Am I being simulated by their love affair?

Page 143

While grappling with the choice of parental inheritance, Jun Matsue complained to the girl in front of him without looking up.

"Honestly, our school's lunch break is too short. Can forty minutes really allow students to get a proper rest?"

"It seems like Matsueda is quite upset about not being able to go to the cafeteria." The girl sitting across from him gave him a very understanding smile. "At least the red bean bread tasted pretty good."

The sunlight after school was no longer as bright as at noon. Jun Matsue and Maki Yamami sat in the Mitaka Municipal Eastern Library, with less than two weeks until the biology competition.

Fortunately, Mochizuki Haruka still had to go to the hospital today, and Tomatsu Yuka had to go to the brass band to prepare for the recruitment performance. Otherwise, Matsueda Jun might not have been able to leave the school alone and successfully come to Yamami Maki.

"However, it seems the student council president also has some opinions about the current school schedule. He has been suggesting to the school leaders that the lunch break time be adjusted." Yami Maki is still serving in the student council and there will be a change of leadership in a while.

"The student council president is a good person." Jun Matsueda's liking for the bespectacled man increased.

"Back to the main topic." He turned a page of the test questions. "Regarding the school magazine that Tomatsu asked about before, during the 'Club Activity Experience Week,' the News Club decided to dedicate a section in the school magazine for each club to promote themselves. The brass band should be the fifth one in order."

Today is Monday. Club recruitment officially begins on Wednesday. For the next week, first-year students can freely experience the activities of all club departments and decide which club to join after the trial week.

"Okay, I understand, thank you, Matsueda-san~" The girl nodded happily at first, then belatedly waved her hand, "You don't need to tell me these things, just tell Yuuka."

"I've already told her, but I thought my senior would also care, so I'm telling you again." Jun Matsue put down his pen and looked out the window; his hand, which had been writing, was getting tired.

"Ah, that's good..." Yami Maki's cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she propped up the biology book in front of her to cover her face.

The Mitaka Municipal Eastern Library is not large, roughly the size of a two-story bookstore. It's on the same street as Matsueda Jun's apartment building, but unfortunately, he didn't see the familiar apartment building in the view outside the window. Only the roof of a nearby detached house reflected the afterglow of the setting sun.

The girl's phone vibrated on the table, breaking the silence. Yamami Maki picked up the phone and went outside to answer the call.

Matsueda Jun watched his senior walk down the stairs, and a dozen seconds later, her figure appeared at the library entrance outside the window. The girl's expression became lively and cheerful.

The girl frowned and shook her head at times, and Matsueda Jun enjoyed watching his senior's unusual expression. He had already guessed who was making the call.

After Yamami Maki hung up the phone, the girl's delicate eyebrows relaxed, and she closed her eyes and let out a long breath.

She opened her eyes and subconsciously looked up, meeting the gaze of the boy by the second-floor window.

It's like walking down a noisy corridor and suddenly being drawn to a quiet, smiling girl in a classroom. Or it's like standing in a crowd of spectators by the sports field and suddenly making eye contact with a handsome boy who's jogging to celebrate after scoring a goal.

It was just an ordinary eye contact, but after a few seconds, Yamami Maki's face turned a pale pink, like the cherry blossoms by the roadside, and she glared at him, not angrily.

Matsueda Jun looked away. This shouldn't count as peeping, right...? He asked himself guiltily.

Back at the second-floor window, Yamami Maki put down her phone. "It's Kokoro-chan on the phone."

She didn't know why she told the boy in front of her who had called; she just blurted it out for no apparent reason.

Didn't Matsueda tell her that when she answered the phone at the Setagaya Library? The girl convinced herself of this.

“I guessed it.” Jun Matsueda nodded. “What did she say?”

Neither of them mentioned the eye contact they had just exchanged, and they chatted as if nothing had happened.

"What else can I say?" The senior pouted slightly, revealing the innocent side of a young girl. "I just said something like she was in great shape and that Moji was bound to lose."

"Didn't she quiz you with questions before?" Jun Matsueda tapped the table lightly with his pen, and Maki Yami's eyes followed his movement, looking rather cute.

"No more recently," the senior student shook her head. "Maybe she just didn't find it interesting because I answered all the questions correctly."

"That means she's already feeling guilty!" Jun Matsueda said with certainty. "Kokoro Kuroha realized she couldn't stump you anymore, so she changed her approach to try and disrupt your mindset!"

"Is...is that so?" The girl looked up, somewhat bewildered, at the spotted ceiling of the library.

“Absolutely!” Jun Matsueda moved a little closer to her, his face filling the girl’s vision. “Next week’s competition will be her stage to become a clown!”

A girl's soft laughter echoed in the dusty air of the second floor, "Perhaps it's as Matsue-san said~"

"It's not just maybe, it's definitely true!"

Yamami Maki stretched out her right hand, clenched it into a fist in mid-air, revealing her fair forearm skin.

