Chapter 3: A Certain Cosplayer

"So, then what happened?"

Junie ducked her head, pressing her cheek against the smooth table.

She and her younger cousin Callie were in the local arcade and had decided to grab food at the snack bar. The arcade was the only place that Junie and Callie both enjoyed that wasn't a restaurant. Callie didn't even play video games like Junie did, but Junie's parents used to drop the girls off at the arcade when they were young. Callie liked to waste all her money trying to win a stuffed animal from the claw machines, but Junie was usually able to convince her to play one of the racing games, or air hockey if she prodded the younger girl enough.

Junie peeked up to see that her cousin was staring at her intently. Well, as intently as a short girl with a high ponytail and a bright pink crop top could.

Callie was a cute girl, with a button nose and long dark hair down to her thighs. Junie was always envious of the nineteen-year-old's petite and feminine looks. From a distance, the smaller girl probably looked shy and unassuming. Junie knew better though having basically spent her whole life joined at the hip with the girl.

"Well?" Callie pressed.

"Nothing happened," Junie said, trying not to sound miserable about it.

"Did he leave with his fangirls?" Callie popped a tater tot into her mouth but kept her deep brown eyes locked on Junie's. Junie knew that look. It was far too calculating.

"I don't know," Junie admitted. She pressed her nose hard into the table, causing tears to fill her eyes. "I ran away."

She expected Callie to start yelling or at least start delivering a string of one of her infamous lectures. Junie swore that Callie was trained by her mother, or maybe the ear-shattering talent just ran in their family.

Instead of chewing Junie out, Callie just nodded.

"What?" Junie demanded. She had been more than mentally prepared for a good verbal

beating, not a frighteningly out-of-character display from her younger cousin.

"Sorry," Callie said, tossing another tater tot into her mouth before answering. "I'm just not at all surprised that you ran away."

Annoyance flared up within Junie, only to immediately simmer down when she understood Callie's reaction.

Callie nodded again as if reacting to Junie's internal admission. "You realize that you have to redeem yourself though, right?"

Junie grimaced, breaking eye contact with the girl across from her. "I don't have to do anything, Cal."

Callie shrugged. "I'm just saying that if this guy is as different as you say, you can't just let him get away."

"I barely spoke to him," Junie muttered as patiently as she could. "He probably already forgot all about me anyway."

Callie made an unconvinced humming sound in the back of her throat. "I don't think so," she said. "Based on what you've told me, it sounds like you two really hit it off in the short amount of time you got to talk."

Junie just shrugged, turning her face away. Her cheeks heated up as she thought about the way Kyzen looked at her. Her head shot up when Callie suddenly pulled her phone out of her purse and began swiping urgently.

"What are you doing?" Junie asked suspiciously. Though she feared she already knew the answer.

Callie gave her a mischievous look from across the table, pushing her long hair off her shoulder. "Just looking at the reason why my cousin is so high-strung today."

"We can't stalk him," Junie said, shaking her head quickly. "I didn't even get his real name."

"You think he's some big-shot cosplayer, right?" Callie asked patiently, continuing to swipe her quick little thumbs across her phone screen. "He probably doesn't even use his real name, right?"

Junie just stared at Callie, her mouth hanging open slightly. Callie didn't know a thing about cosplayers and somehow, she had remembered that minor detail? Junie watched her, conflicted. She was curious about Kyzen but wasn't sure how much she wanted to know about him. What if he had a girlfriend?

Callie looked up, caught Junie's apprehensive expression, and rolled her eyes. She stood suddenly and went to Junie's side of the booth that they were occupying. She slammed her hip into Junie's forcing her to scoot over so that Callie could squeeze in next to her. Junie grunted but moved to the far side of the one-person plastic bench to accommodate the girl. She stared down at the table as Callie continued to thumb through searches. Finally, her face lit up and she practically shoved her phone into Junie's face.

"Easy. This is him, right?"

Junie stared at the tiny screen, covered in images of the guy she had just met the day before. She felt her stomach churn. Her foggy brain had persisted ever since she got back from the convention. "Yeah."

