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The tour guide’s name is Lynn. She has dark hair and red lips. It’s her third year at the museum, and she’s up for a promotion soon. She has memorized not just the script, but also the answers to just about all of the questions she could possibly be asked. Lynn is very good at her job.
The new exhibit – Queer Histories – isn’t really new anymore. It’s been up and running for about four months with about five months to go. It’s been an incredibly popular exhibit, far more than the museum had expected. People fly from across the world just to come see the premier exhibit about queer historical figures. These are histories that never get told anywhere else, all conveniently in one place. There’s a possibility that the exhibit will stay open past its preplanned dates, as long as the dead sea scrolls don’t mind being postponed. They’ve been dead for two thousand years and can probably wait a couple extra months as long as people still want to learn about Lord Byron.
The exhibit is much larger than any visitor expects when they come to it. They enter knowing like five different people they’ll see here. They know about a couple of ancient Greek figures, some nineteenth century authors, that eighteenth century Korean couple, some Stonewall leaders, but they don’t realize just how many hundreds of voices they’ll actually be able to read about. If you were to read every single blurb of every single display, you’ll be in here for about eight hours.
Lynn’s tour doesn’t take you through every single person of course. Just some of the more notable ones, and some of her favorites. Upgrading your ticket is a small additional cost to the entry fee, but well worth it, because you get a fuller picture of these people’s lives and get to ask questions that you can’t get answers for with the limited space on each placard.
She does six of these a day and is currently on her second one. This tour is a smaller group because it’s the middle of the week. A few ladies, a parent with their teenaged child who has likely recently come out and is trying to understand their kid a little better which she thinks is sweet. There’s an elderly couple, a man who looks like he goes to every museum exhibit ever and will correct her if she gets anything wrong, and a recently married gay couple.
“I’m going to bring you folks over to this next exhibit,” she says, ushering them onto the next wall, which is a little bit bigger than the last few. It’s one of the more popular ones in the whole exhibit, because of course this is one of the most famous love stories in all of recorded history. Sketches and frayed pages make up most of the wall. “This is one of the most prominent queer authors of all time. I’m sure all of you have heard of him and his partner already. Min Yoongi was born sometime between 1690 and 1700. He lived in a very small port village in what is now modern-day Ulsan.” Lynn gestures to the most prominent feature of the display, which is a messy sketch drawn of the man by an unknown artist. “Little is known about his younger years because most of what we know about that time is autobiographical. For the better part of his youth, he lived and worked at his family’s inn with his father, though that inn would later burn down in 1722. Although there is no known cause of the fire, historians believe it was likely arson, but they don’t know who would have done it or why it would have been done. Records from his village have found that he was quite beloved, and at one point paid for repairs in his town after a bad storm.”
She points to the burnt up remains of some of Min Yoongi’s possessions which were found at his family’s inn, and there’s a small text box behind glass which explains further why and how it could have been an arson that destroyed the inn.
“There are no records of Min Yoongi’s death, but he would go onto write books into the late 1760s, so Min Yoongi lived an abnormally long life given the time period.”
Lynn continues, “Min Yoongi, is one of the best-selling novelists of all time, preceded only by Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare, he’s estimated to have sold approximately 1 billion books.” A few of the people in her tour look stunned at that number. It truly is insane. “He has currently and will always have the most famous queer love stories ever written, and one of those stories, is his own.
“As some of you might already know, Min Yoongi wrote at least twelve novels over the course of his life, but he would only ever see four of those novels published, with the rest of them published posthumously. Of course, if you haven’t read any of them, you will be able to find a copy in the gift shop, keep that 1 billion and counting!” Lynn says with a smile and a wink. Some of the people laugh at her little joke. It works every time. “Min Yoongi wrote about queer romance well before it was accepted or even acknowledged in his culture, and this is why many of his works went unpublished until after his death. Many of his books are semi-autobiographical, especially his most famous work: The Innkeeper and His Pirate. This story is based on the true events of how he met and later fell in love with his partner Jung Hoseok.”
