Am I being simulated by their love affair?

Page 529

"Then wait for me to come over."

Yamami Maki did not refuse, but instead let out a sigh of relief.

"it is good--"

"I'm going out now, I'll call you back later. If you feel unwell or if anything else happens, just call me."

"it is good……"

After hanging up the phone, Jun Matsue opened a ride-hailing app and walked towards the entrance. Yosei Kurusu got up from the sofa and followed him.

What is Songzhi going to do?

"It seems like NHK people came to my door, I'll go check on them."

"Eh—" Miss Idol blinked, "Me, with you?"

"Forget it." The boy glanced at her. "Although it's most likely NHK, it would be dangerous if they were impersonating someone and coming to our door."

"Kurasu, stay home. If I don't call you within an hour, call Mochizuki."

The girl was a little worried. "Then why are you going alone?"

"I know what I'm doing." Jun Matsue swung his baseball bat in a flourish, making a whooshing sound.

"And I'm stronger than you."

Yosuke Kurusu craned his neck to watch him take his raincoat and walk out the door.

"Then remember to call me right away!"

As the boy put on his raincoat on the stairs and walked out of the apartment, the taxi he had called was parked right by the roadside. He got into the car with his baseball bat in his arms, and the driver gave him a second look.

"Please drive faster."

The driver didn't say much. After confirming that the address on his phone wasn't in a dangerous area, he stepped on the gas.

The rain streaks on the car window were blown sideways as Jun Matsueda leaned his baseball bat against the seat and called Maki Yami back.

The senior student answered quickly, "Matsueda-kun?"

Are they still at your doorstep?

There was a brief silence on the phone, then the boy heard footsteps walking towards the entrance.

"It seems like they just left. I wonder if they'll come back..."

"Could they be waiting for me in a blind spot outside the door?"

The girl's worried voice was mixed with obvious snoring, and Jun Matsue could imagine that his senior was in a daze.

"It's okay, just stay inside and don't come out. I'll be there soon."

"Um... are you going to hang up?"

"I won't hang up anymore. Senior, you can tell me anything you want to say."

"Actually, no..." Yami Maki smiled awkwardly.

"My head is spinning right now, I don't even know what to think."

"It's okay. Once you've confirmed the door is still locked, go to bed and rest." Jun Matsue glanced at the dashboard in front of the driver's seat; the driver was trying to accelerate.

"Yes, I was just lying on the bed." The girl's footsteps moved into the room.

"I just feel more at ease if I can hear Jun-kun's voice than if I'm alone..."

"Then let me say a few more words."

Matsueda Jun looked at the rain curtain in front of the car, illuminated by two beams of light. The most important thing was to calm down the senior who was not in a good state.

"Um..."

The phone receiver made a rustling sound of clothes and blankets; the girl must have crawled into bed, and her voice became muffled.

"It seems to be raining quite heavily outside... Should I go pick up Jun-kun later?"

Her dreamlike words made the boy in the car chuckle. "You absolutely mustn't come out. Just stay in bed."

"Okay..." the girl answered vaguely, her breathing quickly becoming even.

Matsueda Jun didn't hang up the phone; he just listened to his senior's breathing while looking at the road ahead, where the streetlights stretched out.

The taxi quickly entered the Nakano Ward area. The boy gripped the baseball bat tightly again. As the slanting raindrops fell straight down again, the buildings outside the car window were already familiar to him.

"Thank you so much."

After paying the hefty fare, Jun Matsue put on the hood of his raincoat, picked up his baseball bat, and pushed open the car door.

Without hesitation, he plunged into the alley and headed straight for the shadow of a low building not far away. The boy casually swung the metal baseball bat in his hand—the shattered water sparks flashed and disappeared in the night, leaving behind the sound of the bat cutting through the air.

In Japan, where guns are completely banned, his physical strength, combined with the 30-inch aluminum alloy baseball bat in his hand, is his most powerful weapon.

Besides, he had come prepared... He walked down to the apartment building and said to the girl he was talking to on the phone.

"Senior?"

"……Um?"

"I'm already downstairs. I'll hang up now and come up in a bit."

"Huh? Okay—" A flurry of noise came from the receiver, and Yamami Maki prepared to get out of bed.

"Jun-kun, you must be careful!"

"I will."

After hanging up the phone, Jun Matsuoka took two steps in the first-floor corridor, shook off the raindrops, and then quietly made his way up the stairs.

There were no other footsteps in the brightly lit stairwell at night until he reached the fourth floor, where he heard the voices of a man and a woman coming from upstairs.

"The contract for unit 501 is signed. Now we'll go to the unit on the fourth floor—"

The two people coming downstairs stopped talking—a figure suddenly appeared at the corner downstairs.

The tall man wore a black raincoat, his face obscured by the brim of his hat. He held a metal baseball bat in his hand, which gleamed with a cold light.

The two people carrying the folders stopped and shrank into the corner, cautiously glancing at the suspicious person standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"..." Jun Matsue also stood at the corner without moving.

Looking up at the man and woman across the stairs, he swung the baseball bat in his hand with a light, effortless motion, as if he were swinging a wooden stick.

"NHK?"

"Yes!" The man shielded his companion behind him, bowed deeply while holding a thick folder.

"We are NHK sales representatives, and according to the Broadcasting Law—"

“Don’t tell me that,” the boy interrupted him. “Come here and let me see your ID.”

