SSS 2014: For halcydonia
For: halcydonia
From: Your Secret Santa
Title: The Wedding Planner
Pairing: Onew/Key
Rating: PG
Authors’ Notes: The fic has no relation to the film I named it after! And any and all knowledge of wedding planning in this story comes entirely from my guilty pleasure of watching Don’t Tell The Bride, Say Yes To The Dress, and I Found The Gown. I apologise in advance. I had so many ways for this story to go, but I hope this one is okay! Merry Christmas!
Kibum looked around the large reception room, his lip tugged up into a small smirk.
He was good.
He was a wedding planner, and he was good.
So good, in fact, that despite only having been in the wedding business for a little over three years, he had managed to get enough expensive and lavish occasions under his belt that he had built up a sparkling reputation of being able to work magic, perform miracles and take someone’s dream day out of their head, smooth out the details, and bring it into reality.
Kibum looked at his watch, five minutes until guests started to arrive at the reception venue which meant that it was time to start making his final checks to ensure that nothing was out of place or incorrect.
He went from table to table checking the names against the seating chart, ensured that every centrepiece floral display had no gaps or wilting petals, and double-checked the gift bag favours left on every guests’ chair, to make sure nothing and no one had been forgotten.
Kibum liked to think that when his clients employed him, he was promising them perfection. He was promising them style, class, an all-around wonderful experience. He was promising them rare access to his famous little black schedule book, which was the holy grail for any wedding. It contained practically everything Kibum could ever need to plan a wedding; contact details for the most popular venues, the phone numbers of the best chefs in the city, up and coming fashion designers who made exquisite wedding gowns, and so much more.
Some of the people in his little black book also owed him favours, which meant that Kibum could sometimes make the impossible happen and get a dress altered at the last minute if a bride’s weight had changed too much, order a completely different colour scheme for the floral displays, or make sure they got to ride in the horse and carriage they had dreamt of all their lives as they made their way to the church.
A noise outside the room brought Kibum back to the moment in hand, and after a few minor alterations and last second nit-picking, he was satisfied; the reception room looked perfect. But Kibum’s moment of appreciation of all the months of hard work that went in to making this moment come to fruition was short lived as his assistant, Jinki, barrelled into the room. Kibum’s eyebrows creased at the sight of the other man; Jinki was supposed to be overseeing the kitchen and getting drinks ready to be served to guests, so seeing him now could only mean bad things.
Jinki stopped a few steps away from Kibum, he looked a little guilty and panicked, and Kibum raised a slender eyebrow when his assistant remained silent. ‘Yes?’ he bit out, already feeling the beginnings of a headache pressing behind his eyes; he should have known the day was going too well for it to last.
‘I’m so sorry, Kibum, but I slipped!’
A few seconds of silence passed between them as Kibum waited for Jinki to carry on. When it didn’t happen, he snapped at the other man again. ‘And?’
‘…a whole tray of glasses for the toast are broken…’
‘Didn’t I specifically tell you not to touch anything even remotely breakable?’ Kibum all but snapped at him. Jinki smiled back a little sheepishly, hand rubbing at the back of his neck ‘Well, yes, but I was just trying to help!’
Kibum clenched his eyes shut and took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm down a little. As much as he wanted to strangle his assistant at that moment in time, that wasn’t going to help solve the issue of finding replacement glasses in the next thirty minutes before the speeches were due to start.
He opened his eyes to see Jinki wringing his hands. Kibum sighed in frustration. ‘Go and see if Donghae is still here, he should have spares if he hasn’t left yet. Go!’ Jinki wasted no time.
While Jinki wasn’t useless by a long shot, he had his moments of infuriating clumsiness that seemed to be able to ruin anything nearby. Sometimes Kibum really wondered why he hadn’t fired Jinki in all the time they had worked together considering that this was not a one off incident in the life of Jinki. As the older man hightailed out the door and back to the job at hand, Kibum’s eyes slid down his back, his gaze falling to Jinki’s tight slacks that were doing wonderful things for his ass and full thighs.
Oh.
Suddenly, all his annoyance at Jinki was gone.
Kibum stood at the edge of the reception room, gaze wandering around the room, taking in the dozens of guests sat at finely decorated tables. A feeling of joy and celebration was palpable in the air as the guests talked softly between themselves in the ambient light of the spacious room. He allowed himself a brief second of feeling proud of himself; he had done this. This moment had been 14 months in the making and this was his favourite part; those months of client indecision, stress and frustration melted away and left a gorgeously decorated reception, world class cuisine and Kibum’s signature overall perfection. His attention to detail and painstaking perfectionist tendencies were what kept him in business. In the wedding world, reputation was absolutely everything, and Kibum worked tirelessly to make sure he earned the big money he charged.
He had made this event happen, and while he knew he was talented, it still sometimes gave him pause to see all of his hard work come together.
No thanks to Jinki.
