The day of the class trip arrived. The destination was Kyoto, but we would be staying for two days and one night in Ōtsu, the capital of Shiga Prefecture. The two cities are about half an hour apart by car, but by bus it would take longer. We would be able to see old temples and historical monuments from the era, since the city was once the capital of the country. Fortunately, since we were staying at a hotel in Ōtsu, we also had the chance to see Lake Biwa, the largest freshwater lake in Japan and one of the oldest in the world. Plus, every year around this time, mid-October, the recurring Ōtsu festival is celebrated. We would have the opportunity to enjoy an exclusive local event. In short, two birds with one stone.

There had been talk of the possibility of this trip even before summer vacation, but I was skeptical about participating.

The only reason I would have participated was because Yuto-kun would be there, but his unexpected hospitalization and not knowing when he would be discharged had shifted my decision toward a possible no. Fortunately, things had "worked out" beforehand, so we could enjoy this experience and also fulfill one of the items on his list.

On the morning of the trip, we all showed up at dawn in front of the school to take the bus that would take us to our destination.

Everything would have been simpler if we hadn't stayed up late playing the night before, ending up unable to wake up at the time we had both agreed on, thus overshooting our schedule.

Of course, the suitcases had been prepared in advance, but we still had to waste time getting dressed, which was no small feat since we also had to waste time just trying to stay upright due to lack of sleep.

We ran like crazy toward the school, grateful that it was close to home.

There, besides our class's bus, there were three others. Evidently, three other classes from the institute would also be participating in the trip. I wasn't aware of that, and frankly, it didn't bother me. If I'm being honest, I didn't even care about my own class; I just wanted to go on vacation with my friend. He wasn't the only one who wanted to do as many things as possible with friends.

Once on our bus, Yuto-kun and I sat next to each other at seats located roughly in the middle.

"Alright, guys, we're ready."

The teacher got our attention with that sentence. She began to do a quick roll call to check the actual presence of the students, then announced out loud how she would assign us to the hotel rooms.

Yuto-kun ended up in a double room with a boy. The chosen one was a pretty quiet guy. As far as I knew, he and that boy had never established any kind of relationship, but given Yuto-kun's fairly sociable nature, I doubted they would have trouble getting along, even if just for one night.

I, on the other hand, ended up in the only single room they had assigned us, but I wasn't resentful; on the contrary, it was exactly what I wanted. I had expressly asked the teacher before leaving if it was possible to assign me that room.

As much as I was making progress in relating to the outside world, I didn't feel up to having an intimate confrontation with someone like sleeping together in a room. Plus, there was the risk that the person in question wouldn't agree with the pairing decision and would complain, forcing the teacher to pair me with another girl. But surely that other girl would have the same reaction as the previous one, creating a chain. Of course, the teacher has the final say, but I didn't want to risk feeling the tension of unwanted cohabitation for the whole trip, even if it was just one night.

I didn't want to sleep with "one eye open" due to my distrust of the other person.

This was the optimal choice for everyone.

Once the room assignments were done, that was it. Everyone ready.

Our journey had begun.

Given the heavy load of tiredness we had accumulated from the previous night due to our late-night gaming session, it didn't take long for us to fall asleep.

"Hey, Ayame. Wake up!"

My neighbor's voice called me as he shook me to wake me from my sleep.

He had to call me several times before I could fully open my eyes and become conscious, lifting my head from the bus window.

I was in a state of total confusion:

"Wha... what's wrong?"

"Look over there."

With his index finger, he pointed outside the window, and I turned toward the indicated direction...

"Woow!!!"

We had just entered Shiga Prefecture, because what I could see from the moving bus, according to Yuto-kun, was Lake Biwa.

I saw this vast expanse of freshwater before me, with the daylight sun shining and spreading candidly across the entire surface.

It was as if sky and earth had become one. With the blue sky and the crystalline water shining almost like a mirror reflecting the sky's color, I struggled to focus on the horizon line that separated the two.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

In my amazement, I replied with a simple:

"Breathtaking."

"Should we arrive soon?"

"Ah, I can't wait to see the lake up close."

"Yeah. I mainly know the temples, but I don't remember ever going to the lake."

That sentence brought back to my memory that Yuto-kun used to live in Kyoto before moving. The schedule said we would have some free time during the trip, so we could explore on our own.

Who better than someone who had lived there could act as a guide, besides the designated guide?

"Then I expect you to show me all the most beautiful things in Kyoto."

"Of course."

It didn't take long after that to finally arrive in Kyoto. We would see part of the scheduled things that day and the rest the following day.

Once we finally arrived in Kyoto, we immediately started our visit at Arashiyama. The classes didn't have the same visiting order, so the order in which we would visit the various areas was different from the other classes; in fact, we were the only class at Arashiyama.

We immediately started with a tour of Tenryu-ji temple.

