The Facility

Graduation

Jimin looked out at the sea of people in the audience of the school's auditorium.

One faint cough was audible to him.

He saw that the person who had coughed was Prodigy. Of course it was him. He had to smile though.

"You gonna start or what?" One of the graduating students from a different class asked.

He took in a deep breath and then began to speak. "I'd be . . . lying if I said that this came as a surprise."

A few people chuckled.

Prodigy had to shake his head. Jimin was not funny.

Tae laughed heartily at his side. He nudged him. "It's funny because-"

"No." Prodigy would not listen. He refused. He was also trying to spend less time with Taehyung ever since Jungkook had brought up their chemistry a few months ago. They were still friends but . . . Did ma girlfriend see this handsome man touching me? She know I'm bi and surrounded by fine men all day. He looked into the crowd and saw Amber sitting with his parents. She was so sweet to come see his graduation.

"Pay attention to Jimin." Jungkook hissed from behind him. He felt very special in his baby blue cap and gown. He was so proud of the ones who were graduating. The ones who were not were here to support. I am proud of them too. They still tried their hardest. But sometimes you fail and things go down in a dumpster fire.

Jesy sat next to him and Hoseok. Her parents were obviously here and Perrie sat somewhere with them. Who would have thought she would make it right?

Yoongi looked at her and they shared a smirk. They were finally getting out of here . . . The possibilities are endless.

Jimin looked closely at the teens he had been placed in a class with. Yes, he was valedictorian but he did not feel that accomplished because of it. This was his official last day at this school but he was not jumping for joy or rejoicing. He just felt . . . normal. It was strange considering that when he had first come here he had wanted nothing more than to just get out. Maybe he was even a little sad. I don't even really know what's supposed to come next. He had sent out applications to several top notch universities and had gotten into most of them. The rest just had not responded yet. This was great but . . . he kind of just felt neutral to everything. Was that good or bad?

"When I first came here . . . I was pretty lost as to how things would go. I mean," Jimin saw his parents smiling at him. "I was straight out of a top high school in Korea and I had never imagined myself as the type of person to ever step foot in a correctional facility."

Roc was very pumped for this speech . . . even though he could hear Prodigy yawning from here. That nigga just hating for no damn reason.

"I mean, I did everything right. I always studied, followed the rules, listened to my parents and yet . . . in a desperate attempt to make up for missing a night of studying and blanking out over an exam because of severe burnout, I ended up cheating . . . and then . . . shipped here."

Jimin remembered that day. It felt like such a long time ago but it was not. "I thought that I'd be thrown into a dungeon of some sort . . . a lion's den but what I found . . ."

Jin stood with Jade, Princeton and Namjoon at the back of the auditorium. They did not have tickets but they still came because they wanted to. Leigh-Anne was sitting with Perrie.

Princeton sucked on his teeth as Jimin continued beating his gums. "They picked the worst person to give a speech at this thing. Got people falling asleep."