Advent calendar | Yoonmin [English]

21. December

"You taste seductively sweet too."

Jimin licked his lips lasciviously, but paused when he realised Yoongi was just staring back with a petrified expression. Then he realised that he had just kissed him in public. Startled, he looked round in all directions.

"Shit."

Fortunately, no one seemed to have been paying any attention to them. He breathed out a sigh of relief. Yoongi's face slowly regained colour too.

"Watch what you're doing."

He reprimanded. But his gaze was soft and understanding. Yoongi would also love to kiss Jimin every chance he got and it was hard to hold back in public.

~

They took a look at some of the craft stalls. Glass blowing, pottery, leatherwork and jewellery of all kinds were on offer here. They stopped at a jewellery stall with particularly strikingly patterned rings.

"They're pretty."

Yoongi nodded and took a closer look at one. It was silver with black patterns.The shop assistant, who had noticed their interest, woke up from his half-sleep and began to talk enthusiastically.
"These are mokume gane rings. That's the name of a special folding art that originated in Japan. Two metals with a similar melting point are folded together, resulting in these beautiful patterns. No two rings are the same."

Jimin and Yoongi nodded with interest.

"These would go so well with you, with the black."

Jimin held up one that was more black than silver.

"What kind of metal is the black one?"

It's called shakudo and is a copper alloy specially used in Japan. The special thing about it, apart from its black colour, is that it reacts with the minerals in your own sweat and sometimes takes on a more reddish or bluish colour. I once had a couple with the same ring size. Hers had changed colour to red and his to blue. As a joke, they swapped rings and after a few days they actually switched colours."

The seller really blossomed. Normally, he only had a few visitors to his stand. Most of them were immediately put off by the high prices. But this type of ring making took years of practice, expertise and time and the end product was correspondingly expensive.

"Can this shakudo also be mixed with gold?"

Jimin looked around the display for one. The seller shook his head.

"No, unfortunately that's not possible. The melting point of gold is too different from that of other metals, so unfortunately you can't fold gold with other metals. However..."

He searched under the counter for something and shortly afterwards pulled out a velvet box.

"You can only see it slightly from the outside when you wear it, but it is possible to line the inside of the ring with gold. Many couples do this for their wedding rings so that they at least have some 'classic gold' inside. However, this is also very expensive, as the value of gold is currently quite high. That's why some do without it."

"May I?"

Yoongi pointed at the casket and the vendor nodded. The two of them didn't look like they were about to go off with the rings. His gaze flitted over their fingers.

"These two could even be your size. You can try them on if you want."

Yoongi gratefully accepted the box and removed the larger ring from the fabric. Then he handed it to Jimin. He looked at the silver ring with its black patterns. When he stroked it, he could feel the grooves where the two metals met. The golden inner ring made the ring feel nice on the inside. Yoongi slipped it over his ring finger. It did indeed fit.

He looked up at Jimin, who had just done the same. His ring was slightly smaller than Yoongi's and therefore fitted perfectly.

The salesman clapped his hands in delight.

"I saw straight away that they fit you."

Yoongi gave him a professional smile.

"Can you excuse us for a moment?"

The man addressed nodded and discreetly turned away. He didn't have much hope of selling the rings. After all, the amount involved was in the four-digit range (€). But the two of them seemed so familiar with each other. So in love. He didn't make any judgements about gender. When two people had that kind of charisma together, they simply belonged together.

Yoongi stepped closer to Jimin and gently stroked his arm to get his attention.

"Do you like it?"

Jimin nodded and looked at the ring on his finger.

"These colours represent us perfectly."

Jimin murmured back, pointing at the black and silver. Yoongi couldn't help but smile. Jimin was right, he had already thought of that.
"I like the idea of having partner rings with you even more."

Jimin confessed quietly.

"Yeah, that was my thought too."

Yoongi confessed and reached for Jimin's hand to inspect the ring on his finger more closely.

"Do you think that would cause problems? If they see us with matching rings?"

Yoongi thought about it. That was the big problem. No matter what they did next. It shouldn't become public. Some fans would definitely wish them well, but not everyone would approve of their union. Still...

Yoongi shook his head with certainty.

"Of course they would notice. But we wear each other's clothes all the time and swap our accessories. Even with the others. There will be rumours, but it won't be taken seriously."

Jimin nodded with relief. He looked at his ring again and then reached for Yoongi's hand.

"It looks really great on you."

"Okay, we'll take them."

Yoongi intertwined his fingers with Jimin's and turned back to the salesman, who was polishing another ring.

"We'll take the two rings."