Ch.214Episode 40. Cosplay at Home (5)

“So this is your place, oppa?”

Yeonhwa Gu says as she enters the hallway and neatly arranges her shoes. She puts on the slippers I handed her and walks in, looking around the house.

It’s just like bringing home a newly adopted pet.

Speaking of animals…

It might be fun to have her do some animal cosplay sometime.

Unfortunately, the cosplay outfits Yeonhwa brought today probably don’t include any animal types.

Now that I think about it, that’s actually a bit disappointing.

“Do you live alone?”

“That’s right.”

“What about your parents?”

“Well… I’m not really sure.”

“Oh… I-I’m sorry.”

Nothing to be sorry about.

I genuinely didn’t know the answer.

I had no idea where Yujin’s parents were or what they were doing. It wasn’t mentioned in the novel either, so I couldn’t even get a hint.

Actually, I don’t think I ever tried to find out.

When I first possessed this body, I was preoccupied with figuring out how to return, and once I realized this world was from the novel “Heroes Never Bend,” I focused entirely on turning the special class kids into heroes.

Come to think of it, I don’t think I had a particularly good relationship with my parents in my previous world either.

I’ve almost forgotten about it now, so I can barely remember.

Interestingly, Yeonhwa apologizes about the parent topic just like Bin Yoon did.

Does she think they’re dead?

Well, compared to the world I came from, this place is practically lawless, so it’s not an unreasonable assumption.

With villains running rampant and threatening people as a common occurrence, that’s probably why organizations like the Association were formed and infrastructure was developed.

“Still…”

“Hmm?”

“You have me now, so whenever you feel lonely, just call me.”

She pounds her chest as she says this.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen her look so serious. I appreciated her sincerity, but her earlobes turned red, probably from embarrassment at her own words.

“If I call, will you comfort me?”

“Yes. I’ll do as much for you as you’ve done for me… no, even more.”

How can I not adore her when she says only the sweetest things?

“I’ll bring lots of manga. We can watch anime together and have discussion sessions.”

I’ll half-retract my adoration.

She should be saying she’ll comfort me while wearing a bunny girl cosplay.

Of course, I know Yeonhwa would never say such a thing, so I don’t expect it.

Still, I think she might go along with it if I brought it up first. I should test the waters sometime.

“Sure. And don’t worry about that stuff. Like you said, I have you.”

Eventually, we’ll all live together in this house, so there won’t be any room for loneliness.

“Ah… y-yes…”

When I smiled warmly while speaking, she fidgeted with her fingers and mumbled. She seemed both pleased and embarrassed that I singled her out specifically.

She must be aware that there are many women around me.

“By the way, where should I put the suitcase?”

I asked while holding the suitcase I’d brought.

“Oh, that… where are we going to cosplay?”

“The living room would be best, wouldn’t it? It’s the most spacious.”

“Then please put it in the living room.”

I set the suitcase down in the living room as she suggested. It felt quite heavy, suggesting it contained many outfits.

“What do you want for dinner?”

I asked while turning on the air conditioner.

“Whatever you want, oppa.”

“I’d like to drink alcohol.”

“…What?”

“Why are you surprised? We’re not minors. There’s nothing strange about drinking.”

“No, who has alcohol for dinner?”

She knows what it means.

When a man and woman drink alcohol together late at night.

Being direct about the atmosphere is usually more effective. No matter how much one tries to hide intentions, women always catch on.

If she doesn’t like it, she’ll say so.

I’ll throw it out there and see what happens. It’s better to be confident with these things.

Besides, I already know Yeonhwa won’t refuse.

“Some people do.”

She laughs incredulously at my insistence but doesn’t say no.

“Even if we drink, let’s still have dinner.”

“Alright. Then what should we eat… how about bossam?”

“Sounds good.”

She answered while opening the suitcase.

As expected, it contained many pieces of clothing. Seeing how neatly folded everything was, she seemed to be exceptionally good at organizing.

Come to think of it, Yeonhwa’s dorm room had lots of merchandise, but it never felt messy.

“Today’s cosplay will be—”

She exclaimed, picking up a plastic-wrapped outfit.

“—the villain head of household, Prellion!”

“Villain head of household?”

I tilted my head, looking at the neat uniform with an unusual griffin emblem.

“His full name is Porky Prellion. Porky’s father passed away early, so he had to take the position of family head at a young age. The Prellion Viscount family—”

And so on and so forth.

She’s explaining the backstory without being asked. I wasn’t particularly interested, but I pretended to listen.

“From the female lead’s perspective, he’s truly garbage of garbage. But when I found out the reason he acted that way toward the female lead was because of a curse, I was so blindsided. So—”

Yeonhwa’s sudden TMI made me miss my chance to ask about what size and set of bossam to order.

I’ll just order something reasonable.

“But when the curse was lifted and they realized everything was a misunderstanding, when they connected with each other, it was so moving…”

“I see.”

“Ah! Really! No soulless responses allowed! Should we watch the anime now so you can understand? I can connect to Netflix right away—”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll watch the anime later.”

