You would definitely refuse to be person in charge next year. Everyone should have a visit to the Santa.Inc. during Christmas week to realize that it was crazy in the company. No sane person would want to repeat the experience twice. Not you, certainly. You were just helping out last year, so you totally had no idea why the last person in charge last year even decided to retire entirely after just one Christmas. Now you knew why. You jumped out of bed and went straight to shower. Long and hot shower to soothe your aching muscles. And then lots of caffein to run through your veins. Decided to take a different course, you decided to do a field check before problems arised. You startled your coworkers when you stepped into your office, looking determined to tackle whatever came at you that day.
"Which places that I haven't visited yet?" you asked him and he hurriedly ran his finger on his keyboard and waited few seconds before printing the result and handed it to you.
"Wait, we have two santas just for South Korea?" you were surprised to see the list.
"Yeah. Jaebeom in the main island and Youngjae in Jeju. After that Youngjae will go to India and Jaebeom will head to Indonesia."
"Ugh, is he still in Jeju? Youngjae, I mean. I've checked Jaebeom, so there shouldn't be any more problem with him," you truly hoped he wouldn't make another problem. Just two more days.
"Yes. Today is his last day in Jeju," your coworker informed you.
"Great. Prepare the jet. I'll drop by to Jeju first," you turned your heel around and grabbed your bag before heading out of your office again. You definitely surprised Youngjae since he didn't expect you to come and visit him out of the blue.
"Am I in trouble? Did something happen in here that I didn't know?" he showered you with questions when you showed up in front of his hotel room.
"No, I just feel like visiting. Before trouble comes," you muttered the last part quietly.
"Oh, well, that's nice of you," luckily he didn't hear your last part and gave you his sweetest smile. "I'm about to head out now, are you coming?"
"Yeah, of course. I came here to supervise you anyway," you swung your feet off the couch and followed him out of the room. You were hoping and praying hard that Youngjae wouldn't give you anymore problem. Actually, the only santa that you thought would give you trouble was Yugyeom, but turned out the rest were giving you problems first even before the real culprit showed up, so you didn't want to underestimate Youngjae as well. That's why you decided to give him a visit first.
As predicted, Youngjae went along with the kids well. The kids loved him. They loved his bright and bubbly personality. Not to mention his smiling and laughing virus. It went well with the holiday. All the kids and even the parents were smiling and laughing along with him. Even the ones that came with pouty face, went back home with big smile plastered on their face. You watched as the kids easily told him their wishes and Youngjae carefully checked the kids' history before tagging them. You saw him tagging some and told the untagged ones to be nicer so they would get their wishes next year. You noticed how Youngjae told them carefully about the reason why they couldn't get their wish this year and told them that they should change, tried to be better so next year they would be in the nice list and their wish would be granted. The way he talked about it to them was quite simple but not accusing at all, so the kids understood the reason, accepted it and went back home without any fuss. No crying, no tantrum. You were suprised to see that Youngjae was pretty amazing with kids more than he would admit. You were secretly thinking that Jinyoung was the one that could do that to kids, but the fact that it was Youngjae that did it, blew your mind. You thought there wouldn't be any problem and was about to tell him that you were leaving, when you heard him singing. You overheard one of the kid asked him to sing. Youngjae loved to sing and you knew that he wouldn't let the opportunity slipped away. He started singing obviously, choosing Christmas songs to entertain the kids and they seemed delighted. Some even tried to sing along with him. You decided to watch how the things would go after the change.
Problems started to arise when Youngjae was being distracted by singing. He was too immersed in singing that he started to neglect the kids. The kids had to tug his sleeves to gain his attention and even demanded him to stop singing so he could hear their wishes. Luckily he complied with their requests. But it was just temporary.
"How old are you?" you heard Youngjae asking the girl on his lap and she answered five years clearly.
"Then can you sing something for me?" he continued.
"Do I get extra presents for singing?" the little girl asked.
"Hmm... I'll be the judge of that after you finish singing," Youngjae replied. Your heart sank. Youngjae should know better that he couldn't do that. You just wished that he just said no from the start. The girl started to sing Jingle Bells happily and Youngjae clapped his hands, encouraging the girls to sing the whole song. Afterward, Youngjae told the girl that she had the voice, but needed more practice. The girl nodded happily and Youngjae promised her he would give her something for her courage to sing in front of the public. You kept quiet, hoping that it would be one and only, but no. The kids behind the girl heard about it and started offering to sing even before Youngjae asked them. Youngjae was happily to grant their request. He even started to request songs after the third kid. You waited patiently until the fourth kid before you stopped the line, telling the kids to give Santa some break time. You didn't waste any seconds before dragging him away from the crowds, still humming Hark the Herald while trying to keep up with you.
"What did you just do?" your voice came out higher than you intended, causing Youngjae to stop singing, looking at you, hands on your hips and eyes filled with anger.
"What did I do?" he copied, looking dumbfoundedly at you.
You groaned, "You can't ask them to sing and promise them that they will get extra gifts in return," you stated, waving your hands desperately.
"Even if I paid for them myself?" he asked.
"Yes. Even if you paid them yourself. If you kept doing that, they will ask more gifts in the future in exchange for doing some favors. That's against the rule," you told him.
"Oh. Sorry. I thought it will make them happier. After all, it's just singing. It's not like I ask them to save the world," he mumbled, heads hanging low.
You sighed, "You can ask them to sing and even sing with them, but you can't promise them giving them extra gifts in exchange for their performance. Got it?"
He nodded. "So what about the kids that I've promised earlier? I can't annule my promise, can I?"
"What about you give them ice creams instead? I think the kids won't mind, as long as they get something else aside from their original present," you answered after thinking.
Youngjae agreed happily, "Okay, I'll get them ice cream after this."
"Aren't you coming back with me?" he stopped on his track when he realized that you were not going the same direction as him.
"No. I still need to make another visit before going back to the headquarter. Christmas is just a couple days away, so I can't risk any more problems before Christmas," you answered and noticed that his expression fell again. "What's wrong?"
He scratched the back of his head, "Um, I was thinking that you'd hang out with me afterward. I thought you'd stay overnight. There's this bar near here where you can see live band performing as well, I was thinking of bringing you there."
"Um, no, sorry. I wish I have the time to do that," you apologized quickly.
"Okay then, raincheck? Maybe after Christmas?" he asked, hopefully.
You groaned internally, "Well, I'll see about that later. I left my schedule in the office, I'll get back to you later," you muttered whatever excuse you can come up without thinking that you still had another four impending invitations that you haven't answered yet.
