The Embarrassing Komari Festival (Part 1/4)
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2026 12:12 pm
The school festival begins, the most important event of the year where many families and all the students of the school attend without fail. But the shy little Komari will be the worst day of her whole life. Being an extremely shy and reserved girl she was somehow forced to participate in the festival, an event that she hates with all her being because of her antisocial personality. And as if it were a divine punishment for not appreciating the festival, Komari will be involved in many humiliating events of the Festival, being seen naked being the least of her worries.
Author's Note: It's my first time writing and publishing ENF content, although my English is not very good, I hope you still enjoy it, try to capture the essence of the ENF stories that I love reading so much.
The roar of the school festival crashed into my ears, a discordant tide of noise that left me reeling. The air tasted of a cloying, artificial sweetness that clung to the back of my throat, floating down the hallways like a thick, invisible mist. For everyone else, this day marked the pinnacle of the academic year, a kaleidoscope of neon banners and frenzied laughter. For me it was a sensory execution. I hunched my shoulders, trying to merge with the masonry. My school jacket, three sizes bigger, looked like a heavy woolen shrine, a cave of fabric that I was hoping would swallow me whole. I prayed that the ground would simply dissolve, transporting me back to the sacred, dusty silence of the library, where the only judgments came from the ink-stained pages of novels and the setting of the old paper provided a shield against the world. I pressed my current book against my sternum and the rough grain of the cover bit my palms. I wanted to disappear. Every laugh that echoed off the linoleum walls felt like a precisely guided dart aimed at my shoulder blades. I clung to the perimeter of the hallway, sliding along the walls and intentionally stopping at the scuff marks on the floor to avoid the predatory glances of any human being.
Then a voice, high-pitched and penetrating enough to shatter glass, cut through the ambient noise and incinerated my peace.
"Komari! I finally found you!" The scream shook me. My book slipped from my numb fingers, hitting the floor with a thud. I turned my head with the slow, mechanical fear of a condemned prisoner. It was Emilia, the leader of the drama club. She stood there, radiating an intensity that seemed physically exhausting. Her smile was too wide, her long or dark hair was moving in the wind, and her blue eyes were walking with a brightness that verged on the manic. Her chest was huge and she had big curves, the opposite of my decrepit disgusting otaku appearance, a short and thin girl of about 152 cm. With a constant scared expression, short reddish hair and tousled with bangs. I was always someone extremely shy and antisocial, I have no friends and I spend my time reading novels in the library. Before I could calculate an escape route, Emilia's hand held my wrist tightly. His grip was surprising, a vice of warm skin and iron will.
"Stop making that face! You look like a scolded puppy!" Emilia didn't let go of me. Instead, he leaned in, his smell was something like strawberries and a hint of mischief overwhelming my senses.
"I need you. Do you remember that the teacher forced everyone to join the club activities? You volunteered as a backup if someone went missing, remember?" The memory came to light, a distant and blurred spot. I remembered the moment of weakness, a bet based on the assumption that the probability of a vacancy on the busiest day of the year was statistically zero. It turned out that fate possessed a sadistic sense of humor.
"B-But no... i-I don't think i-is necessary..."
"Too late! We have an emergency. One of our girls had a fever and the House of Horrors cast is incomplete. You're our new hero, Komari!" Emilia did not wait for a rebuttal. She turned around and started dragging me through the halls. My feet barely grazed the ground, my body swayed like a rag doll dragged like a child who did not want to go to the dentist. I remained in my perpetual state of collapse: shoulders curved inward, hair spilling out of my messy ponytail, and a look of pure, unadulterated terror etched on my features. People stopped to stare at me. I could feel his cold, curious, mocking eyes. I could almost hear his internal monologues: “Is he seventeen? Why does he dress like a tramp? Those books are for children. Look how she shudders” The heat rose to my neck, a scorching crimson tide that flooded my cheeks and burned my ears.
We arrived at the assigned classroom. The space had been destroyed and reborn as an underground cavern. Cotton cobwebs hung from the ceiling like suffocating shrouds, and strobe lights flickered with a rhythmic, jarring intensity that fragmented the room into jagged portions of vision. Heavy concession tables were strewn about and the air was thick, smelling of damp paint, damp cardboard and old dust.
Emilia ignored my confused look. She led me to a corner where heavy midnight black velvet curtains separated the performance area from the dressing area. With a sudden and energetic push, she pushed me towards the dark enclosure. "I'll be honest with you," Emilia said, her voice dropping an octave, echoing in the small space. "I didn't think you'd really have the guts to leave your cave of books to help us."
"I... N-No... Alone… p-professor..."
"The 'why' doesn't matter. The 'what' he does. We have a vacancy," he explained, crossing his arms. "Like I said, a girl is out. Probably because this place is too scary for the weak. But you... you look like someone who lives in a permanent state of terror. You're a natural."
"What the s-should I do? I-I don't want to talk."
Emilia smiled. It was not his usual cheerful ray. Her cheeks wore a slight pink color and a spark of genuine malice danced in her pupils. It was the look of a cat that had finally cornered a particularly shaky mouse. "It's simple. Our topic is Ancient Egypt. Specifically, mummies. And because we are a team, each member has to wear an authentic mummy set." Mummies. I felt a wave of relief bathing me. Bandages. Just wrapping some gauze strips over my clothes. It was a cliché, a lazy costume idea, but it was safe. I could hide my face under layers of white cloth.
"M-Me po-'ll get b-bands. I-I understand" I muttered, with a small trembling sigh escaping my lips. I waited for the bandages. Instead, Emilia reached for a huge package of gauze. The fabric was whitish, yellowed by age and the smell of the old warehouses. He dropped it on the table with a loud, definite thud. The silence that followed was dense, vibrating with an energy that I could not decode.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Take off your clothes." The air disappeared from my lungs for a moment. I froze, my gaze darted from the pile of yellowed fabric to Emilia's expectant face. "W-What...? M-My clothes w-what is t-talking about?"