Kibum snorted at the thought of the clumsy man who had managed to track down the spare champagne flutes at the very last moment, leaving Kibum unable to truly hold on to any final vestiges of annoyance. His gaze shifted across the room to where said man was talking to one of the waiters, and a warm feeling settled in Kibum chest at the bright smile that had broken out across his face. He supposed that was one of the reasons he could never really bring himself to send Jinki packing despite the numerous broken objects, order sheets that got lost or even the occasional misplaced guest. Whatever problems he caused, Kibum could count on him to set it right and then some. Jinki would never stop until he met Kibum’s extremely high expectations, and whether he said it or not, Kibum truly appreciated his hard work. Kibum wasn’t clueless; he knew he couldn’t be easy to work for, but perfection was the result of nothing less than hard work and he would never apologise for that.
He was brought back to the present when he realised someone was speaking to him.
‘Sorry, are you the wedding planner? Kim Kibum?’
‘Yes, can I help?’ he asked, his practiced professional yet charming smile blossomed on his face as he turned his attention to the woman in front of him. She was a beautiful woman, and the small smile on her face only softened her features further as she introduced herself.
‘Hello, my name is Kim Saeun, I’m a friend of the bride’s.’
‘Lovely to meet you,’ he replied politely, ‘I hope you’re enjoying the reception.’
‘Oh yes, it’s absolutely wonderful!’ she murmured, glancing around the room appraisingly causing Kibum to feel quite smug, ‘I was talking to Yuri and she told me that this was all your work, and I knew that I had to talk to you.’
‘Oh?’ Kibum questioned, with a slight tilt of his head.
‘I’ve recently gotten engaged, and I was hoping to be able to hire you to plan my wedding too.’ She looked at him hopefully. ‘This wedding has been so beautiful…’
Kibum’s smile widened at her compliments, ‘You’re very kind, Miss Kim, and I’d love to plan your wedding for you.’ He reached into the front pocket of his blazer to retrieve a business card to hand to her. ‘Here are my contact details if you’d like to set up an appointment for a consultation.’ She accepted the card with a bright smile.
‘Is Monday afternoon too soon?’ she questioned, ‘I’d like to get started as soon as possible, if you have time?’
‘Actually Monday afternoon should be fine.’ Kibum was a little surprised by her eagerness, and due to his busy schedule normally he’d have to book appointments at least a week or two in advance, but luckily he had a few free hours on Monday. He’d been planning on visiting a new bridal boutique that had opened in his neighbourhood to scope it out for ideas and prices, but he supposed that could wait for another day.
‘’I’ll be available between 2 and half 4, if that’s any good? The consultation should take no more than an hour, depending on how much detail you want to go into.’ He pulled out his pocket diary to make a note of the appointment.
‘Well, then my fiancé and I will be with you at 3, if that’s alright?’ she let out a slightly relieved exhale when he smiled and nodded his assent. ‘Wonderful! I’ll see you on Monday then, Mr Kim.’
He watched her return to her table as he tucked his diary back into his pocket. ’Well, that worked out well…’ he muttered to himself, but he jumped slightly at the touch of a hand to his lower back. He let out a breath when Jinki spoke into his ear, ‘What was all that, Kibum?’
But Kibum’s breath hitched as Jinki seemed to shuffle further towards him and he was far too aware of just how close the other man was standing to answer with any more than ‘…she wanted to book an appointment.’ But Jinki just hummed in understanding and handed Kibum a flute of champagne with a crooked smile before he changed topic slightly.
‘Congratulations, Kibum.’ Jinki said as he looked around the room. ‘You’ve done an amazing job.’
Kibum cleared his throat and tore his gaze away from Jinki to settle his sights anywhere else. He tried to convince himself that the warmth that settled in his chest and crept up his cheeks was most definitely not from Jinki’s soft words but from the alcohol he hadn’t even touched.
Monday afternoon saw Kibum and Jinki sat down with their newest clients, Saeun and her fiancé, Lee Sungmin. After exchanging a few pleasantries, they got down to business with Kibum asking the basic questions of where they’d like to get married, a ballpark figure of the number of people they wanted to invite and if they had a date for the wedding in mind.
‘Good!’ Kibum shot a quick smile at the couple seated on the other side of the table, ‘You’re thinking the Park Hyatt Hotel with 150 or so guests. How about a date for the wedding?’
Saeun glanced over at Sungmin somewhat nervously before replying, ‘We were thinking March.’
‘So that will be March the year after next.’ Kibum watched as Jinki jotted it down.
‘Oh,’ Saeun started, causing Kibum to look back at her curiously. ‘No…we mean March. This coming March.’
Jinki dropped his pen in shock while Kibum blinked at her, silent for a few long seconds. ‘As in three months away.’ It wasn’t really a question.
‘Yes, that’s right!’ She replied brightly, not seeming to notice the blank look being sent her way as Jinki scrambled to pick his pen back up.
‘Twelve weeks from now.’ Kibum needed to make sure. He hoped he was hearing things. ‘You want to plan a wedding for twelve weeks’ time.’
‘Is that a problem?’ Sungmin finally spoke up, eyebrows drawn in corncern.
