Work Text:
It all started on that fateful day when the elevator of Taehyung’s building broke, and he had to carry his groceries all the way to the tenth floor. By the time he stumbled into his apartment and spilled most of his bags onto the floor, his legs were shaking so much, he simply laid down next to his bags of seaweed chips.
“I need to workout more,” he mumbled to himself in defeat.
After a few minutes of catching his breath and slowly unpacking his groceries, Taehyung sat down on his sofa. He pulled his laptop onto his lap to look up the YouTuber that Jeongguk had recommended to him today, only to remember his earlier thoughts. If he didn’t stick to his plan of working out more now, he likely never would.
It wasn’t that he was completely unathletic. A good chunk of his job as a personal shopper was walking around the store, so he was on his feet a lot. But walking only did so much for his fitness. He had a feeling his thighs would be sore just from all those flights of stairs.
To be honest, he didn’t really want to start lifting weights or any of the stuff that Jeongguk usually did at the gym. But maybe he could start with a yoga or pilates class? That seemed easy enough, and would probably help build up some muscle.
As soon as he typed ‘pilates class for beginners’ into Naver and hit enter, he felt overwhelmed by all of the options. Still, he forced himself to keep going. There were plenty of YouTube videos of workouts but strangely, Taehyung wanted to find a class he needed to pay for. He was hoping that the payments would be an incentive to stay on top of things. If he spent money on something, he wouldn’t want to waste it.
He also didn’t want to just pay for any class, though, which brought him back to the dilemma of which class to choose. There were some local gyms that offered classes, but Taehyung wasn’t sure he could fit them into his work schedule – and he wasn’t sure he wanted to humiliate himself in front of a whole class of people. Maybe an online class would work better?
He found the perfect solution after reading through a Reddit thread.
user46318: I can highly recommend Park Jimin’s classes! I work night shifts and struggle a lot to make gym classes work with my schedule, so his online classes are godsent! He’s Mindfulness with Mimi on YouTube, where he also has some free videos if you wanna check out his vibe.
Taehyung had never clicked on a hyperlink faster. After a few minutes of research, he found out the following: Park Jimin was a certified pilates instructor who found his own happiness through Pilates and Meditation, and now wanted to share this with his subscribers. His channel had over 900,000 subscribers, though most of his public videos were between five and ten minutes long (mainly consisting of stretching routines). If you joined his monthly membership for only 14,000 won, you got access to members only classes, as well as livestreams.
It sounded like a neat deal, but Taehyung still wanted to check out a couple of Jimin’s videos, before joining the membership. He clicked one of the most recent videos titled ‘Yoga Stretches for Inflexible People’ – wow, how fitting.
The man who smiled at him through the screen had dirty blonde hair and a smile so bright, Taehyung could feel warmth spread through his body. He was wearing a baggy crop top and yoga pants, and sat cross legged on a yoga mat.
“Welcome everyone to Mindfulness with Mimi.” Though his smile was blinding, his voice was soft and melodic. “Today I’ve prepared some stretching exercises to loosen you up when your body feels stiff or in general for people who are a little more inflexible. As always be mindful of what your body tells you, if a certain stretch hurts too much, it’s best to stop rather than injure yourself. Alright, let’s get started.”
The first stretches started with Jimin lying on his back and after a few moments, Taehyung realised he should probably move to the floor to join. Everything was easy enough and Taehyung could feel his muscles loosening up a little. Jimin then turned around to be on his hands and knees, stretching his legs. Taehyung followed along dutifully, until Jimin pressed his upper body onto the yoga mat, his ass sticking up in the air.
It took Taehyung a good minute to realize that he stopped moving, and instead had been fixated on Jimin’s ass. To his defence, it was a good ass.
Needless to say, starting that day, Taehyung was a proud member of Mindfulness with Mimi.
﹝•••﹞
Let’s be real, Taehyung did not become a pilates prodigy overnight. Quite the opposite actually, because as it turned out pilates was really exhausting and left Taehyung sore all over. Usually he stuck to one or two of Jimin’s mat pilates classes a week, but made sure to stick to a routine of bedtime stretches (and sometimes good morning stretches).