"To be a mummy, you can't have clothes on underneath. Bandages should be wrapped directly against the skin. Even a pair of panties would ruin the silhouette; you would look like a potato sack wrapped in toilet paper. We want a definite shape, even if, in your case, the shape is very... You..."
My heart hit my ribs like a trapped bird. Panic rose up my throat, thick and choking. "N-No! N-Never! I-I can't d-do that!"
"Don't be childish. We're in a drama club; he acts like a professional. Besides, what does it matter? It's not like I'm asking you to do this in front of the guys." i stood there, shaking and holding the bandages, while Emilia watched me with a predatory intensity. I started to take off the oversized jacket and the rough fabric brushed my skin. I noticed that she hadn't moved. She remained rooted to the spot, her eyes following the movement of my fingers while I fiddled with the buttons of my blouse. When the first button opened, his gaze slid to my chest and his smile widened.
"G-Get out of here! G-Get out so I can c-change into p-peace!"
"Oh, you're so shy," Emilia joked, although she didn't take a step back. "I really don't know why you're so embarrassing. There's nothing I haven't seen before. Okay, little mouse. I'll leave. I'll stay right outside the curtain, guarding the entrance. We wouldn't want someone curious to find you naked while you're changing, would we? Although... that would be fun. Don't take too long; the line for the attraction is already forming."
The sound of his footsteps retreating and the soft rustle of the curtain closing brought a momentary and fragile sense of security. She was alone in the gloom, the faint light filtering through the velvet. My hands shook violently when I finished unbuttoning my shirt, the garment slipped off my shoulders and accumulated on the floor. I took off the pleated skirt and the fabric fell with a soft thud. Finally, I grabbed my underwear and removed the elastic from my hips. I stood there, completely naked. The cold air of the classroom hit my skin like a physical blow, causing a violent shiver in my body. Little goosebumps broke out on my pale arms and thighs. I felt microscopic, a nerve exposed. I glimpsed myself in the darkness: my chest was a flat expanse of porcelain, my ribs traced faint, fragile lines against my skin as I gasped for air. The cold forced my nipples to harden until they reached tight and sensitive peaks.
I wrapped my arms around myself. The softness of my own skin was the only comfort I had, but the vulnerability was overwhelming. Just a few centimeters away, separated by a thin and cheap piece of cloth, there were dozens of students and parents. The thought of someone crossing that threshold and seeing me like that turned my blood to ice. I imagined the laughter, the cruel comments about my lack of curves. I felt like a prey waiting for a predator. The distant roar of the crowd grew louder, punctuated by the rhythmic thump of the bass from another club's loudspeaker. Then, Emilia's voice drifted through the curtain. Are you done yet, Komari? You've been there for four minutes. Don't tell me you fainted because of nerves?" Before I could muster a response, Emilia came over. She did not merely pull the curtain; she pulled it with a sudden and violent force.
* CRACK.*
The sound echoed throughout the room like a gunshot. The cheap metal rail groaned and snapped, the whole velvet curtain went out of its way and collapsed to the ground in a single useless pile of fabric. I felt the world stopped. Suddenly I was bathed in the harsh and unapologetic glare of the ceiling spotlights. I froze, my heart would skip a beat and then hit with a frequency that made my vision blurry. I turned my head slowly and the sight before me seemed like a death sentence. It wasn't just Emilia. Three girls and two girls from the club were frozen there. And behind them, a whole group of students who had entered the room to admire the scenery.
All the eyes in the room were focused on me. The surprise on their faces changed at a terrifying speed. Curiosity turned into wide-eyed shock and then a slow, poisonous wave of malicious amusement began to spread. I saw myself through her eyes: a pale, trembling, red-haired girl, stripped of every shred of dignity, standing in the center of a spotlight. My hands flew up, but they were too small. I crossed my arms over my chest, but my fingers only covered the center of my breasts, leaving the lower curves and pale bottom exposed. My other hand reached out to cover my groin, but the awkward angle only served to highlight the stark whiteness of my inner thighs and the vulnerable curve of my hips.
"AAAAH!" The scream tore from my throat a sharp, irregular sound of pure despair. It was a noise I didn't know I was capable of emitting, the sound of a soul being skinned alive. I collapsed inward, bending my knees and hunching my shoulders, trying to bend into a singularity where I could disappear. A wave of heat surged through me, a phantom burn of shame that ran from my fingers to the tips of my ears. The silence that followed the scream was more agonizing than the noise. It was a void filled with hungry eyes, scanning every inch of my anatomy and documenting the flatness of my chest and the fragility of my body. "G-get out! C-Close your eyes! N-No, look! G-Get out of here!"
"I-I'm sorry! I swear it wasn't on purpose!" Emilia screamed, although she didn't move immediately and was still laughing. "E-Emilia! Put the damn curtain back in place! He-Help me! P-Put the c-curtain on! C-Cover me up! S-shut up and cover me up!" I screamed, the tears blurred my vision into a spot of colors. Emilia finally jumped forward, getting between the crowd and me, acting as a human shield. But she was too slow. The kids had already seen everything. They had seen the way my skin reacted to the cold, the exact way of my modesty and the frantic and clumsy way I tried to hide. "Hey, have some consideration!" Emilia shouted to the crowd. "Stop looking, give Komari some privacy!" Some of the boys nodded and turned around, but others lingered, casting furtive and persistent glances over their shoulders. I heard the quiet whispers, and the low laughter
I collapsed on the floor, pressed my knees to my chest and sobbed in my arms. The friction of my bare skin against the cold floor felt like a reminder of my exposure. I was no longer a student; I was a specimen. An exhibition. Some girls from the club ran forward, grabbing the fallen curtain and manually holding it while someone struggled for a piece of thread to fix the rail. One of them looked at me with a mixture of pity and disgust. "We are so sorry, Komari-chan. This was a horrible accident. I'm going to scold the guys for laughing at a teammate."
