Am I being simulated by their love affair?

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She gently bit the boy's earlobe, her tone like that of an interrogator.

"Do you want to conquer Kurusu, or do you want to be conquered by Imogawa?"

“Kurasu isn’t here.” Matsueda Jun broke free from her fangs.

"Haven't you seen how Imokawa is when she's seriously filming? She doesn't have any intention of trying to win me over."

"..." The girl then let him go and looked at the street scene passing by outside the window.

So where do we go?

"Outer Garden of the Divine Palace, Ginkgo Avenue."

Mochizuki Haruka pursed her lips and demurely took the boy's arm.

"At least the scenery is not bad."

Twenty minutes later, Jun Matsue helped the girl out of the car—the Ginkgo Avenue was just a few hundred meters away, its bright yellow color standing out against the gray and white cityscape.

Looking at the dense crowd at the intersection ahead, Mochizuki Haruka frowned in disdain.

"So many people..."

“After all, the ginkgo trees here are very famous.” Jun Matsue glanced at Imokawa’s reply on his phone.

"Imokawa and the others are filming inside. Shall we go straight there?"

The girl glanced back at the driver following behind her, then looked at the crowd ahead.

She took the hand of the person next to her and said, "There are so many people, is it okay to hold hands to prevent us from getting separated?"

The boys thought for a moment. They took the bus here as soon as school was over, so they definitely wouldn't see any other classmates on Ginkgo Avenue.

Actually, it shouldn't matter if acquaintances see him—after all, everyone has long accepted his mysteriously close relationship with Mochizuki.

Matsueda Jun grasped the girl's hand and walked towards the swaying golden treetops not far away.

"Then hold on tight, lest you get lost."

A few minutes later, the two quickly spotted a small, frozen space in the crowd ahead—Natsumi Imokawa was standing in front of a tripod, bending over and staring intently at the camera viewfinder.

Jun Matsue remained silent and walked along with the noisy crowd.

He glanced at the girl beside him—their hands were still clasped together, and Mochizuki stared ahead nonchalantly, seemingly with no intention of letting go.

If they won't let go, then they won't let go...

The approaching boy came up behind the female photographer and showed his "Agent Assistant" badge to the staff member guarding the prop cart.

What are they filming?

Mochizuki Haruka shook his hand and looked at the girl in front of her.

With her back to Natsumi Imokawa, the girl picked up the camera from the tripod and began to walk slowly and carefully along the curb.

"Hmm..." Jun Matsue gently patted the ginkgo leaf off the young lady's head and looked in the direction of the camera lens.

"It must be them, right?"

"..." Mochizuki Haruka pursed her lips, subtly tiptoeing, her gaze passing over the photographer who was in her way—

A couple dressed in brown were walking hand in hand on the opposite sidewalk.

The two men weren't particularly striking in appearance, but they walked noticeably slowly, their posture and movements weren't casual, and they deliberately walked on the outermost edge of the crowd, making them clearly actors being filmed.

"No wonder you don't need to come to Suzu, so you have a stand-in..." The girl pouted.

Mochizuki Haruka didn't criticize her company's idol for being arrogant—if it were her, she certainly wouldn't want to hold hands with any man other than Matsue.

“This isn’t a stunt double,” Jun Matsueda corrected her. “Imokawa is probably filming the background for the bonus music video.”

"Although I don't know the specifics of how it was done, it seems that Kurusu filmed in other locations and then combined them together in post-production?"

Whether it was because she heard the familiar name "Imokawa" or because the actors had stepped out of the frame, Natsumi Imokawa put down the camera gimbal, took out her phone from her pocket, and said "cut".

After exchanging a few words with the two actors on her phone and watching them return to their original positions opposite her to wait for their turn, the girl put the gimbal back on the stand and let out a soft breath.

The wind suddenly picked up, but it couldn't move the cars on the road. Instead, it made the towering ginkgo trees on both sides sway precariously—golden leaves fell like rain, splashing up ripples of admiration from passersby.

However, Natsumi Imokawa's face scrunched up, and she angrily waved away the fallen leaves—

"Why weren't you here when we were filming!"

"If you miss this opportunity, there will be another one. There's no need to feel so regretful."

A boy's gentle voice sounded behind her. The girl turned around, and her furrowed brows relaxed in surprise.

"The pine branches came so quickly!"

Jun Matsue wanted to raise his right hand—but he quickly remembered that he was still holding hands, so he switched to waving his left hand instead.

"After all, we came by car."

Only then did Natsumi Imokawa notice the girl beside him. The surprise on her face faded considerably, replaced by a sudden panic.

"Um, hello Mochizuki-san?"

"……good afternoon."

Mochizuki Haruka's expression was icy, and her nods were barely perceptible.

This guy said he liked pine branches in front of me, how is that any different from coming to my door to provoke me!

She glanced at the girl's down vest in front of her—a ginkgo leaf had fallen on the bulging collar.

Sure enough, someone who possesses such a weapon cannot be a harmless individual!

Mochizuki Haruka turned her face to the side, took out her earphones from her pocket, and clearly did not intend to participate in the rest of the conversation.

"Uh……"

Natsumi Imokawa looked a little embarrassed—she wasn't really afraid of Haruka Mochizuki, but she was just too embarrassed to try and poach her boyfriend in front of the girl.

After all, they were still holding hands.

Does the pine branch want some water?

She bent down to pick up her drink from the side of her feet, then looked at the prop cart behind the two of them.

"Should we get you two folding chairs?"

"No need." Jun Matsue waved his hands—Mochizuki let go of his hands, held up her phone and came over to take a selfie of the two of them.

