Chapter Text
Valentine’s Day.
One would expect Park Jimin to love the holiday, with his sweet smiles and little giggles and soft fluffiness, with the way he finds the good in everything and everyone, the way he coos over puppies and kittens and never forgets a friend’s birthday. With the general happiness that seems to exude from him and the way he latches onto people like a little koala demanding hugs, one might expect him to adore the thought of a day filled with romantic love, but he most certainly does not.
Not that he has anything against the idea of Valentine’s Day, it’s just never worked out for him. Okay, so maybe that’s a lie. Maybe Valentine’s Day and everything about it annoys the fuck out of him. For one thing, Park Jimin has never even had a valentine. In all his twenty one years, never once has he spent the day with a significant other, being cute and sappy and all lovey-dovey like regular couples. He’s had his share of boyfriends, sure, they’ve just never lasted long enough to make it to Valentine’s Day. If fact, it seems as though Jimin is cursed to never make it to the holiday with his current significant other. It’s as if Cupid hates him and refuses to let the young man with pink (Pink! Cupid should appreciate that, the bastard) hair ever feel happiness on the day.
The second thing is that Jimin’s crush of fourteen and a half months and counting, his co-worker at the bakery, Min Yoongi, is as oblivious as a brick when it comes to Jimin and his feelings. The black-haired boy who is two years his senior barely acknowledges him when they’re at work—granted, he doesn’t really acknowledge Jin or Taehyung or Hoseok either unless it’s to snap at Taehyung for trying to sneak one of Yoongi’s perfectly decorated cupcakes, but still.
He wants nothing more than to confess to Yoongi that he likes (okay, maybe that he’s desperately in love with him) the older boy and ask him to be his Valentine, but Jimin is about as courageous as a mouse being faced down by a cat in the presence of Yoongi, turning into a stuttering, red-faced mess whenever he’s near. Plus, he’s pretty damn sure Yoongi has no feelings for Jimin whatsoever, and he has absolutely no desire to ruin whatever strange friendship they have by Jimin announcing he’s in love with him. No sir no ma’am not gonna happen.
Jimin has to stop himself from wrinkling his nose as he pushes his way into the bakery for his morning shift that day, bell dinging overhead to announce his arrival, at the honestly atrocious Valentine’s decorations Jin had probably spent all night putting up. Pink and red streamers snake across the ceiling and all meet in the center to wrap around the little faux crystal chandelier, paper chains in the shape of hearts adorn the walls in pink and red rows, tissue paper hearts and little cupid cutouts dangle from the ceiling between the streamers, waving wildly at the burst of air that hits them when Jimin unlocks the door to let himself in. Vases of red roses adorn the front counter and sit in the windows sills, and the fragrant scent of them mixes in when the smell of something sweet baking from the kitchen.
Jimin grabs his apron from a hook behind the counter and grits his teeth when he sees a big pink heart pinned to the front behind his nametag. Fucking Kim Seokjin. With an annoyed sigh, he slips it over his head and begins tying it behind his back just as the bastard in question comes out of the kitchen, carrying a stack of white cake boxes with the bakery’s swirly pink “Sweet Nothings” labeled on the sides.
“Jimin, you’re here,” Jin smiles happily at him when he spots the younger. “What do you think about the decorations?” He asks in excitement, and Jimin forces a tight smile onto his face.
“They look really good, hyung,” he says, giving Jin a thumbs up, who grins in satisfaction while adjusting the boxes in his arms.
“I have some cakes to deliver before ten, so it’ll be just you and Yoongi until Taehyung gets here in a half hour,” Jin tells him, glancing at his wrist watch while Jimin slants a look over his shoulder where Yoongi is probably busy in the kitchen, feeling his stomach knot uncomfortably and his heart skitter.
Just him and Yoongi. Alone. Great.
“Ah. Okay.”
