum, and it isn't just on him, it is also on her brother, and Flash, and a few others.
"Are you okay?" Peter's calm, unsure voice distracts her from her mild panic. Min-Ji turns towards him, and somehow, just seeing his brown eyes is enough to calm her down.
"Yeah," she answers, and from the concerned frown he gives her, she's certain he didn't believe her. "just a little lightheaded is all."
"Are you sure?" He prompts.
"I'm fine," she stresses, "you know, I'm getting tired of you asking that."
"Sorry, sorry," he says meekly.
"It's fine," Min-Ji dismisses the apology.
"How do you two know each other anyway?" Ned interrupts the awkward conversation, startling both her and Peter. She had nearly forgotten he was still standing there with them, and she catches onto the knowing smile on his face as well. They started talking at the same time, describing how they'd met, and the smile on Ned's face only grew.
"I kinda bumped into her in the hallway," Peter asks once she quiets down.
"Does she know?" Ned whisper stages over to him, but it's still loud enough for her to hear.
"No," Peter snaps, giving him a pointed look as to cut the conversation short. And whatever was quietly, telepathically thought between the two best friends, Ned begins to laugh sheepishly. Now she's the one raising an eyebrow at their strange behavior. Maybe Michelle's theories about him were right.
"Is there something I should know about?" Min-Ji asks in the same manner that Ned spoke with her earlier, and both boys shouted "no" and shook their heads at her, only adding on to her suspicion, and she isn't sure she wants to know if it was some sort of guy thing.
"No, not at all," Peter drawls out.
"I can't believe that you three are at this lame party," Michelle interrupts them, and the odd trio glance over towards her, finding her at the snack table, wiping her hands from eating salty chips.
"You're here too," Ned says slowly.
"Am I?" Michelle asks so mysteriously that it catches Ned off guard, and finding himself questioning everything he believed in as she disappears into the crowd. Min-Ji laughs quietly at his calculative stare as if he's figuring something out, or having an ephiphany.
"I'm gonna go," Min-Ji points over towards her own best friend.
"Right, right," Peter says in understanding.
Min-Ji says bye to the two of them, and follows after her friend, who's in the middle of the crowd, listening to the music on the turntables.
"Hey, thought you weren't going to show!" Min-Ji shouts over to her friend, who's startled and glances over at her.
"I never arrive early to parties, Min-Ji," Michelle shouts to her, and Min-Ji laughs.
"Heads up, I think you've got competition," Min-Ji says, and Michelle only gives her a look of confusion, until Min-Ji gestures with her head over to Liz who's standing with Betty, and Min-Jun. Michelle raises her brow. "I think Liz likes Peter."
"I don't like Parker," Michelle denies.
"Right," Min-Ji says skeptic.
"Don't drink any of the punch, by the way," Michelle changes the subject. "I saw Flash and your brother spike it earlier."
"Remind me to scold him for that later," Min-Ji sighs, her headache already getting worser.
"If you need to go outside, Liz unlocked the backyard so everyone can have pool access," Michelle frowns, and Min-Ji is forced to look away from her friend's observant glare. But ... she's right, the warm air and red glows were making her lightheaded again.
"Think I'll take you up on that offer," Min-Ji agrees, and gives her a one-sided hug, and laughs a bit when Michelle tenses up, and pats her back, before she lets go and heads for the backyard, opening up the sliding doors. Cool air hits her face, and she instantly sighs with relief. There were people outside, swimming around in their clothes, and a few couples kissing. She scrunches her nose in distaste. To her surprise, Peter also makes his way to the backyard, and jumps on the fence with terrifying ease, like he's done it plenty of times. Min-Ji raises her brows. Him standing up on the fence gave her a bad feeling, and she moves in towards him to make sure he doesn't fall off or hurt himself.
And what she finds instead is Spiderman with his back towards her and mask off.
