Retaliations with a Rebel

~Chapter 24~

“Today’s the big day!” My father bellowed proudly as he clamped down two meaty hands down on my shoulders. Oh god, his hands were heavy; I’d become crippled before I turn forty if he left them on my shoulders for too long. I glanced at my mom who was bawling here eyes out—the graduation hadn’t even started yet and she had already gone through a box of Kleenex. She’d wipe her runny nose and tears and stuff the dirty tissue into her purse… gross. Looking at my baby sister, who was dressed up as if a unicorn coughed up its sparkly blood all over her, made me smile. She shot me a sly grin, “When you go to college, I get all your stuff!”

I raised my brow at her. Hello, I wasn’t dying or anything, only moving away. Regardless of her little antics and annoying-little-sister habits, I was going to miss her ton. In about two week’s time I’d be sleeping in a new bed, in a new room, in a new country. Much to my mother’s protest, I’d be moving to Todai. I was surprised that I managed to get her to break and let me go, with Dad’s help of course. And probably mentioning that Haemi was going to move with me helped ease the tension too.

My mother’s telepathy caused me to look into her eyes. She let out a howl, “God, the grow up so quickly!”

            “You should probably help her,” I said to my dad as I felt the weight of his hands slowly crushing my posture. “And maybe buy a new box of tissues.”

            “Got it covered,” he pulled out a handkerchief from his right pocket and proceeded to go over to my mom. He made a face as Mom dramatically threw her arms around him and muttered something about her ruining his favourite shirt. Mom wasn’t always like this; I wondered if she’d react the same way when Minnie graduates.

“Thank god for waterproof mascara,” I said to myself. “I’m going to head over to see Hana if that’s okay with you guys. I guess I’ll see you after the ceremony?”

Dad gave a brisk nod as he tried to detach Mom from his side.

I walked past the buzzing groups of relatives crowded around their beloved grates. Black graduation caps poked out from among the sea of people. Making my way to the bubbly loud mouthed girl animatedly talking to Luhan, I chuckled—their relationship was so unbelievably bipolar: one minute they were going at each other like animals and Hana would be crying over a bucket of ice cream, the next minute… well, they’d be going at it like animals again, but the sex-driven hormonal kind.

I jumped at Hana and pulled her into a tight hug. “Can you believe it? We’re leaving this hell hole!” she squealed. I peeked around her shoulder to see Luhan rolling his eyes playfully.

“So, where are you planning to go after this, Luhan?” I asked. I didn’t really like Luhan much. He might be somewhat nice now, but it doesn’t change the fact that he was a little man-whore at one point. But, meh, if he makes Hana happy, the least I could do is attempt to make small talk and pretend to care, right?

He tucked his grad cap under his arm and tousled his messy blonde hair. “Moving away to China. Tsinghua University in Beijing, although I’m still kinda baffled as to how I got accepted,” he smiled solemnly at Hana. She let go of me and cuddled into Luhan’s other side. His arm dangled over her shoulder and pulled her into a snug little hug.