Deciding on the Costumes
The latter half of September — the season when cosmos flowers, having claimed the ground where sunflowers once stood, begin bursting into bloom.
During lunch break, the crisp breeze and warm sunlight struck a balance so perfect it almost seemed calculated.
Yet in Class 2-1 sat a single student whose mood ran completely contrary to the bright weather outside.
"Haaa..."
The owner of a sigh so deep it could swallow the earth whole was, of course, Yeoncheong.
Midterms and festival preparations — neither of them was going easy on her.
"What's wrong?"
Nayun, returning from brushing her teeth, came back to her seat and looked at her friend.
Yeoncheong's unfocused eyes, which had been wandering blankly across the classroom, slowly found their way to Nayun.
"...I'm exhausted."
The sigh that escaped her as naturally as breathing, and the face worn down by fatigue, laid her current state painfully bare.
Nayun snickered and swiveled her body toward Yeoncheong.
"That's what I said, didn't I? You should've been keeping up with your studies."
"Well, you should've explained it properly! I had no idea this festival was going to be like this."
The class meeting had settled on a cafe as the basic theme, but...
"Costumes, the menu — why does deciding every single one of these things have to be so exhausting?"
Out of the frying pan, into the fire. She'd thought that once the big picture was set, things would ease up a little.
But like dozens of branches sprouting from a single stem, an even greater flood of opinions had come pouring in.
On top of that, while the school offered a modest subsidy, they still had to watch their costs, and open flames were forbidden, and...
Collecting everyone's suggestions while also keeping within the school's restrictions was no small feat.
"I get that there's a prize for first place, but is everyone really this serious about it?"
"The prize is part of it, but honestly, it's because this is the last time we'll get to participate ourselves, isn't it?"
That came from Hasol, who had been quietly listening to Yeoncheong's grumbling.
"Why is this the last time? We have next year too."
"Third-years don't run booths."
"...Oh."
Now that she thought about it, only first and second-years had shown up at the student council room — no third-years in sight.
The third-years, doing absolutely nothing.
A question naturally surfaced in Yeoncheong's mind, and she voiced it aloud.
"Then what do the third-years do during the festival?"
"Have fun."
Suyeon, perched on the windowsill, jumped into the conversation.
"The whole school's going to be in chaos — like anyone could study through that? So the third-years just enjoy the booths that we first and second-years run. They're the judges, too."
"Judges?"
When Yeoncheong repeated the word back, Suyeon tilted her head instead.
"You knew there was a prize for first place, but you didn't know that? I'm pretty sure someone told you — the third-year seniors are the ones who do the ranking."
Only then did Yeoncheong murmur in belated realization.
"...Right. Now that you mention it, I think something was said about two votes per person at the student council meeting."
She must have been tuning out whenever the third-years came up.
Third-year seniors dropping by the booths...
One senior in particular — the one who clung to her every chance she got, demanding to be called Unnie — flashed through Yeoncheong's mind.
"We couldn't make some kind of blacklist or anything, could we?"
"You think that'd fly?"
"Ugh..."
With no comeback to Suyeon's rebuttal, Yeoncheong let out a low groan.
Nayun stared at her for a long moment, then her lips twitched.
"It's because of Seoyun-sunbae, isn't it? You seem to really dislike her?"
For Nayun, who had received a great deal of help from the senior during the break remedial classes, there was no reason to feel put off by her.
Perhaps it was too tiring to keep her head swiveling back and forth, because Yeoncheong finally lifted her face off the desk where it had been glued.
"I don't dislike her."
"Then what's the problem?"
Without a word, Yeoncheong rummaged through her desk drawer and pulled out a sheet of paper to show them.
"Maid outfits, traditional costumes from around the world, bunny girl? Who the hell wrote this crazy stuff?"
Nayun's face crumpled as she read down the list one item at a time.
"This is... the costume shortlist?"
When Suyeon and Hasol put their heads together to check the contents, their eyes went round as well.
"Yep. That's what came out after compiling every suggestion so far."
With a light sigh, Yeoncheong gave the paper another careful once-over.
Going over every single item in a class meeting would take far too long.
So she'd asked the vice class president to narrow down the candidates in advance... and the paper in front of her was the result of consolidating every opinion received so far.
