“Guys, guys, guys!” Shirley cried out to us as she hurried back to her seat from lunch break. “I heard that HR is planning to do some event for halloween.”

“What kind of event?” Vivien asked. At this point, the attentions of everyone, including the people from the block behind us, were now all focused on Shirley.

“From what I hear, we will have some kids running around in the office doing trick or treat. Plus, they also want us to have costumes! And it’s gonna be a competition!” Shirley continued. A minor commotion then proceeded in our area following this news.

“I’ll go as an IT guy!” Chris joked. “No, a slutty IT guy!”

“This makes me want to cosplay again,” Vivien mused. This revelation piqued our interest.

“You cosplay, V?” Shirley asked.

“I’ve done it a couple of times back in college. I had a few blockmates who were cosplaying then and I sort of ended up joining them,” Vivien explained.

Chris quickly turned to give me a knowing look and a smile. I gave him my best expression that feigned ignorance.

“What have you cosplayed?” Chris turned back towards to Vivien and asked. I was all ears.

“Hmm… I’ve done Lacus, Misao and Cardcaptor Sakura,” she replied.

“Do the Sakura one on halloween!” Chris quipped.

Vivien laughed as she rejected the idea. “That was my first cosplay. I don’t think I’ll fit in that one anymore. Plus, I don’t look that young anymore. I’d look like an overgrown kid.”

“That’s the point!” Chris retorted a few seconds before a small pillow flew from Vivien’s hand to his face.

“Misao from Samurai X?” I asked Vivien. I wasn’t able to keep my curiosity in check.

“Yup,” she replied.

“You planning to use any of them for halloween?” Shirley asked.

“I might. Let’s see.” Vivien answered.

* * * * *

True enough, the official announcement for this event came the next day. We were going to hold the event on the afternoon of October 31. The company was opening its office for any kid relatives of our employees to do trick or treating that day. HR was also gonna set up a company sponsored candy station, and asked us in a company-wide email if anyone wanted to volunteer as well to prepare their own goodies to give out. Naturally, lots of people volunteered. People in general liked kids after all.

Aside from that, we were encouraged to both dress up in costumes and decorate our blocks for that event. They even offered prizes for best in costume and best in block decoration. People got excited over these. They were indeed effective measures in spicing up the workplace.

And so the trending topic for water-cooler talks became a matter of what costume a person is planning to wear or how a certain block is planning to decorate their block. The festive mood had already began, even though we were still more than a month away from it.

Naturally, I received my fair share of inquiries as to what I had planned to wear on that occasion. Chris himself asked me a couple of times, often coupled with a jab on how I must be excited to see Vivien cosplaying. I kept mum on my plans, mostly just saying that I was still thinking about it. I wanted to keep my plans as a surprise, but I mostly just wanted to be non-committal in case I wasn’t able to pull through with what I had set out to do.

As to whether I was excited to see Vivien cosplaying, that was already a given.

* * * * *

Truthfully speaking, I already began preparing for the halloween costume event as soon as I heard the unofficial news from Shirley. I knew right then that I wanted to cosplay an anime character. After all, it was the logical choice given my interest in Japanese comics and animation. Moreover, it was the perfect situation to try out cosplaying, something that had intrigued me for quite some time already.

I started brainstorming for ideas on what character I could go as. I set certain rules for myself, mostly stemming from the things I’ve seen in the various conventions I had attended. First, the character had to be male. I didn’t want to go off scaring the kids on that event by going drag.

Second, the character had to have a distinctive costume that was rather elaborate. I never was impressed with the random schoolgirl cosplays I had seen in conventions, both due to the lack of recall and the plainness of the attire. If I was going to try something, I wanted it to stand out.

Third, I hoped that the character would have some form of a mask. I wasn’t very confident with how I looked, nor did I know anything about putting makeup on. I figured that the best way around this problem was to simply hide my face behind something.

But most importantly, though, was that I had decided I would only choose a character I liked from a series I enjoyed. I believed that cosplay was, after all, a homage to the character. You could say cosplay is character love. You had to have some sense of affinity for the character and the series in order to give justice to the character. It wasn’t just about wearing a costume; It was closer to role-playing.

After a couple of days contemplating my choices, I finally decided to cosplay Lelouch from Code Geass in his Zero attire. Even though the series had already finished airing a couple of years back, it was famous enough to still carry a decent recall factor. It had also been one of my favourites.

Aside from that, Lelouch had a very lanky build. I thought that as I was taller than most of my peers, and was closer to being underweight, I had an apt body type to cosplay the character. Overall, the character seemed tailor fit to what I had hoped for.

Thankfully, I did not have much problems looking for a seamstress to make my costume as my mom, who had tons of experience tailoring clothes, agreed to my request for her to make it. This quickly got the ball rolling for my plan, and soon after rounds of buying cloth, arguing over details, and trial fitting, my costume was all set for the big day.

* * * * *

October 31 finally came. Everyone in the office was excited to the point that hardly any work was done that morning. People were either adding more decorations to their blocks, or were leisurely talking about the costumes they would be wearing that afternoon.

