Phone, check. Uniform, check. Backpack— ah, wait I don’t need that anymore. Shoes!

Yumi scattered all over her near empty apartment space to find a pair of shoes that have not been packed yet. Luckily, she found one sitting in an unsealed cardboard box. She glanced at the time, acknowledging that she was already a few minutes behind schedule. 

Impatient footsteps approached the girl’s bedroom door, “We’re late!’ Kyungsoo exclaimed. The poor man had been sitting on the floor uncomfortably for the past half hour, waiting for his sister to get ready. He continued to bang on her door until Yumi gave in. 

“Okay. Okay. I’m done,” she pushed past her brother, groaning. 

Yumi was still putting her hair up into a half-do as her sibling paced around the house anxiously. Being late certainly did not scare her, but Kyungsoo’s nervous breakdown was making her go insane. Giving up on her hair, Yumi threw the whole thing into a messy bun before her brother combusts. They scurried out of the apartment and headed straight for school. Before they even reached the front gate, Kyungsoo slammed on his brake, rushing his sister to get out of the car. 

The panic in his eyes peaked, noticing the crowd out front had gradually dispersed since their arrival. “Go! Run!” He urged the girl in the middle of a restricted parking slot. 

How am I still late on the last day of school, Yumi mentally cursed in her head. As instructed, she bolted out of the car, speeding past parents and teachers to reach the venue. She opted for her usual shortcuts through the hallways instead of circling around campus. As expected, it saved her a few precious minutes getting there. Yumi spotted the ‘Class of 2015’ banner hanging in front of the main arena where guests were being let in one by one. She just needed to get through the doors to meet her classmates backstage. It sounded simple until a security guard stopped her by the entrance to their gymnasium, demanding a student identification before he let her enter. Right at this moment, loud cheers could be heard through the closed doors. Her nonchalant facade slipped through those widened eyes of hers, realizing that her school ID was in the backpack she left at home.

“I-I’m a student here. I swear! Look at my uniform!” Yumi showed off her name tag in sheer panic. 

Skepticism lingered in the guard’s eyes, the edge of his lips tugged downward into a semi frown. Once again, he demanded to see a form of student identification. The rowdy audience in the background did nothing but triggered her urgency further. She pleaded the man again, this time bringing both of her hands up into a praying pose for that last desperate stretch.

With lips pressed firmly, he shook his head. “No, I can’t let you in.“

From behind, a hand reached out to pull the helpless student aside. Yumi recoiled on instinct, lifting her head up to see who the mysterious hand belonged to. Dressed in a sleek, tailored black suit, Baekhyun handed the guard his staff identification.

“She’s my student,” he informed the man, who’s expression remained rigid. His eyes darted back and forth from the ID then Baekhyun and once confirmed, he removed the cones for the pair to head in. 

“I get that being tardy is not new to you, but on your graduation day?” He remarked on their way in to the back side of the gymnasium.

Ducking her head in shame, Yumi followed behind her teacher silently. Her hair bun had  loosened up quite a bit from the run earlier. Cursed by his perfectionist habits, Baekhyun stopped the girl before entering the hall.

“Your hair…” he pointed out to which she immediately responded by tucking all the fallen strands behind her ears. 

Watching her hopelessly try to save the disheveled mess irked him greatly. With a sigh, Baekhyun positioned himself behind her to undo the hair tie all together. He skillfully pulled the hair back into a low ponytail; courtesy to prior experience of having a sister in the family, then neatly secured it with the hair tie.

“Now you’re ready,” he smiled proudly. Taking one last look at the girl, Baekhyun threw a thumbs up as they parted ways. Yumi couldn’t fight back her laughter in time, simply at how ridiculously cheesy this scene came off, even when it was not meant to be. 

Since their improvised rooftop conversation a few weeks back, the two gradually accepted their reality. The bittersweet moment worked out better than neither one of them had expected. For the most part, they maintained professional around each other, yet the subtle calamity had settled since. Even if Yumi pushed thrice as hard to block out her feelings, it felt bearable in a sense that the two did not have to hurt each other in the process.  

Yumi snuck backstage where her classmates gathered, awaiting for their names to be called. Going on her tippy toes, she scanned through the ocean of heads to see if Kyungsoo made it in. And of course her capable sibling would make it to the front row somehow, she chuckled as she spotted him squeezing in between a large family. If she didn’t know better, Kyungsoo would have blended right in effortlessly. At last, her heart was finally at ease to see everything fall in place. If it weren’t for that extra episode of her weekend drama, the snooze this morning could have been avoided. Among the audience, she also caught a glimpse of her savior from earlier. Smiling, she watched Baekhyun take his seat in the reserved area for teachers. 

“The line will move once the band starts playing,” announced one of the student coordinators. 

Right on cue, the line started moving as their names were being read out. Chaotic cheers from her classmates' family members followed, hyping up the whole stage along with them. Yumi never realized how nerve-racking it would be to approach the front of the line. They had just done rehearsal yesterday but with the audience present made everything more real now.

“Jung Yumi.”

Her feet moved on its own towards the stage. Yumi shy away from the light directed at her by picking up the pace gradually. She barely looked out at the audience just because she wanted to get over this glorified, ten seconds spotlight. On a positive note, she did not trip on stage and that was enough to ask for. After the ceremony had concluded promptly, students were released to meet their families and friends. This may be the hardest part of it all, trying to find Kyungsoo in this massive gathering of people. Pushing through the crowd, she practically bumped into every person she knew beside her own brother. 

“Yumi!” A voice called out amidst the confusion. Jaemin appeared through the muddle, pulling the girl aside to avoid getting trampled over if they had stopped in the middle. 

“I was looking everywhere for you!”

Before she could open to ask, her friend had already pinpointed specifically at what he wanted her to see first hand. From the direction that Jaemin had her look at, showed a group of underclassmen rallying around their homeroom teacher. Baekhyun seemed more or less baffled, but was not entirely refusing to pose for a picture with them. Yumi folded her arms in dismay, scoffing at the unappealing scene before her. She definitely saw this coming when he came through with that perfectly tailored suit of his, and the way he actually groomed his usual, unkempt hair. The man was a walking piece of art, of course these girls would be all over him.

“You look a little red. How are you feeling