Jimin usually works the morning shifts, arriving an hour or so before they open, after whoever is on the schedule as the baker that day has already been there for hours to start the day’s pastries. It looks like today its Jin and Yoongi, two of them needed since its Saturday and it’ll be busy, especially since Valentine’s Day is in a few days. He had been hoping against hope it would be Hoseok working today, but as usual, life hates him and he’ll have to spend the next seven hours in awkward silence with Min Yoongi. Thankfully they should be swamped, so he shouldn’t have to see much of his crush unless he has to go back to the kitchen for anything. Unfortunately, he still has forty five minutes until they open, and with no Taehyung here yet, Jimin will have to brave the empty bakery with Yoongi.
“Well, I’m off,” Jin announces, and Jimin rushes over to hold the front door open for him. “I should be back around eleven, hopefully. You good opening by yourself?”
“Hyung, I’ve been opening the store by myself every day for the last year. Why do you always ask me that?” Jimin looks at the owner of the bakery in exasperation, and only receives a fond smile in return.
“Sorry, it’s just habit,” Jin chuckles. “I trust you opening more than Taehyung.”
Jimin snorts at that. The one time Taehyung had to open the store because Jimin had been home sick, his co-worker and idiot of a roommate had somehow locked himself in the store when he’d gone to unlock the doors for the already growing line of customers waiting on the other side. Jimin didn’t even know it was possible to lock yourself in. It had been just him and Hoseok at the time, and apparently the other boy didn’t know what to do either. So the two of them had started banging on the glass door desperately, startling the customers as they yelled for help. Jin had been out of town and Yoongi had refused to go in when they’d called him on the bakery landline;
“Did you really wake me up at nine in the morning because you fucking locked yourselves inside the bakery?” Yoongi had grumbled in disbelief when Taehyung had pleaded for help. “Literally fuck off, Taehyung, it’s my day off and I don’t want to come save your dumb ass.” With that, he’d hung up, leaving am increasingly desperate Taehyung with no choice but to call his sick best friend;
“What do you want?” Jimin had groaned into the phone after ignoring the first two calls, his head aching dully from the shrill noise. He’d finally rolled over in bed with a sigh and grabbed his phone to answer on the third call, the sound grating on his last nerves, feeling like death incarnate.
“Hey there, old buddy, old pal, my best friend in the entire world,” Taehyung had twittered on the other end, and Jimin was immediately suspicious of his overly-cheery tone.
“What did you do?” He had deadpanned, hearing Taehyung chuckle nervously on the other line. Dully, Jimin could hear some sort of muffled banging from Taehyung’s end. “What’s that sound?”
“Well, you see…the thing is, I maybe, sort of, kind off—"
“Tae, spit it out, will you?” Jimin interrupted in annoyance, so not in the mood for Taehyung and all his stupidity.
“I sort of locked myself into the store and I don’t know how to get out.” Jimin’s eyes widened and he’d sat up in bed, his head throbbing painfully at the sudden movement.
“You did what?” He could almost feel his friend’s sheepish grin through the receiver.
“I was going to open the doors but I sort of locked myself in…instead?”
Jimin glanced at the clock by his bedside table. 10:05 AM. The bakery was supposed to open at 9:00 AM. His idiot roommate had probably lost the business of four potential customers by now. Jin was going to flip.
Jimin dropped his face into his hand with a sigh. “You…locked yourself in?”
“…Yes?”
“How the fuck did you do that?” Jimin snapped, his voice sounding nasally from his stuffy nose. Again, he heard that banging on the other end, more incessant this time. “What is that?”
Taehyung chuckled uncomfortably. “Uh, its Hoseok…he’s kind of freaking out.” As if on cue, an earsplitting scream from the other line made Jimin wince and hold the phone away from his ear;
“HEEEEELP!”
“Oh my god, shut him the fuck up!” Jimin cried at the same time Taehyung muttered;
“Shit, hold on.”
Jimin listened as there was a clattering sound when Taehyung set the phone on the counter, and he could vaguely make out his friend’s muffled voice on the other end;
“Hyung, what are you doing?” There was a panicked answer that Jimin couldn’t quite make out. “Whoa, no, no, you are not calling the fire department!” Another screech, then Taehyung yelling; “NO! Give me your phone, hyung! Give it to me!”
