Self Esteem || Peter Parker

4

"Why do you keep on staring at Parker?" Minjoon jolted as a voice disturbed him from his thoughts. He turned his head to see a tall girl with a mane of curls standing nearby. She was one of the returned, he knew. But he was still learning all the names of the students who had disappeared before only to return and join his class. She was vaguely familiar. Maybe she was apart of the decathlon team? He recalled walking past a meeting of theirs out of the vague interest that Peter was apparently apart of the team.

"Who are you?" He frowned and moved away from the wall he had been leaning against. Around them the students milled around talking or going home after the end of the school day. Minjoon had just watched Peter do his routine of half skip, half jog away from school as if he was trying to be casual but also late for something important. Peter Parker was a strange boy, yet Minjoon was interested.

He had known the thirteen year old tutor who had worn baggy clothes and large black framed glasses. Peter Parker had been a spotty kid who he had known was bullied regularly. Minjoon had been eight but he had not been unobservant. He had known a Peter who was happy and loved. A boy who was so smart yet so kind. Then Peter had lost the glasses and seemingly grown a few inches overnight. He stopped coming round to tutor Minjoon and always seemed to be in a rush. Then Ben Parker had died. Minjoon and Daejoon had attended the funeral. Since then Peter had changed. Minjoon didn't know why but Peter had been a lot more quiet. He still greeted them if he saw them in the halls but it was not with the same friendliness as before. It was almost as if he had forgotten them, only recalled their existence in a distant memory, maybe an after thought. His mind always else where. The crush that Minjoon had on the older boy had persisted stubbornly through out. Admiration, at first, turned into like and then into on a starry eyed crush that twelve year old Minjoon had struggled with.

Twelve year old Minjoon was already getting into fights. He had been bullied, for being small or for having a slight accent on his words. For his poverty to his absent parents. Children always found something to be cruel about. That was when he first started fighting back. The bullying stopped when he bit someone hard enough to draw blood and permanently scar the other kid. Served them right though, they had been trying to lock him up in a locker when it happened and he didn't regret it.

He still recalled the way he had returned home that day. Daejoon fuming behind him about the school's bullying policy. They had past Peter on the stairs. The boy jumping around them with a quick wave and Minjoon had turned to watch him until the older boy, seventeen and handsome, disappeared round the corner. Leaving Minjoon with flushed cheeks and the taste of blood still lingering in his mouth.

Then the blip happened and Peter had been gone along with his aunt and Minjoon's parents. That moment the last time he had seen him. Before Minjoon had watched his people from his apartment complex disappear into smoke and seen the chaos starting outside. It had seemed like the end of the world, felt like it too.

Five years had passed. Five years in which Minjoon had changed and grown. Now Peter was back and they were the same age and the crush that had faded was poking its nose out in interest. Minjoon wanted to know what had happened to the boy he used to know. The one who had been so kind to him as a child. He wanted to know who Peter was now. What was the same and what had changed.

Peter was now in his classes and he was the same age. Being the same age was a bit of a weird thing. Minjoon had found Peter cute before, had admired him and found his nerdy T-shirts more adorable than he probably should. The nerdy T-shirts had not changed but Peter was now attractive in a different way than before. Minjoon had been staring. He thought it had been covertly but it seems that it was more obvious than he thought. This girl had picked up on it.

"MJ". The girl stated. Minjoon blinked, the name seemed familiar. He had seen her hanging out with Peter and his other friend, the nervous Filipino boy, before. "So why are you staring at Peter Parker all the time?" She prodded.

Minjoon shot her a lazy glare, not bothering to put much heat into it. "Why are you asking?"

MJ did not seem impressed. "Scary", she remarked. "So do you have a crush on him or something?"

Minjoon shrugged. "Or something". He paused. "So does he always run off like that? " he gestured to where the silhouette of Peter was now a distant speck down the street.

MJ hummed. "Mostly. Says it's for his Stark Internship but I don't know".

Minjoon made note of the information. There had been rumours a few years ago, back when Peter was fifteen and he was ten, that Tony Stark had visited their apartment block. He remembered getting excited about it but he had missed out on seeing the superhero. But if Tony Stark had been there to see Peter that day, then that would add some credit to the Stark Internship story.

He turned to see MJ staring at him like she was trying to work out a particularly interesting and slightly entertaining puzzle. He narrowed his eyes at her. "What?"

"Why is everyone scared of you? You don't look very scary".

"I'll take that as a compliment", Minjoon huffed. He glanced back at the school and waved as Jay and Ellie emerged from the doors. "Taking forever!" He shouted at them, grinning.

"Yeah, yeah, old man", Jay rolled his eyes as he stepped closer. He darted forwards to poke Minjoon in the sides, to which to the other dodged with a giggle of laughter.

Ellie eyed up MJ with silent hostility at seeing her so close to Minjoon. "Who's this?" She asked. "She nothing you?"

Minjoon shot a look over at MJ only to see her eyeing Ellie back with the same amount of hostility. "No. She was just asking me some questions".

"She me for being curious", MJ scowled at Ellie.

"Curious about what?"

"Nothing other than our reputation", Minjoon cut in hastily. He loved his friends but he didn't want them to know his tangled history with Peter Parker just yet.

MJ side eyed him as Minjoon gave her wide eyes. "Yeah", she settled. "I come back and you three are the school delinquents. That's new". She shot a smirk at Minion, who ignored it.

"We wouldn't be if people didn't try to fight us all the time", Jay remarked as he pulled his vape from his pocket and inhaled deeply. He exhaled mango scented smoke into the air before offering it to Minjoon.

The Korean took it. "You say that as if you didn't start the one last Monday".

"I didn't. They started it".

"But you threw the first punch hothead". Ellie swiped at the vape as Minjoon exhaled slowly. The smoke spilling from his lips in the grey tinged sunlight. She pulled a face at the smoke. "Yuck mango again?"

"Don't diss mango. It is the best flavour".

"No. Lychee is", Minjoon voted.

"Why haven't you been kicked on for fighting yet?" MJ's question made them all turn to her again.

Jay shrugged with a smirk. "Cause we haven't".

"Cause all the fights in school, we don't start". Elli tossed the vape back to Jay.

Minjoon smiled. He had a baby face, he knew. But this grin, boyish and young as it looked, was full of dark coded mischief. "And the ones outside of school, well they can't prove any of those".

MJ smiled, amused despite herself. "You never been arrested?"

"The charges were dropped". Jay spoke with a smile that made it hard to tell wether he was joking or not. He flicked the vape up in his hands and caught it again. "Anyway, nice talking to you MJ. But we really must be going".

"We have plans", Ellie nodded. She began leading the way to the school gates. Jay just behind.

Minjoon just nodded at her before he followed his friends. He didn't see her narrowing her eyes at them suspiciously. "See you later", he waved back over his shoulder before he broke into a jog to catch up with them.

She watched as they headed out of school before turning into the car park. The car they got into was an old grey thing that had the remnants of scrubbed off graffiti on the paintwork. Ellie was driving with Jay in the passenger seat and Minjoon in the back. As the car pulled away, MJ saw Minjoon turn back and glance back at her. When he saw her watching them he grinned and waved goodbye.

Unedited

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