Ming Jun was sitting on pins and needles.
He would occasionally glance at the moody girl with long black hair.
Then his eyes would meet her bloodshot ones and he would immediately turn away.
After a few agonizing minutes, he finally saw her relax.
Then, once he saw the tears flowing freely, he sighed in relief.
He was finally safe.
He was almost confident that no girl obsessed with romance would be able to resist this anime.
It was foolproof.
Even the male population would submit under its might.
After all, he was still depressed every April after watching it.
Sometimes, he would even sit alone and remember the scene just to let out a tear or two.
At this point, he should be a little resistant to it.
But once the anime ended, he was sniffing.
Shae Harris was rubbing her eyes vigorously.
As if she could rub the tears away, but they stubbornly clung to her eyes.
Yi Zheng was the same, but his body language was a bit more sad.
Mori Aoi was bawling her eyes out, and soon she started hiccuping.
Wei Zhi was surprisingly the only one calm.
He didn't look sad at all.
But he did look like he was very distressed.
Though that was to be expected when the girl beside him started choking.
That's right.
Mori Aoi sobbed so hard that her nose was blocked by her sniffing.
Her chest felt tight and she couldn't breathe.
She started coughing heavily.
But the tears never stopped and kept flowing down.
The sad atmosphere broke as the others rushed to comfort her.
No, how could they continue to be sad—
When a person was literally choking on their own tears.
No matter how sad they were, they could never compete with that.
So they decisively left the competition.
But when did it become a competition anyway??
Ming Jun and Shae Harris pushed the weird thoughts out of their heads and instead rubbed Mori Aoi's back.
Wei Zhi was speaking softly to her in order to distract her.
Their efforts were causing progress, but that progress was too little.
If this continued, she might actually be the first person to die of sadness.
Luckily, the situation resolved not long after.
The shadow cat appeared at this critical point.
It jumped on her lap and acted cute.
Mori Aoi instantly stopped crying and looked at it in amazement.
She ran a hand over its sleek, smooth body and let out a giggle.
The three froze and looked at her in shock.
No sister, is your face-changing so good?
Are you really that easy to coax, or is it because of the cat?
Honestly, I feel like I was disgusted just because I was a human.
"Um… are you okay?" Shae Harris asked hesitantly.
She was afraid that the girl stroking the cat would relapse.
And then who knows what might happen this time.
"Yeah, of course," Mori Aoi smiled.
Shae Harris rolled her eyes.
Fine, my ass.
Can you first clean the snot and tears on your face before smiling so happily?
And can you at least wait a second before looking back at the cat?
You didn't even maintain eye contact before focusing on that cat.
"Are you sure?" Ming Jun asked again.
He had also rolled his eyes after she replied to Shae Harris.
"Sorry, I went a bit overboard, but I'm fine," she said sheepishly.
Ming Jun rolled his eyes internally.
Can you be more confident and remove the "a bit"?
And instead use the proper words, which is extremely.
You went extremely overboard.
You almost died!
You were literally choking on your own sorrow!!
"That's good," Wei Zhi sighed in relief.
"Hehe," she chuckled.
"Hehe your head," Wei Zhi said, hitting her head to form a bump.
"Eh?" Mori Aoi was finally distracted from the cat.
She rubbed her head and looked at Wei Zhi in confusion.
Her eyes were practically writing the words—
Why did you hit me?
I didn't do anything.
Mori Aoi pouted and looked at him with teary eyes.
"You don't need to try this trick.
After all, it's hard to tell the difference between the former tears and the present ones." Wei Zhi rolled his eyes.
Mori Aoi immediately choked back the tears that were about to fall.
Then she didn't dare cry again because she was embarrassed.
Instead, she buried her head and covered it with both hands.
"If you feel sad then cry.
Why did you go so far as to be the first girl to die of sadness?
And from watching a show about a fictional character.
That person might not be real, but you are.
So can you use your head?" Wei Zhi said, applying a flick to her head with each sentence.
Mori Aoi didn't dare refute.
She only wailed softly and looked at the others for help.
Wei Zhi also turned back to the two and smiled.
Ming Jun and Shae Harris shivered and looked away.
"Why do I feel like these two are really scary," Shae Harris leaned in to whisper.
"Be more confident, remove the like," Ming Jun also whispered.
"But aren't they meant to be the nicest out of all of us?" Shae Harris asked.
"Haven't you heard the saying:
Never mess with the quiet ones or they will spit out your bones.
Because the reason they are so soft and quiet is because they turn into beasts if anyone dares to anger them."
Ming Jun looked at the two and said,
"Looks like that might be true." Shae Harris also looked at the two soft people.
On a normal day, these two are usually timid and soft.
But their full force, once unleashed, is the scariest.
"I'm sorry," Mori Aoi gave in.
Wei Zhi was dragging her cheeks wide and lecturing her.
He was muttering about how he would teach her a lesson.
So that she wouldn't even dare to do it in her dreams.
After pulling her cheeks as wide as possible, he released her.
Mori Aoi wanted to wail, but she held it back when he looked at her.
She could only pout and rub her cheeks.
"What?" Wei Zhi said casually as he turned to the two who were looking and whispering.
"Nothing," Shae Harris and Ming Jun responded at the same time.
"So what now?" Wei Zhi simply rolled his eyes and ignored their suspicious behavior.
He had heard all their sneaky comments, which were about him being a scary pervert.
"Since you guys have been beat by me, then naturally you have to do as I ask," Ming Jun cleared his throat and spoke.
"Since when did we agree to doing anything you say?" Shae Harris said with an eyebrow raised.
