Word count: 3724 words. Please read my final note at the end! 😊

The Closure

Time passed within a blink of an eye. Without realizing, another week was gone, and it was the day of my thesis defense, and Joohyun’s too. I had not contacted her again after our little catch-up the week before, as both of us were busy to prepare our thesis defense. The two of us might joked around about it saying it was a piece of cake as we both have been through a lot of business presentations anyway; but it was still nerve-wrecking nonetheless. My business with the thesis defense was also to act as a distraction of what happened with Sehun himself and from my talk with Joohyun- it led me to an option that I had never thought about before for my future. Some said that it was extremely rushed, and I had to agree that it was, but nor I neither the people around me knew what else to do with the situation. In the end, it was agreed that my decision was sort of the best option available for me to get over the heartache; to get over Oh Sehun.

“Don’t worry too much, I’m sure you did great,” my brother’s words knocked me out of my thoughts. I looked up at him with a small smile, “Still, can’t help but to worry,” I shrugged. I had just finished my defense a few minutes ago, and the Professors were currently discussing my result inside the meeting room. I was outside of the meeting room with my siblings- they had waited for me from the very beginning. My parents were unfortunately away for a meeting in another city right now, but they would return later today, so we could still have a celebration tonight. Jongdae was also supposed to come, but he was probably still on his way to KU, since my sister did say that he was still in the middle of a meeting when I was about to start my presentation two hours ago.

The door to the meeting room opened, and Professor Lee Sunhee popped her head out of the room, “Come in, Seoyeon,” she smiled, “We have your result,” she went back inside the room. Both my siblings gave me a brief hug, then I inhaled a deep breath and went in after her. Professor Lee Sunhee, my supervisor while I was an intern at Kyunghee, was also my thesis supervisor, somehow, but she was counted as an ‘off-campus’ supervisor, as she was not a Professor in KU. Therefore, KU also invited her as an attendant in my thesis defense, and so here she was. I only know about this last night though, because she suddenly sent me a text to cheer me up for my defense today. It made me wonder on how she knew when my defense was, and she told me about it then.

“So, how did you think you do, Seoyeon?” one of the examiners, Professor Kwon asked me. “I don’t know, honestly,” I shrugged with an unsure smile, wondering on whether my other friends had this kind of small talk before the announcement. My other examiner, Professor Dong smiled reassuringly at me, “Just relax Yeon-ah, your presentation was good,” he started. “You explained all the important points of your thesis well within fifteen minutes only, and the confidence that you exuded while presenting was amazing too,” he continued. “We know that you are used to do business presentation in your family’s company, so I think that sort of helped your performance today,” Professor Kwon continued. I gave out a thankful yet sheepish smile at that, “I suppose you can say that.”

“You also answered the questions smoothly, and so,” he looked at me, giving that dramatic pause. “We have no choice...” he paused again and it made me groan. Both Professor Lee and Professor Dong snickered at the stink eye I gave Professor Kwon. Both of my examiners were among the first Professors in our major, which mean that they have taught me since I was a freshman. It was a definite that we were close, and could act as friends sometimes, when it was not in class. “You’re so sensitive these days,” Professor Kwon rolled his eyes. “You get an A,” he told me before I could retort back. I froze up in shock, not believing on what I just heard, “What?”

“Congratulations!” Professor Lee ran up to me and hugged me. The two males also came up to me to congratulate me. “You did so well, we can’t give anything else other than an A to you, Yeon,” Professor Dong congratulated me. “Wow,” the surprise on my face was still evident, as Professor Kwon snickered after congratulating me. “Now, let’s take a picture first, then you can go out.” We took turns in taking the picture, and even called up my brother to help taking a picture of the four of us. Neither me nor the Professors told him the result just yet though. Once done, my brother went out first as the Professors told me a little on which part I should revise, before submitting the final version next week.

“It’s up to you on how you want to submit them, you can either send it to me or Professor Lee here or Professor Dong and we’ll take care of it for you, or through one of your friends or siblings, either way is fine for us,” Professor Kwon commented before I could remind him that I would not be here in person for the submission. “Professor Kwon and I will also personally talk this out with the school, as you’ve gained permission up until the Dean anyway, so don’t worry about it,” Professor Dong added. I grinned sheepishly at that, “Sorry for troubling all of you Professors.” Professor Lee waved her hand dismissively, “No need to worry about that Yeon-ah, just do your best, and best of luck for your studies.” I smiled gratefully at them for understanding my situation- like I said, my decision was extremely rushed and possibly rash, but the decision had been made.

“Oh, right! When is your flight by the way?” Professor Lee asked before I exited the meeting room. “Ah, on Monday evening,” I grinned sheepishly, knowing full well that they had the same thought as me and basically everyone else around me. “You’re really...” Professor Dong trailed off, and it was picked up by Professor Kwon, “Rushed and rash,” he nodded his head knowingly. “I know, Professors, you guys are not the first to say that,” I scowled at him. I heard those words too many times to count already just within a week. “Well anyways, good luck with your studies, and don’t forget to visit us whenever you’re here,” Professor Dong was the one to stop our bantering this time. “Now, get out of here,” Professor Kwon shooed me after he and Professor Lee wished me luck too. I only scrunched my face at him but still thanked them all once more before getting out of the room.

“I got an A!” I blurted out in excitement once I got out. My sister squealed and hugged me, then my brother did the same. “Oh my God, congratulations!” my sister yelled- she seemed to be more excited than I was. “We know you can do it,” my brother smiled and ruffled my hair. I smiled back at them. “By the way, here are for you,” each of them produced a flower bouquet, pink lilies from my brother, and yellow tulips from my sister. I took them both with a grin- both were one of my favorite flowers, “Thank you Eonni, Oppa.”

“And this is another one for you,” another bouquet of sunflower was suddenly presented on my face from my right. Surprised, I turned and found the owner of the hand to be my sister’s boyfriend. “Congratulations Yeon,” he side-hugged me. “Thanks, Jongdae-oppa,” I only grinned as I could not hug him back due to the numerous bouquets on my hand. “Thank you for coming, you really don’t have to, you know?” I told him. The temporary President of Samsung was a bit out of breath, and I assumed that he was running here from his car. He just shrugged, “Here, let me help you,” he took all my bouquets. “I can-”

“Congratulations, Choi Seoyeon,” another voice from behind me stopped me from taking my bouquets back from Jongdae. I turned around, and my jaw went slack upon seeing him. The unexpected male chuckled at my speechlessness. “Surprise?” he tilted his head. I snapped out of my initial surprise and immediately went to engulf him in a bear hug, dismissing my other bouquets that was now held by Jongdae and my sister.

“Junmyeon-oppa!” I pulled away from the hug with a huge grin. He mirrored my expression and handed me the bouquet of peach colored roses that he was holding. “What- how-” I could not form my questions properly due to the surprise. He patted my head with a soft smile on his face, “I would not miss your defense for the world- nor your graduation later on.” I rolled my eyes, but the smile could not be wiped out of my face. As much as I would like to nag him, he already flew all the way back to Seoul anyway. “So that’s why you didn’t call and only texted me last night,” I wondered with a smile. He chuckled again, “Yeah, you would’ve known that I was on the plane if we video-called.”

“So,” the other three approached me and Junmyeon; the couple was holding on to my other bouquets, while my brother was holding on to my other stuffs. “Let’s take a picture in front of the old library,”