‘…the Hyatt Park Hotel with 150 guests, this March.’ Kibum spoke slowly, trying to convey the outlandishness of what they were asking, but when he was greeted with matching expectant gazes from his clients he found himself at a loss. He was half tempted to laugh them out the door, but luckily Jinki jumped in at that point before Kibum could show his unprofessional side and began to calmly explain to the couple the difficulties they were going to face with wanting the kind of wedding they had described in only three short months.
‘The thing is, the kind of wedding your friend had two days ago can take up to two years planning to come to fruition, but generally we work to a timeframe of twelve to eighteen months depending on the size or venue of desire.’ His voice was gentle as he spoke, but he was looking pointedly at them. ‘If you’re looking to buy a designer wedding dress, that alone takes six to eight months to be made, not even taking fittings into account. Even if that’s not an issue, booking a popular venue this close to the date will be difficult at best, not even thinking about reserving rooms for out of town relatives and friends…’ Jinki trailed off a little apologetically, looking to Kibum.
Kibum sighed and finally found his voice. ‘Guests, menus, flowers, decorations, travel arrangements.’ He counted them on his fingers. ‘Wedding themes, colour palettes. These things take time to agree upon, to book and to test out.’
By the time the couple had left Kibum’s office half an hour later, they’d come to some precarious decisions and conclusions. They had assured him that money was no object when he warned that some things would have to be rush ordered which would put their price up considerably, and despite agreeing to plan their wedding, he had made it clear that he wouldn’t be able to make any guarantees about being able to book their preferred venue. They had gladly agreed, assured that he would do everything he could to live up to his immaculate reputation. This was definitely the time to call in some favours.
Kibum’s level of perfection took a minimum of twelve months to achieve, but somehow they wanted him to fit it all in in three months with his signature level of effortlessness and finesse.
Piece of cake.
The very next day, Kibum was sat in his office, staring into space, already regretting taking this wedding on.
How on earth was he supposed to condense his preferred minimum of eighteen months wedding planning package into three months? It was time for a serious game plan if he ever hoped to pull this off.
If Kim Kibum couldn’t do it, no one could.
He pulled out his trusty little black book with his contacts in and started thumbing through it purposefully. He’d just have to pull some serious strings in order to fast track a designer wedding dress, find a way to book the venue this late in the game, and then the small task of getting everything else involved in a wedding prepared on time. Kibum felt the familiar clench of stress settling in the set of his shoulders as he considered who to call first.
In the midst of stressing out, he hadn’t noticed Jinki enter the room until he pushed up behind Kibum, resting his hands on Kibum’s shoulders before they trailed down his back.
‘Stop stressing out.’ Jinki murmured to him, as Kibum already felt a little better from the gentle touches of the older man’s hands ‘We can do this.’
Kibum just exhaled at the press of Jinki’s warm, plush lips to the side of his neck that rendered Kibum warm and all but boneless.
Yeah. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
So far, things weren’t going as badly as he had feared, but that didn’t mean they were going great by any stretch of the imagination. It had been a week since the meeting with his clients and progress was not coming at the rate he was comfortable with.
When he had finished stressing out that first day, his first port of call was to make a cursory call to the Park Hyatt Hotel on the off chance they were actually free in late March, the answer was a polite but definite no, which Kibum had predicted. He left his details with them to be put on the waiting list if they became available. Kibum didn’t have high hopes of that happening. Meanwhile, Jinki had been calling round as many alternative places as he could to see where was available to hold a wedding and reception and was making a list of possible venues to send to the couple for them to look over.
‘They’re probably going to hate all those places.’ Kibum said wryly. Jinki just nodded and shrugged, humming his agreement.
The other major concern on Kibum’s mind was Saeun’s wedding dress. She had sent him pictures and details of the styles, fabrics and fits she liked, but Kibum recognised most of them as being high-end designer which would almost certainly not be available for a rush order. But this was where things were going marginally better as Kibum had put Saeun in contact with his friend Nicole who was an up and coming fashion designer who would be able to custom make her a dress in time for March. Now Kibum and Jinki could only hope that Saeun would find her dream dress from Nicole’s collection, which would mean one out of a thousand things could be checked off the list.
Finding caterers willing to work with you without a confirmed headcount or venue was surprisingly difficult. But as the days were turning into weeks since they started planning this wedding, this was something that needed to be sorted soon in order for the couple to be able to try the dishes that the caterer was offering.
This would have been much simpler if Saeun and Sungmin had been willing to compromise and choose from the list of available venues so Kibum could get to work with somewhere concrete in mind. But they had insisted on waiting a little longer to see whether the Park Hyatt would miraculously become free. While Kibum couldn’t blame them for wanting to hold out for their dream venue, their stubbornness was making his and Jinki’s jobs unnecessarily difficult. Time was seriously running out, and with only seven weeks left until their preferred date to get married and practically nothing had been finalised. That made Kibum very uncomfortable.
Kibum sighed into his coffee, he was taking a well-deserved break from desperately trying to find any venue that was remotely like their first choice. He looked around the otherwise empty office; Jinki was out running errands for one of the other weddings they had on their books at the moment and Kibum couldn’t stop himself from thinking how quiet it was without him pottering around their office.
