One of the biggest issues with having the Leavers’ Ball the night before graduation was that it was impossible to get anything done on the Saturday morning.  The university had accommodated for this over time by holding the graduation rehearsals earlier in the week and putting the graduation ceremony in the afternoon, but things like collecting gowns and mortarboards and clearing out of rooms was not something that was going to happen before at least eleven in the morning, with the vast majority of finalists too tired or too hung over to get up before then.

To compound the mad flurry to make themselves all look presentable before parents started arriving for the graduation lunch, the exam results only came out on Saturday morning.  They had been delayed – they were actually due on the Friday morning and had gone up late on Friday evening – but the revelries meant that nobody had actually seen them until getting up on the Saturday.

Yeonhee and her friends exchanged results over brunch in the common room, which Jongdae had very kindly (and rather mercilessly) dragged them all out of bed for.  Almost everybody looked like they were nursing terrible hangovers, and Mihae didn’t seem to know what to do with herself around Chanyeol.

“High band one and valedictorian,” Sehun said, squinting at his phone screen as though the light physically pained him (it probably did, since everybody else was wrapped up in hoodies and Baekhyun had firmly turned the lights off when he’d shuffled in).  “.  I have to give a speech.”

“Low band one,” Baekhyun mumbled against the sofa he was sitting beside.  “Amazed I got anything.”

Yeonhee had scraped herself a high band one – her marks all within the seventy-one to seventy-five range compared to Sehun’s glittering constellation of high eighties to high nineties, which was exceptionally rare for essay-based subjects.  They had all done well for themselves, though, and they all had every right to be proud.

“Jongdae,” Baekhyun whined into the sofa.  “Why are we here?”

“Because I saw you all got band one categories and thought you might like to celebrate,” he said, plonking down steaming plates piled with food in front of them all.  Kyungsoo managed to rouse himself just enough to pop a rasher of bacon into his mouth.

“But it’s early,” Jongin whined, taking over from Baekhyun.

“It’s only an hour and a half until the graduation lunch,” Jongdae pointed out, “and none of you even look remotely presentable.”

Mihae groaned from where she had succumbed and planted her face in the crook of Chanyeol’s neck.

“I did pick up your gowns for you, though,” Jongdae went on.  “I’m nice like that.”

There was silence for a good ten minutes or so as they all tried to work up the energy to eat through their plates.  Sehun was the first to recover, though it looked like it was through sheer force of will more than anything else.

“Jongdae,” he mumbled thickly, squinting through what must still have been quite a bad headache.  “Why are you even here?  It’s Saturday.”

“Ease of security.  The prince is arriving on campus at quarter to two.  Once you lot are functioning like normal human beings, I need to meet with campus security again to check the needed provisions are all in place.  It’s his first domestic public speaking engagement since he was shot, so it’s imperative it runs smoothly.”

Yixing called Yeonhee about quarter of an hour later to ask her about her results.

“Well done you,” he said warmly.  “See, I told you you didn’t need to worry.”

“I wouldn’t have worked as hard without the worry.”

She heard him snort at the other end of the phone.

“You know,” she said, running her finger over the large multi-windowed frame she’d got for the watercolours, “if you arrive half an hour earlier, you can join us for lunch.  The graduation lunch is supposed to be amazing.”

“I can’t,” he said immediately.  “I’m attending the ceremony in my public capacity as prince, not in a private capacity.  I’m sorry.”  He paused.  “I do appreciate the invitation, though.  But quite apart from that, graduation is a family occasion.  I know your family wouldn’t mind, but it isn’t really my place.”

Even though she understood why it had to be like that, Yeonhee couldn’t help a nudge of disappointment.

“Why are you always so proper?” she grumbled good-naturedly.

“Come on, you love that about me.”

Yeonhee reluctantly admitted it was true.

“You’re going to hear me officially speak in person for the first time,” he said cheekily.  “Are you excited?”

“I’m going to pull faces at you and distract you.”

“Mean.”

“What language are you speaking in?  Last time you were here you did it all in Zenyu, didn’t you?”

