Cosplay Shenanigans

5 - of ulterior motives and first challenge

Today was such... an eventful day.

The presence of Abel's parents might be such an exceptional sight to see, but at least they were much more foreseeable than Mairi coming up to him, much less hitting him with a friendship request like it was straight out of a social media. On top of that, the word 'friends' ricocheted against the walls of his mind, blatantly mocking the hell out of him.

What the hell is she trying to accomplish...?

Abel firstly eyeballed Mairi's hand in front of him, before his gaze travelled up to her face, where not a single nuance of her countenance could be identified. Only the same soulless eyes penetrated deep through his skull, gluing him in his place as usual. Blurring the lines between being genuine and sarcastic is truly her speciality.

"What are you talking about?" he blurted, forcing out some high-pitched laughs that made his spine squirm. "Friends?"

Mairi nodded, further inching closer towards him. This woman obviously towered over Charlotte, with her stature stopping right in the middle of his nose. "Maybe I should repeat myself? It's really loud around here."

"If I didn't hear you, I wouldn't have asked you about being friends," he scoffed, stressing his voice on the last term as he had his arms crossed. "So... what's the deal? Why the sudden interest? You never once interacted with me before, but here you are."

How coincidental he was investigating this crossdresser's secret intentions like a detective would with potential suspects. Cosplaying as Kaito was really one of the best decisions he had ever made. But Mairi herself is a real piece of work, so muster everything you got, Abel.

"We somewhat did interact. We would always look at each other's cosplays," Mairi pointed out while having the decency to evade all of his interrogations. "Though I kinda notice how you're always staring at me first."

Abel's shoulders squared up before he exclaimed back, "Y-You just happened to be in my line of sight!"

Finding himself raising his unstable tone, he promptly retracted his lips from spurting even more damage and drew some deep breaths. He instinctively shielded his heated face and averted his gaze away. Don't get too flustered, you dumbass. Where has your confidence gone?

Again, deep breaths. That was all he needed.

"Yeah, fine..." he admitted and sighed, "We did make some contact, but at the end of the day, we just ignored each other and never spoke a word or two." He sneered while shuffling his feet. "And now you talk to me like it's just another day at the convention. Makes me think you're up for something. Challenging me, perhaps?"

Well, what else was she doing here? There was only one plausible reason Abel had deduced from this... kind of interaction.

"Challenge?" Mairi tilted her head, obviously feigning innocence. "Hmm, never thought of that, honestly. I just think you're a rather interesting person."

What now? Was she just gonna throw him more compliments to hide her true colors? As if it would work on him.

"You're trying to play dumb, but I already knew you had an ulterior motive." Abel smirked, just like Kaito did when he exposed the culprit. "Heh, if you're challenging me, then you're on the right track. I've always been wanting someone to compete with, and you look worthy of being one."

Mairi blinked, but she muttered nothing. Instead, she ogled at him as if she was acting all oblivious about her previous actions. Nevertheless, she was, as predicted, completely busted by the great detective; her speechlessness was the perfect evidence. Don't underestimate me.