Am I being simulated by their love affair?

Page 151

“That won’t do~” Yamami Maki’s smile was firm. “A lot of people will worry about Matsueda-kun if it’s such a high-risk job.”

As they approached the crater, the towering plumes of thick smoke billowed even more violently, as if echoing the girl's words.

Upon reaching the summit, a strong smell of sulfur assaulted their senses. Both of them had put on masks, and the girl gripped the edge of the railing with one hand, leaning out to look down.

The crater resembled a large gray bowl containing a small pool of steaming water, its color close to the Tiffany blue that the designer loved. The two stood there for a long time, watching it quietly release gas without causing a ripple, both captivating and dangerous.

Only after the loudspeaker at the mountaintop broadcast a warning that toxic gases might be exceeding safe levels did the two slowly leave this terrifying furnace that could destroy the neon lights.

"Where to next?" Jun Matsue asked the girl beside him as they walked through the crowd.

“Hmm…” Yamami Maki gazed at the distant grassland, “Actually, I want to go to Kamishimi Kumanozha Shrine.”

He thought for a moment, "The shrine from Hotarubi no Mori e and Natsume's Book of Friends?"

The girl nodded. "I watched 'Hotarubi no Mori e' with my friends before, and I want to visit the filming locations."

Jun Matsue took out his phone and looked at it. "It'll take two hours to walk there."

“Yes…” That’s why she hesitated. “The transportation around Mount Aso isn’t very convenient.”

"How about we walk to the highway and see if we can hitch a ride?" Jun Matsue suggested, when the girl walking on his other side spoke up.

"Um, if you don't mind, you can ride in our car."

The two turned to look at the girl, who shyly shrank back and gripped her mother's hand tightly.

"My daughter seems to really like you guys," the woman said with a smile. "We live in Shangsejian, would you like a ride?"

Yamami Maki sat in the off-road vehicle, looking out at the grassland rushing by. A white horse with a very fat belly was sleeping soundly in the middle of the grassland.

What would have been a two-hour walk turned into a fifty-minute sightseeing trip by car. Upon arriving at the Iromi Post Office, the two opened the car door.

"How lucky I am," the girl exclaimed, looking at the woman in the driver's seat. "Thank you so much."

"It was nothing." The woman looked at the little girl beside her. "If you want to thank someone, thank my Sakura. She's been watching you ever since you climbed the volcano."

"Thank you, Sakura~" Matsueda Jun and Yamami Maki said together to the little girl sitting in the passenger seat, and the girl took out a candy from her pocket and handed it to her.

"I didn't bring anything suitable to express my gratitude, so please have a candy~"

The girl named Sakura blushed, took the candy, and waved goodbye to the two of them.

After the sound of the car gradually faded away, they turned around and looked at the torii gate leading into the depths of the forest. On the right was a stone tablet that read "Kamishikimi Kumanozha Shrine".

"So you've gotten what you wanted?"

Jun Matsue looked at the girl beside him, smiled, stepped over the stone steps, and entered the Forest of Fireflies' Home.

The shrine has a very simple structure: long stone steps leading to a wooden worship hall at the end, and that's it. The only noteworthy feature is the towering trees on both sides.

“Is this the torii gate from the movie…” Yami Maki looked up at the shimenawa (straw rope) woven from straw on the stone torii gate.

Jun Matsue stood at a distance, took out his camera, and photographed the girl's back. Today, she was wearing a white dress and stood in the deep forest like a phantom, beautiful but not tragic.

"I always seem to visit shrines with my senior." He walked up to the girl.

Yamami Maki thought about it seriously for a while. They had already visited four shrines together. "It's probably because of my family's influence. My parents are very interested in Shintoism, so I also like to look for all kinds of shrines."

"Could it be that in some parallel universe, my senior will also become a shrine maiden at some shrine?" Jun Matsue imagined the girl wearing a red and white shrine maiden outfit.

“A shrine maiden…” Yami Maki’s smile was faint. “I’m not really interested in serving the gods; I just enjoy the scenery of the shrine.”

Serving the gods and serving one's family were not much different in her eyes.

After reaching the end of the stone steps and offering a brief prayer, the two began their journey back.

"Is this all right?" Jun Matsue put away his camera. "Would you like to stay a little longer? There's still plenty of time."

Yamami Maki shook her head. "It's just to fulfill a childhood dream. It's enough that I've been here."

"And aren't there photos taken by Matsue-san too?"

The girl who emerged from the forest smiled as if she had returned from the realm of the gods to the mortal world.

The two breathed a sigh of relief as they boarded the train at Takamori Station. It had taken them an hour to walk from Kamishimi to the station, and now all they had to do was ride the train back to the hotel.