This was what happened when she'd told everyone anything goes.
There was a decent subsidy coming, after all. Apparently a lot of people had figured, when else would we ever get to wear this stuff — and spoken their minds completely without restraint.
"At the very least, I should have made people write down their names with their suggestions..."
Yeoncheong's faint mutter.
A regret that had come far too late.
Shaking her head, she brushed the matter aside and spoke.
"Anyway. We're asking people to wear these things as cafe costumes, and considering everything I've been put through, isn't it only natural to worry about what Seoyun-sunbae might pull?"
The friends, each picturing the senior who seemed to take special pleasure in teasing Yeoncheong, laughed without a word.
There were reasonable suggestions like maid outfits, Japan's signature sailor uniforms, and traditional costumes from various countries — but there were just as many unhinged ones, like bunny girls and swimsuits, the kind that would get banned by the school outright.
Perhaps because of the shocking contents of that paper.
Before anyone noticed, the friends' attention had shifted entirely to the costumes themselves.
"Maid outfits seem like the safest bet..."
"Come on. Aren't maid outfits a little boring? We won't be the only cafe at the festival, you know."
Suyeon pushed back against Nayun's suggestion.
As she watched the two of them bicker, Yeoncheong thought quietly to herself.
I'll just put it to a vote at the class meeting later and settle it in one go.
If even two people's opinions clashed this badly, there was no way the entire class would ever reach a consensus.
***
After school, as their homeroom teacher stepped out of the classroom following the end-of-day announcements, she tossed out one remark.
"When you're done with the laptops, bring them back to my desk nicely."
Reassured by her words, Yeoncheong and the vice class president stepped forward.
Seoha, who had been heading to the student council room even over lunch because she had work to do, had declared it fine to step away for a moment and was sitting at her desk.
The vice class president took the sheet of paper and wrote the costume candidates out on the blackboard, while Yeoncheong confirmed that every member of the class was present.
"You all know we're deciding the costumes today, right?"
After confirming the nodding heads, Yeoncheong folded down two fingers.
"Anything too expensive or too risqué is already out. I'll write the rest on the board, and you'll vote by raising your hands for whichever one you like. We're finishing this today."
"Completely today?"
"That's a bit..."
The class buzzed with murmurs.
Grumbles about it all being too rushed drifted up from every corner of the room.
Yeoncheong rapped her knuckles lightly against the lectern and pulled the classroom back to attention.
"No. We have way too much left to do besides costumes. With midterms and the Chuseok holiday coming up, we need to have at least a general direction locked in."
Until now, Yeoncheong and the vice class president had been accommodating everyone in pursuit of a result that would satisfy all, which was why everything else had dragged on in limbo.
There was no putting it off any longer.
Faced with the rare sight of Yeoncheong putting her foot down, the protesting students grudgingly gave in.
"Alright, I'll call them out one by one — raise your hand if you like it."
Going down the list, Yeoncheong read out the candidates one at a time, the vice class president counted the hands, and the results went up on the board.
A short while later.
Counting up the rows of tally marks beside each costume candidate, Yeoncheong checked the results.
"Maid outfits and... animal cosplay?"
Her voice lifted at the end — she'd never imagined an actual tie was possible.
"What if we just do both? Like a maid cafe with animals mixed in."
"Wouldn't that cost way too much, though?"
At some classmate's remark, Yeoncheong nodded along.
It wasn't as if they could hand-sew the costumes like in some Japanese manga's culture festival, so the budget was a real concern.
"...How about we at least do animal-ear headbands, then? Whatever animal each person wants."
At the vice class president's suggestion, the classmates bobbed their heads, seeming to agree that wasn't a bad idea.
Everyone except Suyeon.
"Time out! Time out! What about this?"
Suyeon, who had been busily searching for something on her smartphone, sprang to her feet with a hop and dashed over to the lectern.
Then, quite naturally, she took over the laptop and pulled up one rather distinctive costume.
"This! What do you think? Isn't it cute?"
What Suyeong showed them was a cosplay outfit.
A plain athletic tracksuit jacket adorned with the apron and frill trim you'd typically find on a maid outfit.
"Oh. Not bad."
"Cute."
The class seemed fairly taken with it as well.
