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

Having spoken, Kotori took the brief pause as Rui thought on his answer to calm herself. If she thought about it rationally, there really was no need to be so nervous. Sure, it had been a bit unexpected that the others hadn't shown up yet, but it was still a normal group outing. They'd gone to the beach before and that had been even more embarrassing to her - but even still, she had enjoyed it. So really, she just needed to take a deep breath and remind herself that this was quite the normal festival and-[color=slategray]"Well... I guess you in a yukata for a start."[/color]

Despite the orange shading of the festival lamps in the dusk, the rapid flushing of Kotori's cheeks was undeniable as she stared at Rui wide-eyed for a full second or two; an incredulous blinking behind her glasses being the only motion to be seen. It wasn't hard to see that whatever train of thought she may have been on before, it was completely and utterly derailed beyond all hope of rescue. [color=green]"I-I, ah, m-eh? Tha-, uhm..."[/color] Once she managed to recover, her thoughts were going a lot faster than her mouth could keep up with and little more than an unintelligible mess could be made out - which only added to the heat she could feel all across her reddened face, leading her to instead bite her lip rather than dig herself even deeper.

Kotori's mind, meanwhile, was racing with a dozen different thoughts. Had she maybe just misunderstood him? Or was Rui addressing someone else? No, a quick glance around confirmed that he was very much indeed speaking to her. Did that mean he actually would have wanted to have seen how she might look in a yukata? That did seem the most obvious, given that it was exactly what he'd just said - but did that mean... he wanted to actually see her? Oddly quickly, Kotori explored the other options in her mind. Perhaps he simply liked the traditional atmosphere of the festival and felt like a yukata would perfectly fit - or maybe he was quite simply just joking. Without reaching a definitive conclusion, Kotori decided to leave it at that - particularly after her cheeks briefly deepened in their shade for a moment there - before finally glancing back at Rui.

It seemed that he had been waiting for just that - as in the very next moment, he spoke up once more; not missing a beat after his previous and most outrageous statement to instead suggest a visit to the shrine itself before heading back to the meeting spot. At his words, Kotori looked over to the shrine. There was already a crowd lazily moving to and fro with much the same idea in mind; various people stopping at the food stalls or amusements along this main path that the festival took.

[color=green]"Uhm..."[/color] Kotori started, almost hesitantly after the previous mess she'd made when she'd opened her mouth, before redoubling her volume - which is to say, almost reaching a normal speaking voice. [color=green]"That, uhm, I... I'd li-, ah, I-I mean, that sounds nice,"[/color] she said, trying her best to put her embarrassment behind her with a smile - though it ended as a slightly awkward half-smile. As such, Kotori was only too eager to quickly turn to face the way they'd decided to head - particularly when she also felt a brief resurgence of warmth across her face as they began their walk.