Chapter 21

Somewhere in July

"Honey, I'm home!" Miracle shouted as opened the door. "And I brought three male strippers."

Roy put the oven mitts on the kitchen counter and went out of the kitchen. "Hey, guys."

Parker sniffed the air. "Something smells really good."

"I'm making a chocolate cake right now. But I'm not finished yet." Roy paused. "Skylar is in the living room with Carla. I don't know what they're doing." Ashton put the slippers on and went to the living room. In there, he saw Carla braiding Skylar's short hair. Carla turned her head to the sound of Ashton's footsteps.

"Hey, Ashton! How are you?" Carla asked.

"I'm good." Ashton looked at Skylar who was grimacing. Ashton's mouth curved into a smile. "Hi Cherry."

Skylar raised his head and his mouth twitched when he saw him. "Hi, Ace." Parker, Miracle, and Jumin walked into the room. Roy followed them afterward.

"Hey Carla," they said in sync.

Carla chuckled. "Hello. Are you picking Skylar up?"

Miracle nodded. "Yes, we're going to the city today." 

Skylar stood up. "I'll be going then mom," Skylar said.

"But I haven't finished it completely." 

Roy wrapped his arm around Carla's shoulder. "He can't keep them waiting, can he?" Roy asked.

Carla sighed. "Fine then," she grumbled. "Goodbye."

"Bye." They went out of the house and Ashton unlocked his car.

"What are we doing today?" Skylar asked as he shut the door of the passenger side.

Ashton shrugged. "Miracle called me in the morning and forced me to pick her, Jumin and Parker from her place," he replied and started the car.

"Did you forget what tomorrow is?" Miracle shook her head as she moved to the middle seat. Jumin and Parker closed the doors and Ashton pulled out of the driveway.

"Saturday?" Skylar guessed with doubt. 

Miracle looked at Parker and they both rolled their eyes. "This fool bruh," Miracle muttered. "The clothes are finished and we're on our way to a fitting."

Skylar glanced at them in the back. "I don't remember signing up for this shit."

"Me neither," Ashton mumbled. 

Miracle motioned Parker to come closer. "They've totally forgotten about it," Miracle whispered to him.

"Should we tell them?" Miracle rubbed her chin. She shook her head. The rest of the car ride was silent. 

Ashton parked his car at a shady looking store. "Are you sure that this is the place?" Ashton asked as he raised his brow at the store.

"Yes." Miracle leaned onto Jumin and opened the door. "Hurry up! And let Min take over!"

Jumin sighed and closed his eyes. In a few seconds, he opened them again. He gave her a thumbs up and Miracle handed him his mouth cap. The others followed. After everyone was out of the car, Ashton locked it and they walked into the store.

"Linda! We're here!" 

They saw a woman in her late twenties walking out of a room. "Hi! You two are Skylar and Ashton, right?" She asked with a smile. They both nodded. "I'm Linda. the one that made your cosplay clothes."

Skylar's eyes widened and turned his head to Ashton. "I totally forgot about it!"

"I remembered telling you yesterday that we have to go to that event sometime in July." Ashton thought. "Or did I?" Skylar shrugged.

Miracle cleared her throat. "We're having a fitting today. So c'mon." Miracle pushed them deeper into the store as Parker and Jumin followed them. 

Linda gave them both a pile of clothes. She went back to a table where she had more and gave the other piles to Parker, Jumin, and Miracle. "The changing rooms are that way." Linda pointed at the direction of a white door. "They're separated by gender." They went to the door and Miracle abandoned the group to go to the left side.

20 minutes later

"Are you guys done?" Miracle asked after she knocked on the door. "Linda is waiting for us." 

Parker was the first one to come out and had a huge grin plastered on his face. "Now THIS is better than a Naruto cosplay," Parker said as he did a 360 for Miracle. "I'm glad that you came up with this idea." Jumin walked out of the changing room and Ashton and Skylar followed him. They went back to Linda.

Linda looked at Ashton and Skylar. She turned to Miracle. When their eyes met, their faces became serious and they nodded once at each other. "This was a good idea. How do you all like the outfits?"

"This is definitely something that I'd wear in real life, to be honest," Ashton responded. "You did a great job of making them."

"Thank you."

"I feel the same way," Skylar said and looked at the detail of the jacket. Jumin and Parker nodded. Linda grabbed her notebook.

"Miracle, you need to tell me if this is right. You're supposed to be Canary from Hunter X Hunter, Parker's Joseph from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Ashton and Skylar are Otabek and Yuri from Yuri On Ice and Jumin is Jyugo from Nanbaka, correct?"

"Yes," Miracle replied.

Linda closed her book. "Okay then. But before you go." She turned to Ashton and Skylar. "Can I take a picture of you two?"

"Huh?"

Miracle grabbed her phone as a creepy smile spread on her lips. "Can I take some pictures too?"

The next day

"We haven't even entered this stupid place and I hate it already," Skylar grumbled. "I just want to go home."

"Back to the place where your mom awaits you?" Skylar pressed his lips together and Miracle scoffed. "Exactly. So shut up."

"I'm not doing this next year," he mumbled as he avoided eye contact with the people staring at them. Ashton glanced at the crowd and wrapped his arm around Skylar. The crowd gasped and they heard many murmurs.

"What's up with them?" Ashton asked after they scanned their tickets by security. Skylar shrugged and looked up at him.

"Did you two forget as who you are dressed?" Parker questioned. "You're dressed as bait for fujoshi's." Both their eyes were huge after they heard that and they turned to Miracle.

"Care to explain something?"