"I'm so sorry too, Komari!" Emilia added, her voice dripping with a mock sympathy that seemed acidic. "It must have been embarrassing to be naked in front of all those guys! Just imagining it... All seeing my private parts like that, with nothing covering me. I would die of shame if everyone saw me like that! You are so strong for not fainting!" I closed my eyes with my teeth grinding. Every word Emilia uttered was a nail in the coffin of my dignity. She wasn't comforting me; she was narrating my trauma, meticulously detailing the horror so that it would be permanently etched in my memory.
"And-already s-shut up... P-Please, just forget it."
"I'm serious, you're awesome! No one can handle that half of the course sees her naked and not wish that the earth swallowed them whole. It's a feat of mental toughness, especially for someone as shy as you!" The boys burst into a collective laugh. I could feel them leaning over, trying for one last glimpse of my shoulder or a sliver of my thigh before the curtain was finally secured. I felt dirty, not because of the floor, but because of the way their gazes had slid over me, valuing my non-existent curves and my trembling fragility. The curtain was finally fixed. The darkness returned, but the feeling of nakedness remained. I knew they were still there, just on the other side of the fabric, imagining the girl behind the veil. Emilia took a few steps back, her silhouette visible on the edge of the curtain.
"Well, the trauma is over. Now, hurry up and dress like a mummy. Your little episode has set us back quite a bit and the principal is touring the classrooms." i stood in silence, trembling, looking at my clothes scattered on the floor like discarded furs. Every instinct was telling me to take my things and run away from here, to run away from school and never come back. "Oh, and don't even think about backing out now or trying to get out of the club," Emilia's voice turned cold and the joy was replaced by a high-pitched touch. "If you decide to resign, maybe that curtain will break. And this time, I will invite all the third year boys to come and see how 'strong' you are in handling public nudity."
The threat hit me with the force of a physical blow. Emilia had found the right courage to press. The fear of a second, more deliberate exposure was a thousand times more potent than the first accidental one. I looked at the yellowed bandages on the table. The abrasive, rough fabric looked like a trap, a trap designed to hold me down. I had no other choice. I crawled towards the bandages, my movements mechanical and defeated. I felt the last remnants of my pride dissolving, leaving nothing but a hollow shell. "Y-Yes... I-I'll do it, I-I'll dress up as a mummy!"
"That's my girl! And relax, I was just kidding about the ones about breaking the curtain... Maybe. But seriously, hurry up, Komari!" Emilia's laughter echoed in the dressing room as she walked away, leaving me alone in the dark with my skin exposed and the resonant memory of a hundred eyes watching. I hated this festival. I hated this club. And I hated Emilia with every fiber of my being.
I stood there, petrified, as the echo of the laughter bounced off the walls of the dressing room like gunshots. The cold of the air conditioning bit my skin, but the humiliation kept me burning, an internal fire that climbed up the back of my neck and clouded my eyesight. My fingers were shaking so much that I could barely focus my gaze on the chipped wooden table. There, abandoned, lay some bandages. They were my only way out, the only possible shield between my fragmented dignity and the voracious gaze of the entire institute. If I didn't cover up, Emilia would make sure that every corner of the school knew exactly what every inch of my body looked like. I stood up with clumsy movements, feeling exposed even in the solitude of the room. Every brush of the draft against my thighs made me shudder. I took the first roll of gauze; the fabric was rough, yellowish and gave off a rancid smell of old dust and basement dampness.
"I-I-I just need... T-To cover me." I whispered, my voice breaking in a desperate plea "I-I'm not naked... I-I'm not naked..." I started to wrap my chest. I pulled the fabric with a brute force, pressing the gauze against my flat breasts until I felt that the air was lacking. I wanted to erase the image of those eyes devouring me, I wanted to annul my own physical existence. I passed the bandage over and over, securing the ends with hurried knots that left red marks on my pale skin. Then I went down to my pelvis. I wrapped my private parts with repetitive layers, feeling how the gauze adhered to the moisture of the sweat caused by nerves. The fabric was sticking to my lower lips, creating a rough and cold barrier. Two minutes later, the essentials were covered, although the gauze was so thin that it barely offered any real protection; it was more of a psychological lie than an article of clothing. I felt like I was wearing see-through underwear in the middle of school. I continued to climb up and down, wrapping my abdomen and thighs, trying to imitate the silhouette of a real mummy. I wanted to disappear under layers of white. However, when I tried to turn around my waist, the roll ended with a dry jerk. I pulled the end of the bandage and there was only an insignificant piece of fabric left that disintegrated between my fingers. I looked at myself in the small cracked mirror on the wall. The result was an absolute disaster. My shoulders were completely bare, exposed to the ice air. My back was an expanse of white, vulnerable skin, and at the waist, just where the bandages cut sharply, there was an alarming gap that revealed too much skin. My face, of course, was totally exposed, with red-hot burning cheeks and moist eyes. She didn't look like a mummy; she looked like someone who had survived a catastrophic accident with a roll of toilet paper. "C-can't be... a-a-Are they over?"bMy fingers felt the empty table, finding only dust. I took a deep breath, shrugging my shoulders and hunching my back to try to hide my chest with my own posture. I had no other choice. I left the dressing room walking glued to the wall, sliding my back against the cold concrete, praying that no one would notice the gap between the bandages.
When I reached the central area, I stopped in my tracks. My heart skipped a beat. I saw the other girls at the club. All of them were wrapped from the neck to the ankles, like real cocoons of neat white silk. Only their faces peeked out of the gaps, protected by dense layers of fabric. I, on the other hand, was an exhibitionist with pale skin and badly placed strips of fabric that threatened to undress me at any moment. Emilia approached me with a predatory smile, her eyes shining with genuine malice. He ran his gaze over me, deliberately stopping at the curve of my exposed waist, where the skin was slightly sagging. "Go-Go, Komari! I didn't know you were so... Daring. I love that attitude. It's so much more... Suggestive. I'm sure we'll attract a lot of customers with that."
