Am I being simulated by their love affair?

Page 308

"No need, right?" Natsumi Imokawa put down her camera, took a deep suck on her popsicle, and two cute dimples appeared on her cheeks. "Tomatsu-kun should be here soon, we need to get ready for the shoot."

"Shouldn't we postpone the filming time a little?" The boy looked at the sky outside the eaves. The morning weather was cloudy and comfortable, but now the unshielded sunlight had become particularly dazzling.

“This is fine.” The girl shook her head. “The scenes we were supposed to shoot this afternoon were all flashbacks, which required that kind of white, unreal feeling. The current lighting saves us the trouble of overexposure.”

"Alright." Jun Matsue took out his phone and checked it. "Tomatsu should be here soon. I'll go pick her up."

"I'll wait for the pine branch here." Natsumi Imokawa waved.

Walking along the shaded path to the station, after waiting a few minutes, Jun Matsueda spotted Tomoka Tomatsu behind the gates.

The girl was wearing a floral dress similar to Natsumi Imokawa's today, only the skirt was longer, the off-white base color made her look more innocent, and the light pink floral pattern added a touch of youthful charm.

"Jun-kun—" Before she even reached the boy, Tomatsu Yuka raised her arm and greeted him eagerly.

"It's a bit hot today~"

Jun Matsuoka walked side by side with her toward the intersection. "It was fine in the morning, but the sun came out in the afternoon, and the crows on the rooftops were all shiny from the sun."

The two quickly met up with the girl at the convenience store entrance. Tomatsu Yuka silently observed Imokawa Natsumi's sweet and charming attire, and then subtly probed her a few times. Only after confirming that the director had no intention of seducing her male actor did she feel temporarily at ease.

"The filming started near the school, right?"

Natsumi Imokawa nodded. "We'll be changing locations several times today to film various memories of Hikaru Kashiwabara and Anzu Konno. It'll take quite a bit of time to get there..."

Her implication was that the filming efficiency needed to be improved, and Tomatsu Yuka nodded in understanding.

"I'll try my best! I feel much better today!"

As the girl said this, she glanced at the boy with the bag next to her, but Jun Matsue pretended not to notice.

Actually, he didn't have any filming tasks in the afternoon. The reason he stayed here was just to help Natsumi Imokawa carry her backpack and props, and to keep Tomatsu Yuka in good condition.

A few minutes later, the three walked onto a path outside Fujimori High School. The street, which had been full of cherry blossoms not long ago, had turned into a stretch of tender green—the vibrant "leaf cherry blossoms," a seasonal word in haiku that symbolizes the transition from spring to summer.

"Is Tomatsu-san ready?" Natsumi Imokawa changed the lens on the camera. "We're about to start filming."

Tomatsu Yuka handed the boy a tote bag containing clothes, then gave him a bright smile.

"no problem!"

The first scene was filmed in just over twenty minutes, as smoothly as the afternoon sun. The trio quickly packed up and headed to the next location.

"Tomatsu-san's acting skills are back!" Imokawa Natsumi's steps became much lighter, causing her ample bosom to sway.

"..." Tomatsu Yuka looked away and turned to the boy walking on her other side, "Thanks to Tsun-kun's help."

"I hope everything goes well." Jun Matsue looked at the crows perched on the rooftops not far away.

The second filming location was a park. When the girls arrived, their faces were flushed. There was not much shade along the way, and they were all a bit hot from the sun.

"How about we borrow Mochizuki's car for future shoots?" The boy suddenly had this idea. "That would make things easier, whether we're traveling or changing clothes."

After several attempts, Jun Matsueda was no longer resistant to asking Haruka Mochizuki for help.

"Huh?" Natsumi Imokawa blinked. "Is it okay?"

Having a car is indeed much more convenient, and the young woman doesn't mind reducing the burden of her filming work.

"Isn't this too much trouble for her?" Tomatsu Yuka looked troubled. "And wouldn't that require a driver? I feel like having too many people might affect her performance during filming."

Actually, she just didn't want to have the Mochizuki family's spies around her when she was with Matsueda Jun.

"Then forget it." Natsumi Imokawa shook her head; the actor's performance was more important.

The filming of the second scene also went smoothly. However, after this mission, the three of them did not choose to move immediately, but stayed in the park to rest for a while.

The girl next to him started looking intently at the camera again. Jun Matsue took a big gulp of the salted soda he had just bought from the vending machine.

The cool, sparkling water had a slightly salty kick that made it exceptionally refreshing to drink. The boy squinted, admiring the sparse sunlight filtering through the gaps in the branches overhead.

