• Graduation •
- Few weeks later -

I smile at myself in the mirror, my face has healed well. But there are still some bruising and my mother said that she'd cover them up with makeup for me so I can look really good. I fix my hair with my fingers and smoothen my coat with my hands. Stand up straight and walk downstairs. "I'm so proud of you Jungkook!" My mother cries, almost scaring me to death. When I walk down the stairs, I notice that both Jennie and her mother are here as well. I take a deep breath before smiling and walking up to Jennie's mother. "Oh Jungkookie, I'm going to miss you." She cries.

"I won't be leaving for another week, so we'll be able to see each other more before then," I tell her, getting a little choked up. I can't imagine leaving home, but I know this would be best for me. When we pull away from each other she has tears running down her face. "Ah, auntie don't cry, please. Please don't cry." I'm on the verge of tears and she just smiles. "You're a good boy Jungkookie, I know that you'll be up to good things." She nods and wipes her tears away. Luckily, I don't cry.

"Enough with the tears, let me take a picture of you both. Jennie and Jungkook." She tells me while she pets my shoulder. When I turn around I see my mother crying, and I lose it. "Eomma." I say with a shaky voice. "Please get together with Jennie so we can take a picture." She smiles through her tears. I clench my jaw so hard, trying not to cry. I stand in the position that we always do for pictures and I wait for Jennie to approach me. We take a couple of pictures and then Jennie takes pictures of my mother and I. Then of her mother and me.

"Eomma, please take plenty of pictures of Lalisa and me when we are there." She nods. "Of course I will! I'm so excited for her too. I'm relieved that you two will have each other when you go to California.", "I know.. I've always been lucky to have her." I smile to myself. I feel Jennie's eyes burning into my skin, but I don't care at all. "Okay, let's go. I'll do your makeup in the car Jungkook." my mother tells me as she already has a makeup bag in her hand. I nod and we all head into the same car.

Jennie takes the front seat so my mother can sit in the back and do my makeup. "Ugh, you're a little too dark for my foundation," She whispers. "As long as it covers up Eomma, that's all that matters," I tell her. She grins and kisses my cheek. She then continues to work on my face, soon we're at the school. "How do I look Eomma?" I ask her. She smiles, "Perfect." she says. I look at myself in the rear view mirror and I look like I don't even have makeup on. I smile. "Here baby, some lip balm." I look at my mother.

"Isn't that for girls?" I ask. "Do you want your lips to look crusty?" She asks. I look at myself in the rear view mirror again and I realize that they do look a little dry. I turn to my mother and she dabs some lip balm on my lips and she nods. I rub my lips together and we get out of the car. My mother grabs my hand and she walks me to my class. Many people look at me, but I don't care. I love my mother with all my heart. I'd hold her hand any day and anywhere. "Okay, now where's that sweet sweet girl Lalisa?" She asks. I search around the class until I see her sitting at our desk. I smile, "Lalisa." I call her, she turns and she's me.

I feel my face heat up, she looks so cute. She had a little braid on each side of her head and they were both pulled back and pinned. She had a small amount of clear gloss on her lips. "You look good with the makeup." She says, taking me out of my trans. I smile, "I don't look too cakey?" I ask, making her laugh. Strange how a boy can know what that means. But I do, living all my life with girls. Yep. "No." She smiles. I sort of just stare at her until I see a flash and my mother has taken a picture of me being a weirdo. "So cute!!! I'll send you the picture." She says.

"Hash brown otp." I can't help but laugh really hard, Lalisa laughs too. My God, I'm going to miss this. And it's funny that my mother would know what otp stands for, but not know hashtag. "Get together, get together." She throws her hands around like a wild goose. I instantly wrap my arm around Lalisa and pull her to my body. I can't stop smiling. My mother takes several pictures. "Awe!! Lalisa! Your face is all pink!" She exclaims, embarrassing Lalisa. I then hear two light smacks and I look at Lalisa and she's covering her cheeks with her hands. I laugh and try to pull her hands off her face.