There seemed to be a struggle of some sort that followed, a few shrieks and yells here and there amidst the sounds of struggling, before Taehyung was back on the phone with a clatter, panting heavily into the receiver.
“So, um, if you could get here as soon as possible, that would be great,” he had pleaded, and Jimin groaned loudly, raking his hand through his then-blonde hair.
“You’re so fucking stupid,” he’d griped angrily.
“Love you too! See you soon!” And with that, Taehyung had hung up.
So Jimin had forced his tired, heavy, fever-ridden body out of bed and onto the bus that lead downtown where the bakery was located, still in his pajamas and feeling absolutely miserable. When he’d pushed his way through the line of customers waiting at the door, who were all growing greatly annoyed at the delay, he’d unlocked the door with his copy of the bakery key he kept on his keyring. Immediately, Hoseok had flown out and latched onto Jimin tightly with a scream, knocking the air out of the shorter boy and sending him tumbling back.
“Oh, Jimin, thank god you came!” Hoseok wailed, burying his face in Jimin’s neck. “I thought I was going to die trapped in there! I thought I’d never smell fresh air again!”
Jimin had locked Taehyung out of the apartment that night in revenge and he’d been forced to sleep at Jungkook’s place. Jimin wrinkles his nose at the memory.
“He’s so stupid,” he states matter-of-factly, earning himself windshield wiping sounds as Jin laughs loudly. Jimin follow his friend and boss outside and opens the door of their delivery van parked at the curb so Jin can slide the cakes in.
“Alright, I’ll be back soon,” Jin tells him once he’s behind the driver’s seat. Jimin waves halfheartedly at him as he drives off before unlocking the door of the bakery and slipping back inside.
Now it’s just him and Yoongi until Taehyung arrives.
Jimin would be content to avoid the older boy until then, but he has to start placing the newly baked goods in the glass display cases by the front counter, which means going back to the kitchen.
Where Yoongi is.
Trying to swallow down the butterflies that fill his stomach, Jimin takes a deep breath and steels himself. Walking back behind the front counter, he peaks his head around the entrance into the small kitchen, where Yoongi is busy baking.
“Good morning, hyung,” Jimin greets quietly as he steps into the kitchen, eyes quickly trailing over Yoongi’s flour covered form. He wears a simple black tee shirt under his bakery apron, which is smeared with icing and splattered with batter. His toque hangs abandoned from a hook over the oven, the hat white and pristine compared to the two well used ones hanging beside it, which belong to Jin and Hoseok. Yoongi absolutely refuses to wear the “fucking stupid looking thing” when he’s baking, much to Jin’s annoyance.
“It’s part of the uniform, Yoongi,”
“Fuck off.”
“Morning,” Yoongi replies then, sparing Jimin the briefest of glances before returning his attention make to the cake he’s frosting. “The red velvet cupcakes and croissants are ready.”
Good to see you too, Jimin thinks to himself with a sad sigh, grabbing the tray of aforementioned croissants off the counter to take them out front.
Once he arranges them under the warming lights in the glass display case, he goes back to the kitchen to get the cupcakes. Yoongi is still working on the same cake, his tongue poking out of his pink lips as he concentrates on squeezing white frosting onto the edges. Jimin bites his lips as his eyes sweep over his crush. God, he’s beautiful.
He goes to grab the tray of fresh cupcakes, and can’t help but stop to admire them. Beautifully frosted in white and baby blue floral designs, adorned in little candy pearls and fondant flowers on top of moist vanilla cake.
“These are really pretty,” Jimin says in awe, always surprised by Yoongi’s incredible decorating skills even after all this time. He misses the unreadable look Yoongi shoots him over his shoulder before he just grunts in reply and turns back to his cake. Its silent for a beat before Yoongi speaks again;
“You can have one.”
Jimin freezes in the middle of lifting the tray into his arms and turns to stare wide-eyed at Yoongi’s back. Yoongi doesn’t let any of the employees eat his pastries without buying them first. No one. Ever. Not even Jin, the actual owner of the bakery, gets to taste Yoongi’s baking without buying them first.
