Everything in life comes to an end, sometimes abrupt, other times it was long coming, some people accept it, others embrace it, many try to fight it. But the end comes to everything, one could argue that some things are meant to last forever, but nothing really does, forever will be as long as it lasts. And the end of our boys’ adventures in highschool is here, it’s time they move on to their college lives and leave behind the many problems that are only ever that serious when you are a teenager trying to get by.

Graduation week has begun and the school tries to do the ceremony for one class each day, in order to not take that long for all the names to be called and have more room for family and friends of each student. The seniors were already dismissed, only being required to attend their own ceremonies and come back in a month to get their certificates but that was it. Our boys were about to take their last step of their worry-free adolescence and the first ones into their adult lives, everyone was nervous, all for different reasons.

The first class had Jihyo, Seungwan, Sana and Joohyun, which meant Jeongyeon, Nayeon, Chaeyoung and Dahyun would be sitting in the audience. Despite knowing it was for his brother, Jihyo was happy Dahyun would be attending his graduation, there were still lingering feelings, but the younger Bae had offered him closure and all that was left was dealing with those feelings himself. Jihyo had been going to therapy since that last talk and had been making good progress, he understood there could come a time to repair their relationship, even if just as friends, but now was time to keep to himself.

Chorong had managed to drag her half-asleep cousin to support their other cousin and they ended up missing the beginning, which Sooyoung said it didn’t matter because the speeches were the same for all the days, only the class representative’s would change because, well, there would be different classes. That seemed to soothe the girl and they fell silent, only really paying attention to the last part, when the class representative gave her speech and then the names were called. It was nice, none of the families were going to do anything until the weekend, seeing all had, at least, two graduations to celebrate.

The next day were Tzuyu, Nayeon, Seulgi and Sooyoung up there, the audience counted with Jeongyeon, Jihyo, Mina, Yeri and Chorong (because her cousin was still refusing to even go out with anyone and she didn’t want him to feel left out, plus she had come for Jihyo, it wa only fair). The group made a racket and was almost asked to leave, but the principal loved when students were excited, about no matter what, and signalled for the teachers to leave them be. It was a bit faster than the day before, the class representative gave his speech as if he was rapping and everyone was very entertained watching the nervous boy.

On the third day, was Chaeyoung, Jeongyeon, Dahyun and Mina’s turn, Sana Jihyo, Nayeon, Seungwan and Joohyun were there. Sooyoung had already moved to his college dorms, even if he had spent the week back home, but he had to be on campus for orientation today and couldn’t attend, Seulgi didn’t manage to wake up at all, he had taken Yeri for some ice cream the night before and the younger boy got a sugar high, keeping both awake until two in the morning before rushing to the bathroom, puking his guts out and crashing.

The boys pitied Seulgi, but all knew how much the bear loved that kid and the couple was enjoying the last few days they had together before the older one headed out for college. Most of the boys was doing the same, some going to separate colleges and couldn’t live together like Jeongyeon and Tzuyu had managed to do. In truth, that was the only couple to get their own apartment, the others would be either living in dorms or still hadn’t found a place. For the rest of the week, our boys just relaxed, enjoyed their time with their significant other and attended the other graduations if they had friends there. On the weekend, however, there were a lot of celebrations happening and all families had managed to coordinate among themselves.

Like, for the Parks, they had all just gone to grandpa Park’s mountain house, Jihyo’s family, though, would be joining the Sons on their Paju residence. The Sons would be there for the whole weekend, Chaeyoung and Seungwan, however, wouldn’t. The boys would be there on saturday, but would leave in the evening to go to their boyfriends’ families. They had arrived on friday afternoon, to make sure to make grandpa Son satisfied before they headed out. 

The Chous and the Yoos had coordinated, they would be spending the weekend at the Yoos’ residence, as it had an extra bedroom and would fit them all, it was just a never ending party with lots of food, and the boys getting to have their first taste of alcohol. Tzuyu discovered he liked wine, but not enough to get past one glass, Jeongyeon got along with beer, but after the second bottle he had to go to the bathroom all the time and decided one would be enough in the future. 

