Am I being simulated by their love affair?

Page 309

"Ah."

Natsumi Imokawa nodded, while Tomoka Tomatsu sighed silently.

Twenty minutes later, the three arrived at a nearby station. Tomatsu Yuka turned to look at the boy next to her.

"Isn't Tsunkun leaving?"

Jun Matsue raised his right hand, his thumb pointing behind him at the girl who was staring blankly at the roadside flower bushes.

“Imokawa still needs to shoot some establishing shots, so I have to do her hard work.”

"Then I'll go back first." Tomatsu Yuka nodded obediently. "I'll contact the detective about hiring him when I get home."

"Message me when you get home." Jun Matsueda watched her pass through the gate at the station. "Remember, whatever you do, don't go over there alone."

"Okay~" The girl turned around and waved goodbye to him with a sweet smile.

Watching Tomatsu Yuka's figure disappear into the crowd, the boy turned around, walked down the steps, and picked up the heavy backpack at Imokawa Natsumi's feet.

"Let's go, keep shooting your establishing shots."

“…Oh.” The girl slowly started walking, her interest seemingly low.

The two walked down the street in the opposite direction from where they had come from. The wind picked up, blowing the pale yellow hem of Imokawa Natsumi's skirt and her black hair that was loose over her shoulders.

"Matsue, what were you doing with Tomatsu-kun when you had your back to me in the park earlier?"

The girl wasn't good at subtle probing; to satisfy her curiosity, she could only clumsily ask questions directly.

"I just comforted her a little," the boy said vaguely.

"How did you comfort me?" she pressed on. "I saw you lower your head."

"Did you two kiss?"

“No.” Jun Matsueda waved his hand. “I just kissed her forehead.”

"Weren't you two breaking up?" Natsumi Imokawa didn't stop walking, leaning forward slightly to better observe the boy's eyes. "Why are you kissing?"

"Isn't it because of your filming—she's crying so hard, when are you going to comfort her?"

"..." The girl pouted slightly, "Then I can wait too."

Facing the warm breeze, she tried to recall the feeling she had when facing Jun Matsuoka's back—that somewhat inexplicable bitterness, or perhaps unease, had now completely vanished.

Natsumi Imokawa was somewhat unwilling to accept it. "Why did Matsue turn around and look at me then? Why did Tomatsu-san cry? What were you thinking when you kissed her?"

Her barrage of questions left Matsueda Jun momentarily bewildered. "Why are you asking so many questions?"

"...Because...because I originally wanted to take a picture of you bending down to kiss her." The girl bit her lip, quickly coming up with an excuse for herself.

"Look, you're kissing Tomatsu-san who's crying. Isn't this a perfect scene for a farewell?"

"Weren't all the farewell scenes filmed?" Jun Matsueda has a very good memory.

"Isn't it normal for a finished film to have a lot of spare footage?" the girl argued.

"...It's not a topic I can easily talk about, but it's about her family." The boy looked across the street. "As for why I glanced back at you, it's just that I felt it wasn't appropriate for you to see these things."

“I’m not a child anymore!” Natsumi Imokawa pouted, turning her face toward the quietly flowing river by the roadside.

"I'll take the picture right here! Pine branch, could you get me the tripod?"

The two stopped by the river. This was downstream from the river in front of Fujimori High School. The girl set up her camera and looked at the shimmering water, but she quickly became lost in thought.

What exactly was that feeling that swept through my mind at that time?

The boy was vague about her question, and now, recalling the scene, Natsumi Imokawa can no longer find that feeling.

The girl was unaware that this was because she already knew in her heart that Jun Matsue had not kissed anyone in front of her.

She could only guess wildly. Maybe it was because Songzhi was deliberately turning his back to her? He had never been secretive towards her before...

"Tamo River."

"Taochuan?"

Jun Matsue called out twice before the girl sitting in front of the camera finally turned her head.

"what happened?"

"I'll go buy a bottle of water. Will you be okay here by yourself?"

“No problem.” Natsumi Imokawa nodded, but then she remembered something and picked up the half-finished soda she had placed on the side of her backpack.

"Aren't there still some left?"

"That's your water." The boy rolled his eyes at her. "The bottle that was next to your feet was my water, but you've already drunk it all."

