Once inside, Kichi could tell they designed this place with relaxation in mind. It was insane to believe this would be located in the middle of town, but a bit disappointing that part of the reason for this peace was that it was also fully indoors. The whole point of these zen gardens was to invoke a sense of nature. So being in a building somewhat defeated the purpose.

Then again caves were mostly fully encased too. The only opening being that of its own entrance not to dissimilar to how they entered this building. That was still considered nature. So he could just pretend this was some weird hybrid of the two mixed into one.

However, even though Kichi pondered how to work out the existence of this place. Airi was battling with something else in her mind. That being to stay awake lest she pass out from boredom.

She had assumed they could be doing anything when she asked him out for the day. A fun trip to the arcade was high on that list and it got her going when he used it as one of the suggestions. While she didn’t want to be rude and reject the idea of coming here after he had been so adamant about his coin guiding them.

That said, the girl had what one might call a short attention span. The lack of any action within this building bored her to no end as she struggled to walk alongside him. Due to the nature of this location. She also had to pay attention to the volume of her voice.

“Isn’t it pretty?” He asked as they looked across a view of a section to the zen garden. There were various stones and vegetation to go along the raked floor of sand.

“Yeah.” She answered enthusiastically. “They must’ve worked hard on this.”

“They must have.” He responded, taking note of her lack of energy. At this point, she sounded sadder than Aoi did on a regular day. So it was evident to him that she was having little fun here. A part of him wanted to change their plans, but it was a little late for that. After all, they had already paid for the tickets to enter and he didn’t want to cast doubt on his lucky coin now of all days.

There just had to be something for them to do other than walk around with people. Perhaps they had entered here with the wrong state of mind. This wasn’t a place to have fun, but one to find relaxation.

“Oh Airi, look.” He found his only hope in this building. That being a couple of stone seats in the middle of one of the sections. According to the signs by them, people were free to sit down to meditate on these seats. “How about we try it?”

“Sure.” It perked her up a bit to hear they could try something. At this point, she had begun to reach a moment where she would speak up to him about choosing another locale. The pair sat down on the stones. With the way it was set up, they sat sitting across one another, not even half a meter apart.

If this were a date, then he would be happy with an intimate moment with her. They were alone, physically close, and he’d be lying if he didn’t enjoy looking at her. However, this wasn’t the case. At least not in any official manner. So there was no way this boy would ever consider making a move.

Not that he’d know how to anyway. Experience in the dating world was not one he had much of. There weren’t many opportunities to date back in junior high, nor had there been much during high school. He wondered if a part of that was due to his sister’s constant need to tell him not to rush. Even though he always vocalized brushing her off, the constant reminder must’ve influenced the way he acted somehow.

While he thought about all this, Airi was thinking of something else. Or more accurately she had a hard time thinking. The girl hoped that upon sitting down she might have that feeling of zen she kept hearing people talk about on the internet. Perhaps this was what inner peace felt like all along. Unfortunately for her, that inner peace meant getting tired and wanting to nod off to sleep.

It took everything out of her to stay awake, though it didn’t prevent her from looking silly as she did so. Airi head bobbed up and down as she shook upwards to prevent from nodding off, only to get tired and hand her head down once again.

Kichi had his eyes closed to meditate. So he unaware of what was happening one mere foot away. This continued on without his knowledge for a couple of minutes. Despite the temptation of sneaking a peek at her while he assumed she wasn’t watching. He resisted doing so and wanted to hold out for what would be about five minutes worth of meditation.

However they wouldn’t get those five minutes as eventually Airi was unable to hold out. She lost consciousness for long enough that she plopped on forward. Given how close they were, that meant landing her face right onto a rather sensitive area for Kichi.

“Whoa!” He gave out a startled yelp. Since they were in the middle of the zen garden. It took everything in him not to yell that out loud. “A-Airi, what are you doing?” He whispered to her. Her face was down there and he immediately ran into a panic scared out of his mind that someone was going to walk in on them. Surely they would get kicked out for doing something so respectful in a place like this.

She didn’t respond, as she had fallen asleep now. Were Airi to know where she slept, she surely wouldn’t continue to lay there. “Airi? This is hardly appropriate.” He said, continuing to believe she had done this on purpose. Of course, after a moment he realized it was wishful thinking to assume this girl would be so bold and make a move on him.

This was when he gently placed his hands onto her face to pull her head and body back up. He now saw her eyes were closed shut and there was a subtle snore coming from her. Kichi sighed as he calmed himself down from the mishap that just occurred. It was more of a matter of him getting his hopes up for no reason.

Now that he was stuck with a passed out girl. The boy had no other option but to cut his meditation short and carry her elsewhere. Thankfully she was light given her small stature. For example, if it were his sister, he’d strongly consider asking someone for help. However, he princess carried her to one of the nearest benches. It was a bit embarrassing to have to do this in full view of the public and it certainly garnered him a fair number of odd looks from the crowd. Thankfully no one seemed to mind and they also didn’t think he had impure intentions with this girl.

Not only was she light, but holding her in his arms was a feeling he never knew could come from doing such an action. Her light skin was soft and smooth. Being close to her outfit revealed its quality and likely higher price. He could even get a sniff of her perfume at this distance. Perhaps people were incorrect in their assessment on him having pure intentions.

After a bit of walking, he placed her down onto a bench. “Airi? Airi, wake up.” He prodded at her once they were in a better spot for him to try again.

“Huh?” She stirred a bit, rubbing her eyes as the girl woke up. “Huh!?” Then as she regained consciousness, Airi realized they were no longer sitting in the middle of the zen garden. “Where are we?”

“It’s okay.” He quieted her down so as to not disturb the others in the building. “You, uh, fell asleep.” Kichi explained to her what had just occured. Though he left out a ton of details such as the part where she fell on his crotch and how he looked at her sleeping face.

“Ugh that’s so embarrassing.” She proclaimed, covering her face to hide her blushing. “I’m so sorry, that’s very rude of me.”

“It’s fine.” He wasn’t mad at her for doing it. The boy understood this place wasn’t for her and he was trying to force his decision onto her a bit much. “Maybe… This isn’t a good place for us to be.” Now he had no other option but to admit defeat. That for once, his lucky coin might’ve lead them astray instead of guiding them to somewhere good.

“Then… Where do you want to go?” She asked.