"Mochizuki and I are just here to visit the set, don't worry about us."

“Oh…” Natsumi Imokawa glanced at the camera stand beside her, then turned back to look at the couple actors in the distance behind her.

"We need to rest now. We'll wait until later in the day to see if the photos will turn out better with warmer sunlight."

"Looks like the progress is going well?"

"Mm!" The girl nodded.

"Although it was the first shoot, I felt it went pretty well. Everyone worked together very quickly, and both the actors and the equipment technicians were very capable..."

As Natsumi Imokawa spoke, she kept glancing at Haruka Mochizuki standing next to the boy—her expression straightforwardly conveying the question, "Why isn't she leaving yet?"

"..." Matsueda Jun almost laughed. He glanced at Mochizuki beside him, and the girl looked up as if she sensed something.

"what happened?"

"It's nothing." The boy blinked—Imokawa was still staring at Mochizuki, but the haughty young lady ignored her gaze.

"I saw you sent that selfie to your aunt?" He shifted slightly to break the awkward atmosphere between the girls.

Natsumi Imokawa's sense of shame and morality is different from ordinary people, and Haruka Mochizuki now has an arrogant attitude of "looking down on others" and "ignoring them" when facing her love rival, which makes it obvious that the girls are not on the same wavelength when they get along.

"Mm." Mochizuki Haruka nodded. "I'm texting my aunt to ask if she wants to come over and visit."

Her phone screen lit up, displaying her aunt's profile picture—the girl looked around, then her gaze returned to her boyfriend.

"It's too noisy here, I'm going to answer the phone over there." She said, turning around and waving to the driver who was standing not far away.

"Pine branch, stay here and don't wander off!"

"Okay, let me know if Auntie comes over."

Matsueda Jun watched Mochizuki walk away, then turned around—the girl standing in front of him eagerly leaned closer.

"Hey, what are you doing?" The boy backed away warily.

"I'm not doing anything." Natsumi Imokawa looked innocent, blinking her eyes expectantly.

Golden ginkgo leaves swayed and drifted down from the girl's chest.

"But since Mochizuki-san is gone, the pine branch is mine now, right?"

At this moment, Jun Matsueda felt like an incompetent teacher facing the advances of a delinquent girl.

"...What kind of statement is that?"

Chapter 788 Distance is hard to grasp, whose fault is it?

Cars passed each other on the avenue, reflecting the gradually deepening warm light, while pedestrians on both sides bustled about like a swarm of ants.

Under a tall, golden, pointed ginkgo tree by the roadside, a boy and a girl sat side by side on small stools, like two mushrooms, one big and one small, not quite fitting in with each other.

"So, how was it like directing for the first time?"

“Hmm…of course it’s very good!” Natsumi Imokawa put down the boxed coffee milk in her hand and reached for the tripod next to her.

"Being a real director is completely different from making films for your own amusement, like this one!"

Jun Matsue glanced at her from the side as the girl took the tripod attached to the camera. The tripod, which resembled a selfie stick, had a more complex and intricate structure.

“This is the stabilizer—” She gripped the stabilizer’s handle and leaned closer.

The camera was placed in front of the boy, and it looked like a hen's head. No matter how much the girl's small hands shook and trembled, the image on the screen remained perfectly still, which was astonishing.

"Isn't it interesting?" Natsumi Imokawa looked at his profile with great interest.

“I’ve seen my dad use it before, but I’ve never tried it myself—with this, shooting moving shots like that will be incredibly smooth, without any shakiness!”

Matsueda Jun observed the structure before him with great interest. "How many gyroscopes are used?"

"A gyroscope?" The girl tilted her head and looked at him. "That sounds amazing."

Didn't we cover this in physics class?

"...I'm not really interested in physics."

Natsumi Imokawa made an excuse for her daydreaming in class. She put the stabilizer back on the tripod and took the camera down.

"Does Songzhi want to see the footage we just filmed?"

"Okay, wait a moment." The boy said, standing up and glancing back.

He couldn't see Mochizuki Haruka, but he could see the tall female driver—the girl probably hadn't gone far either.

"What should I do if my aunt comes?" Jun Matsue thought to himself as he took the camera that was handed to him.

On the screen was a scene he and Mochizuki had seen together a few minutes earlier—a young couple dressed in matching outfits, walking hand in hand slowly under a ginkgo tree.

However, after the camera lens was selected, the crowd behind Jun Matsueda was completely invisible in the picture. On the sidewalk in the distance, the couple walking on the outer side stood out against the rustling ginkgo leaves, and the ambiguous and delicate atmosphere became clear.

The boy looked up at the bustling street scene across the street and compared it with the image in his camera.

"The filmed version looks much better than the actual scene. Is this a basic skill for a director?"

"It's not that amazing..." the girl said shyly, smoothing her bangs. "After all, there are actors involved."

Matsueda Jun looked at the camera in his hand. "So how is Kurusu going to show up?"

"Yang Shisang's scenes will be filmed in a studio using a green screen."

Natsumi Imokawa brought her face a little closer and pointed her finger at the screen in front of the boy.

"The blank space in the foreground here is prepared for Yang Shisang—"

"As long as the focal length and various parameters of the equipment are well coordinated, even if Songzhi later sees her suddenly emerge from here to sing and dance, it won't feel out of place."

"So that's how it is." Jun Matsue almost laughed as he watched the girl's delicate white fingertip lightly tapping the screen.

"So, does that mean Imokawa also collaborated with his agency's team to shoot the music video?"

"Yeah, right." Natsumi Imokawa blinked, looking confused. "What else?"