I felt the heat rising up my neck like a flare, burning up to my ears. "W-w-Why y-Am I the only one dressed like that?!" I burst out, although my voice sounded more like a squeal than a protest "g-g-Give me more b-bandages! T-This is ridiculous! I-I don't want to s-be the center of n-anyone's a-attention! I-I want a n-normal suit!"
Emilia let out a nasal giggle and folded her arms, enjoying my desperation. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, that's just the outfit of the girl you replaced. She was... Well, let's just say she was very outgoing. Too much, maybe. She herself asked for her costume to be more "airy" to attract customers. Since you are taking his place, it is logical that you also take his suit. Relax, little mouse. It's not a big deal. It's just a little bit of skin. Besides, it looks really good on you considering who you are... Well, you."
Anger, for the first time in my life, momentarily overcame my shame. I stiffened, clenching my fists. "I-i-if it's no big deal... P-Please c-change places with me! Y-You put on the revealing outfit and I'll put on the cocoon one!"
Emilia put on an expression of absolute horror. He brought a hand to his chest, feigning a heart-hold as he took a step back. "N-Not crazy! I have a reputation to maintain. Only a shameless pervert would be able to wear something so obscene at school. Do you really want people to think I'm that kind of girl, Komari?" i remained mute. The irony was suffocating, an invisible noose that tightened around my neck. He'd say it was embarrassing and still make me wear it, and then he'd call me a pervert just because I was wearing it.
"T-That's not fair, y-you are...!"
"Well, fewer complaints and more work. Take care of the customers. They're already lining up." I resigned myself. I walked towards my stall, feeling every draught hit my exposed skin like invisible whips. As I looked down the hall, panic knotted my stomach again. There were people. Too many people. Much more than a salon as mediocre as ours used to attract. Students crowded into the line, whispering and pointing inward with restrained laughter. "W-Why a-are there s-so many?" i asked in an almost inaudible whisper. Emilia approached my ear, her voice charged with a playful malice that made my spine tremble.
"Oh, yes. It's just that there's a rather strange rumor going around. They say that here is a very cute girl, red-haired, short and completely naked. Curiosity killed the cat and now everyone wants to see if the rumor is true. And apparently... It is." The world seemed to turn on my axis. I got so red that I felt like my skin was going to start emitting steam. I looked around desperately: I am the only red-haired girl in the entire classroom of more than twenty students and relatives. All those kids, all those people... They'll know it was me. And now they saw me in this outfit that barely covered the essentials, leaving my sides and my back at the mercy of any gaze.
I had to take care of the first couple. When the boy took a step forward, my heart jumped violently against my ribs. He was one of the guys who had seen me naked a few minutes ago in the dressing room. His eyes opened immeasurably when he saw me. He wasn't looking at my face; his eyes would quickly go down to my exposed waist and then up, nervously, running through the gauze tight over my chest. "You... Y-you're the one from before, the one in the locker room," he murmured, his voice hoarse.
"D-Don't m-mention anything!" I begged, shrinking into a ball "i-It wasn't me... P-P-Please forget about the l-locker room! Forget it!"
The boy scratched the back of his neck, avoiding my gaze but taking a furtive and prolonged look at the skin of my thighs, where the gauze looked dangerously thin. "Yes... well, I'll try to forget about it... it's going to be very difficult though. Really..." I felt like an animal in a zoo, a biological curiosity exposed for the entertainment of others. Just when I thought the situation couldn't get any worse, a little boy, who was frantically running around the living room with the energy of a whirlwind, crashed right into me. The glass of orange juice I was carrying in my hand flew through the air, describing a perfect parable, and all its juice landed directly on my body. I felt the sticky, icy liquid soak into the gauze instantly. The cold made me let out a choking gasp. "Oh, I am so sorry!" Exclaimed the child's mother, quickly approaching to clean the little one, without giving importance to my condition.
"I-It's all right... n-nothing's wrong..." my voice was shaking, almost disappearing. When the mother withdrew, I looked down and let out a groan of pure horror. The bandages, which were already of poor quality and poorly secured, had weakened with moisture. The weight of the juice and the tension of the wet fabric had caused the fabric to tear at several critical points. Now, the gauze had been reduced to simple somewhat transparent hanging shreds. The part that covered my abdomen had opened in half, exposing almost all of my flat belly and navel, descending dangerously towards the pubic area. On my thighs, the fabric had slid down by the gravity of the liquid, leaving my legs exposed much higher than any mini skirt would allow. The orange juice dyed the gauze a grotesque orange color, making it look like irritated skin or something much dirtier.
"No!.. I-it can't b-be! I-i-It keeps breaking!" I desperately covered myself with my hands, burying my fingers in the shreds of fabric to try to keep them in place. I was one abrupt movement away, one deep breath away, from being naked again. The cold air was hitting my intimate areas, which were now only separated from the world by a soaked and translucent strip of fabric. Fortunately, my shift was ending. Just a little more to go and I could run to the dressing room, put on my clothes and disappear from this damn club forever. I stood motionless, trembling, feeling the juice dripping down my legs.
But then, I saw Emilia approaching me. Her face did not have the usual mocking expression; she looked genuinely worried, or perhaps it was a feigned worry to increase my terror. He took me by the arm and led me towards a private corner, where the other girls from the club were, who also seemed agitated.
"Girls, I have some bad news" Emilia said, her voice echoing in the small space. "Someone came into our dressing room a few minutes ago. They took everything."
"W-What?"I managed to articulate, feeling the ground disappear under my feet. Chaos broke out among the other girls. They started cursing, screaming and panicking, but I was paralyzed, with my eyes wide open. The fear left me cold, a frost that ran from my toes to the root of my hair. Emilia looked at me, with a mixture of pity and cruel amusement "They stole everyone's uniforms. Including your Komari clothes"
I stood there, wrapped in shreds of orange gauze, feeling the last shred of hope evaporate. There were no clothes. There was no shelter. Just me, the sticky juice and some clear bandages on the verge of collapse.
