# Epilogue 2. January Graduation Ceremony
Ring-ring ring-.
The alarm pierced my eardrums so sharply that I reflexively sat up. Perhaps due to my recent lazy lifestyle, my eyes wouldn’t open properly, and as I reached out to fumble around the bed, someone beat me to turning off the alarm.
Thanks to that, I finally managed to regain my senses after nuzzling my face against the pillow and fidgeting around. I should have gone to bed a little earlier last night. That stupid movie, why did I-.
The air felt cool against my skin, probably because it was winter. Shivering, I burrowed into the blanket. The resulting coziness momentarily made me drowsy, but I quickly shook my head to clear my mind.
“Kwon Do-jiiin-.”
“Mmm.”
I rolled over and bumped my forehead against Dojin’s chest. As it turned out, he was even more vulnerable to morning sleep than I was, so I had to wake him up like this. After pressing firmly against his crown for a while, he finally opened his eyes.
“Did you sleep well?”
His voice was rough from just waking up. I nodded vaguely and was about to get up when a firm arm wrapped around my waist.
“What.”
“Let’s stay in bed a little longer, okay?”
Still half-asleep, he mumbled and pulled me with strength in his arms. Having just woken up myself, I was too lazy to resist and simply relaxed my body, yielding to his pull.
Finding my face buried in his chest again, I groaned, “Nngh.” This feels so familiar, like we do this every day. I can already predict how this will end.
“Today’s the graduation ceremony.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“We need to go to school.”
“Mmm, that’s why just a little longer.”
He buried his face in the nape of my neck as if trying to escape reality. Seeing that he really had no intention of getting up, I quietly decided to give in. Five minutes should be fine.
And so, after lingering in bed until the alarm went off three more times, we finally got up and prepared for the graduation ceremony.
* * *
“We’re probably the only ones who almost arrived late to our graduation ceremony.”
Thanks to Kwon Dojin’s dawdling until the very end, we barely managed to arrive on time. If we had woken up just a little—just a tiny bit—earlier, we would have had more leeway. The thought made my words naturally come out sharper.
“I’ll get up earlier next time.”
A soft sensation landed on my cheek. Recognizing it as his signal asking me to let it go, I nodded with a slight sigh.
“What, did you sleep at Kwon Dojin’s place yesterday?”
“You know that series of movies I mentioned before? We watched them at Dojin’s place.”
It was one of the movies I had been determined to watch after the college entrance exam, but actually, after the exam ended, I’d been busy going out with Dojin here and there, so we only just watched it now. It was more interesting than expected, so we conquered the entire series, which led to going to bed late.
“That strange war movie?”
“What do you mean strange war movie! It’s about a battle for the throne!”
“Right, that one.”
Baek Han made no effort to hide his indifference as he fidgeted with the lollipop in his hand. I pouted at his half-hearted attitude and turned to Dojin sitting next to me.
“The movie was good, right?”
“Mmm, well.”
Thanks to him subtly avoiding my gaze and trailing off, his eyes wavered. Was I really the only one who enjoyed it? But yesterday, Kwon Dojin was sitting next to me and seemed to be watching well!
“You didn’t like it?”
“No, I enjoyed it.”
“As if. Is that the reaction of someone who enjoyed a movie?”
At Baek Han’s jab, my shoulders slumped. So Kwon Dojin had endured watching a movie he didn’t even enjoy with me until dawn? If I had known, we could have watched something else.
“Just watching a movie with Habin was satisfying enough for me. So don’t make that expression, okay?”
“Really?”
“Judging by how you’re talking, I can see we’re in for another year of abundant bullshit.”
“…You should shut up.”
Dojin, who had quickly finished speaking in a cutting tone, blinked his eyes docilely when our gazes met, as if he’d never behaved otherwise. Familiar with this attitude switch, I blinked back at him and then just smiled.
“The graduation ceremony will begin shortly, so please be quiet.”
At the voice flowing through the speakers, we stopped chatting and looked at the stage. Honestly, it was bound to be boring, but thinking that this boredom would be the last made me miss it already.
The graduation ceremony proceeded according to the set program. Even those who were focused at first eventually abandoned their upright posture and chatted softly as usual.
“Have you decided what to do after the graduation ceremony?”
Like everyone else, I answered Baek Han’s question, disregarding the ongoing ceremony.
“Aren’t we just having lunch together?”
“Since it’s graduation day, I thought you might want to do something special.”
“I don’t have anything special I want to do. But since it’s cold, I’d like something warm to eat.”
“Then shall we go eat hot pot?”
Dojin, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, immediately jumped in when he heard I wanted something warm to eat. Then he mentioned one of my favorite foods, which inevitably made me smile.
“I’d definitely like that.”
