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San hates spiders.
Or, well, he would rather not have them in his apartment. That’s why he always makes an attempt to clean his room thoroughly and sometimes even his roommate’s boyfriend comes to help out with the cleaning, when he spends more time there than in his own flat.
What he never considered though was his other roommate’s, Mingi’s pets. If you can call a pair of male tarantulas pets.
Mingi always assured him that they would never escape their little home, a very comfortable aquarium which had everything a spider can dream of (without the tremendous amount of water of course).
However, it seems as though Mingi was wrong. Again. There was a time when he said that there was no way a ladybug would bite a human. He was proven wrong when one fateful Thursday morning they woke up to Hongjoong’s shriek coming from the bathroom. That was an experience if they had one with paramedics.
Despite the horribly awkward exchange they had with them and the dramatics around it, such as Hongjoong collapsing into Seonghwa’s arms, it was merely an accident that only involved one of them and the problem was solved with a single phone call to the closest bug killer they could find.
Now, though… He wasn’t sure if it would be so simple to catch two possibly venomous creatures that were lurking in the shadows of their place.
--
Wooyoung was a kind soul. He truly was there was no doubt about it, even if he was a spider. More accurately, a tarantula.
He had big brown eyes that glistened from the reflecting light on them, which looked terrifying to some humans, as he experienced before in his lifespan. He didn’t get most humans, and neither did humans get him. Well, maybe except for Mingi. Kind and good soul Mingi, who his fellow spider brother, Yunho had an embarrassingly obvious infatuation for.
Wooyoung and Yunho had been together for as long as he could remember with his tiny little tarantula brain. They had their differences, but thankfully they were still together through thick and thin. It was all because they were blessed to have Mingi as their owner, really. It was no surprise Yunho liked Mingi so much. The boy even let him crawl with his long hairy legs onto his arm. He wouldn’t let Wooyoung out of their home that easily, he was vary of Wooyoung’s capabilities.
They all knew that Wooyoung was the more mischievous spider, the one that was more unpredictable and impulsive.
What they didn’t know was just how smart the young spider can be. They didn’t know his plans. That’s exactly what played such a huge part in his grand scheme.
He loved Mingi, his human friend, the one who he was always grateful for, but he craved freedom. He wanted to experience more in his short life than just staring at the four walls of his owner’s room. Even if he had Yunho, he was bored out of his little spider head.
So, he did what he thought was natural. Sneaking out of his cage.
Okay, maybe he didn’t really think this through, because he didn’t know what he wanted to do the moment he got out of the apartment, but he guessed it was a spider’s mission to always find adventure.
There was always one thing holding him back unbeknownst to…well, the person. He didn’t know why or how he got to like the human so much, but there was just something about this guy that got his spider senses tingling. San. Mingi’s younger roommate, who always knocked and woke up his owner with gentleness and made sure to feed them when Mingi wasn’t home.
Wooyoung knew San despised spiders, he felt the fear on him, the way he always closed their cage so quickly after opening it for the sake of satisfying their hunger. That did make him sad. The two eyes in the middle of his face welt up with tears every time he saw the clear distaste on San’s face upon seeing them.
Sometimes he wished he were human. So that he could properly live life and talk to San, maybe win over his heart. However, he was a spider and there was nothing he could do about that.
He knew Yunho deep down wished for that too, but he hid it so well, the thought of him being sad over his identity as a tarantula was almost nonsense, if you didn’t know him.
Maybe it was because Yunho was larger than your average spider, above the estimated 4 centimeters in length (which is one and a half inches for some).
Sometimes they forgot they were spiders, which was pretty easy, if your only thing to do all day was to communicate with each other or stare at their surroundings… or engage in the drama they could hear coming from the other side of the door.
Wooyoung was always too invested, he loved the gossip, sometimes just wishing he could tell Mingi about things he didn’t know about, but he knew Yunho was just as much a fan of this as he was.
Although Yunho was blessed with quite the color scheme, since he was not only large but had vibrant shades of orange in his fur, he liked to think he was smaller than he actually was. Therefore, it was not a surprise when Wooyoung with his average size and brown colored fur managed to hide easily after jumping out of their aquarium one fateful night when Mingi accidentally left it open.