It was because he overheard their conversation beforehand that Matsueda Jun was more convinced of their identities—otherwise, according to his plan, he should have rushed up to them the moment he spotted them, using baseball bats to restrict their movements and prevent them from drawing their weapons.

"Okay, please wait a moment..."

The man exchanged a few words with the woman behind him, then handed her the folder, took out his employee ID from his pocket, and walked down the stairs step by step.

Jun Matsueda raised his bat and pointed it at him, "This distance is fine."

The man stopped, avoiding the metal baseball bat that was pointing at him, and held his employee badge to his chest.

Regardless of whether the identification was forged or not, at least the face matched, and the employee ID information was similar to the NHK staff he had previously contacted. The young man nodded.

"You go back, but what about hers?"

As the man backed away, he glanced down at the figure below—if the stairwell hadn't been brightly lit, he might have suspected that the baseball bat was dripping with some other liquid…

“Sir, we are not suspicious individuals impersonating NHK. Could you please put the baseball bat down?”

Jun Matsue remained unmoved until the woman walked up to him and showed him her employee ID. Only then did he put down his baseball bat and walk into the fourth-floor corridor facing the two of them.

"The apartment in 404 doesn't have a TV or the equipment to receive NHK programs, so you don't need to go there."

"Okay, okay..."

Two NHK sales representatives hurriedly walked down from the fourth floor, while the boy followed behind them carrying a baseball bat—they quickened their pace.

"Also, there have been suspicious individuals in the Kanto region impersonating NHK and government employees. If you don't want to be accused of 'self-defense,' then stop harassing the residents."

The man coming downstairs looked back and gave an awkward smile.

"We'll be careful..."

He escorted the two of them all the way to the first floor and watched them disappear into the rain before turning around and going upstairs to send a message to his senior to confirm their safety.

When they returned to the fourth floor, the door at the end of the corridor opened—the boy waved his baseball bat as he looked at the girl peeking out from behind the door.

"It's alright, it was probably an NHK salesperson."

"That scared me to death..." Yami Maki leaned against the door and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Matsue-san."

As he reached the door, Jun Matsue noticed that the girl was only wearing a thin nightgown—even with her back to the light inside the room, the blush on her face was still obvious.

"Is the senior student running a fever?"

"Maybe..." She stared blankly as the boy walked into the entryway and closed the door.

"I'll get you your slippers."

"No need." Jun Matsue stopped her from bending over. "You're dressed so lightly, go back to bed and lie down."

His tone was somewhat forceful, but Yamami Maki found it sweet instead. She obediently nodded and walked obediently towards the bedroom.

The boy carefully placed the metal baseball bat against the corner, took off his raincoat, locked the door, and called Yosuke Kurusu while opening the shoe cabinet.

His familiar cloth slippers were placed at the bottom, replaced by three pairs of cotton slippers.

"Hey, Matsueda?" Idol Girl's voice rang in my ear, "Are you all right there?"

"It's alright, it was probably just NHK coming to collect the fees, which is quite annoying."

Jun Matsue stared at the cotton slippers in the shoe cabinet—a pair of solid pink ones, a pair of matcha green ones with cute parrots painted on them, and a pair of deep sea blue ones with adorable little bears on them.

It should be these... He took out the pair of blue cotton slippers and put them on.

"Now that everything's alright, can Songzhi come back?"

"We'll have to wait a bit longer." The boy, who had changed into slippers, walked into the living room. "My senior seems to have a cold and fever. I'll stay and check on her."

"A cold and fever?" Yosei Kurusu's voice was a little louder.

"You won't end up in bed with me while you're taking care of me, will you?"

“No…” Jun Matsueda said helplessly, “It’s just that she lives alone, I’m just seeing if things will get worse or something.”

"Don't worry, I'll definitely go home to sleep tonight."

"You have to come back, okay? And not too late!" Miss Idol said warily.

"If you're not back by midnight, I'll call Yao Wangyue to come find you!"

The boy glanced at the time on his phone; it wasn't even nine o'clock yet.

"Row."

The girl then hung up the phone, and the living room instantly fell silent, with only the sound of rain pattering outside the window and on the stove remaining.

Jun Matsue stood in the living room for two seconds, looked at the kotatsu against the wall and the two tatami chairs around it, before pushing open the half-closed bedroom door.

The first thing the boy saw was the tightly drawn curtains, through which the sound of rain could be heard more clearly.

A closed laptop and some cosmetics sat on a table nestled in the corner, exuding the atmosphere of a young girl's life.

A soft breathing sound came from the other side. Jun Matsue turned his head and saw Maki Yami lying on the bed. One corner of the bedding was not neat—she must have not noticed when she got into bed in a daze.

The boy walked to the bedside, and the girl's face loomed large before him. The senior had her eyes closed, seemingly having fallen asleep in those few short minutes.

Yamami Maki's sleeping face was serene, but the flush on her cheeks gave her a sickly look, and her delicate eyebrows trembled slightly from time to time—her sleep was clearly not as peaceful as it appeared.

It seems she's not in a good state... Jun Matsue looked at the loose black hair by the bedside and put his finger to the tip of the girl's nose.

Her hot breath brushed against his index finger. The boy withdrew his hand, watched as the senior girl frowned gently, closed her eyes, and coughed twice.

The virus must have been dormant for a long time, and the illness progressed so quickly due to a lack of attention to keeping warm and being frightened.

Seeing the girl's discomfort, Jun Matsue thought for a moment and then placed the back of his hand on her forehead.

It was indeed very hot.