I hastily cut her off. She really looked like she was about to turn on the wall-mounted TV.

“Oh. Is that a promise? I’ll quiz you about it later. There will be a test, like a midterm. Understood?”

“…”

Did I say something unnecessary?

I tried to brush it off but ended up getting caught instead.

“…So what cosplay are you doing?”

I quickly changed the subject, afraid I’d actually have to follow through if I answered.

“I’ll be Marie Iris, the female protagonist who becomes Prellion’s maid.”

The outfit she held up was none other than a “maid uniform.”

“A maid uniform?”

“Hehe. You’re definitely a man, oppa. You couldn’t possibly fail to recognize this outfit.”

Wouldn’t anyone recognize this, regardless of gender? There are even cafes where staff wear maid uniforms.

“But isn’t maid cosplay pretty common?”

“Tsk tsk tsk!”

The way she clicks her tongue and wags her finger is quite irritating.

Today I’ll have to punish her with something other than a flick to the forehead.

“Maid uniforms, you see, differ by family and by manga. Only those who can distinguish between them can be called true cosplayers.”

I don’t want to be a true cosplayer, so I’ll just live in ignorance.

But seriously, how much of a hardcore fan do you have to be to distinguish between them…

“Understand? As someone who will be cosplaying with me from now on, you should learn to make these distinctions.”

“This is the last time, you know.”

…Well, maybe not the last time in bed?

If she does the cosplay I want in bed, I wouldn’t mind playing along.

“By the way, no wig today?”

“No. Prellion has black hair like you, and Marie is blonde. For authenticity, I’d like to copy the bangs too, but I’ll settle for tying it up.”

She said, grabbing her side hair with her hand.

“Alright. Shall we start after eating the bossam?”

“No. Let’s style the hair and do makeup first. It’ll take time for the delivery to arrive anyway.”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

Now that we’re about to start, I felt a bit awkward and reluctant.

Still, I couldn’t back out now after agreeing, so I decided to go along with it.

And so the makeup session began.

As I sat on the floor, Yeonhwa produced a headband from somewhere and pushed all my bangs up.

“Wow… you’re handsome even with your hair up. That’s somehow vexing.”

“…What’s there to be vexed about?”

“This is why women fall for you.”

“You too?”

“…I haven’t fallen that far.”

An ambiguous response. Isn’t that basically saying she has feelings for me?

Yeonhwa, with a flushed face, kept making eye contact with me and nervously licking her lips.

To me, it looked like she was trying to memorize each of my facial features.

“Really? You’re not lying?”

“I’m not!”

Tap! Tap!

“Ow! Your hands are a bit rough?”

“What do you expect? If you keep talking, makeup will get in your mouth, so please keep quiet.”

Look at her bossing me around just because she knows how to do makeup.

When the makeup was somewhat complete, Yeonhwa smiled.

“You really look handsomely villainous. Perfect for the role of a villain. No wonder noble ladies fall for villains.”

“Did you fall for me too?”

When I asked with a smirk, Yeonhwa scrunched up her face and said:

“If you keep saying useless things, I’ll make you eat makeup.”

“You can feed it to me, just answer the question.”

“No, what…”

I can clearly see her fair skin gradually turning red. Even her neck is becoming flushed.

“W-why would I go on a date with someone I don’t like…”

She absolutely refuses to say she likes me.

Still, just knowing she has firm feelings is enough. In this situation, if I set the mood right, she’d allow everything if I took her to bed.

“By the way.”

“Yes?”

“If this character is trash, and I’m playing this character now, does that mean I can act like trash?”

“What? Um… t-that’s different.”

“How is it different? You said some acting would be good.”

“But—”

“Never mind.”

I cut off her excuse. She seems to want to distinguish between fantasy and reality, but I had no intention of allowing that.

“Tonight, you’re mine, right?”

“No… t-there’s no such line in the script…”

“Answer me.”

“No…”

“Answer.”

“…Yes.”

Yeonhwa reluctantly answers, unable to resist my pressure.

Though she grumbles, the fact that she plays along suggests she might have secretly wanted this too.

“Good girl. If you do as I say, I won’t do anything bad. But if you don’t listen, be prepared for punishment.”

I said while gently stroking her golden hair. Trembling slightly at my quiet warning, Yeonhwa mumbled:

“Um… w-when we do… that… the cosplay doesn’t really matter, right?”

It matters a lot. You need to wear this while we do it.

“But you said the male and female leads connect in the manga, so we’ve done everything we need to, right?”

“That’s right. We’ve done everything… Wait, what?”

Yeonhwa, who had been answering without thinking, stopped abruptly. I grinned at her dazed expression.

Ding-dong.

Perfect timing, the delivery arrives.

“Shall we eat the bossam first? I ordered something a bit spicy, is that okay?”

“Oh, um… that’s fine, but…”

“I’ll go get it. There’s alcohol in the fridge, could you take it out?”

“What? When did you buy that?”

I prepared it in advance when she suggested cosplaying at my place. I didn’t want the hassle of stopping by a store on the day.

I gave her a quick grin before walking to the front door.