Author's Note: It's my first time writing and publishing ENF content, although my English is not very good, I hope you still enjoy it, try to capture the essence of the ENF stories that I love reading so much.
The roar of the school festival crashed into my ears, a discordant tide of noise that left me reeling. The air tasted of a cloying, artificial sweetness that clung to the back of my throat, floating down the hallways like a thick, invisible mist. For everyone else, this day marked the pinnacle of the academic year, a kaleidoscope of neon banners and frenzied laughter. For me it was a sensory execution. I hunched my shoulders, trying to merge with the masonry. My school jacket, three sizes bigger, looked like a heavy woolen shrine, a cave of fabric that I was hoping would swallow me whole. I prayed that the ground would simply dissolve, transporting me back to the sacred, dusty silence of the library, where the only judgments came from the ink-stained pages of novels and the setting of the old paper provided a shield against the world. I pressed my current book against my sternum and the rough grain of the cover bit my palms. I wanted to disappear. Every laugh that echoed off the linoleum walls felt like a precisely guided dart aimed at my shoulder blades. I clung to the perimeter of the hallway, sliding along the walls and intentionally stopping at the scuff marks on the floor to avoid the predatory glances of any human being.
Then a voice, high-pitched and penetrating enough to shatter glass, cut through the ambient noise and incinerated my peace.
"Komari! I finally found you!" The scream shook me. My book slipped from my numb fingers, hitting the floor with a thud. I turned my head with the slow, mechanical fear of a condemned prisoner. It was Emilia, the leader of the drama club. She stood there, radiating an intensity that seemed physically exhausting. Her smile was too wide, her long or dark hair was moving in the wind, and her blue eyes were walking with a brightness that verged on the manic. Her chest was huge and she had big curves, the opposite of my decrepit disgusting otaku appearance, a short and thin girl of about 152 cm. With a constant scared expression, short reddish hair and tousled with bangs. I was always someone extremely shy and antisocial, I have no friends and I spend my time reading novels in the library. Before I could calculate an escape route, Emilia's hand held my wrist tightly. His grip was surprising, a vice of warm skin and iron will.
"Stop making that face! You look like a scolded puppy!" Emilia didn't let go of me. Instead, he leaned in, his smell was something like strawberries and a hint of mischief overwhelming my senses.
"I need you. Do you remember that the teacher forced everyone to join the club activities? You volunteered as a backup if someone went missing, remember?" The memory came to light, a distant and blurred spot. I remembered the moment of weakness, a bet based on the assumption that the probability of a vacancy on the busiest day of the year was statistically zero. It turned out that fate possessed a sadistic sense of humor.
"B-But no... i-I don't think i-is necessary..."
"Too late! We have an emergency. One of our girls had a fever and the House of Horrors cast is incomplete. You're our new hero, Komari!" Emilia did not wait for a rebuttal. She turned around and started dragging me through the halls. My feet barely grazed the ground, my body swayed like a rag doll dragged like a child who did not want to go to the dentist. I remained in my perpetual state of collapse: shoulders curved inward, hair spilling out of my messy ponytail, and a look of pure, unadulterated terror etched on my features. People stopped to stare at me. I could feel his cold, curious, mocking eyes. I could almost hear his internal monologues: “Is he seventeen? Why does he dress like a tramp? Those books are for children. Look how she shudders” The heat rose to my neck, a scorching crimson tide that flooded my cheeks and burned my ears.
We arrived at the assigned classroom. The space had been destroyed and reborn as an underground cavern. Cotton cobwebs hung from the ceiling like suffocating shrouds, and strobe lights flickered with a rhythmic, jarring intensity that fragmented the room into jagged portions of vision. Heavy concession tables were strewn about and the air was thick, smelling of damp paint, damp cardboard and old dust.
Emilia ignored my confused look. She led me to a corner where heavy midnight black velvet curtains separated the performance area from the dressing area. With a sudden and energetic push, she pushed me towards the dark enclosure. "I'll be honest with you," Emilia said, her voice dropping an octave, echoing in the small space. "I didn't think you'd really have the guts to leave your cave of books to help us."
"I... N-No... Alone… p-professor..."
"The 'why' doesn't matter. The 'what' he does. We have a vacancy," he explained, crossing his arms. "Like I said, a girl is out. Probably because this place is too scary for the weak. But you... you look like someone who lives in a permanent state of terror. You're a natural."
"What the s-should I do? I-I don't want to talk."
Emilia smiled. It was not his usual cheerful ray. Her cheeks wore a slight pink color and a spark of genuine malice danced in her pupils. It was the look of a cat that had finally cornered a particularly shaky mouse. "It's simple. Our topic is Ancient Egypt. Specifically, mummies. And because we are a team, each member has to wear an authentic mummy set." Mummies. I felt a wave of relief bathing me. Bandages. Just wrapping some gauze strips over my clothes. It was a cliché, a lazy costume idea, but it was safe. I could hide my face under layers of white cloth.
"M-Me po-'ll get b-bands. I-I understand" I muttered, with a small trembling sigh escaping my lips. I waited for the bandages. Instead, Emilia reached for a huge package of gauze. The fabric was whitish, yellowed by age and the smell of the old warehouses. He dropped it on the table with a loud, definite thud. The silence that followed was dense, vibrating with an energy that I could not decode.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Take off your clothes." The air disappeared from my lungs for a moment. I froze, my gaze darted from the pile of yellowed fabric to Emilia's expectant face. "W-What...? M-My clothes w-what is t-talking about?"
"To be a mummy, you can't have clothes on underneath. Bandages should be wrapped directly against the skin. Even a pair of panties would ruin the silhouette; you would look like a potato sack wrapped in toilet paper. We want a definite shape, even if, in your case, the shape is very... You..."
