Phase 1-4: The Red Tent of Peace

After the introduction of Lavender House and Festival of Caramel, there should be another sweetheart of the Wonderland which makes the Wonderland richer in beautiful attractions. This one is where harmony, lives in sync: humans and animals. They work together to create the most interesting live play for the visitors.

Today is no different from yesterday because the team members and the two managers have been so busy since in the early morning to prepare for their two performances today. One is in the afternoon, right around 10 minutes after Festival of Caramel done their performance and the second is around 7 P.M, an hour before Wonderland close. Under this red tent, a bunch of people are in the midst of preparing themselves and so do the animals.

There are team members who are currently practing for their shows later and there also ‘that person’ who is currently conseling (?) those animals to calm down. “One hour to go. Don’t forget to practice and prepare yourself. If there’s any problem, report to me!” said the manager who led the Perfomances team. He is quite thin and smaller than the rest of the members, and he has tanned skin, too. He is walking around to check his team thoroughly. Nothing’s wrong, he thinks.

He still walks around in white shirt with black butterfly tie, and black pants: still unprepared. He passes and goes to the stage which is located in front of the place where the members stay. The tent itself is quite big, too. It’s like the other Circus: red and white lines are all over the tent. Nothing’s too unusual here because they wish to make their visitors to enjoy their time and the team’s perfomance comfortably here. There is a wooden small stage on the middle of the performance place that is surrounded by sandy ground, the place where he will emcee the perfomance later. The pillars that support the tent are in the good condition as well, the perfomance of crossing the rope can be done. The seatings around the performance stage also clean and good, nothing’s broken.

Except that he has already a guest before the perfomance start.

It’s still one hour to go, he thinks again.

“Excuse me, young man,” asks him to to the guest who is a young man with dark maroon red hair which is almost looked like black hair already. “Is there something wrong, sir?” replies him politely with low tone. “Nothing… but, aren’t you come a little bit too early? We’re still preparing, it’s still one hour to go, too…”

“It’s okay,” he replies shortly and it’s ended by a smile. “Ah, okay then…” the manager mumbles.

“Anyway, may I know your name, young man?”

“I am Hongbin… and are you the head manager of the circus?”

“I am. You can call me with N,” said the manager of the Performance, N, who also goes by the name of The Moon. “What a short name,” said Hongbin, not knowing what should he replies beside those. “Yeah, but it’s short and easy to be reminded,” he replies with a sheepish smile. Hongbin only nods in agreement.

“Excuse me then. I’ll go to check my team first,”

“Go on. I can’t wait for your performances,” Hongbin said while he’s waving his hand as N leaves him alone.

N is really having goosebumps when he leaves the young man. He is really polite and acts like a youngmaster, and yet really handsome. The young man, who calls himself as Hongbin before, somehow reminds him with The Cherished and The Honored from Festival of Caramel.  He has that attitude like The Honored and even slightly look similar like him. More than that, he is weird. Why should he wait for us from this early? N can’t find the exact answer.

N enters the other tent which is located behind the main tent for the performance. The tent is quite big and wider than the main tent because it’s used to be the place for the animals’ stay and rest. This tent is way more silent and less noise from human’s voice because animals’ dominate it. The Lions are the noisiest because they roar a lot. “How’s the condition of your friends, Leo-leo?” said N cutely to the tall man who’s currently embraced a cub on his arms. He doesn’t answer N at all, but he only sees at him and nods.

His name is Leo, he is the manager and also taking care of those animals for the Circus. He is really, really, really silent. He rarely talks and smile, but when it comes to the time he smiles, he will smile because of those animals or other strange things. He doesn’t have much problem to his team because his team should really able to understand his silence—and his team mostly consists of animals. N should be really extremely patient whenever he should face Leo because Leo is kind of type person who will remove all the lock of the cage of those wild beast to let them eat N, even though it sounds so exagerrated but N can imagine it… clearly.

Because of his silent personality, he goes by the name of The Silent.

“It’s fifty minutes to go, Leo. Please prepare yourself, okay?” said N and Leo only replies with a nod, again.

Right after N leaves, Leo let the Lion’s cub to go to his mother again. He walks around to check the condition again while humming to an old song and takes the conclusion that everyone’s ready except the Lioness who just gave birth to the cub around two week ago. He still let her to rest first and takes care of her only baby.

“Take care,” he said shortly while waving his hand to the Lioness and her cub. The Lioness let a soft roar like saying thank you for Leo. He nods and leaves them alone so he can change his clothes.

40, 30, 20, 10 and finally five minutes to go before the show…

“Have anyone seen Leo?” asks N to the team who’s standing right behind him. “Sir, he usually starts from the side… not the main like us…” answers one of the members, trying to be patient for N that sometimes forgets the littlest thing like this. “You should be so nervous, sir?”

“Yeah, I am…” N sighs.

Right when the drum stop rolls, N comes out and followed by his team behind.

Leo also comes out with his team behind.

And the first session perfomance from Red Tent of Peace finally starts.

At the seatings, on the other hand, Hongbin is sitting on his seat comfortably while have both of his eyes to be focused on N and Leo on the stage below. Both of his arms are crossed with a smile curved on his face. Sometimes, when the time is right, N will make an eye-contact to Hongbin, assure that he is still there and he is still there.

Wow, young man, you surely have patience, thinks N.

“Focus and be a nice conductor, N,” said Leo who stands up behind him. Eventhough they’re back-to-back, Leo able to notice N’s eyesight. His instinct is pretty strong. “I’m impressed you can see me, Leo,” replies N with a smile. He loves it when Leo notices every little thing he does.

“Whatever, N,”

Then time is passing, until they don’t realize that two sessions in one day have finished clearly. Right after their performance, the guests are leaving from The Wonderland because their perfomance is the mark of the finish of The Wonderland’s activity in that day. No wonder why after they finished their perfomance, the tent was the most crowded. It is truly a pity to leave Wonderland without seeing their perfomance.

“Thank you for today, guys,” said N to the animals that they’re leaving off behind.

Not like the other departments, N and Leo are usually the fastest to leave their place because the time they spend to cleanup the place is the fastest (eventhough it seems impossible, but they’re fast-worker.) and also, furthermore, Leo’s silence is truly able to press N’s mouth’s activeness (?). N can spend more time for talking rather than doing something, but when nobody responds to it, he will be silent automatically.

“Hey, Leo,”

“Is there any problem?”

“I wish you are more active in asking me things, I’m bored,” said N as they’re walking away from the tents.

“Who was that boy you saw before? Do you know him?”

“Which one that you mean?” N seems know whom he means. Leo can be looking really not care at all on people, less with affection, cold, scary, and whatever, but truthfully, Leo is good-observer with his silence. The time that he can spend for talking, he spends it on observing. Unexpected, but doesn’t enough yet to beat The Unexpected.  “That boy who sat on the fifteenth seat after the first one on the front part… he wore the same clothes like you, the different were… it wasn’t long sleeves and he didn’t wear coat like you,”

“Ah, I know. I met him one hour before our first session. He is such a cute red bean right?”

“What a pun,” Leo sighes for N’s not-so-but-quite-funny lame joke. "How about you? Do you know him?"

Leo only smirks a little. It's not a clear answer for N.

And so it goes, like the others, they’re all going to a place called The Center— some hours before The Overnight Schedule…

{phase 1-4: finished}