The girl opened her mouth slightly, her expression somewhat blank and cute. "I saw it was right next to me, so I picked it up and drank it."

"So what if you drank it?" Jun Matsueda stood up. "We're not middle school students anymore, why would we care about indirect kissing or anything like that?"

“Indirect kiss…” Natsumi Imokawa repeated softly, her face turning slightly red, but unfortunately the boy who had turned away didn’t see it.

When Jun Matsue returned to the tripod by the river, the girl was still staring blankly at the river, but she quickly turned her head away when the footsteps approached.

"I bought you a bottle of water too." The boy shook the orange juice in his hand. "These two bottles are different this time, so don't drink the wrong one again."

"Didn't Matsueda say he didn't mind indirect kissing?" Natsumi Imokawa blinked.

Jun Matsue paused for a moment, then ignored the girl's question and sat down next to her.

"Once the scenes for the next two days are finished, Wangyue and the others can finally rest?" The boy unscrewed the bottle of soda in his hand.

“Yes.” Natsumi Imokawa nodded. “But the pine branches can’t rest yet.”

“…What else do I need to do?” Jun Matsuoka turned his head.

The girl's full lips had a slight sheen, whether from the bright sky or the shimmering river surface, it was hard to tell.

“Matsue also needs to record audio—a lot of this short film is from Kashiwabara Hikaru’s subjective perspective, so you have to act as the narrator.”

"Just recording?" He breathed a sigh of relief. "Where will it be recorded?"

"my home."

"Your home?" Jun Matsuoka looked up again.

"It's the studio I took you to last time." The girl blinked again. "Is the pine branch okay?"

"...No problem, just call me when the time comes."

Just like the inexplicable feeling she had not long ago, when she heard the boy agree, Natsumi Imokawa felt a joy that had nothing to do with her creative work.

But this time she knew why—

It's more comfortable to be alone with Songzhi than to be watched by other people during a photoshoot.

Chapter 544 With limited energy, even the girls' schedules had to be carefully chosen.

On May 5th, the third day of the holiday, Jun Matsueda sat in a café in Minami-Asagaya, watching the busy girls behind the bar.

Wearing a white shirt and black vest typical of baristas, Aya Miyamura moved with fluid grace throughout the entire process, from grinding coffee beans to brewing and extracting the coffee, even giving the men a sense of elegant beauty.

"Wow, Aya-chan has become so amazing now," Jun Matsue exclaimed. "When you first started working here, you were just a waitress carrying dishes."

"Because I'm smart~" The girl looked up and smiled smugly, revealing her small canine teeth.

"The manager saw that I was learning quickly, so he started teaching me how to brew coffee, and my salary increased quite a bit as a result!"

"Also, because Chun-ge doesn't come to my place very often!" She glared at her brother.

Matsueda Jun silently lowered his head, expressing his inner shame—if it weren't for Aya-chan pulling him to help today, his younger sister might have already become the acting store manager by the time the boy took the initiative to visit.

The girl stuck her tongue out at him, her hands moving non-stop as she finished making the last cup of coffee. She placed the coffee on the saucer in front of the bar, and Matsueda Jun then stood up, picked up the coffee, and walked over to the customer sitting in the corner.

"Your No. 5 beans, Kilimanjaro, please enjoy." He flashed a perfectly professional smile.

“…Thank you.” The woman sitting by the window paused for a moment, then lowered her head to sip her coffee. Her eyes secretly glanced up at the boy’s departing figure.

When Jun Matsueda returned to his seat, there was a large scoop of vanilla ice cream on the table. He looked up at the counter, but the barista girl was nowhere to be seen.

A few minutes later, Miyamura Aya, having changed out of her uniform, walked out of the kitchen and sat opposite the boy. She had eaten a little more than half of her vanilla ice cream, and then picked up another spoon and scooped out a big mouthful.

"Brother Chun, you can take off your apron now!"

"Is it time to close?" Jun Matsueda looked around; there were indeed hardly any customers left in the shop.

"It's almost time." The girl glanced at her watch; it was already past 4:30. "We close at 5:00 these days during Golden Week."

"That's pretty good." The boy picked up his spoon again and started fighting with Caijiang for the ice cream.