My heart hit my ribs like a trapped bird. Panic rose up my throat, thick and choking. "N-No! N-Never! I-I can't d-do that!"
"Don't be childish. We're in a drama club; he acts like a professional. Besides, what does it matter? It's not like I'm asking you to do this in front of the guys." i stood there, shaking and holding the bandages, while Emilia watched me with a predatory intensity. I started to take off the oversized jacket and the rough fabric brushed my skin. I noticed that she hadn't moved. She remained rooted to the spot, her eyes following the movement of my fingers while I fiddled with the buttons of my blouse. When the first button opened, his gaze slid to my chest and his smile widened.
"G-Get out of here! G-Get out so I can c-change into p-peace!"
"Oh, you're so shy," Emilia joked, although she didn't take a step back. "I really don't know why you're so embarrassing. There's nothing I haven't seen before. Okay, little mouse. I'll leave. I'll stay right outside the curtain, guarding the entrance. We wouldn't want someone curious to find you naked while you're changing, would we? Although... that would be fun. Don't take too long; the line for the attraction is already forming."
The sound of his footsteps retreating and the soft rustle of the curtain closing brought a momentary and fragile sense of security. She was alone in the gloom, the faint light filtering through the velvet. My hands shook violently when I finished unbuttoning my shirt, the garment slipped off my shoulders and accumulated on the floor. I took off the pleated skirt and the fabric fell with a soft thud. Finally, I grabbed my underwear and removed the elastic from my hips. I stood there, completely naked. The cold air of the classroom hit my skin like a physical blow, causing a violent shiver in my body. Little goosebumps broke out on my pale arms and thighs. I felt microscopic, a nerve exposed. I glimpsed myself in the darkness: my chest was a flat expanse of porcelain, my ribs traced faint, fragile lines against my skin as I gasped for air. The cold forced my nipples to harden until they reached tight and sensitive peaks.
I wrapped my arms around myself. The softness of my own skin was the only comfort I had, but the vulnerability was overwhelming. Just a few centimeters away, separated by a thin and cheap piece of cloth, there were dozens of students and parents. The thought of someone crossing that threshold and seeing me like that turned my blood to ice. I imagined the laughter, the cruel comments about my lack of curves. I felt like a prey waiting for a predator. The distant roar of the crowd grew louder, punctuated by the rhythmic thump of the bass from another club's loudspeaker. Then, Emilia's voice drifted through the curtain. Are you done yet, Komari? You've been there for four minutes. Don't tell me you fainted because of nerves?" Before I could muster a response, Emilia came over. She did not merely pull the curtain; she pulled it with a sudden and violent force.
* CRACK.*
The sound echoed throughout the room like a gunshot. The cheap metal rail groaned and snapped, the whole velvet curtain went out of its way and collapsed to the ground in a single useless pile of fabric. I felt the world stopped. Suddenly I was bathed in the harsh and unapologetic glare of the ceiling spotlights. I froze, my heart would skip a beat and then hit with a frequency that made my vision blurry. I turned my head slowly and the sight before me seemed like a death sentence. It wasn't just Emilia. Three girls and two girls from the club were frozen there. And behind them, a whole group of students who had entered the room to admire the scenery.
All the eyes in the room were focused on me. The surprise on their faces changed at a terrifying speed. Curiosity turned into wide-eyed shock and then a slow, poisonous wave of malicious amusement began to spread. I saw myself through her eyes: a pale, trembling, red-haired girl, stripped of every shred of dignity, standing in the center of a spotlight. My hands flew up, but they were too small. I crossed my arms over my chest, but my fingers only covered the center of my breasts, leaving the lower curves and pale bottom exposed. My other hand reached out to cover my groin, but the awkward angle only served to highlight the stark whiteness of my inner thighs and the vulnerable curve of my hips.
"AAAAH!" The scream tore from my throat a sharp, irregular sound of pure despair. It was a noise I didn't know I was capable of emitting, the sound of a soul being skinned alive. I collapsed inward, bending my knees and hunching my shoulders, trying to bend into a singularity where I could disappear. A wave of heat surged through me, a phantom burn of shame that ran from my fingers to the tips of my ears. The silence that followed the scream was more agonizing than the noise. It was a void filled with hungry eyes, scanning every inch of my anatomy and documenting the flatness of my chest and the fragility of my body. "G-get out! C-Close your eyes! N-No, look! G-Get out of here!"
"I-I'm sorry! I swear it wasn't on purpose!" Emilia screamed, although she didn't move immediately and was still laughing. "E-Emilia! Put the damn curtain back in place! He-Help me! P-Put the c-curtain on! C-Cover me up! S-shut up and cover me up!" I screamed, the tears blurred my vision into a spot of colors. Emilia finally jumped forward, getting between the crowd and me, acting as a human shield. But she was too slow. The kids had already seen everything. They had seen the way my skin reacted to the cold, the exact way of my modesty and the frantic and clumsy way I tried to hide. "Hey, have some consideration!" Emilia shouted to the crowd. "Stop looking, give Komari some privacy!" Some of the boys nodded and turned around, but others lingered, casting furtive and persistent glances over their shoulders. I heard the quiet whispers, and the low laughter
I collapsed on the floor, pressed my knees to my chest and sobbed in my arms. The friction of my bare skin against the cold floor felt like a reminder of my exposure. I was no longer a student; I was a specimen. An exhibition. Some girls from the club ran forward, grabbing the fallen curtain and manually holding it while someone struggled for a piece of thread to fix the rail. One of them looked at me with a mixture of pity and disgust. "We are so sorry, Komari-chan. This was a horrible accident. I'm going to scold the guys for laughing at a teammate."
