Paris. France. 

      They were finally here.

    The first concert of the European Tour was in Paris, but the boys would have a few day off before the rehearsal and the concert. It could have been thanks to the pressure of the fans but it was in fact already planned by the organization of the tour.

      As soon as they arrived in Paris, they barricaded themselves in their hotel rooms and did not leave for the first 48 hours, too busy as they were catching up on their lost hours of sleep over the past few days.

     After that, everyone was visibly rested and in good shape, even Jungkook who had regained color and whose face seemed less hollow. On the third day in the morning, Jin went to wake Jungkook but the maknae was still sound asleep and didn't seem to want to get up.

     "Wake up JK!!!"

      "Nnnngh..." Jungkook groaned, burying his head under the duvet "you're too loud hyung!"

     "JK, we are in Paris. PARIS!! And this is the last day we can visit the city!"

      Jungkook's sleepy voice was heard under the duvet he held firmly above his head.

     "Paris?"

     "Yes! Paris, the city of love! And of gastronomy but that's pretty much the same thing to me," Jin said, rubbing his stomach.

     Jungkook let his head emerge from under the duvet, but his half-open eyes closed instantly as the light flooded his room.

     "Love? Are you organizing a date?"

    "Yes JK, our first date, remember? Dress quickly, I've already planned our day and the program starts at nine o'clock."

     "What about breakfast?" Jungkook whined.

     "Later don't worry, we will eat like kings!" Jin said while slipping away and going to dress himself.

    A few minutes later, the two boys came out of the hotel in the heart of the fourth arrondissement of Paris, dressed in a simple way but their faces hidden under a mask and a cap that made them unrecognizable in the middle of a sea of ​​masked people. 

     Wearing a mask was not part of French culture before the pandemic, but this practice was now mandatory and allowed them to go completely unnoticed. They noticed that some French people had difficulty wearing the mask correctly and that here and there noses appeared, giving these people a ridiculous look that made the two boys smile.

     At the end of November, the air was cool but the sun honored them with its presence. Jin therefore led them to a café terrace that offered a splendid view of the Seine and Notre-Dame Cathedral, unfortunately still under reconstruction since the fire in 2019, but whose outlines were still as majestic.

     Taking a seat around their table, Jin grabbed the menu from the table and started to read it as Jungkook exclaimed, raising his haid:

     "Hyung! Do you feel this heat in the air?"

     " Yeah! In winter, the terraces of Parisian cafes are heated to allow people to have their coffee outside despite the cold,"explained Jin, who had conducted his own research before, smiling at Jungkook's surprise.

     "So, they heat the air outside?" Jungkook asked dumbfounded at the concept.

     "But the hot air is contained by the transparent tarps around us to avoid wasting electricity."

     "Why not just heat the inside of the cafe in the winter like anywhere else?"

     "Because we are not anywhere else, we are in Paris! It would deprive us of the happiness of contemplating the beauties of the city at any time of the year!"

       "Why do I feel like you swallowed a tour guide before coming here?" Jungkook asked, smiling.

      "It's been an eternity that I want to visit the city, you can't understand, it was my dream to be able to go out like this here and not just for the concert," Jin was so excited he was getting cute and his pure joy made Jungkook happy. "Do you mind that I know more than you for once Mr. Know-it-all?"

     "Pfffff, nonsense! Now that you taught me that, I know more than you again," Jungkook chuckled. 

    "Yaaaa! give me back my knowledge, I don't want to share it anymore since you are not respectful to a wise man!"

     "You have no idea how much you sound like a grandfather even when you have such a young face. Is it your impending birthday and your 30s running towards you that makes you like this?" Junkook said on a moking tone, referring to Jin's birthday which would arrive a few days later, when they stopped in Berlin. 

    The maknae expected Jin to counterattack with a scathing retort about his eternal youth, but he was surprised when instead he admitted:

    "Maybe. Oddly I have the impression of having lived as much as an old man. I found this year endless. As if I had lived the suffering of an entire life and the known true love, the one that 'you only meet once in your life."

    Jin gently grabbed Jungkook's hand and stroked it affectionately. Jungkook looked at him fondly but still felt sad about the elder's feelings.

    "You know hyung, what you say could be very beautiful and it means a lot to me, but why are you making it sound like you have come to the end of your life and that you're going to die at the end of the year?"

