CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

 

Hey mom! It’s me, Soojung. How are you? How's dad? I hope you're doing great. I just want to remind you that my graduation is tomorrow, and it would be really nice to see you and dad there. But if you're really, really busy, it's okay. You don't have to. I just wanted to remind you about it. And please, take care yourselves. Miss you.

 

Starring at her message, Soojung wondered if this was the right thing to do. While the text she sent to Jessica beforehand was much easier to write, a message to her mother was really hard to do. She even rewrote it for five times now, and she still thinks that it lacks something. She was about to send it when she notices Sehun peeking at her phone so she pushes him away.

 

“Does my mother likes emojis?” She thought to herself, putting a heart symbol in the end of her message but she quickly deletes it because it didn’t feel right to her. Freaking out a little, she sends the message even though she knows her mother will never read it and tosses her phone to Jinri, making the latter confuse. Soojung then looks out the window and sees Luhan, Junmyeon, Chanyeol, Jongin, Tao and Kris coming out of a car.

 

“Oh, the idiots are here.” She says calmly, and Sehun immediately looks down as well.

 

“Who missed me?!” Tao screams as soon as he enters the restaurant where they had agreed on meeting at. He literally just landed in Seoul minutes ago together with Kris and he was already making a ruckus.

 

Not only were the other customers startled by his loud voice, his own friends pretended not to know him. Jinri and Sehun looked away from him to pretend that they didn't know him, when they were about to stand up and hug him and just went back to sit while the boys just walked away from him. Upset, Tao stood near the door, pouting.

 

And there's Soojung who for some reason, started to get nervous when she sees Jongin entered. He wasn't looking at her but her heart was beating a little faster than normal, even if he was doing at the very moment wasn't very nice to Tao as he pushed him away. She quickly looks away, hoping that he won't come to talk to her because she honestly doesn't know what to say to him at that time.

 

Her thoughts were ruined when Kris walked up to her, with his arms wide open, seemingly to wait for a hug from her.  "Am I not even going to be greeted by you, Soojung?"

 

“Kris! You didn’t forget about what I asked you right?” Soojung hugs the taller boy who just winks at her.

 

“Of course. When do you want to start?”

 

“What are you talking about?” Jongin suddenly pops out of nowhere, interfering with a weird expression on his face as soon as they break off their quick hug. "What did you ask Kris?"

 

“Oh, I asked Kris to teach me Cantonese.” Soojung exclaims and Kris nods happily, though he never actually asked the reason why. He’s just excited to teach someone something. “I want to be useful to the company by being a translator to Chinese investors. That, and I also want to know what the hell my brother-in-law is talking about whenever he gets mad.”

 

“You should have asked me!” Luhan states. “I’m a better teacher.”

 

“You can't even speak it as good as me.” Kris boasts, “Plus, I’ve taught Soojung how to play chess and she picked it up really well. Who’s the better teacher now?”

 

“Uhm, you never actually taught me how to play chess and I’m a better player than you so-” Soojung mumbles, only to be hushed by the taller boy.

 

"Guess who this guy is dating now." Jongin mumbles to Soojung's ear as Kris puts up a cheeky smile. 

 

"Here's a clue: I heard that you get along with this person really well." Kris tells her, but his clue doesn't really help her.

 

"Er... I have a lot of friends so I don't know-"

 

"It's Jinah noona." Jongin answers inpatiently.

 

Surprised, Soojung's jaw drops. She was totally not expecting to hear that. "Wow. For real? How? And since when?"

 

"We've been going for two months now." The Chinese gushes, grinning very widely. "I saw her first at a fashion show in Shanghai and I thought that she was Chinese. But then I also saw her at a café later that day, struggling with her Mandarin so I helped her out. We Kakaotalked all night in her broken Mandarin, and it was the cutest thing. She didn't know that I can speak Korean until recently so she got at me, but now we're going out."

 

While Kris told the two about his story, Soojung watches with much delight in comparison to her fiancée who looked their friend with a disgust expression. Soojung was clearly enjoying their love story but Jongin was not. He was not really fond of love stories and still thought that the fact that one of his good friends is dating one of his family members was quite weird.