He finally had a taste of freedom after five tremendous years of “imprisonment”. He felt incredibly guilty for betraying Mingi’s trust, especially because this wasn’t the first incident when they could’ve escaped, but he felt obligated to stay there for his happiness. Not today, though. He finally spidered up and committed to escaping.
Yunho begrudgingly opened his eyes to Wooyoung’s absence, and freaked out, frantically tapping the ground and looking around with all his eight eyes. He suddenly looked to his right, seeing the younger spider jump up on the table beside him.
Although it was nighttime, which meant Mingi was peacefully sleeping on his comfortable bed not far from them, Wooyoung could still clearly see the worry and confusion in the older spider’s eyes.
He tapped back to him, telling him that it was finally their chance. Yunho had none of it, he couldn’t believe the young tarantula could do this to their kind human. Wooyoung merely looked him in the eyes with enough impact so that the other could understand his point. They knew each other well, he didn’t know why the orange would be so confused about it.
Either ways, no time to waste, one of them could wake up any minute. For once Wooyoung actually cursed how insomniac almost everyone in that house was.
He quickly hopped down the table, and if spiders could scream, he would have done so. Not a second later, as he took in his surroundings, Yunho landed in front of him suddenly.
Not even asking anything, the two slowly made their way out of the room, thankful that the door wasn’t fully closed.
They only ever saw the living room when they were brought there by Mingi and even then, it was basically empty, so when they saw the space occupied by two large couches and all the likes that humans for some reason considered a basic need in their lives.
They made it to what seemed like the front door with little to no effort. They were fascinated by how quick it was all happening, but Wooyoung was more happy than anxious. Yunho couldn’t say the same.
The convenience of the situation quickly faded into the background, disappearing almost immediately when they needed to come to a stop.
They couldn’t get through that door.
The problem was simpler than anything, really. They couldn’t open it and they didn’t have enough space to crawl under it.
Wooyoung angrily tapped his hairy little spider legs against the wooden surface of the floor, while Yunho would’ve sighed if he could’ve.
The two spiders thus, had to come to a halt in their mission. They couldn’t just go back to their cradling home now though. They came too far. At least according to the younger spider, the orange one wasn’t having that bullshit, but decided to follow along his fated spider in crime. It was only fair.
Defeated but spirited, the two goofballs came to the conclusion that the smartest thing they could do was to wait out until someone opened the door to make a run- or more like human walk for it, as they weren’t the fastest creatures out there.
The equation only lacked one unknown valuable: how were they going to go unnoticed?
The answer was simple… they just didn’t know it yet. Quite the obvious, but Wooyoung was a dumbass, not an idiot, so all can be forgiven. He’s cute anyway.
The tarantulas hid under a nearby sofa, not too far from the door, happily tapping to each other (rather, it was just Wooyoung) and definitely not blinking all their cute little eyes in agitation (it was Yunho).
They had no idea what was coming their way at all…
--
When Mingi woke up, finding the aquarium empty, he thought he was still sleeping. Or hallucinating. It was impossible that he was not seeing his favorite living, breathing entities looking back up at him with sparkling eyes.
But he had to be confronted with the harsh truth as soon as he realized that the cage’s top was left unlocked.
“HONGJOONG HYUNG!!!” he cried in desperation and sadness, the older grumbling something…family friendly in a censored way and was heard thumping to the younger’s room.
“What’s wrong?” he blinked his eyes open in alarm upon seeing his roommate with tears flowing down his handsome face.
He sniffed, trying not to panic, or worse, make the older panic, “Wooyoung and Yunho…”
As he said that, the red haired male looked towards the glass box on the table and immediately paled like four shades.
“Mingi…” he muttered in alarm, “tell me, you are just joking right now!”
The silence was so loud that unbeknownst to them, the two adorable tarantulas slowly blinked their eyes open to what seemed to them a peaceful day.
Until they heard the oldest shriek and faint.
Mingi sighed after swallowing another mental breakdown and scooped him into his arms, putting him onto his own bed and dialing Seonghwa. Because if anyone can think in this group, that would be him.
“OH MY GOD, BABY!” a yell was heard before the door even opened and a wild Seonghwa appeared, closing the entrance the second he slipped inside the flat.
