Meeting you | LisRene AU [BOOK 1]

20

"Doesn't it feel kind of weird that Irene is graduating before all of us?" Seulgi asked, looking around at the group.

Wendy rolled her eyes. "It's a completely different level degree, Seulgi, chill out."

"Well, I'm excited about our graduation next year," Seulgi stated, and Junmyeon scoffed.

"What about my graduation at the end of this year? No one's excited for me?"

Lisa smirked. Irene's friends, who were all quickly becoming her friends as well, never failed to amuse her. "Irene and I are excited about your graduation," she offered up, flashing him a bright smile as he grinned at her.

"Thank you, Lisa."

Kai rolled his eyes. "Lisa's just still in the phase where she's trying to make sure that we like her, she doesn't mean it."

"Are you kidding? I'm starting to like Lisa more than I like Irene," Wendy said, and Lisa laughed, shaking her head. "Anyway, Suho, of course, we're excited about your graduation. Just not as excited for our own graduation."

"Mine and Seulgi's hardly count," Sehun said, shaking his head, "we both wanna go on after our bachelor's."

"It's still a degree," Jackson rebutted with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, and I'm probably going to go for my master's, too. I should be able to get it in less than two years, too, because I've gotten so many extra hours and I'm going to pull what everyone else seems to do here and take some summer courses to jump ahead," Wendy explained, smiling proudly. "I've got my life planned out guys. Be jealous."

"So do all of us," Junmyeon reminded her. "You're not that special, Wendy."

"Um, as my brother, you're not allowed to say shit like that."

"Guys, shut up," Seulgi chided suddenly, "the ceremony is about to start."

The lights were dimming in the campus auditorium, and all of them set their gazes on the stage, where the headmaster was walking out with a smile on her face. Lisa felt herself zone out a bit as the woman spoke, and her thoughts began to swim. For some reason, it felt weird sitting at a college graduation when she had yet to experience even her own high school graduation. She was incredibly excited for Irene, however, and as much as her girlfriend insisted that she hardly cared about getting her associate's degree, Lisa knew that she was excited as well.

However, Lisa was slightly bummed that Irene had to sit among all the graduates. It was expected, of course, and understandable, but Lisa wished that she could be sitting next to her to witness just how excited she was.

It seemed that there were just over a hundred people at the ceremony getting their associate's degree in something or another, and when the name-calling finally began, Lisa sat up straighter in her seat expectantly.

As the headmaster read out people's names with last names at the start of the alphabet, it occurred to Lisa that Irene was lucky to have a B last name. Lisa would have to wait until nearly the very end of her graduation ceremony before getting called. She had a feeling that that would just build up the suspense and possibly just make her anxious, but she was sure that she'd be just as excited by the end of it anyway.

Right now, though, was Irene's moment, and when the headmaster finally called out, "Irene Bae!", all of the people sitting next to Lisa cheered loudly, and she did so along with them. Irene walked onto the stage to receive her certificate, shook a few people's hands, and then was off the stage again.

"Aw, they grow up so fast," Wendy cooed playfully, and the rest of them laughed lightly.

The ceremony didn't take too much longer, and when they were all allowed to leave, Lisa was pulling along with the rest of Irene's friends to find the brunette. When they did, they all grabbed her in a huge group hug. "Fuck, you guys, it's just an associate's degree, I don't deserve this much praise," Irene gasped from the center of the hug.