Chapter 43 

 

"Jungeun! Hurry up, we'll be late if you don't stop moving like a turtle you are!"

"Wow, says the one who moves slower than a darn turtle. You best shut your mouth up, hyung!"

"Hey! What did you just call me, you little crap? Get dressing! Make it fancy and feminine too!"

Jungeun could only sigh as she put on a sweet looking black vest around her to match the light green top she was wearing along with it, matched with those jaw-dropping skinny jeans and a fancy looking pair of boots. Her black hair, despite slowly growing longer and longer, still had those extensions attached. For some reason, Jungeun still couldn't find the strength to wear her hair as is without those extensions. She might have grown used to them but it's too embarrassing to show or say that.

Time really flies.

Speaking of time, it's been a year already since she was met and was welcomed by VIXX and EXO-M. A wonderful school year has come to an end rather quickly.

"So, are you good now?" she hears Sanghyuk ask. Upon turning around, only her brother's smiling face greets her as he stands by the doorway, carrying his black jacket. "Come on. N-hyung told us clearly that we should come there early."

"Alright, alright, smokey pants." Jungeun chuckles as she fixes her hair and runs towards her brother, giving him a playful nudge before leaving their apartment room. "Come on." she smiles as she grabs her brother's hand after she sees him lock the door. Not putting up any force, Sanghyuk lets himself get dragged behind, a smile still patched on his face.

It took them a couple of minutes before they reached the school grounds. It radiated a rather different vibe, or was it the event being held inside. There is a big banner hung on the entrance that reads "Congratulations, graduates!"

Yes, it is the seniors' most awaited day... the day they finally graduate and take their step towards the adulthood. The day they will be called graduates. Offically be called graduates, to be exact. Hurriedly, the twins marched inside where they see N and Leo and even Ken chatting with a few classmates and acquaintances. Upon seeing the twins inside, N literally cried in joy and ran towards the two, hugging them tightly.

"You did come early! I knew it! You two wouldn't let me down." N cried happily as he tightened his hug around the juniors. "You two are one of those people that make me happy!"

"N, you're overreacting again." Leo sighs as he runs his hand through his black hair.

"Jung-Jung decided to dress fancily." Ken grins as he nudges Jungeun. However, after the incident where Ken "indirectly confessed" his love for Jungeun, the lady never saw Ken the same again. Sure, she still acts the same but her perspective over the senior never really changed. But this is only because she doesn't know who the real sender is.

And everyone can agree on who it is... if they ever knew.

N somewhat managed to learn about Leo's plan with Ken and since then, the two would indirectly do things for Leo to Jungeun. And thank goodness that Jungeun was born rather obnoxious that she showed no signs that she even suspected the two. All she knew was that Ken had "feelings" for her and that N is just a natural hugger and sweet talker. Oh, poor girl. Not even her twin knows about this. None but the three knows so.

Hongbin and Ravi came fifteen minutes later, only to be greeted by a whining N, saying that the two came late. Of course, in Ravi's perspective, fifteen minutes isn't considered late, especially because the tanned leader never assigned a specific time to head at the school. Fortunately, Hongbin's explanation of having to wake Ravi being a hard thing to do convinced N that them being late is legit. Jungeun and Leo simply kept quiet despite their continuous questioning on how that thing convinced the rather someone like N.

"Kris is graduating too today, right?" Jungeun asks.

"Yup." N nods. "Along with Luhan and Xiumin, to be exact. Ah, the seniors are finally graduating! Such joy."

"Such joy for us too." Ravi snickered. "No more headache since there's no more N-hyung!"

"What did you say, Kim Wonshik?"

"I said I'm happy because... you're garduating and finally going to achieve your dreams?"

"Thought so." the leader grinned rather mischieveous before turning around to face the rest. "By next year, it'll be your turn to graduate too. And by then, you'll be off to college, making titles afterwards and being successful men and woman!" N smiled.