So much for sneaking out, Yunho would’ve said to Wooyoung who was getting more impatient by the minute. They knew they were discovered missing and it wasn’t such a favorable outcome for them.
So, maybe Seonghwa wasn’t a rational pick to solve this crisis, because the older man was more concerned about his overdramatic lover than the literal reason for said lover’s distress.
Or maybe everyone judged him too early, as he quickly got to work when he got to know the story.
Which means that he picked up a slipper and started looking around.
“HYUNG! What are you doing? Don’t kill them!” Mingi practically screamed, watching the scene with wide eyes.
“Dear lord up in heaven, what’s with the commotion?” San suddenly showed up, totally shirtless and more asleep than awake.
Wooyoung suddenly wasn’t so impatient and bummed. Yunho just rolled half his eyes and sourly stared at Hongjoong in Mingi’s room. It was a good thing that the place was small enough that they could see everything happening through the open doors.
“San, don’t panic,” the man who didn’t even live there started, “but it seems like Mingi’s spiders disappeared”
It took the hot and pretty guy an even hotter minute to process it before his skin dropped all color.
“W-what? MINGI, WHAT THE HELL?”
“WHY ME?” the mentioned let out an agitated shout. (They were really about to get a noise complaint from downstairs. Ms. Choi didn’t like loudness…or them for that matter, bitter old woman she was.)
“IT’S LITERALLY YOUR FAULT?” everyone simultaneously spoke up, even the one who fainted.
“Okay, okay, just stop shouting… They are sensitive to sounds.” he sighed in defeat.
The three men looked at the spiders’ owner, disbelief written all over their faces. “That was never a problem before-“
“Shut up and let me think!” Seonghwa interrupted San’s complaining.
The two little (large) tarantulas were a bit shaken, suddenly feeling afraid about what’s going to happen if they don’t get out of there as soon as possible.
“Alright, let’s just… start cleaning I think, we will have to find them in the meantime.” he settled on the thought.
Hongjoong scrunched his nose up in distaste, “Why do we have to clean though? Why can’t we just look around?” he suggested, acting as if he didn’t have any problems before with the mere thought of spiders running loose in their home.
“Because I’m pissed as fuck, and this place is always messy.” He stood up and walked into the bathroom, picking up a broom (don’t ask why it was there) and a bunch of stuff to mop the floor and also equipment for window cleaning.
Wooyoung started freaking out meanwhile, blinking at Yunho. They both knew the routine of their cleaning, and if they weren’t lucky, they would get sucked into the vacuum.
“I’ll help!” San volunteered, albeit terrified of finding a tarantula, but even more terrified of not finding any, who knows where they could be. He internally shivered.
Seonghwa smiled at him and passed him something to clean the corners of the walls with.
Mingi could’ve sworn he heard Hongjoong mutter a “God, he’s so hot, when he’s cleaning!” kind of sentence while staring at his boyfriend, but that was far from the weirdest thing he has ever witnessed in their group, so he just stuck to looking everywhere his beloved pets could be.
Yunho almost crawled out from their hideout if not for Wooyoung wildly communicating through his body language that if he even dares, he will bite down one of his legs. The older spider just shook his head and stayed still.
It was about after half an hour of excruciating waiting that Seonghwa got to the tiny sofa in the opposite corner of the living room, which the two little traitors already sensed and were on high alert.
Wooyoung almost jumped and hit his head into the bottom of the furniture.
As the noises of a turned on vacuum cleaner got nearer to the both of them, Wooyoung got the fantastic idea to quickly crawl under the couch which was not too far but not near enough for them to go for in these circumstances without getting noticed. But what else could they do? – was the rational thought of the younger eight-eyed being. Yunho accepted death but decided to give in to his survival instincts and followed as they tried to hurry with all their might, their little hearts beating hard against their cages.
It was no use, as soon as Wooyoung was able to get under the furniture, his legs loosening of their tension from the relief of making it, the eyes on the back of his head witnessed a terrifying scene.
Yunho couldn’t make it.
