PROLOGUE

RESPONSIBILITY ft. Kim Jongdae

 

The early morning smelled of coffee and toast in Jongdae’s apartment.

 

Kim Jongdae was preparing his morning breakfast—toast with peanut butter and strawberry jam, and a cup of coffee with a shot of espresso. Today is probably going to be the busiest day he will ever have in his whole life.

 

With the toast hanging from his mouth, he quickly grabbed his mobile phone and typed in:

 

“Hey guys! I’m only reminding my close friends, so if you receive this text, you’re in luck! Tonight is the annual Christmas Tree-lighting ceremony. It would be really meaningful if you guys attend this year since I am the organizer for the event. Remember, it’s at the Seoul Plaza. The program starts at 8:30p.m. Thank you!”

 

He quickly ticked the names of his close friends that are registered in his mobile phone. He stopped as he got to the name that read “Kris Wu”. Jongdae blinked twice and stared at the screen of his mobile phone.

 

“He’s a photographer. He can document the event. More publicity,” He thought as he ticked Kris’ name.

 

He wasn’t that fond of Kris Wu—no one was really fond of Kris.

 

Jongdae quickly finished his breakfast. He walked back and forth in his apartment, trying to get all his stuff ready for his big day. Just in time, all the messages were sent right before he was about to leave. One last drink of water, and he was ready to go.

 

The trip to Seoul Plaza was rather quiet. All Jongdae thought about during the subway trip was his schedule—everything that he had to check up on a soon as he got to the venue. Numbers and colors painted his vision. Everywhere he looked, he could see the costs of the event, the expected number of guests, logistics values, and charts of different sizes. He saw seven a.m. on the subway walls, another time on the floor he was walking on, five p.m. on the newspapers people were selling at the side, and even the twelve hours of the day on the steps. The frosty blue and white theme of the event colored his surroundings and enveloped the numbers he saw.

 

“Good morning Mr. Kim Jongdae,” a girl in a corporate outfit bowed as Jongdae stepped inside the vicinity.

 

“Ah,” Jongdae was warped back into reality as he just realized that he reached the event area. He smiled and bowed back. “Good morning, how are things going so far?”

 

“Well, the logistics team are on their way for their briefing session,” she replied as they made their way towards a tent near the city hall.

 

“That’s good, that’s good…” Jongdae was spacing out because he was overthinking again.

 

“Are you… okay, sir?” The assistant giggled.

 

“What?” Jongdae looked at her and suddenly laughed. “Oh, haha, yeah.”

 

“I thought you’d finally break down,” The assistant covered with the clipboard and laughed.

 

“Not anytime soon,” Jongdae laughed. “Anything else?”

 

“No word about the rest yet, sir.”

 

“Alright.”

 

The assistant left Jongdae to attend to the other matters aside from the event itself. Jongdae took a good look at his surroundings. Backstage was so peaceful at that time. No one was still there since everyone was working outside. He still couldn’t believe it. He worked his way up there. It seemed like yesterday that he was still a worker, doing whatever the manager says. Now, he tells those managers to do what he tells them to.

 

Jongdae stood up and outside to check on the beautiful chaos happening and to see his masterpiece getting together. He looked at the stage and smiled at how well it’s turned out. The stage was blue, like how he envisioned it, and had glittery and silver fake trees at the side. There was an LED screen at the back that can stream five different cameras.

 

This year, they got Girls’ Generation to perform for them, and they were so lucky they had budget for having idols of their calibre to perform. The night before, they rehearsed on the stage and their performance is the icing on the cake.

 

Looking around, Jongdae saw trucks that carried the extra decorations and extra lights. He noticed one truck at the side which carried the sound system. Finally, all his hardwork will pay off.

 

Before heading back in his tent, he marvelled at the huge Christmas tree that stood proudly at the stage’s side.

 

“You’ll light up soon, my darling,” Jongdae smiled as he ran his eyes down the whole height of the Christmas tree. He went back in his tent and took a nap.

 

----------

 

“Sir!” The assistant tried to wake Jongdae up. “Emergency, sir.”

 

Jongdae slowly opened his eyes from his nap and looked at his watch. “It’s not yet time though…”

 

“What is it?” Jongdae replied sleepily.

 

“You have to call the caterer,” she gave her mobile phone to Jongdae.

 

Jongdae gave a very puzzling look at the assistant as he got the mobile phone. He dialled the caterer’s number and set the phone to his ear. After a while, the person on the other line spoke.

 

“Good morning, this is Kim Jongdae of the Christmas Tree-lighting event happening in the Seoul Plaza tonight what—Huh? What do you mean you backed out? You can’t—What?! A four day follow-up policy?! You’re joking right?! You just can’t—Can’t you just give—Hello?”

 

Jongdae looked at the mobile phone and placed it back in his ear frantically. “Hello?!”

 

He gave it back to his assistant and screamed “!” as he placed his hand on his forehead.