For the most part, I was keeping a low profile that morning. I still had not told anyone about my costume, insistent on keeping it as a surprise. Chris was pretty much bugging me the entire morning to tell him what I had prepared. He even offered to tell me what cosplay Vivien was doing that afternoon in exchange.

I held my ground, even if I was dying to know what Vivien had prepared.

* * * * *

When the announcement finally came that we could all stop pretending to work and set up for the festivities, I quickly headed off to the bathroom to change into my costume. I chose the bathroom that was further away from our office, hoping that one way or another, there would be less people there. I needed the extra space to mentally prepare myself for what was to come.

Sure enough, the bathroom I went to was bare. I changed into my costume, painstakingly putting on each layer of the attire and fixing myself in front of the mirror.

Zero’s attire was made up of various parts. I wore thin violet slacks that had a single yellow vertical stripe running down from waist to ankle in front on each leg. The stripes bulged into diamond shapes on each knee, before reverting back into thin stripes for the lower leg. The slacks were met at the bottom by a pair of black leather boots.

The top was a violet coat that had two tails extending from the back, similar to what a Victorian tailcoat looked like. It had yellow pipings as hems at the bottom, at the cuffs as well as at the collar. Aside from that, the coat also carried several yellow stripes spread throughout.

I also wore a pair of thin black gloves, a white silk scarf that covered my neck, and a black face mask that covered the lower half of my face from my nose down. The final part of the costume was a large black cape with a blood red inner lining. The cape was designed to be wide enough to cover even my front, and had a collar that could be propped up high enough to reach almost three-fourths of my head.

I looked at the myself to asses the finished product. The costume was magnificent. It looked extravagant. I struggled for a couple of minutes to fix my hair and try out some poses in front of the mirror. Everything seemed in place. I was all set.

And so I finally left the bathroom and walked down our office.

I surveyed the office on my way back to my seat. Most people were wearing simple costumes. Some only had simple masks or wore headbands with devil horns. Others had costumes that also required a change in clothes. But I probably had one of the most elaborate costumes that day, so people took notice of me as I passed by. There were a few inquisitive gazes from people I wasn’t that familiar with. There were also a few friends who approached me giving their compliments. As my voice was largely stifled by my face mask, I simply replied to them with a thumbs up.

As I approached our block, I saw Chris with his DSLR camera busily taking pictures of the people around the area. It was his newfound hobby which was in full effect that day. After snapping a couple of shots, he finally noticed me just as I entered our block.

“Jude? Is that you?” he asked.

I nodded in reply. It was hard to talk with the mask on.

“Your Zero looks nice. Why did you have to hide it from us?” he quipped.

“Like I said, I wanted it as a surprise,” I reminded him.

“Picture?” he signaled with his camera.

“Wait, wait,” I replied as a I put down my bag on my chair.

After a couple of shots involving the few poses I practiced, Chris and I started trading barbs at each other. He was going on about my costume and Vivien, while I was making fun of him going as a perverted photographer.

Our horsing around came to a full stop when the other people in our block were close to reaching our area. The first to come to my vision was Shirley, who was wearing a fairy costume distinctively marked by a pair of wings. Behind her, though, was Vivien talking to a couple of other girls.

Vivien was cosplaying Lacus Clyne in all her glory. She wore a black ninja-esque sleeveless short kimono with purple hem. Tied to her waist was a pink obi sash. On top of that dress, she had a white trenchcoat with purple sleeves and pink hem. Naturally, she also sported a long pink wavy wig tied up in a high ponytail. She was even carrying a stuffed toy Haro.

It was dazzling. Her look hit me far stronger than what I had expected. It was majestic.

I could not stop staring at her that moment, to the point that as she neared our place and her face turned my way, our eyes met. Time felt as though it slowed down.

Her smiling face turned to surprise right after she saw me. I was worried.

Her eyes then lit up, and soon her entire face brightened. I was confused.

She ran towards me, stopping in front of me with eyes intently looking at me. I froze.

She grabbed and tugged my arm as she exclaimed, “It’s Zero!” I died.

“Oh my God, it’s Zero!” she beamed as though she was a kid receiving candy. I was at a total loss for words. Sure I wanted to somehow impress her, but her reaction was totally unexpected. It exceeded what I could reasonably anticipate.

“Picture, picture,” Chris shot out to me and Vivien. Intended or not, Chris just threw me a lifeline right there. I thanked him silently from the inside of my heart.

Vivien spun herself around towards my left, and she now faced Chris who was holding up his camera. She then wrapped her right arm around my left arm, while her left hand was holding my left wrist. It was almost like she was hugging my arm as she leaned towards me, striking a pose at the camera.

My mind blanked out. I was no longer conscious enough to even realize what part of hers my arm was in contact with. All I knew was that at the moment, it was the closest I’ve ever been in contact with a girl who is not related to me. My heart was going wild.

I could only thank the heavens that my mask was hiding whatever expression I had at that moment. Who knows how I’d look like in those pictures.

After Chris took a couple of shots, Vivien spun back in front of me and exclaimed, “We should cosplay together!”

Those words would change everything.