Work Text:
It was a typically hectic day at work; couples ordering wedding cakes, parents buying birthday cakes for their children, students buying cookies and drinks to have while they're working on their assignment. It was certainly busy and tiring.
Nevertheless, Jimin loves his job. Loves the feeling of satisfaction of seeing people smile wide when they taste the baked goods he and his team made with all their heart. Loves the feeling of pride when he reads online reviews from people who bought the food online. It drives him to better himself, make new things that he thinks the customers will love, experience with the flavors.
"Thank you, we hope you enjoy our muffins! Come back soon!" He smiled cheerfully at the last customer, sighing as they leave through the door.
"Alright, everyone. Time to close the shop." He clapped his hand as he turned to the rest of the team, seeing them nod and moving out to do their assigned job during closing time.
Closing up the store felt both satisfying and disappointing. Satisfying, because all the things above. Disappointing, because he can't see the customers smile at him again. But, there's always tomorrow, he tells himself. So that disappointment never stays with him for long.
"What should we do with the leftover cakes?" A coworker asks him. He's a newbie, if Jimin remembers correctly.
"Wooyoung, right? Go ahead and take whatever you like." Jimin answers as he continues to wipe down the display.
Clean up was fast and one by one, Jimin's coworkers left with a wish for good night. Jimin stayed back to do a final check for the stocks and accounting. It is his bakery after all, one that was passed down to him. That's why he has a passion for baking. Since he was young, he always helped his grandparents running the shop. Ever since he created his own cake, he knew what he wanted to do when he grew up.
Right now, earphones plugged in, a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies (he makes a jar of cookies to take home every week) and a glass of milk on the side, Jimin writes down the income the shop has made today, as he always does every night. Calculates how much is needed to pay for the stock the next day. So far so good.
Immersed in his work, Jimin didn't realize that the clock nearly hits 11 in the evening and that water droplets has begun to drop from the sky. Soon enough it was raining hard, borderline a storm. Thunder rumbles in the sky at a distance, far away from where Jimin is. He doesn't even realize it had started raining, music blasting in his ears, shutting the sound of the rain and knocking on the glass door.
Stretching with a yawn after his work is finished, Jimin leaned back on the chair and sighed, closing his eyes. It was getting droopy with each passing second. He looked at the clock on his phone, it was just a little bit over 11. He looked out to the door, eyes widening in surprise. Not only because it was raining outside and he didn't hear it, but because there's someone familiar outside that door. Peering into the window. Soaked from the rain.
Jimin scrambled up from his seat and tore off his earphones from his ears, then he ran towards the door and hastily unlocked the door, letting the person in. Cold wind blew into the room when he opened the door, and Jimin shivered as he closes the door and locked them behind him.
"Stupid rain coming out of nowhere oh my God-" the person mumbled under his breath, as if not caring that Jimin is right there, staring at him. He has dark brown hair, soaked as the rest of his body, long white coat that did not protect his body from the rain, grey turtleneck sticking onto his body and black pants also sticking to his legs.
"Hey, I know it's closing time and I'm sorry but you can see it's raining outside so-" the person looks up to him, stopping mid rambling, eyes widening. "Jimin? Park Jimin?"
Jimin felt like he came back to high school.
"Hi... Hi, Taehyung." He says, breathless.
Kim Taehyung wasn't someone popular who was part of the basketball club back in high school. Quite the contrary, he was just an ordinary student who Jimin remembered has passion for everything art related. Painting, photography, music; does he still play the saxophone?
"I'll- find something for you to change into." He says hastily, patting himself on the back for not stuttering after meeting his long time crush so suddenly. But he can definitely feel his face getting red and hot, he's definitely blushing. He walks past him and into the kitchen. He looked around the wardrobe where he and his team kept some spare clothes to change into.
Jimin's clothes are mostly oversized sweaters and sweatpants. The others has clothes their size, which is about the same as Taehyung. It doesn't feel right to lend their clothes but it feels awkward to lend Taehyung his own clothes. Still, because he's here, it would be logical to lend his clothes. So he grabbed a cream-colored oversized sweater and black sweatpants and walked into the main room. Taehyung was still standing near the door, shivering, unmoving, small puddles of water all around him.
