Altercation To Love |YoonMin|

Chapter 3 |Jimin|

The hours ticked past slowly since his job at the retail shop started at six. It was currently eleven-forty, but it felt as if it should be midnight. He watched an old clock tick by slowly, its tiny hands edging forward as if seconds were hours. He groaned.

The shop was completely empty of all human life other than him and the old owner in the back. An occasional mouse or strange rodent would appear, squeaking angrily at Yoongi, but other than that, not much happened. His slim fingers drummed against the splintering counter. A customer entered and gained Yoongi’s full attention. It was the instrument shop owner and her daughter, carrying an ancient-looking violin. Seeing the boy behind the counter shocked them.

“If it isn’t the I-Don’t-Know boy. Why, hello there. Is YongJin in? We have a violin for him to fix up. A customer dropped it off, but I’m afraid it’s more complicated than anything I have ever fixed,” Alyssa, the red-haired woman, announced, brushing her hand against the violin’s handle.

Yoongi nodded. “Back,” he mumbled and the woman was off. That left her daughter, Violet to roam around, staring at objects with her nonchalant face and bored, blue eyes. Watching the girl with nothing else to do, Yoongi leaned against his hands. It was like that for a bit until she stopped at some music box that had been left at the shop months ago. Her expression of stoicness faded and a new one took its place - astonishment.

Leaving the counter, Yoongi stepped into place beside the pink-haired, doll-like girl. “Caught your interests?” he asked, trying to find amusement. She nodded, turning her head slightly so she could get a look at him. Her pink curls shifted with the movement and fell over her pale chin.

Tapping on the outside of the box -- decorated in multiple carvings and pictures --, the girl smiled. “There are stories…,” she began, small boney fingers lightly rubbing against the wood, “That goes along with this box.” Measuring it up, nothing about it seemed special to the worker. It had tiny pictures of a rabbit, and two different male characters -- one of the two alone on a cloud --, and others of tiny fairy-like creatures. These had no way of tying together. “You don’t know them. They’re Chinese myths, such as the Xians, who were fairies who’d look for human lovers and would try to stay with them for many, many years. These were often of the same gender. There’s also he tale of the Rabbit God and the one of the cut sleeve.”

Interested, Yoongi nudged her onwards. “And those are?”

“The Rabbit God was once a man named Wu Tien Bao, who had been enticed by a general and would follow him around out of love. After being caught, he was killed and became the Rabbit God, but his temples were destroyed. Only one in Taiwan exists today. As for the cut sleeve, there was an Emperor in the Han Dynasty by the name of Emperor Ai. He had a male lover he was rather fond of. The man had fallen asleep on his robe’s sleeve, so for the sake of undisturbing his lover, he cut his sleeve,” the blue-eyed American elaborated, opening the box for a giant rabbit to pop up, Chinese characters underneath it.

The stories confused Yoongi. “Isn’t homosexuality more shamed upon now? What happened?” he inquired, actually interested in the topic.

At his question, the tiny smile that had taken roots on Violet’s face fell. “Outside influences happened. It’s the same for Japan. Many generals had male lovers, but as time went on and connections with people outside of their nearby lands came to be, it was more frowned upon on. It’s not like they are shamed upon. In fact, it’s more open in China and Japan, but it’s not spoken about. Say we were in one of the areas and had two classmates of the same gender dating. We wouldn’t verbally speak about it much. In these areas, people are more reserved.”

The man looked at her wearily. How did she know so much? She could be telling him lies, but what would the point be? “Why is any of this important to you?”