"Is your name Sajuna? What a cute name. Are you a model like her?"
"No... I'm just... I just like to cosplay."
Kaguya, who had been cold seconds ago, turned warm and gentle the moment Sajuna acknowledged her as the girlfriend. She had been mentally calling Sajuna a "slatternly fox" just moments before, but now...
I thought she was a harlot, but she's just a little kit... acting tough while she's actually terrified. How cute.
"Since you can't wait, Sajuna, let's head back~"
"..."
Ai opened the car door. Sajuna wanted to protest—Kaguya looked her age, yet she was being treated like a child. She didn't want to be seen as a "lustful girl who can't wait for a party," but remembering Kaguya's terrifying face from earlier, she kept her mouth shut. Who is this girl!?
Sajuna climbed into the back seat, followed by Marin and then Sagiri. Now they had a problem. The car only sat five, and there were six of them.
"Kaguya, why don't you sit on my lap?"
Rin's blunt invitation made Kaguya's face heat up. If it was just Ai, she wouldn't care, but she had just met Sagiri, Marin, and Sajuna today. She had to maintain some dignity.
"Well... there's no other way. We can't make him take a taxi... I guess I have to."
Finding an excuse, Kaguya sat on Rin's lap in the front passenger seat. The seatbelt crossed over her chest, pressing against her small breasts and making them look slightly more prominent.
Rin didn't pull any pranks; he just rested his hand gently on her waist. Despite their "deep" physical relationship, they rarely had such intimate, "normal" couple-like interactions. It made Kaguya feel shy in a whole new way.
As they drove home, Sajuna sat in the back, sandwiched between Marin and Sagiri. She was being bombarded with questions, experiencing a "fan meeting" for the first time. The thought that she was about to attend a degenerate party with her fans made her want to crawl into a hole.
"So, Sajuna, are you in a circle? You always seem to work alone."
"Yeah, I always work solo. My sister just helps with photos and the account."
"You and Sagiri both love magical girls," Marin suggested. "Why don't you cosplay together? I'm not really the magical girl type, but I could play a villain."
"No, I'm not used to working with others."
"Eh? But if we go together, we can split the studio costs!"
"!!!!"
Sajuna hesitated. Her family was average. She paid for her cosplays and studio rentals with money she earned from part-time weekend jobs. If she could split the costs, she could afford much better costumes.
"By the way, why don't you join Ito-sensei's circle? It's new, but there are some amazing people in it."
"A circle? Baumkuchen?"
"That's right," Rin said, turning his head slightly from the front seat. "You know about it?"
"Marin posted online that she was being the 'poster girl' for Baumkuchen. Was that for your doujinshi, Ito-sensei?"
"Yeah. Not just mine, but Sagiri's and another artist's too."
"Wait, Sagiri draws too?" Sajuna looked at the masked girl. She thought she was just an anime fan, not a doujin artist.
"Mhm! Want me to draw you as a main character?" Sagiri teased.
"N-no thanks." Sajuna wanted to cosplay, not be the star of a porn comic.
"Besides artists, we have other friends. Two beautiful light novel authors, for example," Rin continued the sales pitch.
"Exactly!" Marin nodded. "We all went to an island for two weeks for research. I even learned to skin-dive."
"How much did that cost..." Sajuna instinctively calculated how many cosplays that would fund.
"My friend owns the estate," Rin laughed. "We even stayed in a brand-new school."
Sajuna was genuinely tempted. Schools were common in anime, but you couldn't just walk into one to take photos. Renting a school set was incredibly expensive.
"If I join... do I have to be a poster girl at conventions? Selling porn while in cosplay... no, no, absolutely not!"
Rin guessed her thoughts. "The circle is very loose. No one forces you to do anything you don't like. But we're just starting, so there's no salary."
"It's not about the money... let me think about it."
"No problem. You have their contact info? Just tell Marin or Sagiri if you want in."
Sajuna nodded. She had actually been worried she'd have to pay to join. But as she thought about the upcoming "party," she felt a pang of doubt. Is Baumkuchen just a cover for some weird sex cult?