"I'm going to change now," Mori Aoi was the first to turn away.
She was all too aware of the male beside her and how the breeze felt on her exposed leg.
"Hold on, we still have another one," Ming Jun pressed a hand to her shoulder.
Then he released her once he saw her feet retract.
Ming Jun led them to a more conservative group.
This time, the characters were all dressed in black button-up pleated uniforms and Haori jackets with unique patterns.
"Mori Aoi will be the little sister," Ming Jun said, tossing her a pink kimono and a tiny bamboo shoot.
Mori Aoi pursed her lips and looked at the image of the cute girl with black hair and pink eyes, with a bamboo shoot in her mouth.
"You'll be the sunshine in pink."
Ming Jun tossed Shae Harris a uniform, then a Haori with heart patterns on it and a pink wig.
"This guy is perfect for you, bro," Ming Jun chuckled as he passed Wei Zhi another set of uniforms—a Haori, a blonde wig, and a sword.
"What did you mean by that, and why does he look so scared in the picture?" Wei Zhi squinted at Ming Jun.
He felt that the fatty was insulting him, but since he hadn't watched anime, he didn't understand the insult.
"Of course, that's because he's a coward just like you. But different from you is that he gets really strong in his sleep," Ming Jun said, patting his shoulder.
Wei Zhi rolled his eyes and didn't refute.
"And who would you be?" Shae Harris asked.
"Of course, I'm the guy who wears bandages on his mouth and has a snake."
Ming Jun took the uniform and Haori, then went to the dressing room in excitement.
Shae Harris dragged Mori Aoi, who was waving Wei Zhi goodbye.
Wei Zhi also walked away after the two girls left his sight.
He stood in the dressing room beside the one used by Ming Jun.
After they were both done, they silently went back to wait for the girls.
"Wanna know a secret?" Ming Jun suddenly asked.
"What is it?" Wei Zhi asked casually, his eyes still focused on the girls' dressing room that was closed.
"Actually, the blonde guy who was a coward was only bold once in his life," Ming Jun pursed his lips.
"When was it?" Wei Zhi asked curiously as his eyes turned to the boy beside him.
"When he showed, with his actions, how much he liked the little sister of the main character," Ming Jun smiled smugly.
Wei Zhi was confused at first, but then it clicked—his face turned red as he blushed heavily.
"You did this on purpose," Wei Zhi glared at him.
"I did, and so what?" Ming Jun snorted.
Wei Zhi opened his mouth and couldn't speak, so he just shut up and turned away.
"So, you want to know something else?" Ming Jun asked casually.
"Nope," Wei Zhi said concisely.
"Actually, this person also likes the girl with pink hair. It's odd. Until now, I was always a fan of the main character. But suddenly I didn't want to be Tanjiro. I wanted to be the guy who liked the girl with pink hair. Funny, right?" Ming Jun said calmly.
Wei Zhi looked at him, and Ming Jun similarly looked back. Then the two of them turned away with red faces.
"What are you idiots doing?" Shae Harris appeared at that point.
She gave off the same vibrant energy as the original character.
Mori Aoi was wide-eyed, looking at the two boys curiously. She didn't speak because of the bamboo shoot in her mouth, so she just hummed.
Ming Jun and Wei Zhi glanced at each other from the corners of their eyes, then smiled and looked away.
"None of your business," Wei Zhi retorted.
"If you had come out earlier, then you would have known by now," Ming Jun also snorted.
Shae Harris rolled her eyes at them and pinched Mori Aoi beside her.
"Well, you're really cute compared to these jerks~" she smiled.
Mori Aoi blushed and tilted her head.
"Oh? I thought you said this was stupid," Ming Jun raised an eyebrow.
"Look, it's time to take a picture," Shae Harris chuckled awkwardly and handed the phone she received to Yi Zheng.
Yi Zheng rolled his eyes and took another picture.
The next anime was about soul reapers.
Ming Jun was the guy with red hair.
Shae Harris was the short girl with short black hair and a flat chest.
Shae Harris was very particular about the chest and made sure everyone knew she was proud of her figure.
Wei Zhi was the main character with orange hair, and Mori Aoi was the girl with orange hair.
Ming Jun once again revealed to Wei Zhi, when they were alone, how the four of them formed a double CP who were also close friends.
So, each time, the two boys' eyes could not help but glance at the oblivious females while taking a picture.
The third set was about a world of wizards and dragons.
