Cross-dressing Dormitory 42

Erick breathed in through his nose and breathed out through his mouth many times. That didn’t help calm down his stomach. Not even one bit. As the time passed and the moment when the doors of the hall where the manga summer event would open drew closer, he got more and more nervous.

When there were only a couple of minutes left, he got desperate, wrote the character for people, and ate it. That was something he had seen many times in manga and anime, but never imagined he would be doing it; he always thought it was stupid. Now he was willing to do anything, even that, hoping it would work.

It didn’t.

And to make matters even worse, he heard a laugh behind him. When he turned, he saw Yuuka, Yuuto’s sister; Ahonbado Pōha-sensei had seen him doing that.

“Are you that nervous?” she asked, sitting by his side.

“Yeah,” he admitted in a low voice, blushing. I can’t believe she saw that. This is so embarrassing.

“That’s normal. I was a mess in my first even too,” she said, somewhat nostalgic.

“You were?”

“Yeah. Now that I think about it, I can laugh. But you’re not that bad compared to me. I couldn’t sleep the night before, so when I got here, I looked like a deranged person. I gotta say the people who bought my first doujinshi were brave. I don’t think I’d approach myself,” she said, chuckling.

“Guess my readers will be the same, given the way I’m dressed.” Erick let out a hollow chuckle. He had a face mask and a beanie hat, just like he had pictured a couple of days ago. The only thing missing were the sunglasses. He would look too suspicious if he did. His friends had talked him out of it. “Actually, I hope someone gets interested enough to buy my doujinshi… I shouldn’t have ordered so many copies…”

“You’re still worried? Don’t sweat over it, man. I read your stuff. It’s good. And that coming from a BL artist. Well, now former,” she said, laughing and giving him a few slaps on the back. “Seventy copies are a good number for a beginner. You’ll probably hand out around twenty with other booths and artists, and you can store the copies you don’t sell for the next event or even sell online. Relax and try to enjoy your first event.”

Under her reliable grin, Erick became less nervous. Or at least his stomach wasn’t lurching as much as moments ago. Then everything was for naught when the sound system announced the event began.

Oh, God, oh, God. What if I can’t calculate the change right? What if I forget how to speak Japanese? What if they think my work sucks and tells it to my face? What if they look me in the eyes?

“Just breathe. Remember they’re people like us,” Yuuka said. “Look, the first visitors are coming.”

As people kept pouring in the huge hall through the double doors, some came in their direction. Most were women who came to check out Ahonbado Pōha-sensei, but there were some men as well. A few of her clients checked Erick’s doujinshi and a couple even bought it.

“I didn’t mess up anything, did I?” he asked when they were alone, smiling nervously. He knew he would sell a few since he had fans who loved the girly-boy fanart, but not this early.

Yuuka chuckled. “You didn’t mess up, dude. You choked a few times in your Japanese, but it was pretty good. Some people like it when the artist is nervous.”

“Then they must love me,” he joked, getting a laugh out of her.

“How’s everything?” an excited voice asked.

When Erick looked up, his jaw dropped. The next moment, he couldn’t stop grinning. Before him were Rin, Mikki, and Kanata. However, they weren’t cross-dressing as usual. Instead, his three friends were cosplaying. But it wasn’t any cosplay.

Rin was dressed in a bikini armor and had a two-handed paper mache sword that was bigger than him. Mikki was in an armor that looked like a maid uniform and carried two massive looking fake chained balls. Kanata had a skimpy dress, a pointy hat, and a staff with jewels on both ends. All of them made no effort to hide they were guys. In fact, it was one of the selling points.

Yes, they were dressed like the characters in Erick’s doujinshi.

The three of them seemed satisfied with his reaction.

“That’s what we wanted to see!” Rin said, grinning.

“I told you he’d react like this,” Mikki said, smiling.

“It was worth working on these cosplays for the past few weeks,” Kanata added, beaming.

“Yeah, it was,” Rin said. “Thanks for the help, master.”

“You’re welcome,” someone said behind them.

It was Yuuto. Just like the boys, he was in a cosplay, wearing a short black shorts, a purple top, black stockings, a long pink wig, two small horns on the side of his head, and a tail. He even had a temporary tattoo under his exposed bellybutton. By his side, his husband, Seiji, wore a Shinto Japanese priest's white and red garment.

Erick recognized the cosplay at once. They were characters from a light novel called The “Cutest Demon King.” Rin had cosplayed the girly-boy main character in the past, though not as high quality.

“Why are you dressed like that?” he asked when he finally recovered from his surprise.

“To help you, of course!” his friends said at the same time.

“What? For real?”

“Hell yeah,” Rin said.

“It’s your first event,” Mikki added.

“We thought you’d be nervous, so we wanted to help you in any way,” Kanata said.

“We asked Yuuno for help and he suggested us cosplaying your characters.”

“It was really hard making these cosplays in three weeks.”

“But seeing your reaction was worth it.”

Erick got embarrassed but couldn’t stop smiling. “Thanks.”

“So, how are the sales?” Yuuto asked with a smile. He seemed used to the stares he and the others were getting.

“Good. At least, I think so. I’ve sold more than imagined, but I still have a lot to go.”

“That’s why we’re here!” Rin exclaimed.

Mikki pulled a small sign from his bag. It was advertising Erick’s doujinshi and the booth. “Our goal is to help you sell everything today,” he said.

“Let’s go, boys,” Kanata said and they went in different directions.

“You have great friends,” Yuuka said.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Aah, I’m so jealous. I wish my family surprised me like this,” she said, sighing and eyeing Yuuto and Seiji, shaking her head in a judgmental way.

“Don’t even try, Sis. You said you didn’t need our help this event,” Yuuto said.

“And even if you needed, there are no characters we could cosplay,” Seiji added.

Before she could answer, a few more clients showed up and the cosplaying couple moved away to enjoy the event.

***

“I can’t believe I sold everything,” Erick said, looking at the empty box, completely awestruck.

“That’s great for your first event.”

“It’s all thanks to you and my friends.”

Because of her past as a BL writer, she had a lot of fans who also liked male x cross-dressing males adult manga and they also bought his doujinshi. But most of the people who came looking for his work were thanks to his friends. Rin’s followers wanted a doujinshi of their streamer, cross-dressing maid lovers were captivated by Mikki, and Kanata had charmed many males and females.

“Why don’t you go thank them?” Yuuka suggested. “Escort them around the event.”

“Are you sure you don’t need me here to help?” Erick asked. She had left the table a couple of times and he was in charge of her sales as well. He had expected to do that when she let him share the booth.

“Nah, it’s okay. I already talked to my friends. I’m betting the movement is gonna be slow for now.”

“Okay, then.”

Erick left the booth. Only now, he realized how stiff his body was; he had been sitting for hours on the folding chair. Ignoring it, he went to look for his friends.

“What are you doing here?” Rin asked when he saw him. There were a lot of people taking photos of the three of them.

“I sold everything,” he said, smiling.

“Really?” Mikki asked.

“Yeah.”

“That’s wonderful,” Kanata said.

“It’s all thanks to you guys.”

His three cross-dressing friends beamed at him. Then they surrounded him.

“As thanks, escort us!” they said as one.

Erick couldn’t stop smiling. My friends are awesome. I’m definitely gonna find a way to repay them for this, he thought. Speaking about owing them, there are still those dates from that game night we did a couple of months ago. Because I was busy with the one-shot and the doujinshi, we completely forgot about it. Now it’s time for that.