Cross-dressing Dormitory 46

“A school festival?” Kanata asked, tilting his head when Erick told him where they were going for their date.

“Yes, but it’s not any school festival. It’s Jeika’s cultural festival.”

The moment he heard that, Kanata widened his eyes. “What? Are you serious?”

“Yep,” Erick said, grinning at his date’s reaction.

“I’ve been meaning to come for ages, but I never had time!”

“I remember that.”

“I can’t believe you remembered something like that. I think I just mentioned once,” he muttered, flashing a bashful smile. “You’d make a great boyfriend.”

Erick blushed and chuckled. “I’m not sure about that. For now, I’ll settle with a good date.”

Kanata was smiling, but the next moment, his excitement dialed down a little.

“I’m sure I’ll have fun, but it might be boring for you. This festival has a lot of attraction, but they’re mostly known for the fashion show by the students. I know you’re not into that.”

“Don’t worry about me. If you have fun, I’m happy. This date is because of the bet and also to show you my appreciation for you,” Erick said. “Besides, anything is fun when by your side.”

Kanata blushed and his smile became wider again. “Since when did you become so charming? I might fall for you.”

Erick was embarrassed by that, but he didn’t avert his eyes. Instead, he offered the hand. He was getting quite good at leading his dates around. “Let’s go.”

With a bigger smile, Kanata took the hand and they headed to the school.

Jeika’s cultural festival was like any school festival Erick had seen in anime and manga. However, it had so much uniqueness that it stood out from the others and became a major local annual event. There were food and game stalls that the students put out to earn a bit of cash, but since it was an art school, most of the stalls were related to that.

You could try a bit of painting, sculpturing, makeup—put it on someone or a student put it on you—participate in an improvised miniplay, singing, playing an instrument, dressing up in many clothes made by the students, and even being in a mini fashion show, and if the guests liked you, you could get outfits made by the students.

However, the biggest events were the play and the fashion show by the best students. There was a lot of rivalry between them, always competing to see who was the most popular each year. In the past few years, however, the fashion show has been winning. It grew so big, people from the industry came to appreciate it, and even scout talents.

Or at least that was what Erick could tell by his Japanese when he researched online. There were a lot of kanjis, he couldn’t read two lines without checking a dictionary. Just hope Kanata enjoys the fashion show. If that happens, I’ll be happy.

Though he came with an open mind, he wasn’t expecting to have much fun. However, to his surprise, he enjoyed himself a lot. Not only were the food and the games delicious, but it was fun also trying out many different things was interesting.

He especially liked the painting, since he never used paints and brushes, though he had to do his best to avoid doing anything related to manga and anime. There were people drawing that style, but he didn’t want strangers thinking he was one of those foreigners who came to Japan because he was a huge nerd. That was true, but he didn’t want to expose that so much, even though he would never see them ever again.

“That’s amazing,” Kanata said when he saw Erick’s painting. “As expected from a professional manga artist.”

“Thanks. Yours is good too.”

“Please, don’t pity me. Even by modern art standards, this sucks,” he said, laughing. He gave up and stood before Erick, looking at him with a strange grin.

“What?”

“Paint me,” Kanata asked, suddenly excited. “Paint me like one of your French boys.”

Erick laughed at the reference. “Sure. But you have to do a special pose.”

Kanata picked a pose and Erick painted him.

I wonder how many people here are gonna get the Jojo reference, he thought as he added the last colors.

“Wow, it’s amazing!” Kanata exclaimed when Erick finished. “I wanna hang this in my room.”

“It’s amazing indeed,” said one of the students that were in charge of the workshop. “Do you have any experience?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever painted on a canvas, but I’m trying to be a manga artist.”

“I can see that,” she said, smiling at the pose.

“We can keep this, right?” Kanata asked.

“Sure. We can ship it to any address you want for a fee.”

After they paid for the service, they went to check the play’s first exhibition. It was indeed an amazing production you wouldn’t think students could pull off. Then they went to another building, where the guests could try different outfits and walk down a runaway pretending they were models.

Kanata’s eyes shone when he saw all the different outfits they could choose from. Erick smiled when he saw that. It was all he wanted. But his joy vanished when his date held a shirt before him, checking how it looked on him.

“What are you doing?”

“Picking an outfit for you. What else?” Kanata asked as if he didn’t understand the question. He put the shirt back and got another.

“Why are you doing that?”

“You’re not going to walk with me?”

Erick widened his eyes. “I was planning to watch… This is more your thing…”

“It’ll be way more fun if you’re with me. Please,” Kanata begged, getting closer to look Erick in the eyes. Because of the makeup the students had put on him and his different hairstyle, he looked even cuter than usual.

“Fine,” Erick muttered, caving in. This is a date and I’m here for him. I’ll bite the bullet and walk on the runaway… With dozens of strangers looking at me… Actually, they’ll only be looking at my date.

Kanata picked a glossy white shirt with a V-neck, a black jacket, and pants for Erick. For him, he chose a short red dress that exposed one of his legs a lot and matching high heels. They walked side by side on the runway. While the cross-dresser beamed and seemed as if he was having a blast, the foreigner was stiff and only focused on walking.

If I trip and fall, it’ll be the most embarrassing memory of my life, he thought. However, when he reached the end of the runway, Kanata held his hand. With his friend’s smile, he relaxed a little. Then he had an idea.

He raised his hand high in the air and Kanata understood, twirling around as if they were dancing. Then Erick held him closer and kissed him. The people watching applauded. His date looked surprised but beamed, and Erick blushed as they walked back while holding hands.

“That was amazing!” exclaimed the student who was in charge. “It’s already trending on social media.”

After trying out a few more outfits and walking down the runaway many times, which made the crowd even bigger, the student thanked them both again, saying they could keep whatever outfit they wanted. Kanata chose the red dress and Erick kept the first clothes.

“That was amazing,” the cross-dressing boy said, smiling as they left the building.

“I’m glad you liked,” Erick replied. Seeing his date smile like that made his embarrassment worth it.

With the afternoon ending, so was the festival. And with it, came the most anticipated event. Like everyone else, they headed to the huge hall where the fashion show was being held.

Kanata was amazed by all the clothes. Erick kept quiet, not saying he would rather walk around in his underwear than in some of the clothes the male models wore.

“I can’t believe I finally saw Jeika’s fashion show.”

“I’m glad you liked it. I don’t get that kind of high fashion…”

Kanata laughed. “I get what you’re saying. Some designers prefer to show their style through… let’s say unique clothes that get people’s attention…”

“I call it ugly.”

“I can’t disagree with that,” Kanata replied. They both laughed.

“Well, at least you had fun. That was all I wanted.”

“Thanks for this, Erick!” Kanata beamed, hugging his arm. “I always wanted to come to this festival.”

“So you say this was a good date?”

“It was amazing!” Kanata exclaimed. Then, as he looked at his date, he flashed a sly smile. “But it can get even better.”

Erick already knew what his friend meant, but before he could say anything, Kanata kissed him and led him to the closest bathroom.