When Yeoncheong asked what on earth it was called,
"I don't really know either. I found it while searching for unusual maid outfits. Apparently it's called a jersey maid?"
Yeoncheong looked up the details on the laptop, and her lips pressed into a thin line.
"...Doesn't look like they sell these anywhere?"
"Isn't it basically the same as our gym tracksuit? We'd just need to make or buy the frill apron part."
Already sold on the idea in her heart, Suyeon began pitching it with full force.
"If we pull it off, it comes out incredibly cheap. And if we have room in the budget, we could put a few people in animal cosplay to draw in the crowd!"
Suyeon's face thrust itself far too close for comfort.
Yeoncheong turned her head away to escape it, then asked the class for their opinion.
"...What do you all think?"
"Seems fine to me?"
"I think it's good too."
The sparse voices rising from the noisy classroom were all positive.
Already chattering among themselves about how they'd handle the aprons and the shoulder decorations, they were practically lacing up their shoes.
Yeoncheong stole a glance at the vice class president, who nodded and said it seemed fine to her as well.
Tapping the lectern to gather everyone's attention, Yeoncheong asked one final time.
"Guys. So we're going with this one?"
No one answered.
But the commotion itself made it clear the decision had already been made.
In an instant, the class had become one.
The costume they'd dragged out over days of agonizing was settled in less than thirty minutes.
A maid cafe with jersey maids — not officially locked in, but animal cosplay on top. With the two big pieces in place, the rest of the meeting moved along at a brisk pace.
The classmates laughed and carried on around Yeoncheong and the vice class president about what they should do next.
Watching the lively classroom, Yeoncheong wore a wry smile.
"Ha... This is how it should've been from the start..."
***
The club room.
"Hey! If you'd found that, you should have said something right away!"
Feeling that all her recent suffering had been for nothing, Yeoncheong took her frustration out on Suyeon.
"I only just found it myself."
"...You're serious?"
"Of course! Who would I even be lying for?"
Suyeon declared her innocence, her mismatched eyes flying wide open.
But then.
This was the same girl who would spare no effort if it meant getting a rise out of Yeoncheong.
"...I'll believe you."
Only after staring into those eyes for a long, long while did Yeoncheong finally let her suspicions go.
"But if we use the tracksuits, they'll all be the same color. Kind of boring, isn't it?"
"You little—"
When Yeoncheong shot Suyeon a sharp glare, she leaned far back and made a calming gesture with her hands.
"Kidding, kidding. Everyone's got at least one tracksuit jacket at home, so we can just use those, right?"
Only after hearing the solution to the very problem she'd raised herself did Yeoncheong release the tension from her eyes.
She tried to refocus on her studies, but her concentration had already shattered completely, and she tossed her pen onto the desk with a sigh.
"Aaaagh... Now that you brought it up, it's all I can think about."
"Why? Even if I said that, I think yours would be totally fine?"
Despite Suyeon's attempt at comfort, Yeoncheong stayed silent, lost in thought.
"If we really have the budget, we should put a few people in animal cosplay..."
"Hm?"
At the sudden talk of animals, Suyeon tilted her head.
"You said it yourself. It would definitely grab people's attention."
"I mean... yeah. I guess it would."
To be fair, Suyeon had only brought it up in the first place because jersey maids alone seemed to lack impact.
"Having two people dressed as a dog and a cat would be pretty good, right?"
"Then we should order them to do aegyo right next to the customers, too."
"Oh! That's even better."
"...Seriously?"
Suyeon's eyes went wide — she hadn't expected such an enthusiastic response.
"Picking two people for it, kind of as a penalty game, could be really fun."
"And what would you do if it ended up being you?"
Yeoncheong snorted at Suyeon's question.
"Please, how many people are in our class? What are the odds I get picked?"
People who say that kind of thing are always the ones it happens to, though...
Those mismatched eyes gazed at her friend with pity, watching her plant a death flag without even realizing it.
"Well, worst case, if the class says no to our little scheme, it's over and done with."
But...
Yeoncheong, at that moment, had no way of knowing.
That the class would unanimously approve the playful conversation the two of them had tossed back and forth, passing the animal cosplay penalty into effect.
And that she, having already planted one flag, was about to plant another.