I can already guess that my mother is taking more pictures. Cause duh, she's my mother. Lalisa looks up at me and her lips purse up as she tries not to laugh. I smile wide and hold her hands. "Totally otp. Omj totally stussy. So chill." A squeak like laugh leaves Lalisa making me laugh. I look at my mother and laugh, I bet she doesn't know what any of that means. Though she's smiling, I can see it in her eyes that she's sad. The fact that today is graduation, just means that the time for me to leave is closer. Before I can hug my mother, our teacher walks in and we are then supposed to walk back to our seats and we greet the teacher with a bow.

"Students! I can't believe that today is the day that you all graduate school! This is so amazing! Aren't you all excited?" My teacher asks us. Many students cheer. "So we will be handing out more of the smaller awards in class." My teacher starts. "And then you will all get your actual certificate in the bigger ceremony." She says. She begins to hand out achievement awards. I get three. Highest grade in the class, and two of my awards for my sports. Lalisa gets the same amount as me. Every time they said my name my mother was cheering for me, also when Lalisa got an award.

Sadly, as I expected. Lalisa's parents couldn't get out of work. It was some really important meeting, and if they were to miss it would cost their job. That's why my mother is video taping and taking pictures. They asked her to do it for them and of course she said she would. "Our last goodbye has come." My teacher says when every award is passed out. "I wish you all a happy life." She smiles and claps for us. "Now we will be heading over to the auditorium." Before I can even walk away my mother runs up to us like she's Naruto. "Take a picture with your teacher." She says to me, also dragging Lalisa along.

"Hi, can my son and his girlfriend take a picture with you? I'm going to put this in his scrap book for when he goes away to California for college." She gives away the gift she's been working on. "Of course." She smiles. Lalisa and I take pictures with our teacher and then we follow the rest of our class to the auditorium. It's loud, basically the whole upper class students are here. Along with parents and other family members that wanted to attend. So it's pretty loud. I feel fingers touch my hand and I hold onto them. I lead the way and she follows close behind.

When we get in line I feel a smack on my shoulder. It didn't even move me and I already know who it is, because it didn't even hurt. I turn. "Aye. We're invited to your graduation dinner right?" He asks. I nod quickly, "Of course, you too Chae." She grins. Her hair looks a little different. "I got bangs." She smiles. She must have noticed me trying to figure out what was different about her. "They look nice." I tell her. "Thanks Jungkookie." She says. Lalisa and Chaeyoung go off to talk like always and Jimin turns to me. "Are you inviting Taehyung?" He asks. My face goes straight. "After what he did to me?" I ask. The corner of his lip pull out quickly and he clicks his tongue. "He has no one Jungkook.", "So you feel bad for him all of a sudden?" I ask. "Offensive much?" I let out a breath.

"I don't know, I'll have to think about it." I murmur. "Just think about how you'd feel if you were down in life and had no one to care about you." Jimin does have a point. "And I even heard that his parents aren't going to be with him at all today. So he has to be by himself. I think that's really sad." Jimin tells me. Though Taehyung really hurt me. I feel extremely sympathetic for him. "Jennie's going to be there though, cause I'm sort of obligated to have her there since our mothers and all." I explain. "You act like you have to explain the obvious to me." He laughs.

"I know she's going to be there." He adds. I just close my lips close together. "I didn't mean to force it on you, I just feel bad for him." I nod. "No, I understand." I say. Then, the head of the school district begins the ceremony. All students bow to them before they dismiss us to sit down. The ceremony goes on for a while before my class is up to receive our certificates. We then get in line of last name and Lalisa and I are separated. You can guess how many Kim's we have in our class. So she's pretty far away from me.

"Jeon Jungkook." My name is then announced and I hear two high pitched screams. My mother and auntie. I smile as I walk up and receive my certificate. When they get through the line and I hear Lalisa's name I cheer at the top of my lungs for her. Her face is a bright pink when she makes it back to her seat. I throw her a thumbs up and a huge smile when she looks at me.

