[A contrast-filled sweetheart cosplayer who is shy in real life but wild online × a famous photographer who seems abstinent but is actually scheming and methodical]
1.
Yun Qiao is a cosplayer with a million followers. In real life, though, he spends most of his time in the lab, wearing black-rimmed glasses and a white coat as he checks on cultures.
He's always kept his hobbies and his real life separate, until he unexpectedly takes a cosplay commission and discovers that the client is Yan Kongqing, his senior from the same research group.
Looking at his usually stern and forbidding senior now smiling brightly, then thinking of the cute client online who uses nothing but kawaii stickers in their chats...
Yun Qiao: It feels like... some kind of filter just shattered.
And so Yun Qiao begins living a split life: diligently conducting experiments with his stone-faced senior on weekdays, then dressing up in all kinds of cosplay outfits and going on dates with his flirtatious client on weekends.
The good news is that he's disguised himself so well that his senior hasn't noticed a thing. The bad news is that his senior is so good at spoiling him and saying sweet nothings that Yun Qiao keeps wondering who is commissioning whom.
Just as he's gradually falling for his senior's tender advances, Yun Qiao sees the lock screen on Yan Kongqing's phone. It's unmistakably a photo of him sitting in the lab.
One day, Yan Kongqing suddenly realizes that the rabbit he's been raising for so long has started avoiding him.
2.
Cosplay Commission Oddities Bot: Submission 347 [I took a cosplay commission and found out my client was my fellow student and senior]
Hi, Bot. Here's some of those delicious grape jellies from the school gate.
I'm a guy, and until now I've just been a cosplayer doing it purely for love. My client was the same gender, so they came to me. As we got to know each other, I felt that the client and my senior in real life had remarkably similar tastes. But their personalities were completely different, so I didn't think much of it. Then, on the day we met, I discovered it really was my senior. I fell apart.
It was my first commission, and I tried my best to give it my all. But my serious, cool-headed senior is just too good at flirting when he gets gentle! The little details are so touching, and he knows exactly what to say! It's hard not to fall for him. We had a great time together that day. I was both relieved and disappointed that he didn't recognize me, haha... Later, we agreed to make it a long-term commission.
Here's where things stand now: I'm so smitten that I'm sure I like him, but I'm way too shy in real life and haven't worked up the courage to tell him. And then! I suddenly found out that one entire wall in my senior's darkroom is covered with candid photos of me!
I still can't tell whether I've been found out. I've been going out of my way to avoid my senior in real life, so, friends, what should I do???
Top comment 1: Wait, what? Do cosplay commissions always get this wild? Did this actually turn into cosplay?
Top comment 2: You've definitely been found out. Your senior's long-planned scheme is so obvious. Why haven't you made a move yet?
Top comment 3: Aaaaaah, I'm dying of suspense! Gao Zhu, give me your contact info and I'll teach you how to win him over!!!
Cosplay Commission Oddities Bot: Submission 485 [I'm Gao Zhu from 347. Thanks, everyone. We're together now]
[The cover character design is non-exclusive. Thanks to the artist @Zhonglu Youhe Ming for permission to use it.]
Note: To make the story easier to follow and serve the plot, all fictional characters mentioned in the story are made up.
Theme: Free love.
