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"Graduating with an astounding 4.0 CGPA, an extensive list of achievements and extracurriculars alongside the impact he has made on our school, we would like to invite the valedictorian of Class of 2022 to give his speech—Lee Donghyuck!"
The hall erupted with applause as Donghyuck approached the podium; some of it was sincere, some was forced, some was even sarcastic and quite a few claps were accompanied by the loudest cheers you could ever hear. Donghyuck had a wide smile on his face, his posture perfect thanks to the past week of fixing it with Jaemin. When the hall went silent to allow Donghyuck to speak, he realized that he did feel quite nervous, which wasn't a common emotion that he could feel. Then again, he would be talking to almost 10,000 people, who wouldn't be nervous? Immediately, he made a mental calculation to find a certain graduate in the crowd.
Third column from the right. Fifth row from the front. Sixteenth chair from the left.
He was thankful that despite his nerves, he could still remember the location of Jiseol's seat that he spent an hour memorizing—she actually had no idea about this, he simply bribed one of the committee members to give him the namelist and seat numbers. Boy, was he lucky that her department was seated pretty close to the stage.
From the distance, her face was blurry but he knew she was smiling proudly. It was all the strength that he needed to speak up. Confidently and with a little touch of humor, Donghyuck spent the next five minutes addressing and congratulating the graduates, reminiscing on key events that happened throughout their four years and extending gratitude to the faculty members.
"My personal thanks firstly go out to my boys on the soccer team," Donghyuck said at the end of his speech. "It's been a good run."
Cheerful whoops followed, presumably from fellow members of the soccer team who were also graduating. He then thanked the student body committee and gave a bittersweet shoutout to Astral.
"To my mom and dad," Donghyuck wasn't sure where they were at first, but seeing two pairs of arms wave in the air almost brought tears to his eyes. "I wouldn't be here without you. And I'm so glad that you're here."
He tried to hide his sniffle with a grin.
"To my best, best friends on the planet. Huang Renjun, Lee Jeno, Na Jaemin," Donghyuck's voice trembled a little. It was fortunate that he couldn't see any of the three, otherwise he'd be a crying wreck.
"I'm not me without the three of you. I know that what we have will last beyond our college years and I know for sure that I'll be ding dong ditching Renjun's door 50 years from now. That's never going to change and I'm never letting you guys get rid of me."
Taking in a deep breath, Donghyuck moved to the most important part of his speech.
"Lastly, to my person, the greatest thing that has ever happened to me," Donghyuck looked right at her. He knew she'd hate the attention if he mentioned her name, yet it was as if the entire hall was only the two of them in their moment and nothing else mattered anyway.
