"I got the sandals for you, yukio-kun." Fumiya holds up the slippers for them to see as they step out.

Taehyung looks down at his feet. The sneakers sure don't go well with the yuakata.

"Thank you so much." He thanks him as he wears them.

"Now you look perfect!" Fumiya shows him a thumbs up as he smiles.

"Suki-chan, you look pretty too... wait, are you guys matching?" Fumiya looks at both of them one by one.

"Eh?! No, this is a coincidence." Natsuki smacks him on the shoulder as she pushes him, walking away. He mutters incoherent words but keeps walking. Taehyung follows them, trying to walk normally. He's not used to wearing the setta sandals.

"Yukio-san!" Jimin and haruki meets them around the intersection where two different streets collide. Jimin sounded just like a native japanese speaker.

Taehyung laughs at jimin's sudden choise of words. "Good evening, aki-san!" He replies, playing along with him. He even bowed a little to make it more dramatic.

Using san at the end made them sound so formal and that's why it was funnier.

Natsuki and fumiya also couldn't help but crackle at both of their exchange.

"You look really good today, aki-kun." Natsuki compliments him genuinely when they all are done with their laugher.

"Really?" Jimin smiles with his eyes, pure joy bouncing off his cheeks as he does so. "Thank you, natsuki-chan. You look pretty, too." He says as natsuki smiles in gratitude.

Jimin's slim figure is complimented perfectly by the pastel yellow yukata with some dark yellow designs on it.

"Oh? Natsuki, you said the same thing to me too, was it genuine?" Taehyung suddenly speaks up, sounding hurt.

Natsuki looks at him with wide eyes, "what?! Of course, it was genuine!" She says, her voice an octave or two higher.

Taehyung snickers at her reaction. "I was just kidding." His words make her pout.

"Yukio!" She whines, punching him lightly on the left side of his chest playfully.

"Guys? Are we done laughing and joking? Let's go already." Haruki is done with them as he sighs, exaggerating.

"Oh, sorry. Let's go." Taehyung utters as they leave behind the street and move ahead towards the main shrine of the town where the festival takes place around this time every year.

"Do they perform some kind of ritual on this festival?" Taehyung asks curiously. The question is purely based on his search on japanese festivals on Internet.

"Not particularly. But, yes, there will be a traditional dance performance and fireworks too. It's fun." Fumiya answers excitedly. Taehyung nods happily as well.

The night sky tonight is full of stars that feel like has just been born; freshly decorated in the curtain of the vast sky.

In summer, the night feels fresh and even cool sometimes. Especially because of the ocean being just beside the street. The ocean stays calm all throughout the year, which makes it serene.

As they walk for quite some distance, the passersby increases in numbers and the faint noise of crowd can be heard from afar.

When the tiny dots of lights come in their field of vision and gradually gets clear as they walk slowly, their eyes reflect the approaching lights too.

They can now clearly see the real festival vibes surrounding them as they enter the crowd. Stalls and mini shops for festival games, street foods, accessories and everyday goods is on both the sides of the street.

The people around them, wearing the same traditional clothes as them as they walk past them, chatting along their way. Little girls have put a lot of effort in making their hair look beautiful today.

Couples holding hands and smiling ear to ear while feeding each other, kids running around while their parents yell for them not to play around like that. Elderly people walk slowly towards the shrine which is situated at the end of the street. Everyone looks pretty today.

The sizzling sounds of different foods being fried can be heard too and constant sound of the shrine bell ringing in a distance; everything overlaps perfectly to make a joyous environment.

The whole street in front of them is illuminated and decorated by artificial lights and above their heads go strings of yellow, orange and white lanterns making everything hundred times better.

"Wow!" Taehyung can't help but mumble as he looks up and ahead of him, only brightness and positivity surround them.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" He hears someone say beside his ear as he looks down at the person; a smiling natsuki.

"It sure is beautiful." He says, smiling as well.

People's chatter around them numbs their voices down a little so they have to speak louder.

"Let's look around for a while until it's time for the annual dance performance." Fumiya suggests as everybody nods in agreement.

"Should we eat something first?" Natauki asks, excited to try the festival food.

"Natsuki-chan, I want to play games first." Fumiya whines and haruki agrees with him.

"But, I'm hungry. And the right way to enjoy the festival is balancing what you do. Eat a little and play a little." She continues to speak.

"I think we should split up then." Taehyung says. "Those who wants to eat and those who wants to play and look around."

"Okay, me and haru will play some games." Fumiya says as he turns to jimin.

"Um, I'm hungry too." He smiles sheepishly and joins natsuki's team.

"Me too." Taehyung raises his hand, joining natsuki and jimin.

"Okay, see you later." Fumiya and haruki walks away into the crowd.