Two of the tour attendees look at each other, smiling brightly. One is slightly shorter, with box blonde hair, no more than 30 years old and a slightly outdated fashion sense. The other is about the same age, dark hair and tanned skin. They appear to be hanging on the tour guides every word. They’re holding hands; it is very common to see same sex partners at the Queer Histories exhibit. Lynn spotted them earlier as being recently married because they’re incredibly clingy and too young to have been together for very long.
“Jung Hoseok is actually quite famous in his own right, as you’ll see here,” she gestures towards the display right next to her. This one also has a sketch of the man in question. It’s alarming how modern the two men look. Like you could meet them right out on the street today. There are also a few old trinkets with the exhibit trapped behind smudged glass from people looking or pointing. An incredibly old, and severely burnt chess set and two very old books stand out. “Just like his partner, he was born between 1690 and 1700, and he also has no known date of death. Jung Hoseok is perhaps most known for his time as a pirate. At one time, he was one of the most wanted men in the world. He dropped off the face of the earth in 1723 and this is largely recognized to be the time that he settled down with Min Yoongi.
“Fragments of their journals and notes to each other have been recovered all along the coastline because the two of them travelled together for many years before they settled down on Minjung island off the coast of mainland China. The island of course was named for the two men. They built a house on this island, which was discovered in 1925, but unfortunately, looters had already stripped away much of the valuables that the men had collected. What things were spared have been divided up between several museums. Here of course, but also at the London Museum and the National Museum of Korea in Seoul.” Quite a shame that everything was distributed around the world instead of staying together. Lynn imagines that they would’ve wanted all their belongings to stay together, just as they stayed together for over forty years.
“You can see one of the notes that Jung Hoseok wrote to Min Yoongi here,” she gestures to one of the open books behind the glass case. It has almost entirely faded script with the English translation on a plaque beside it. “In their later years, the two of them would refer to each other as husbands, though it was impossible for them to have had a legal marriage during this era.”
“Did they stay together?” An elderly woman asks.
“Yes,” Lynn smiles. “They stayed together.”
“They must have really loved each other,” the woman says fondly, looking at her husband warmly.
“Yes, they very much did. According to Min Yoongi’s book, Jung Hoseok stayed at the inn belonging to his family and that’s where they fell in love. His first novel details the first few years of their relationship but doesn’t mention the fire that burned down the inn. In fact, at least a year of Min Yoongi’s life is believed to have been skipped over in his novel, and no sources know what happened in that lost year or why he chose not to write about it. The reason we know there was a fire is because many of these artifacts were saved from the rubble of the inn by the residents of Min Yoongi’s small village, and their writings of the event. They then buried his belongings in a ceremonial empty grave because they believed him to have died in the fire.” Lynn points to the burnt items, including the chess set and books.
“Did Min Yoongi become a pirate?”
“No,” Lynn shakes her head. “He never became a pirate. After they fell in love, Jung Hoseok quit his dangerous life to spend it with Min Yoongi.”
“How come no one knows how or when they died?” one of the two younger men asks. He speaks with an accent, but his English is very practiced. Lynn looks at him a little closer for the first time and realizes that he looks a little bit like the sketch of Jung Hoseok. She worries that’s racist of her to think because not every Korean man looks the same, but the resemblance is still quite striking. She shakes off her surprise with a gentle smile.
“Well, at the time, neither of them was a very significant figure. As historians, we see this couple as being one of the most famous to have ever lived. You and I know these names like Romeo and Juliet, but while they were alive, they were little more than two men. In some eyes they were criminals for being in love, not even to mention the very real crimes committed by Jung Hoseok. Unfortunately, no records of their lives exist after 1769 when Min Yoongi would publish his final book.”
“What do you think happened to them?” The other of the two young men asks. And he looks a little like Min Yoongi. Lynn needs a coffee.
“What do I think?” Lynn says, alarmed by the question. No one ever asks her what she thinks. “I think… that they remained very much in love until they died. It is believed that they left Minjung island before they died, so I’ve always thought that maybe they returned to Min Yoongi’s village. Or maybe to Jung Hoseok’s.”
“I’ve read all of his books,” the taller man says. “Yoongi wrote a whole book about a quest for the fountain of youth. Maybe he actually found it.”
