SPIDER-MAN: MARK LEE

27

𝟮𝟳: 𝗔𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝗢𝗙 𝗣𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗘

There was only 6 days left until the nationals for Academic Decathlon, and that meant that us Decathletes had been working hard and constant while Coach Harrington had been sending us pictures of his feet buried in sand in the group chat, which everyone collectively found disturbing. Kiernan suggested to kick him out of the chat, but Liz and Gwen disagreed strongly. So all Decathletes were present in the assembly hall, practicing again. Jeno, Mark, Abraham and Kiernan were on stage to answer practice questions presented by Liz and Gwen. And the others sat at the sidelines to watch.

"Twice the larger of two numbers is three more than five times the smaller, and the sum of four times the larger and three times the smaller is 71. What are the numbers-"

Ding.

Gwen looked up from her paper. "Yes, Mark?"

"14 and 5." Mark said, confident.

A beautiful and wide smile formed on Gwen's red lips. "That is correct~" She announced. "Nice to see that you've been consistent with your studies, Mark." Gwen winked before focusing back on the paper she held.

Mark, proud at himself, swiftly looked at the audience to meet his eyes with mine. He smiled brightly, as though a child after a performance, looking for their parents' approval.

"Gwark. How adorable, right?" I wasn't able to return a smile to Mark, when I heard Cindy whispering to me.

Confused, I knitted my brows together and glanced at the Asian girl. "Gwhat?"

"Gwark. Gwen plus Mark." Cindy simply explained. "Surprised you haven't noticed considering you're close with Mark. Everyone here notices something between those two. Haven't you?"

My eye twitched. I could feel my blood boiling a bit. Oh, so they did notice that Mark and I were close but didn't view us the same way they viewed him and Gwen? I hated myself for feeling this way. Why be mad at two people finally acknowledging each other? Especially when the girl was nothing but a sweetheart. With a small heave, I pretended to act dumb and shook my head.

Cindy, surprised by my response, augmented her eyes a bit before further explaining. It was an elaboration I actually didn't wish to know, but here she was telling me about it. "Gwen said they've been studying a lot for the nationals. She even said she left Chenle's party with him, and you know, that only means one thing."

"What? Are you serious?"

"I mean, Gwen claimed they left together after he tucked you to bed or whatnot which I first doubted because I never saw Mark leave Chenle's room. Anyways, but of course we let our imaginations go wild to conclude what happened to them afterwards. Could be that they just lounged at each others place, or could be the other... Who knows?"

"Well, did you ask Gwen?"

"No, she just tends to smile suggestively when we question her about it."

Hell no. Mark Lee, the one who was afraid to commit himself to pursue Gwen Stacy, just randomly decided to screw her after a party, completely sober? There was no way. Them lounging at each others place was believable, but the other, not too much.

"Cindy, you're up." Liz called out with her head rotated towards our direction. "Mark wants a break, his brain is all fried up for answering all those 10 questions in a row."

Cindy obliged to Liz and happily walked up to the stage. Meanwhile, I could see Mark from my peripheral view, trudging towards the table I sat by. "Ohh brilliant." With a nervous sigh, I cupped my cheek and kept my focus on the book I had in front of me before pretending to read and flip through the pages.

Mark sat next to me, and almost mockingly, he cupped his cheek to copy my position, but the only difference was that he stared into my soul with a warm smile. "Sooooo... What's good?" He suddenly blurted out before scooting closer.

I had to act. With a feigned smile, I looked up at him briskly before returning my gaze back at the book. "Bit stressful with all these studying, but I hope it pays off." I muffled a small laugh before proceeding to read.

"Is there something wrong, Juli?"

I blinked rapidly, my body stiffening. "No. Nothing's wrong. Why?"

"Because your book is upside down." Mark said. He reached out to the book I had and slowly rotated it so it was the right direction. He inspected my rosy cheeks and tilted his head curiously. "Did I do something?"

I wasn't too good at concealing, was I? Either way, I still tried to hide it. I couldn't just tell him: Oh yeah, it's because you're finally able to muster your confidence and make a move on your crush! You blind dumbass, you should've paid attention to me, aka the one who's liked you ever since. That sounded dumb. Like really dumb. And selfish. And rude. And childish.

"What? No, don't be silly Mark. It's just this entire nationals thing makes me feel a bit tensed."

"Is it because I ditched you at the party?"

"No."

"Well then, do you wanna study together tomorrow? My place, or yours, you choose."

"I promised to help Naomi with her English essay tomorrow, so I can't unfortunately."

"What about the day after?"

"Donghyuck. I have to help his stupid ass with Maths and Chemistry."

"Okay... What about the next day?"

"I have to spend... quality time with my brother and dad."

"Oh..." Mark scratched the back of his nape. "Well, could you just update me when you can, you know before next week? So we can study one last time together."

"Of course~" I said with a small smile.

Wasn't it better to slowly grow distance between somebody you like, whom was currently pursuing somebody that isn't you? It was a different type of pain. I've experienced that. I've experienced talking to Donghyuck and asking him the updates about Mark and his crush on Gwen. That was painful. But now, I could potentially hear it from Mark Lee personally. That would hurt, right?

Was it okay to be selfish for once, and decide on choosing what was best for yourself?