Jimin normally only did two live streams per month – which consisted of some stretching together, and some general chatting as far as Taehyung could tell from the playbacks – but it took Taehyung a few months to catch one of the lives, since he did have an active social life, thank you very much.
When Taehyung finally managed to join one of Jimin’s lives, it was only a few minutes after the live started.
“– do that later,” Jimin was saying as the live stream loaded on Taehyung’s laptop. He was looking off screen, where Taehyung assumed he was reading comments. “For now, we’ll just chat a little and wait for more people to join.”
Taehyung placed his laptop on his coffee table and quickly typed a comment before he could feel subconscious about being a newbie and all.
KimVante95: Hi Jimin-ssi!
He figured it would be a bit until Jimin started with the lesson part of the live stream, but he turned around to grab his yoga mat from the corner of the room anyway.
“Hello, everyone,” Jimin said. “I already see some new users in the chat.” Taehyung tried to ignore the blush creeping up his cheeks. He was thankful Jimin couldn’t see him. “Lurkers are welcome of course, though we’ll be chatting a little before we start working out. For the exercises I’ve prepared you’ll need your mat and two yoga blocks, like such.” Jimin picked up his yoga blocks and showed them to the camera.
With his mat rolled out, Taehyung sat down in front of the laptop again so he could follow some of the comments as well.
DynamiteDynamightnot: what are we doing today???
“Today, we’re gonna focus on our back and hips, since a lot of you guys requested that last month,” Jimin replied. “We’ll probably start very beginner friendly, so if you’re new, don’t worry.”
KimVante95: I only started a few months ago so this is my first live
“Oh, welcome to your first live stream then, Vante. It’s nice to have you join.” The smile Jimin pointed at the camera nearly melted Taehyung. God, it was so irrational to have a crush on your pilates instructor. “How have my classes been helping you? Have you noticed a difference yet?”
KimVante95: I don’t get sore as much anymore but pilates is still more exhausting than expected…
Jimin laughed. “Oh yeah, I mean do you see these guns?” He flexed his arms. “Those don’t come from nothing. Some gym bros are so against yoga and pilates, but they shut their mouths real quick, when I invite them to give it a try.”
SmoothLikeBUTTAH: I eat gym bros for breakfast fr
KimVante95: oof I think I might be friends with the only sweet gym bro in town
SuperTuna92: @ vante okay send me his number then??? how much does he bench press??
“I’m just glad I don’t have to hang around the gym too much with me doing mainly online classes,” Jimin replied, probably trying to keep up with the wave of comments complaining about gym bros. “I left toxic masculinity behind long ago, and I swear I start rolling my eyes every time someone tells me about their chicken breast diet. Been there, done that.”
Fiyaaaah: did you try any new recipes recently?
“Yes, recipes, that reminds me!” Jimin started typing on his laptop. “I’m gonna drop the link to my Discord server in the comments. Feel free to join, it’s a space to talk about yoga, pilates, meditation, and the like, but we also have channels for recipes, journaling, and a few other things as well.”
Taehyung perked up. He had been thinking about possibly making a few changes to his diet, so a space to chat about that sounded fun. He made sure to open the link to the Discord server in a different tab for later.
Butterfly48: when are you finally gonna post some reformer pilates videos???
“Reformer Pilates?” Jimin hummed in thought. “Ah, that’s getting quite popular these days isn’t it? The thing is not a lot of people have reformers at home, and I definitely don’t recommend just getting one willy-nilly. But alternatively, you can use resistance bands, for example, so I can definitely upload some exercises for that.”
KimVante95: Do you ever offer private sessions?
“Private sessions, huh, Vante?” Jimin raised his eyebrows at the camera. “You sure you can handle me?”
Taehyung nearly dropped his head onto his keyboard.
KimVante95: I just meant one on one classes lololol
KimVante95: or like in person classes in general
SuperTuna92: sure you diiiiiid
Jimin giggled then and the sound was so adorable, that it almost made the embarrassment sting less. “I do sub classes in gyms nearby from time to time, but I usually keep that separate from my online classes.”
