Chapter 73: High School Girl’s Graduation (1)
Kang Ra-Eun and Choi Sang-Woon went into the sticker photo booth together. Sang-Woon could not understand what was going on. He never expected Ra-Eun to suggest taking photos with him first. On the other hand, Ra-Eun was confused about which background to choose.
She said to Sang-Woon, “I’ll just use whatever layout. Is that fine with you?”
“Huh? Yeah, sure.”
The fact that he was taking photos together with Ra-Eun was far more important than the layout. He posed awkwardly.
Seeing that, Ra-Eun expressed, “You’re not in the army yet, so what’s with that face of yours? Smile a little bit. Or is it because you don’t want to take a photo with me?”
“O-Of course not!” Sang-Woon yelled.
He was thinking nothing of the sort. Rather, this moment would become a memory that he would treasure for his entire life. Ra-Eun and Sang-Woon smiled as soon as the screen started counting down. The camera shutter snapped and the photo showed up on the screen.
“Well? Do you like it?”
Sang-Woon nodded furiously as if there was no need to even ask.
“Here, it’s my gift to you. Stick it up on your army locker once you’re enlisted.”
“Army... locker?”
Sang-Woon still did not know much about the army. Ra-Eun was too lazy to explain.
“You’ll find out once you’re there.”
“R-Really?”
“Take lots of photos with your family and friends too. Those photos will help you get through your military service.”
The advice was given out of Ra-Eun’s experience, but there was no way that Sang-Woon would know that she had been in the army before.
***
Today was the day that the SAT results would come out. As Ra-Eun expected, she had gotten a perfect score. Her father shed tears as he checked his daughter’s perfect score report.
“You’ve worked so hard, my baby girl. I’m so, so proud of you!”
She lightly smiled as her father hugged her tight. Kang Ra-Hyuk asked his little sister about her future plans while their father was putting the report card in an album and hanging it up on the wall.
“You said you were gonna apply to Seoul National University, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Which department?”
“I’m not sure yet. I’m thinking of business administration.”
She was going to be managing a business, so she thought taking that path wasn’t a bad idea. She had many choices since she had gotten a perfect score on her SATs. She liked the fact that she could freely choose which school and department she wanted to apply to.
“Are you gonna resume your TV career now that you’re done with the exam?” Ra-Hyuk asked.
Ra-Eun shook her head. “No, not right away. I’m gonna start in April.”
“Why? You want to take a break?”
“The production that I want to work on starts filming in April. I’m also going to get my driver’s license and buy a car in the meantime.”
Ra-Eun’s first order of business after becoming an adult was to purchase a car. Ra-Hyuk tried to frighten her once she mentioned getting a driver’s license.
“I heard the driver’s license exam has gotten super difficult lately. Are you sure you can handle it?”
“It’ll be a piece of cake.”
She already had ten years’ worth of driving experience. If she failed the license exam, then there would barely be anyone who could pass it.
***
Ra-Eun registered for a driving school as soon as she submitted her university application. The driving instructors showed great interest in her since she was a famous celebrity, but what surprised them more than her celebrity status was her driving skills. Her masterful changing of gears while pushing down the clutch was highly abnormal. Her left turns, parallel parking, and other skills were all perfect.
The female instructor in the passenger seat asked, “Have you learned how to drive before, Miss Kang?”
“I have. In this school, for the past two hours.”
In her ten years of instructing, the instructor had never seen someone other than Ra-Eun who was this proficient in driving after only two hours of lessons.
“I’m pretty sure you can take the license exam right now,” the instructor remarked.
“I wish I could too.”
Ra-Eun would have gotten her license right away if she did. She hoped for a policy that exempted people who had returned to the past from taking driver’s license exams.
***
Ra-Eun earned her driver’s license and received the notification that she had been accepted into the Business Administration Department of SNU like she had wanted. After all that, the high school graduation ceremony arrived before she knew it.
Ra-Eun thought as she looked at herself in the full-length mirror with her school uniform on for the last time.
‘Today’s my last day as a high school girl.’
She despised this uniform when she first wore it, but she felt an unknown sense of sorrow when she thought that she would never wear it again.
She walked to school with the uniform on. She could see students who were sad about this being their last time coming to school, and also those who were happy. Seo Yi-Seo was the former.
“I didn’t feel too good while I was walking here this morning,” she said.
Ra-Eun consoled Yi-Seo who honestly revealed her feelings, “If there’s an encounter, there also has to be a farewell, and then a new encounter. Don’t be too sad.”
“I guess so. But thank God we got into the same university, right?”
“Yeah.”
Yi-Seo and Ra-Eun would both be SNU students. They were even going to live together. Ra-Eun had been planning on living on her own, but she decided to live with Yi-Seo because Ra-Eun was worried about her.
‘I can always get a bigger place.’
