Jieqiong has no idea why she's here. Or she does, but she's not sure why she agreed. She's never watched a single anime that Eunwoo linked her to. Well, she watched five minutes of that vampire one. Or maybe five episodes. In her defense, Jieqiong had wanted that vampire's silver hair color for a while. So maybe Eunwoo had told her that Rosario and the Vampire or whatever was a terrible show to base her whole view of anime on, but Jieqiong has never watched another. They're too weird.

"Why am I here again?" Jieqiong eyes a group of acne-ridden middle schoolers who have just gotten on their subway car. They're decked out in way less clothing than they should be and one of them is holding what Jieqiong thinks is a very large, broken pair of scissors. She's so out of her depth. Is she going to have to compliment their costumes? She doesn't know the etiquette and she's always been a terrible liar.

"Hmm?" Eunwoo lolls her head over to look at Jieqiong. She's wearing some gold and black getup featuring a corset and thigh-highs and some sort of hockey puck-looking hat. Jieqiong had asked who she was, but no longer remembers Eunwoo's answer. Something magic?

"Why am I here? I really don't have anything in common with these people." Jieqiong says the second part in a harsh whisper, jerking her head in the direction of the inappropriately clothed middle schoolers.

Eunwoo looks over at the giggling tweens. "They're cosplaying Kill la Kill." Eunwoo gives them a once over. "Actually, not bad. It's really good for newbie stuff." Eunwoo frowns. "I hope they're newbies. But be nice. They're little."

Jieqiong groans. "I really don't understand any of this. Why didn't you ask Kyungwon to go? Isn't she into this stuff? Or Siyeon?"

Eunwoo answers her by gesturing at the outfit she had talked Jieqiong into wearing. "You get to wear the Miki dress." Jieqiong has to admit that Eunwoo is a fantastic seamstress. The dress is really very comfortable and the cape flows in the wind, or in the slight breeze on the walk to the subway. And if Jieqiong had to tape her s to the inside of the dress to fill out the cups...no one has to know. Except for Eunwoo, of course, whose idea it was originally because apparently, Eunwoo tapes her s to the insides of corsets and the like on a regular basis.

Jieqiong concedes on the point of the dress. The dress is awesome, and Jieqiong has always wanted an excuse to walk around with a sword. Even just wood one. Apparently, Kyungwon makes weapons. Or wood replicas. And apparently she's well known in the cosplay community, something Jieqiong hadn't even really know existed, because of the quality and accuracy. It totally explains all of Kyungwon's extra hours in the school wood shop. Jieqiong kind of wonders how Mr. Park would react if he knew his beloved wood shop was being used for the production of anime weaponry.

"We're here!" Eunwoo jabs her hard with the of her fake gun and drags her out of the train. "Trust me, you're going to love it."

---

So Jieqiong is so not loving it. Eunwoo has left her to fend for herself while she participates in some sort of costume contest and if she gets hit on by another greasy guy in a khaki jacket and knee high boots, she's going to get kicked out for putting her sword up his you-know-what. And then Kyungwon will be moody because there's really no way to return a sword that's been used like that and Eunwoo got the sword strictly to borrow. Jieqiong has no idea why Eunwoo thought she'd enjoy this. She's had strangers' hands in places she doesn't even want to think about and the stench of BO from the first guy to stop her for a picture is still haunting her.

Jieqiong is about ready to pull her phone out of her corset to call Eunwoo and tell her she's going home when she sees a girl in a grayscale outfit she's pretty sure is from the same show as her costume. Eunwoo had tried to make her memorize the names and outfits of the rest of the characters on the magic girl show, but not a lot of it had stuck. Grayscale girl is on her hands and knees, feeling around the carpeted hall. She looks pretty stressed, and Jieqiong feels bad. Here she is complaining to herself about being here while this girl has obviously lost something important.

Jieqiong pushes herself off the stairs she had been sitting on for the past ten minutes and strolls over to the girl, holding her sword by the middle of the blade so it doesn't drag on the ground. Eunwoo had been very clear that Kyungwon had said no damage and Jieqiong doesn't intend to cause anyone any problems. "Hey." Jieqiong stops in front of the girl, whose costume is, while a little rumpled, possibly even more well-made than Eunwoo's stuff.

The girl startles and whips her head up to look at Jieqiong. And holy . The girl is really pretty. Like, really pretty. And suddenly Jieqiong's ill feelings towards Eunwoo for dragging her here are gone.

Jieqiong clears , realizing that she had probably been staring for too long because the girl is looking at her a little funny now. "Um, what are you lookin