The quietness was broken when his phone started ringing. Kibum’s breath caught in his throat when he saw the caller ID: Park Hyatt Hotel. He clutched his phone and answered the call. ‘Hello?’
Jinki stumbled back into their office half an hour later only to have Kibum all but jump on him.
‘The Park Hyatt called!’ Kibum grinned sharply at him, giving Jinki a second to arrive at the conclusion before carrying on, ‘They had a cancellation on the 28th of March…we’ve booked Sungmin and Saeun’s wedding!’
Jinki couldn’t help the relieved and happy laugh that ripped out of him. Thank God! ‘We can finally start getting things done!’ he crowed.
The wide grin fell into a soft smile as he took in how Kibum looked so pleased in that moment, and Jinki just had to kiss him. He leant forwards and slipped a hand around the nape of Kibum’s neck before pressing their lips together. Kibum gasped at the unexpectedness of it before melting into Jinki. After a few seconds they parted, and Kibum chuckled at Jinki’s dopey smile.
‘I should probably all Saeun…’ Kibum mumbled, but made no move to leave Jinki’s arms, instead he clutched the fabric of Jinki’s sweater in his hands and tugged him closer.
Jinki rewarded him with another soft kiss.
Kibum sat at the bar of a five star restaurant, tapping his fingers against the dark wood of the counter as he waited for Sungmin and Saeun to arrive. They were here to try the menu this restaurant was offering to cater for their wedding, but the couple were already five minutes late. He was too busy staring out the window for a glimpse of his clients that he was startled by a familiar voice.
‘Oh hey, Kibum. You been stood up?’ He rolled his eyes before turning around on his stool to face the sniggering barman. ‘Shut up, Minho.’ He muttered without much heat behind it. ‘I’m waiting for my clients.’
‘I didn’t know you were a prostitute these days, Kibum.’ The barman teased, a taunting smirk on his face.
‘Very funny, you dick.’ He bit back, cursing having known Minho for most of his life. Even though Minho could be a nightmare most of the time, he had helped Kibum out massively by getting him in touch with the manager of the restaurant who was surprisingly responsive to Kibum’s casual flirting and had agreed to ask his head chef to cater for Saeun and Sungmin’s wedding. He supposed that even someone as annoying as Minho had to have their purposes.
The door to the restaurant opened and Kibum was saved from having to deal with Minho any longer as his clients walked in. He hopped off his stool and muttered his farewell to his friend, ‘Bye, loser.’
‘Kibum, I’m so sorry we’re late! The traffic was a nightmare.’ Sungmin said, arm around his fiancee’s waist. Kibum waved off their apologies and led them through to the back room to try their menu options.
Thankfully after an hour, the couple had decided on contemporary versions of classic Korean dishes, and Kibum was thrilled to be able to tick another thing off the to-do list.
There were only four weeks left until the wedding, and Kibum was just returning to the office after meeting Saeun at the florists to preview her bouquet, centrepieces and floral display choices. After a few adjustments and an indepth discussion on the merits and downsides to choosing white-white roses over off-white roses, the bride-to-be was satisfied with her selections and the full order was placed.
Kibum had returned already with a skip in his step at the progress being made, that he didn’t expect Jinki to be grinning at him from his desk when he entered the room. Kibum shot his a quizzical look, ‘What’s made you so happy?’ he asked his assistant.
‘Nicole called.’ He replied. ‘She said the mock-up of Saeun‘s dress is finished and ready for her to go and see. She said to call her back, and that she’s free in the morning the day after tomorrow if Saeun’s free for a fitting before she makes the final thing!’
Kibum huffed in disbelief. ‘So, the venue is booked, the flowers are sorted, invitations have been sent, catering is being taken care of and now the dress looks like it’ll be done in time.’ He shook his head and grinned with joy. ‘Jinki, despite all odds, I think we’re actually making this happen!’
Jinki stood up and moved around his desk and closer to Kibum, mirroring his bright smile. ‘I guess next we need to check on the rings and the wedding cake…but first,’ he cut himself off as he tugged his assistant closer by hooking a finger in his shirt, ‘I think we deserve a little break.’
Jinki would have agreed out loud, but his mouth was busy.
Finally, the final weeks leading up to the wedding passed and the 28th of March had rolled around. Kibum felt like he had more than risen to the challenge of organising a wedding on this scale in just three months. Of course, it hadn’t been easy, and the couple hadn’t been able to have everything from their wish list purely due to time constraints, but despite that, they seemed over the moon with the way everything had turned out. They had come to see the reception room a few hours before the wedding and Saeun had hugged him in gratitude as she looked at the beautifully decorated room, exactly how she had imagined it in muted golds and deep purples.
And now, with a few minutes before the guests would start arriving, he allowed himself to stop for a minute and bask in a job well done. Just as his thoughts were wondering to Jinki, a loud crash came from somewhere outside the room along with someone who sounded suspiciously like his assistant making flustered and repeated apologies.
Kibum closed his eyes and sighed in resignation. He supposed that some things never changed.