“R-really?” Jimin gapes at him, watching as Yoongi half-shrugs and grunts again in answer, attention fixed on the cake in front of him. A brilliant smile crosses Jimin’s face at that, and he can’t help the way his heart swells and his stomach flutters.
“Wow, thanks, hyung!” He chirps happily, a little giggle escaping him as he skips out of the kitchen with the tray, not noticing the way Yoongi’s eyes follow him intently the entire way.
Once he arranges the cupcakes in the display case and devours his own, almost moaning out loud at the wonderfully sweet, moist taste of the beautiful little pastry, he turns on the overhead radio that plays muted music in the bakery during the day, and begins wiping down the counters until the rest of Yoongi pastries are done baking and he needs to get them.
“Eyes, Nose, Lips” by Taeyang starts playing just then, and he begins absentmindedly singing along as he wipes, stopping to rearrange a vase of roses here and there, his soft, clear voice quietly filling the small bakery, the only other noise being the occasional clattering of Yoongi moving around in the kitchen.
When Yoongi calls out a little while later and announces everything else is ready, Jimin dutifully carries out tray after tray of goodies to place into the display case; brownies, cookies, more cupcakes, slices of cake, blondies, muffins, cinnamon rolls. You name it, Yoongi has baked it.
Jimin is just finishing sliding in the last red velvet cupcake into the case when the door rattles as it’s unlocked, and Taehyung comes tumbling in a moment later.
“Good morning, my bitches!” He greets loudly, a box grin on his face as Jimin glares at him from behind the counter. “Happy Week Before Valentine’s Day,” he crows happily as he slides behind the counter and grabs his apron off the hook.
“Fuck off,” Jimin snaps at him under his breath so only Taehyung can hear, which only earns him a laugh and a slap on the shoulder.
“Aigoo, don’t be so bitter, Chim,” his friend grins at him, stepping closer and lowering his voice. “Maybe if you would just ask Yoongi hyung to be your valentine already and stop acting like some love-sick puppy you’d—" he’s cut off by Jimin slapping him in the face with the rag he’d been using to wipe the counters.
“Yah!” Taehyung cries in indignation, spluttering over a mouthful of towel and rubbing at his face in pain.
“Do you want to die?” Jimin hisses at him as he glares at his best friend, towel poised to slap again if needed. Taehyung throws his hands up in surrender.
“Okay, okay!” He backs away hastily. “Touchy.”
Jimin is about to snap a reply at the younger when his wrist watch alarm goes off, indicating its opening time. Already, there are a few people gathering outside as they wait for the shop to open for business.
“Saved by the bell.” Jimin shoots at Taehyung stonily, earning himself another grin as he passes by on his way to the door.
After he opens the doors, Jimin takes his usual place behind the cash register, calling out a warm greeting of “Hello, welcome to Sweet Nothings!” every time the overhead bell rings to announce a new arrival. He takes various custom orders from some of the customers while Taehyung helps out the others who only wanted to stop in for a quick snack.
Jimin had just finished keying in an order for a custom-made bumblebee cake for the lady’s daughter’s birthday party next week, waving the woman off with a pick up time and a smile, when a middle aged man with shining eyes and a wide grin sidles up to him.
“Hello, sir, how can I help you?” Jimin asks with a smile. The man taps the counter with his fingers excitedly as he leans over the register, and Jimin finds himself following suit.
“Yes, I’d like to have a cake made,” the man says, and Jimin nods encouragingly when he pauses.
“What kind of cake?” He asks, pointing to the big book on the counter of different cakes and flavors and decorations that are available. The man “ooh!”s and flicks through the book in interest. After a moment, he stops on a picture of a 2-tiered buttercream and raspberry cake with hand painted silver fondant and fresh flowers.
“This one!”
Jimin nods and begins keying in the order into the computer screen. “What flavor of cake would you like?” He asks, brushing some pink hair out of his eyes.
“Um, whatever that one is,” the man replies, glancing at the picture, and Jimin nods again. Simple enough. “Same decorations and everything? We can customize it however you want.” Jimin points out, and the man purses his lips.
“Can you make this part pink?” He asks, pointing at the silver fondant.