"That's still a year to go, but yes, we surely will." Hongbin nods, a dimpled smile on his bright face.

"So," Sanghyuk speaks up. "Lay, Chen and Tao are perhaps attending the hyungs' graduation at their school, huh?"

"Seems like it." Leo nods. "They'll support the three there in behalf of us."

"Seems legit." Sanghyuk grins. Soon enough, the announcer begins to call the seniors to assemble at the gym where the graduation ceremony will be held. The juniors hurry behind the crowd, grabbing their own seats and getting a rather good spot to watch the ceremony. Successfully, and thanks to Ravi, the four found a good spot.

They soon spot Leo, Ken and N's family watching them proudly from afar. The juniors, being unknown to their families, simply kept a distance away from them. Besides, even if they aren't weird, they might find them weird. Well, the generation they are living as of now is pretty much wrecked. Maybe the normal things they do would appear weird to them.

Soon enough, the ceremony starts. The specific parts of the graduation ceremony slowly comes and passes. There were some boring speeches done by the head principal and by a few school staff, mostly those renowned teachers most students are respecting and so. Jungeun nearly fell asleep at some parts.

But she was woken up by her brother at the distribution of awards and official certificates announcing that they are graduates at last.

"What day is it?" she groggily asked, eyes slowly fluttering open.

"It's about time for the honors to be distributed." Hongbin answers with a grin. "I call dibs that Leo-hyung will graduate as the valedictorian!"

"Like something will change." Ravi snickered. "He always graduates as one, remember?"

"He does?" Jungeun blinks.

"How come you don't know though?" Ravi questioned back. "It's like the school's most talked about topic."

"I don't really care about the things running around the school." Jungeun shrugged. "But yeah, maybe he's really that kind of guy who's perfect in everything, huh?"

"Definitely!" Sanghyuk nods as he joins everyone in listening to who gets which honor. 

Soon, each student gets their own official certificate and so. Every now and then, the four and the rest would clap their hands in honor of everyone. 

"Who do you think'll be the salutatorian?" Jungeun hears a few seniors whisper.

"Maybe Bang Yongguk?" another senior replies in a whisper-like way.

"That'd be impossible. We all know that the person who's just a few points lower than Jung Leo is Lim Hanmi! Don't be idiots! It'll definitely be Hanmi." another growls.

"Idiot. Surely, it'll be Lee Jinki! He's like the smartest, next to Leo."

"I call dibs that it'll be Kyuhyun-ssi!"

Lots of names were heard by the young female. There's this and that. She heard mostly male names, some were female's. Either or, she didn't really know who they were. She only knew a few school mates and only a few seniors! "What's with the salutatorian thingie?" Jungeun asks as she nudges Sanghyuk.

"Oh, it's been a talk in the school on who'll be the second to Leo-hyung." Sanghyuk replies with a smile. "Even we don't know on who it'll be. It's been quite a talk for a while."

"Why is it something grand?" 

"Well, it's just cool to think on how close they'll get to Leo-hyung."

"Why?"

"Well, it just is."

Soon, the honor giving reached it's : the announcement on who'll be the Top 3. The Third Honor was called and was revealed to be a lad who goes by the name Lee Jinki, or as the school calls him, Onew. He is an angelic looking guy, in Jungeun's opinion. He has this cheery smile patched on his face. His black hair is quite long but in a neat way. He wore spectacles too, which was really kind of adorable. After receiving his award and certificate, he bows in a perfect ninety-degrees before heading back to his seat.

Finally, the salutatorian would be announced.

"And for this year, our honored salutatorian is..." the announcer smiles as he faces the audience. He felt the tension in every graduates, and on how they are craving on who the salutatorian is. "Our salutatorian is... 

...Cha Hakyeon!"

"Say what?!" the four nearly shouted their lungs out. Everyone was in disbelief. How could someone, especially like N, be the school's salutatorian for this year? They never really expected him to reach such award. With a smile on his face that seemingly shouted "tricked you all!" 