From: Your Secret Santa
Title: The Wedding Planner
Pairing: Onew/Key
Rating: PG
Authors’ Notes: The fic has no relation to the film I named it after! And any and all knowledge of wedding planning in this story comes entirely from my guilty pleasure of watching Don’t Tell The Bride, Say Yes To The Dress, and I Found The Gown. I apologise in advance. I had so many ways for this story to go, but I hope this one is okay! Merry Christmas!
Kibum looked around the large reception room, his lip tugged up into a small smirk.
He was good.
He was a wedding planner, and he was good.
So good, in fact, that despite only having been in the wedding business for a little over three years, he had managed to get enough expensive and lavish occasions under his belt that he had built up a sparkling reputation of being able to work magic, perform miracles and take someone’s dream day out of their head, smooth out the details, and bring it into reality.
Kibum looked at his watch, five minutes until guests started to arrive at the reception venue which meant that it was time to start making his final checks to ensure that nothing was out of place or incorrect.
He went from table to table checking the names against the seating chart, ensured that every centrepiece floral display had no gaps or wilting petals, and double-checked the gift bag favours left on every guests’ chair, to make sure nothing and no one had been forgotten.
Kibum liked to think that when his clients employed him, he was promising them perfection. He was promising them style, class, an all-around wonderful experience. He was promising them rare access to his famous little black schedule book, which was the holy grail for any wedding. It contained practically everything Kibum could ever need to plan a wedding; contact details for the most popular venues, the phone numbers of the best chefs in the city, up and coming fashion designers who made exquisite wedding gowns, and so much more.
Some of the people in his little black book also owed him favours, which meant that Kibum could sometimes make the impossible happen and get a dress altered at the last minute if a bride’s weight had changed too much, order a completely different colour scheme for the floral displays, or make sure they got to ride in the horse and carriage they had dreamt of all their lives as they made their way to the church.
A noise outside the room brought Kibum back to the moment in hand, and after a few minor alterations and last second nit-picking, he was satisfied; the reception room looked perfect. But Kibum’s moment of appreciation of all the months of hard work that went in to making this moment come to fruition was short lived as his assistant, Jinki, barrelled into the room. Kibum’s eyebrows creased at the sight of the other man; Jinki was supposed to be overseeing the kitchen and getting drinks ready to be served to guests, so seeing him now could only mean bad things.
Jinki stopped a few steps away from Kibum, he looked a little guilty and panicked, and Kibum raised a slender eyebrow when his assistant remained silent. ‘Yes?’ he bit out, already feeling the beginnings of a headache pressing behind his eyes; he should have known the day was going too well for it to last.
‘I’m so sorry, Kibum, but I slipped!’
A few seconds of silence passed between them as Kibum waited for Jinki to carry on. When it didn’t happen, he snapped at the other man again. ‘And?’
‘…a whole tray of glasses for the toast are broken…’
‘Didn’t I specifically tell you not to touch anything even remotely breakable?’ Kibum all but snapped at him. Jinki smiled back a little sheepishly, hand rubbing at the back of his neck ‘Well, yes, but I was just trying to help!’
Kibum clenched his eyes shut and took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm down a little. As much as he wanted to strangle his assistant at that moment in time, that wasn’t going to help solve the issue of finding replacement glasses in the next thirty minutes before the speeches were due to start.
He opened his eyes to see Jinki wringing his hands. Kibum sighed in frustration. ‘Go and see if Donghae is still here, he should have spares if he hasn’t left yet. Go!’ Jinki wasted no time.
While Jinki wasn’t useless by a long shot, he had his moments of infuriating clumsiness that seemed to be able to ruin anything nearby. Sometimes Kibum really wondered why he hadn’t fired Jinki in all the time they had worked together considering that this was not a one off incident in the life of Jinki. As the older man hightailed out the door and back to the job at hand, Kibum’s eyes slid down his back, his gaze falling to Jinki’s tight slacks that were doing wonderful things for his ass and full thighs.
Oh.
Suddenly, all his annoyance at Jinki was gone.
Kibum stood at the edge of the reception room, gaze wandering around the room, taking in the dozens of guests sat at finely decorated tables. A feeling of joy and celebration was palpable in the air as the guests talked softly between themselves in the ambient light of the spacious room. He allowed himself a brief second of feeling proud of himself; he had done this. This moment had been 14 months in the making and this was his favourite part; those months of client indecision, stress and frustration melted away and left a gorgeously decorated reception, world class cuisine and Kibum’s signature overall perfection. His attention to detail and painstaking perfectionist tendencies were what kept him in business. In the wedding world, reputation was absolutely everything, and Kibum worked tirelessly to make sure he earned the big money he charged.
He had made this event happen, and while he knew he was talented, it still sometimes gave him pause to see all of his hard work come together.
No thanks to Jinki.