The train from Takamori to Kumamoto passes through canyons, grasslands, forests, and mountains, attracting many tourists. However, Yamami Maki had no heart to appreciate it. The girl, who had been traveling all day, was a little tired. She closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. Her sleeping posture made the passenger sitting opposite her think that she had entered a fairy tale.

The train jolted a little as it pulled into the station. Yamami Maki rested her chin lightly on the boy's shoulder. Matsueda Jun didn't move; he didn't want to wake her, but simply observed the girl's sleeping face out of the corner of his eye.

As the train started moving again, Jun Matsueda's phone trembled in his pocket. He carefully took it out without disturbing the sleeping girl.

The cat avatar, which hadn't appeared for a long time, started flashing, and a wild rabbit leaping outside the car window brought news from Mochizuki Haruka.

"There is hope that my aunt will wake up within a month."

Chapter 255 Do you like him?

"...Senior?"

The girl felt someone calling her in her hazy sleep.

"Senior?"

When Yamami Maki opened her eyes, she didn't see the person calling her, but she felt her head resting on something.

"..." The girl looked up in confusion, only to realize that she had just leaned on Jun Matsueda's shoulder, and the fiery clouds on the horizon belatedly crept onto her cheeks.

"We're almost at our stop, so we need to get ready to get off. If you're sleepy, you can sleep when we get back to the hotel."

As Jun Matsueda stared at the flashing messages on his phone screen, he deliberately avoided looking at the blushing girl beside him, knowing that his senior was quite shy.

"Ah... okay." Yami Maki hugged her small handbag tightly, secretly glancing at Matsueda Jun's shoulder.

I hope there wasn't any drool or anything left...

After returning to the hotel, Jun Matsue first called Haruka Mochizuki. He went to the balcony, where the girl's voice rang out along with the sound of a bell coming from somewhere.

"Kumamoto's gentle embrace is quite nice, isn't it?" Her words were still as aggressive as ever.

"I was really taking the competition seriously." He was telling the truth, but because of the despicable adult in Kuroba's eyes, the competition only took up a small portion of the three days.

"Really?" came the cat's voice from the girl's side. "Did you go out to play?"

"...I did wander around the area around Kumamoto." Jun Matsueda didn't really want to go into details because he remembered that Haruka Mochizuki had mentioned that the two of them had seen a volcano together in a simulation.

"It's a crucial time for Mochizuki Haruka, so I shouldn't let this affect her mood," Matsueda Jun told himself.

"Hmph... You're being so vague. Are you doing something wrong behind my back?"

"We don't seem to be the kind of relationship where we could do something wrong behind each other's backs." Jun Matsueda looked down at the ducks swimming in the Shirakawa River. "Is things progressing quickly at the hospital?"

"Changing the subject again..." the girl muttered softly, "The previous treatment was very effective after the improvements. At this rate, there is a good chance that Aunt will wake up within a month."

Mochizuki Haruka tried her best to say the words casually, but her voice still trembled uncontrollably.

The gray dream that she thought would last the rest of her life unexpectedly turned into a ray of hope after two months of wandering the world. The girl still had traces of relieved tears in the corners of her eyes.

"...You're happy, aren't you?" Jun Matsueda's voice softened.

Mochizuki Haruka carefully considered her feelings, "She doesn't seem very happy, because her aunt hasn't woken up yet."

"But I definitely feel much more relaxed."

"Just like this April when the spring rain is falling softly." She stretched out her hand and felt the dampness falling into her palm.

"It's raining in Tokyo?" Jun Matsueda looked up at the fiery clouds on the horizon. "The sunset here is quite intense, though."

"It's raining in Mitaka." The girl glanced at the cat at her feet, which sat quietly, seemingly trying to catch the pattering raindrops in the air.

Just as she was about to say something more, the maid stood to the side, silently reminding her that it was time to go to the hospital.

The girl watched as the cat at her feet darted back into the living room like a shadow.

"That's enough for now." Mochizuki Haruka paused. "Don't get too caught up in the pleasures of love."

Matsueda Jun glanced at the screen; Mochizuki Haruka had already hung up the phone. He returned to his room, lay on the sofa, and watched the sunset outside the window gradually soften the city sky before covering it with the black night sky.

"What should we have for dinner...?"

The biology competition on the second day ended a little later than the first day. When Jun Matsue boarded the ship to Matsushima, it was already close to 2 p.m.

According to Maki Yami's plan, they were going to chase wild dolphins in the sea off Kumamoto this afternoon. Unfortunately, it seems that there is no speedboat rental service in Matsushima, otherwise, given the girl's desire for thrills, she might have tried it.

