I couldn’t imagine it well, so when I blinked, Maria smiled and showed what she was hiding behind her back.
“Ta-da! This is the photo album that shows Rika’s growth process. Aren’t you curious as a friend, Yoo-sung?”
It was a very obvious event to go to a friend’s house and look at a photo album, but it was a trial that I wanted to experience at least once as a reader.
Eventually, when I nodded shyly after being tempted, Maria sat across from me and opened her secret photo album.
The album, which chronicles Rika’s growth, started from infancy.
“This is Rika when she was 1 years old, this is Rika when she was 2 years old, and this is Rika when she was 3 years old, and this is a picture taken when she went to England with me.”
Maria recounted the faded memories, pointing out the pictures one by one, and telling an anecdote related to them.
“Ah, this is Rika from the school arts festival. It was so cute that she came home with a sad face and complained about the role of a tree she got by drawing lots.”
Maria laughed as she said so and slowly moved the album to the next page.
“Oh, I miss this, too. I took this picture when I went to the Comiket for the first time with Rika.”
Yes?
When I heard something completely unexpected, I turned my head unconsciously.
In the photo, a blonde mother and daughter in twin tails were posing with a modern cane in a black costume.
It is a rival character of Magic Girl, which was popular about 10 years ago.
I had never seen it, but I remembered it because of Kim Yoo-sung’s memories.
When I looked at Maria with a perplexed expression, she smiled proudly and said,
“I used to be a first-generation cosplayer. Since I was young, I wanted to cosplay with my daughter when I got one.”
Very naturally, Maria, who revealed her old job, continued to explain the following photos.
“Oh, this is the picture I took when I was in C73. My husband took this picture when I was in C78.”
In the photo, Maria was cosplaying all kinds of foreign characters, taking advantage of being a blonde foreigner.
Rika, her daughter, was always next to her.
“Huhu, isn’t my daughter so cute? She had a talent for cosplay because she looked like me.”
To be honest, it was nothing else than a culture shock in many ways to say that cosplay was taught early to her.
Is she talking about Rika’s embarrassing past?
When I was nodding my head, somehow convinced,
“Ah, I finally found it. My daughter’s embarrassing past.”
“What? There’s more?”
I was surprised that there was a worse embarrassing past than this.
Honestly, at this point, I was wondering what the picture was.
Perhaps because she was satisfied with my response, Maria nodded her head and showed me a picture of the album.
In the picture, Rika, a middle school student with an eye patch on her right eye and a black gosroli costume and a red lens, looked so cool…
“Mama!”
Hearing a pointed voice from behind my back, I hurriedly closed the album.
“Oh my, you’re already here?”
Maria welcomed Rika with a calm expression.
Rika, who walked with a red face, hit the tray she was holding while putting it down on the table to make a sound and asked Maria.
“Did you show them?”
Then Maria smiled tenderly and nodded.
“Yes.”
“Kyaaaaaa!”
Rika was bursting with shame.
She wasn’t as bright and playful as usual and looked genuinely ashamed.
That’s right, it’s understandable if a friend in the same class discovered a picture of you with the 8th grade syndrome.
If I were in the same situation, I’d find a rat hole first to hide.
When I hesitated because I didn’t know how to console her, Rika said with a tearful look.
“I don’t do any cosplay anymore It’s true! That’s just… It’s a mistake I made during a stormy period!”
“Uh, yeah. I trust you.”
As I nodded saying so, Rika was somehow in even more pain.
Is it the cry of someone who got caught with her embarrassing past.
Maria, who was happily watching her daughter suffer, put the album on her side and waved her hand slightly.
“Then Mama will get going. You two have a good time~”
Then Rika jumped up from the bed and shouted to the back of Maria’s head as she left the room.
“Don’t ever come into my room again!”
However, Maria closed the door slightly and walked out without any reply.
Rika, who was huffing to herself, asked me with a tearful face as if she still couldn’t relieve her anger.