**

"So, have you and Jungkook talked about housing?" She asks me as Jungkook and Jimin talk. And I could of sworn that I heard Taehyung's name, but I ignore it. My face heats up. "No, but I want to ask him." I say. "Awe. Imagine he wants to get an apartment with you?" She whispers. I shake my head quickly. "No no. He wouldn't want to, I'm sure." She then wiggles her eyebrows. "Stop it." I whisper as I squish her face with my hands making her laugh. "You're all pink like a little gumball." She teases. I chuckle. "Stop teasing meeee." I whine silently.

She then looks a bit sad. "I'll miss you Lalisa." She whispers. "No, please don't start being sad. We still have a good amount of time together. No need to be sad now." I tell her, she just nods. Then the ceremony starts, it goes on from front to back for the auditorium. When our class is up, we all stand up in alphabetical order. I wait lazily in line until I head his name. "Jeon Jungkook." I scream so loud that my throat would fall out of my neck. We're not supposed to cheer for the other students, but I say the hell to that dumb rule.

For once in my life of breaking rules, I'm going to break it for him. He smiles wide as he walks down the steps and they name the other students. My eyes glued to him as he walks back to his seat. The love that I feel for him, I know it's real. I've always asked myself when I was little. Where do I see myself in the future? And to be completely honest, at this time of my life, I know I want to be with Jungkook. I never thought that a person can make another so happy, it's unbelievable honestly. Way before Jungkook, I always fantasized about the perfect guy sweeping me off my feet, and honestly, it's much better than I had ever imagined. To the point where I know reality is now, and it's with Jungkook.

I've never felt so happy in a single moment. Happier than I was when we shared a kiss at the upperclassmen trip. Happier than I was when Jungkook asked me out. Happier than I was when I got my first check. I know what my future holds, and it's holding hands with Jungkook until the end. "Lalisa Manoban." I hear screams fill the auditorium. I can't help but smile really wide when I walk up and receive my certificate. My face even heats up to a thousand degrees as I walk back to my seat. I had expected it to stay quiet when my name was called. I didn't know if people would cheer for me. Maybe one or two people. But even people that didn't know me, cheered for me.

I'm completely surprised when I see Jennie clapping for me. Or maybe it's for another person who was called after me. But her eyes stare at me, and she has a small smile on her lips. And for once, I don't feel so scared. I make it back to my seat and I look far down the line and see Jungkook smiling and throwing me a thumbs up. I smile back at him and throw him a thumbs up too. Oh gosh. That bunny smile, my heart is pounding so hard I think I might faint. The ceremony continues and Jungkook and I cheer like crazy people when Jimin and Chaeyoung are called. Lucky for them, they got to go up one after the other because of their last name. And we wait an whole hour until the ceremony finally finishes.

**

One hour, that's how long the ceremony was. Everyone then is dismissed and we all go and look for our parents to take a lot of pictures. I hold Lalisa's hand and Jimin follows us with Chaeyoung following along. "Aaaah!!" I chuckle when I know my mother is the one screaming. "My baby!!!! I'm so proud of you!!!" Now she's really crying. Like. Literal tears. "Look, I got so many pictures of you!" She runs up to me and shows me her phone. She's actually really good at pictures. "Jungkookie, so handsome." Jimin's mother squishes my face.

"Thank you Mrs. Park." I smile. "Eommaaaaa." Jimin shines. "Oh ahaha I almost forgot." She kisses my cheeks before yanking Jimin by his little hands and taking a selfie with him. "I'm putting this on the insta." Oh no, all the mothers are trying to fit in. I chuckle. "Eomma, no one calls it the insta." Jimin says quietly. "Oh Jiminie, you haven't accepted my friend request." She looks at him. "Oh, I don't use Instagram." He says quickly. I chuckle. "Chae! Chae! Take a face snap with me." She gladly walks over and takes a picture with Jimin's mother, I smile wide when I see the way Jimin looks at Chaeyoung.

