Summer Festival (2)
I, Kim Wonbu, a college student on the verge of graduation, was what people commonly called a filthy otaku. During my university years, I’d managed to hide it pretty well, but at my core, I was a degenerate who’d devoured every kind of media since middle school—games, anime, idols, and pretty much anything women tended to avoid. Of course, once I got to college, I learned how to cosplay as a normal person. Before enlisting, I even had a girlfriend and lived what looked like an ordinary life.
…That is, if that ex of mine hadn’t cheated on me, I probably would’ve quit being a degenerate altogether. After tasting bitterness in reality, I ended up clinging even harder to fantasy. But having already experienced the real thing, I couldn’t completely abandon it either. So instead of compromising on my tastes, they got twisted into something grotesque. I became obsessed with the idea of a woman who was ‘just as much of a degenerate as me, sexually open enough to do lewd cosplay on her own, but would never cheat.’
That was also why I’d recently become a fan of Seo Jia. I mean, an idol who always looked so cold and elegant was actually a gamer hiding her true self just like me? I followed her on Instagram immediately and devoured everything she posted. I discovered she was pretty close to the ‘ideal’ I’d always imagined. Obviously, there was no way a top-tier idol like Seo Jia would ever date someone like me, but that had nothing to do with getting off to her, right?
And then last week, I’d even met her in person by pure coincidence at a café. I’d carefully coated the autograph she gave me on a sticky note and placed it as a base for one of my figures.
“Ha, fuck…”
Sweat poured down my body as I stood motionless under the midday summer sun. A curse slipped out on its own. Standing around at a game event I wasn’t even that excited about made me question what the hell I was doing, but I endured by scanning the attractive women scattered around.
Of course, staring at revealing costumes didn’t exactly make me feel good. I already knew what kind of disasters usually waited once the cosplay padding came off. For a ‘wow’ reaction in real life even with that hideous wig on, it meant the person would look at least twice as pretty when properly dressed. Or their body was so insane that the wig didn’t even matter.
Like that one guitar YouTuber, for example. Her channel featured her playing guitar while shaking her chest in cosplay. The weight and presence couldn’t be explained by padding. At first I thought it was fake, but there’s a limit to what editing can do. No matter how many videos I watched, her chest and side profile remained consistently insane. Even Seo Jia, famous for her chest size, didn’t reach that level.
Ah, come to think of it, the older sister I’d seen with Seo Jia by chance that time had exactly that kind of body. Well, she had a boyfriend built like a damn tank, so it wasn’t any of my business. And since she didn’t show her face, I didn’t think she’d be as pretty as Jia’s sister, but since I wasn’t going to date her anyway, there was no problem just appreciating the view. With fantasies of how happy I’d be with a girlfriend like that, I kept sweating buckets as I followed the line and finally entered the event area.
Pretending to be a wholesome otaku, I wandered around asking decent-looking cosplayers if I could take photos with them. That’s when I came face to face with someone extremely familiar.
“…Uh, over there.”
“…”
A woman with an incredibly healthy figure and her midriff fully exposed took one look at my face, flinched hard, and bolted away.
…Where had I seen her before? On Twitter? At university? Or both? Her name was definitely Hwang…
“Oh, hello.”
“…?”
Just as I was about to remember the name of the woman who had fled from me, two massive figures approached and spoke, causing me to forget it instantly. The deep cleavage suddenly thrust in front of my eyes made me lose focus, so I adjusted my glasses, took a step back, and looked again. The man and woman I’d only seen once a few days ago were staring at me with strange expressions.
“Ah… right. You’re Jia’s… I mean, Seo Jia’s older sister and her boyfriend, right?”
“Yes. What a coincidence.”
Unlike me, who had dressed somewhat neatly, the man was wearing very casual clothes. But his physique was no joke. Even in a plain t-shirt, his presence was overwhelming. Next to him stood a woman whose ridiculous curves made her muscular build almost forgettable. Her beige hair—clearly not a wig—was tied exactly like the game character’s, and she wore something resembling a kimono that was half falling off. Above all, the bandage-like fabric wrapped around her chest looked like it was about to burst, making it impossible to look away.
…Even when I tried to look away, the tattoo sitting right above her breasts under her collarbone kept dragging my eyes back.
“Are you here to enjoy the event too?”
“Y-yes, I am.”
