Am I being simulated by their love affair?

Page 574

"It seems pretty good, a very interesting movie!"

The girl leaned closer to examine his eyes, her warm breath brushing against his ear.

"Pine Branch's eyes aren't even red? Aren't you moved at all?"

"It's alright." The boy gently stroked her supple waist.

"I preferred the first half of their romance. After the parallel world setting was revealed, it felt a bit strange."

"Tomorrow's Me, Yesterday's You" tells the story of how the male and female protagonists, living on different timelines, meet and fall in love.

Your yesterday is my tomorrow.

Your first confession, your first time holding hands, for me, was watching our relationship drift apart little by little.

From the passionate days of sharing a bed in love, back to the initial acquaintance and getting to know each other, until the farewell before the first encounter.

Couples caught in such a time conflict can only face a tragic end.

"Ah, Matsushige feels the same way I do!" Kurusu Yosei exclaimed in surprise, her eyes widening as she hugged the boy's neck.

"Although the movie was very touching, it suddenly told me that we can only meet once every five years, and each time we meet we can only spend thirty days together..."

"I can understand what they're saying, but I just can't accept it at all!"

"Hmm." Jun Matsueda nodded in agreement. "It does affect the sense of immersion a bit."

To be honest, when the female lead revealed this premise, he thought he was watching something like "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl"...

"Is that so..." A sly smile suddenly appeared on Miss Idol's face.

She nestled in the boy's arms and nuzzled affectionately against his neck.

"Was it because I distracted Songzhi?"

"..." The boy glanced at the nearly empty popcorn bucket in front of him.

"It's fine if Kurusu says that."

After the movie started, his hand, which was resting on Kurusu's leg, unconsciously slid down to his waist.

Watching a romantic movie while embracing a beautiful idol is indeed a tempting experience—Matsueda Jun had to suppress his appetite with sweet popcorn.

The sad "Happy End" came to a close, the final melody accompanied by the dreamlike blue sky and white clouds above the railway tracks, disappearing from the screen.

Yosei Kurusu stretched and got up from the boy's embrace.

"Alright! It's about time we went!"

The reason the two waited until the end of the movie to leave was not because they were still interested in watching the film, but simply because Miss Idol wanted to hear the feeling of her song matching the movie.

He draped a coat over Kurusu, put on her sunglasses, returned the tray to the front desk, and then took the girl's hand as they walked out of the cinema building.

The sunset in December is around 4:30 pm, and the streets of Shinjuku are bathed in golden light, with even the figures of people walking on the street taking on a halo of light—like a beautiful scene full of soft light on the screen, making people feel dazed.

"We just watched a movie, and the sun is already setting?" Yosei Kurusu took off his sunglasses.

Winter goes by so fast!

"It's just that night comes a little earlier." The boy pulled her collar tighter; the temperature had already started to drop.

"What are your plans for the next step, Ms. Kurusu?"

"Is it a date at home, or what should I say?"

"Let's walk around some more~" The girl took his hand. "I still have something I want to say to Songzhi."

So the two of them crossed the main road on the zebra crossing and entered the path leading to the "Hanazaki Shrine" on the other side of the street.

—As if it had vanished into thin air, the hustle and bustle of Shinjuku turned into a hazy mist and was gradually left behind.

There were few people on the stone path, and Laiqi Yangse shook the boy's arm.

"Do you know Matsue? There's a famous entertainment shrine here. All sorts of entertainers, game companies, animation companies, and the like come here to pray for success in their careers."

Has Kurusu also visited the shrine?

"No, not at all." The girl smiled at him.

"I just took the pine branch for a walk because there are fewer people here."

Jun Matsue was not surprised; Kurusu was not the type to pray to gods and Buddhas for his career.

"Speaking of which, since Kurusu shares the same feelings about movies as me, why are your eyes still red?"

"Because the director is despicable!" Miss Idol rolled her eyes.

"I didn't have any deep feelings about their romance at first, but the director specifically reviewed Aimi's perspective again at the end—"

"Even though it's supposed to be a farewell, you have to pretend it's a chance encounter and smile as you accept your lover's confession. Even though you're deeply in love, you have to watch your unsuspecting lover gradually drift away and eventually become strangers..."

"After reviewing all of this, let's play my 'Happy End' again. Isn't the intro incredibly moving?"

"So it turns out he was moved by his own song..." Jun Matsueda blinked helplessly.

"And Aimi-chan looks a bit like me~" the girl added with a grin.

"How are they similar? Kurusu is much prettier than her."

I wasn't talking about looks~

The two walked hand in hand to the center of the courtyard. The bare branches of the trees on both sides, along with their shadows, were made even more crooked by the falling sunlight.

Yosuke Kurusu let go of the boy's hand, jumped a few steps on the stone steps in front of the shrine, and turned around to look at him.

"Look, in Aimi-chan's reverse timeline, weren't they already in a relationship long before their crush confessed?"

"So?" Jun Matsuoka tilted his head slightly.

The girl happened to step on the line dividing light and shadow on the stone steps. Her small face, tucked into her collar, was illuminated by the clear, golden light, making her even more breathtakingly beautiful than the heroine on the screen.