Lynn smiles. Of course this isn’t possible, but she’s impressed that he’s read one of the unpublished books because most people have only ever read the canonical four. “That would be quite wonderful, wouldn’t it?”
“Yeah, that would be something,” he says quietly.
“If you have any more questions about Min Yoongi or Jung Hoseok, I’ll ask you to save them for the end so that we can move onto James Baldwin over here…”
The two young men let her voice drift off as they stay behind to look at this particular display for longer.
“You look young in that picture,” one of the men whispers to the other.
“I think I got cuter with age,” the other responds.
“You certainly did.”
“Hoseok, they got your chin all wrong,” he says, pointing at the sketch.
Hoseok shrugs. “It’s a bit late for me to file a complaint.” Yoongi walks a little closer to the glass case to look at all the forgotten treasures they’ve left behind over the years. He sees a scrap of fabric which he swears he remembers from somewhere, but it’s been so long that he can’t possibly conjure up its origin. His memories of his years do not come in items or belongings. He remembers words Hoseok has said to him. Places he’s been with his pirate. Kisses he’s given him.
Yoongi would rather like his chess set back, though. He lost all of Hoseok’s messages to him that he left in books, and he knows that almost none of them have been found. There’s only three—the one here, and two in Korea.
Yoongi has to squint at the page down below him to read it. Hoseok’s handwriting, just the same then as it is now, but it’s so faded and there is fire damage as well. The museum curators have helpfully put a magnifying glass on the writing so that Yoongi can read what it says.
My dear Yoongi,
I find myself putting you into the words of these pages. In every book, you are there. Every man is you. Every face is yours. Books are more enjoyable to read when they are filled with you. When I put them down and you’re gone, my heart aches and I want only for you. As you’re reading this, I’m thinking of you. As long as I breathe, my thoughts are of you only.
With love, your Hoseok
“You never write me love letters anymore,” Yoongi makes a sad face.
“I write you love texts?” Hoseok offers.
“That’s not the same.”
Hoseok nods and kisses him on the cheek before wrapping one arm strongly around his side, hand on his waist. “I’ll buy you a whole bookstore then and write you a note in each book.”
Yoongi smiles. That sounds nice. He misses having all of Hoseok’s love letters crammed into the margins of his books. Hoseok does still have a habit of writing all over books, but it’s not so much to leave messages, it’s just how he takes them in. Yoongi enjoys it. He only ever reads books that Hoseok has finished because he loves the little things that Hoseok has underlined and tries to decipher what it was about those lines that Hoseok loved so much.
Hoseok has about fifty copies of each of Min Yoongi’s books, all different editions, different covers, different languages. Anytime he sees one he doesn’t have; he adds it to their collection. The library at their current house is the size of Yoongi’s old inn. Now, of course Yoongi has written over a hundred books by now, with different names every few decades because that author will have died eventually, but Hoseok’s most treasured are the ones with the name Min Yoongi on the spine.
Hoseok kisses Yoongi’s cheek again as he reads about himself intently.
“They think our marriage wasn’t legal,” Yoongi scoffs after a few seconds.
“Yoongi, it wasn’t legal until like ten years ago.”
“Well, they need to update their history books.”
Hoseok rolls his eyes and rubs his side comfortingly. “How do you plan on updating them?”
“I’ll edit our Wikipedia page.”
“Yoongi, every time you do that, the moderators think you’re a troll and they revert all your edits back to the way they were before.”
Yoongi sighs. “My next career will be historian.”
“Is that so?”
“Mm, yes,” Yoongi says. “I’ll tell them lies about us. I’ll say that you became a police officer, and I became a bounty hunter.”
“I hate the police more than anything,” Hoseok scoffs. All these years and Hoseok still loathes the police. To be fair, they shot at him a lot and managed to hit him a few times too. He did pillage and kill a few people, including police, but that was part of the job back then.
