Submit Anon: “But she was charging!”

Back in freshman year of high school, I joined Japanese club. I heard all they did was play video games after school, which sounded pretty cool, and I had nothing to do after school anymore. I used to do karate, but had to stop for a while after an accident at a competition. My head needed some stitches and a chunk of my hair got shaved off to make room for a pretty gross-looking bandage. This will be relevant soon.

I didn’t really interact with the club all that much, except for these two girls I met, T and S. T looked pretty normal. Good hygiene, dressed well. She was really into cosplaying, but she didn’t bring it into school and she wasn’t disruptive or anything. She thought it was really cool that I did karate and she was always asking me to teach her. S… showered often enough, but she wore the same ratty blue tutu to school EVERY day mixed with an anime shirt and wolf ears. She said they helped her “embrace her real nature”, which somehow included ending perfectly normal English sentences with “desu”, and for no reason at any time of the day she’d strike a cute ~anime~ pose and just hold it for about thirty seconds until somebody noticed it. But they didn’t mind that I was new, they didn’t really notice my hair and I really wanted attention, so we hung out pretty much every day after school.

Within one week of joining, T and S were spending every minute of their spare time with me and I got really obsessed with Shugo Chara and Lucky Star. Soon after, we all got really, really into Chobits. T was pretty much just watching me and S, with what she later told me was growing horror, as we pretended to be persocoms all day and talked only in “Chi” noises and “Hideki, fight!” We learned that there was a con in Chicago in about a week, and T suggested that S and I all go together. I was really excited because I was going to cosplay as a persocom. The entire outfit consisted of a Milanoo dress that S ordered for me (in all fairness, I loathed it) and some fabric Chobits ears T made me. They clipped on with barrettes, and I was really happy that I could push my hair over the bandage and clip an ear on so it wouldn’t be visible.

I met T and S at the convention. S had a satiny Sailor Moon costume on – no wig or boots, just a Milanoo costume she’d ordered along with mine – and a giant mostly empty tote bag that gradually got fuller and fuller with overpriced things from dealers’ tables. S started acting more and more erratically the longer we stayed; she was only talking in broken Japanese (kawaii sugoi desu nya~!) and she followed a group of Hetalia cosplayers around for about an hour, talking about how she wanted to eat Germany up while she stroked her ears. At this point T and I were both visibly uncomfortable, but neither of us are really the loud type, so we just figured she’d calm down.

We were so wrong. When Germany separated from the rest of his group to go walk the artist’s alley, S ran up and glomped him and started screeching about how cute he was. “Omg Germany-san you’re so kawaii desu ne you look great I could just eat you UP can I take a picture with you?” I don’t think she waited for a response. She pulled her phone out of her bag and screamed, “T-san, come take a picture of me and Germany-san!” She was really being loud at this point and con security was starting to watch us, so I was backing away toward the ladies room. S noticed me and ran over toward me, going, “Come on, get in the picture with me and Germany-san, Chi! Are you too tired? Do you need charged?”

And then, bless her twisted little weeb soul, she pulled her phone charger out of her bag, took one of the ends, pushed the ear over my bandage up, pulled up a corner, and used the bandage to hold the charger in place. My head was bleeding again and I was crying, and T was pulling the charger out of my HEAD WOUND and pulling me away from S. I shit you not, she was actually going, “But she was charging!” to con security. T led me away, still crying, and she drove me home.

I didn’t go to Japanese club anymore, I avoided S in the halls, and I hid behind teachers until the semester was over. I kept in touch with T online, who told me that S was banned from the con. Neither of us ever really tried being S’s friend after that. It still mystifies me how S managed to find the worst time in my life to push a pointy thing into my head. I hope she’s doing okay.