"Or you can just cluck like a chicken as you promised," Ming Jun replied with a smirk.
Shae Harris glared at him and huffed.
"Yeah, but that was between the two of you," Wei Zhi said with an eyebrow raised.
"You all didn't believe in anime, so you all lost," Ming Jun said proudly.
"Whatever, so what exactly do you want us to do?" Shae Harris said, waving a hand.
"It's actually really simple," Ming Jun said, rubbing his hands and smiling.
"Can you stop licking your lips first, I think sister Aoi is about to cry again," Shae Harris said in disgust.
Ming Jun naturally didn't believe it and looked at Mori Aoi.
And true to her words, Mori Aoi looked like she was about to cry.
But that could also be because she was rubbing her bruised forehead.
"I'm innocent okay, it's just a simple thing.
No harm will come to you," Ming Jun swore.
"Then what exactly is it?" Wei Zhi asked.
"Actually I don't have much interest in things except anime and manwha.
But I have never been able to go to a convention once in my life.
And of course, you have to cosplay at a convention.
So I wanted you guys to cosplay with me," Ming Jun said nervously.
"I thought you said that we would come to no harm," Shae Harris pursed her lips.
"How does wearing clothes cause harm?" Ming Jun retorted.
He thought she was clearly just trying to get out of it.
"No, it does cause great harm," Shae Harris said solemnly.
"Yeah, this will be more painful than getting injured," Wei Zhi also said seriously.
"And this damage is the kind that you can't see, but you can feel in your soul," Shae Harris looked so serious—
That Ming Jun also began to be nervous.
He thought these two were speaking nonsense, but that serious expression was too real.
It looked like they were about to face a super strong demon king.
Or they were about to go fight in a war.
"What is it?" Ming Jun couldn't resist looking left and right.
"It's called embarrassment," Shae Harris spoke in a whisper.
As if afraid something would eat them up right there and then.
"What?!" Ming Jun thought he had heard wrong.
"Cosplaying is definitely a very dangerous and damaging thing to do," Wei Zhi also looked around vigilantly.
"Inflicts silent damage to the soul," Shae Harris said, shaking her head.
Ming Jun looked at the two people spouting nonsense so seriously.
He had black lines on his face and he couldn't resist hitting them.
So the two let out a wow and now each had a bump on their head.
"Can you two please be serious," Ming Jun glared at them.
Mori Aoi smirked at Wei Zhi who was rubbing his bump.
But she was startled when he turned to look at her and caught her smirking.
She quickly covered her mouth and let out a hehe.
Wei Zhi rolled his eyes and also stretched out a hand to her head.
He anticipated that she would avoid it after what happened, but she just looked at him in confusion.
Wei Zhi sighed in his mind.
At least she didn't avoid him.
Coaxing her back from that would take too long.
Besides, he didn't want to because he was in the right.
Wei Zhi smiled and rubbed her head.
"Alright, we'll reluctantly agree," Shae Harris said with resistance clearly written on her face.
She looked so troubled and kept sighing repeatedly.
"Alright then, we'll cosplay tomorrow. I know the best place to find costumes," Ming Jun patted his chest.
"What about today?" Mori Aoi asked in a hoarse voice.
"We just watched one anime, there are different kinds of anime and I have to show you at least one of each.
After all, you have to understand the character to pull off the cosplay," Ming Jun said.
They all went back to their seats as they had been standing all this time.
"Alright, I'll play one I think you would like, Shae Harris," Ming Jun smirked.
"Don't think I won't beat you up," Shae Harris narrowed her eyes.
She didn't trust Ming Jun after what he did earlier.
The anime was actually an action anime about a teenager defeating people in underground death matches.
"I'll reluctantly admit defeat," Shae Harris chuckled after watching the whole thing.
"Next is Wei Zhi," Ming Jun skillfully changed the anime.
This time it was about a normal high school student winning a dangerous death game between people.
The high school student was the weakest, but used his intelligence to outsmart them all.
"Well, I also admit defeat," Wei Zhi said, rubbing his neck.
"Then the next one is a detective show," Ming Jun pressed play.
It was exactly as he described— a rookie detective with a sloppy personality who always solves the crimes said to be unsolvable.
"It was quite good," Yi Zheng said.
"Next I'm going to watch the most popular anime:
My girlfriend turned into a 3-year-old and we gave birth to twins after falling in love."
"Wait!" The three nodded and stopped Ming Jun immediately.
Each of them had a weird expression as they looked at the excited Ming Jun.
"First of all, why did she turn 3? It doesn't sound like a magic type of world," Shae Harris asked.
"Second of all, why did he just fall in love with her after she turned 3?" Mori Aoi asked with a weird face.
"Lastly, how on earth did they have twins?!" Wei Zhi asked.
"Well, you get used to the names after a while," Ming Jun shrugged.
"No, shouldn't you guys be the ones to change the names?!" The three echoed in astonishment.
"There are a lot like these and they always turn out to be good.
Honestly, sometimes the name of the anime can be very clear and sometimes it can be misleading," Ming Jun explained patiently.
"The most important thing is why on earth they actually named it that!
Which brain process could ever lead someone to name anything that!!" The three echoed back.
"You guys worry too much," Ming Jun shrugged and pressed play.
The others wanted to refute.
They aren't worrying too much okay.
It's obvious that your mental direction is really too strange.
They reluctantly stopped talking and looked at the screen in apprehension.
But the show, to them, was so-so.
They didn't comment because thinking about it would make them annoyed.
So after Yi Zheng declared that it was time to leave—
They hurried away as if afraid that Ming Jun would play another one.
Ming Jun, on the other hand, was satisfied throughout and happily went back.