A group of men dressed in all black were crowded together in a dark alleyway, hunched over an open briefcase. It was just past 3 in the morning, and the men were silently deliberating over the cost of the items inside the briefcase.

A weapons deal going on in the middle of the night was nothing new to this city, but the police could only be in so many places at once. In order to keep the darkest corners of the area safe, there was only one person who could allot their free time to fighting crime like this.

Hanging upside down from a nearby lamppost, Jimin narrowed her eyes as she listened in to what the men were saying. Their hushed whispers were hard to hear, but the superhuman hearing abilities made the voices ring clear in Jimin's ears.

"There's no way you're leaving here with this many quality firearms without putting fifty grand in my pockets," the largest of the group grumbled. He stood taller to intimidate the buyers, squaring his broad shoulders, but the leader of the buyers stood his ground.

"You think I can't see these are only semi-automatic, jackass?"

The tallest man slammed his fist into his other hand, open palm gripping his own fist tightly. "What did you just call me?"

Before the leader of the buyers could open his mouth to respond, someone standing behind the tall man reached for a gun and quickly aimed it at the buyers.

A frenzy of movement blurred together, with the buyers scrambling to arm themselves and grab the box of guns before the sellers could start shooting at them.

Before anyone could fire a bullet, a string of web shot out and latched onto the first gun that had been drawn. A collective gasp filled the cool air as the gun was whisked away in a millisecond.

All the men were frantically turning their heads to figure out where the web had come from, but one by one their bodies were being webbed off the ground and bound to the wall. Jimin flipped off the light post to land in front of the briefcase.

One of the men that was stuck against the wall was able to move his arm just enough to point his gun at Jimin's head while she was staring down at the weapons in the briefcase. His finger pressed against the trigger and he shut his eyes, waiting for the bullet to pierce through her skull.

Jimin didn't even bother looking up. Her spider senses were tingling and made her aware of the gun pointed at her. With one hand she flicked her wrist forward, capturing the bullet and gun with a blast of web and slamming them both into the wall besides the man that had tried to shoot her.

She scooped up the briefcase full of weapons and lifted her face to stare at all the men hanging feebly from the wall. "Nice try, fellas. Say hello to the boys in blue for me," she chirped, holding onto the briefcase securely before launching a web to swing herself to the nearest police station.

She swung a few blocks before landing in front of the police station doors. There were two officers on their coffee break outside, and she promptly dropped the briefcase in front of them before nonchalantly waving a greeting at them. "Fifth and Cooper," she told them before zipping off.

She chuckled to herself when she heard them rummaging for their radios and shouting out commands to get to the street she had tipped them off about. Another night of being your friendly neighborhood Spider-Girl, she thought to herself as she swung back to her apartment.

Jimin never thought her life would turn out this way, fighting crime in between her classes and working in a lab, but she couldn't be more grateful that she had somehow gotten bit by that radioactive spider on her school trip a few months ago.

Her thoughts came to a halt when she landed on the fire escape beside the window to her apartment. She quickly slipped the pajamas she had webbed to the wall on over her Spider-suit, sliding the mask off and slipping it into her pants pocket. She had left the window open just a crack so she wouldn't make too much noise when coming back in.

She grit her teeth as she slowly pushed the window open, holding her breath in anticipation for any creaking noises. She exhaled silently when she managed to open it enough to slide inside, eyes scanning the bed in the darkness for any sign of movement.

Her girlfriend was sleeping soundly, so she quickly shut the window as quietly as possible before slinking off to the bathroom to remove the suit from underneath her pajamas.

Her girlfriend, Minjeong, was in fact not asleep. The girl's eyes shot open as soon as she heard the bathroom door shut. She lifted her head off the pillow and squinted as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She let out a sigh. She knew Jimin was hiding something from her, and her suspicions were only confirmed when she caught her crawling in through the window in the middle of the night.

This was the fourth or fifth time she caught this happening in the past few months. Every time she tried to bring it up to Jimin subtly, asking if the girl had trouble sleeping or anything similar, Jimin would simply brush it off.

She began checking Jimin's apartment regularly for signs of another girl being over, but she never managed to find a trace of anything. She felt absolutely crazy digging through Jimin's laundry hamper trying to find lipstick stains or an unrecognizable perfume on the girl's clothing. She couldn't handle feeling crazy any longer.