 

"Aw, that's so cute!" She squeals, and then looks at Jongin. "Isn't it, Jongin?"

 

"Not really." He shook his head. 

 

Annoyed by his simple answer, Soojung just rolls her eyes. "I think it's cute and sweet."

 

When everybody was waiting for their order to arrive, the group starts to forget about the hunger that they're feeling in their stomachs by talking to each other, with them mainly asking on how the flight was to both Tao and Kris. While Kris talk about his new relationship, Soojung was lowkey looking at Jongin at the other side of the table as he was sitting far from her. In the end she gets up and walks towards where his seat was, stepping on the boys’ toes in the process.

 

Only Tao was brave enough to complain though. “Hey, you just stepped on my shoe, Jung Soojung! These are brand new!”

 

“Oh really, Tao? I am deeply sorry.” She smiles at him sweetly putting both of her palms on her chest before stepping on his other shoe, making the boy yelp. She then gestures him to move over as she wanted to sit right next to her fiancée, which he does out of fear.

 

It took long for Jongin to notice as he was busy laughing at a stupid joke his Junmyeon hyung made. He was the only one who laughed at it, but not because it was funny, but because of the older one’s sad attempt on doing it. When she was starting to get bored, Soojung had to tap his shoulder for him to turn around.

 

“Soojung! What’s up? What are you doing?” He casually swings an arm around her and even places his face a little closer. His little excuse of ‘I’m not able to hear you well because our friends are talking so loudly so I’ll just move closer to you’ seem to work as the girl doesn’t seem to mind the skinship.

 

“What do you mean, what am I doing here when you literally saw me a while ago?”

 

“No, silly. I mean, what are you doing here beside me?” He laughs. “You were just right there, next to Sehun.”

 

“That idiot keeps on talking about erted things. I just had to go.” She quickly looks at Sehun in disgust, and he just chuckles. “I can stay here, right?”

 

“Of course you can.” Jongin says, ruffling her hair. He expected her to punch him back, but strangely enough, she doesn’t. 

 

His arm were still around her shoulders and her eyes were still on him, but he had looked away as Junmyeon had said another joke. Thinking that he might have not heard what she said before, Soojung quickly whispers to him, "I don't really hate you."

 

This causes him to look at her direction again, with her backing a little as their faces were quite close. "Pardon me?"

 

"I don't hate you, Jongin." She repeats, not looking at his eyes because for some reason, she couldn't just do it.

 

"That makes me really happy, you know." He tells her happily as his lips curve into a wide smile. She didn't understand why but she started smiling as well until Jinri, who has been the only one watching them lowkey, clears and then laughs by herself alone. This causes Soojung to glare at her best friend, but Jinri just couldn't stop it.

 

 

Graduation Day is the day where you either feel relieved because you’ve finished high school, or sad since you won’t able to see your friends at the same school anymore, that is if they don’t go to the same university as you. Every senior student of Imperium Academy was busy preparing for their graduation, making sure that they looked decent at their last day of being together.

 

Seungwan woke up early to go to the salon, Chanyeol was making sure his hair stayed straight and hasn’t left the mirror for 20 minutes now, Seulgi rarely get nervous but she was hella nervous that morning as she practiced her speech, Jongin was at his parent’s house and sees a picture of when they were young and he starts to reminisce.

 

However, that wasn’t the case with Soojung.

 

The day before their awaited day, Soojung had slept over at Jinri’s place. Jinri had planned to hire a stylist for her hair and makeup and had invited her bestfriend to stay so they could prepare themselves together. But while Jinri was doing her makeup at her room, Soojung was just looking outside the window and was occasionally looking at her phone.

 

After hours of waiting, there was no reply from her parents neither from her sister. Even her brother wasn’t replying when she reminded him what time the ceremony will start. She knows that she shouldn’t expect anything, but she knows and believes that something will happen… hopefully.