Hoseok smiles so warmly at the sketched picture of Yoongi and then at the real deal. His husband is so devastatingly beautiful. He can’t believe that museums have learned so much information about them but so little. He’s astounded that no one’s research into them has turned up the fact that they both looked incredibly young in the 1760s, when they should supposedly have been in their 70s by then. Hoseok thinks Yoongi would look incredibly cute as an old man. He’s never gotten a glimpse of it, but he thinks he would just about faint if he saw his perfect Yoongi, wrinkly with old age spots. Hoseok would love him just as much or more. Still, he can’t deny he prefers Yoongi this way. His eternal youth never cracking once. His hair is just as soft and full. His skin as clear and pretty. His body ebbing in and out of weight occasionally, but always being exactly what Hoseok loves, never any less or any more. Not bad for 254.
Hoseok looks at the little things they’ve lost over time. A broken compass that he once kept close to his heart lays on a red velvet backdrop behind the glass inside. He lost that some hundred years ago and forgot about it. There are a few shards of pottery that they used when they lived on their island, but he wouldn’t say they valued it that much. They kind of just left it there. A few pieces of fabric from clothing and various other junk. A lot of it is garbage. There’s a tricorn hat that Hoseok scoffs at because it’s not even his. Hoseok still has his. It’s still in pretty good condition even.
They both recognize what was once one of Yoongi’s leather-bound journals but is now burnt almost in half. It’s amazing that it still exists in any form. The little blurb about it on the side says that there is almost no legible writing still inside the journal but that it is believed to be the first draft of Yoongi’s first book. It is in fact. Yoongi remembers writing that book. In between Hoseok’s visits, he would sit at the counter waiting for guests to come to the inn, and he would write all about his pirate. The words there must be so horrible and delusional. He didn’t have any perspective on life yet, he was too young, had never even left his little village.
“I wonder how you described me in those pages,” Hoseok smiles warmly.
“Dark, beautiful, handsome, heroic, strong. Take your pick.”
“Those were the worst days of my life,” Hoseok says, and then takes a grip on Yoongi’s hand to assure himself that he can’t ever leave. “Always having to leave you was the stupidest and hardest thing I’ve ever done. I can’t believe I did it for nearly five years.”
“I forgive you,” Yoongi says, smiling when he looks at Hoseok. He has, quite literally not aged more than three years since Hoseok rescued him. Yoongi has kind of lost track, but he’d say physically they’re about 30 or a few years over. Hoseok looks different from when they first met. He’s older, more mature, but he’s much, much handsomer. He’s sexier, more grown into his body and face. Back then, he was the most stunning person Yoongi had ever seen, now Hoseok is the most beautiful man who’s ever lived.
“You’re looking at me in that way again.”
“I can’t help it.”
Hoseok looks around the museum to assess how many people there are around them and when he sees that no one is looking their way he presses his lips softly to Yoongi’s. They melt together just as they always do. It’s familiar but it’s new because this moment is one they’re creating here.
“I like when you look at me that way,” Hoseok smiles when he leaves the kiss.
“It’s the reason we’re still young after all these years,” Yoongi reminds him. The moment they ever fall out of love, as if that could ever happen, that’s when the magic is up. The water in the fountain will dry up, and they’ll age normally. But it’s an impossibility because Hoseok or Yoongi falling out of love with each other is just as likely as a cow jumping over the moon. An eternity is certainly not enough time to be with Hoseok, Yoongi thinks. It feels like he’s only scratched the surface of things he wants to do with Hoseok so far.
Hoseok kisses him. He doesn’t care who’s looking. They went through nearly two centuries of not being allowed to kiss outside of a secluded room, and now they’re in a Queer Histories exhibit. And two of the biggest names in the whole room are theirs. So yeah, Hoseok is going to kiss him all he wants. From hiding, running, despair, experiencing the lowest of the low, the very bottom of the bottom. To standing here, knowing that their love story is one of the most well known in the world.
He's glad portions of it have been erased. He doesn’t want people to know the full story. But he’s proud that he and Yoongi have become a representation of love. And the two of them are alive to see it.
“What was that?” Yoongi says, pulling away, totally out of breath. He doesn’t look or care that a few people have noticed. People who have noticed that they look so much like the real Min Yoongi and Jung Hoseok.
“I love you,” Hoseok says.
Yoongi sighs with a smile. That’s a pretty good explanation. “I love you too.”