When she felt the bed dip next to her, she figured there was no better time to confront Jimin on her whereabouts.

"Where were you?"

Jimin was in the middle of adjusting herself into a comfortable position under the blanket before she froze. "I uh- I went to the bathroom," she tried, but she already felt Minjeong's glare pointed at her in the darkness.

"I heard you come in through the window."

Jimin gulped. "I just needed some fresh air. I couldn't sleep, so-"

Minjeong sat up straight, cutting off whatever lie Jimin was going to continue spouting off. "Don't lie to me Jimin, this isn't the first time I had a feeling you were leaving in the middle of the night." It sounded strained, almost broken.

Jimin felt her heart start to race and she realized she was panicking a little, reaching for Minjeong's hands to keep her in place. "Minjeong, I swear I-"

"You're just going to keep lying then... gotcha." Minjeong abruptly snatched her hands back, pushing past Jimin to get out of the bed. She blindly started grabbing for her things, shoving them all under her arms and heading for the door.

"Minjeong, wait! I can explain," Jimin began to plead, following her out, but Minjeong didn't even bother to turn around and face her. With one hand on the doorknob, she let out a deep breath. "It's over, Jimin."

Jimin found herself kneeling on the ground, hands outstretched towards the empty space in the doorway as the door shut in her face. There went the girl of her dreams.

As much as she wanted to tell Minjeong the truth, she just knew she couldn't put the girl's life at risk in that way. It was way too dangerous, and the last thing Jimin wanted to do was put her girlfriend in danger.

Well, ex-girlfriend now, she thought bitterly.

The next few weeks went by in a bit of a blur, and Jimin was only lucky enough to have crime fighting as a distraction from her broken heart. She shared a few classes with Minjeong during the week, but the redhead made sure Jimin could barely even catch a glimpse of her.

She wasn't sure her eyes could turn any puffier after all the crying she had been doing. So it came as no surprise that those around her began to notice her depressed state.

She had her head slumped on her desk, eyes closed as the lecture droned on, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see her best friend, Aeri, staring down at her sympathetically. "Just give her some time. Whatever it is, I'm sure you two will work it out," Aeri whispered to her.

Jimin bit her lip to stop it from trembling. The last thing she needed was another reminder that her relationship was over.

She sat up straight, eyes immediately being drawn to the red hair down by the front of the lecture hall. She let out a deep sigh, resting her face in the palm of her hand. Would time even be able to solve this for her?

Minjeong was a busy girl, with classes scheduled around her work hours. She worked as a reporter for the school newspaper, The Kwangya Bugle, and was unfortunately stuck with a boss that cared more about getting juicy stories out fast rather than accurate reporting.

"Minjeong, I want you covering all stories related to Spider-Girl from now on. I want us to be the first newspaper to reveal her identity," her boss explained, waving her off to get to work.

"Wouldn't that mean she'd be putting herself in dangerous situations?" Yizhuo, Minjeong's best friend, roommate, and junior editor for the newspaper, asked their boss sheepishly. He waved them off with a scowl on his face, obviously not worried about their safety.

Minjeong chuckled and rolled her eyes, patting Yizhuo on the shoulder. "Thanks for worrying about me," she said, and Yizhuo grinned at her fondly. "If you need anyone to join you on your stakeouts, I'm your girl," she said. Her eyebrows knit together for a moment while she contemplated continuing, before muttering, "Or you could always ask Jimin to tag along."

Minjeong froze, pulling her hand from the girl's shoulder as if she had been burned. Her face hardened at the reminder of Jimin. "She's too busy sneaking off to do who-knows-what," she grumbled. Yizhuo's smile turned sympathetic.

Minjeong had started dating Jimin in her freshman year of college. Jimin was a year older and shared a class with her, and when she saw how lost and confused Minjeong looked while she tried to find the right lecture hall, she offered to show the shorter girl around.

Minjeong was mesmerized by Jimin's beauty, so of course she didn't turn down the offer. With how well they got along, it was only a matter of time before they started dating. It wasn't until the beginning of Minjeong's junior year that Jimin started acting suspicious, and now that a few months had passed by Minjeong couldn't stand the secrecy any longer.