"Definitely!" she repeated the boy's words with a smile.

As the sun was about to set, the two of them carried their bags and walked out of the library.

"How are you getting back, senior?" Jun Matsue asked the girl next to him.

"I'm waiting for my ride near the Musashino Forest Cafe." Yamami Maki pointed to the intersection not far away, her slender index finger attracting the attention of the sparrows by the roadside.

“My home is over there too, I’ll take you there.” He unlocked the bicycle and pushed it back to the girl.

The two walked towards the coffee shop. Bicycles in Japan are not allowed to carry passengers, except for the time when a girl forced her way onto the back of Matsueda Jun's bicycle.

With their backs to the setting sun, two long shadows appeared on the road ahead, rising and falling slightly with their footsteps as they slowly approached the intersection.

"You haven't been smiling as much lately," Jun Matsue suddenly said.

"Me?" Yami Maki looked at him in surprise. "I feel like I smiled a lot in front of Matsueda and Yuka."

"But when no one is around, my senior's smiles become less frequent." A car drove by on the road, temporarily drowning out the sound of his bicycle chain.

“Even when you didn’t have any expression, you always had a slight smile on your face.” Jun Matsue put his right hand to his mouth, making a small arc. “Now that I’m on the same floor as my senior, when I see you in the hallway, I feel that you have a much less smile.”

"Is that so..." Yami Maki looked thoughtful. "Maybe it's because she's just entered her senior year of high school and is under a bit a lot of pressure."

The girl laughed again, "But my smile right now is absolutely genuine!"

Because she genuinely felt that the boy next to her cared about her.

The elongated shadow fell over the signboard at the entrance of Musashino Mori Cafe. Yamami Maki waved to him, "See you later, Matsueda-kun~"

"Goodbye, senior." Jun Matsueda waved, pushed his bicycle past the girl, and walked towards the path.

After the boy disappeared into the apartment building next to the coffee shop, Yamami Maki took a few steps down the alley and watched Matsueda Jun push his bicycle into the bike shed behind the building.

"So, Matsueda-san lives here..."

Having learned a little more about him, the girl walked back to the intersection, smiling as she looked at the sunset.

That was the road they had just crossed together.

Chapter 239 Prelude to Club Recruitment

On Tuesday evening, Miyamura Aya, who didn't want to go home, went to Matsueda Jun's apartment for a free meal.

"Brother Chun, where did Mi-chan go?"

The girl sitting on the sofa patted the thigh of the boy next to her. Behind them, Yosuke Kurusu was humming a song and cooking in the kitchen.

“It’s not our cat. Of course, the owner took it back when they came back.” Jun Matsueda stared at the TV, which was showing Yosuke Kurusu’s album music video that he had shown to the two of them.

"Also, it has a name, it's not called Mi-chan, it's called Jinzhi."

"What a grand family name!" the girl exclaimed. She turned around, leaned back on the sofa, and called out to the kitchen.

"Sister Yangshi, do you need any help? I can cook too, you know?"

"No need~" the girl wearing an apron said as she walked out of the kitchen. "Dinner is ready~"

Jun Matsuoka sat down at the dining table, staring at the three large bowls of steaming food on it.

"I tried making 'Bo Tuo' today, and it turned out pretty good!" Lai Qi You Shi nodded in satisfaction, picking up the noodles from his bowl.

Isn't this just flat udon noodles...? Jun Matsue didn't voice his question, but just ate the noodles in silence. The broth contained cooked pumpkin, daikon radish, carrot, and two kinds of mushrooms, and it was strangely delicious.

“I heard that in Yamanashi Prefecture, a man who can’t make batu can’t get married,” Miyamura Aya said while eating her noodles.

"Luckily, I'm not from Yamanashi Prefecture." Jun Matsueda's expression was very calm.

However, after thinking about it, he realized that since he was an orphan, he couldn't rule out the possibility that he was from Yamanashi Prefecture.

"How are Kurusu's albums selling?" He decided to change the subject.

"It's neither hot nor cold," Kurusu Yosei thought, chopsticks dangling from his mouth. "The data from the Tower Store seems to be over a thousand."

Jun Matsueda picked up a slice of white radish. The tower store only represented a portion of the chain record stores, and the album had only been released less than a week ago. "I feel like selling 10,000 copies should be no problem, right?"

"Hmm~" The girl licked the soup from her lips. "The sales department's new expectation is 20,000 to 30,000 copies."

“Then it will definitely be in the top 100.” Jun Matsue still remembered the data she had mentioned earlier.

"Maybe, but that's just one of the top 100 album sales this year, a small achievement." Yosei Kurusu put down his chopsticks and gestured with his fingers to form a universe.

"I need to at least become an idol who can actually make it into the top 100 in Japan!"

The two people eating noodles put down their chopsticks and clapped. Miyamura Aya's eyes blinked, full of longing for the young girl.