Someone in the comments changed the topic after that, but Taehyung found himself getting distracted by his thoughts. He knew Jimin was Seoul-based, but the city was big and chances of running into each other were as slim as ever. And this was just a stupid online crush anyway, no point in daydreaming about unrealistic situations.
﹝•••﹞
“Ugh, I hate switching locations,” Taehyung mumbled, as he scrolled through his small work tablet. He prided himself in being good at his job. He knew all of his clients’ information by heart, and made sure to keep track of new collections so he knew what to recommend. But all of his efforts were useless as soon as his superiors made him change store locations. Sure, he was still familiar with the inventory, but he got a completely new batch of clients, and apparently his predecessor had been some kind of angel who everyone loved. “They haven’t even given me enough time to read through my new client files.”
His new coworker, Hyunsik, chuckled. “Well, then I hate to tell you that one of your clients just came in.” Taehyung let out a small groan in response, before straightening his back. “Dude in the green cardigan. Park Jimin.”
Taehyung hesitated, before turning around to the store entrance. There were many Park Jimins living in Seoul. Realistically, there was no way–
Oh god, it was Mindfulness with Mimi.
Taehyung allowed himself only a second of panic before he strode over to his new client. He’d have time to freak out and fanboy afterwards. First, he had to stay professional.
“Park Jimin-ssi,” Taehyung greeted him with a warm smile and a bow. “My name is Kim Taehyung, I’ll be your personal shopper since Jihyo no longer works at this location.”
There was a moment of pause, as Jimin looked him up and down. As usual, Taehyung was wearing slacks with a sweater vest over his dress shirt, so he at least knew he looked good. “Nice to meet you, Kim Taehyung-ssi.”
“I apologise for not having a selection of clothes prepared for you, I only took over the position this morning. Are you looking for something specific?” He could do this. He could be perfectly professional. It didn’t matter that Park Jimin looked even more gorgeous in person.
Jimin shook his head with a polite smile. “No, I just wanted to look at the new collection since summer will be rolling around soon.”
“Would you like me to bring you a selection of our summer collection to try on? Or would you rather I point you to our new items?”
“We can just take a look around together,” Jimin replied quickly. “Shopping with Jihyo always felt like catching up with a best friend.”
Taehyung forced a teasing smile on his lips. “I guess, we’ll just have to get acquainted then.” He tried not to focus on feeling out of his element. This was the part where he usually knew exactly what his client liked. He’d have a few things in mind to start with. But he only really knew Mindfulness with Mimi – Park Jimin was essentially a stranger to him. Well, a stranger who did pilates. “Oh.” He perked up, when an idea came to him. “We just got our new athletic wear collection in. There are some yoga leggings and shorts that I think you’d love.”
Confidently, Taehyung started leading Jimin to the back of the store. “Really?” Jimin asked surprised, but hummed when Taehyung grabbed different items from the displays. “Oh, these are cute. I like the green one.”
“I think the purple would look amazing on you as well,” Taehyung said honestly. Yes, a big part of his job was flattering his clients but it was also important to be truthful to some degree.
Jimin smiled. “I’d be happy to try on both colours then.”
Taehyung continued to point out some cropped tops and shorts in their athletic wear collection, before an idea struck his mind. “We also just got these tops that have a completely open back,” he said excitedly as he picked up said top. “It’s not a top for a cardio workout, but it should work well for yoga and pilates.”
Humming, Jimin reached out to feel the fabric. “Yeah, let’s add this to our pile. Do you have some jean shorts? Or shorts in general?”
The next half hour was spent browsing through the store, and Taehyung could feel Jimin warming up to him. Maybe Jihyo really had been an amazing personal shopper, but Taehyung didn’t seem to do half bad for now. By the time they moved to the dressing rooms, Jimin had a lot of things to try on, and Taehyung busied himself with getting Jimin a glass of champagne as Jimin put on the first outfit.