 

“Soojung,” Jinri noticing how quiet she was, calls her name as she looked at her by the mirror. She wonders if she was nervous or just plain bored. “Are you okay, love?”

 

“Of course, I am.” Soojung nods, smiling at her to assure her that she was fine, even though she knows that she wasn’t.

 

Suddenly, her phone buzzes and it startles her. She had hoped it would be either Jessica or her parents so she quickly opens it without even noticing that it was Jongin who sent her a message. Though his message doesn’t really make her feel disappointed after seeing the picture that he sent at the group chat – Chanyeol, Jinri, Soojung, Jongin and Sehun back in their nursery graduation 13 years ago. Honestly, she doesn’t even remember what happened in the picture, but she couldn’t help but to chuckle seeing how adorable they looked.

 

In the picture, her 5-year-old self was obviously forcing to smile because her eyes say otherwise. She was sticking close to her best friend, holding into her hand as Jongin puts up a peace sign behind her head with an evil smile, making it seem like as if she had horns.

 

 

Inside a small but nicely decorated room, she sat in a comfortable couch just meters away from her sleeping husband. In her hands was book that she has been trying to read for hours now and even though she wanted to entertain herself with it, the words inside it weren’t helping her ease her mind. Right next to her was her phone that has been left untouched since yesterday. She had actually read her daughter’s message, but cannot bring herself to answer. No matter how much she wanted to, she just didn’t know what to answer.

 

Suddenly, a man in his white coat enters the room. She had been waiting for him so she immediately stood up, but the man didn’t seem like he brought good news with him.

 

“I’m very sorry, Mrs. Jung. But I am afraid that you’re husband still cannot leave this place.”

 

 

Walking back and forth in her room, Seulgi seemed very nervous as she rehearsed her last speech for their graduation. With the papers in her hand, she kept on repeating everything from the top. She doesn’t even know when the last time she was this nervous.

 

“Get yourself together, Kang Seulgi! Don’t mess this up!”

 

She was so serious about perfecting the speech to the point that she put up a sign outside her bedroom to not disturb her. That’s why when she heard someone knock on her door, she reacted not so nicely. She had to tell the maid who knocked to read the sign that she had put up and the maid had to apologize immediately. But she insisted to talk to the young girl as someone very important was looking for her.

 

Seulgi had no choice but to go down to the family’s living room to find out the person who dared to see her just hours before her graduation. Does he or she not know how important this was to her? Before she could even snap to this person, she forgets about her initial plan as was very much surprised on seeing Lee Taeyong before her, who quickly stood up in courtesy when he saw her.

 

“I… never expected to see you here again.” She tells him honestly, gesturing to sit back down. “So, what brings you here?”

 

“I just…” Taeyong stops to smile at her. “…want to congratulate you for graduating. And for passing the entrance exam at university that you wanted.”

 

It was unusual for him to do this kind of stuff and she notices how stiff he was. Nevertheless, she thanks him for what he said, though she’s still not sure why he was there. “You know, there aren’t any other people around. You can tell me what you want to say comfortably.”

 

Bitting his lower lip, Taeyong wasn’t even sure how to say the things that he wanted to tell her. He had so much to say, but had so little confidence to do so. He wanted to apologize for being an to her and not following her orders for the past year, he wanted to say that he was very proud of what she has became and most importantly, he wanted to tell her that he hadn’t stopped liking her, but he didn’t have the guts to do it.

 

Surprisingly, Seulgi spoke first after that long silence that he had.

 

“You must have suffered a lot last year, right?” The girl asks with her head down. “I’m sorry… for abandoning you like that.”

 

“It’s okay. You’re not the only one who did that anyways.” He tried to joke, but it makes him remember the bad days that he had. “Though I do wish that you and the boys were there for me…” He mumbles bitterly. “Anyways, please do congratulate the others for me, especially to Soojung. I owe her big time-”

 

“Wait, are you not going to the graduation?” Seulgi stood up after seeing him do the same thing. The boy just shook his head.

