With eyes a little watery; the cause of sleeping late, she walked with a slight smile as she found her best friends waiting in front of her house.
"Thanks for waiting." She started, trying to sound very much enthusiast and excited (she is but the overwhelming sleepiness and tiredness got the best of her). "Shall we go now, then?"
Honoka's dark brown irises glinted mirth. "Yeah! Gosh, I am very much excited."
The two other girls nodded in agreement as they started to make some steps forward; on their way to the school.
The loud chatter between three girls was unavoidable while they walked together down the empty street of autumn in the so-called enthusiastic morning.
"I got a feeling something good will happen." Aoi blurted out, squinting her eyes playfully.
Shiori laughed, "So you're a psychic now," She swept some strands of her black locks away from her eyes after the autumn breeze and messed her hair.
"Possibly. You never know someone's deepest, darkest secret." Aoi answered, her tone was playful enough to make two of her best friends laugh.
*****
The train was not that packed yet, for it's still quite an early morning.
The three of them sat side by side in the middle part of the train. Soon, students came and picked their seats carefully—but forget about those late ones; they got leftover seats, which located in the front part of the train.
Her eyes looked for the sign of Daiki. It's 7 AM in the morning and according to the schedule, the machinist of the train will start to get the the big machine to move at 7.30 AM.
Due to her worries, she opened the iMessage and decided to chat him a bit; just to erase her worries.
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"Thank goodness." She said, almost breathlessly.
"What needs to be thanked about?" Honoka, who sat on her right side (she's currently sitting in the middle chair) asked with a slight look of playfulness.
Shiori answered her with a light chuckle; she thought telling them about her latest worries would be a little embarrassing and she already knew they will laugh at her and her worries.
Aoi squealed and trailed off to keep her voice down. "Yeah, what needs to be thanked about beside these hot swimmers!"
The word 'swimmers' got her attention and interest. She leaned in, looking what's inside Honoka's bright phone screen. She slightly squinted her eyes because of the enormous amount of light entered her eyes.
"You probably should lower your phone brightness," She said. "so, what do you have here?"
"Just look at these hotties! Now I declare that I am into swimming. Please note that, ladies." Aoi giggled, tilted her head and smiled mischievously.
"I thought you were into teaching." Honoka replied with a slight innuendo in the amplified word.
Aoi's face flared into a bright red blush; Honoka's little innuendo left her speechless, breathless, and embarrassed.
"F-forget about that! Now," She said, on the verge of yelling. "look at these guys! Aren't they hot?"
She squinted her eyes to get a better look at the video of a swimming competition for high school pros.
A maroon-colored hair caught her eyes.
She never thought—even the slightest, the redhead would be in the video Aoi's recently obsessed with.
Shiori cried out, "I-I know him!"
The two girls turned their gaze to Shiori with an utter shock written all over their faces.
Aoi cleared her throat, "I never knew you're into this."
Honoka nodded right away, along with the crimson-faced Shiori with her hands covering her face.
"I just accidently found him!" Shiori shouted. "I guess."
*****
After hours of travel, the train finally stopped smoothly.
She looked out through the small window to see the view of the historical town of Kyoto.
Her heart was dangerously close to beating out of her chest as the myriad of ideas and excitement filled her head. Anything she would never expect to happen might just happen in the foreign town. Any kind of adventure she might go through.
The students made their way out of the capsule of the train with a messy line due to their excitement. Shiori herself almost got caught between two students who tried to get out of the capsule as soon as possible to breath in the air of Kyoto.
One of her feet nervously landed on the ground before she breathed in the air of Kyoto—just like most of her friends did.
"Somehow, the air feels antique." Aoi murmured, loud and clear enough to make her friends heard.
"Seriously," Shiori rolled her eyes with a chuckle escaped her lips. "Try to be funnier." Honoka tapped on Aoi's shoulder and sighed sarcastically.
Aoi covered her face using both of her hands and made a fake sound of a whimper and sob, "You guys are two of a kind! Meanies."
*****
She stepped into the hotel and greeted by the slightly warm air coming from the heater. She pressed her palms together and blew them to get her to feel more comfortable with the change of temperature.
The wind blew not as a breeze, but as something that could blow laundries away together with some paper works.
"Finally," Aoi sighed. "some warm place." She placed her hand on a side of her face and smiled pleasantly.
Shiori giggled. "Not to mention the comfortable lobby."
The lobby is wide—has many tables and chairs made out of woods. The place is also adorned with lanterns with traditional vibes, which Shiori thought will lighten up the place in the nighttime with some pretty, warm orange light. The grand lobby also has few traditional paintings of Kyoto in the old days. But her favorite of the lobby is the main color which is brown. She's not a fan of brown but seeing it soothes her. Commonly, green is the one who does the job of soothing people.