“Seeing how you two get along, I can already picture how you’ll be in university.”
I glared at Baek Han as he added that it was fortunate we wouldn’t be at the same university. He definitely had the grades to get into the university and department that Dojin and I had been accepted to, but whether intentionally or not, he hadn’t even considered it.
And then to say something like that—it felt like that disappointment was rushing back. They say you rarely meet people even if you’re in different departments, so why not just go to the same university since we’re all going anyway?
“Anyway, you’re coming with us, right?”
“Yeah. It’s not like I have anything else to do.”
“What do you mean you have nothing to do? Isn’t there the rank retirement ceremony this afternoon?”
Interestingly enough, they even had a rank retirement ceremony here. I heard it’s scheduled to coincide with the graduation ceremony of the high school that the Rank 1 attends, so Baek Han’s retirement ceremony is set for this afternoon.
“Why would I want to go there?”
“Unlike you, I’m going to finish on a good note, that’s why.”
Since Dojin clicked his tongue and said it was pointless, Baek Han got offended. As the graduation ceremony was in full swing, I worked hard to stop them, thinking it would be troublesome for me if they started fighting.
“To be honest, I am curious about the rank retirement ceremony.”
“It’s an event more boring than the graduation ceremony. So don’t worry about the retirement ceremony and just watch a movie with me.”
“He’s definitely baiting.”
Since Baek Han grumbled but didn’t deny it, it must really be boring. Although I was curious, if it was boring, I didn’t particularly want to go see it, so I decided to follow Dojin’s suggestion.
We still haven’t seen the last movie in the series, so we could watch that.
“But I believe the retirement ceremony is broadcast too. If you’re really curious, you can watch that.”
“Really?”
At Baek Han’s words, I turned to Dojin, who rolled his eyes before finally nodding slowly. It seemed like information he didn’t particularly want to share, which made me wonder. It’s not like we’re going to the retirement ceremony; we’re just watching the broadcast. Why is he acting like this?
“Should we not watch it?”
“No, do whatever Habin wants. It’s just something like a memory I don’t want to recall.”
I barely managed to suppress the laughter that was about to burst out at his behavior of letting out a faint sigh. So, is he treating his rank as something like an embarrassing past?
I was a bit surprised to learn that Dojin thought about the ranking system that way, as I had no idea, but at the same time, it was funny. And unlike Dojin, the fact that Baek Han was still serious about the rank system added to the humor, but I bit my lip hard and tried my best to hold it in.
“Let’s just eat and then go home to watch the movie.”
I finally calmed down, exhaling a thin breath. I leaned toward Dojin and whispered, and he nodded with a visibly brighter expression. I guess he really didn’t want to watch it.
After that, I deliberately avoided topics related to the ranking system in our conversation. Since my one and only boyfriend didn’t want to talk about ranks, there was no reason to bring it up.
“Now we will have the graduating students’ final school anthem.”
At the mention of the final school anthem, I turned my gaze to the podium. Although I’d grown distant from the school anthem since becoming a high school student, the word “final” made me feel strangely sentimental.
I seriously considered singing along in my mind, but since the people on either side of me weren’t the type to sing the school anthem, I just mouthed the words. As expected, neither Baek Han nor Dojin even pretended to sing, which made me smile faintly.
“With this, we conclude the graduation ceremony.”
As soon as those words were spoken, cheers erupted from all around. I distantly observed the place swirling with various emotions—the joy of the boring ceremony ending, the unfamiliarity of putting a period on the last footprint of adolescence, the sadness for relationships that wouldn’t be the same as before.
“Habin?”
“Yeah?”
“Why are you sitting there in a daze? Let’s go eat.”
At the gentle coaxing voice, I blinked and slowly, very slowly, it sank in. I’ve graduated. Me, finally.
Perhaps because I unintentionally spent two high school lives, my sense of liberation was extraordinary. Thinking that I was really graduating from this insufferable school made my heart swell, and I strongly felt the desire to preserve this feeling.
“Let’s take a picture before we go.”
“A picture? Suddenly?”
I grabbed the arms of the puzzled Baek Han and Dojin, pulling them close to me. While they were trying to grasp the situation after being suddenly pulled in, I took out my phone and turned on the camera.
“Quickly, get in position. If the photo comes out weird, we’re not taking it again.”
“What kind of rule is that-!”
“Wait a moment, let me just fix my hair-.”
“You look handsome even without fixing it, so I’m taking it now! One, two, three-!”
With a click, the photo was taken. When I checked in the gallery, I laughed with relief as the picture turned out great with no blurring, despite Dojin and Baek Han’s floundering.
Now my high school life has truly ended.
Aww
Also yeah poor guy had to graduate high school TWICE