"You can change in the back," Jimin says, pointing to the door he came in, "there's a toilet on the left."
"T-thanks," he said through gritted teeth, cold. Then he rushed towards the back, leaving Jimin alone to wonder if he had saved someone from his previous life to be able to meet Taehyung again, albeit unexpectedly. After graduating from college, Jimin puts all his focus to is bakery, so he wasn't able to catch up with old friends as much as he wanted to.
Jimin sighed dreamily.
He went to the back room, taking a mop that was hanging near the back exit and went back to the main room. He began mopping the puddle of water, working backwards following the trail that Taehyung left when he went to the toilet. As he reached the back room, he heard the toilet door being opened.
"You know, these clothes are a bit too big for you, but- hey, wait!"
Startled, Jimin snapped his head up to see Taehyung, now in his clothes, hair still wet from the rain and- he's barefoot? Taehyung ran up to him and hastily grabbed the mop before Jimin can do or even say anything to him. "This is my mess, let me clean it up. You just sit back and rest." He says to him.
"But-" "no no! Go back and eat your cookies, I got this." Jimin blinked at Taehyung who began mopping the trails backwards. He's not sure what to do. Not sure if he wants Taehyung to do the mopping, even if he said that he's the cause. He's still wrapping his head around the fact that Taehyung is here. In his store. Alone. Just the two of them.
Taehyung had already finished mopping when Jimin snapped out of his trance. His crush smiled at him sweetly, and Jimin just... shut down. He could feel his face getting hotter again. He can't take his eyes off him, his crescent eyes and boxy smile. He didn't change that much.
"So, this is where you've been all this time? Running your own bakery?" Taehyung asks, hands resting on his hips, curious eyes scanning around the kitchen. "Pretty neat, I gotta say. You must've been really busy if you can't come by for reunion."
"Uh... yeah." Jimin answers. "Wait- how do you know I've never came by? We're not from the same class..."
"I overheard Hyejin and Wheein talking about you, so I asked them."
"Oh, Hyejin and Wheein?" Jimin mumbled, then smiled at the fond memory of the two of them. "They're still attached to the hip, huh?"
Taehyung nods. "They're engaged now."
"They what?!" Jimin shouts.
"Wow, you're really behind, huh?" Taehyung laughs at him. "Let's sit down and talk. I mean it's raining, so I can't really go anywhere. Unless you want me to leave?"
"No! No, stay, please. It's raining. You said that. Um," Jimin shakes his head, utterly embarrassed, missing the way Taehyung looks at him with an amused smile. "I'll make you a drink."
"Can I have hot chocolate, please?" Taehyung blinks at him, eyes glimmering. Damn Park Jimin and his weak heart for this handsome, fluffy-haired man-
"Sure... I'll be right back." Taehyung gave him another boxed smile and left to the main room. After the door closed behind him, Jimin's knees went weak and he sat down on the floor, huffing and inhaling, holding them in as he muttered to himself, "he's here. I'm here. We're here. Just us."
Calm down Park Jimin. It's just Taehyung. Just Kim Taehyung, your crush for like, years. Calm down.
He did not calm down, but he has to get off the floor.
So Jimin rose back to his feet, walked over to a cabinet and took out a jar of unsweetened cocoa and carton milk. Next he pulled out a glass and a measuring cup. He carefully measured the milk and put it in the microwave and sets the temperature and timer to 60 seconds. While he waits for the milk to get warm, he measured the cocoa by weight and dumps it into the glass.
It didn't take long for Jimin to finish the hot beverage and brings it to Taehyung who was sitting at the table Jimin was sitting at. Taehyung smiled at him all the time, that same smile that still made Jimin's heart jumped to his throat, made his cheeks hot.
"It usually comes with cream and mini marshmallows, but it ran out." Jimin explains as he sets the glass down. "I'm sorry."
"Don't sweat about it. Thanks!" Taehyung says and takes a sip out of his freshly made drink, humming at the pleasant bittersweet taste and licking off the residue from his upper lip. Jimin watches. Because. Who can look away when Kim Taehyung does that. Who. Just. Who.