He should’ve expected it. He should’ve calculated with the outcome of his actions. But he’s just a regular tarantula, he wouldn’t have the patience to do math anyway, he’s seen Mingi cry over his calculus classes more than he got fed by him.
Yunho, his spider soulmate, his one and only companion who understood him down to the last strand of hair on his eighth leg. He got discovered by Seonghwa.
The fright in all of the older spider’s eyes was clear as day as he got sucked into that loud monster the humans like to call vacuum cleaner. The thing swallowed the orange spider as if he was a piece of dust and the clear walls of the container let Wooyoung see the broken legs of his dearest friend, the breath clearly never entering his tiny lungs ever again and the engine crushed his body that he couldn’t protect from the suddenness of its cruelty.
The horror creeped over him like he was about to creep over to the closest furniture to rest. However, the sudden death of Yunho was like a wake-up call to him, that if he wasn’t fast enough, he will end up just like him. That still didn’t motivate him from moving, because shock was stronger than any shining light bulb above his head.
His hairy figure was almost shaking as he tried making his way out of there, hearing the people in the house already in chaos, but as if he lost his ability to hear. He didn’t hear anything, but he should’ve.
“HYUNG!! HOW COULD YOU???” a wail was heard all over the apartment, Mingi dropped to his knees, as Hongjoong tried getting him up from the dusty floor, since the guy luckily kneeled into the dust he was trying to sweep together.
San was utterly terrified at the scene in front of him, knowing the other must be nearby and he knows Seonghwa knew just as much.
The vacuum cleaner fought a battle it couldn’t handle anymore, it stopped working as soon as the oldest killed the tarantula it sucked up.
“I’m sorry, Mingi, I didn’t even notice I held the pipe too close to him until he…”
Mingi busted into tears, and San felt horrible for him, even as the fear was holding onto him like glue.
“I think I will just… go to my room, I need to properly mourn him.” he said, retreating to his room. The others patted his shoulder, as he passed by them, not even trying to wipe his tears.
Wooyoung wanted to scoff and roll his eyes at the obvious favoritism of his owner, however he could also feel the same way the human did. His body might’ve been hairy, but his heart was not.
Seonghwa’s shoulders slumped as he frowned down at the vacuum cleaner. He couldn’t believe he just murdered his friend’s pet. Hongjoong too, was frowning, he wasn’t that hairy but he wasn’t heartless either.
Even as they could sympathize with the emotions of the mourning and feel loss for the mourned, they would never exactly know how it felt. But Wooyoung did.
That’s why he chose what he saw as the logical response for his loss.
He attacked.
He retreated from under the couch and targeted Seonghwa’s legs.
As he was approaching without a care in sight, he didn’t register the fact that he wasn’t in fact invisible as he often wished he was. Harry Potter simply just did better in that department than him, which he had to admit in the moment the large slipper of Mingi’s casted a shadow over his symmetrical complexion.
He only saw the handsome face he oh so wished to see from up close in his wildest dreams. And that was the last thing he saw before his world went dark.
Wooyoung was betrayed by love, murdered by the one he trusted more than himself. He wanted freedom not knowing it was the one thing determining his end, at last, he bargained with more than he could protect, losing not only Yunho’s but his own life too.
It was truly an act worse than what a spider could ever handle.
As San lifted the smelly blue slippers of his currently moping roommate, he realized just what he had done, not knowing it was larger than his understanding could allow him to process.
The room was silent minus the sobbing coming from the other room.
The three men stared at each other in disbelief. Now they had two dead tarantulas, a still messy apartment and Mingi who wasn’t about to be happier.
“I got scared.” San muttered, not helping the case. Seonghwa however only sighed even deeper and made his way over to Mingi’s room.
“Mingi, sweetie-“ he started, entering the room and disappearing from the other two unfortunate guys in the living room.
20 minutes later after a lengthy conversation with Mingi, Hongjoong was threatened by the love of his life. So he had no choice but to visit the nearest animal shop and return with two new spiders in a brand-new aquarium and two bags of Mingi’s favorite foods.
Let’s just say that the new spiders were terrified of the remnants of their dead relatives on the floor and Mingi got significantly better despite arguing that it wasn’t going to fix the damage the dead of his beloveds did to him.
Moral of the story, avoid slippers.