"So cold, so cold, so cold! {{(>_<)}}"
"Thanks for your hard work~"
After finishing the shoot, Marin shivered while saying goodbye to the editor lady, handing the brown plaid trench coat in her hand to Rin Ito. She then turned her back, rubbing her arms while lightly hopping on her tiptoes.
"..." Rin Ito draped the heavy coat over Marin's shoulders and lightly tapped her head. "Even if you're shivering from the cold, you absolutely insisted on having me come?"
"Hehe~" Marin playfully stuck out her tongue and pulled the trench coat tight.
Photos for fashion magazines aren't used right after being shot; normally, shoots take place at least a season in advance. The photos published in the magazine right now were shot in the summer, while the current photos were for the spring and summer seasons. The models were shivering from the cold, yet they remained incredibly professional during the shoot.
Rin Ito grasped Marin's freezing little hand. "I thought girls who could wear skirts in the winter wouldn't be afraid of the cold."
The nearby editor lady had a somewhat strange expression... Didn't Marin say he was Sajuna's boyfriend? Why was she making such an intimate gesture with him?
After chatting briefly with the editor lady, Marin smiled and walked away from the set, holding Rin Ito's hand on one side and Sajuna's on the other.
"What exactly did you call us out for?"
Sajuna crossed her arms and stared straight at Marin. She absolutely didn't believe Marin had invited them out just to let the editor lady see if she and Shinju were suitable to be models.
"Don't be so anxious, Juju-sama~" Marin took out her phone and dialed a number. "My work is finished. Are you guys still there? Still there? That's great, we'll head over right now~"
"Who is it?" Rin Ito asked curiously.
"Some friends I met at a comic convention. We agreed to have a gathering today. Come on, how about we go hang out together?"
"I..." Sajuna instinctively wanted to refuse, but before she could speak, Rin Ito gently rubbed her head, bringing her back to her senses.
She began her cosplay activities entirely on her own. Previously, if it weren't to save money on Orie's cosplay outfits, she wouldn't have even planned to join Marin.
But... sigh.
Seeing Shinju's slightly expectant expression from the side, Sajuna simply couldn't bring herself to refuse. Since she had finally managed to make Shinju cheerful... she might as well go along and play with her.
"Mmh... Let's go hang out then." Hearing her big sister agree, Shinju clenched her fists tightly, her face filled with excitement.
Marin had an expression of 'just according to plan'... If she had told Sajuna in advance, Sajuna definitely wouldn't have agreed to participate, but if she invited Shinju and Rin Ito out together, Sajuna would absolutely agree!
...
Marin excitedly led the three to a nearby KTV, having intentionally chosen a location near the set to prove she had planned this all along.
"Ta-da! It's Juju-sama~"
As soon as she walked in, Marin raised her hands dramatically, leaning sideways and pointing both hands at Sajuna in a highly exaggerated pose.
"Whoa, Juju-sama actually exists?"
"She's a super beautiful girl, just like in her photos~"
"She looks almost identical to her photos, barely any photoshopping at all!"
"So cute, so cute, so cute~"
The chattering voices almost overwhelmed Sajuna, causing her to instinctively take a step back.
Whenever Sajuna went out, she would specially dress up. Her exquisite doll-like face wore light makeup, and she wore a light purple plaid trench coat with a black bow headband over her shoulder-length pink hair.
Beneath the trench coat, her slender legs were encased in sheer black fishnet tights, and her delicate feet were slipped into black high-heeled ankle boots.
As for her younger sister, Shinju, she was dressed much more simply, wearing a dark blue printed long dress paired with light beige fleece sock covers, which looked a bit outdated compared to her sister.
"Let me introduce them to you. This is Miss Ryoka, a photographer I met at a convention, and Miyako and Akira, who are cosplayers just like me. Don't be too shocked when you see their cosplay photos~"
Marin introduced her friends one by one.
There was Ryoka, the short blonde-haired photographer with a gentle smile, and Miyako, whose flaxen braids draped over her shoulder in a highly dangerous hairstyle... Don't be fooled by her menacing hairdo that looked like a corrupted anime character; she was actually a male-crossplaying female cosplayer. In addition, there was Miss Akira, who had long black hair and was simply dressed in a long coat and jeans.
They were all friends Marin had met while cosplaying.
"As for this gentleman... he's Juju-sama's boyfriend~"
"""???""" The expressions of the three froze, and then they all wore the same look as the editor lady from earlier. They initially thought he was Marin's boyfriend.
Who would have thought he was actually Juju's boyfriend!?
Although Sajuna didn't even want to bother explaining anymore, she still muttered a line for the sake of Rin Ito's image:
"...I am older than Marin!"
Ryoka and the others let out exclamations of surprise. After eyeing Sajuna curiously for a moment, they shifted their gaze to Rin Ito. Ryoka, as a photographer, was especially curious.
"Is the boyfriend a cosplayer too? I don't think I've seen him on Marin's account."
"No, I'm not." Rin Ito waved his hand, but before he could continue speaking, Marin beat him to the punch.
"Ito-kun is a manga artist, you know! I've cosplayed characters from his manga. Do you guys remember? The time I acted as a booth babe."
"Ah! I remember now." Miyako pulled out her phone and scrolled through Marin's account, quickly finding the cosplay photos from her time as a booth babe. "It's this one, right? But this doesn't look like an all-ages work."
"That's right, I'm an adult manga artist." Rin Ito said without a hint of shame, acting as if it were a perfectly normal thing. "Speaking of which... Marin, you specifically brought us here today not just to introduce me to your friends, right?"
"Y-Yes, that's right!" Ryoka sat up straight, looking a bit embarrassed. "We were planning to do a group cosplay earlier, and the studio was already rented, but someone couldn't make it at the last minute... so I asked Marin for help."
"Mmh mmh, it's a group cosplay for 'The Coffin'. How about it? Want to participate?"
"!!!!" Shinju held her breath and then excitedly raised her hand high. "Participate! I want to participate!"
Unlike Shinju's excitement, Sajuna's expression completely froze.
'The Coffin' wasn't an anime or a manga, but a horror game where nuns living in a convent were killed one by one, and the player had to find out who the killer was.
"Little Mila, Little Aige, Little Sailo, Little Emma, Little Clei, and Little Sophia—six characters in total! With Miss Miyako and Miss Akira, plus me and Shinju, that makes four people, so we are still short three... How about it, Juju-sama? Want to join?"
"Big sister! Let's do it together!"
"I..." Sajuna's face looked a bit pale. Shinju indeed loved horror games, but Sajuna was terrified of them... Since it was a horror game, the rented studio would undoubtedly be packed with a terrifying atmosphere.
But... looking at Shinju's expectant gaze, Sajuna simply had no way to refuse, so she could only muster a smile that looked worse than crying.
"Then... I guess I'll participate too."