Ming Jun had a blue wig.
Shae Harris was the female swordsman with red hair.
Wei Zhi wore an open vest, baggy pants, and black sandals—most importantly, the pink spiky wig.
Mori Aoi was the character with blonde hair. She wore a blue top, black gloves, a light brown skirt, and black leggings—plus the signature key on her tiny purse belt.
The last group cosplay was easy.
Ming Jun wore an orange taekwondo uniform with a black spiky wig.
Wei Zhi wore a blue tight jumpsuit with a white armor vest and white boots, also a spiky black wig on his head.
Shae Harris dressed as the woman with black hair and a dress.
Mori Aoi was wearing a short blue wig and a normal outfit.
"So, now what?" Shae Harris asked Ming Jun after taking off the previous costume.
"Well, you guys can pick any random outfit, and we can meet up at the door before we head to the convention," Ming Jun said.
Shae Harris gave a thumbs up and took Mori Aoi by the elbow to explore.
Wei Zhi nodded at Ming Jun and went his own way.
They went around the store and brushed through each section.
For Shae Harris, she was just looking for the coolest-looking female character.
Mori Aoi looked at the outfits with shiny eyes and found her gaze drawn to the prettiest ones who wore dresses.
Ming Jun looked at all the characters and wanted to try them all.
Wei Zhi looked at them and felt that it was unreasonable for these anime male characters to wear such odd outfits.
Why can't they ever just wear normal clothes?
Well, I guess fighting monsters doesn't feel so good in sweatpants and a hoodie.
Sigh, but still...
After passing through the whole store from top to bottom, they finally decided on what to wear.
Ming Jun felt that the person who most represented him was his fellow compatriot—the Korean man who had a sick mother, an absent father, and a little sister.
Most importantly, the world scorned him as F-rank trash until he got the system.
Thinking about the system again made Ming Jun feel complex.
He could still remember how desperate he was for the miracle of a system in the beginning, but he hadn't received a reply.
Maybe the system also thought trash like him was irredeemable.
Then he might never become like his compatriot in his lifetime without it.
With complex eyes, Ming Jun took out the white shirt, black pants, and dark blue long coat. Then he also took out the black wig and signature dark purple twin daggers.
Wei Zhi, on the other hand, went for the more formal choice.
He saw some characters who wore normal clothes, but after seeing a blushing loli beside said character, Wei Zhi gave up.
Seriously, the aesthetics of the anime community seriously need to be rehabilitated.
Why can't there ever be a normally dressed person without a harem or a loli?
Why, oh why, can't there just be an anime about a regular person going to work?
With a sigh, Wei Zhi ultimately chose a suit.
The section was special—it had donghua on top and was basically Chinese animation or anime.
A single male character had various costumes and different names for each, yet was still said to be the same person.
Wei Zhi didn't bother to understand the reason or question it.
After all, compared to a harem of underage girls or a loli, this seemed relatively normal.
Wei Zhi looked at each name for the same character and stopped at one.
"The Joker."
The compatriot was now in clown makeup with an exaggerated smile painted on. He wore an old-fashioned suit and a top hat with flowers extended forward to a man and a younger girl.
That was the only image that had other people.
Wei Zhi quite liked the complexity and emotion behind such a smile, so he took the suit and a thin skin mask with the clown face painted on.
The hair on his forehead parted slightly, and the eyes that were always hidden beneath flickered.
He stared at such a smile for a while before the breeze blew, and those eyes were hidden once again.
But the lips of Wei Zhi twitched as he walked away, as if they were going to break into a smile at any minute.
Shae Harris, unfortunately, couldn't find any cool female who didn't have a big chest—or wasn't a flat-chested loli.
So she waved her fist internally at those stinky animators and took a step back.
She tried again and found that flat-chested females were always hanging onto a male or were part of a harem.
So she could only go back to wearing the black kimono of a soul reaper.
But this time, she didn't wear the wig.
If there's no flat-chested female anime character—who is also strong, by the way—then she will be the first.
From now on, the anime community will have Shae Harris as the flat-chested queen of super-strong women.
"Have you found it?" Mori Aoi tugged on Shae Harris, who was standing in a daze beside her.
Shae Harris snapped out of it and shook the black kimono in front of her eyes.
"So what about you?" Shae Harris asked.
"Ah—I was thinking a normal school uniform," Mori Aoi said sheepishly.
"Why though?" Shae Harris asked.
