“How are the final planning stages for grad?” Taeyeon asked the question while smacking Leeteuk’s hand from trying to steal her food. Seohyun put her fork down and gave her a stressful look. Seohyun was head of the graduation council committee. She was in charge of overseeing all graduation details, from the printing of certificates and awards, to the color of table cloths during the banquet, she was the one to make the final call. Of course others were there, and Seohyun did a really good job of listening to everyone and sharing opinions. I felt bad because she always had to play it fair and be logical pushing away her emotional side and her own strong opinion, something that wasn’t always easy, especially when people don’t want to cooperate.

“It is absolutely crazy. I am trying to get people to finish up their work so we could relax for the rest of it, but unfortunately too many people procrastinated! The theme is set and we want to go for a masquerade for the dance portion. In the afternoon for the ceremony and luncheon we wanted to do it outdoors, with a big tent and lanterns and pretty things like flowers. Everything for the masquerade is set, from the venue all the way to the snacks and decorations for the evening. However, we are not nearly done the table pieces for all the tables, the table cloths have not some in yet, and there is a huge argument on what type of flowers we should buy! Who knew the national flower was so expensive!” By the end of her speech Seohyun looked even more stressed out, and Kyuhyun was awkwardly patting her back.

“Well at least the dress is out of the way!” Tiffany smiled.

“We still don’t have any masks” leave it to Kyuhyun to be a downer.

“Let’s just make them” Everyone stopped to look at Key. “What?”

“This isn’t arts and crafts Key, they need to look really good” Donghae smacked Eunhyuk’s head for the rude comment.

“Pfft, please I’ve taken each fashion studies class twice each year. Plus Jaemi is super good with making lavish and stylish accessories. Everything she wears it was made Chez Jae” it was true. I never bought a single piece of already made jewelry before. I bought earrings that were missing the other pair and put them together to make a ring or bracelet. I liked bending metals and painting things on them to make my own jewelry. Yunho once asked me to set up a table at a market to sell them, but I was never confident enough to actually do it.

“Are you sure? No offense Jae, but you don’t exactly look like a fashion forward person” Sunny asked hesitantly. She was right. There were tons of jewelry in my room that I never wore, and just because you make them didn’t mean you had to wear them. My mom did that for me. Key grabbed my hand and showed everyone the ring I had on. It was purple thin metal twisted into a small treble clef on my ring finger, and as they saw it they looked quite surprised.

“Jaemi is a secret protégée designer, she’s just too lazy to do anything really” I slapped Key on the arm for being so blunt. I wasn’t lazy, I just really didn’t care all that much. I wasn’t some kind of fashion terrorist, I still matched clothes well, but they weren’t what was in style. Simple jeans and a t-shirt was good enough for me, and if I could, I’d always wear sweat pants.

“Yah, Jaemi has her own stuff to worry about, we can’t just make her do all the masks, it wouldn’t be fair” Leeteuk protested looking at everyone on the table.

“I really don’t mind, as long as I get help and everyone chips in for the material” Key beamed back at me.

“I’ll make the guys’ and Jae will work on the girls’. It’ll be a bigger surprise that way!” Key was so excited, and it seemed like everyone around the table was too.  We all continued onto the topic about graduation and the remaining time left at the academy. However everyone avoided talking about the Final Showcase. For everyone else in the school, the showcase was to secure them a spot into the academy the following year. For us it was different, not only was this our last showcase, but it was the one night where every important person in the world or entertainment came. That meant producers, composers, choreographers, CEOs of recording labels, CEOs of talent agencies, CEOs of television and radio stations and everything above. Everyone in senior year got to audition in more than one category ranging from group to solos, and whatever they qualified for, earned them a spot to impress. Key had joined Jonghyun’s singing and dance group around the time Jonghyun kept flirting with him. He wanted a potential placement with the agents coming, but if all else failed, he’d go back to Daegu and set up his own little fashion boutique with his family. Tiffany, Seohyun, and Taeyeon had their group, along with Eunhyuk and Donghae. Leeteuk and Sunny were asked to host the night by Director Kangta, Kyuhyun was soloing while Sungmin played for him. I had chosen to do a solo this year, and auditions were two weeks away. It was nice not having to hear everyone constantly talking about it, because to me it would make me stress more. We had decided that as a group, a week before final showcase we’d all watch each other each day after school and give comments on how to improve our pieces. If we stressed about it too much, we’d over think our pieces and they might not end up as well as we wished.

“Leeteuk and I have to go first, we planned to see a movie tonight and already bought tickets” Taeyeon had excused themselves, after everyone had paid for their bills. Everyone started leaving in their groups or alone, leaving Key, Donghae, Eunhyuk, Tiffany and myself behind.

“Hey Jae, I’m stealing Key tonight.” Tiffany said out of the blue and made eye contact with Key. Immediately, I knew something was up.

“Yeah Jae, we’ll head out now.” Both of their eyes went to Eunhyuk who was drinking his milkshake. I saw Eunhyuk jump a bit, and shoot his head up at Key, making eye contact with him and then nodded.

“Uh, yeah gotta go too. Bye!” all three of them left in a rush, leaving Donghae and I to ourselves. It was quiet and an awkward air hung around us for a bit until Donghae cleared his throat, and opened and closed his mouth three times trying to speak but no words came out.

“Bubble tea?” it came out in a cracked voice and he blushed as I let out a giggle, but quickly apologized for laughing. I nodded and got up with him, as we both walked to his car and got in.