Seeing as Taehyung kept drinking, Jimin decides to sit down across him, where he was originally sitting. He looks down at his cookies, takes one off the plate and nibbles at it. The cookies had gone lukewarm now, but it's his cookies (and he might be a bit biased) so it's delicious anyway. He looks down at the cookies and- he baked eighteen. He only ate five ncluding the one he's holding. Only three is left on the plate.
"Did you eat my cookies?" Jimin blurts before he could stop himself.
Taehyung stops mid-drinking, wide eyes peeking between the gaps of his bangs. Then he laughed, nervous and sorry, as he sets down glass. "Okay, listen, your cookies smells so good and I'm kinda hungry and I couldn't help myself. And it's really delicious! I swear! I wanted to ask you but, uh, I got... carried away...? I can bake them again if you want to!"
"You can bake?" Jimin asks again. He's definitely surprised.
"You can teach me?" Taehyung smiles sheepishly. "Please? I really do feel guilty. O-or, do you want me to just pay? For the cocoa too? I don't mind, I have my wallet right here-"
As stated before, Jimin is weak.
{=====}
They ended up at the kitchen again, with various ingredients presented on the table. Butter, flour, egg, milk, baking soda, everything Jimin used to make his cookies. They washed their hands and put their apron on, Jimin lending Taehyung Wooyoung's apron. Taehyung looks excited. Is that a good sign? Maybe.
"I feel like a professional baker already!" Taehyung said to him.
Jimin just smiled, making sure everything is set on the table for Taehyung. Apparently, it's the first time Taehyung has ever baked something. Cookies are relatively easy, especially since it's the classic chocolate chip cookies. Nothing can go wrong with chocolate chip cookies.
Nothing can go wrong unless Jimin doesn't get his shit together because oh my God I'm teaching Kim Taehyung how to bake cookies-
He's so, so weak.
"So, where do we start?" Taehyung asks.
Jimin barely had to do anything while preparing the dough. He merely gave instructions while pointing to the ingredients, Taehyung diligently following every instruction and being careful while handling the ingredients. Jimin only stepped in to scoop out a tiny egg shell that fell into the bowl with the egg (Taehyung was whining and apologizing and pouting).
"Is this coffee?" Taehyung asks when we was preparing to cream the sugar with butter and eggs, inspecting a small bowl with dark brown powder in it
"You don't have to add it, I know you don't like coffee. But you can't really taste the coffee anyway." Jimin answers.
"How do you know I don't like coffee?" Taehyung asks again.
Jimin blushed and shuts his mouth.
Taehyung is doing everything as told with intense concentration in his eyes, the tip of his tongue peeking out the corner of his lips. Jimin watched Taehyung dumping all the dry ingredient into the wet, hand mixer in hand. He's posing with it as if it's a weapon, turns on the mixer and shoves it into the mixing bowl-
on high.
Jimin couldn't say anything as he was too late, white cloud of flour flying everywhere, Taehyung yelping in surprise as he scrambled to turn off the tool and sets it down. He shakes his head furiously, running his long fingers through his hair that was now doused in white from the flour.
"That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?" Taehyung peeked through his bangs.
"No..." Jimin shakes his head, heart skipping a beat at Taehyung's pout. "It's okay, rookie mistake."
"I spilled the flour!" Taehyung whines. "What do I do?"
"Don't worry about it." Jimin pats his shoulder, once, then quickly pulls it back by his side because that's not what he meant to do. "It's, uh, it's not that much! The cookies are gonna taste just fine, more or less."
"But I want it to taste like yours! It's good!" Taehyung's pout deepens and lord, he will be the death of Jimin.
In the end, Taehyung lets Jimin do the mixing because he "doesn't want to ruin the cookies any more" but how can Jimin work when Taehyung's right beside him? God help him, Taehyung in his clothes, eyes wide with curiosity, chewing on his bottom lip as he watch Jimin. God help him, but maybe He already did because Jimin isn't as nervous as he would if he was still in high school.