When Jimin stepped out of the dressing room, Taehyung wished he could be the one to down the champagne. The combination of the tight yoga pants and the backless top was absolutely lethal.
“I didn’t know you had a back tattoo,” was all he managed to get out, as Jimin gave him a slow spin. When he realized what he said, he clamped his mouth shut.
Humming, Jimin smiled at him. “Yeah, I don’t really show them on my channel, do I?”
The most professional thing to do was to pretend he didn’t know what Jimin was talking about, and Taehyung tried to do just that, but he couldn’t remember ever being this flustered. So he stayed quiet and instead, busied himself scrolling through his work tablet.
Thankfully, Jimin didn’t seem to be offended by Taehyung’s silence, and simply tried on the next outfit. In the time it took him to change, Taehyung recentered himself. He needed to get his shit together.
Jimin was just a man.
But he was a man that Taehyung had spent a lot of virtual time with. He was a gorgeous man that was clearly queer in some way. And, oh, the way those yoga pants clung to him.
Needless to say, Taehyung stayed a semi-flustered, semi-professional mess for the rest of Jimin’s shopping trip. On the bright side, Jimin ended up with multiple bags full of clothes that looked amazing on him.
“You know, I thought I was going to miss Jihyo,” Jimin said, when Taehyung was carrying his bags to Jimin’s car. “But I think I might drop by even more.”
Taehyung gave him a genuine smile. “Just let me know beforehand, so I can pre-select my recommendations.”
Giggling, Jimin shook his head. “Nah, I actually enjoyed you improvising.” When the bags were securely stored in the back of his car, Jimin looked at Taehyung for a moment, tilting his head. “I have one last question.”
Taehyung nodded quickly. “Of course.”
“Are you on my Discord server?”
﹝•••﹞
“You know, when you invited yourself over for dinner, I didn’t think it would include cyberstalking,” Yoongi said from where he was chopping onions. “What are you even doing?”
Jimin was lying on Yoongi’s sofa, his laptop balanced on his stomach, as he scrolled through the introduction channel on his Discord server. “I’m trying to find someone on Discord,” he mumbled. Taehyung had sheepishly admitted to being a member of the server, but he had disappeared back into the store before Jimin could quiz him about his username. The thing was, Jimin didn’t hang out a lot on his server, since he mainly wanted it to be a space for his followers to chat. But thankfully the server mods made everyone introduce themselves, so Jimin had a place to start his detective work. “He was my personal shopper today, and he was so handsome. He watches my content but didn’t want to give me his user. I just need to– aha!”
Yoongi let out a loud sigh. “Yeah, I hate this already.”
“I’m pretty sure, I found him,” Jimin replied absentmindedly. “His name is Taehyung, and this person here says they go by Tae and that they work in the fashion industry. They’re a ‘93 liner, which makes sense, cause he looked to be around my age. Ah, he/him pronouns, yes. Profile picture is of a cute cat. Okay, yeah, it’s him.”
“I really don’t–”
Jimin sat up, so he could properly type a message to the user.
direct message to TaeRizzness14: HA! FOUND YOU :)
“Why do I even bother trying to intervene with anything you do?” Yoongi shook his head and pushed the cut up onions from the cutting board into a skillet. Since Jimin wasn’t an awful friend, he got up to help with the cooking until he heard the notification of a new Discord message.
TaeRizzness14: ???
me: it’s cute that you didn’t want to tell me your user, because finding you was super easy
TaeRizzness14: I have no idea what you mean
Jimin pouted. “Man, he’s playing oblivious.”
“Are you really sure that you messaged the right person?”
Rolling his eyes, Jimin got ready to type another message. “Of course, it’s just–”
new message from vantebear: hi, this is taehyung from earlier today.
vantebear: I hope messaging you is not too forward or against any guidelines.
vantebear: but I really liked today and I hope I get to see you soon again (whether you let me know beforehand or not) ^.^
“Oh.” Jimin stared at the messages for a long moment, before switching back to his previous chat. “Oops.”
direct message to TaeRizzness14: SORRY I GOT HACKED!!!!