Kibum snorted at the thought of the clumsy man who had managed to track down the spare champagne flutes at the very last moment, leaving Kibum unable to truly hold on to any final vestiges of annoyance. His gaze shifted across the room to where said man was talking to one of the waiters, and a warm feeling settled in Kibum chest at the bright smile that had broken out across his face. He supposed that was one of the reasons he could never really bring himself to send Jinki packing despite the numerous broken objects, order sheets that got lost or even the occasional misplaced guest. Whatever problems he caused, Kibum could count on him to set it right and then some. Jinki would never stop until he met Kibum’s extremely high expectations, and whether he said it or not, Kibum truly appreciated his hard work. Kibum wasn’t clueless; he knew he couldn’t be easy to work for, but perfection was the result of nothing less than hard work and he would never apologise for that.
He was brought back to the present when he realised someone was speaking to him.
‘Sorry, are you the wedding planner? Kim Kibum?’
‘Yes, can I help?’ he asked, his practiced professional yet charming smile blossomed on his face as he turned his attention to the woman in front of him. She was a beautiful woman, and the small smile on her face only softened her features further as she introduced herself.
‘Hello, my name is Kim Saeun, I’m a friend of the bride’s.’
‘Lovely to meet you,’ he replied politely, ‘I hope you’re enjoying the reception.’
‘Oh yes, it’s absolutely wonderful!’ she murmured, glancing around the room appraisingly causing Kibum to feel quite smug, ‘I was talking to Yuri and she told me that this was all your work, and I knew that I had to talk to you.’
‘Oh?’ Kibum questioned, with a slight tilt of his head.
‘I’ve recently gotten engaged, and I was hoping to be able to hire you to plan my wedding too.’ She looked at him hopefully. ‘This wedding has been so beautiful…’
Kibum’s smile widened at her compliments, ‘You’re very kind, Miss Kim, and I’d love to plan your wedding for you.’ He reached into the front pocket of his blazer to retrieve a business card to hand to her. ‘Here are my contact details if you’d like to set up an appointment for a consultation.’ She accepted the card with a bright smile.
‘Is Monday afternoon too soon?’ she questioned, ‘I’d like to get started as soon as possible, if you have time?’
‘Actually Monday afternoon should be fine.’ Kibum was a little surprised by her eagerness, and due to his busy schedule normally he’d have to book appointments at least a week or two in advance, but luckily he had a few free hours on Monday. He’d been planning on visiting a new bridal boutique that had opened in his neighbourhood to scope it out for ideas and prices, but he supposed that could wait for another day.
‘’I’ll be available between 2 and half 4, if that’s any good? The consultation should take no more than an hour, depending on how much detail you want to go into.’ He pulled out his pocket diary to make a note of the appointment.
‘Well, then my fiancé and I will be with you at 3, if that’s alright?’ she let out a slightly relieved exhale when he smiled and nodded his assent. ‘Wonderful! I’ll see you on Monday then, Mr Kim.’
He watched her return to her table as he tucked his diary back into his pocket. ’Well, that worked out well…’ he muttered to himself, but he jumped slightly at the touch of a hand to his lower back. He let out a breath when Jinki spoke into his ear, ‘What was all that, Kibum?’
But Kibum’s breath hitched as Jinki seemed to shuffle further towards him and he was far too aware of just how close the other man was standing to answer with any more than ‘…she wanted to book an appointment.’ But Jinki just hummed in understanding and handed Kibum a flute of champagne with a crooked smile before he changed topic slightly.
‘Congratulations, Kibum.’ Jinki said as he looked around the room. ‘You’ve done an amazing job.’
Kibum cleared his throat and tore his gaze away from Jinki to settle his sights anywhere else. He tried to convince himself that the warmth that settled in his chest and crept up his cheeks was most definitely not from Jinki’s soft words but from the alcohol he hadn’t even touched.
Monday afternoon saw Kibum and Jinki sat down with their newest clients, Saeun and her fiancé, Lee Sungmin. After exchanging a few pleasantries, they got down to business with Kibum asking the basic questions of where they’d like to get married, a ballpark figure of the number of people they wanted to invite and if they had a date for the wedding in mind.
‘Good!’ Kibum shot a quick smile at the couple seated on the other side of the table, ‘You’re thinking the Park Hyatt Hotel with 150 or so guests. How about a date for the wedding?’
Saeun glanced over at Sungmin somewhat nervously before replying, ‘We were thinking March.’
‘So that will be March the year after next.’ Kibum watched as Jinki jotted it down.
‘Oh,’ Saeun started, causing Kibum to look back at her curiously. ‘No…we mean March. This coming March.’
Jinki dropped his pen in shock while Kibum blinked at her, silent for a few long seconds. ‘As in three months away.’ It wasn’t really a question.
‘Yes, that’s right!’ She replied brightly, not seeming to notice the blank look being sent her way as Jinki scrambled to pick his pen back up.
‘Twelve weeks from now.’ Kibum needed to make sure. He hoped he was hearing things. ‘You want to plan a wedding for twelve weeks’ time.’
‘Is that a problem?’ Sungmin finally spoke up, eyebrows drawn in corncern.