“Pink, got it,” Jimin hums as he types in the order. “Would you like to add any words?”
At this, a wide grin splits the man’s face. “Can you put ‘Sooyoung, will you marry me?’” Jimin glances up at the man, eyes wide.
“O-oh, of course!” He smiles widely after a quick moment of surprise.
“I’m proposing to my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day,” the customer tells the younger man happily, and Jimin’s mood immediately plummets. Fucking Valentine’s Day. He has to stop himself from snorting derisively. Proposing on Valentine’s Day. How original.
“Congratulations, sir,” Jimin forces a stiff smile back onto his face, and he can hear Taehyung snicker from next to him as he leans down to pull a chocolate chip cookie out of the case for his customer. Jimin wants to dropkick him.
He finishes typing in the order before looking back up at his man again. “Anything else?”
Again, the man grins and reaches into his pocket. “Yes, actually,” he begins as he holds something out for Jimin to see, and he peers over the counter to see a glittering diamond ring resting in the man’s palm. “Could you put this in the cake?”
Jimin isn’t sure he heard him right as he blinks at the man. “Uh, I’m sorry…what was that?”
“Could you put the ring in the cake?” The man repeats, and Jimin stares blankly at him.
“I-in the cake?” The dumbfounded young man tries to clarify, furrowing his brows when the man nods happily. What the fuck? “Uh…” he trails off, not quite sure how to handle this.
Are they even allowed to do something like that? If seems dangerous. What if the man’s finance chokes on it when she’s taking a bite of the cake? “Could you give me one second?”
Jimin doesn’t wait for the customer to reply before he turns around and skitters into the kitchen, eyes immediately landing on Yoongi mixing up a new batch of peanut butter cookies.
“Uh, hyung?” He begins tentatively, heart skittering a little when Yoongi looks up at him in question. “I think I might need your help…”
“What’s wrong?” Jimin isn’t sure whether or not he imagines the sharp look of concern that crosses Yoongi’s face.
“I have a customer who wants to put an engagement ring in a cake,” he says, and Yoongi frowns in confusion.
“In the cake?” He repeats, and Jimin nods with a bite of his lip. With a disgusted noise, Yoongi abandons his cookie mix and stalks out of the kitchen, Jimin hot on his heels, who has to hold back a smile when the older boy mutters, “What kind of fucking idiot…” to himself under his breath.
Yoongi saunters up to the customer in question, who is absentmindedly flipping through the cake book as he waits for Jimin to return.
“You’re the one who wants to put a ring in a cake?” Yoongi deadpans, and the man blinks at him in surprise.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“That’s stupid,” Yoongi states matter-of-factly, and Jimin struggles not to laugh at the scandalized look that crosses the customer’s face.
“Excuse me?”
“If she chokes on the ring while she’s eating the cake and dies, you can’t sue us,” Yoongi says blandly, and the man blanches and splutters. Jimin has to cover his mouth to keep from laughing. “I would suggest just giving her the cake and then proposing to her on one knee like a normal person.”
“I-you-I…how…I…” the man struggles to find his words as his face turns beet red. Jimin is expecting him to go off on Yoongi in rage, because how dare he talk to him like that, but instead, he only mumbles, “W-well, when you put it that way…”
In the end, the man decides against the ring-in-cake nonsense, and Yoongi finishes up the order, telling the man his cake will be finished the day before Valentine’s Day. Jimin can’t help but feel a little bad for the customer as he leaves the bakery, head hanging in dejection and engagement ring back in his pocket.
“Fucking dumbass,” Yoongi growls after he’s gone, making Jimin giggle and Taehyung, who had been paying keen attention to the scene while he was helping customers, guffaw loudly. Yoongi glances at his wrist watch and sighs, turning to head back into the kitchen.
“The new batch of brownies is almost ready,” he glances at Jimin over his shoulder, lingering just a little longer than is necessary before clearing his throat and turning back around. “Let me know if there are any more stupid customers.”
Jimin spends the rest of his shift taking orders for cakes and dreaming about grumpy, pouty lips, soft black hair, and smooth ivory skin.