Once we finished our lunch, Fujiharu led me toward the aquarium.
"Aren't you excited about your first visit to an aquarium? Ayato~"
It seems she's dropped the honorific as well.
"I guess."
It was a relatively short walk from the restaurant we were at. After crossing a few streets and walking past a few blocks, we were standing in front of a grand building. It was extremely large, with various curves and contours that made it look like a very large fish. Near the entrance, there were several big banners advertising various documentaries.
We walked into the building and lined up for tickets. The line was too long but it was still going to be a little wait.
"What do you think of the place?"
"It's pretty nice, it's bigger than I expected."
"I know right? It looked smaller on the pictures."
A few minutes later, we were at the front of the line.
"Two general admissions, please."
"Alright."
After purchasing our tickets, we walked through a dark hallway before entering a large dimly-lit room. The lighting was done in such a way that it made the walls look like coral. Before long, we reached the first main section. There was a big glass barrier between us and an endless number of sea creatures. From fish to sharks to stingrays, it was like they took a chunk of the ocean and placed it into a building.
"You know, Ayato, I've always loved sharks."
"Really?"
"They're so cute-looking—well when they're not killing something."
Just as she said that, a shark swam right by the glass window.
She giggled a little.
"Look at its face, it's so funny~"
Looking at it from this close, it did look a bit dorky. When they were docile, they did look quite funny. A few moments later, a stingray made its way over toward the window.
"Look at that stingray."
"Hehe, it's got a funny-looking face as well."
She laughed as the two of us continued to watch the various sea creatures swimming by.
I guess it did feel different in person, there are some things that can't be expressed using text on a page. All of the creatures looked different up close, it was like I could observe them to a level of detail I never could before—but more importantly, the feeling of being up close and personal was truly different.
"Ayato~ do you want to go to the next section now?"
"Sure, Sara."
"Aha, I'm still not used to that." She covered her face with her sleeves.
We walked through the dark hallway once again until we reached the next big window. On the other side, there was a plethora of colourful fish. It was like a splatter of paint in the water; there was fish of every colour imaginable. They were spread through the water hypnotically.
"I didn't realise fish came in so many colours!"
"I guess it's just nature."
"Which one's your favourite?" She pointed at one which was striped like a zebra, "I like this one, it's got such a clean pattern."
"Um, I like the white ones."
"Aw, that's so basic~" She teased
"Eh."
"Just kidding, they're very bright, like the sun~"
The two of us just stood in silence as we watched the fish swim around. It was oddly relaxing, I felt as if I could just watch this scene for hours.
"Are you having fun, Ayato?"
"Yeah."
"That's good."
I felt her nudge her body towards me, leaning against my arm.
"Don't you wish that this could last forever?"
"Huh?"
"Ah... forget I said that..."
She looked up at me with her wide emerald eyes. After a brief second, she turned and looked back over at the fish. We continued to look at the fish in silence. It was a calm yet magical environment, the atmosphere had no tension or any stress, it was just, free.
The room gradually began filling up with more people. I noticed that there was quite a large number of couples. I guess that was to be expected in such a place.
"Let's go on," Fujiharu whispered.
"Alright."
We made our way up a short flight of stairs before walking through a very dark room. Inside, there were some luminescent sea creatures. The room was briefly lit by the passing of the fish, swimming through like sentient glow sticks. The entire room was made of glass so you could see through to the water in basically every direction.
"Wow~" Fujiharu seemed to be mesmerised by the creatures.
The room was periodically lit as if there were a disco ball, however, there were only sea creatures swimming around. The two of us slowly walked around as we looked at them, eventually, I felt our backs bump into each other.
"Hehe, this is so fun~"
"It is."
Suddenly, I felt a tug on my shirt as Fujihara dug her face into my back.
"Sara?"
She didn't respond, she simply just continued to lean against me in silence.
"Ayato, what do you think of me?"
"Hm?"
"A-actually, don't answer that question."
After a few moments of silence, Fujiharu let go and walked in front of me. There wasn't another door from this exhibit so we had to go back the way we came, although we hadn't even explored close to the entire aquarium, there were still many more areas.
She looked a little bit more excited than before.
"Ayato, apparently the next section is the penguins!"
Ah.
"That sounds interesting."
"Apparently this is the only aquarium in the area with Emperor Penguins, I've been really wanting to see them~"
We began making our way through another dimly-lit hallway before arriving at a very busy room. It was almost packed to the brim with people. It was the penguin exhibit.
"Aw, look at little baby penguins, they're so cute!"
There was a big group of fluffy grey Emperor Penguin chicks which were all huddling together. They looked like big pillows of fluff.
"I just want to hug one~" said Fujiharu.
"They do look really soft."
The two of us were starting to get subtle shoved around as more people tried to fit into the room.
"I think we should move on to the next section, we can look at the penguins again later when it's less busy," Fujiharu suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds good."
We moved out of the bright penguin room back into the dark hallway. It took a little while for my eyes to suddenly adjust to the changes in light but it wasn't all too bad.
Fujiharu continued to walk closely beside me—our shoulders subtly touching.
All of a sudden, Fujiharu's arm got grabbed from behind.
"Huh?!"