‘…the Hyatt Park Hotel with 150 guests, this March.’ Kibum spoke slowly, trying to convey the outlandishness of what they were asking, but when he was greeted with matching expectant gazes from his clients he found himself at a loss. He was half tempted to laugh them out the door, but luckily Jinki jumped in at that point before Kibum could show his unprofessional side and began to calmly explain to the couple the difficulties they were going to face with wanting the kind of wedding they had described in only three short months.
‘The thing is, the kind of wedding your friend had two days ago can take up to two years planning to come to fruition, but generally we work to a timeframe of twelve to eighteen months depending on the size or venue of desire.’ His voice was gentle as he spoke, but he was looking pointedly at them. ‘If you’re looking to buy a designer wedding dress, that alone takes six to eight months to be made, not even taking fittings into account. Even if that’s not an issue, booking a popular venue this close to the date will be difficult at best, not even thinking about reserving rooms for out of town relatives and friends…’ Jinki trailed off a little apologetically, looking to Kibum.
Kibum sighed and finally found his voice. ‘Guests, menus, flowers, decorations, travel arrangements.’ He counted them on his fingers. ‘Wedding themes, colour palettes. These things take time to agree upon, to book and to test out.’
By the time the couple had left Kibum’s office half an hour later, they’d come to some precarious decisions and conclusions. They had assured him that money was no object when he warned that some things would have to be rush ordered which would put their price up considerably, and despite agreeing to plan their wedding, he had made it clear that he wouldn’t be able to make any guarantees about being able to book their preferred venue. They had gladly agreed, assured that he would do everything he could to live up to his immaculate reputation. This was definitely the time to call in some favours.
Kibum’s level of perfection took a minimum of twelve months to achieve, but somehow they wanted him to fit it all in in three months with his signature level of effortlessness and finesse.
Piece of cake.
The very next day, Kibum was sat in his office, staring into space, already regretting taking this wedding on.
How on earth was he supposed to condense his preferred minimum of eighteen months wedding planning package into three months? It was time for a serious game plan if he ever hoped to pull this off.
If Kim Kibum couldn’t do it, no one could.
He pulled out his trusty little black book with his contacts in and started thumbing through it purposefully. He’d just have to pull some serious strings in order to fast track a designer wedding dress, find a way to book the venue this late in the game, and then the small task of getting everything else involved in a wedding prepared on time. Kibum felt the familiar clench of stress settling in the set of his shoulders as he considered who to call first.
In the midst of stressing out, he hadn’t noticed Jinki enter the room until he pushed up behind Kibum, resting his hands on Kibum’s shoulders before they trailed down his back.
‘Stop stressing out.’ Jinki murmured to him, as Kibum already felt a little better from the gentle touches of the older man’s hands ‘We can do this.’
Kibum just exhaled at the press of Jinki’s warm, plush lips to the side of his neck that rendered Kibum warm and all but boneless.
Yeah. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
So far, things weren’t going as badly as he had feared, but that didn’t mean they were going great by any stretch of the imagination. It had been a week since the meeting with his clients and progress was not coming at the rate he was comfortable with.
When he had finished stressing out that first day, his first port of call was to make a cursory call to the Park Hyatt Hotel on the off chance they were actually free in late March, the answer was a polite but definite no, which Kibum had predicted. He left his details with them to be put on the waiting list if they became available. Kibum didn’t have high hopes of that happening. Meanwhile, Jinki had been calling round as many alternative places as he could to see where was available to hold a wedding and reception and was making a list of possible venues to send to the couple for them to look over.
‘They’re probably going to hate all those places.’ Kibum said wryly. Jinki just nodded and shrugged, humming his agreement.
The other major concern on Kibum’s mind was Saeun’s wedding dress. She had sent him pictures and details of the styles, fabrics and fits she liked, but Kibum recognised most of them as being high-end designer which would almost certainly not be available for a rush order. But this was where things were going marginally better as Kibum had put Saeun in contact with his friend Nicole who was an up and coming fashion designer who would be able to custom make her a dress in time for March. Now Kibum and Jinki could only hope that Saeun would find her dream dress from Nicole’s collection, which would mean one out of a thousand things could be checked off the list.
Finding caterers willing to work with you without a confirmed headcount or venue was surprisingly difficult. But as the days were turning into weeks since they started planning this wedding, this was something that needed to be sorted soon in order for the couple to be able to try the dishes that the caterer was offering.
This would have been much simpler if Saeun and Sungmin had been willing to compromise and choose from the list of available venues so Kibum could get to work with somewhere concrete in mind. But they had insisted on waiting a little longer to see whether the Park Hyatt would miraculously become free. While Kibum couldn’t blame them for wanting to hold out for their dream venue, their stubbornness was making his and Jinki’s jobs unnecessarily difficult. Time was seriously running out, and with only seven weeks left until their preferred date to get married and practically nothing had been finalised. That made Kibum very uncomfortable.
Kibum sighed into his coffee, he was taking a well-deserved break from desperately trying to find any venue that was remotely like their first choice. He looked around the otherwise empty office; Jinki was out running errands for one of the other weddings they had on their books at the moment and Kibum couldn’t stop himself from thinking how quiet it was without him pottering around their office.