"Let's go for yakitori." Jimin says, looking around.

"What is it?" Taehyung asks.

"It's japanese style chicken skewers." Natsuki says, looking for a nice food stall as well.

"Hey, I know a good place. Let's go." Natsuki grabs both, jimin and taehyung's hands as she runs somewhere in the swarm of people dressed in various colored yukatas barely saving herself from bumping into someone on her way.

"Here!" She finally stops in front of a little shop that wasn't so crowded but wasn't deserted at the same time.

"God! that was dangerous." Jimin mutters under his breath as taehyung snickers upon hearing him.

"What did you say?" She turns to him but he pulls an innocent face, smiling as if nothing happened.

"Nothing. Aren't you ordering? 2 for me." He tells her and turns to taehyung.

"Oh, I'll take one for now." He says, holding one finger up in the air.

"Okay!" She turns back, telling the stall owner to prepare their order.

"Enjoy your food." Their order is served as they take the skewers and start walking again after paying for it.

"Hey, let's eat cotton candy at the end, aki-kun." Natsuki says as she knows jimin likes it while looking at him, bending forward because taehyung is walking in between them.

"Sure!" He replies, blowing onto his steaming hot skewers as they walk.

"Ow! Hot!" Natsuki exclaims as she takes a bite of it.

"Be careful!" Taehyung mutters, looking at her who is is busy fanning herself.

"It's so tasty, though." She laughs, half in pain, half in happiness.

Taehyung shakes his head and takes a bite himself. "You're right." He chuckles with her.

"Oh, this is spicy. Let's eat kakigori after this." Jimin says, looking around them.

"Now, what is that?" Taehyung asks, confused again.

"It's basically shaved ice with syrup and condensed milk, etcetera. Best for summer!" Natsuki says, almost done with her skewers.

"You eat really fast, natsuki." Taehyung comments as he finishes his skewer as well.

"I'm born that way." She pretends to be proud but laughs it off.

"Let's go to uncle kobayashi's shop. He makes the best kakigori in the world." Jimin says, increasing his pace.

"You know, we eat at his shop every year on this festival." She informs.

"Sounds good." Taehyung says. They walk a couple of steps and he sees a long queue, more like crowd in front of the shop.

"Woah! Looks like we will have to wait for a long time." Jimin says, disappointed.

Natsuki sighs, standing on her tippy toes to see past the shoulders of many people standing in front of them.

"Uncle kobayashi!" She tries to shout but the noise is too much around them.

"Hey! Natsuki-chan and aki-kun! I was waiting for you." A voice calls them from behind.

"Kaori-san?" It was uncle kobayashi's wife. Natsuki gets happy to see her.

"Wait for a moment, I'll make something for you especially, you don't have to wait in the queue." She says, putting a hand on her shoulder as an endearment.

"Thank you, kaori-san." She smiles ear to ear.

She disappears inside the shop somewhere behind the crowd.

"Wait for me here, I'll go and buy some cotton candy for us until kaori-san comes back." Jimin informs, quickly running for the cotton candy and disappears into the crowd of people.

"I feel overwhelmed." Taehyung suddenly says, chuckling. Natsuki turns to him.

"Is that a bad feeling? Are you feeling uncomfortable?" She asks, worried if she did something to upset him.

"Hey, not like that. Overwhelmed in a good way. Everyone looks so happy here and that's a very good sight to see. I'm just not used to this and it feels new." He says, fidgeting with his fingers without his knowledge.

"Oh, I understand." She nods. Eventually her sight falls on his fidgety hands.

"Yukio, are you sure that you're okay?" She tilts her head, contemplating what to do.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm okay, don't worry." He senses her gaze on his hands. "Oh, this is just a habit." He smiles, but his hands stays the same, fingers fiddling with each other.

Natsuki sighs, shaking her head a little and approaches his hands, putting her own hands on top of his to calm him down.

Before his heart could digest the sudden feeling of warmth on his hands, jimin comes back with two cotton candies with him. He didn't have the time to process anything before natsuki retreats her hands back.

"I want the yellow one!" She says to jimin and he hands her the yellow cotton candy which is shaped as a little rabbit. At least that's what it looks like.

"Aki-kun! Could you please help me? Take the kakigori from here, I can't go out now." Aunt kaori yells from inside so jimin goes to pick it up before giving his cotton candy stick to natsuki.

"Let's find a place to sit." Natsuki suggests, looking for a place to sit down.

"There's still some time before the annual dance, that place should be empty right now. We can sit on the benches there." Jimin says when he comes back, handing two bowls of shaved ice to taehyung and takes his cotton candy back.

"That will work." Natsuki agrees and they start to walk towards the shrine.

■□■□