 

“Sir, what do we—”

 

“Give me a moment!” Jongdae paced in his tent. After a couple or so rounds, he decided, “call all the caterers we know who can work under our budget and who can start working fast.”

 

“But sir, isn’t it—”

 

“I don’t know how!” Jongdae yelled. “E-even if you have to wish from Dibo, the Magic Dragon. Just fix it!”

 

The assistant bowed and scurried out of the tent.

 

Jongdae couldn’t believe it. “It will be fine,” he says to himself. He relaxes for a bit and tries to collect himself. Soon, a man goes in his tent and calls for him.

 

“Sir, it’s almost lunch time and the logistics…”

 

“Aish! What about the logistics?” Jongdae’s face has “what the happened now” written all over his face.

 

The man pointed outside. “Maybe you should go talk to them instead…”

 

Jongdae got up and went out. The space was empty. That was the problem—the logistics team haven’t set up yet. The worst thing was that fans of the idol groups performing started flocking closer and get their stuff ready for tonight’s show. The fans were already complaining and shouting.

 

“Let us in!”

 

“We have to set up!”

 

“So Nyeo Shi Dae!”

 

“Well, who told you guys to come so early?!” Jongdae shouted back at the crowd building up. “You’re six hours earlier than the opening!”

 

Jongdae was living a nightmare. His stress just kept piling up.

 

“Where’s the logistics team?!” Jongdae screamed as the guy pointed to the other tent. He didn’t give any second thought to go and march to the crew’s tent.

 

As he opened the tent, all eyes were on him. “What happened?”

 

“Sir, it isn’t our fault, no one foresaw this,” one of the members of the logistics team stood up.

 

The person beside stood up and added, “The truck that was bringing all the tables and chairs got into an accident. But don’t worry, the people are safe. The stuff, though…”

 

“Aigo… can’t they bring over the tables and chairs using a different truck?”

 

“Yes, about that,” The first person replied, “the back of the truck is a mess. They couldn’t get the things out because of the crash.”

 

“Can they fly it here?!” Jongdae still managed to crack a joke despite his stress.

 

“No, no, no! This isn’t happening!” Jongdae was slowly losing his mind.

 

“Mr. Kim Jongdae, I talked to some caterers,” The assistant went inside the tent and held a clipboard in front of Jongdae.

 

Shortly after, a security guard went inside the tent, “we need the logistics team now, the volume of people is increasing outside and they’re getting wild.”

 

All these words jumbled and fumbled inside Jongdae’s head. All their voices and all their talking was muffled in his head as each word toppled on top of him one by one. The surroundings suddenly turned pitch black and the noise became intolerable.  Then came that point when it was too noisy that it just became quiet.

 

Jongdae was in his own little world. Pitch black, and silent, that even his small thoughts echoed within the walls of his head. In this dark world, he was walking down a straight path. He didn’t know where he was going, but he just kept moving forward and kept calm. He sat down and hummed a simple tune.

 

“What should I do?” Jongdae rocked back and forth in his position.

 

“The budget for food,” Jongdae added, “it’s just right. But she was right. It’s too late for catering services now.”

 

Jongdae looked up and stared blankly into the darkness.

 

“Logistics, logistics…” Jongdae let out a huge sigh.

 

Jongdae blinked once, twice, thrice, and suddenly a light appeared at the empty space he was staring at. He finally smiled.

 

----------

 

The daylight shone. It was mid-afternoon.

 

People started to set foot into the vicinity, booths were being set in the event space, and the logistics team was also able to enclose the entire area.

 

Jongdae was walking around the area looking very satisfied when the assistant approached him with all smiles. “We knew you could fix everything, sir.”

 

“Well I had to do something right? Do you want this project to plummet into failure?” Jongdae joked around.

 

She laughed. “For a second there, we thought you were never going to wake up soon when you passed out earlier.”

 

Jongdae chuckled and said playfully, “Sorry.”

 

“What next for you now?”

 

“I don’t know. Let’s play something.”

 

“Mwo?!” The assistant exclaimed.

 

“Just kidding, come on,” Jongdae laughed.

 

“Sir…” She covered her face with the clipboard.

 

“Well, I’m just glad everything worked out, right?”

 

The assistant slowly put her clipboard down and nodded slowly.

 

Jongdae chuckled. “I can’t believe it actually worked.”

 

“Only a responsible and clever person like you can fix it,” the assistant suddenly smiled.

 

“Hey, hey—” Jongdae laughed.

 

“It’s true!” She smiled. “You really did deserve this, sir. I hope it goes well today.”

 

Jongdae looked at the girl and smiled sincerely. “Thanks... for everything.”

 

He then wondered how his friends were doing that day. So far, no one had replied to his message, and Jongdae thought that, maybe, they were busy too. A whole lot of other things happened that day, and little did Jongdae know that his was just the beginning.