"I saw some classmates listening to Yang Shi-jie's songs today! It feels so unbelievable that I'm actually eating food made by the singer herself!"

"I wish your brother looked at me like that too," sighed Yosuke Kurusu. "He eats my cooking every day, how come he doesn't feel anything for me?"

“How can we eat every day? Don’t we cook half and half the time?” Jun Matsuoka retorted while taking a sip of noodle soup.

"But Kurusu's cooking is really delicious."

"Compared to her personal charm, Kurusu Yosei's cooking skills are like the difference between this little mushroom and the bako itself. It's a pity that someone doesn't seem to have such an eye." Kurusu Yosei rolled her eyes at him while picking up a slice of mushroom. Matsueda Jun shrugged and chose to shut up and eat his noodles.

After dinner, Jun Matsueda went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. The girls lay on the sofa, still watching their previous TV dramas, when the blonde curly hair and spiky hair reappeared on the screen.

When he came out of the kitchen, the two people on the sofa were watching TV and playing with a pom-pom, which he had hidden behind the cushions during the last cleaning.

"You cunning Matsuguchi, you've hidden the big fluffy ball behind my back!" Kurusu Yosei threw the golden ball at Matsuguchi Jun, who caught it.

He took three cartons of yogurt from the refrigerator and held them in his arms. The boy sat down next to the two girls, and without Matsueda Jun even having to reach out, the girls took the dessert from his hands.

"The club activity experience starts tomorrow. Is there any club that Aya-chan is interested in?" Jun Matsueda asked in an older brother's tone.

"Hmm..." Miyamura Aya held the yogurt, pointing to her right fingers with her left hand, "I originally wanted to go to the newspaper club, because Jun-nii is in the newspaper club, but the newspaper club usually feels too boring."

"Later I felt that the brass band club had a youthful vibe, and there were a lot of girls, including Yuka-neechan. But the brass band club takes up a lot of time, and I also have to work part-time..."

"How's the light music club?" Kurusu Yosei had finished his yogurt, the straw making an empty sound. "The light music club is pretty youthful too!"

Despite it being Jun Matsueda who started the conversation, the two ignored him and continued talking amongst themselves.

"That's what happens when there are too many girls," Jun Matsue sighed, looking at the pom-pom in his hand.

It had been a long time since he'd seen Jinzhi. He turned to look at the girls around him who were still chatting excitedly, and opened the chat window on his phone.

Click on the cat's profile picture and send a message: "Did you take Jinzhi to the hospital?"

"Yes, because I've been spending a lot of time at the hospital lately," Mochizuki Haruka replied quickly.

"Is the new treatment working?" Jun Matsue took a sip of yogurt; it was cool, sweet, and sour, and tasted quite good.

"Anyway, it's the most likely to be effective right now." The girl spoke cautiously; more than half a year had passed, and she dared not hold onto hope easily anymore.

Jun Matsueda didn't say anything encouraging; he just sent a "patting a kitten" emoji.

A short video was sent from the other end. The girl was not in the video, but she stretched out her hands, grabbed Jinzhi's hands, and waved them, as if to greet him or to show him a taunt.

"By the way, there's club recruitment tomorrow afternoon, no classes, just in case you didn't know."

The girl in the hospital room blinked as she looked at her phone. She didn't care much about school matters and really didn't know.

"Are there any club recruitment events tomorrow...?" Mochizuki Haruka released the cat from her arms, stood up and looked out the window. Perhaps she should also find a club to pass the time.

I wonder if the news department is still recruiting second-year students?

A hand reached out in front of Jun Matsueda, blocking his screen. "You're sitting next to two beautiful girls, why are you looking at your phone?"

He looked up and saw Kurusu Yosei's face, which was tinged with anger. "You guys were having such a good time, but you didn't give me a chance to say anything."

"I don't care! That's no excuse for you to chat with other people!" The girl shoved two empty yogurt containers into his hands.

"As punishment, go throw away the trash!"

Jun Matsue left the sofa to throw out the trash, and he took a shower while he was at it. Once he was out of Yosuke Kurusu's sight, he could openly look at his phone.

The cat avatar wasn't sending any new messages, but the rabbit avatar kept flashing.

Tomatsu Yuka sent me a video. There was no sound; it only showed a girl practicing the saxophone. As if she had arranged it with Mochizuki Haruka, the girl's face was not shown in the video; only her lips, which were visible as she played the saxophone, were visible.

Even so, her rhythmic fingers and full lips remain incredibly alluring.

"Please look forward to tomorrow's performance, Matsueda-san!" the girl texted.

There's so much to do tomorrow," Jun Matsue thought with a headache after taking a shower. He dried his hair and returned to the living room, where the girls were still chatting about club matters.

After moving Yosuke's small feet off the sofa, Jun Matsue sat back in his seat.

"So which club did you choose in the end?" he asked Aya Miyamura.

"It's too hard to decide!" the girl pouted.

"It's better to try them all!"