"Wha– wait, what?!" Ravi nearly cried out. "N-hyung's the... salutatorian? Wait, is this a dream!? It's impossible!"

"Is he that smart?" Hongbin gasped as his eyes watched N walk up the stage. "I never had an idea that N-hyung's has that high of an IQ!"

"No one really knew so!" Sanghyuk cried out. "I didn't even know that N-hyung could somewhat reach Leo-hyung's stat!"

Right after receiving his respective certificate and  medal, he flashes a smile to everyone, and had indirectly killed the female fans, before he heads back to his seat, visibly being proud of his achievement as he softly chatted with Leo. For some reason, Leo was also proud.

"And finally, our valedictorian for this school year is no other than... Jung Taekwoon! Congratulations!" 

Silently, Leo stands up from his seat, only to be greeted by proud cheers from his classmates, fans, family, friends and most of all, from N himself. He calmly makes his way to the stage and receives his medal and certificate. He bows to the teachers, the principal and his fellow graduates before the announcer hands him a mic, gesturing him that it's time to give his valedictorian speech. He makes his way to his respective place and begins to make his speech.

Simmering down from the fact that N is the salutatorian, the juniors attentively listens to Leo. Jungeun wasn't sure if it was her imagination or what, but she saw Leo radiating with some aura different whenever he's around the group. This one was too gentle, too inferior. His smile is obviously not heart-felt as he's known to be the Ice Prince who conceals his real emotions. As he goes through his speech, those charcoal orbs radiated a spark of joy as he faces the audience. Jungeun could see Leo's family and N's family from afar, proud of the valedictorian and salutatorian they have. Most of all, Leo's family's the proudest, having their son achieve something so high.

"Now, we're graduates." Jungeun hears Leo say at the stage. "We've started from small things in pre-school, continued on in Elementary and found things beginning to be complicated in Middle School. We conquered them in High School and now, it's up to us if we learned from those phases as he we enter the College life... or as we prefer to call it, the gateway to adulthood.

This is not the end yet. This is the real beginning, to be exact. This is just the start. And if we do succeed at this one yet again, we are to begin to make grand titles for ourselves. Some of us might be a part of a popular idol group, or someone who's greatly known worldwide. Perhaps a person who normally struts in Hollywood with flashing cameras alongside. We don't know where we will head to, but let's make it memorable and an extravagant success.

Think of it as a payment to our parents' hardships. It's our time to shine and to prove ourselves to be worth of their hardships. Once again, congratulations and good luck."

By the time he ends his speech, everyone claps. They all know that he is right. Leo soon steps down the stage and heads back to his seat, greeting by taps on the shoulder and claps. 

The ceremony, bit by bit, slowly comes to an end.  

And when it does, the graduates takes the time to congratulate each other with hugs and an exchange of flowers and so. Some senior couples were hugging each other too, congratulating each other. 

Leo, Ken and N took the time to head back to their families, who were watching them. Ken was greeted by a proud mother and father, and brother of course. N proudly showed his achievements to his parents sand siblings. leo was hurriedly greeted and congratulated by his sisters and mother. 

Afterwards, the trio was greeted by the juniors while they were still talking with Leo's family. "Hyungs! Congratulations!" Sanghyuk happily said as he saw the seniors. "You're finally graduates!"

"Excuse us for a bit, auntie." they heard N say and in an instant, Leo's family nods and hurries to meet N's family. "Hey, hey! Did you see me at the stage earlier?" an excited N asked.

"Speaking of that, how in the world did you turn out to be a salutatorian?!" Ravi cried. "We never knew you were some genius or prodigy or whatever! Explain!"

"Well, let's just say I never showed my brainy side in public." he winked. "It's a little surprise plan I calculated since the beginning of Middle School. I'm actually a renowned genius in all aspects, but I decided to only show my expertise in dancing and leading alone. The academics and so on are basically veiled in secret so at these kinds of events, it'll be a surprise!"