Then, Taehyung poured the bowl of chocolate chips and chopped chocolate into the cookie dough as Jimin instructed while the baker folds and mix them together. After a while, the batter is ready and Taehyung begs him to taste it because it smells so so so good. Of course Jimin didn't let him, "the egg is still raw and it isn't as good as baked ones." So, Taehyung agreed reluctantly.
And now, the waiting game.
They went back to the room, sipping on their drink silently. It's awkward now. Jimin always wanted to talk to Taehyung but now that they're together, Jimin doesn't know what to talk about. So he opted to stay quiet, tracing the rim of his now-empty glass with his finger. Taehyung is quiet too, looking out the locked glass door.
"You know," Taehyung began, startling Jimin, "I wish you were at the reunion."
"W-why?" Jimin splutters. That- wasn't anything Jimin thought Taehyung would say.
"I mean, you're cute," Taehyung began, "and you know, a lot of my friends say a lot of good things about you. So I'm really curious about you. I want to get to know you because I didn't use that chance on high school. I didn't ask your number too because I don't want to come off as creepy."
"And whaddya know? You're a really cool guy!" Taehyung cheers. "Now I really wish I talked to you earlier. But hey, can't turn back time, right? I'm happy with knowing you now. Do you think it's fate?"
"Uh- I-" Did he hear him right? He wanted to get to know him? As in- be his friend? This can't be real. Stupid Jimin. If only he had been braver maybe he could've approached Taehyung first. Maybe they could be friends. Boyfriends? No no no that's too far.
"Let's start over!" Taehyung suddenly says, holding out his right hand with a wide smile. "Hi, I'm Kim Taehyung and I want to be your friend. Maybe boyfriend?"
Jimin chokes on air.
"Too soon?" Taehyung cocks his head.
"I-" Jimin is rendered speechless once again, because- did- did Kim Taehyung said he wants to be Jimin's boyfriend? The Kim Taehyung? Appearing out of nowhere, wet from the rain, now in Jimin's clothes, baked cookies with him, and he wants to be Jimin's boyfriend? Maybe? Possibly?
"I-I'm Park Jimin..." Jimin starts taking Taehyung's hand with his own shaking ones. "I want to be your b-boyfriend too."
Wait.
Fuck.
Jimin's face turned beet red as he realized what he just said. Fuck. Fuck. He did not just say that. What the fuck Park Jimin. Taehyung's smile bursts to a grin, wide and happy, his hand - big and warm - gripping onto Jimin's smaller ones tightly. "Cool! Is this our blind date then?"
Before Jimin could say anything, an alarm echoes through the room and Taehyung's eyes widened, glimmering. Then he rushed up to his feet, shouting, "the cookies are ready!" He pulled Jimin up to his feet and dragged him to the kitchen, straight towards the oven.
Jimin collects his thoughts and rushed to grabbed the oven gloves while Taehyung opens the oven door open. Then, Jimin pulled out the tray of freshly baked cookies, the smell wafting through the room. He heard Taehyung sigh in delight behind him. "Can we eat it? Please? Right now?"
"It's still hot, just leave it be for a few minutes." Jimin replies.
"Okay fine." Taehyung pouts, then smiles. "This is a fun blind date!"
The night went on with Jimin continuously getting flustered, Taehyung swooning over the cookies he made almost all on his own, and getting to know each other better. That Taehyung now works as a freelance photographer and painter to get his works to the big picture, that Jimin is, of course, a baker.
That Taehyung knows about Jimin's little (big) crush on him, that Jimin found out Taehyung had always been single all this time. That they are getting closer and closer with every passing second spent on talking, laughing, teasing, and of course, eating cookies.
The rain had stopped, but they don't want to stop just yet. So they went on. Until Jimin can talk without stuttering or feeling shy. Until Taehyung's gaze turned soft and fond, a tint of pink on his honey tan skin. They're comfortable, closed off inside the bakery, warm and content.
Jimin would hate the rains after when he's about to leave. Forced him to stay without being able to do anything, having finished everything for the day. But for the first time, he's thankful. That the rain forced Jimin to stay. That the rain led Taehyung to his shop. To him.
Does Jimin thinks it's fate? Yes, he does.
And he has never been happier