    Before Jin could answer, the sudden arrival of the waiter who didn't speak a word of Korean took them by surprise.  The man wear an impeccable suit and an immaculate apron from the waist to the knees. His white shirt and black sleeveless jacket revealed a black bow tie around his folded collar. 

    "Bonjour messieurs! Est-ce que vous avez déjà choisi ce que vous voulez?"

   Jin and Jungkook exchanged a panicked look as he didn't understand anything except "Bonjour".

    "Aah, well..." Jungkook said uncertain searching for words in english, "we... don't... we don't understand... french. English?" 

    "It's okay, you can speak in english," the waiter told them, in a strong French accent that they even had trouble understanding. "Have you already chosen what you want, did you have time to look at the menu?"

    "Yes," Jin said, grabbing the menu.

      He took care of their order in broken English, pointing to a few items on the menu. He wanted to discover a real French breakfast.

     A few minutes later, the waiter returned with their order and placed on the table one cup of hot coffee with milk and one cup of hot chocolate, two glasses of squeezed orange juice, a plate with mini croissants, pains au chocolat, pains aux raisins and apple turnovers, and finally a basket of fresh and crispy bread - the famous French baguette - delicately floured and sliced, accompanied by squares of fresh butter to spread yourself and small jars of various jam - strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and apricot jam – and honey.

     "Woooow," Jin exclaimed, the sight of which feasted on him in advance, and taking the time to take a photo of it to share this with his fans on social networks.

     "Merci," Jungkook told the waiter, in French as that was one of the words they had to learn for their concert in France.

     "You're welcome, bon appétit !" The waiter said, before leaving them to attend to the other customers.

     The two Koreans enjoyed this surprisingly sweet breakfast - because the French didn't eat salty in the morning and a bowl of kimchi rice would never have been part of their first meal of the day. They found the viennoiseries delicious but for them, it was more like a snack than a breakfast and they could never have eaten it every day at the risk of lacking essential nutrients.

     Once their breakfast was finished and the bill paid to the waiter, they asked him to take a picture with them. Then, they set out to conquer this fascinating city.

    A few meters from the café they had just left, they took a tourist river boat which went up the Seine River and deposited them on a quay near the Eiffel Tower which they climbed on foot, not wishing to take the elevator, taking a lot of photos as they climb through the sky. They also asked people to take photos of them together in memory of this memorable climb

     From up there, they admired the view over the blue rooftops of the French capital, realizing that Paris was an incredibly flat city except for a small hill which a city map indicated as "Butte Montmartre" the Montmartre Hillock.

     They were surprised to learn that when it was built in the 19th century, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest monument in the world because today, it seemed tiny next to the Parisian skyscrapers of the business district which were visible in the distance and which were themselves small compared to Seoul skyscrapers.

     Leaving the Eiffel Tower, they crossed the Champ de Mars and after a few minutes of walking, found themselves walking down the Avenue des Champs-Elysées where luxury boutiques lined up. They walked until they saw the huge Arc de Triomphe which they climbed before taking photos of the various boulevards which lined up all around like the concrete rays of a stone sun. 

    Then they came down and and stopped at a luxury jewelry store where Jungkook bought two matching white gold rings set with diamond shards, inside which was engraved in French "Je t'aime" meaning 'I love you'.

     Jin completed their purchase with two chains also in white gold as they would have to hide the rings most often and the best thing was to slip them to a chain around their neck and hide them under their clothes. From the end of the two chains hung a matching medallion made in the same white gold: on one was engraved with a shining star and on the other a crescent moon.

     Coming out of the jewelry store, Jungkook exclaimed:

     "I take the moon!"

     "But I am the moon!" Jin objected.

     "Exactly, I'll be the one who will carry the moon," Jungkook simply justified himself.

     They each slipped their chains inside their rings and helped each other pass it around their neck, then looked at each other happily:

     "Now we really are a couple!" Jungkook cried happily as if he had dreamed about it all his life and he slipped his hand into Jin's and they walked together like that along the Hausmanian boulevards.

     For lunch, they went into a bakery and bought sandwiches, still made from the famous baguette which decidedly accompanied the French in every meal as rice did for the Koreans. 

      They joined the the courtyard of the Louvre Museum while eating and admired the majesty of the former Parisian Royal Palace and the modernity of the Pyramid of the Louvre whose glasses strongly reverberated the sunlight in a blinding glow. The pyramid gave the impression of having no place in the middle of this monarchical decor and yet, it had slipped in perfectly and people only had eyes for it.