She barely heard Callie's squeals of excitement, only hearing the buzzing in her brain as they scrolled through Kyzen's social media accounts, seeing the various cosplays he'd done of well-known characters. Each shot had beautiful lighting and was obviously heavily edited. Not that the pictures needed to be fixed. Kyzen had intense eyes and a jawline that spoke for themselves. Junie pressed her lips together as she felt her face heat up the way it had when they were standing in front of one another.

After viewing some of his posts and seeing his username, Junie could confirm that she remembered hearing about him in the past. The way that group of girls had swarmed in spoke volumes of his popularity. He had almost double the number of followers she did, his videos getting hundreds of thousands of views. Her face flushed with shame at the thought. She couldn't compare to him.

"What is it, Junie?"

Junie snapped her head up to see Callie looking at her with concern. She had set her phone down on the table. Junie shook her head. "No, it's nothing. He's just so cool…"

Callie's lips tightened and her eyebrows furrowed. "So, what? You're cool too."

"Not like him!" Junie said, hearing how juvenile that sounded as she said it. "He's clearly way more…" She trailed off, making Callie raise her eyebrows.

"More what?" her cousin demanded.

Junie's eyes shifted to the side. "More successful."

Callie's eyes lit up. "See, that's good though."

Junie decided to take the bait. "Why is it good?"

"Think about it," Callie said in a teacher tone. "What good would it do you if he was just as successful as you are? You can get some networking in with this guy."

Junie just stared open-mouthed at her cousin, completely at a loss for words. She shook her head. "It doesn't really matter. I'll probably never see him again anyway." What she really wanted to say was that she didn't want to network with anyone.

Callie stared at her for a quick, tense moment. Then, as if she were pulling a gun out of its holster, she whipped out her phone again. Junie was tempted to slap it out of her hand.

"There's an event coming up next week that he's going to be at," she said. "Why don't we go?"

Junie spun so fast that she bumped her arm hard against Callie's. "We?" she shrieked.

Callie crossed her arms. "What? Are you telling me that if you went alone, you'd actually approach this guy?"

Junie grimaced. "Maybe I won't go at all," she said, trying to make it a challenge, but her mousey voice trailed off toward the end.

Callie's eyes twitched slightly, widening in a threatening way. Junie could only take the look for a few seconds.

"C'mon, Callie," she snapped in an exasperated voice. "I didn't even get his real name. He has like a bajillion more followers than me. I can't just go and talk to him."

Callie rolled her eyes and shoved her phone back in her face. "It's literally a ‘cosplayers meet and greet'," she said in a tone that suggested she was restraining. "They are literally asking you to walk up to people and talk to them."

Junie's head was spinning. She had already wrapped her mind around the idea of not seeing him ever again. Now, she had to wrap her mind around the possibility of running into him in a week?

Callie was going on as if Junie's soul wasn't inches away from leaving her body. "You said months ago that you'd make a costume just for me, right? Didn't you make me an OG, or whatever?"

"An OC," Junie corrected her through unmoving lips. "An original character."

"Yeah!" Callie said enthusiastically, even though Junie knew she was only kind of listening. "Could I have a tiara?"

Junie, who had been rubbing her eyes due to the sudden headache that split across her forehead, squinted at her. "What?"

"A tiara," Callie repeated. "You know, like a little crown with jewels on it? Maybe with sapphires?"

Junie shook her head, an amused smile toying with her lips. "Your OC isn't royalty, Cal."

Callie's face scrunched up with confusion. "Well, what is she then? Maybe she can marry into royalty or something?"

Junie took out her own phone and thumbed around before showing Cal a drawing of a young woman clad in a purple cape and thigh-high socks. "Kaia is a mage."

Callie stared at the digital drawing, her small lips pursed. "So, I can't have a tiara?"

Junie shrugged. "I could make you some kind of headpiece that looks like a tiara," she said, suddenly wishing she had brought a sketchbook. Her mind was brimming with character design ideas.

Callie chatted excitedly and Junie couldn't help but join in. She couldn't really pass up an opportunity to have another person wear a cosplay she had made. Her eyes sparkled at the thought of the heads they would turn as they arrived at the venue as a duo in matching outfits.

She would just pretend for Callie's sake that she was excited about running into a certain cute cosplayer.