[b]Kotori Shirohane - Shirohane Flowershop | Wednesday, July 29 2015[/b]

[color=green]"Thank you very much,"[/color] Kotori said as she gave a bow to the departing customer. As usual around this time of the year, the old man from down the street had come to pick up a bouquet of his wife's favourite flowers - a gesture that put a small smile on Kotori's face every year. Such events always did help make up for her ever-present dislike of standing at the counter of her family's flowershop - no matter how often she helped her mother out, her nervousness never could quite be abated. For that reason, she much preferred to be in the back room, watering the flowers, setting up new arrangements or getting the deliveries ready - but her mother had a knack of leaving her out front with the oddest smile as she busied herself otherwise. Kotori did occasionally wonder if her mother enjoyed seeing her fretting about whenever a stranger walked in - or, worse yet, a familiar face such as a fellow student.

Still, it had been a mostly quiet morning - unsurprisingly, given the propensity of families to go on trips, visit relatives or otherwise find themselves preoccupied elsewhere. There had only been a few visitors and a couple more passers-by who had taken a look at the vibrant display in the shop windows - a notion that made Kotori at least a little bit happy, seeing as she'd helped set them out. Coupled with the summery temperatures, she'd found her mind wandering more than a few times whilst she busied herself with tending to the flowers about the shop between visitors - mostly towards the novel that she'd picked up the day before from the library, but also what little that had been learned from the occasional foray into the Mirror World over the past few days.

Kotori was umming and ahhing over whether to turn a pot of chrysanthemums just that little bit more to the left or the right to put them in the best view when a sudden noise almost made her jump - even though she'd heard it quite a few times in recent weeks, she still was rather unused to the ringing of her own phone whenever she received a message. Looking up to make sure that she wouldn't be bothering any customer if she quickly checked her phone - and immediately regretting it when she saw the smiling face of the next door neighbour walking by outside, undoubtedly having seen her little display just now. With more than a little embarassment, Kotori quickly checked to see what exactly the message was about.

Her embarrasment almost immediately turned to worry when she saw from whom it was. A message from Rui usually meant another visit to the Mirror World was soon in order - whether to explore and understand that strange place or, worse yet, because someone had been kidnapped and forced into it. Almost hesitantly, Kotori checked the message - and found her worry turning into relief just a moment later when she realised that, for once, it was not a roundup call for an upcoming exploration of the Mirror World. This relief, however, was in turn quickly replaced by a slight confusion as she read on. As it turned out, it was a call for meeting indeed - but at quite a different place instead.

Kotori blinked in surprise, her brow furrowed above her glasses at the mention of a trip to the beach, courtesy of Tadao. Apparently, he wanted everyone to take a day off together as a sort of reward of rest for the continued endeavours in the Mirror World - and leaving Kotori feeling a little guilty as she wondered if she could just accept such a gift when she hadn't been part of the team for as long as some of the others or even been on every trip since then.

[color=silver]"Something interesting happen?"[/color] her mother's voice suddenly asked from behind her, leading Kotori to jump in fright for a second time in as many minutes and spin around to see her mother's wide smile - evidently, she was more than pleased with the reaction she'd just elicited. [color=green]"Ah, just a few of my... friends are going to, well, the beach this weekend,"[/color] Kotori said, glancing between the phone that she'd pressed close to her chest in her sudden surprise and her mother as she spoke. As she did, she could practically see her face light up in delight. [color=silver]"Oh, that's wonderful! When are you going? Does your swimsuit still fit you? Ah, that reminds me..."[/color]

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Kotori blinked stupendously when she found herself standing outside the shop less than five minutes later, relieved of the green apron she wore whenever she helped out and instead clasping a shopping bag, some money and an absolute order to not return until she had everything she might need for a trip to the beach. Turning to look back, her mother gave her a beaming smile as she enthusiastically waved her off - leaving Kotori with no choice but to head off toward Ferrero Mall.