An imposing and colossal Buddhist temple surrounded by rich, thick vegetation, as if it were covering, like a shield, the building and the immense garden it overlooked.

We didn't enter the building because it wasn't planned, but the guide began to tell us about its history and its creator. Honestly, I didn't listen much, even though it was interesting; I was captivated by seeing such a structure in person.

Thinking that in the past humans had managed to create something so majestic without technological aids, but only with their manual labor, was worthy of admiration.

Moreover, one thing I was curious to know was what it must feel like to wake up in the morning and face the new day looking out at the great garden it overlooked.

It had a circular path that surrounded the Sōgen pond. The water was so clear I could see my reflection in it. I could see the joy of the small goldfish and turtles swimming in such crystalline water.

Once we finished and left there, a little north of the temple entrance, there was the entrance to the next stop on our tour: the bamboo forest.

The proximity to a sacred place was no coincidence.

Shrines and temples are often found near bamboo forests due to the symbolic nature of this type of grass, as it is considered a symbol of strength and is capable of keeping evil spirits away.

In the dense forest, there was a long path to walk through, stretching for who knows how many meters.

The guide didn't talk much about the history of that grove, since the whole point was to take a walk that would allow a person to relax and detach from the chaotic pace that each of us had. Actually, for me and Yuto-kun, that's how it was; during the walk, we didn't speak at all, but we were side by side, walking along the path, enjoying that magical silence that surrounded us.

If I had to express the feeling of that moment, I would use the word: otherworldly.

You could faintly hear the rustling sound of the bamboos caused by the wind.

I also tried to take some photos with my phone to try to capture at least a bit of the essence of that place with a shot, but none of them managed to fully convey the dreamlike idea I wanted to capture. Roughly, the bamboos must have been about five hundred meters high, even though they seemed to touch the sky with their tips, so much so that the sun's rays struggled to penetrate the path.

In the end, the walk lasted about thirty minutes.

On our way back to the bus, after the long walk, we were literally exhausted, and we would finally go to the hotel to rest, so we didn't waste time sitting back in the same seats as before. A quick roll call and off we went.

"Well, what can I say, it was a wonderful walk."

I said while stretching in my seat.

"Yeah, I'd never been to the bamboo forest even though I lived nearby back then."

"It was truly a unique experience walking along that path. It was as if your soul and nature had become one."

"Yeah. But did you also hear the sound they made thanks to the wind? It almost sounded like music."

"True. Too bad we couldn't enter the temple, though; the garden was breathtaking."

"Yeah, I could have spent an entire hour walking around the lake. Even at the cost of getting dizzy. It was so relaxing."

"Then you would have lost your balance and fallen into the water."

I said with a light laugh, and he responded with a grimace:

"You're always so funny."

"Not to mention that you said you'd be my guide, but you didn't seem that well-informed."

"I'm more informed about Kyoto city."

It took us about an hour to reach Ōtsu.

"Ah. We've finally arrived."

He said, turning to me.

"I can't wait to go to my room and rest."

Having been on the move all day, the only thing I wanted to do at that moment was go to my room to relax and take a bath.

We each took our suitcases and went to the reception to check in. The other classes were also there, or rather, they had already arrived and I think they had already settled into their rooms, given the presence of the other parked buses.

The receptionist who cordially took care of all of us reminded us that the Ōtsu festival would start that evening and that we could rent a yukata if we wanted to participate in the event.

The teachers had agreed, but we would have a curfew.

My room was 3-D, while Yuto-kun's was 5-E. It was a five-story hotel. Each letter represented a floor, starting from A, the first floor, up to the fifth, E. Consequently, Yuto-kun was on the fifth floor while I was on the fourth.

The teachers had preferred to separate the sleeping areas between male and female students as much as possible...

"Ayame-san, wait."

The boy's voice called me, while the others began to head to the upper floors.

"Tell me?"

"I was thinking that... it would be nice... if we went to see the festival together. What do you think?"

As if he had read my mind, he had asked me the question that, most likely, I would have also asked shortly after.

"Sure. How about we meet here in a couple of hours and go?"

"Perfect."

Going up in the elevator, I was the first to get out since I had reached my floor, and after getting out, while the elevator doors were closing due to the command given by Yuto-kun, I brought my right hand near my mouth:

"Anyway, I said a couple of hours because I think I'll put on a yukata."

I wanted to prepare calmly, that's why I said a couple of hours. In the end, that simple informational statement led to an embarrassing repercussion.

Through the closing elevator doors, I could catch a glimpse of my friend's surprised and embarrassed reaction as his cheeks tinged slightly red.

Taken out of context, it might have seemed that my desire to wear the yukata was because I wanted him to see me in that garment, as if, in a certain sense, I wanted to dress up for him.

Embarrassment began to assail me too.