     Then, they crossed the Tuileries Gardens which bordered the palace and threw themselves on green metallic chairs around a big fountain where they finished their meal and watched with childish curiosity children push their toy sailboats with a stick into the fountain pond.

     "JK, do you want to play with a boat?" Jin asked pointing with envy to the merchant behind his cart who rented the small sailboats.

     "Hyung, I'm not a kid," Jungkook protested.

     "Well, as for me, I want to play!" Jin replied. 

    "I thought you said you were an old man at the end of life" Jungkook replied with irony.

     "I changed my mind, this city gave me back the shine of eternal youth!" Jin exclaimed with a big smile.

     He jumped up from his green chair and went to rent a boat. The boatman handed him a visibly handmade wooden sailboat, accompanied by a wooden stick to push the toy boat into the Tuileries pond. 

     Jin realized that the boat was not that small when he received it in his arms. It was also quite heavy, but luckily the pond was only a few feet away. So he gently placed it on the surface of the water and began to push it around the pond with his stick before resolving to push it further towards the center of the pond where he joined the other boats.

     Jungkook smile while he picked up his camera and captured the moment with several pictures that captured his boyfriend's candid smile in front of his boat. He only had children around him and he looked no different from them, in his simple happiness.

      Each sailboat had its own color to avoid confusing them but despite everything, Jin didn't take his eyes off his and that's why when a little boy used his stick to push Jin's boat instead of his, Jin didn't let it go and with his own stick and pouting, he pushed that of the dumbfounded little boy. 

     Jin tried to explain to him:

     "It is mine."

     But seeing that the little boy obviously did not understand English, Jin repeated "this boat, mine" this time adding the gesture to the word, pointing at the boat and then slapping his chest several times.

      The little boy's surprised face at first broke into a smile and he laughed with a tinkling laugh before nodding his head and Jin laugh as well, not knowing why but the boy's laugh was contagious. 

     He didn't realize that the more he laughed his special laugh, the more the child laughed too, and no one would have been able to tell which of the two laughs was more contagious because both were pure. 

     Finally, the French boy said, pointing to the boat and then to Jin with his finger:

    "C'est ton bateau." 

     It's your boat. Jin in turn nodded because without understanding French, the little boy's gestures were quite telling. He gave a thumbs up before raised his hand to give the boy a high five. The latter understood and clapped his hand to Jin's. The two burst out laughing again like good friends, as if one of them weren't a man nearly thirty but a seven year old little boy like the other.

     "Me, Jin," Jin introduced himself, putting a hand on his chest again.

     "Et moi, Adrien. A-dri-en. Et elle, c'est ma maman." Meaning 'And I'm Adrien. And her, she's my mom'. He pointed to his mother, who was reading a book, sitting on a chair nearby.

     Jin who couldn't even repeat the boy's first name didn't dare say Jungkook's name, probably too complicated for a French kid and instead, said pointing at him:

      "Him, J."

     "Djay?" Adrien repeated, never having heard someone bear that weird first name, looking at Jungkook who smiled at him and waved at him with one hand, holding his camera with the other, not surprised to see Jin fraternizing with a stranger even if it was a kid. He had done it several times during the trips made on their show Bon Voyage.

     Jin nodded at the boy's questioning, congratulating him on his pronunciation by raising a thumb and exclaiming, "Good!".

    "C'est ton frère?" Adrien asked curiously.

    But Jin this time failed to understand that the little boy was asking him if Jungkook was his brother. The language barrier could not be overcome so easily. So he just smiled and the two went back to playing with their boat.

     After some time, Jin and Jungkook left the Tuileries Gardens and reached the last stop of the day before returning to the hotel: the Montmartre district.

     They took the metro which stopped at Montmartre. They took a spiral staircase that seemed endless and whirled them through formidable illustrations before making them emerge in the middle of the hill of Montmartre, at the foot of new staircases at the end of which stood a monumental white building similar to an oriental palace like the Taj Mahal: the Sacré-Cœur, meaning the Sacred-Heart.

     Jin and Jungkook stared in amazement at the sight in front of them.

     "Woooooooooow!" Jin exclaimed as always, his eyes full of stars.

     "It's amazing..." Jungkook whispered, taking few pictures.