“Both,” he said.  “It’s a hassle, but it’s fairer that way and it looks better, too.  I’ve split it into quarters and I switch languages and summarise at the end of each one.  There’ll be a screen with subtitles up as well.  I’m not letting anyone escape my words of wisdom.”

He sounded much happier than he normally did before giving a speech and Yeonhee told him so.

“The nerves haven’t hit yet,” he explained.  “I’ll be a gibbering wreck in about half an hour.”

“Have a bit more confidence in yourself.”

“Will you paint me something?” he asked hopefully.

“I’ve already painted you something.”

“I know you’ve already painted me lots of things, but will you paint me something so I speak well?”

Yeonhee couldn’t help an exasperated laugh.  “Yixing, you are such a little opportunist.”

“Thank you!” he sang happily before hanging up.

Twenty minutes later, Yeonhee’s parents arrived.  They had their car with them, and Jongdae helped them and Yeonhee decamp everything in her room to the vehicle until he was called away for security purposes.  Many other students had already moved their belongings out during the week, but it hadn’t been possible for Yeonhee’s parents to take the time off work and she had been nothing like ready to send her stuff home the previous weekend.  Her dad shooed her away after a bit so that she could get on with graduation preparation.

Minhee joined them for lunch, disappointed that Jongdae couldn’t join them (“pretty sure you could have got him in on the family ticket if you wanted to, Yeonhee, he is my boyfriend”), but she did agree that her little sister’s safety was a top priority.

The food was absolutely scrumptious, showing off the university catering team at its absolute best.  They started with a fish Yeonhee had never even heard of, followed by some kind of sorbet to clear the palette before the main course.  The strawberry shortcake for dessert was by far one of the best things Yeonhee had ever eaten in her life, but she didn’t get as much time as she would have liked to enjoy the cheese board because they had to go over to the graduation hall.  Minhee took the time to drag Yeonhee aside before she went in to snap a couple of photos of her.

The graduands all sat at the front in alphabetical order in course blocks, except for the top scorers in each discipline, who were the first in each subject block, and Sehun, who’d been put right at the front and had to stand on stage after being congratulated as valedictorian until everybody else had passed across it.  Happily, the seating arrangement meant that Yeonhee was only a seat away from Mihae, and the girl sitting between them was happy to swap with Yeonhee so that she could chat to her friend until the ceremony started.

Being at an officially bilingual university complicated matters slightly when it came to things like important joint ceremonies because of what to do with the languages.  It was ripe for opportunists to jump all over key events like a graduation ceremony and kick up an unnecessary fuss because one language had been used first and it could, therefore, be argued that it was being given precedence.

Yeonhee’s university apparently got around that problem by conducting the entire ceremony in Latin with two large screens that had subtitles in both of the national languages.  It had clearly been done to try to prevent any outbreaks in ethnic tensions, but Yeonhee couldn’t deny that it felt odd, especially since Latin had never even had an influence in the area.  The Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor and Chair of Undergraduate Studies all said stuff, and the graduands stood up and sat down a few times as and when the screens directed them, and then the Chair of Undergraduate Studies started reading out what was clearly a list of names and everybody started filing across the stage to thunderous applause and camera flashes from all over the room.  The actual moment on stage itself was very short – a handshake, a rolled up degree in hand, and a fleeting smile for the camera – and Yeonhee had to suppress a laugh as she passed Sehun, who looked like he was trying to force a smile he really wasn’t feeling in case he ruined somebody’s special day by allowing his grumpy resting face to appear.  Once everybody had sat down, he was ushered forward to the speaker’s lectern, where he said a few quick words in Hanmi (then repeated in Zenyu) congratulating them all for their hard work and wishing them all the very best in the future.  The Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor and Chair exchanged a few more words in Latin before the Vice-Chancellor addressed a couple of sentences (still in Latin) to the rest of the hall and then, once in Zenyu and once in Hanmi, introduced the Crown Prince of Taderra as the main speaker.

Whispers of surprise ran around the room as Yixing stood up from the front row of seats.  Yeonhee knew that the university hadn’t advertised who the guest speaker would be – apparently they didn’t always, but she gathered from Jongdae that they’d also felt it an expedient safety measure and that it would minimise the prospect of pro