Jun's mouth hung partly agape as the realization hit her that she had just been "introduced" to some of her best friends. Her memories drifted back, as if she was waking up from a dream. The four of them had agreed to meet at this store to find costumes for the party. It was all so obvious that Jun felt embarrassed she had ever forgotten.
Her awkward feeling was a little justified, however. The trio of friends didn't look quite as she remembered them, as they were all wearing costumes of their own.
Cliff sported a white and green plaid dress akin to a stereotypical Irish woman. It worked well with his red hair and small bunch of freckles on his round nose. Despite there not being any padding in the chest, the dress and the frilly blouse underneath it seemed to fit quite well. He also had white stockings and green shoes with a slight heel.
Tru was kitted out with several colorful bird-themed accessories. His long-sleeve shirt and pants were a bright white in the front, transitioning to a brilliant blue with some yellow accents on the sides, and June guessed they were solid blue in the back. At the shoulders and waist, some artificial blue feathers were sewn into the fabric. Everywhere else, there were blurry grayish lines printed over the colors to suggest more feathers. He wore orange gloves and orange shoes that also had some lines to give them the illusion of texture, although these were uniformly horizontal and darker. Bird talons, definitely, especially since the fingers all ended in points and the shoes had three padded spikes forming the toe. Around his neck hung a black plastic beak from an elastic cord. He had chosen not to wear it on his face at the moment, for obvious reasons. To cap it all off, Jun could see poking out from behind him a pair of folded blue, yellow and white wings that were attached to straps over his shoulders.
Nadia's outfit was also animal-themed, but less elaborate. She wore a fuzzy white sweater covered in a snow leopard pattern and matching skin-hugging leggings. Her white boots seemed normal enough, though. Atop her head was a plastic band with two large, fluffy, dish-shaped cat ears. A fabric tail dangled between her legs and almost touched the floor.
The catlike woman tilted her head and gently frowned, concernedly. "Are you okay, Jun?"
Jun blinked and realized her mouth was still open. She clamped her jaw tight and smiled sheepishly.
"Uh, it's like I said," Kelan tried to ease her embarrassment. "She doesn't know a lot of English. It might take her a minute." Well, that didn't help.
"Err... hai... yes," Jun stammered. "Sorry, I was just... trying to remember if I reco... recon..." She cleared her throat. "Seen you somewhere before." Words were suddenly harder to scrape from her mental dictionary. English was so hard. It was a good thing Kelan was there to help her.
Tru leaned toward Cliff and muttered "Oh, you're right. I hear her accent now. It's pretty thick... weird that I missed it--ack!" He jolted when Nadia hit him firmly in the side with her spotted elbow.
Nadia forced a kind smile "Sorry... uh, about that."
"Yeah, I'm sorry," Tru said. "Hey, look, if we're interrupting you from something..."
Jun shook her head, perhaps with more strength than she intended, as she felt her black hair slap her cheeks. "It's all right!" she squeaked. "Actually..."