As he tightened the cap on the soda bottle, Tomatsu Yuka, who had changed her clothes, stood under another tree and waved to him.

Jun Matsueda glanced at her, placed the soda bottle at Natsumi Imokawa's feet, and then got up and walked towards the girl.

The boy's tall figure cast a gray shadow on the girl's skirt. Tomatsu Yuka tilted her head up, her gaze carefully tracing the face of her beloved.

"Are you going to talk about your father?" Jun Matsue raised his hand to shoo away the small flying insects swirling around the two of them.

"Yes." The girl nodded, and took a step back, letting her body be completely covered by the boy's shadow—this action was meaningless, but it gave her a little more satisfaction and a sense of security.

Tomatsu Tomoka took a breath and then stated the conclusion she had drawn from her sixth sense and initial observations.

“I think my parents are lying to me—he doesn’t actually like anyone.”

Chapter 542 A Comforting Kiss

"I don't think my dad has anyone he likes."

Upon hearing the girl's deduction, Jun Matsueda raised an eyebrow; his first thought was something else—

"Did you go to see him again last night? Or are you referring to what happened this morning?"

In short, Tomatsu must have been secretly spying on her father again, otherwise how could she have come to this conclusion so quickly?

Tomatsu Yuka immediately lowered her head obediently, and gently shook the boy's short-sleeved shirt cuff with her right hand.

"I know I was wrong..."

Jun Matsue sighed. "Tell me how you found out."

The girl pulled him back two steps, and the two stood with their backs against the tree trunk, gazing at the clear sky in the distance.

"Since I didn't have any plans this morning, I deliberately got up a little earlier and went to Kinshicho to take a look."

“My dad left the apartment alone around nine in the morning. I looked at the trash he left behind, and there was absolutely no sign that he was living with anyone else—”

As the girl spoke, Jun Matsue, who had been gazing at the sky, couldn't help but turn and glance at her.

This guy's efficiency is truly terrifying...

"I would never do that to Matsueda-san now," Tomatsu Yuka blinked innocently.

The boy turned his head to look at the tree on the other side, where Natsumi Imokawa sat quietly on a bench, a butterfly perched on the tip of her shoe.

"That only proves that your father didn't live with someone else, and it's not the same as whether he had an affair."

“That’s true.” The girl nodded. “It’s just my intuition telling me that—you know, a woman’s sixth sense.”

"Judging from yesterday's situation, it seems that the only person who is close to him at the company is that woman who is suspected to be a colleague. If we observe for a few more days and see if any other women appear around Dad, we will know the result."

Tomatsu Yuka plans to use the simplest method of elimination, locking down the suspected contacts one by one and investigating them one by one—after all, her father is already a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, so it's impossible for him to still be having online romances or something, right?

"Matsue—" A voice from the other side interrupted their conversation. Natsumi Imokawa stood up and waved to the two of them while holding a soda bottle.

"Have you rested enough? It's time to get ready for filming—"

Tomatsu Yuka emerged from the boy's shadow and waved to her as well, "Ready~"

The girl took a step forward, her fair wrist gliding past Matsueda Jun, where he reached out and grasped it.

"Chun-kun?" She turned around in confusion.

“Stop following your father alone.” The boy said in an irrefutable tone, “I checked last night, and the area around the south exit of Kinshicho is a red-light district, with a mixed crowd and poor security.”

"And if your parents are really lying to you, then paying off the debt might not be so simple, and there could be other troubles—it's a bit dangerous for you to secretly contact Mr. Tomatsu."

"...Then what should we do?" Tomatsu Yuka never objected to his decisions.

“I was going to go with you.” Jun Matsue gestured to Natsumi Imokawa, who was not far away, to wait a moment.

"But that's not safe either, and we don't have that much energy to observe him for a long time."

The boy took out his phone and sent a contact number he hadn't used in a long time to the girl in front of him.

"So let's get the professionals involved—this is the private investigator I hired before, you can contact him."

"Huh?" Tomatsu Tomoka blinked in surprise. "Tsun-kun hired a detective? What was it about?"

A girl's memories are not as vivid as a boy's, especially since this is a fact she keeps buried deep in her heart and never wants to touch.

"...Because someone spread rumors about me on an anonymous forum back then," Jun Matsue said irritably.

The girl was stunned for a moment, then immediately realized what the boy was talking about.

That was the beginning of everything going wrong. Because of the discrepancy between the future revealed by the system and the reality, she was eager to find Songzhi's love for her—if she really couldn't find it, she would have to create it herself, that's what she thought at the time.

"Is it because of the investigation?" Tomatsu Yuka's previously bright expression suddenly turned awkward and guilty.