"So, you're not only afraid of heights, but also seasick?" Jun Matsue looked at the girl beside him. She wasn't his senior, but Kokoro Kuroba, who was holding onto the railing. This girl had come after Maki Yami.

"I was just playing games on the boat and it was swaying around a bit, so I wasn't feeling too comfortable." The girl glanced at her childhood friend who was walking towards her with a bottle of mineral water in the distance.

"Maki seemed to perform really well in the finals this time. Did you coach her?"

“I didn’t teach her,” Jun Matsue corrected the girl. “She learned it herself.”

Yamami Maki walked up to him, her smile becoming even brighter. She handed the bottled water in her hand to Kuroba Shin, saying, "Shin-chan, don't drink too much at once."

"Okay, okay," the girl muttered softly, "I hate it when you talk like that, all caring..."

"You have no idea how wonderful it is to have someone take care of you," Jun Matsuoka sighed inwardly.

“The competition is over just like that.” Yami Maki stood between the two, leaning against the railing, looking up at the seagulls in the sky, showing off the graceful lines of her long neck.

"Theoretically, you can take a plane back to Tokyo when you finish your experiment this morning." Kuroba Shin took a sip of water, tightened the cap, and the discomfort in her chest subsided a little.

"We already bought our plane tickets for tomorrow," the girl shook her head. "Besides, we can use the competition as an excuse to travel, which is kind of like skipping class, right?"

Having spent two years studying at Haneoka High School, Yamami Maki never took a day off except when she was sick, and skipping class was a novel experience for her.

The swaying ship soon arrived at Matsushima, where the three of them were to take a dolphin-watching boat to the area where dolphins are known to be. Matsueda Jun glanced at Kuroba Shin, whose steps were unsteady.

"You can just wait here, I'll go buy the tickets."

"Is it alright?" Yami Maki helped the petite girl up. "Thank you, Matsueda-san."

Jun Matsue shook his head. "There are seats in the shade over there. You can wait for me there." He put on his headphones and walked towards the ticket window not far away.

Looking at the boy's tall, straight back in the sunlight, Kuroba Shin revealed a hint of resentment. "This guy is really observant. He must be very popular at school, right?"

Maki Yami smiled and nodded. "Matsueda-san is indeed quite popular at school~"

"Exceptionally capable, mature in dealing with people, and possesses a personality that can make people lower their guard." Kuroba Shin looked at the girl beside her, "She seems like the perfect version of you."

The girl gently shook her head. "Matsueda-kun is Matsueda-kun. I can't become him."

That's why she longs for it and craves to get closer, isn't it? Kuroba thought to herself, and then asked her another question.

Do you like him?

Chapter 256 Ideas on Change

Do you like him?

When she heard the question, Yamami Maki paused for a moment, and then a ship's horn sounded in the distance.

"Like? Who?" The girl's question seemed to be a way of stalling for time.

"Who else could it be? It's Jun Matsueda, the one who bought our tickets." Kokoro Kuroba curled her lip. "Did a question really make you stupid?"

"..." Yami Maki stared blankly at the swaying treetops above her head. "Matsueda-san and I are just friends."

"This is the first time I've ever seen you out with a guy." Kuroba Shin brought her face close to hers. "Just friends? Hmm?"

Yamami Maki pushed her face away, "We're just friends. Matsueda-kun is coming back, so don't say things like that in front of him!"

Jun Matsue quickly returned to the two with three boat tickets. He sat down on the bench and looked at the girls on the other side. "Why are you so quiet? Are you still not feeling well?"

Yamami Maki shook her head and covered Kuroba Kokoro's mouth, "It's just that Kokoro-chan talks too much, I was just trying to quiet her down~"

The girl, whose mouth was covered, struggled weakly for a moment, her resentful gaze shifting between the two of them.

If you really don't like her, why cover her mouth?

After sitting on a bench on the island and basking in the sun for ten minutes, the three boarded the dolphin-watching boat. This time, Kuroba Shin didn't play games anymore and seemed much more energetic, wandering around the deck by herself.

"We haven't seen any dolphins yet." Jun Matsue leaned against the railing, staring at the sea beside the ship. They were now in a bay between islands, with no trace of land in sight.

“…Yes.” Yamami Maki leaned on the railing, watching the white spray created by the collision of the ship’s hull with the water’s surface. The girl seemed somewhat absent-minded.

Although Kuroha Shin's mouth was covered, the question still couldn't help but echo in her ears.

Does she like Matsue-kun?

The girl tilted her head and raised her eyes to peek at the boy standing next to her. His eyes sparkled like the shimmering waves of the sea, but they did not give off a deep sense of coldness.

If I had to say whether I like it or not, I'd lean towards liking it, Yamami Maki told herself.