[b]Kotori Shirohane - Warakuma Central Shrine | Wednesday, July 13 2015[/b]

Deep in her thoughts as she was and with her gaze fixed on an indeterminate spot somewhere just before her feet, Kotori failed to notice Rui's approach until he spoke up. She almost jumped when his familiar voice spoke up and interrupted her thoughts by speaking her name. Kotori's eyes shot up from the ground and fixed themselves on the unexpected owner of said voice; confusion quite evident upon her face - only to slowly fade into embarassment when she realised that, once again, she'd been too preoccupied to even notice her own surroundings. Her gaze wandered right back down to the ground at that - necessitating a quick adjustment of her glasses due to the sudden head movements slightly displacing them.

Having been thusly caught not paying attention, she managed to miss his next word at first, causing her to glance up when she realised that he had in fact just asked her a question. [color=green]"Eh?"[/color] was her first response, evidently still a bit flustered when she blinked in slight confusion. [color=green]"Ah, n-no, I-I mean, yes, err..."[/color] she tried and, evidently, failed to somehow enunciate that she was only so early on accident but still looked forward to the festival itself. Biting her lip in embarassment, she was just about to go on yet another mental tirade toward her proclivity for miscommunication when Rui spoke up once more.

Evidently, he was far less bothered by all this than her. Kotori blinked slowly in surprise when he said he'd noticed her being lost in her thoughts more often recently - surprise not only because she hadn't noticed that she'd been doing it more often recently, but also that it had apparently been rather evident when she was doing so. In fact, she seemed to have been so unsubtle about it that he'd even noticed exactly what she was thinking about when he mentioned the things that had transpired in the Mirror Realm. Embarassment was mixed with an almost guilty look at being read so easily.

However, her face soon showed surprise, mixed in with brief confusion, when Rui instead suggested she hold off on those thoughts until at least after the festival. Of course, he was entirely right - for all the thinking she'd done, she had not gotten anywhere whatsoever. Yet at the same time, Kotori knew herself well enough that even if she resolved to follow his advice, she'd sooner or later be dwelling on it once more.

Still, hearing him say as much was at least a little reassuring in knowing that a similar voice of reason in her mind, though oft-ignored for the far more pressing concerns of thinking through unsolvable problems or mulling over past mistakes, was not completely alone. In fact, listening to said voice did tell her that there really was no point in losing sleep over the strange Mirror Realm - and that she really should listen to it more often. Realising that repeating a task with no change in outcome was really just a waste of time, Kotori couldn't help but think how silly she was for doing so - even though she knew that, sooner or later, she'd probably be right back at it again.

Either way though, putting her mind in order would at least last for a little while - which would be enough to, as Rui suggested, enjoy the festival. As such, his reassuring smile was met with a smaller, less confident one on Kotori's lips as she almost apologetically nodded her belated agreement. [color=green]"Uhm, r-right,"[/color] she said, though she immediately doubted whether it sounded convincing when she hadn't truly convinced herself of it.

Nonetheless, she fully intended to follow through on her words - which, after all, was the very reason for this meeting in the first place. A quick look around, however, did not reveal the immediate arrival of the others just yet - a glance to her watch, in turn, confirming that she had definitely arrived a bit earlier than anticipated. As such, that would mean that she'd be waiting here for the other to arrive together with Rui - which could quickly turn into awkward silence if she didn't come up with anything else to say.

A thoughtful look crossed her face - though not to the same degree as just shortly before - until Kotori finally came up with something. [color=green]"Uhm,"[/color] she began; almost immediately losing the brief confidence she had in her idea. [color=green]"S-so... why are, uhm, y-you here? Ah, I-I mean, this early, not, uhm..."[/color] she said, her voice trailing off in equal measure to her eyes shifting downward as she combined the returning of his initial words with the satisfaction of her curiosity but stumbling over the phrasing half-way through.

Kotori inwardly gave a mental sigh - for all she thought she may have improved over the last few months, it seemed she was still quite terrible at handling spontaneous situations for which she hadn't been able to think of things to say in beforehand.