 

“What for? Nobody would want to see me anyways-”

 

“But I prepared a speech!” suddenly spills in attempt for him to stay. It was very irrelevant for her to say so she got a low-key embarrassed because of it.

 

Taeyong just chuckles. “It’s unfortunate that I won’t be able to see that.” He bows as his sign of goodbye. He was just about to leave but before doing so, he tells her with a genuine smile, “Thank you for being the best part of my high school life.”

 

 

At school, Soojung arrived with Jinri and her family – her parents, her siblings and some of her cousins. Soojung thought that when she arrives at the school at least one of her family would be already there, but there weren’t so she had no choice but to stay with the Chois. Not that she had a problem with that. They were all very lovely people and treated her nicely as if she was a part of them.

 

At the corner of Jinri’s eyes, she spots Jongin in his red graduation robe together with his parents so naturally she tells it to her best friend. “Look at who just arrived.” She mumbles to her as she gestured at their direction.

 

Soojung looked to where she gestured, and then look backs at her. “Oh, I should greet them.”

 

“Okay, I’ll see you later.” Jinri smiles.

 

With a small smile, Soojung approaches the Kims and Jongin was the first one to see her. Before she could greet his parents, he hugs her quickly and accidentally knocks off her graduation cap so he fixes it before she could even complain.

 

"How are you feeling?" He asks her.

 

"I'm good." She lies, but she still smiles at him anyways.

 

“Soojung, love! Why, you look very lovely today!” Her mother exclaims after finally seeing her.

 

“Mother, she always looks lovely.”

 

“I know, son. It’s just she looks extra lovelier today.” 

 

“Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Kim.” She greets his parents, bowing politely to them. It makes her graduation cap fall again, and when she was about to pick it up, Jongin beats her into it. But he doesn’t put it back to her head because he knows she’ll drop it again.

 

“Honey, didn’t my wife tell you to stop calling us Mr. and Mrs. Kim?” Jongin’s father asks her. He then looks at his wife, who didn’t say anything but showed an expression that basically says that she already did tell her. “Call us mom and dad now.”

 

“Oh, I forgot…” Soojung laughs, scratching her head awkwardly. “We aren’t married yet so I keep on forgetting so…”

 

The girl then looks at her fiancé who looked a little embarrassed by his parents as he pretended not to hear anything and was just fixing something on her hat. Since Mr. and Mrs. Kim saw one of their friends, Soojung and Jongin were left alone, but before they could even start up a conversation of their own, Sehun runs up to them to hug the two.

 

“Guys, please tell me you’re as nervous as me.” He breaks off the hug and then looks at them, “I’m so ing nervous, I feel like I’m going to pee my pants.”

 

“Ew.” The engaged couple said at the same time, frowning in disgust as they both judge their friend.

 

Chanyeol then follows Sehun shortly after. “The hyungs haven’t arrived?”

 

“No, I don’t think so. If they were already here, they’d be teasing us.” Jongin answers.

 

Beside him, Sehun was being comforted by a geniuenly worried Soojung by patting his back, telling him that everything’s going to be alright after their graduation. She hasn’t told anyone, but she was lowkey nervous as well but her reason was quite different to Sehun’s.

 

Looking around, she notices how she’s the only student who didn’t have any family member present. In every second that passes, she glances into her wristwatch and just like the time, her heart beat kept on pounding in her heart. Slowly, she realizes that she wasn’t really nervous, and it’s was sadness that she was feeling all along. If Sehun didn’t speak up, she would have probably excused herself somewhere to let her feelings out for a while.

 

“Look! Here they come!” Sehun waves as Tao, Kris and Junmyeon walked up to where they were.

 

“I can’t wait to see you five crying your hearts out.” Kris teased. He remembers clearly when he and the other boys graduated high school, their younger friends cried along with them. “Tao has brought his camera with us. He’ll be taking ugly pictures of you.”

 

“Nobody’s going cry later!” Chanyeol says confidently, while Jongin shook his head. Nobody really knows about him crying when Jinwoo was giving his speech back at their last football practice, but everybody knows that he was the most emotional when they won the league last week.