"I'm so sorry too, Komari!" Emilia added, her voice dripping with a mock sympathy that seemed acidic. "It must have been embarrassing to be naked in front of all those guys! Just imagining it... All seeing my private parts like that, with nothing covering me. I would die of shame if everyone saw me like that! You are so strong for not fainting!" I closed my eyes with my teeth grinding. Every word Emilia uttered was a nail in the coffin of my dignity. She wasn't comforting me; she was narrating my trauma, meticulously detailing the horror so that it would be permanently etched in my memory.
"And-already s-shut up... P-Please, just forget it."
"I'm serious, you're awesome! No one can handle that half of the course sees her naked and not wish that the earth swallowed them whole. It's a feat of mental toughness, especially for someone as shy as you!" The boys burst into a collective laugh. I could feel them leaning over, trying for one last glimpse of my shoulder or a sliver of my thigh before the curtain was finally secured. I felt dirty, not because of the floor, but because of the way their gazes had slid over me, valuing my non-existent curves and my trembling fragility. The curtain was finally fixed. The darkness returned, but the feeling of nakedness remained. I knew they were still there, just on the other side of the fabric, imagining the girl behind the veil. Emilia took a few steps back, her silhouette visible on the edge of the curtain.
"Well, the trauma is over. Now, hurry up and dress like a mummy. Your little episode has set us back quite a bit and the principal is touring the classrooms." i stood in silence, trembling, looking at my clothes scattered on the floor like discarded furs. Every instinct was telling me to take my things and run away from here, to run away from school and never come back. "Oh, and don't even think about backing out now or trying to get out of the club," Emilia's voice turned cold and the joy was replaced by a high-pitched touch. "If you decide to resign, maybe that curtain will break. And this time, I will invite all the third year boys to come and see how 'strong' you are in handling public nudity."
The threat hit me with the force of a physical blow. Emilia had found the right courage to press. The fear of a second, more deliberate exposure was a thousand times more potent than the first accidental one. I looked at the yellowed bandages on the table. The abrasive, rough fabric looked like a trap, a trap designed to hold me down. I had no other choice. I crawled towards the bandages, my movements mechanical and defeated. I felt the last remnants of my pride dissolving, leaving nothing but a hollow shell. "Y-Yes... I-I'll do it, I-I'll dress up as a mummy!"
"That's my girl! And relax, I was just kidding about the ones about breaking the curtain... Maybe. But seriously, hurry up, Komari!" Emilia's laughter echoed in the dressing room as she walked away, leaving me alone in the dark with my skin exposed and the resonant memory of a hundred eyes watching. I hated this festival. I hated this club. And I hated Emilia with every fiber of my being.
I stood there, petrified, as the echo of the laughter bounced off the walls of the dressing room like gunshots. The cold of the air conditioning bit my skin, but the humiliation kept me burning, an internal fire that climbed up the back of my neck and clouded my eyesight. My fingers were shaking so much that I could barely focus my gaze on the chipped wooden table. There, abandoned, lay some bandages. They were my only way out, the only possible shield between my fragmented dignity and the voracious gaze of the entire institute. If I didn't cover up, Emilia would make sure that every corner of the school knew exactly what every inch of my body looked like. I stood up with clumsy movements, feeling exposed even in the solitude of the room. Every brush of the draft against my thighs made me shudder. I took the first roll of gauze; the fabric was rough, yellowish and gave off a rancid smell of old dust and basement dampness.
"I-I-I just need... T-To cover me." I whispered, my voice breaking in a desperate plea "I-I'm not naked... I-I'm not naked..." I started to wrap my chest. I pulled the fabric with a brute force, pressing the gauze against my flat breasts until I felt that the air was lacking. I wanted to erase the image of those eyes devouring me, I wanted to annul my own physical existence. I passed the bandage over and over, securing the ends with hurried knots that left red marks on my pale skin. Then I went down to my pelvis. I wrapped my private parts with repetitive layers, feeling how the gauze adhered to the moisture of the sweat caused by nerves. The fabric was sticking to my lower lips, creating a rough and cold barrier. Two minutes later, the essentials were covered, although the gauze was so thin that it barely offered any real protection; it was more of a psychological lie than an article of clothing. I felt like I was wearing see-through underwear in the middle of school. I continued to climb up and down, wrapping my abdomen and thighs, trying to imitate the silhouette of a real mummy. I wanted to disappear under layers of white. However, when I tried to turn around my waist, the roll ended with a dry jerk. I pulled the end of the bandage and there was only an insignificant piece of fabric left that disintegrated between my fingers. I looked at myself in the small cracked mirror on the wall. The result was an absolute disaster. My shoulders were completely bare, exposed to the ice air. My back was an expanse of white, vulnerable skin, and at the waist, just where the bandages cut sharply, there was an alarming gap that revealed too much skin. My face, of course, was totally exposed, with red-hot burning cheeks and moist eyes. She didn't look like a mummy; she looked like someone who had survived a catastrophic accident with a roll of toilet paper. "C-can't be... a-a-Are they over?"bMy fingers felt the empty table, finding only dust. I took a deep breath, shrugging my shoulders and hunching my back to try to hide my chest with my own posture. I had no other choice. I left the dressing room walking glued to the wall, sliding my back against the cold concrete, praying that no one would notice the gap between the bandages.
When I reached the central area, I stopped in my tracks. My heart skipped a beat. I saw the other girls at the club. All of them were wrapped from the neck to the ankles, like real cocoons of neat white silk. Only their faces peeked out of the gaps, protected by dense layers of fabric. I, on the other hand, was an exhibitionist with pale skin and badly placed strips of fabric that threatened to undress me at any moment. Emilia approached me with a predatory smile, her eyes shining with genuine malice. He ran his gaze over me, deliberately stopping at the curve of my exposed waist, where the skin was slightly sagging. "Go-Go, Komari! I didn't know you were so... Daring. I love that attitude. It's so much more... Suggestive. I'm sure we'll attract a lot of customers with that."