"Leo-hyung, how come you never told us?" Hongbin pouted.

"He begged me." Leo softly answers as he pointed at the tanned latter.

"You just love to surprise people, huh?" Jungeun smirked as he faced the tanned senior, who only flashes a rather playful smile at them. 

"Oh, and anyways, congratulations on being the valedicatorian... again." Ravi clapped. "It's expected, isn't it?"

"Suppose so." Leo nodded. 

"Let's have a party later!" Ken cried out as he raised his phone. "Kris texted me earlier, inviting us for a grand dinner at this restaurant later at night. Will that be fine?"

"Definitely!" N nodded excitedly as he clings on Leo. "Now, excuse us, we've got some swooning to do over Leo, with his sisters and mine!" he grins as he pulls Leo back with Ken. The juniors, with the instruction of being gathered later at the center of Seoul at exactly six in the evening, hurries to their own homes after congratulating the three.

Seoul is really majestic at night. Embraced by a thousand, colorful lights, it shone under the inky black sky. People loved the cold breeze at night instead during the day. The cold is always better for some reason. 

Under the twinkling stars and the colorful lights of the city, the Han twins stood side by side, wrapped in matching black jackets as they waited at this specific place N had told them to stay earlier. It was cold but for some reason, the two had gotten quite used to it already. So far, only them, Lay and Xiumin had just arrived, which was something they least expected.

"Where are the others." Xiumin clicked his tongue as he scanned his phone in hopes of having to receive a text or missed call. "Kris said to wait here exactly at six! Those late runners..."

"Chill, hyung." Sanghyuk grins as he spots Hongbin and Ravi from a far. Stretching his arm up in the air, he manages to call the two's attention. Another minute passes and another and soon, one by one, everyone arrives. Last to come were N and Leo, as expected. With the reason of N finding a perfect outfit to wear for their grand dinner together, everyone was left defeated and simply walked in the restuarant all together.

The seniors are the ones to treat the juniors as of now, since well, they were the ones to graduate. Greedy N had to be forced to pay by Leo, who didn't spare him a minute of staring into his soul. 

Soon, as they waited for the food to arrive right after ordering their food, Kris starts a conversation. "So, what're your plans, huh, fellow graduates?"

"Go to college!" everyone answers, which rather ticks something in Kris. Sensing this, Luhan tries to save the situation.

"I'm thinking of going back to China to pursue college, and that would make it better since my family's near my desired college." Luhan smiles. "But in the other hand, I might consider staying here in Korea to pursue music-inclined courses."

"Ah, so you're objective is musical courses, Lu?" Ken asks as he eyes the doe-eyed latter, who simply nods.

"Yup. How about you guys?" 

"I'm planning on taking fashion." Kris smiles. "Or perhaps acting. My mother contacted me and asked me if I want to fly back to Canada and apply for a scholarship."

"Well, since you graduated a salutatorian,you'll clearly succeed, gege!" Tao grinned.

"I'm planning on being a bartender in the near future, so I'm taking any course related to that." Xiumin grins. "Or maybe something related to singing. My sister always dreamed of having his brother as a renowned singer, you know."

"I might join my brother in  the cooking franchise." Ken says as he leans back. "Or maybe take a turn and pursue my childhood dream of becoming a singer. Mom always saw my potentials in singing."

"That's because you do have a thing in your vocal powers, hyung." Hongbin smiles. "In my opinion, you should really be a singer instead! Who knows, you might be a popular ballad singer in the near future."

"Hoping to be, Bin. Hoping to be." the senior smiles before he turns around at N. "How about you?"

"Maybe a choreographer or something. A model or a fashion designer, perhaps? I don't really have a polished dream yet besides dancing." N thinks as he crosses his arms before he leans at Leo. "As long as I'm with this lion, I'm sure to be happy!"