But if I kept staring openly at her cleavage, it felt like the muscular guy talking to me would punch me in the face, so my survival instinct won over my lust and I lowered my gaze. This time, however, the bandages tied around her thighs caught my eye, making me think of the character’s modeling in the game. Memories of hanging female characters upside down from cliffs and wildly twisting the camera in-game flashed through my mind. I clenched my teeth, forced my eyes upward, and met the gaze of the man whose face was twisted in a deep scowl.
“Yeeun… Ah. I thought you liked idols since you’re a fan of Jia, but you like games too, huh?”
“Ah, yes. I like both.”
“Jia likes this game too. Did you know?”
“Yes, I do.”
I barely endured the woman’s attempts to steal my attention by idly waving the bow in her hand. Despite his intimidating expression, the man spoke in a surprisingly friendly tone, and I continued the conversation with him. Since we weren’t close or particularly familiar, we kept it to safe, surface-level talk. After somehow bringing the conversation to a close, I tried to escape as quickly as possible, but her voice stopped me.
“Wouldn’t you like a photo? I need someone to take one for me.”
“Ah… sure.”
I wanted to make an excuse about being busy and run away, but my body moved on its own because of those damn bandages that kept drawing my eyes. In the end, I had no choice but to stand next to her and take a picture. Not wanting to get too close and make the guy taking the photo look even more pissed off, I kept as much distance as possible. I struck a stiff pose and held up a thumbs-up.
After the click, I got my phone back. Only after they walked away could I finally wipe my sweat and check the photo.
…Wow, fuck. This is insane. Is this even possible? Maybe I should’ve looked a little longer even if it meant getting beaten up. There were so many people around anyway. He probably wouldn’t have killed me. Even that guitar-playing YouTuber probably wasn’t at this level.
In the end, I couldn’t hold back and uploaded the surreal photo to Twitter. As I watched the likes and retweets pour in at several times my usual rate, I felt a strange sense of satisfaction. Along with that… I also felt the greatest envy of my life toward the man who had taken that photo.
However, I didn’t feel inferior. Honestly, it seemed more natural for a guy like him to be the one pounding a woman like that than for someone like me to have sex with her. That was just how the world worked.
“Ha, shit… It’s hot. So fucking hot…”
“Drink some water.”
The outside had grown noticeably darker compared to when we first arrived. Still, in the humid summer air, I fanned the crouched and panting Haeun, who was sitting in a relatively quiet spot.
…Good thing I didn’t make her cosplay as that sky-blue-haired character. She would’ve been several times hotter in tights.
“Thanks…”
Haeun gulped down the water I’d set beside her, wiped her sweat with an already soaked handkerchief, and slumped over completely. She hadn’t even run around much, but the weather was brutal and she’d been outside the whole time. I’d dropped her off at the event hall, then had to rush back to the gym to finish work, so I couldn’t help her much. If Suah had been here it would’ve been fine, but she’d ditched her shift for the entire weekend and found a replacement for some reason.
While listening to the exhausted Haeun’s complaints, I kept checking messages that kept coming in on Telegram.
I sent her a photo of the completely drained Haeun slouched over in response to her not-very-scary threat, and immediately received a reply saying she was ridiculously cute. I showed the phone to Haeun.
“Hinami says you look ridiculously cute.”
“…I’m going to kill her, seriously.”
“Why? You are cute though.”
She really was. She’d been enthusiastically taking photos with people, but the moment she saw me her eyes went wide and she broke into a bright smile.
“…Hearing that doesn’t make me happy at all. This tattoo… ugh. When is it going to come off?”
“It’s a sticker. It’ll come off quickly once you sweat more.”
“Everyone keeps staring at it, I swear…”
But she started insisting she wasn’t cute at all, pointing at the flame-shaped tattoo prominently displayed on her chest. Since that part definitely wasn’t cute, I had nothing to refute.
“Anyway, let’s head out soon. You can change in the car.”
“Okay…”
I helped the dying girl up onto my back and trudged toward the car. That’s when I ran into another cosplayer grumbling next to my vehicle.
“Ha, fuck. Those disgusting degenerate bastards… And why the hell is that senior wandering around?”
…The one who had caused a family emergency, found a replacement, and then made the boss go back and forth because she didn’t want to work. A truly terrible part-timer.