The quietness was broken when his phone started ringing. Kibum’s breath caught in his throat when he saw the caller ID: Park Hyatt Hotel. He clutched his phone and answered the call. ‘Hello?’
Jinki stumbled back into their office half an hour later only to have Kibum all but jump on him.
‘The Park Hyatt called!’ Kibum grinned sharply at him, giving Jinki a second to arrive at the conclusion before carrying on, ‘They had a cancellation on the 28th of March…we’ve booked Sungmin and Saeun’s wedding!’
Jinki couldn’t help the relieved and happy laugh that ripped out of him. Thank God! ‘We can finally start getting things done!’ he crowed.
The wide grin fell into a soft smile as he took in how Kibum looked so pleased in that moment, and Jinki just had to kiss him. He leant forwards and slipped a hand around the nape of Kibum’s neck before pressing their lips together. Kibum gasped at the unexpectedness of it before melting into Jinki. After a few seconds they parted, and Kibum chuckled at Jinki’s dopey smile.
‘I should probably all Saeun…’ Kibum mumbled, but made no move to leave Jinki’s arms, instead he clutched the fabric of Jinki’s sweater in his hands and tugged him closer.
Jinki rewarded him with another soft kiss.
Kibum sat at the bar of a five star restaurant, tapping his fingers against the dark wood of the counter as he waited for Sungmin and Saeun to arrive. They were here to try the menu this restaurant was offering to cater for their wedding, but the couple were already five minutes late. He was too busy staring out the window for a glimpse of his clients that he was startled by a familiar voice.
‘Oh hey, Kibum. You been stood up?’ He rolled his eyes before turning around on his stool to face the sniggering barman. ‘Shut up, Minho.’ He muttered without much heat behind it. ‘I’m waiting for my clients.’
‘I didn’t know you were a prostitute these days, Kibum.’ The barman teased, a taunting smirk on his face.
‘Very funny, you dick.’ He bit back, cursing having known Minho for most of his life. Even though Minho could be a nightmare most of the time, he had helped Kibum out massively by getting him in touch with the manager of the restaurant who was surprisingly responsive to Kibum’s casual flirting and had agreed to ask his head chef to cater for Saeun and Sungmin’s wedding. He supposed that even someone as annoying as Minho had to have their purposes.
The door to the restaurant opened and Kibum was saved from having to deal with Minho any longer as his clients walked in. He hopped off his stool and muttered his farewell to his friend, ‘Bye, loser.’
‘Kibum, I’m so sorry we’re late! The traffic was a nightmare.’ Sungmin said, arm around his fiancee’s waist. Kibum waved off their apologies and led them through to the back room to try their menu options.
Thankfully after an hour, the couple had decided on contemporary versions of classic Korean dishes, and Kibum was thrilled to be able to tick another thing off the to-do list.
There were only four weeks left until the wedding, and Kibum was just returning to the office after meeting Saeun at the florists to preview her bouquet, centrepieces and floral display choices. After a few adjustments and an indepth discussion on the merits and downsides to choosing white-white roses over off-white roses, the bride-to-be was satisfied with her selections and the full order was placed.
Kibum had returned already with a skip in his step at the progress being made, that he didn’t expect Jinki to be grinning at him from his desk when he entered the room. Kibum shot his a quizzical look, ‘What’s made you so happy?’ he asked his assistant.
‘Nicole called.’ He replied. ‘She said the mock-up of Saeun‘s dress is finished and ready for her to go and see. She said to call her back, and that she’s free in the morning the day after tomorrow if Saeun’s free for a fitting before she makes the final thing!’
Kibum huffed in disbelief. ‘So, the venue is booked, the flowers are sorted, invitations have been sent, catering is being taken care of and now the dress looks like it’ll be done in time.’ He shook his head and grinned with joy. ‘Jinki, despite all odds, I think we’re actually making this happen!’
Jinki stood up and moved around his desk and closer to Kibum, mirroring his bright smile. ‘I guess next we need to check on the rings and the wedding cake…but first,’ he cut himself off as he tugged his assistant closer by hooking a finger in his shirt, ‘I think we deserve a little break.’
Jinki would have agreed out loud, but his mouth was busy.
Finally, the final weeks leading up to the wedding passed and the 28th of March had rolled around. Kibum felt like he had more than risen to the challenge of organising a wedding on this scale in just three months. Of course, it hadn’t been easy, and the couple hadn’t been able to have everything from their wish list purely due to time constraints, but despite that, they seemed over the moon with the way everything had turned out. They had come to see the reception room a few hours before the wedding and Saeun had hugged him in gratitude as she looked at the beautifully decorated room, exactly how she had imagined it in muted golds and deep purples.
And now, with a few minutes before the guests would start arriving, he allowed himself to stop for a minute and bask in a job well done. Just as his thoughts were wondering to Jinki, a loud crash came from somewhere outside the room along with someone who sounded suspiciously like his assistant making flustered and repeated apologies.
Kibum closed his eyes and sighed in resignation. He supposed that some things never changed.