The sweet scent of chocolate permeated the hallways of Fuji Academy, mingling with the crisp laughter of girls shyly handing Valentine's gifts to their secret crushes. In the classrooms, every boy's desk was piled high with chocolate – a sign of the approaching lovers' holiday.
Yet, in the third-floor Manga Club room, four boys seemed completely detached from that romantic atmosphere. Here, they were immersed in their own worlds – worlds where love wasn't just sweet chocolate, but also tearful tragedies.
"Hey, Kenji, have you read the new chapter of Devil's Love yet?" Haruto, the boy with thick glasses, exclaimed excitedly, holding a tankobon volume high.
"That insane doctor killed another person! He sewed her eyes onto the corpse he's collecting from the bodies of girls. He's almost finished collecting all the parts to resemble the girl he once loved! While stitching together pieces from different women, he whispers, 'I will find you again, even if I have to tear this world apart!'"
Kenji, the group leader, looked up from his computer screen playing a bland harem anime. His eyes were still glazed over. "Not yet. I'm researching this Emotionless CEO series. There's a scene where he stands by his wife's grave all night, holding the wedding ring, not understanding why his heart aches." He still didn't understand his own feelings even when his wife died. Gives me chills."
"Boring!" Daiki, the boy with blond hair always wearing headphones, protested. "If you're reading manga, you have to read ones with supernatural elements like my Crimson Moon! The main vampire guy is handsome, charming, and only drinks women's blood. And he transformed into a woman after drinking too much blood from girls and fell in love with his own feminine self! That's some great LGBTQ+ representation!"
Itsuki, the quietest member, said nothing. He silently turned the pages of an old manga. On the page was the image of a young prince, breathtakingly beautiful but with vacant eyes, his body motionless in a wheelchair. Around him was the coldness of the palace, where even the King and Queen turned their backs on him. Only a maid silently cared for him, offering him the only bit of warmth.
"The Flowers Wither on the Stone Bench again?" Kenji looked over and sighed. "Itsuki, you're always immersed in those sentimental tragedies. A prince who's blind and paralyzed, in love with a maid who's actually his enemy, about to confess but gets accidentally killed by her during a massacre. So dull."
Itsuki shook his head slightly, his voice soft: "It's precisely the fragility and the vague ending that leaves one haunted, Kenji. He died without anyone knowing, without anyone aware of a love that never had the chance to bloom."
The group continued their heated debate, completely unaware of the disdainful eyes around them. In everyone's eyes, they were genuine "otaku": eccentric, reclusive, and living only in a two-dimensional world. In the eyes of their classmates, they were just freaks not on their level. And the girls in class, especially the Gyaru group, saw them as disgusting bacteria.
But everything had changed since they met Kaito, a former senpai who was also a passionate otaku and now worked as a coach at a gym. He showed them that to truly understand and embody their beloved characters, they needed a physique worthy of them. And so, after school hours, the club room became not just a place to read manga, but also a mini gym. Weights and pull-up bars were neatly arranged in the corner.
Six months of hard training under Kaito's guidance had sculpted four strong, toned bodies beneath their loose uniforms.
Today was Valentine's Day. While other boys and girls in the school were busy with chocolate gifts and confessions, Kenji's group had a special plan.
The club room today was darkened with curtains, lit only by multi-colored LED strips. They had transformed this place into a small stage.
Behind the club room door, the four boys were in the final moments of getting into costume.
Kenji wore an elegant black suit, his hair neatly styled with gel. He looked at himself in the mirror, trying to mold his face into a perfect expression of cold, emotionless detachment. He was embodying the mysterious CEO, the one who knew neither joy nor sorrow.
Haruto, with a white doctor's coat over a black outfit, held a fake scalpel. Behind his glasses, his eyes shone with a strange excitement. He was the incarnation of the Murderous Doctor, obsessed with recreating the image of his deceased lover.
Daiki was resplendent in his vampire attire: a deep red cloak, a high white collar, and blazing red contact lenses. He pursed his lips, trying to create the deadly charm of an immortal creature fascinated by blood and female beauty, with the secret ability to change gender.
As for Itsuki, he sat on a wheelchair intricately decorated to resemble a marble garden bench. His eyes were lightly made up to appear vacant, his body relaxed and motionless. He wore a white silk prince's outfit, highlighting his fragile, sorrowful beauty. He was the suffering Prince, both blind and paralyzed, waiting for a redemptive love.
"Remember," Kenji said, his voice as deep and cold as his character's, "Today isn't ordinary cosplay. We will reenact the scenes our characters yearn for, or the moments they never had the chance to experience. Live fully for them."
The group nodded. This was their way of expressing love for the characters who had captured their hearts.
Outside in the hallway, a group of Gyaru, led by Yumi – a standout girl with tanned skin and bright blonde hair – were striding along. Their loud chatter echoed everywhere.
"I heard those otaku in the Manga Club are up to something weird again for Valentine's Day," one girl in the group sneered.
Yumi smirked: "They're just a bunch of pathetic losers, always lost in their fake world. Let's go give them a scare."
They stopped in front of the club room. The sound of melancholic, dramatic background music came from inside. Yumi took a breath, then kicked the door open.
"Hey, you weird otaku…!"
Her words caught abruptly in her throat.
The light from the LED strips shone down, illuminating the four figures at the center of the room.
These weren't the eccentric, sloppily dressed students they usually saw.
Before them was a breathtaking scene.
A stunningly beautiful Prince with blind eyes, sitting motionless in a wheelchair, exuding a sorrow that made hearts clench.
A Doctor with a crazed and passionate gaze, holding a scalpel, as if immersed in his own bloody world of creation.
A dangerously charming Vampire, with deep red eyes and a sinister smile, possessing a mesmerizing allure that could steal souls.
And a cold, handsome CEO, perfect in every feature, yet with empty eyes devoid of any emotion, making one both afraid and curious.
The lighting, music, and atmosphere they created were too perfect. This was no longer ordinary cosplay, but a living, haunting work of art.
Yumi and the Gyaru girls stood rooted to the spot, mouths agape, eyes wide. All the taunts and scorn they had ready to throw vanished. All they could do was stare at the four "male gods" appearing before them, with speechless astonishment and shock.
Kenji, or rather, the emotionless CEO, slowly turned his head. His gaze swept over the group of girls frozen at the door, cold and distant, as if looking into an invisible void.
In that moment, Yumi felt her heart stop.
The noisy, bustling world outside seemed to disappear. Only this mesmerizing dark room remained, and the four boys whose transformations made it impossible to look away.
They had opened a door to a world they had always cherished and striven for, and these uninvited guests, who had accidentally stumbled in, were completely captivated.