Pandora's Box

Chapter 10

"I'm telling you, mate. A full-ass jar of Vegemite just sitting there."

It was the first Friday of the semester, and when Beomgyu sat down at the corner table for breakfast he noticed Chan and Felix talking excitedly back and forth.

"No way! I never thought they'd get it here." Felix's eyes were glowing in awe as Chan handed him the jar of brown spread.

At the table, there was only Beomgyu, the two huddled over the jar, and Seungmin talking to Jeongin.

"Um. Sorry to ask, but what's vegemite?"

Felix and Chan looked at Beomgyu, Chan feigning betrayal. "Beomgyu. Oh. My dear boy, you have not lived."

Felix smiled and explained: "Pretty soon after we both got here, Chan and I realized that we both have moms from Australia. So, when not with our dads, we would grow up there. Vegemite is a spread that all Australians love."

Beomgyu nodded, and realized how dumb he was for not putting two-and-two together from the boys' heavy accents.

Chan spread some on a piece of toast, while it occurred to Beomgyu to question why he was even sitting at the table, and shoved it towards the confused boy. "Try it."

He did, and his face blanched in disgust. "Woah. You guys actually eat this stuff?"

"Oh my Titan, Chan. You're making him try Vegemite?" Hyunjin disapproved as he arrived with Jisung and sat down next to Beomgyu, who had returned the toast and vowed to himself never to make that mistake again.

"They make everyone try it," Jisung explained to Beomgyu. "It's pointless. You only like it if you're Australian."

"Wrong. You only like it if you have taste." Chan argued.

"Same difference." Felix stated, and the two high fived.

Hyunjin rolled his eyes. "You people are why I thank my mom for the weekend."

Beomgyu scrunched his eyebrows, confused. "I thought Demeter was the Goddess of agriculture?"

Hyunjin stared at him, and then began to laugh. The whole table followed. "It's just an expression, Beomgyu." Seungmin explained. "It's like saying, 'Thank God', but it's funny to thank our parents."

"Oh." Must be nice, he thought. He couldn't imagine thanking Apollo for anything other than the ability to look like a complete idiot in front of his friends.

"Mails here!" Beomgyu looked up and found Yeonjun walking with Huening Kai, who was holding a stack of letters in his hand. He tossed them around to different people at the table, and Beomgyu glared at his cereal. He didn't bother to wonder if anything had come for him; he knew it hadn't.

"Yeonjun! Chan was just showing me that the cafeteria got Vegemite for this semester. It's like Christmas came late!"

"Oh, joy." Yeonjun said, dropping next to Beomgyu.

Chan shrugged. "Maybe if you're all good little boys I'll put one in your stocking.", and Jisung pretended to gag while Beomgyu laughed.

He had found that, despite having so much more to learn about this new world of his; one thing he did know was that he'd found the right friends.

"So. Ignoring that horror, let's keep talking about Valentine's Day." Yeonjun said, and he and Kai went off into their own world. Beomgyu connected the dots as to why he'd brought Kai to lunch. He couldn't help but get a little excited at the thought of a God of communication and a God of love being in charge of such a holiday.

"Christopher." Changbin stalked up to their table, followed by a neutral-faced Minho. "You were supposed to meet us like, five minutes ago. What gives?"

"Sorry mates." Chan smiled. "Gooey, lovable priorities." He held up the jar, and Beomgyu tried not to laugh about how even Minho looked disgusted.

Speaking of Medusa's son, the boy was acting strangely quiet today. Granted, Beomgyu hardly knew him. But the one thing he did know was that he never missed a chance to pester Jisung. Only today, he was simply looking at the ground, silent.

Beomgyu stole a glance over at Jisung, and it took everything in him for his eyes not to bulge. He was staring at Minho, as in, fully staring. Not in a creepy way, but in a sad, lost way.

Beomgyu desperately needed to find out what happened.

As the thought occurred to him, he noticed another person arrive at the table. Clearly they were hosting some lunch party he didn't know about.

Only, when he spotted Taehyun, his breath caught.

"Kai."

The boy's voice was so low Beomgyu would've thought he imagined it, were it not for Kai glancing up at Taehyun.

"Are you not done with the mail yet?"

"Oh, shit, sorry Taehyun. This table is a piece of work when it comes to receiving letters."

Beomgyu glanced around, confused, but sure enough; everyone at the table but him had at least one letter sitting in front of them.

Yeonjun must've noticed his observation, and nudged him while smiling sympathetically.

"They're basically just greeting cards. Our parents feel obligated, I promise you're not missing out."

While Beomgyu appreciated the boy's effort at soothing his hurt, it did nothing but confirm that the letters were from god parents. That was why he had nothing.

He was so busy trying to avoid any eye contact that he didn't notice the dark haired boy practically burning a hole in his head, having also noticed Beomgyu's empty hands.

"Yeonjun, great plans. We'll talk soon, yeah?"

Yeonjun simply nodded and swallowed, and that was when Beomgyu realized that the whole table had stopped talking. 

Taehyun had taken a step closer to the table to nudge Kai away, and now everyone was either looking down or pretending to shove food into their mouths. Beomgyu was getting more and more exhausted of everyone being scared shitless of the boy to his right. So, he decided to break the seal.

"Hey." he said, looking directly at Taehyun.

The other looked surprised, but not nearly as startled as the entire table looked. They were all looking at Beomgyu as if he was fucking insane. Even the Threatening Three, (a name Beomgyu has become rather fond of for its irony), were staring, wide-eyed.

Their expressions only became more appalled when Taehyun smiled softly back and responded with a "Hey."

He walked away with Kai, who was smirking at the two, and Beomgyu resumed eating. He stopped after a few seconds, and looked up to find everyone gaping at him. He rolled his eyes.

"Would you guys get over yourselves? So his dad is King of the Dead. So what? He's not that scary. That's as dumb as saying Jisung is a fish because his dad is King of the Sea."

He shot Minho a pointed glare. The boy said nothing and simply stared at his feet.

"My point is. It's so weird that everyone assumes we're going to mirror our parents. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's nothing wrong with being completely different either."

He recognized the selfishness in his rant, but it didn't matter. The main point was trying to defend Taehyun.

They were all silent for a while, before Hyunjin spoke. "You're right, Beomgyu. Sorry. We should treat him the same as any other kid." He smiled, and most of the table nodded and continued talking.

It was only Yeonjun who kept still, staring at Beomgyu as if realizing something for the first time.