 

“Why is Tao going to take pictures of us? Why not hire a professional photographer to take pictures of us?” Jongin complains, blocking Tao’s lens when he focused his camera on him.

 

“Uhm, excuse you? Have you not seen my Instagram account?” Tao snaps. “A lot of people like my aesthetic pictures!”

 

“Yeah, and they’re all weird pictures. I don’t even know why people like those.”

 

“I like Tao’s pictures.” Soojung suddenly says, earning everyone’s attention and making Tao smirk. Tao then looks at Jongin but doesn’t say anything. He just looks at him as if he was waiting for him to take his insult back.

 

“I mean, it’s unique and artsy. I guess…” Jongin mumbles, looking away from his friends.

 

“Whatever. Can you all group up so I could take a picture? Wait, where’s Jinri?” Tao immediately went back to holding his camera to prepare to take a picture of them while Chanyeol tells her girlfriend to come.

 

As soon as her best friend came, Soojung automatically stood right next to her and held her hand. Chanyeol stood at the other side of her girlfriend, while Jongin walked right next to Soojung and Sehun on his side. Unknowingly, they posed the same way as they did at the picture back from their nursery graduation picture, except that Jongin didn’t do anything mean to Soojung beforehand for her to smile weirdly like before, nor did he put up a peace sign on her head. In fact, the camera even caught him glancing at her when everybody else was smiling for the camera.

 

Junmyeon and Kris joined the group on the picture taking shortly after. They did a lot of goofy and dorky poses together. But of course, they also tried doing a serious picture, but it was ruined however because Soojung suddenly left after seeing Luhan and Yoona behind Tao.

 

“Yoona unnie!” Soojung run towards her excitedly as if she didn’t see her older cousin two days ago. She was too happy to see that at least one relative there that she forgot that they were taking a picture. “You came!”

 

“Of course, honey. I wouldn’t miss an important day as your graduation day, would I?” Yoona smiles, squeezing her cheeks.

 

Luhan clears his throat. “I am here too, you know.”

 

“Oh, hey oppa.” Soojung laughs. “Sorry, I was just too excited to see your wife.”

 

“I’ll forgive you this time.”

 

“So, where’s my brother?” She asks with much antipacion, expecting the couple to answer. But Luhan and Yoona just exchanged looks as they didn’t really know where Jaejoong was. “He did come with you guys… right?”

 

“We thought that he was already here…”

 

And with such a short answer, Soojung’s smile fell.

 

 

If Chanyeol didn’t nudge Jongin, he would never notice Yoona gesturing to come and talk to her for a second. Their graduation ceremony has started and he was too focused by the dance performance their juniors have prepared for them, but he had no choice but to stand up and walk towards the side to talk to Yoona.

 

“I’m very sorry to disturb you, but…” Yoona says before he could even ask what was wrong. “I feel like you’re the only person who could convince her to go inside.”

 

Yoona didn’t even mention any name, but Jongin’s head automatically turns to where the girls were and realizes Soojung’s supposed seat was empty. “Where is she noona?”

 

“Outside. She’s upset because neither her parents nor her siblings showed up.” She answers, mumbling the last part and he could only sigh.

 

Without wasting any time, Jongin excuses himself from Yoona to go outside. Honestly, he didn’t even know if he could just leave the ceremony like that (though he was pretty sure the students aren’t permitted to), but he didn’t care. Outside he finds Soojung sitting at the top of the stairs. It seems like she has just finished calling someone as she put down her phone in her lap.

 

Slowly, Jongin approaches her and sits right next to her, startling the girl. She just looked at him when he finally spoke. “Why are you not inside?”

 

It took her long to answer. “I just… want some fresh air, you know?”

 

“Hmm, fresh air… I guess the air inside is not fresh, huh?” He jokes, hoping that she would laugh or at least roll her eyes by what he said, but she didn’t show any reaction. He notices her small sigh when she glances at her phone again, causing him to ask, “So how many times have you called Jaejoong hyung?”