"With Leo being in the topic, what are your plans, huh, Leo?" Kris questions.

"Anything related to singing." Leo answers in a soft voice. "... But I'm also considering the fact that I'm following my sisters' footsteps in the business career. They are in need of another helping hand to pursue dad's company."

"And where do you suppose you six will be going to college?" Chen asks, before the waiter hands the group their ordered drinks first. After Kris takes a sip on his ordered Iced Tea, he leans back and thinks.

"I'm still not sure. Maybe in Canada or I might stay here." the blond smiles.

"Definitely, I'm staying here in Korea." Xiumin grins. "My family already has a list of universities they desire me to go in to."

"Maybe in China or here. Dunno." Luhan smiles, a hint of being torn between his hometwon and his love for Korea shown in those doe-like eyes.

"Defnitely Korea." the remaining three answers.

Everyone nods as they continue chatting. The food soon arrives and they begin to eat but that didn't hinder their continuous chats. By nthe up coming school year, the juniors will turn to seniors, who are about to graduate as well. How time flies, right? it was just like yesterday that Jungeun and Sanghyuk were just taking their first step in Elementary School! Yes, she can still remember on how much of a cry-baby her brother was back then. Now? 

He still is.

"You seven best do your best in your last year, alright?" N instructed with a sharp tone. "You must be good seniors to your juniors, understood?"

"Look who's talking, the one who abuses his own juniors." Tao laughs, only to get a good hitting from the tanned leader. Everyone else laughs, even Tao. The moment is something to enjoy.

"Oh, it reminds me." Lay suddenly says, garnering everyone's attention to him. "Since Leo-hyung is graduating, does that mean his and Jungeun's rivalry are over? I mean, there's nothing to compete anymore since, well, he's off to college."

"Rivalry never stops." Jungeun smirks as she shoves her food in in a second. "So what if this Ice Block's off to college. I bet I could do a better job in college than he will in his first year."

"Puh-leese, I bet you wouldn't even survive the first semester." Leo snickers.

"Alrighty you two! This is a night to enjoy, not to do your silly rivalry all over again!" N whined as he clings on Leo's neck. "Come on, cheers for the newly graduates!"

"Cheers!"

But Jungeun could admit.

Now that she has her rival off to a new university, rivalry will temporarily stop.

The last year will be something she labels as "simmering down".

She didn't want to admit it.

But she'll miss the seniors especially Leo.

"You six best be one of those people whose name appear on the television okay?" Chen commands as he points a finger at the seniors.

"Puh-leese, we'll even appear in the televison ourselves!" Ken proudly states as he gulps down his drink easily. "I'll be sure to give you a special shout-out too, Chen!"

"Be sure on that!"

"Deal!"

But she is extremely happy for the seniors. They'll be taking their first step in achieving their long-life dreams, though some still haven't considered which dream they will pursue.

She's still happy for them.

"By the way, have we mentioned that N-hyung here graduated as a salutatorian?" Ravi suddenly asks as he eyes the goups. As per usual, they all choked in their own drinks before shouting a unified "what".

"How in this lovely planet did that happen?!" a rather surprised Tao asked.

"N-hyung is that smart?" Lay blinked in disbelief. "No offense... but I never saw him as one."

"I must say, even if Hakyeon and I were somewhat friends in our childhood days, I never foresaw that he'd graduate with such big achievement."

"He must've drugged the teachers." Xiumin jokingly whispered to Luhan.

"I heard that, chubby cheeks!" N cried out.

"Who're you calling chuby, you walking dark chocolate?!"

"Again, will someone care to explain how he gained such?" Luhan repeated.

"Leo?" Kris calls out, eyeing N's dear best friend. Leo simply sighs and leands back before meeting N's gaze.

"He drugged the teachers and threatened the others with a chainsaw.. ." he smiled playfully.

"LEO!"

Another year of craziness, huh?