I Chose the Plain Girl Instead of the Class’s Top Three Beauties, and Somehow She Became the Heroine - 75

Chapter 75: Cosplay Date!!!

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《Hiroko Anno’s POV》

The morning classroom was the place where rumors spoke the fastest. Between the sounds of pages turning, fragments like “yesterday’s photo,” “Mukei-kun,” and “way too handsome” rolled around, bumped into the legs of desks, and bounced away.

The him on the screen was the same as the him I saw last night and yet not the same. Something deep in my chest floated up lightly, like a thin scrap of paper, and then quickly sank again. It felt like the warmth I wanted to believe only I knew had started walking toward the light.

And just like yesterday, he had fixed his hair, carried himself with a sense of cleanliness, and walked into the classroom with his back straight. I could tell that the girls in class were directing their gazes at Sora-kun. Without meaning to, I found myself straining my ears to their voices.

“Hey, isn’t Mukei-kun kind of good?”

“Yeah, I saw him. He might not be bad.”

They weren’t supposed to be interested in Sora-kun normally, and yet just changing his appearance a little bit had done this… Still, I understood how they felt. Sora-kun had a calm air about him. As if matching that atmosphere, his appearance looked more mature and cool. Without paying any attention to them, Sora-kun started talking with Takatou-kun as usual.

“Fix your bedhead from the roots. Keep your neck a little longer. Nails short.”

He was explaining things after Takatou-kun reacted in surprise to the changes. He lent him a comb, fixed his collar, and pointed at the tips of his shoes with his finger. As if rumors didn’t exist at all, he focused on tidying up the person right in front of him.

Watching that, the vague unease inside me softened just a little. Ah, this was the kind of person he was. Someone who taught others, too, the effort needed to create their own kind of cool. It made me think of my older sister somehow, and that added yet another thing I liked about him.

Before I realized it, my voice had slipped out.

“…What are you doing?”

He turned around. The quietness deep in his eyes was the same as always.

“We’re doing the Cleanliness Club.”

“So it’s a club activity.”

“Two members only for now. We’re always looking for new members.”

The way he said it was funny, and I laughed. When I laughed, the air felt a little lighter. He lightly tapped Akira-kun on the shoulder, then took just half a step closer to me.

“Hey, Hiroko-san. Do you want to go out together this weekend?”

“This weekend?”

“Yeah. There’s a Halloween event. I was hoping we could go together.”

Halloween. When I rolled the word around in my mouth, it tasted like a candy I didn’t know. It felt like a school festival on the edge of the grounds, and yet it had the color of English. The word “festival” would have felt more comfortable to me, but this sounded like it had one foreign ribbon mixed in, something that asked me to stretch just a little.

“Y-Yes! Of course.”

After I said it, my heart jumped twice. I felt like the sound reached even his profile, and it made me itch with embarrassment. That evening, when I opened the front door, the steam from the miso soup said “welcome home” to me.

“Welcome back~”

My older sister greeted me from the sofa in the living room, just like always.

“Um, you know, Onee-chan. This weekend, I’m going with Sora-kun, um… To Halloween…”

“Oh?”

She set down the teacup she’d been holding and slowly shifted her posture.

“So that means it’s a cosplay date.”

“A c-cosplay date?!”

My breath caught, like a small stone had dropped into my throat.

“A witch hat, cat ears, an orange ribbon, a black cape. See? Sounds fun. We have to think about what kind of cosplay you’ll do. What would suit you, Hiroko?”

“W-wait. I can’t wear anything so over the top like that…”

“It’s fine. I know subtle things suit you. Maybe we can skip the ears and just put one thin ribbon at your neck. Oh and maybe a small star sticker on your wrist. If you wear a navy skirt, maybe a burgundy scarf would look good on you.”

My sister took out a box of ribbons from a drawer and gently brushed her hand over the sea of fabric.

“Here. This one. The shade of orange that doesn’t shine too much.”

When I took it with my fingertips, the fabric shined like an autumn evening even under the house lights.

“…Do you think it’ll suit me?”

“We’ll make it suit you. That’s the kind of night it is.”

The word “cosplay” still felt ticklish. But when I translated it in my heart as “festival,” it became a little less scary. A kind of fun that could come undone easily, like cotton candy from a food stall. I was just tying a small bit of color as a marker, so I wouldn’t get lost.

“What is Sora-kun going to be?”

“I-I didn’t ask.”

“Then ask him. What are you wearing? Like that.”

“…Okay.”

I looked at my phone and shook my head.

“I’ll say I’m looking forward to it.”

“That works.”

My sister smiled. Just imagining Sora-kun’s cosplay made my heart race. And Sora-kun had become cooler lately. A lot of things were starting to change.

“That’s nice, that’s nice~ Hiroko’s living her youth now~”

The path through the seasons I didn’t know last year, I could clearly feel it this year. I believed I could walk it together with him. Outside the window, the wind lifted the curtain just once. Beyond the white fabric, the night nodded softly. I carefully folded the thin orange ribbon and slipped it into my pocket. To signal going to Halloween, one small color was enough.

If I felt like I was about to come undone that day, I’d touch this knot. Adding just a little courage to dress up in this winter’s warmth, I let the name “Halloween”—a name that hadn’t existed inside me before—melt quietly into my heart.

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