She had plenty of money to find a place for them to live comfortably.
“Gyu-Rin and Ro-Mi said they’ll come to hang out often once we find a place,” Yi-Seo remarked.
Na Gyu-Rin and Choi Ro-Mi weren’t able to get into SNU, but they managed to be accepted into a university in Seoul that was close by. Ra-Eun had no reason to refuse them wanting to come hang out.
While they were chatting, the start of the graduation ceremony was announced. The graduating students gathered at the auditorium. This was the second high school graduation ceremony of Ra-Eun’s life, which she found to be rather special.
‘Almost no one gets to experience a high school graduation ceremony twice.’
Especially so with their gender changed. The ceremony was almost at its end with the principal’s words toward the students, imploring them to never forget what they had learned here and to grow into fine adults. They sang the school anthem and went back to their classrooms to say their goodbyes to their homeroom teacher.
“Okay, that marks the end of your final class! Great work, all of you!” the homeroom teacher exclaimed.
“Thank you so much!”
“I’ll never forget you!”
“I’ll make sure to keep in touch!”
The students got up from their seats and exchanged yearbooks to leave messages on the front and back. The most popular among them was naturally Ra-Eun.
“Ra-Eun, could you write a few words here, please?”
“Me too!”
“I’m begging you! Please!”
They wanted to leave proof on their yearbooks that they were classmates with a popular actress. Ra-Eun was not accustomed to dealing with fans, but leaving some words on yearbooks was no big deal. She filled the yearbooks with her name and autograph after leaving memos such as ‘Good work’ or ‘Nice job.’
Ra-Eun also got a lot of messages in her yearbook. Since Ra-Eun was busy, Gyu-Rin helped her by going around with Ra-Eun’s yearbook to get everyone’s messages written on it.
“Here you go, Ra-Eun,” Gyu-Rin said.
“Thanks, Gyu-Rin.”
“No problem. More importantly, we need to take pictures.”
They had already taken pictures with their classmates, so all that was left was to take them with true friends. Ra-Eun got together with the people who she usually hung out with. Ra-Eun was at the center. To her left was Yi-Seo, and to her right were Gyu-Rin and Ro-Mi. Park Se-Woon agreed to take the picture.
“Say cheese!”
After several commemorative pictures with her friends, she then called over Choi Sang-Woon, Kim Yeong-Gyo, and her other opposite-sex friends whom she often used to go to the PC Room with. And finally, she called over one more person.
“You come too, Se-Woon.”
“Me? Really?”
“It’s the last picture we get to take with our uniforms on, after all.”
She thought she could be lenient with him just for today.
***
Time flew by while Ra-Eun took tons of pictures with her friends. They headed downtown to alleviate the sorrow of graduation. Sang-Woon and the other boys decided to go to a PC Room. Ra-Eun also wanted to go with them, but...
“Ra-Eun, let’s go to karaoke.”
“What do you think?”
She found going to the PC Room to hold Starcraft 4v4 team melees on The Hunters map or fastest maps to be more fun, but she could not refuse her friends’ offer. She spent a few hours at karaoke and went back home after having dinner with them.
Since Ra-Eun and Yi-Seo’s houses were the same way, they walked home together until Starlight Road. Seo Yi-Jun came out while he was at the counter once he saw his sister and Ra-Eun.
“I guess this is the last time I get to see you in your school uniform, noona.”
Ra-Eun giggled as Yi-Jun expressed his sorrow.
“What, do you like me more in my uniform?”
“No. You look good in anything, so it’s fine even if I don’t get to see you in your uniform anymore.”
“You’re good with words, I’ll give you that. Make sure you take your sister home safely. See ya.”
Ra-Eun set off to her own home after saying goodbye to the Seo siblings. She finally arrived after sunset. Ra-Hyuk greeted her as he was watching TV in the living room.
“Welcome back, lil’ sis.”
“Have you eaten?” Ra-Eun asked.
“Yeah. How was the graduation ceremony? You didn’t cry from the thought of having to part with your friends, did you?”
“Of course not.”
Rather, Ra-Eun was overjoyed that she was no longer a minor. However, it was only for a moment. She was swept by mixed feelings as she took off her uniform in her room.
.
‘I really won’t be wearing it ever again.’
She smiled bitterly as she stared at the high school uniform that she had worn for the past year and a half. The high school girl Kang Ra-Eun had been left in the past.
Ra-Eun hung her uniform in her wardrobe and slowly closed its doors. She had made a resolution when she swore to take her revenge on Kim Han-Gyo and Kim Chi-Yeol right when she first returned to the past.
‘I told myself I would never look back.’
Whatever fate that was waiting for her, she had to keep pressing forward without looking back, because she could start doubting herself if she ever hesitated. She had to put her beautiful and pleasant school memories away with her school uniform.
The second act of her life would begin now.
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