Nayeon and Mina, along with mr and mrs Im, weren’t given much of a choice. Grandpa Myoui decided everything and they only knew to be at the Signiel on friday at five, and not be late. The old man had rented out the penthouse, along with the 24h catering service and all the pomp he thought everyone needed. The Ims packed their best clothes, but now that they were here, they were certain they should be getting in through the employee entrance. Mina, bless his heart, tried his best to make them comfortable, but grandpa Myoui wasn’t helping at all.

Sana did have a little headache on convincing grandpa Yamaguchi to just wait for th saturday, but the old man was demanding he would be taking them to a hotel like ‘that Myoui old fart’, but grandpa Son was also a powerful man, so both talked during the week, and agreed to share, both old men were very sulky about that. Everyone else was just fed up and ignored the quips both made about each other. It was as nice as it could get, though, and the boys would be leaving during the next week, so they weren’t willing to let anything get in the way of their fun and relaxation.

Nobody really heard from Seulgi and Yeri, but they had gone to the Kangs’ lake house, a few hours away from Seoul and the Kims were just happy that there was enough room for their kid to run around without them having to worry about anything getting broken. All the Kang family was there, they were celebrating Daniel’s graduation as well, but none made any of the Kims feel unwelcome at any point, it was a nice, regular celebration and Yeri, not once, thought about how he would be braving senior year alone from here on out.

While Joohyun was with the Sons, mr and mrs Bae took the chance to pamper their youngest, he would be leaving sooner than the other and to another continent entirely. Dahyun had made it to both french universities and the one in Milan, he decided for the one in Marseille, it had the best programme and he would be able to explore all mediums during his first two years, before deciding on one for the rest of the course. Dahyun had always been a simple boy when it came to his wants, mr and mrs Bae had asked him what he wanted to do with them, and the boy just asked if they could go eat some teobokki and then have some chocolate cake from that one bakery they used to go to when he was young. The Baes moved to their current residence when Dahyun was three, the apartment was getting too small for two young boys.

It was a very cheap outing, back at the apartment, mr and mrs Bae had been saving for the house, and couldn’t afford to give the boys much. They didn’t go hungry, but they didn’t exactly eat whatever they wanted. Dahyun would get a chocolate cake on his birthdays, it would be a small one, just enough for the four of them, but he would get so happy that this feeling never left his heart. Now, about to leave for somewhere far from home, the boy wanted to bring back the comfort he used to feel then, the pure happiness to have his parents and brother just spend time with him on his special day. Dahyun also asked to get a small cake home, to share with Joohyun and Seungwan when they got back saturday evening.

Dahyun had talked to Lip and Choerry a couple weeks prior, the three decided to end their relationship for the time being. He didn’t want to hold the girls back from anything, and the girls knew it would get lonely in another country, both had talked among themselves and concluded the boy would, eventually, want somebody to warm him up at night and it wouldn’t be fair for them to prevent him from it, and they knew he was too loyal to just cheat, even if they would never find out. So the throuple split, the girls wanted to try and keep dating each other, but left Dahyun with hugs, kisses, care and understanding. 

On monday, the younger Bae was the first to go, Joohyun crying his heart out. Mama and Papa Bae were holding on better, but their eyes were still watery. All our boys showed up to say goodbye, the airport was too far, so they went to the Baes instead to spend some time with their departing friend. Since neither mama or papa Bae managed to take days off to take their son, nad Joohyun would have to be on campus on thursday, so he wouldn’t have the time to accompany his little brother and get back. Even Jihyo showed up, he knew it would be a long shot, but his therapist said he should remember the good friendship and he wanted to be a good friend, at least this once. Dahyun hugged him and told him ‘chin up, Park’.

After that, one by one, our boys started heading out towards their future, remembering their highschool years fondly, but never faltering in the way forward.