"It's just because all the romance characters I've seen are high school students," Mori Aoi pointed to one.
Shae Harris walked forward and examined all the images with one girl and a boy blushing, realizing Mori Aoi was right.
All romance animes were either princess or high school students—except for one.
"I've got the perfect one for you," Shae Harris said, dragging her over to a spot.
This time, the female wasn't wearing a school uniform.
She was older than the normal age—a female with long black hair who looked like an adult.
She wore bunny ears and a black bunny girl suit with a bow tie.
Her hands had gloves shaped like bunny paws, and on her feet were black flat shoes.
Mori Aoi blushed as soon as she saw it.
"Yes, looking at your timid appearance perfectly suits you," Shae Harris looked at her, then at the outfit.
"And you surprisingly have a moderate chest size," Shae Harris winked at her.
"Shae Harris!" Mori Aoi gasped, covering her face.
"I'm sure Wei Zhi would go crazy for you—especially seeing as how it hugs the body," Shae Harris leaned in to whisper.
"That... that... that..." Mori Aoi completely broke down and stuttered.
She was flushed, her hands over her face, and her whole body swaying.
Shae Harris looked at her cute appearance and pinched her cheek.
"Well, off you go." Then she removed the outfit and dragged Mori Aoi to the dressing room.
And that was how they ended up looking at each other's outfits in surprise.
Ming Jun looked at the black kimono and snickered.
Shae Harris looked him up and down, then snorted.
"I've got to say, it really suits you," she teased, poking at his side.
"Hey, get off," Ming Jun swatted her hand away while blushing.
"Well, I guess we're two people who ended up not finding a costume just for us," Shae Harris sighed and slung an arm over his shoulder.
"Speak for yourself. I think that kimono does suit you," Ming Jun said, rolling his eyes.
"That's just because the character also didn't have a chest," Shae Harris released the hand over his shoulder, then used it to pat her flat chest.
"Well, Rukia was a pretty cool and loved character," Ming Jun comforted.
"Yeah, and Ming Jun is also a pretty cool fatty," Shae Harris grinned and slung her hand over his shoulder once again.
Ming Jun grinned widely, and the tips of his ears were red.
Shae Harris, though, wasn't looking at him but at the other two.
Mori Aoi was trembling with shyness, her eyes darting everywhere else.
Since she came, the boy stood in front of her, looking at her in a daze.
She was too shy to make the first move.
"I... like your suit," she mustered up the courage to speak, but it came out softly and in a murmur.
Mori Aoi pinched her fingers together and looked at the ground in embarrassment.
I can't believe I ended up murmuring it.
"Well, aren't you going to say something?" Shae Harris slammed a hand on Wei Zhi's back.
Wei Zhi stumbled and seemed to break out of his daze.
"You look... cute," he breathed out the last word slowly, like he wasn't sure at first.
And truly, it was a surprise to Wei Zhi.
He pressed a hand to his chest and felt the heart that was beating frantically.
He gave Mori Aoi a big smile.
"The rabbit suits you perfectly. It's as adorable and as cute as you are," he said without blushing.
He really meant every word he spoke, and a fleeting memory of a snow-white rabbit with red eyes appeared as a haze in his mind.
But he instinctively knew that the rabbit in that haze was very cute, and all this time, the way Mori Aoi behaved reminded him of said rabbit.
Shae Harris whistled and snickered.
"Quite bold, aren't we?" she wriggled her eyebrows at Wei Zhi.
Wei Zhi flushed and stuttered, looking away from Mori Aoi.
"Let's just go to the convention," Wei Zhi glared at Shae Harris.
"Great change of discussion... alright, let's go," Ming Jun was smug at first, but when Wei Zhi glared at him, he changed his mind.
Then he led them out.
Mori Aoi followed behind Wei Zhi, then leaned in to whisper to him,
"I like your suit," she said, smiling softly as he turned back.
"I like your bunny outfit," Wei Zhi smiled.
His hand reached for her head.
Mori Aoi was used to it and raised her head for him to ruffle—
But instead, Wei Zhi faced her fully and flicked her rabbit ears, then tugged lightly at the bow tie on her neck.
The smile on his face was casual, but the reaction Mori Aoi had was anything but casual.
She stumbled, then straightened herself before she fell.
Wei Zhi retracted his hand and gave a teasing smile.
He turned back just in time to miss the dark blush on the girl's face.
And she was thinking only one thing—what was that??