“Aren’t Matsue and I the same?” Yosei Kurusu replied with a smile.

"We've actually been together for a while, but we're still not dating~"

As if infected by the sunlight on her face, the boy's voice sounded particularly warm when he answered.

"That's a shared apartment..."

However, what Kurusu said was indeed true—they were not a couple, yet they lived together, and in terms of distance, they were even closer than most couples.

Suddenly, the melody of "Happy End" filled the quiet courtyard, and the boy and girl turned their heads in unison—

The shrine maiden standing at the shrine entrance took out her phone, smiled awkwardly at the two of them, seemingly apologizing for ruining the pleasant atmosphere.

As the young shrine maiden turned to answer the phone, Jun Matsueda turned back around.

"What if she recognizes you?"

"That can't be right?" The idol on the stone steps tugged at her high collar. "I'm covering my face."

"But her phone ringtones are all your songs..."

"Then let's run!"

Yosei Kurusu jumped down the steps, grabbed the boy's hand, and walked towards the other end of the courtyard.

Their light footsteps rustled like a breeze in the dappled sunlight until they passed through the torii gate and entered the alleyways of Shinjuku, where they finally stopped.

The girl breathed softly, her cheerful voice echoing against the alley wall, swaying back and forth.

"That's safe now~"

Jun Matsueda took a sip of the cola he brought from the movie theater; it smelled like Kurusu's lip balm.

"It's only been half a month, and you can already hear Kurusu's voice everywhere in Tokyo..."

"That's really amazing!" The girl took her phone out of her pocket.

"Just as I came out of the theater, Sister Ju messaged me—'Happy End' has officially topped the weekly streaming singles chart!"

The boy clapped his hands while patting the Coke cup, exclaiming, "Congratulations!"

"...So, it seems like it's time to settle my bet with Matsue?"

The dappled sunlight in the alleyway immediately fell silent.

Staring at the face of the idol in front of him, Jun Matsueda raised his Coke—the empty paper cup made a hollow, rattling sound as it was sucked dry. He was a hundred times more focused now than when he was watching a movie.

"Judging from the result, of course I lost—"

Yosei Kurusu said this with a bright smile.

Jun Matsueda's shoulders, which he had unconsciously raised, relaxed and slumped down. He laughed and threw the paper cup in his hand into the trash can behind the girl.

"Don't show that victor's smile!" Miss Idol pinched his cheek.

"I still have something to say to Songzhi."

"Okay." The boy took her hand and held it firmly.

"I have plenty of time to listen now."

The two continued deeper into the alley, with Yosei holding the boy's hand and leading him through one dappled intersection after another.

"Songzhi, have you ever thought about this?" the girl asked, stepping on the shadow cast by the street lamp.

"Perhaps the only reality in the entire world is what we see before our eyes?"

Jun Matsueda looked surprised as he gazed at her profile, which was bathed in sunlight.

"It feels quite unreal to me that Kurusu would ask such philosophical questions."

“What philosophy?” Miss Idol rolled her eyes at him. “I was talking about my childhood imagination.”

"Hasn't Songzhi ever thought this way? Actually, our world is like a game—"

She pointed to the intersection in front of her.

"What we see now, what we stand on, and what our eyes can see is the world that has been loaded onto us."

"Just like light—only where it illuminates can you see those vibrant colors; where it doesn't illuminate, it's just darkness, waiting to load."

“For example, after this intersection—” The girl’s fingers swayed back and forth between light and shadow.

"We can't see it now, so it hasn't been loaded. Maybe it looks like a black hole, or like a bunch of black and white lines, or maybe it's nothing at all?"

“It’s not impossible that we can’t say it’s not a possibility.” Jun Matsue looked at her fluttering eyelashes.

"Kurasu may not believe it, but your ideas have already touched on profound areas of philosophy and physics."

Yosei Kurusu turned around and smiled at him.

"This is just something I used to think about when I was waiting for my mom to pick me up after dance class, and I was staring at a lamppost."

"But recently I've been thinking about pine branches, and this thought has popped into my head again."

The boy blinked. "What's the reasoning behind that?"

“I think I was indeed a bit greedy before.” The girl stopped in the shadow of the low wall.

"Of course I really, really like pine branches, but it seems a bit difficult for me to stay by your side all day like Mochizuki Haruka does..."

Jun Matsueda's eyes were incredibly gentle, like a piece of melted butter.

"I have no intention of turning you into Mochizuki. Just be yourself, Kurusu."

"I know~" Yosei Kurusu waved his hand.

"I only had this thought after I decided to admit defeat."

"After all, Songzhi is already two-timing. If I don't snuggle into your arms now, what if those two team up and come up with some crazy idea to kick me out of Songzhi's heart?"

"..." The boy could only smile and say, "Not anymore."

"Oh well, none of that matters!"

The girl patted her cheeks and adjusted her expression.

"The important thing is that my thinking has changed!"

She said this to Jun Matsueda in a very serious tone.

"Just like the wild thoughts I had when I was a child—now I feel that the world right now is the most important thing."

Yosei Kurusu opened her arms to the boy, encompassing the alley behind her where the sunlight was slanting.

"This is all we can see right now, so this is my and Songzhi's whole world, right?"