I felt the heat rising up my neck like a flare, burning up to my ears. "W-w-Why y-Am I the only one dressed like that?!" I burst out, although my voice sounded more like a squeal than a protest "g-g-Give me more b-bandages! T-This is ridiculous! I-I don't want to s-be the center of n-anyone's a-attention! I-I want a n-normal suit!"
Emilia let out a nasal giggle and folded her arms, enjoying my desperation. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, that's just the outfit of the girl you replaced. She was... Well, let's just say she was very outgoing. Too much, maybe. She herself asked for her costume to be more "airy" to attract customers. Since you are taking his place, it is logical that you also take his suit. Relax, little mouse. It's not a big deal. It's just a little bit of skin. Besides, it looks really good on you considering who you are... Well, you."
Anger, for the first time in my life, momentarily overcame my shame. I stiffened, clenching my fists. "I-i-if it's no big deal... P-Please c-change places with me! Y-You put on the revealing outfit and I'll put on the cocoon one!"
Emilia put on an expression of absolute horror. He brought a hand to his chest, feigning a heart-hold as he took a step back. "N-Not crazy! I have a reputation to maintain. Only a shameless pervert would be able to wear something so obscene at school. Do you really want people to think I'm that kind of girl, Komari?" i remained mute. The irony was suffocating, an invisible noose that tightened around my neck. He'd say it was embarrassing and still make me wear it, and then he'd call me a pervert just because I was wearing it.
"T-That's not fair, y-you are...!"
"Well, fewer complaints and more work. Take care of the customers. They're already lining up." I resigned myself. I walked towards my stall, feeling every draught hit my exposed skin like invisible whips. As I looked down the hall, panic knotted my stomach again. There were people. Too many people. Much more than a salon as mediocre as ours used to attract. Students crowded into the line, whispering and pointing inward with restrained laughter. "W-Why a-are there s-so many?" i asked in an almost inaudible whisper. Emilia approached my ear, her voice charged with a playful malice that made my spine tremble.
"Oh, yes. It's just that there's a rather strange rumor going around. They say that here is a very cute girl, red-haired, short and completely naked. Curiosity killed the cat and now everyone wants to see if the rumor is true. And apparently... It is." The world seemed to turn on my axis. I got so red that I felt like my skin was going to start emitting steam. I looked around desperately: I am the only red-haired girl in the entire classroom of more than twenty students and relatives. All those kids, all those people... They'll know it was me. And now they saw me in this outfit that barely covered the essentials, leaving my sides and my back at the mercy of any gaze.
I had to take care of the first couple. When the boy took a step forward, my heart jumped violently against my ribs. He was one of the guys who had seen me naked a few minutes ago in the dressing room. His eyes opened immeasurably when he saw me. He wasn't looking at my face; his eyes would quickly go down to my exposed waist and then up, nervously, running through the gauze tight over my chest. "You... Y-you're the one from before, the one in the locker room," he murmured, his voice hoarse.
"D-Don't m-mention anything!" I begged, shrinking into a ball "i-It wasn't me... P-P-Please forget about the l-locker room! Forget it!"
The boy scratched the back of his neck, avoiding my gaze but taking a furtive and prolonged look at the skin of my thighs, where the gauze looked dangerously thin. "Yes... well, I'll try to forget about it... it's going to be very difficult though. Really..." I felt like an animal in a zoo, a biological curiosity exposed for the entertainment of others. Just when I thought the situation couldn't get any worse, a little boy, who was frantically running around the living room with the energy of a whirlwind, crashed right into me. The glass of orange juice I was carrying in my hand flew through the air, describing a perfect parable, and all its juice landed directly on my body. I felt the sticky, icy liquid soak into the gauze instantly. The cold made me let out a choking gasp. "Oh, I am so sorry!" Exclaimed the child's mother, quickly approaching to clean the little one, without giving importance to my condition.
"I-It's all right... n-nothing's wrong..." my voice was shaking, almost disappearing. When the mother withdrew, I looked down and let out a groan of pure horror. The bandages, which were already of poor quality and poorly secured, had weakened with moisture. The weight of the juice and the tension of the wet fabric had caused the fabric to tear at several critical points. Now, the gauze had been reduced to simple somewhat transparent hanging shreds. The part that covered my abdomen had opened in half, exposing almost all of my flat belly and navel, descending dangerously towards the pubic area. On my thighs, the fabric had slid down by the gravity of the liquid, leaving my legs exposed much higher than any mini skirt would allow. The orange juice dyed the gauze a grotesque orange color, making it look like irritated skin or something much dirtier.
"No!.. I-it can't b-be! I-i-It keeps breaking!" I desperately covered myself with my hands, burying my fingers in the shreds of fabric to try to keep them in place. I was one abrupt movement away, one deep breath away, from being naked again. The cold air was hitting my intimate areas, which were now only separated from the world by a soaked and translucent strip of fabric. Fortunately, my shift was ending. Just a little more to go and I could run to the dressing room, put on my clothes and disappear from this damn club forever. I stood motionless, trembling, feeling the juice dripping down my legs.
But then, I saw Emilia approaching me. Her face did not have the usual mocking expression; she looked genuinely worried, or perhaps it was a feigned worry to increase my terror. He took me by the arm and led me towards a private corner, where the other girls from the club were, who also seemed agitated.
"Girls, I have some bad news" Emilia said, her voice echoing in the small space. "Someone came into our dressing room a few minutes ago. They took everything."
"W-What?"I managed to articulate, feeling the ground disappear under my feet. Chaos broke out among the other girls. They started cursing, screaming and panicking, but I was paralyzed, with my eyes wide open. The fear left me cold, a frost that ran from my toes to the root of my hair. Emilia looked at me, with a mixture of pity and cruel amusement "They stole everyone's uniforms. Including your Komari clothes"
I stood there, wrapped in shreds of orange gauze, feeling the last shred of hope evaporate. There were no clothes. There was no shelter. Just me, the sticky juice and some clear bandages on the verge of collapse.