He's a temporary waiter at this cafe today. Because of Golden Week, the cafe is short-staffed, so Aya Miyamura asked her older brother to help out.

"But I didn't expect Chun-ge to actually have time." The girl licked the frost off her lips. "I was just asking casually."

"Aren't you helping Imokawa-neechan with her filming? Why are you doing other jobs too?"

“My part-time job mainly involves afternoon and evening shifts. The Literature Museum closes early during Golden Week, so they didn’t schedule any shifts for me.”

"As for Imogawa, they should be filming Mochizuki's scenes right now," Jun Matsueda said, glancing at the message on his phone.

Mochizuki Haruka sent him a lot of photos, each one was very beautiful, and they must have been carefully selected from Imokawa Natsumi's camera.

Unfortunately, the girls in the photos all have somewhat indifferent expressions, probably because he wasn't there. But they still look pretty good.

After replying to Mochizuki Haruka with "It looks amazing," the boy looked up.

"So what about dinner?"

“Jun-ge will handle it himself~” Miyamura Aya winked playfully, “I’m going to Shibuya Sky with my friends to take pictures of the sunset, and we’re also planning to watch a movie together tonight.”

"So you're just going to leave after you've used me?" Jun Matsueda stuck the spoon into the ice cream scoop, his tone somewhat pitiful.

"Isn't this the super high salary I gave you for your vacation?" the girl said with a grin.

"Besides, every time I see Jun-ge now, he's either with Haruka-neechan, Tomatsu-neechan, or chatting with Imokawa-neechan. Why would I need to keep you company?"

Matsueda Jun lowered his head again and focused on eating his ice cream. Aya smiled even more happily. She stood up and patted the boy's shoulder in a pretentious manner.

"I'm going to the kitchen to wash the cups. Chun-ge, can you watch the shop for me? Call me if you need anything!"

The girl's footsteps faded away lightly. Jun Matsueda put the last bit of melted ice cream into his mouth and took out his phone again.

Mochizuki Haruka hasn't sent any new photos yet, but a new message popped up in the chat box with the rabbit avatar.

"The detective that Jun-kun introduced is very efficient. He just sent me his preliminary report for the past two days."

"How is the situation?"

Just as the boy pressed the send button, Miyamura Aya, with foam on her hands, walked up to him and took away the empty plate and spoon.

“My dad’s social circle is relatively simple these days. The women he’s been in contact with these past few days are mostly colleagues from the company. The one with the most potential for a romantic relationship is the woman we saw the other day.”

"Mr. Tomatsu doesn't seem interested in her," Jun Matsueda thought for a moment as he stared at the chat window. "Besides that, does he have any debt-related problems right now?"

"We haven't found out yet." The girl sent a melancholy rabbit emoji. "But from the detective's observation, Dad doesn't seem to be under any pressure right now."

"That's good news. Let's see how it goes after the holiday."

"Ok!"

The girl then sent a picture of tomatoes cut on a cutting board, and soft tofu cut into small pieces on a plate next to them.

"Mom's home for dinner today, and I'm planning to let her try the Chinese food that Tsunku cooked for me before. I hope she'll like it~"

Jun Matsue smiled. "She'll definitely like it."

Just as the boy put down his phone, Aya Miyamura came out of the kitchen. The girl untied her ponytail and twirled a strand of hair between her fingers.

"Time to get off work~"

Jun Matsue got up from his seat, untied his apron and hung it on the wall behind the bar. The two walked out of the cafe together. Aya locked the door and put the key in her pocket.

"I'm going to Shibuya, where are you planning to go, Jun-nii?"

The boy looked at the slightly slanted sun at the intersection and said, "Let's go browse around the nearby music and video stores first, and then find a place to have dinner."

I wonder when filming at Wangyue will finish?

After dropping the girl off at the station, Jun Matsue opened his phone's map app. The nearest music store was only a little over a kilometer away, so he turned and set off.

The reason he wanted to go to the music store was simply because he remembered Yosei Kurusu's new album. The boy recalled the flawless smiling face he saw on the subway—he wondered how Kurusu's career was going.

The evening breeze grew cool, and girls on bicycles passed by, leaving behind a trail of carefree laughter. Before Jun Matsueda's mind could completely drift off, his cell phone rang in his pocket.