As much as she loved Jimin, she couldn't be with someone that wasn't honest with her. Of course, that unfortunately didn't stop her from thinking about Jimin during every waking moment since their breakup. Her gut instinct told her that there was no way Jimin was cheating on her, but obviously a gut instinct wasn't enough to hold a relationship together.

She pushed those thoughts aside when she heard her phone chime, checking it to see that there was a chance for a drug deal to take place on campus later that evening. With Yizhuo's help, she had managed to connect her phone to have access to police radio chatter. She put her phone away and got her bag ready for her stakeout.

A few hours had passed and it was finally time for the supposed drug deal. Minjeong was crouched behind some bushes, camera ready to catch Spider-Girl in action. It was chilly at night and she could only hope no one would catch sight of the misty puffs of air she was breathing out.

She only had a vaguely general idea of where the drug deal would take place, so she was honestly surprised when she saw the two men meet up underneath the single streetlight behind the building.

Minjeong pointed her camera towards the men, adjusting the lens to zoom in on the baggie being passed between them. As soon as the shutter clicked, one of the men turned in her direction and caught sight of her red hair poking out from behind the bush. He furiously stomped towards her with his fists clenched, while the other man pulled out a pocketknife.

Minjeong's eyes widened, and she braced herself in preparation to run for her life before she felt herself being scooped up off the ground. She slammed her eyes shut and held in her screams of terror when she realized she was being hoisted in the air, the cool breeze of the night beaming against her face due to the speed at which she was being moved.

When she felt her body go still, she opened her eyes to see she had been gingerly placed on the rooftop of the building, and she held onto her stomach to swallow down the queasiness from being so high up. With shaking hands, she slowly brought her camera back up to her eye and aimed it at the action taking place down below.

Spider-Girl had punched one of the men and sent him reeling into the wall of the building, while the other man attempted to wildly swing his knife at her. She shot a web from her wrist and it landed directly on the man's hand, and with one tug she sent him flying into her waiting fist.

He fell to the ground, the knife scattering away. He held onto his jaw and stood up quickly, and came rushing at her again with both arms up and ready for a fight. Spider-Girl easily ducked under his punches and swiped a foot out, making the man land clean on his back.

Before Spider-Girl could celebrate the takedown, the other man had managed to jump onto her back, latching his arms around her neck. She put both hands on his arms and leaned backwards a bit before bending her body forwards at full speed, making the man fly off her body and land squarely on top of his companion.

They both let out groans of pain as their bodies were webbed together, and Spider-Girl hung them from the streetlight with no hesitation. Minjeong had managed to photograph the entire altercation, with her heart racing and adrenaline pumping through her veins the entire time she watched.

She captured a shot of Spider-Girl shooting her web towards where she was seated, and held her breath when she felt the air whip beside her as the superhero landed next to where she was sitting. "Let's get you somewhere safe," Spider-Girl said, and Minjeong's eyes narrowed when she heard the voice.

Jimin stiffened a bit when she noticed a slight look of recognition on Minjeong's face. Of course the girl would recognize her voice, considering how many variations of it she'd heard in their two years of dating. Jimin made a mental note not to speak more than necessary and to try to change her voice if she needed to speak again.

Minjeong held on for dear life as Spider-Girl wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her flush against her. She used her other arm to shoot a web and swing them off the rooftop. It took every ounce of Minjeong's self control not to scream in fear or hurl on the two of them.

She held on as tight as she could, given she had a backpack full of camera equipment hanging off one shoulder, and closed her eyes and placed her head in the crook of Spider-Girl's neck until she felt her feet firmly plant on the ground.

Her grip around Spider-Girl's shoulders loosened, but she didn't let go until she whispered a quiet, "Thank you, Spider-Girl."

Spider-Girl simply nodded in acknowledgement before web-slinging off in the opposite direction. Minjeong tried to think about whose voice she was reminded of, but she couldn't quite wrap her mind around it.

She sent Yizhuo a text that she was on her way to their shared apartment and quickly made her way home. She barely had a foot in the door before she was shouting, "I met Spider-Girl today!"

Yizhuo, who was hunched over a column she was editing and a slice of p