 

“Around 5 times…”

 

“Really?”

 

“Okay, maybe 50. I don’t even know. He won’t answer so I lost count.”

 

Seeing her so upset like that made Jongin quite sad. He wishes that he could say something positive about her parents or siblings coming, but it was already late and it’s least likely for them to come. “Listen, Soojung. You’re not really alone today. You have a family here too. Have you forgotten that you’re-”

 

“Jongin, I find it absolutely nice of you and your parents to consider me as a part of your family even though we haven’t actually married yet, but... this is just different.” She looks at him, her eyes getting all watery. “Ever since I was young, I’ve always wished, prayed and hoped that one day my family would be the same as any other families. I knew that maybe, it couldn’t be, but when they told me to just stay here and leave everything in California behind, I thought… I thought something would change.”

 

She continues, “How come it’s always me? When my siblings graduated both high school and college, we were complete and they even studied overseas. I literally studied in the closest place to where they are and yet… they’re not here. Like always. They’re not here for me. They never are.”

 

That’s when her voice cracks, and Jongin just had to hug her. He keeps on caressing her hair comfort her even though she wasn’t crying (yet), reasoning that her eyeliner was on point and if she did cry, it would be ruined. It makes Jongin chuckles, even though that was the thing that he wants to do for her.

 

“You’re one of the most hard-working and smartest classmates that I’ve ever had, Soojung.” He tells her when she buries her face to his chest. “It’s unfortunate that your parents didn’t know that. But when they come back, I promise you, I’ll be the one to tell that to them so they could be as proud of you as I am.”

 

“Hard-working, my .” He hears her mumble. “I barely studied for any exams, remember?”

 

“That’s why I also said that you’re one of the smartest. It’s almost impossible to have your high grades without studying.” Soojung finally chuckles. She slowly looks up to him, and slowly placed her head on his shoulder. “You know, they say high school is the best years of a person’s life. Since you just attended Imperium last year, I really don’t if you enjoyed your school days back in Los Angeles, but I really hope you did enjoy schooling here. And I know it’s hard not to think about your family right now, but let’s finish your high school days happily, shall we?”

 

Soojung bites her lips. “…but how?”

 

“Well, first of all by going inside and getting that god damn certificate. It would be a waste of paper to not get it, am I right?” He winks at her, making her roll her eyes but she laugh anyways. He then gets up and offers his hand to help her get up. “Let’s go?”

 

 

Seulgi looks up, seeing that everybody inside the hall was looking at her direction, waiting patiently for her to speak up. She was a little nervous, but didn’t show any sign of it infront of everyone. With a faint smile, she begins her speech.

 

“First of all, I’d like to thank you all for voting for me last year to be your student council’s president. It was such a nice experience for me as I tried to do my duty in the best way possible, and I hope you all think that way.”

 

She glances at the papers that she had in front of her, preparing to continue her speech. But then she realizes that her talking about her achievements for the past nine months as their president would bore her classmates out, so she decided to not read her written speech in the last minute and just improvise what she wants to say.

 

“The year has been eventful from the very start, but I think we can all agree that the most memorable one is what happened to us recently - our football team winning the league and returning the trophy to where it really belongs, to our school. This is, of course, a wonderful thing for us since we were heavily defeated last year, but it doesn’t justify us treating those who are different to us unfairly. You all know who and what I’m talking about. I don’t have to mention it directly.”

 

The only one who seemed very surprised by the subtle mention of Ehra High was Soojung, whose eyes widens almost after what she said. She looks around her classmates and surprisingly, nobody was making a fuss about it and was just listening to her continuing her speech.

 

“Somebody once asked why we give such importance on things such as arguing with other students when it comes to football, and I had to ask myself the same thing. I find it funny because I couldn’t give myself a legit and valid reason to the question.” Seulgi laughs, while Soojung turns a little red, hiding her cheeks with both of her palm. She knows that she was talking about her and is just trying her best not to mention her name. “I do not mean to say that we should forget about our love for the sport, but I just hope that we could leave our hatred in the past. It’s too late for me to help and change that as the president, so I ask our juniors to avoid the things that we did.”