     Sitting or lying on the slopes of the hill or on the steps of the stairs, many people were gazing at the view, taking a picnic, sleeping, reading or... kissing languidly.

     Both boys blushed at the sight, because that kind of kisses where tongues were so mobilized seemed to be reserved for the private space of the bedroom, not for the public space, in front of everyone's eyes. 

   Jin turned to Jungkook, whose wide eyes were fixed on a couple who seemed to devour each other's mouths rather than kissing.

     He nudged Jungkook to wake him from his torpor and the maknae blinked before clearing his throat.

     "Um, I think that's called the French Kiss," Jin said, as embarrassed and flushed as the younger one. "It's another way of showing the world that they love each other, I guess."

     "Should we try to do it here too?" Asked the maknae, suddenly interested in that French practice. He knew that French people, even men, used to greet by kissing each other on each cheek – that way of greeting people was called "la bise"–, but the French kiss in public seemed to him of a different order. The upper level he thought. What a terrifying people! Or terrific?

    "Uh... no, absolutely not! Let's go up instead!" Jin shouted, grabbing Jungkook's arm and almost running up the stairs to the Sacré-Cœur. 

     So out of breath and sweaty, they arrived at the top of the hill, realizing that the remarkably white religious building with elaborately carved reliefs into gargoyles and other statues was even larger than they had imagined. 

      Turning around, they discovered a breathtaking view of the Parisian blue rooftops and the various monuments of the city that they had already visited during the day. Everything looked tiny from there.

     A street vendor approached them and offered them a heart-shaped padlock. Facing their confused expression, he indicated to them the barrier that separated the Sacré-Coeur terrace from the hill and they suddenly noticed that it was covered with padlocks, most of them in the shape of a heart, on which had been written the initials of many. people, couples, friends or siblings, to swear eternal affection.

     "Oui  Yes!" Jungkook exclaimed excitedly to the seller, who handed him a large keyless padlock in exchange for a two euros coin, as well as an indelible marker to write down the desired inscription.

     "What are we going to inscribe on it, hyung?" He asked Jin, a wide grin breaking through his face and Jin laughed to see him so excited.

    "JJK + KSJ? or just J-J for Jin-Jungkook?" Jin suggested.

     "J aime J," Jungkook decided.

     "J loves J?" the elder asked in confirmation.

     "Yeah!" Jungkook smiled, writing the simple message on the lock and returning the marker to the seller.

    "Jin loves Jungkook or Jungkook loves Jin?" Jin asked with amusement. 

     "Both!" Jungkook replied with joy, "it's a reversible sentence because our love is mutual!"

     As a souvenir, they took a photo of the lock with each a finger pointing at it, with Jungkook's tattooed finger and Jin's curved finger easily recognizable. In the background of the photo was the buildings with blue roofs of the city of Paris like a blurred background. Then hung their locks to seal their undying love in front of the Sacré-Cœur.

     They did not enter the religious building where they should have taken off their caps, and walked around it to reach the Montmartre district in the alleys of which were heard old and well-known French songs such as these of Edith Piaf, "La vie en rose", literally The life in pink.

     "Voir la vie en rose", "Seeing life in pink" was a French expression to mean looking at the positive sides of life. And really, at that moment, Jin and Jungkook felt like they were on a cloud where they only saw happiness and love.

      They sat down at a table on a cafe terrace covered with a red and white checkered tablecloth where they sipped hot coffee for one and hot chocolate for the other, all around a plate of crêpes, the French thin pancakes covered with a package of melted chocolate. 

      The coffee Jin ordered was mentioned so a "café gourmand", a "gourmet coffee," which apparently meant it was accompanied by three small French pastries chosen at random by the waiter: this time, Jin had a raspberry cream cake, a chocolate eclair, and a lemon mering pie, that he shared with Jungkook. So, that was a French snack, looks like breakfast this morning, they thought.

     While they were eating in this ambiance of ancient France, one of the hill's many portrait artists offered to paint their portraits and they agreed to temporarily remove their masks. A few minutes later, the portraits were done and they were more than delighted by the work of art.

     Jungkook pay the artist, admired the work one last time and then folded the paper up and stowed it in the inside pocket of his jacket, near his heart.

________

A/N : The chapters where there is only happiness are so rare, I hope you enjoyed =)

https://youtu.be/XtASVfayE44

L'envie d'aimer (The desire to love) ; this cover by a korean artist is incredible