𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 {𝐔𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐣𝐢𝐦𝐚 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫}

Chapter 68: Graduation Glee

Heyyy, did y'all miss me while I was gone? The break was effective, but I was still sad to not hear from my favorite people... I can't wait to read all of your comments!
(✿˶˘ ³˘)~♡

*Your POV*

"And with that, we will conclude our closing ceremony. I wish all of you the best of luck in your promising futures. They begin now."

The principal stepped off of the podium on stage as a wave of flying caps soared over the erupting cheers. In every direction, classmates hugged each other, parents cried, and confetti descended to the pavement in colorful flurries. This was a priceless moment of which I'd been looking forward to since kindergarten.

The air around me carried the relief and conclusiveness of our final moments as high schoolers, but there was more to it than that. The foggy weight of my childhood and adolescence seemed to be packing up the last of its bags and leaving to a faraway place that I wouldn't be able to reach anymore. It was unexplainably painful, like a dull dagger to the heart. I knew I was growing up.

From my left, Ushijima faced and enveloped me in a long, meaningful embrace. I held him tightly, irrationally afraid that he would disappear as well. Against my underlying fear, he stayed put, breathing with me in our own silence while we drowned out the rowdiness of our grade.

Once he retracted his head, he began towing me toward the bleachers of the field where loved ones awaited the students.

"Come. Let's go see them."

A few rows up, my mother was weeping into a ball of crinkled tissues, incoherently sobbing. My uncle beamed with pride, watching his favorite pupils approach.

"There my rockstars are!" Ukai announced as we climbed the steps to meet their height.

Hugs were passed out. My mother, through violent tears, praised me for all of the great work I did to get to where I was. She expressed how unconditionally proud of me she was. It was a positive filter over the intense emptiness I was trying so hard to suppress.

"You're just- you're- oh! I love you so much!"

She cut herself off by wrapping her arms around me again. It wasn't even nearly the last time she would do so in the following hours.

Ukai ruffled my hair with watery eyes. I didn't comment on it, not because his masculinity was so fragile as to be threatened by an emotional reaction, but because I knew that if I did, I might risk ruining my own mascara.

"Ushijima."

The voice caught my attention. The recognition made my heart skip a beat. Behind us was the woman I'd been anxiously awaiting to meet again. My boyfriend's reaction wasn't much more pleasant. He turned to his mother who was standing solemnly, staring at him with her signature intensity.

"Mother, you told me you weren't coming."

"I changed my mind."

There was a moment of extremely uncomfortable silence amongst the group until he responded again.

"Why?"

She pursed her lips with her chin tilted slightly upward as if rising above us in superiority. The length of her deep purple coat draped like a cloak. It only made her appear more like a villain.

"Can't I visit my son's graduation ceremony without being questioned?"

"I thought that was expected until you decided not to go for a reason you didn't disclose. I'm not going to stick around here much longer. We're leaving for lunch. I'll be home later."

"Fine, we can talk then. I'll congratulate you when you're not running away from me."

She tightened the grip around her clutch bag and departed without another word, heels clicking on the way down. I shook the chill from my spine.

"What was that about?" I inquired.

His tone lost its tenseness, and he relaxed to answer.

"She's just like that. For all I know, everything could be fine. I guess I'll find out tonight..."

I reassured him of his security and reinstalled the festive mood. He was agreeable and pushed anything that could be bothering him to the side. This was our day, not hers.

Just as Ushijima had informed, the eight members, us managers and the coach all left the schoolgrounds to meet at a local barbeque restaurant. I realized just how many times I'd done something like this with them. It brought back recollections of earlier in the months.

Once we were all sitting at a table together, the smiles I'd somehow begun to miss already manifested. They were all so warm and familiar. In the times I wasn't speaking, I often tuned out of the conversation to just look at everyone as they were, desperately trying to develop a photographic memory so that I wouldn't forget.

In the coming of age movies I'd seen, this part was always especially difficult for me to place myself into. My fear of commitment had an odd effect on the concept of freedom. This uncharted era of life was mysterious. The thought of having to dive into smoke, knowing that it would be impossible to revert, was terrifying because I had no safety boundaries, nothing to call comfortable. That, in itself, was a commitment that I didn't want to make.

Included in the loss of my current lifestyle were my friends. I wasn't naive enough to think that we'd all stay in touch in the coming decades. Our jobs, families, and locations would all hinder our relationships. Gradually, we'd text and visit less frequently until one day, I'd look at my old contacts and see the last message I sent to the groupchat five years ago.

It was inevitable that we'd all drift apart, but that was okay because in twenty years, I'd be flipping through pages of a photo album, and my children would ask me who the boys wearing jerseys were. My husband and I would tell them stories of our youth and how wonderful it was to be a part of an irreplaceable team. He and I would go to bed that night thinking of what I was currently relishing in.

My gratitude for these wonderful people was the part of them that I would carry with me. It wasn't tangible. It may not have even been describable, but it was priceless nonetheless.

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