 

Everybody notices the sudden change of expression on Seulgi’s face. Her smile drops as she continued.

 

“Think about doing a thing twice before doing it, because you’ll never know how it will impact your future. You might lose something… or someone you cherish.” After what she said, Seulgi gets back to the point. “We entered this school as children, and now after three years, we’re leaving our beloved academy as young adults. I know that some of us are going to go on our separate ways from now on: some of us are going to study abroad, some are going to say, some doesn’t have any plan to enter any universities.”

 

She looks arounds her classmates who looked like they’re going to cry anytime soon. “It's not a distant reality anymore. It begins here. It begins today. The future is ours, so let's make the most of it.”

 

 

One by one, the students’ names were being called out for them to come up to the stage and get their certificates. Soojung was really nervous, for some reason. Her heart was beating so fast and she didn’t even know why and how can receiving a certificate from the headmaster was very nerve-wracking.

 

Her heart beats faster when her name was finally called. Just before she could stand up to walk over the stage, she felt Seungwan, who was sitting beside her all this time and felt really worried when she wasn’t there at the beginning of the ceremony, pressed her hand really tight and smile at her to make sure she was felt good. She didn’t say anything but just smiles back at the girl for the sweet gesture.

 

Slowly, she heads to the stage to get her certificate in front of everybody’s eyes but before doing so, every student had to stop at the centre of the stage and bow to everyone so she does the same thing. While bowing, the huge doors of the hall open and Jaejoong enters, panting and sweaty. It was when she finally lifts her head and sees a man at the back that she didn’t see before bowing. Squinting her eyes, she realizes that it was her brother.

 

Her nervousness fades and it was evident by the huge grin that she suddenly had. The people who were watching her were very confused, and it made them turn their heads around to know what or who was in the back. Soojung was very happy to the point that she forgot to shake hands with the headmaster and get her certificate from him. She was even about to run down the stairs until one of the professors reminded her of what she was supposed to do. She does what she was supposed to do, and bows apologetically to the headmaster for forgetting and in embarrassment.

 

Finally, she goes down the stage, with her certificate tied in a red ribbon in her right hand, and passes by the red carpet in the middle of the hall. They weren’t even allowed to walk through there and were advised to go back to the seat by walking on the side, but Soojung didn’t care anymore. She just got her certificate plus her brother was waiting for her at the end of the carpet with open arms. She immediately jumps into his brother’s arms to hug him and that’s when she started crying.

 

“I thought nobody would come for me. I was so sad.” She sobbed, hitting her brother’s chest. “I thought you hated me or something! I kept on calling you but you didn’t answer!”

 

“I’m very sorry, darling.” Jaejoong chuckles. “But I have a very good reason for not answering and for being late though.”

 

Soojung suddenly breaks off their hug to wipe her tears, “You better have a great one! I swear, if you tell me that you overslept I’ll never forgive you!”

 

“Catherine just gave birth an hour ago. It’s a boy.” The older Jung says. He himself was getting teary-eyed by what he just said.

 

"It's... a boy." Her jaw slowly drops and when the information that has just told her finally sinks in, she starts crying again. “I’m an aunt now. I have a nephew.”

 

“And I’m a father now-”

 

“You guys, I’m an aunt now!” Soojung squeals, forgetting once again about the graduation ceremony that was taking place. She was hushed by some professors, and the excited new aunt bows apologetically again. Jaejoong just pulls her younger sister to hug her after laughing at what she has done.

 

Afar, her friends watches her and her brother in their seats. One boy in particular was so happy for her that his name had to be called twice for him to get back to his senses and remember that he had to get his certificate.

author's note: 

it's almost 1 am here and i'm sooooo sleepy. that's why there are probably a lot of typos and grammar mistakes in this chapter so i apologize for that. no long note for today 'cause i honestly don't even remember what i want to say lol. good night/ good morning/ good afternoon to you all! <3