Pandora's Box

Chapter 17

"Minho. What's wrong?"

Minho simply laughed, but not in the way that he normally did around Jisung. It was haunting.

"What's wrong? Hm..."

The humor left his face, then turned to complete anguish as the boy dropped to his knees and started sobbing.

Not knowing what else to do, Jisung ran over and tried to wrap the boy in a hug.

"My-" he breathed. "My mom. She's..."

He couldn't finish the sentence, but he didn't need to. Jisung understood, though he prayed to the gods that he was wrong. He simply held Minho close, not having the faintest idea what to do.

"It was some-" another sob. "Some fucking prick trying to make a name for himself. His fists were balled and he shook as he spoke.

"I've never even fucking heard of him. All they said was his name..."

He stopped, and pulled away from the boy cradling him, as if realizing something.

"Jisung," he said, something undetectable in his voice. "What is Percy short for?"

Jisung frowned. They rarely talked about details of their families, other than god parents. There was simply too much else for them to do together. Why was the boy bringing it up now? "Um... Perseus, I think. Why?"

He watched as Minho stood up, eyes full of something dangerous and incredibly haunting.

"He's dead. Your brother Percy. They found him turned to stone after he slaughtered my mother."

Jisung stood there, dumbfounded. He didn't know much about Percy, the latter being much older, but he knew he was sort of full of himself. He knew Percy had always wanted to be something grand, do something to be remembered by.

It seemed as though he had found the thing.

"M-Minho... I didn't..." He tried to explain, but stopped when he saw how the boy was looking at him. He had never looked at Jisung like that before in his life, and it made his entire body go cold.

He stepped closer to his best friend, but was slapped hard across the face by his hand.

"Don't come near me, I swear to the gods. For the rest of our lives, don't you ever fucking come near me."

Minho stormed out of the cabin, slamming the door. It broke off the hinge and fell to the ground, as did Jisung.

He knew then. He knew they would never be friends again, and he knew that he would never be able to tell Minho how he felt.

He decided to get rid of it all. He'd bottled up his feelings, hid his love deep down. Far too deep for Minho, himself, or anyone else, to sense.

He made sure it practically disappeared, too far even for Cupid to notice.

—

First day of the semester party - Present (but like a couple weeks ago).

The party had started out normal. Han had always had trouble talking to strangers, but mostly busied himself with punch. Spiked punch, which....yeah. He was feeling the effects of now.

The party existed in flashes and blurs of light and noise, and he just kept talking to people without thinking. He definitely wasn't thinking when he ran into Minho.

Like, literally ran into him. His face collided with the taller's back with an "Oof."

Minho turned, and when he noticed who it was, scowled. "Watch where you're going idiot."