She held her hands up. "It's not like I forgot to tell you. Remember in Italy? I said something about my ship coming to life." She turned to Jumin. "I did, right?" Jumin nodded in response. "See?"

"It's no use, Cherry. Let's try to enjoy this."

"But you don't even watch anime," Skylar argued. "How can you enjoy this then?"

"Miracle said that they actually have good books here to read. And she said that there's a library. So if you want, we can spend some time there," Ashton suggested.

"Some of them are light novels. The other 'books' are manga," Miracle chimed in.

"I'd rather do that." He looked at Miracle and Jumin. "Can you keep Parker in check for me?"

"C'mon Sky. He'll be fine," Ashton assured as he glanced at Parker who was admiring the other cosplays. "The worst thing that could happen is that Kyung joins them."

"You heard him," Miracle said and shooed them away. "We'll keep an eye on him, mom." Skylar rolled his eyes and went to find the library with Ashton. "There's a very high chance that people will ask you to take a picture! Most of them would be girls!" Ashton gave her a thumbs up. Some women heard Miracle's shouting and Ashton's thumbs up and they saw their chance. A small crowd formed around them and Skylar glared at Miracle from afar. She smiled sheepishly.

Jumin sighed loudly. "I'm so sick and tired of this already."

Miracle rolled her eyes. "No one asked you to be here Kyung," she muttered. "Give Min control."

"Meh, don't wanna."

"Stop complaining then."

"No." Miracle grabbed Jumin's shirt and pulled him to her as she held her fist up.

"Shut the fuck up," Miracle hissed.

"I'm sooooo fucking scared," Jumin whispered sarcastically with a smug smirk. "You can't do shit here. Do you want to get kicked out?" Miracle's glared at him and let his shirt out of her grasp. "Now that's better. Hey Parker! What are we doing first?"

Parker turned his attention to them. "Walk around, I guess."

"Parker! Look what I found," Jumin yelled. Parker looked at him and he gasped when he saw Jumin pointing at posters. 

Parker's eyes darkened out as he grabbed his wallet. "I need to spend money NOW!" 

Jumin grabbed his hand before he could reach his wallet. "Woah there big guy! Let's walk around before you begin to buy things. This place is huge and there are selling many things. Maybe you'll find something else that you'd like," Jumin suggested.

"That is a better idea than what I had planned," Parker muttered in defeat.

Miracle chuckled. "Now that's a rare sight. Kyung who isn't swearing in almost every sentence."

Jumin's face flushed red out of embarrassment and let go of Parker's hand. "Shut your mouth bitch." Miracle and Parker we're laughing as Jumin took his bandana off and covered his face with it. "Can we continue so I can go home?"

Miracle sighed. "Fine. What did Min want to buy anyway?"

Jumin grabbed a note out of his back pocket and squinted his eyes to read it. "The latest volume of Demon Slayer, One Piece and Hunter X Hunter, some strawberry flavored pocky and something called a 'bento box'? What the actual fuck is that?"

"We know what he means," Miracle responded. "Should we find those things first?"

"If it means that we can go home faster, then hell yeah!"

They walked around for almost 30 minutes and they were stopped many times by random people who wanted to take pictures with them. Mostly Parker and Jumin. They sat down at a table with food in front of them.

"This is the only good thing that came out of this shitty convention!" Jumin grinned. "Takoyaki! Finally, some good fucking food!" He crammed two of those at the same time in his mouth and chewed it vigorously. "Japan is amazing! We're going, Miracle! And not only for the yakuza."

"Are you going to Japan without me?" Parker asked as he looked up from his noodles.

"We were planning to tell the rest that we wanted to go when school ends," Miracle explained after she finished chewing her food. "Kyung only wanted to go to see the yakuza."

"I've seen the Italian mafia, but now I want to see the fucking yakuza."

"He wanted to see the Russian mafia too, but he said that they're racist," Miracle added.

"Very racist! And don't forget homophobic too!" A guy tapped Parker's shoulder. 

Parker turned around with his mouth full of noodles. "Mhm?" Parker hummed. Parker chewed the rest and swallowed it. "Sorry about that. Yes?"

"Can I take a picture with you?" He asked.

"Of course man," Parker smiled and he stood up. As more people walked up to Parker, Miracle and Jumin were silently eating.

"Can I get some of your ramen?" Jumin asked.

Miracle hid her food with her hand as she narrowed her eyes. "Only if I can get a piece of your takoyaki." Jumin slid his plate to Miracle. Miracle glanced at his plate of food and then at Jumin. She sat back up straight and slid it to him.

"Can I finish this? There isn't much left."

"Only if I can finish yours."

"Deal." Jumin watched Parker happily taking pictures with the people around him. "Don't you think that Parker could have been one of those cliché quarterbacks if he wasn't a damn nerd? Cause he has the height and the looks for that. The talent? Hell to the no."

"How do you come up with those weird ass topics?" Miracle questioned. "But he'd definitely be one." She paused. "Wait, does that mean that you find him attractive?"

"He's not that bad," Jumin muttered.

Miracle gasped. "Does that mean that you like him?"

"I don't fucking like him!" Jumin yelled. 

Parker glanced at Jumin and saw him cursing Miracle out as she was dying of laughter. He turned back to the crowd. "I'm sorry, but I have to go back to my friends," Parker apologized.

"Aw." 

He left them after one last wave and went back to them. "Can you two stop? Skylar will get mad if he sees us like that!" Parker hissed.

"Can someone explain to me what the hell is going on here?" Skylar asked as he crossed his arms. Parker, Miracle and Jumin stared at him with fear in their eyes.

"Aw shit."