"Otherwise what? I didn't know it was you back then." Jun Matsue looked into the distance. Imokawa seemed a little thirsty from waiting, and she tilted her head back and drank the soda in her hand.

That looks like his soda, doesn't it?

"But this private investigator isn't cheap, so you shouldn't have to worry, right?" the boy said in a casual tone.

"Back then, in order to entrust him with this job, I even went to work at a bar in Shin-Okubo for a few days. Luckily, the checks weren't strict at the time, otherwise it would have been bad if the police had found out that I was working there."

Tomatsu Yuka's expression was somewhat stiff, and her body swayed slightly as she leaned against the boy's arm.

"Um, I'd like to hear Jun-kun talk about what happened back then—your time working at the bar."

"..." Jun Matsue glanced at her. "I didn't do any improper work—the boss didn't dare let me drink with the customers. I just chatted with them. It was no different from a maid cafe."

"Tsun-kun must have been in so much pain back then, right?" The girl's voice trembled with tears. "He did nothing wrong, yet he was attacked and isolated for no reason. In order to prove his innocence, he was forced to work in a shady place..."

Matsueda Jun then noticed the girl's swaying expression as she lowered her head. He sighed, supported her shoulders, and Imokawa Natsumi, standing under the tree opposite, subconsciously widened her eyes.

"Didn't you already know about this? Isn't it a little too late to be sad now?"

"But, but..." Tomatsu Yuka had already started to cry. "Now I realize how wrong I was back then."

She did those things because she wanted to possess the girl she loved, but in the end, he smiled and fawned over other women... Just thinking about the details that the boy didn't mention made the girl feel her heart start to ache.

"Why was Tomatsu Yuka so stupid back then..." she sobbed.

Natsumi Imokawa looked at the girl who had started crying for some reason. She was a little flustered and wanted to get closer to the two of them, but the boy's shaking of his head made her stop.

"I've already said it, it's all in the past." Jun Matsueda gently embraced the girl in front of him, his body turned away from Natsumi Imokawa, blocking her view.

"I don't mind anymore, otherwise we wouldn't even be able to become a fake couple, so what do you have to care about?"

Tomatsu Yuka's crying subsided a little, but she still didn't lift her head. The boy had no choice but to reach out and hold her cheeks, exposing the girl's tear-filled face to the sky.

Her tears were still flowing, shimmering like silver threads in the sunlight. It seemed her sorrow wouldn't stop anytime soon, and Jun Matsuoka felt somewhat helpless.

He turned his head and glanced at Imokawa Natsumi behind him. The girl blinked in confusion, still not understanding what was going on.

The boy turned around, cupped Tomatsu Yuka's face in his hands, and gently kissed her forehead.

This is the best expression of forgiveness; the surprised girl even forgot to cry.

Natsumi Imokawa stared at Jun Matsueda's tall back—for some reason, the crying behind that figure suddenly stopped.

A few seconds later, the boy turned around, took Tomatsu Yuka's hand, and walked towards her.

He walked up to the girl and asked, "Did Imokawa bring any cosmetics?"

Natsumi Imokawa nodded, puzzled. She looked at the girl standing next to Jun Matsueda—Tomoka Tomatsu. Although there were still tear stains on her face, there was no trace of sadness in her eyes.

"Yuhua was a little upset, but she's fine now. We'll do her makeup and then continue filming."

Looking at the boy in front of her with his lips pursed, Natsumi Imokawa felt a little uneasy for some reason.

Chapter 543 Imokawa Natsumi Can't Understand

Despite some minor setbacks, the afternoon filming went smoothly. When the crew of "White Line Flow" finished filming the last scene, the sun on the horizon showed no sign of setting.

"Is this the end for today?" Tomatsu Yuka smoothed her black hair.

The girl had finished touching up her makeup, and her previously gloomy expression brightened again. However, there was still some moisture in her eyes, revealing a delicate and fragile quality.

Her words went unanswered. Jun Matsueda, who was standing to the side, took a step and walked to Natsumi Imokawa on the other side.

The young director was still looking down at the camera when the boy gently patted her shoulder.

"Has all the filming for today been completed?"

"Ah." Natsumi Imokawa looked up as if waking from a dream, her thumb pressing on the camera. "All done."

"It's still early, shall we take some more pictures?" The girl in front of the camera tilted her head; she didn't really want to be separated from Matsueda Jun right now.

"The lighting isn't quite right right now," the authoritative director shook his head. "Besides, shooting too much in one day isn't good either; the story requires seasonal changes."

Matsueda Jun helped her pack up the tripod and put it in her backpack. "Can Yuka rest now?"