"Jimin and Jungkook! Get together." My mother yanks Jimin toward me. Lalisa stands next to my mother so Jimin and I can take a picture together. "Hold up your certificate." She says. We take several pictures, a lot of just me. Then of Lalisa and I, of my mother and I, of Lalisa, Jimin, Chaeyoung and I. Then Jennie shows up and I have to take a picture with her too, along with both her and her mother. We literally take an hour just so my mother can take pictures of everything. As we're leaving, I feel Jimin nudge my arm. I look at him and he uses a head signal to make me look in a certain direction. I turn my head and see Taehyung sitting on his own on a front school bench.

I know what my heart is thinking is right. "I'll be right back." I tell everyone and run up to Taehyung. When I'm right in back of him my heart starts to pound extremely fast. Yes, I'm still scared of him, but I think that he's okay now. I inhale deeply before I walk around to him. "Hey Taehyung." I say, he looks up at me. "Hey." Is all he says. "So.. mm.. I wanted to know if you'd want to come to my graduation dinner. It's going to be held at the BB Barbecue place, all my friends will be there. If you want to be there too... since it's your graduation day too." I tell him.

He stares at me for a few seconds. "What?" He asks. "I'm inviting you to my dinner." I say. He blinks a couple of times as if he still can't believe that I'm asking him to come to the dinner. "Why are you being nice to me?" His eyebrows knit. "Why not?" I ask. He laughs, but not in a funny way. "You must have your head screwed on backwards if you have to ask me that." His jaw clinches. "You don't have to feel sympathetic for me. Trust me. You don't want to be my friend after what I did to you." I give my lips moisture by licking them. "We all make mistakes... and our mistakes happen to be with the same girl."

He laughs, now laughing because I'm a comedian. His face then goes straight and he looks down at the certificate in his hands. "I'm sorry." I tells me. A few weeks late of what he did to me. But... "I forgive you." I tell him instantly, because I do. He then looks at me, a bit confused. "But really, why are you so nice to me?" He asks. I grin. "Cause." He lightly shakes his head and rolls his eyes. "That's not even an answer." I smile. "I know." I chuckle.

"So... What? You going to come to my dinner or not?" I ask him. He then becomes serious. "Is that kid with the small hands gonna be there?" I try my best not to laugh really loud. "Jimin? Yeah. And his girlfriend." I say. "And your girlfriend?" I nod. I see him gulp and his jaw gets real right. He might be biting down so hard that his teeth will break off. "Jennie?" He asks. I bite my lip before answering. "She's sort of obligated to be there.. with our-", "Yeah Yeah, I know. Your mothers and all." He butts in, I nod. He then stands up and he's about my height. He grins and pats my shoulder.

"Thanks for the invitation kid, I'll have to think about it." And there seems to be some sort of sparkle in his eyes. A Uber pulls up to the front of the school and he walks up to it. I watch him get in and he throws me a peace sign along with a weirdly shaped grin. Then the car drives off, I then let out a breath. "You can't say you didn't try." I whisper to myself before I turn and head over to my mothers car where she looks very concerned. "Was that Tae-", "Yes Eomma." Her eyes widen. "W-What did you say to him?" She asks. "I invited him to dinner." I tell her. And I literally witness my mother's face go pale.

"What!?" She exclaims. "Eomma, it's not a big deal." I tell her. "Jungkook, how can you say that? He hurt you! He put you in the hospital!" She cries. "Eomma... he's all alone." I say simply, her face softens. "He's going to be all alone tonight, and I don't think that he should be.." She slightly grins. "Ah... Jungkook. You're always so caring.. even to the people that hurt you." I smile. "He needs someone too Eomma." I tell her. "I know baby." Though I know she's not completely comfortable with Taehyung attending dinner. I know she sees it the way I do.

Lalisa leaves with us in the car and Jimin and everyone else leaves in their car. I honestly feel really good about inviting Taehyung. The look on his face when I asked him if he'd come, made me feel happy inside. Though, Jennie, her mother didn't look so happy about my invitation to him.

But this is my decision.

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[ R E V I S E D ]